The Best 8 days Guiding of my Life

I just had an incredible 8 days of guiding Arnold and Joan Kalan from Califoria for the 4th year in a row. This time their son Ari and his girlfriend Jessica joined them.

The last 8 days of safari at Leopard Hills have been absolute brilliant. Hundreds of elephant have moved into our traversing area and we see these massive pachyderms all over the reserve.

The appearance of two individual male cheetahs has had everyone in great excitement. On an early morning safari we watched the older of the 2 male’s drinking water in perfect golden sunlight in the Southern part of our reserve. The younger cheetah was seen 2 hours later scent marking until he decided to climb a high Apple Leaf Tree. This was a rare sighting indeed and as cheetahs (unlike leopards) don‘t normally climb trees.

The Sand River has been a constant source of great viewing and photographic opportunities. Buffalo, giraffe, nyala, bushbuck and hundreds of different species of birds were viewed and photographed in the last 6 days.

As per usual the leopard sightings have been amazing, with no less than 9 individual been viewed. We watched leopards stalking, marking territory, feeding and sleeping high up Marula Trees. Once again Mambiri female leopard and her cub was the jewel in the crown of leopard viewing. Seeing a 6 month old leopard cub completely oblivious of our presence must surely rank as one of the greatest sights ever.

Furthermore we viewed both the Ximungwe Pride and Ottawa Pride of lions on numerous occasions. 2 of the individual female from the Ximungwe Pride were seen mating with the Mapogo Male lions.

The last great sighting was seeing the pack of 3 wilddogs feeding on a huge male impala. The dogs ate as quickly as possible (due to the large number of lions in the area) and when the left their kill there was more than half of the carcass left. The following hour was unbelievable as white-backed, hooded and Lappet-faced vultures all move in to share in the feast. Other visitors include a Tawny Eagle, Yellow-Billed Kite and 4 Pied Crows.

I cant think of any other way to describe the last 8 days as the PERFECT safari!!!