We start with the largest of them all... The elephants have been strutting their stuff around the reserve and despite the dryness, these huge mammals are looking in great condition. This time of the year is a great time to photograph these creatures given the openness of the vegetation.

Before we skip to territorial animals, we had a few surprise visitors this week which created a fair amount of excitement. They say that things happen in “threes” well that was certainly the case this week.

Number 1

We were visited by a large male cheetah who seemed very relaxed and didn't seem to be phased on missing out on a steenbok who sprinted past him. Maybe he was a little tired......

......or maybe, like our guests, was just enjoying the sunrise.......

Number 2

A very large male leopard known as “Kashane” was seen around Little Bush Camp looking very full and being found close to a kill that had been made by the Kigelia female the night before. Hopefully he decides to hang around a little as he was very relaxed and allowed some great opportunities for our guests to get some snaps.

Number 3

This was undoubtedly the highlight for me as we found a very relaxed African Wild Cat who seemed to not have a care in the world. After driving this reserve for a minimum of six hours a day, for three and a half years, this was my first African Wild Cat at Sabi Sabi!

The three of these sightings is a great advertisement for the diversity of wildlife within the reserve as well as the ability for new blood to enter due to the vastness of this area. There is clear evidence as to why we as guides do this job - no day is ever the same and each moment is something to savour as you will never get that back - a great life lesson.

As always, the Little Bush female and her cub have been providing such fantastic photo opportunities for our guests despite her elusive nature. The guides and their trackers have been putting in some hard hours tracking in order to find this cat who has an amazing ability to stay hidden. All that work is generally rewarded and when our guests say that they have got the best leopard photos they ever had, it is reward enough for that effort. Needless to say we are also able to enjoy these opportunities to bring you some great pics.

We had a great bit of interaction when Little Bush and her cub were joined by the cub’s father, Maxabeni, on a Duiker kill. The brute made his presence felt and chased both of them off to feed on the kill. The young cub, not keen on letting its food be taken, slowly started creeping back up the tree much to the annoyance of her father who dropped some meat allowing the cub to be rewarded for her tenacity.

All of this did not seem to worry Little Bush who clearly knew that this was a small price to pay for this male’s protection from potential interloping males and decided to play with her youngster despite the commotion.

The Southern Pride certainly have been spoken about at length by our guests, with a huge cute factor associated with the young cubs and their antics. There is little doubt that lions can be extremely lazy and this is substantiated by the fact that they can sleep between 18-20 hours a day. However, with the cubs and their boundless energy and mischievous nature, they are not only keeping the adults active but also providing us with game viewing “gold”.

The adults have been doing an amazing job so far in ensuring that they stay well fed in this crucial time of their lives. We also have had one of the Charleston males mating with a Southern Pride member, adding an extra element to the sightings.

We also had an amazing sighting of the Southern Pride female and her four young cubs as they made their way towards a waterhole. After playing around and testing each other’s strength, they listened to mum who casually wandered away to a small drainage line where she kept them away from prying eyes. We were however able to see that it is likely that there are two males and two females - great news for the pride!

As the sun sets on our Weekly Highlights, we are left with one final thought... A moment is truly that, a snippet of time that we can never get back but if we live it and appreciate it at that time - it will live with us forever.