On the morning of the 3rd I went out to track the Wild Dogs and got signal for them close to the Villa. Almost an hour later they came racing down the hill chasing after some Impalas. They then went to drink water at the waterhole in front of the Villa and rested there. A little later there were Zebras, Giraffe, Wildebeest and Warthogs at the same Waterhole. The Dogs chased the Warthogs and the Zebras chased the Dogs. It was quite funny to watch them. Eventually they all just minded their own business and the Dogs went to sleep in the shade next to the waterhole.

On the morning of the 5th one of the guides found a dead Aardvark close to an old dam. I went to have a look and saw my first Aardvark ever. Pity it had to be a dead one. The Lions had killed it during the night, but didn't eat much before they left and killed a Wildebeest close-by.

On the morning of the 4th Dr Chap Masterson darted the two Sub-Adult Lionesses in the boma to do the TB testing. On the 7th they were darted again and taken to their new home. Everything went very well and they will be released from the bomas at their new home with a Male Lion.

Four adult Wild Dogs (2 females from Venetia and two males from Imfolozi) were released on Thanda on 4 April 2006 after bonding period in a boma at Thanda for a few months. After being released the Beta male left the pack to join the two Imfolozi females on the area next to Thanda. They were darted and moved back to Imfolozi. The other three Dogs remained on Thanda as the Thanda Pack.

Things at Thanda are always wild and wonderful, while I'm writing this I'm still enthralled about what we saw on Game Drive a few days ago.

* On the afternoon of the 20th Russell and I went looking for the Lions and found the Buffalo Herd on the Savannah area. After that saw a Porcupine and walked/ran (DON'T RUN IN THE BUSH) after it to see where it was going. It disappeared into an old Warthog hole which it had cleaned out very nicely, because we found a piece of a Warthog skull and some other bones on the edge of the hole.

* On the afternoon of the 14th there was a Female Kudu in Base Camp and all 5 the Wild Dogs were running around on the outside of the fence looking for the Kudu. We tried to chase the Kudu out, but every time we opened the gate the Dogs ran closer and we had to close the gate again. Eventually the Kudu ran and jumped through the fence. The Dogs didn't see her get out and ran along the fence for a little bit longer before they left to go find something else.

Driving along one of the drainage lines in the South, we happened to look up at an old abandoned raptors nest that was perched precariously in a fork of an old fever tree. We were thrilled to find that it was no longer empty, but occupied by a rather large, pale grey coloured Owl with stout "ears," and a black rim to the facial disc framing large dark eyes with very distinctive pink eyelids!

On the morning of the 1st I didn't have a vehicle to go out, but on my way to the office I saw all 5 the Wild Dogs at Base Camp's Gate. Their bellies were full and they were chasing each other. I'm guessing they ate the Nyala that they caught the previous evening.

On the evening of the 20th I drove around with Russell, Michelle (Spa) and Michelle (Leopard Project). We wanted to find the Wild Dogs, but changed our minds and decided to rather look for Leopard. We found our bigger Rhino Bull close to the Villa and just after that we actually found a Female Leopard on the same road. She sat down in the bushes and watched us for a while. She was very young and her nose was still a little pink.

On the 12th just after lunch all 5 the Dogs were along the fence between the JAC House and North Gate. They've been spending more time in the North lately and it's actually a good thing since the Lions are more towards the West and the South.

Tenses are rising, pressures mounting, last minute arrangements being performed to make sure the day is going to be a success, but what about the bride and groom? Surprisingly they're as relaxed as can be, knowing that Thanda has everything under control, and all they have to concentrate on, is saying the magical words, "I do."

In the afternoon of the 23rd the Female Wild Dog's signal was at the den while the rest of the Dogs were on the hill behind the Lodge. On the morning of the 25th I went to the den very early. I checked the signal and it was the worse sound I've ever heard in my whole life. It was a very slow beep 4 seconds apart from each other. The Female was dead.

The past couple of days have been extremely interesting and 'action packed' - with clients' being able to witness the interaction of different species as a pair of lionesses, as well as some vultures, tried to get an easy meal by robbing the Wild Dogs of their kill.

On the morning of the 1st the Wild Dogs were sleeping on Phakama/Savannah. They woke up and played in the area on the road for a long time. The Alpha Female looks pregnant. Since this is the Main Road from Base Camp to the Lodge and Tented Camp everybody was a little late for work. Just shows you. We're not as in control of the bush as we think we are. They eventually left and drank water at Mgankla pan.

On the afternoon of the 22nd all 7 the Wild Dogs were running around the Lodge area and drank water at the water feature. They are doing very well.

A few days ago my colleges and I decided to go out on our own game drive. Although we're out there everyday we wanted to share our knowledge and skills and learn from each other.

I have been fortunate enough to witness lions, leopards, eagles, cheetah and even crocodile in action. From stalking their unwary prey, chasing it and eventually making a kill. I mean from the very beginning to the end, but I had never seen wild dogs making a kill until recently.

It had been a warm golden sunny afternoon and as the evening descended, the last of the francolin were shrieking their last goodbyes to another day. We had just packed up after a refreshing drink to settle the afternoon dust and once again embarked on our journey to see what wonders lay waiting to be discovered.

It was my Guests last evening at Thanda, and there was some debate as to whether they should do "one more drive" or not. Mum and girls decided to enjoy the facilities provided at the Lodge, while father & son opted for a short, one hour excursion.

A life has just been lost and its all leading to the beginning of another new life. Both inter and intraspecific competitions have risen and it is because of the carcass which has just become the centre of attraction, leaving the decomposers to feast on it.

Nature has always got something new and exciting for anybody who is interested and wants the experience.

On the evening of the 2nd the Buffalos were in Base Camp next to the Soccerfield. On the morning of the 6th the whole herd was at the junction Phakama/Main North. On the afternoon of the 9th the herd was at Mgankla pan. Over lunch time on the 10th there were 50 Buffalos at Mganklapan again. The big bulls weren't there. They were at the Predator Bomas on the morning of the 11th. All the Buffalos are doing very well and 2 new calves were born towards the end of the month.

Four adult Dogs (2 females from Venetia and two males from Imfolozi) were released on Thanda on 4 April 2006 after bonding in a boma on Thanda for a few months. After being released the Beta male left the pack to join two Imfolozi females on the area next to Thanda. They were darted and moved back to Imfolozi. The other three Dogs remained on Thanda as the Thanda Pack.

Hop hop hop, nibble nibble nibble, hop hop hop... could it be... could it really be…the Easter bunny?

Greetings and welcome to Thanda's famous column of rangers' diary.
"Where is that strange noise coming from?" one of my guests asked while we were driving through Acacia thorn trees. As I switched off the engine I replied that it was an Impala antelope calling. We saw a few Impala not far from us, and as we watched them the guests starting asking more questions with interest.

Wow! What a freedom to all inhibiting species of Thanda including myself. Enough has never been enough until its enough; we all need space so as to develop our niches. When you are out on a game drive activity you always need space to feel more comfortable.

In our Zulu culture adults used to try and scare us by saying if we tell a tale during the day we would grow horns on our head. None of us wanted horns like an animal, so we were careful what we said.

Every time you go out on the evening game drives, it's always a matter of expecting the unexpected. No matter how many times you have been before.

One of my Guests had been enjoying an after-lunch siesta in the shade of her Sala, listening to the muted sounds of the African bush, when her peaceful serenading by a variety of birds was interrupted by what she described as "a mini-helicopter" doing acrobatics!

There have been a number of legless lizards found over the last few weeks. They resemble snakes, in that they are completely limbless, but are in fact lizards.

Summer has brought wth it an abundance of food and water, and conditions for reproducing in all species is at its peak during this lucrative period. Of particular interest are the thousands of birds taking advantage of these prime conditions, and in particular the cuckoos who rely on other species of birds to rear their young.

'Greetings to all', this is what the above title means. It is the Zulu way of welcoming. Thanda is located in Northern Zululand, where the local culture is Zulu.

A common and often entertaining sighting on game drives the passed few weeks, has been the spherical balls of dung being pushed with purpose and determination by a beetle that appears not only to be doing handstands but also walking backwards!

It has been a brilliant start to the spring, and summer has settled in true Zululand fashion. The days are getting longer, warmer and typically more humid as the year progresses.

I have heard and read stories about things happening in the wild, about hunters and the hunted. A few weeks ago I was fortunate to come across one of those wildlife experiences.

Summer time has just knocked at our door step and our evidence being the sighting of a male Tree Agama (Agama atricollis) with a bright blue colour covering its head. Stopping and observing this creature whilst it is doing its body sign language ie. press ups or even circling around tree trunks leaves you wondering.

Gone are the schools days where the excuse was "the dog ate my homework," now I've found a new one "the mongoose ate my diary" - literally!

The rain storm I spoke to you about in my last diary, seems like it was just the beginning of things.

Most of the people when out on safari, think of seeing the big five only, and then their safari is over. Seeing big five is not the only thing that can bring you happiness when out on safari. After showing guests the big five or some of it, they always seem to have quenched their thirsty of experiencing the African wildlife.

Thanda seems to be true to its name - The place of 'Love,' as we have yet another new addition to our family. One of our white rhino cow's gave birth to a healthy little boy a few weeks ago. Quite a feat for the mom as the 'little' baby weighs on average 40 kgs at birth!

The tented camp is about 15 minutes drive away from the staff accommodation where we all stay. On my way home as I drove passed an old water hole, which has very little water left, I had a feeling that the lions might be there. As during our game drive we could not find them, and it seemed that all our attempts were in vain.

It has brought in and strengthened relationships between protected areas and neighboring communities; created environmental and financial problems in most areas; has become a bread winner in some families; and even earned itself a number of names in Zulu and some other languages.

Many things have been happening here at Thanda lately. The area has been going through a serious drought, which has been a big worry to all, as Thanda only had two waterholes with water left in them. Everybody was hoping and praying that we would get rain soon, as everything was getting very dry.

We wait with baited breath as we sit motionless in the middle of the bushveld and watch the first golden rays of the morning sun creep slowly over the hills. As the dawn breaks, the silence is broken - first by the francolins - and then by the sound we have been waiting for... that of an animal shaking itself awake in the cover of the nearby trees...

Sanibonani, (Hello) My name is Sandiso Shabangu, a new ranger at Thanda Private Game Reserve. For my first diary I would like to introduce myself to everyone who is addicted to the African Bush, like myself. Everyone at Thanda has been welcoming and helped me to settle in quickly.

It's been pleasantly mild over the last few weeks here at Thanda. The winds have died down, but are expected to return over the next month. There have been some days where the cloud cover has blocked out most of the sun's rays, but the earth is still barren.

Few people come to a Big 5 Reserve to look for spiders! But as you join us on an early morning game drive in search of elephant or lion - don't close your eyes to the smaller and equally fascinating creatures around us.

On one of my late afternoon outings with an enthusiastic Vennnig family, two young girls made my experience awesome. We did a couple of drives during their four nights stay of which all of them were exciting in their different way. The atmosphere around Thanda had been filled with joy and excitement for the past two weeks and l was also waiting for my chance to see this young leopard which has just found its temporally resident home around the lodge.

The wind had been howling all day. As the sun began to set, the gusts settled down to a pleasant warm breeze. The afternoon had been rather uneventful as most of the game were sheltered in the thickets due the strong winds tormenting them.

It's been a while without putting a diary up for you, but to keep you updated it's been an exciting period at Thanda. With a number of new births from our high profile animals and the introduction of African Wild Dogs, I can see our graphs rising up towards the optimum level.

What started out as a usual morning game drive, heading out early to watch the breathtaking sunrise, listening as the birds begin to wake up and the bush come alive, turned out to yield yet another fantastic surprise for all of us.

Guiding in this area of Southern Africa never ceases to inspire. Daily, new wonders of the natural world exquisitely expose themselves.One can only marvel at the number of species that are able to co-exist and thrive in the landscape that is Thanda Private Game Reserve, taking into account the bio-diversity of the region.

Doing the night drive as usual, myself, Bheki my collegue who is a tracker. We happened to come across a spotted eagle owl hunting at night.

I don't really know where to start to explain the awesome weekend I've just had. The most amazing thing happened on Saturday the 21st of January. For the first time ever one of our Elephants gave birth to a very healthy calf.

This last week has been a very interesting and rewarding week. I have been tracking with Winneth for the last month and we are getting to know one another. It is very important for a guide to built up a strong relationship with his team member; the tracker.

I have just completed my first week at Thanda, to which I received the most amazing introduction as on only my second day here, I had the privilege to "meet" the female cheetah and her 2 young cubs.

I only started here at Thanda on the 1st of November, but I've already seen so many amazing things it's just unbelievable. About 6 months ago, two Lionesses were brought in from Phinda.

It was a wet morning after our first big summer rainstorm which gave us about 40mm, everything was wet and the roads slippery. I had to drive on the main gravel road which runs to our main gate and because of cold rain droplets falling into my eyes I could hardly see ahead of me.

We are very fortunate here at Thanda that there are two African Wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) that took up residence on our game reserve twelve months ago. Everybody wondered how they got here, and when we did an investigation, we realized that they used the holes dug by Warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) to get through underneath the fence.

One of our lionesses is showing some very interesting behavior these days, and we were lucky to watch and witness what I call "motherhood".

Shortly after 6am on the 3rd of October we departed on game drive from the tented camp. Having seen the elephant breeding herd the previous evening we decided to return to that area to see if we could relocate them in daylight (we avoid watching them at night as they are sensitive to the spotlights).

During an early morning game drive on 26 September we encountered fresh tracks of a lioness. On closer inspection we were delighted to see tracks of at least one lion cub, possibly two - they had walked back over their own tracks and it was not that easy to determine.

I have just started at Thanda Private Game Reserve and is formerly from the Mpumalanga province, also known as the Lowveld. It has been quite a learning curve for me since I arrived nearly two weeks ago.

The exotic plant called Chromolaena first appeared in Kwazulu-Natal around the 1940's. It is an "alien plant", meaning that it is not indigenous to South Africa. It is believed the plant is originally from South America.

On August the 27th, I collected the Harman family from the U.K. at the Richard's Bay airport, they came to Thanda for a three night stay. They were lovely people who made my life truly memorable at Thanda. Our activities were more educational, especially for Sam, the young man who wanted to know more about all the animals and survival in the african "bush".

The past week has been a feast of predators at Thanda, with great sightings of African wild dog, lion, cheetah and also leopard. It began on the morning of August 20th when one of our game drives encountered wild dog. They followed them heading north along one of the main roads, fresh blood stains on their mouths indicating they had just fed.

The game-viewing has been fantastic, with regular elephant, white rhino, lion and buffalo sightings (not to mention giraffe and general game).

On the 12th July 2005 I had a late morning game drive with the Gilberts. The couple had requested it because they were worried about the cool air rising up in the early morning.

After our morning drop-offs, we went off to Manzendlovu Pan to observe bird and mammal activity. Thanda has three main water points, strategically placed, encouraging animals to move to various parts of the reserve, hence feeding off most of the available grazing and browsing vegetation. These three water points are fed by boreholes and remain full throughout the year.

It was an early, end-of-June morning, and the crisp winter chill hung in the air as we headed out from the Lodge. Having watched the male lion devour a young warthog the previous evening, we decided to return to Manzindlovu Pan in the hope that he would still be around.

We recently had a couple who stayed with us at Thanda for two weeks. They chose Thanda as their destination for a bush experience and also because of its close proximity to the Indian Ocean. Guests are offered the opportunity to participate in a variety of other activities whilst staying at Thanda, over and above game drives, and these include horse riding, kayaking and diving, amongst others.

The impala and warthogs have certainly been busy recently, being at the peak of their mating season. During one of my morning drives, I was sitting at a busy waterhole - Mzukulu pan - and all I could hear were impala rutting and warthogs making their clacking call. I could see dominant males surrounding the females, pushing the inferior males out of the way.

Our new male cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) was only released from the boma two days ago and is already providing us with great sightings. Yesterday morning, whilst on game drive, we received a report that a cheetah had killed in the northern section of the reserve.

Another week has passed in the bush and, as usual, many interesting things have happened. Cold fronts have moved in from the south and the onset of winter is very near.

We recently realized that we have an abundance of terrestrial predators at Thanda, some of them lurking undetected in the grass literally a few feet from our guests. In fact, these creatures have been known to invoke more fear in some people than lions! Little do most people know that nearly all spiders have venom which is completely harmless to humans.

If someone was to ask me about animal migration, I would most probably picture a large herd of wildebeest (gnus) or possibly even flocks of birds. However, a few nights ago, returning to the lodge on my evening game drive, I witnessed a different type of migration.

The first two weeks of March at Thanda have been very rewarding for me. We received good rains which changed our brown grass cover to a marvelous green. This can only mean good news for the wildlife and everywhere you go the bushes smelt of fresh growth.

It was an eventful and busy week at Thanda, with my guests experiencing many great sightings, the exhilarating Vula Zulu show - Thanda's traditional Zulu cultural show - and also enjoying several of the many outside activities offered to guests.

All in all, it has been a very interesting week. Thankfully at least 50 mm of rain has fallen, which has made driving conditions a little slippery but we certainly needed the rain and we have had many great sightings despite the weather.

Theo, my tracker and I, began the week in heavy rain, which we really need at the moment, the bush being very dry. However, rain is of course not always that pleasant for our guests. Nonetheless, our guests did not seem to mind at all, and came out with us for a four hour drive.

We experienced a truly appropriate game drive this morning. We were lucky enough to witness two lions mating, and with it being Valentine's Day and with Thanda meaning "love" in Zulu, this seemed to us most suitable morning exercise!

It was early on a beautiful summer morning. We had all just finished our first cup of coffee of the day and a couple of rusks in the lounge, and we were ready to head out into the bush and see what we could find.

I left the base camp for South Gate with Sakhile as my tracker to go and meet a group of guests arriving to stay for a night at Thanda.

Guests on a recent afternoon drive experienced a rather rare sighting of a Caracal (Felis Caracal). The very robustly built feline, which is Africa's largest small cat, has distinctive black markings on its face and unique long tassels of black hair on the tips of its ears.

We met our guests at the lodge for afternoon tea at 16h00, pleased that the cloud cover had brought some relief from the usual summer heat.

So many people are nervous, or even afraid of the mighty Elephant. But all too often they provide us with some of the greatest humour in the bush. One of these occasions happened to my guests and I this morning.

Christmas is upon us, and the fist rains have fallen. The bush is a brilliant lush green and water is lying in the Mduna river system. The rains have bought out the baby impalas, making the bush seem more alive than ever. Christmas week proved to be very successful for the guiding department.

During the evening game drive of December 26th, a rather interesting sighting occurred at about 18h00. Driving on Pagama Road, we stopped to listen to a herd on Impala (Aepryceros Melampus) alarm calling.

The species was originally derived from a specimen from Mozambique, under the name Hyaena Picta, in 1820. The specific name picta means painted in Latin and refers to the varicoloured coat which is blotched with patches of white, black and yellow. In the Republic of South Africa, wild dog are listed in the Red Water Book as an endangered species.

We drove out from the Tented Camp early in the morning with four guests. The temperature already indicated that a typically hot summer's day in Africa was on its way. Driving down Khohliwe Road near the main lodge dam, we came upon an elephant bull. We spent some time with him, and then continued down to the savanna area.