Big news around the lodge… Our local Klipspringer pair had their very first baby. We are not sure how old the young one is but must be between 3-4 months as they are kept hidden for the first 2-3 months. We will only know in a couple of months if it is a boy or a girl.
We have had an interesting month with regards to weather.
In the past years we experienced some of the highest temperatures in February, however this year the temperatures was rather pleasant. We had decent rain and with that, more than a week of cool and cloudy weather but it did deliver spectacular sunsets.
The cool weather ensured that the moisture from the rain did not evaporate too quickly and all the vegetation greened up really fast.
We had to postpone some of the game drives due to the weather but we got to see incredible game. The rain did not stop us nor the guests from having fun around the lodge. On the cool rainy days, fires kept everyone warm and comfortable.
One very misty morning on game drive we found our local pride of lions. Thankfully they were on the road as the visibility was extremely limited. It has been a while since we saw the pride on a decent kill, but they are looking good.
The two older Mica females are spending more and more time away from the pride, for reasons were are not sure of. These two ladies even tried their luck on a herd of wildebeest, which was entertaining to watch…
We have been very fortunate with leopard sightings this past month, even more so than cheetahs.
We got to see Tsala and her young boy a couple of times. He is getting quite comfortable with the vehicles but only when mom is around, so we give him his space and hopefully he grows up to be a relaxed leopard like Munye.
Speaking of Munye. He really spoiled us with sightings. One of the best was when Jacques noticed a very nervous herd of impalas. He drove towards them on the next road and less than two meters from his door, this relaxed cat stood up out of the long grass. We only later realised he actually had a kill.
He is a cat that does not like trees very much so when he dragged his prize up the biggest tree in the area we had a very special sighting.
More on the cats… The Cheetah females are doing well as far as we know, we often get information of them on a kill. They unfortunately spend all their time far in the east.
The males spent less time on our side, most likely because of the females. But recently we had an amazing sighting of two of the males in the south west of Madikwe.
With the water around there was other unusual things around. A terrapin walking from one puddle to the next.
In the rain, if we were caught out on drive, which was quite often was surprisingly pleasant…
Now with more sunshine, lets hope we can keep up delivering on great sightings like these.
Kind regard
Cornelius and the T-Team
