Autumn whispered to the wind, “I fall; but always rise again.” ~ Angie Weiland-Crosby

With that being said, autumn is in full swing here at Sabi Sabi with the morning and evening temperatures dropping considerably out on safari, but daytime temperatures remain lovely and warm. We even had some late rainfall this week!

A cat of the night. An individual who has mastered the art of, as all leopards should, concealment and stealthy nighttime and daytime movements.

The dominate male leopard of the southern section of our reserve, Xovonekela, was vocalising and scent marking, making his presence well-known to any potential competition.

The cutest leopard sighting of the week goes to....

A slow roadblock.

Such a treat to see, a Side-striped Jackal moves around in the wet grass looking for any potential meals.

A beauty to see – A pale morph Walberg’s Eagle perches right above a squirrel who you can hear alarm calling but seemed a bit tired.

Their pungent smell gave away their location as some hyenas finished off the remains of an impala.

A beautiful male waterbuck on high alert at dusk.

A Water thick-knee stands in shallow waters looking for a quick meal.

We have enjoyed numerous sightings of the young male lion from the Sand River Pride over the past week.

He was seen nursing a full belly from a meal of sorts...

An absolutely incredible weekend with alarm calls coming from the open area in front of Bush Lodge. We scanned the area and noticed a cheetah in the open area so we dashed off to find that he had managed to take down an impala. Looking a bit nervous, as cheetahs do before eating, he eventually got going and dug into his kill. Soon after, the vultures started gathering in enormous numbers. Trying to fight off the vultures, the cheetah eventually got spooked and bolted away. The vultures dived in with no hesitation and not even a minute later, a young male lion came rushing in, chasing off the vultures and claiming the rest of the kill for himself. He dragged it off into some thick area where he finished it off. We managed to catch up with the cheetah who moved a little way away and decided to rest after all the commotion.

After an eventful weekend, we found the same male cheetah down in our southern section, keeping a watchful eye around him as he rested and then got up to move again.

Ending off this week’s blog with our Monochrome Monday selection for the week...

Until next time...