The past week brought about days where the mercury rose well above 40 degrees Celsius and much more pleasant overcast conditions towards the end. Slight rain did quench the thirst of the dry land, but we still did not experience enough. Cloudy days with pockets of light did allow for some amazing sunsets, and nothing beats a sunset with a herd of elephant at a waterhole.

As per last week, the lion cubs stole the show once again. Numerous sightings were recorded of two of the Southern Pride’s bundles of joy. They were certainly entertaining guests during every sighting, whether it was climbing trees, playing with each other or hassling their mom and other members of the pride.

The larger Charleston male was also spotted quite a few times with Mandleve/Floppy Ear, attempting to mate with her on numerous occasions, but with no success at times.

Maxabeni was absent during the past week, but the less seen Xovonekela made an appearance as well as the elusive Mandleve male. Unfortunately, we could not capture any photographs of Mandleve as he managed to get away before we could do so.

Hlarulini has also been seen quite a few times, and we suspect she will be seen more and more as we witnessed her actively scent marking and calling on our property.

The other stars of the past week have been Little Bush and her cub. Little Bush once again did not disappoint and provided us with more great sightings as she managed to pull down a kudu which kept her and her cub fed for three days.

It’s not very often one gets to see a cheetah and we were lucky enough to view a beautiful male cheetah for two successive days. He is definitely a poser and provided guests with great photographic opportunities.

The lack of decent rains has brought about many changes in the bush. A definite change has been the recent and frequent sightings of hippos in the many waterholes around the property. This is not the case during the average rainy season, but some hippos have been forced out of the big rivers because of the pressure for space.