Between numerous storms and rain, we have had on the reserve this past week, the animals were out in full force affording us some wonderful sightings. Herewith a recap from the past 7 days on safari...

With a small ray of sunshine shining on it, this Greater blue-eared Starling illuminated with colour.

These two bull elephants were giving one another a bit of a push around as they tested one another’s fighting abilities.

A dazzle of zebra in the shade as the heat of the day was reaching its peak.

This hippo was sleeping peacefully in a dam when we arrived in the late afternoon, and as we watched and the sun sank deeper to the horizon, he started to get restless. These large herbivores normally come out of the water after sunset to graze, but he seemed quite content to remain in the water for just a bit longer.

A big male elephant enjoying some fresh grass around a waterhole after spraying some water and mud on his body to cool himself down.

This Grey Heron waited patiently for its opportunity to catch a meal. While mainly feeding on fish, they will also prey on other water inhabitants such as crustaceans, molluscs as well as frogs.

This buffalo had extremely large and wide horns, perhaps a bit too large because when it stood up, its head swayed under all the weight with each step.

Usually, hyenas like to cool themselves in water during the day; such was the case with this young hyena we found in a mud wallow and eventually moved off into a bush nearby to groom itself.

This Blacksmith Lapwing was wading on the water’s edge in search of any prey it could pick from the surface.

We found a herd of wildebeest with a lot of young ones among them. This one caught our attention as it was drinking milk from the mother.

With summer in full swing, we are seeing more and more migratory birds around, including this Intra African breeding migrant, the Wahlberg's Eagle.

A swift flick of the ears is always a good option when the flies start to pile up!

This Leopard tortoise was easy to spot as it slowly moved along the side of the road occasionally cutting off some grass with its sharp keratinous beak.

This bull elephant was taking full advantage of the abundance of green grass due to the ground receiving plenty of rain at this time of the year.

We were very happy to have found the Southern Pride lioness and her two cubs. They were all resting in the shade during the heat of the day and eventually moved into the thickets to perhaps find a cooler area.

Towards the end of the week, we found one of the N’waswishaka male lions shortly after leaving the lodge. He was resting underneath the shade of a small tree at first and then when it began to cool down, he started to move and called searching of the rest of his coalition.

The following day, we followed the tracks of two male lions for quite some time, and then decided to stop for a sundowner in the hopes that as the day cooled, we might hear them vocalising and pinpoint their location... and we were not disappointed. Shortly after leaving our sundowner spot, we heard one of the N’waswishaka male lions vocalising and found him with one of his coalition calling right behind him.

We followed up again the next morning and found three of the male lions trailing a large herd of buffalo but soon stopped to rest as the clouds disappeared giving us a chance to view them.

Our last sighting of them this week was of them resting in some shade and every so often, lifting their heads to check their surroundings.

Ntsumi’s daughter has been seen quite a bit this week. She was lying within the thickets, and even though it was quite hot she started to move around but never strayed too far from the areas that she knows.

N’weti male leopard was lying on a termite mound under the shade of a large tree, as the heat had tuckered him out completely!

We followed up on a set of leopard tracks and eventually found the Dewane/Dayone male leopard in an open field. He soon stood up and we followed him as he moved along a riverbed.

Until next time...