It’s always difficult to write a cycle highlights blog as there is always a string of good sightings and picking one or two out of a 42 day cycle of guiding every day is not an easy task - every sighting and encounter with the animals is different and special in its own way. Here is a summary of a couple of my cycle highlights...

As many of you know, one of my favourite animals to watch and follow is the African Wild dog. Their playfulness and strong family bonds, even at a kill sight always fascinates me. We were very lucky to see the Toulon pack with their growing pups quite regularly as they can’t move too far with the youngsters. That soon changed as they got stronger and will now roam their entire home range which is absolutely massive. Before that though, I had some amazing sightings with the wild dogs as well as witnessing a kill or two.

We had some epic lion interaction with what looked to be like the Fourways males being in a fight, to having one of them having a mating marathon with a couple of females, as well as them on a buffalo kill for a couple of days. To our surprise we also found the Kruger male, Solo, one of the Fourways males and some of the Southern Pride females together on a buffalo kill. This stunned all of us and we just again realised how little we know of animal behaviour and how they operate!

Maybe not the best photographic opportunities, but seeing old familiar faces or new ones is always special to me. The Sabi Sand is one of those magical places where animals can move to find new territories or escape the advances of a bigger, stronger animal. This allows for sightings of new individuals or the return of previously dominant ones. The Mahlathini male leopard was spotted more than once, making us wonder if the pressure from the east is too much for him or is he considering pushing back into his old territory?! A beautiful young female from the North, Tatowa, was also seen briefly as she is old enough to start setting up her own territory.

Cheetah sightings have been very rare the last couple of weeks, which made this one even more memorable. We were already late, returning from morning drive, when the call came in of someone spotting a cheetah on their way to the airstrip. I wasn’t going to let that slip by. And after watching the cheetah walking through the open, marking his territory and jumping up logs and just putting up a great show, I knew that was the right choice.

The bush is changing rapidly - once dull and grey - is now turning green very, very quickly. Our burnt sections are also looking amazing after the first rain and the change in vegetation also brings new life in the form of hundreds of grazers like zebra flocking to this new flush. The season is definitely changing, which makes me look forward to a hot, but another exciting cycle.