Quote of the week - Just feel the magic in the air and the power in the breeze, feel the energy of the plants, the bushes and the trees, let yourself be surrounded by nature at its best, calm yourself, focus and let magic do the rest. - Sally Walker

This has really been a powerful week filled with great sightings. Some guests have been so spoilt with great sightings from the comfort of their own lodge. The animal activity is picking up around the waterholes in front of the lodges, as other water sources in the riverbeds are dried up.

The one morning we were all standing serving our guests tea and coffee before morning safari when a young impala came bolting out of the bushes onto the open area in front of Bush Lodge, followed by an African wild dog - it all happened so fast and the dog got his kill right next to the waterhole. We have been seeing the dogs a lot more often as this dam looks to be the closest point to their den site.

In the last few days we had a quick glimpse of Maxabeni and Warthog Wallow as she tried to keep up with him as he was busy patrolling his massive territory, not showing any interest in mating with her just yet until a few days ago when we heard the call come through on the radio that one of the rangers had found Maxabeni. A few minutes later he was joined by Warthog Wallow and it was clear what they were up to as they mated right next to my vehicle - twice in just 20 minutes. There is now a lot of excitement as no one can wait to see the offspring of these two beautiful leopards.

White Dam female seems to be doing very well as she has had a few kills in the last week and her cubs are in amazing condition. Let’s hope Maxabeni keeps any new males away from them.

The lions seem to have been very quiet in the last week ever since the Fourways males went roaring and chasing one of the Sand River males back over the Sabie River, and then joining up with only one Southern Pride female. We can only wait and see where the rest of the females are, and when they do come back, hopefully they will join the new males in a whole new gene line of cubs to be born.

It’s been one amazing journey with 2 big herds of buffalo that have been spending a lot of time in our northern and southern part of the reserve. It is great to go out in the crisp winter mornings and find the herds of buffalo all sleeping very tight together before slowly waking up and moving along.

The hyena den has been active as normal but it might be that there are two new individuals that joined the clan, hopefully photos of them will follow soon.

Have a great week coming and stay connected to our social media platforms as to not miss out on the next powerful sighting!