The week has been everything but predictable – both in weather terms and out on safari! We had some generous rainfall over the past week and despite that, plentiful sightings!

Sometimes, following mom around is exhausting and lying down for a rest, with mom in sight, is the best option!

Seeing giraffes on a game drive is always a treat. Being so tall one would expect to be able to spot them quite easily, but this is not the case as they blend perfectly into the environment, especially at this time of year when the bush is very dense

We spent some time watching a hippo in a small waterhole. When a herd of buffalo tried to approach, the hippo made it very clear that it was not about to share its space and chased the buffalo away.

With so much water around at the moment, birds such as this Saddle-billed Stork which are often associated with water, have many locations to choose from.

With the harsh snort of an alarm call, every member of this impala herd was at attention staring at something we just could not see.

Within a large herd of large buffalo, this small calf was the one to grab our attention as it stumbled around trying its best to walk.

“Wow, what a large and graceful creature” were the words uttered in the vehicle as we watched this bull elephant standing just off the road. He proceeded to do something not quite graceful by squishing much of the lower half of his face and his tusks, almost flopping down, into the termite mound in front of him trying to pull out some roots to eat.

This female cheetah was perfectly positioned on top of a termite mound in the middle of an open area, with just enough foliage around her to keep her concealed from any unsuspecting prey that would move into the area to graze.

It’s not every day that we get the chance to find and see a new cat on the block, but one morning we were lucky to find this young female cheetah that we had not seen before.

As we crossed through one of the river crossings Graeme’s tracker spotted this male leopard lying in the long grass. N’weti quickly moved and jumped onto a large rock where he lay for a while before climbing up a Fig tree where he spent the rest of the morning.

“Which male leopard could this be?”, was the question amongst the rangers and trackers who viewed this large, yet shy, leopard. He was skulking in the long grass and slowly moved out of sight into some thickets not long after he had been found. Shortly after returning to the lodge, we managed to identify him as the Mawelawela male leopard, how exciting to see an old face finding his way to Sabi Sabi again!

Early one morning, two of the N’waswishaka male lions had been found after seeing their tracks on many different roads. The two walked confidently as they went about scent marking their territory, a frequent and essential part of a male lion’s morning routine.

One afternoon, as the rain started to fall, we headed out undeterred to try and see something! Two of the N’waswishaka male lions had stayed in the spot they were left in the morning and so we decided to make our way there and we got more than we were expecting. While the two lions lay down in the tall grass, the Golonyi leopardess was spotted mere meters from them. She did not seem phased in any way and even though the two lions started to vocalise, she propped herself onto a termite mound and sat there beautifully before running into the bush after some impala nearby.

On a very warm morning drive, we came across fresh tracks of the Styx Pride, evidence that they had been moving through the reserve. Luckily with it being warm, we knew they wouldn’t have moved too far, and not long after finding the tracks we were able to locate the pride resting in some shade, just as we expected!

After spending the afternoon with the adult lionesses from the Styx Pride, we followed them until they led us to where they had left the cubs allowing us the privilege to see them reunite after a few hours of being separated. The following morning, we found and followed their tracks for quite some time and found them emerging from a riverbed and eventually stopped to rest underneath the shade of a tree, grooming one another to strengthen their bonds. It was good to see them all with full stomachs!

For a long while, this lion cub was completely focused on feeding while the three adult Styx lionesses lounged around it. There have been a few cubs seen separate from the rest of the pride, so our hope is that this single cub seen this morning is one of those cubs that has now been reunited with them and is finally having a good, long feed to make up for the last few days alone.

We returned to the three Styx lionesses and the cub that was with them in the afternoon, and what we witnessed was incredible. The lionesses and cub began moving, heading off in a definite direction. The small cub behind them was constantly calling, making sure not to fall behind and we followed them in the hopes that they would lead us to the rest of the cubs so we could count and make sure that the cub that was with them was indeed the one that had gone missing. As we approached an open area, suddenly a sea of small lion cubs came running out of the bushes and we counted them as they ran through the tall grass, we counted ten with the eleventh cub trailing behind its mothers that had set out to find it. The cubs and females were both calling to one another, and the joy of them all being reunited was evident in the way that they groomed each other and played about in the grass. The bond that these animals have is incredible, and to see the lengths that these lionesses would go through to find their missing cub is enough to pull on anyone’s heartstrings.

An emotional moment as the three Styx lionesses and their missing cub joined the others. The cubs ran out of the bushes towards their mothers and missing sibling, and they all immediately started grooming one another and rubbing heads together. It was incredible to see the bond between these animals - a sighting never to be forgotten and a wonderfully happy ending to the week!

Until next time