The heavens open!

We have well and truly splashed ourselves into 2011, some disorientated guests have arrived thinking they had taken the wrong flight and ended up in the Amazon rain forest…anyone want to see a Jaguar?

One quarter of our annual rainfall in 6 days!

150mm of precious African H2O fell and saturated the water table so that the Sand river burst it’s banks! All the dry river beds turned into raging torrents, including the Mabrak river in front of our camp!

This might seem a disaster if you have travelled a long way to come to Leopard Hills for your holiday….think again!

This just adds to the safari adventure! Now each river crossing in one of our trusty Landies becomes an adrenalin rush with high fives exchanged by all on the other side!

“Will we make it through”? If the Leopard is on the other side, OH YES we will!

How does this affect the game viewing? Well sometimes it can be quiet in patches if it’s raining hard but it can also be easier to spot animals looking for dry elevated positions, for example up trees. We have seen more Leopards taking cover up trees than on the ground in the last few days, especially Hlabankunzi’s two young 1 year old cubs, this is their first real experience of rain like this!

Some of the predators grumpy faces sum up how they feel about the rain though! The below facial expression tells us exactly what Hlabankunzi’s cub thinks of the weather while waiting for mom to come and fetch her and her sister to the latest kill.

When there is a gap in the rain the bush really comes alive, most of the animals become very active re-marking territories after scent has been washed away. After a good drenching, this is one of the best times to be out there to really absorb ourselves in animal behaviour!