I am always surprised how quickly a 42-day cycle goes by and it always seems that the highlights blog comes around too quickly. However, it always gives me a great chance to reflect on each sighting that I was able to capture.

With the above being said, there are many times that I haven’t been able to take pictures of the amazing sightings we get here at Sabi Sabi. This happens in a variety of ways:

• Classic schoolboy error - leaving my memory card in the laptop in my room and leaving the battery in the charger! There is no worse feeling for a photographer.
• The action just happens too quickly and trying to keep up becomes a priority.
• Or you have a guest sitting in the front seat which makes it difficult to carry camera equipment with you. This doesn’t bother me for two very good reasons: a guide’s job is to guide; and the photography side is a bonus.

It generally happens that when you have a guest sitting in front with you, the sightings are incredible and this was certainly no different this cycle. Two examples spring to mind - one was finding a cheetah stalking a herd of wildebeest and watching the tables turn as a mother’s instincts kicked in to chase the hunter away from her young calf. The following morning was the second example where we had the Toulon Pack of wild dogs chase down and kill a bushbuck in front of our vehicle. Sometimes it is good not to be behind the view finder and just take it all in.

I’m not making excuses about having enough good pictures, so hopefully the images below will back it up. My Christmas was spent in the bush, like it has for the last three years, but Santa brought me a sack full of great sightings. For all you leopard fans out there this is for you!

Let’s start with the Kigelia female. We set out earlier one morning in search of lions but found Kigelia, and even though this was not our plan, we spent a good hour with her. During this time, she gave us every quintessential leopard pose we could have asked for. It ended up with her being chased up a tree by zebras that she was trying to stalk. She left with dignity as only a leopard knows how to.

Kigelia`s father, the dominant male Maxabeni, killed a huge warthog in a demonstration of his power and hunting ability. Unfortunately, after these pictures were taken, he got chased off his kill by two hyenas.

During a time when I was helping manage Selati Camp, my fellow guide Kyle and I decided to head out at sunrise to try and find the Little Bush female and her two cubs. I hadn’t seen them close up, only from the deck of Selati Camp.

We managed to find them and their mom on a kill from the night before. She then led them to one of my favourite places on the Reserve, a large Sycamore Fig Tree perched above a huge boulder in the Msuthlu River. This truly was any photographers dream - I had always wanted to photograph a leopard on this particular rock, let alone three!

She has really done a great job with these cubs so far and we are hopeful that she can successfully raise these ones to independence, the same way she did with Kigelia.

Here is a surprise – it’s not a leopard photo! It is however my only decent picture of the new additions to the Southern Pride. Now that they have left the den site, I’m sure next cycle I will hopefully be able to show you some more pics of them as they start their lives.

There are times when we are privileged enough to capture these moments to share them with you and other times we are not. For us these moments are etched into our memories and captured by the best cameras on earth - our eyes. Sometimes seeing it for yourself is the best feeling in the world and that is what makes this the best job on earth.