Arrived here at lunchtime on boxing day after an uneventful drive through Ladysmith.
At 5 p.m. evening game drive with our ranger Suya and with a family from Woking in the UK. Plan was to try to see cats and at the end of the drive as it was getting dark,we spotted a couple of lionesses resting on a hillside. As dusk fell they went off, presumably to hunt… We had to leave them and their prey to their fate …
Earlier on the drive we saw several giraffes, a herd of buffalo with several calves and a white rhino mother with a very small baby.
Giraffe – Nambiti
Buffalo group – Nambiti
Sunset – Nambiti
Long tailed widow bird – Nambiti
27 December
Next morning very early start 4: 30 for 5am drive. Suya was hoping to see cheetahs either the solitary male cheetah or the group that has been introduced into the reserve recently. We didn’t manage to find them but we did find more lions, this time a male and female lion mating as we arrived. They then walked off and lay down accompanied by the male lion’s brother. He was also keen to get close to the female. When he approached male lion number one saw him off with a big roar. We also saw White rhino again ,- a mother with a small baby by a watering hole they went down to drink and then came they made their way back up again into the bush.
At the start of the drive we went over to the place where we’d seen the two lionesses the previous evening but we couldn’t see them or any evidence of a kill but we did see a vulture and Suya could smell rotten meat which he said was 2 or 3 days old. Vultures are poisoned by farmers and their body parts sold to traditional doctors so they are in danger now. We saw a group of blesbok antelopes including a light coloured one which is a leucistic antelope – leucistic means lacking pigment.
Also on this drive: we saw elephant prints by the river and fresh dung (good!), but unfortunately we couldn’t find the elephants!. Also Giraffe, male kudu, 2 ostrich, and back at Ndaka lodge we saw a blue headed ogama lizard..
Suya told us that 3 cheetahs had been successful in capturing a young wildebeest the day before. Wildebeest was also on the menu for us last night and although it looks nice and tender and well cooked (medium rare) the meat was actually really tough and we didn’t like it very much. Must be an acquired taste.
We all rather tired after all the early start and not a very good night’s sleep in a tent, which is fine, but very hot, and we’re not used to the sounds of a insects and other African noises outside.
Really hot day today – the temperature up around 30 degrees by lunchtime. Fortunately we have a lovely swimming pool to relax by. Denise is in the pool at the moment and four male kudu have just walked past one by one at intervals rather like the way London buses should be rather than the way they are normally.
Very helpful staff at the lodge led by Fana and Bong. Nice food on the whole although they didn’t do so well on the gluten free for Denise.