This was one amazing six weeks at Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve!

One of the main reasons why the winter is my favourite time of the year to guide is the animal movements are much more than in the summer. We get to see massive herds of elephants and buffalo moving through our area, and we even got to see a very special buffalo cow.

The one day on our way back to Bush Lodge after morning safari we spotted a few buffalo crossing the road ahead of us, little did we know what was waiting around the corner! As we got closer the road was ripped up in to pieces. We looped around towards a big open area that leads to a dam where we found ±1300 buffalo all walking in a straight line like ducks in a row on their way to the nearby waterhole where we have a very nice bird hide that’s almost eye level with the water. I rushed over there to get my guests off the vehicle and into the hide. We waited almost 10 minutes watching a storm of dust rising and getting closer and closer. Eventually they broke the tree line and made a run for the water - it was a beautiful sight to see and we got to sit there for just more than an hour.

With all the buffalo activity in the area, there are two species that really benefit from it and that’s lions and hyenas. I went through long drives from up to 5 or 6 hours following lions hunting buffalo at night. This is definitely one of the greatest things to see out in the bush and if you have, you are very fortunate because there are a lot of people and guides who never see this amazing battle between two of Africa’s greatest rivals! The amount of adrenaline that flows through your body when those lions decide to jump up and chase that herd of buffalo is indescribable, there’s nothing that can stop such a great force of muscle and speed when they have life or death in front of them and behind them.

It’s been really nice to see a lot more of the Fourways males and that they have started to push far south into Sabi Sabi to try and establish their own territory and females. I just hope that the females come into oestrus soon so they can start mating.

A male cheetah has been around a lot more and spending a lot of time showing off his beauty on top of his favourite place – a termite mound. We had great sightings of him hunting but unfortunately never saw the successful ones.

I am sure in the coming weeks there is going to be a lot of leopard vocalizing in the area as Little Bush female has started to call for a male and so has Warthog Wallow. The big question is, will Maxabeni eventually accept Warthog Wallow or will he continue chasing her up trees? I cannot wait to see what happens.

One afternoon we heard the call on the radio saying wild dogs chased a baby kudu into the water in front of Bush Lodge so we made our way there and had an amazing sighting of Africa’s most successful hunters. Showing their skills they eventually went into the water and pulled the baby kudu out.

I am sure there will be some great sightings coming up in the next couple of weeks and I will try and be there so we can share every single amazing moment out there with you guys!