Buffalo
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.
Elephant
On the morning of the 9th Thulani was on Broxburn. He was very relaxed and moved down towards South Pan. On the morning of the 22nd I found the whole herd with both the big bulls at the bottom Mfhlweni pan. The top Mfhlweni pan has dried up over the past month. They drank water and moved off into the bushes at the back of the pan towards loop Rd.
On the morning of the 25th Russell and I went to look for Mpatha to get some feacal samples. We saw Thulani at the junction Sambane/tented camp and the rest of the herd was there in the bushes as well. We drove around the block and about half an hour later we found them at the bottom Mfhlweni pan. All 13 the Elephants were there but we couldn't get a feacal sample from Mpatha. On the morning of the 26th I heard them in the block between the powerlines and Mathuna close to Thamboti rd.
Rhino
At 20h00 on the 5th B1 was on the road that goes to Dwang pan heading towards Gwala Gwala. On the 16th Truman saw C3 with a newborn calf and on the 17th he saw C1 with a newborn calf as well. On the morning of the 21st B2, C2 and C4 were next to the Twin Pan cutline close to the pan. B2's horn tip has also broken off. They were there for most of the morning and only got up to move into the sun. I left and found C1 close to the Thamboti powerlines. She was by herself, but she was very skittish so I'm guessing the calf was there somewhere.
That afternoon B2, C2 and C4 were still on the Twin Pan cutline. The next morning I saw them at the junction Gwala Gwala/ Uphetshe cutline. They were very relaxed and I left them when the guides showed up. On the 25th Truman let me know that C3's calf is a female. On the morning of the 26th I found C1 close to the Thamboti powerlines again. She was by herself, but standing in dense bushes so the calf could've been there somewhere.
Lion
On the morning of the 2nd the 2 Phinda Females were on Gwala Gwala close to Uphetshedam. They were both roaring right next to the vehicle. They got up and walked towards Phakama. I left them and found the Male with the other Female and 1 young one on Broxburn. The Male and female were fighting and the other young Lioness also showed up. She greeted her mom and they were all lying down. The Male crawled closer to them very slowly until he was right next to them, but the adult female wasn't very happy with him being there.
On the afternoon of the 4th the Lion Cubs were at Mansendlovu Pan by themselves. At 19h45 on the 5th The Male lion was at Uphetshe dam with the 2 phinda females and earlier in the afternoon the Female and Cubs were at the log cabin. On the afternoon of the 6th the Male and Phinda females were on Gwala Gwala at the Uphetshe cutline again. They slept most of the time and the one female stalked an impala, but they saw her and ran away. They were at the junction Dwang Pan Gwala Gwala in the afternoon of the 8th. The females were playing and stalking each other before they headed off to Dwang Pan. On the morning of the 9th the Male was at Lodgedam.
On the morning of the 12th the Lion and 2 Phinda Females were at the predator boma. They were charging the fence and the Wild Dog inside was barking at them. One of the lions got shocked and they moved away a bit. They watched the Dog running up and down for a little while and left after half an hour. On the morning of the 22nd I saw one of the cubs chase all 6 the Wild Dogs from behind the bottom Mfhlweni pan onto Mfhlweni rd. I drove to the back of the pan 10 minutes later and found the cub there with her mom and sister. One of the cubs got up and chased a Herd of Zebras. There was a lot of noise, but I don't think she caught any of them.
On the morning of the 26th I found the Lioness with the cubs under the powerlines by Thamboti rd. The one cub was a little sick. They moved into the bushes after a while. That same morning the male lion was on phakama close to the lodge when I had staff on the back of the cruiser. The guys were all new and they lay down flat in the back of the cruiser when I drove past the lion, but he didn't really care about us going past him. In the afternoon he was still there.
He was at the junction Gwala Gwala/ Uphetshe cutline on the afternoon of the 27th. About half an hour later I went there again and the Phinda females were there with him as well. They were there again the next morning. On the morning of the 29th the one Phinda female was on Gwala Gwala by herself, stalking some impalas close to Uphetshe dam. I think she caught one of them, because I went passed the dam later and her face and front leg was covered in blood. I sat there watching her clean herself for a while and then left. Later she was lying on the dam wall.
Leopard
On the afternoon of the 4th Brent and two guests saw a Male leopard at Lodgedam at 17h45. Winneth drove past Lodgedam with the same guests at 18h30 and they saw the Male Leopard there again. On the morning of the 5th Brent found tracks of a Female Leopard on Mfhlweni rd. On the 27th at 09h07 Alan and I saw a male leopard on Main South between Ndlovu Highway and Broxburn, but closer to Broxburn. We caught him off guard, because he was looking in the other direction when we came around the corner. When he saw us he ran into the bush.
Cheetah
On the morning of the 10th I found the Male Cheetah next to the fence on the hill between Marula rd and Ipiva rd. He was up there for a long time before he moved down towards Ipiva and chased after something in the bushes. When Truman showed up with his guests he was back on the road and went back up the hill. On the morning of the 11th Sassy was between North Gate and board #11. She walked up and down the fence and was still very skittish.
In the afternoon of the 26th the Male Cheetah was at the Villa waterhole. The Wild Dogs were there as well. They were barking at the Cheetah and he chased them a few times. He was drinking water while the Dogs were barking at him and they eventually left. After that he stayed at the water for quite a while, but jumped up when a grasshopper landed next to him. I sat there watching him for a very long time and he went to drink some more water. He slept close to the waterhole.
On the morning of the 28th I found Marica at North gate. The guard was there and she just walked past him. She was very relaxed with the vehicle being there as well. When I came back through the gate she was still there lying on one of the bumps on the road.
Wild Dog
On the morning of the 5th I spread the Male's feaces all around the block where the other Dogs were in, hoping that they would smell it and go look for him. On the morning of the 23rd one of the pups got out onto the D242. I had just dropped off my guests and Russell picked me up at South gate. We cut 3 big holes in the fence for her to go back in. The other Dogs were on the other side of the fence. It took us 2 hours to get her back into Thanda.
On the morning of the 30th the pack came down Phakama from the Lodge side and slept on the hill behind base camp. We played the whoo-call CD between them and the bomas and they went to the bomas 20 minutes later. We opened the gate to let the male out and all the dogs went inside. He came out after a while with the rest of the pack chasing after him. The pups were very excited to have a new dog in the area and didn't leave him alone for a second. They are still all together. Read wild dog report for more info.
General
On the 5th I went looking for Leopard in the evening. I saw a lot of White tailed Mongoose, Gennets and then one Porcupine on Sambane close to Mfhlweni. The next morning there were 2 white tailed Mongoose on Gwala Gwala and they went onto Ndlovu highway. On the evening of the 20th there were 2 Hyeanas at the Log Cabin at a Wildebeest carcass. Truman has also seen a lot of Hyeanas around the Villa and on Loop road. On the morning of the 31st there was a Hyeana in the corner at board #11. The adult Wild Dog male was there as well. They sniffed each other and the other Wild Dogs came and chased the Hyeana away.
Other
On the afternoon of the 2nd I picked 2 guests up, took them to the Tented Camp and went back to South Gate to pick 4 other guests up for the Tents as well. I went back to Base and picked up 3 guests for the Lodge. I took all 9 these guests out on drive without a tracker. The Male Lion's tracks were on Mfhlweni Road and we found him crossing Main South. We saw him again at Mansendlovu Pan. The Lioness was there as well, but I didn't see the Cubs. We then found 4 Rhinos at Mathuna/Mkhaya. The Buffalos were at Mgankla Pan while we were having sundowners.
On the 3rd we found the Buffalos between Base and the fence and the Male Cheetah was at North Gate. He just lay next to the vehicle stretching and cleaning himself and the guests said we must've stolen him from a zoo. We found Lion tracks around Mzukhulu pan and found the 2 Phinda Females at Peter's Pan. Their stomachs were so full that they both looked pregnant. After drive I transferred the Tented Camp guests to the Lodge and they complained that the Tented Camp was a terrible place to stay in.
In the afternoon we were looking for the Elephants. We found the Male Lion at Mansendlovu and again on Nyosini at point of no return. Up in the North we found the Elephants between the fence and Peter's Pan, but we only saw the one big Bull, Mpatha. The rest of them were in the bushes. The next morning before drive I found Elephant tracks on the way to the Lodge and picked up my guests. We went back to where I saw the tracks and found the whole herd on Uphetshe road. They moved to the cutline and disappeared into the bushes. We went to have a look at the Wild Dog in the Boma and went to North Gate where we found the Male Cheetah again. He walked towards board #11 and lay down right next to us.
On the way to the gate to drop off 4 guests we saw 2 Leopard tortoises and a very small Rock Python. I fetched 2 other guests from the Lodge and dropped them off at South gate and dropped the other 3 guests off at Base Camp. On the afternoon of the 5th I had to pick up 2 Guests from South Gate and take them to the Lodge. On the afternoon of the 9th I had to pick up guests from South gate and take them to the Lodge.
On the afternoon of the 22nd I got two guests again and Winneth was my tracker. We saw some Oxpeckers fly up close to Mganka pan on the pipeline and when we drove in we found the Buffalos there. We sat there for a while and the guests couldn't really speak English so it was very quiet. We looked at a lot of general game and tried to explain a few things to the guests about the animals. On the way back we found the Male Lion walking on Gwala Gwala. He was sniffing around and scent marking just about every Guarri Bush next to the road. He walked to the junction with Uphetshe dam and went to sleep on the road.
The next morning we were looking for Elephants and Rhinos, but had to be back early. C2 and C4 (Rhinos) were on the Mathuna/Thambothi cutline. We also found B1 next to the cutline close to Thambothi road. We went looking for the Elephants in the South and found their tracks below Calimont. We found a young bull at the junction Main South/Nyosini and the rest of the herd had already crossed, but we couldn't go to look for them since we had to get back to the lodge. I dropped the guests at South gate after breakfast.
At lunch time on the 29th I picked 2 guests up at South gate. The one lady was ill so I offered to take them on drive when they wanted to go so that we could go back to the lodge if she started feeling worse. I took them out on drive the next morning at 07h00 and we were tracking the buffalos for quite a while from Mkhaya/Mathuna before we found them behind the Predator Bomas. On the way to the lodge the Wild Dogs were on the first corner on Phakama from the Off-loading ramp. They went onto the link road and slept there. I then went to drop my guests off.
We went out again in the afternoon looking for the Elephants, but they were in a big block close to the tented camp. We went back early, because it was getting cold. On the morning of the 31st the Male lion and a Phinda female were on Gwala Gwala at the usual place. I went to the Lodge to wake up the guests and took them to the Lions. Both Phinda females were there with the male now and they had killed a warthog in the bushes. We sat there for a very long time before we went back to the lodge. After breakfast I took them to South Gate and they departed.
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.
Elephant
On the morning of the 9th Thulani was on Broxburn. He was very relaxed and moved down towards South Pan. On the morning of the 22nd I found the whole herd with both the big bulls at the bottom Mfhlweni pan. The top Mfhlweni pan has dried up over the past month. They drank water and moved off into the bushes at the back of the pan towards loop Rd.
On the morning of the 25th Russell and I went to look for Mpatha to get some feacal samples. We saw Thulani at the junction Sambane/tented camp and the rest of the herd was there in the bushes as well. We drove around the block and about half an hour later we found them at the bottom Mfhlweni pan. All 13 the Elephants were there but we couldn't get a feacal sample from Mpatha. On the morning of the 26th I heard them in the block between the powerlines and Mathuna close to Thamboti rd.
Rhino
At 20h00 on the 5th B1 was on the road that goes to Dwang pan heading towards Gwala Gwala. On the 16th Truman saw C3 with a newborn calf and on the 17th he saw C1 with a newborn calf as well. On the morning of the 21st B2, C2 and C4 were next to the Twin Pan cutline close to the pan. B2's horn tip has also broken off. They were there for most of the morning and only got up to move into the sun. I left and found C1 close to the Thamboti powerlines. She was by herself, but she was very skittish so I'm guessing the calf was there somewhere.
That afternoon B2, C2 and C4 were still on the Twin Pan cutline. The next morning I saw them at the junction Gwala Gwala/ Uphetshe cutline. They were very relaxed and I left them when the guides showed up. On the 25th Truman let me know that C3's calf is a female. On the morning of the 26th I found C1 close to the Thamboti powerlines again. She was by herself, but standing in dense bushes so the calf could've been there somewhere.
Lion
On the morning of the 2nd the 2 Phinda Females were on Gwala Gwala close to Uphetshedam. They were both roaring right next to the vehicle. They got up and walked towards Phakama. I left them and found the Male with the other Female and 1 young one on Broxburn. The Male and female were fighting and the other young Lioness also showed up. She greeted her mom and they were all lying down. The Male crawled closer to them very slowly until he was right next to them, but the adult female wasn't very happy with him being there.
On the afternoon of the 4th the Lion Cubs were at Mansendlovu Pan by themselves. At 19h45 on the 5th The Male lion was at Uphetshe dam with the 2 phinda females and earlier in the afternoon the Female and Cubs were at the log cabin. On the afternoon of the 6th the Male and Phinda females were on Gwala Gwala at the Uphetshe cutline again. They slept most of the time and the one female stalked an impala, but they saw her and ran away. They were at the junction Dwang Pan Gwala Gwala in the afternoon of the 8th. The females were playing and stalking each other before they headed off to Dwang Pan. On the morning of the 9th the Male was at Lodgedam.
On the morning of the 12th the Lion and 2 Phinda Females were at the predator boma. They were charging the fence and the Wild Dog inside was barking at them. One of the lions got shocked and they moved away a bit. They watched the Dog running up and down for a little while and left after half an hour. On the morning of the 22nd I saw one of the cubs chase all 6 the Wild Dogs from behind the bottom Mfhlweni pan onto Mfhlweni rd. I drove to the back of the pan 10 minutes later and found the cub there with her mom and sister. One of the cubs got up and chased a Herd of Zebras. There was a lot of noise, but I don't think she caught any of them.
On the morning of the 26th I found the Lioness with the cubs under the powerlines by Thamboti rd. The one cub was a little sick. They moved into the bushes after a while. That same morning the male lion was on phakama close to the lodge when I had staff on the back of the cruiser. The guys were all new and they lay down flat in the back of the cruiser when I drove past the lion, but he didn't really care about us going past him. In the afternoon he was still there.
He was at the junction Gwala Gwala/ Uphetshe cutline on the afternoon of the 27th. About half an hour later I went there again and the Phinda females were there with him as well. They were there again the next morning. On the morning of the 29th the one Phinda female was on Gwala Gwala by herself, stalking some impalas close to Uphetshe dam. I think she caught one of them, because I went passed the dam later and her face and front leg was covered in blood. I sat there watching her clean herself for a while and then left. Later she was lying on the dam wall.
Leopard
On the afternoon of the 4th Brent and two guests saw a Male leopard at Lodgedam at 17h45. Winneth drove past Lodgedam with the same guests at 18h30 and they saw the Male Leopard there again. On the morning of the 5th Brent found tracks of a Female Leopard on Mfhlweni rd. On the 27th at 09h07 Alan and I saw a male leopard on Main South between Ndlovu Highway and Broxburn, but closer to Broxburn. We caught him off guard, because he was looking in the other direction when we came around the corner. When he saw us he ran into the bush.
Cheetah
On the morning of the 10th I found the Male Cheetah next to the fence on the hill between Marula rd and Ipiva rd. He was up there for a long time before he moved down towards Ipiva and chased after something in the bushes. When Truman showed up with his guests he was back on the road and went back up the hill. On the morning of the 11th Sassy was between North Gate and board #11. She walked up and down the fence and was still very skittish.
In the afternoon of the 26th the Male Cheetah was at the Villa waterhole. The Wild Dogs were there as well. They were barking at the Cheetah and he chased them a few times. He was drinking water while the Dogs were barking at him and they eventually left. After that he stayed at the water for quite a while, but jumped up when a grasshopper landed next to him. I sat there watching him for a very long time and he went to drink some more water. He slept close to the waterhole.
On the morning of the 28th I found Marica at North gate. The guard was there and she just walked past him. She was very relaxed with the vehicle being there as well. When I came back through the gate she was still there lying on one of the bumps on the road.
Wild Dog
On the morning of the 5th I spread the Male's feaces all around the block where the other Dogs were in, hoping that they would smell it and go look for him. On the morning of the 23rd one of the pups got out onto the D242. I had just dropped off my guests and Russell picked me up at South gate. We cut 3 big holes in the fence for her to go back in. The other Dogs were on the other side of the fence. It took us 2 hours to get her back into Thanda.
On the morning of the 30th the pack came down Phakama from the Lodge side and slept on the hill behind base camp. We played the whoo-call CD between them and the bomas and they went to the bomas 20 minutes later. We opened the gate to let the male out and all the dogs went inside. He came out after a while with the rest of the pack chasing after him. The pups were very excited to have a new dog in the area and didn't leave him alone for a second. They are still all together. Read wild dog report for more info.
General
On the 5th I went looking for Leopard in the evening. I saw a lot of White tailed Mongoose, Gennets and then one Porcupine on Sambane close to Mfhlweni. The next morning there were 2 white tailed Mongoose on Gwala Gwala and they went onto Ndlovu highway. On the evening of the 20th there were 2 Hyeanas at the Log Cabin at a Wildebeest carcass. Truman has also seen a lot of Hyeanas around the Villa and on Loop road. On the morning of the 31st there was a Hyeana in the corner at board #11. The adult Wild Dog male was there as well. They sniffed each other and the other Wild Dogs came and chased the Hyeana away.
Other
On the afternoon of the 2nd I picked 2 guests up, took them to the Tented Camp and went back to South Gate to pick 4 other guests up for the Tents as well. I went back to Base and picked up 3 guests for the Lodge. I took all 9 these guests out on drive without a tracker. The Male Lion's tracks were on Mfhlweni Road and we found him crossing Main South. We saw him again at Mansendlovu Pan. The Lioness was there as well, but I didn't see the Cubs. We then found 4 Rhinos at Mathuna/Mkhaya. The Buffalos were at Mgankla Pan while we were having sundowners.
On the 3rd we found the Buffalos between Base and the fence and the Male Cheetah was at North Gate. He just lay next to the vehicle stretching and cleaning himself and the guests said we must've stolen him from a zoo. We found Lion tracks around Mzukhulu pan and found the 2 Phinda Females at Peter's Pan. Their stomachs were so full that they both looked pregnant. After drive I transferred the Tented Camp guests to the Lodge and they complained that the Tented Camp was a terrible place to stay in.
In the afternoon we were looking for the Elephants. We found the Male Lion at Mansendlovu and again on Nyosini at point of no return. Up in the North we found the Elephants between the fence and Peter's Pan, but we only saw the one big Bull, Mpatha. The rest of them were in the bushes. The next morning before drive I found Elephant tracks on the way to the Lodge and picked up my guests. We went back to where I saw the tracks and found the whole herd on Uphetshe road. They moved to the cutline and disappeared into the bushes. We went to have a look at the Wild Dog in the Boma and went to North Gate where we found the Male Cheetah again. He walked towards board #11 and lay down right next to us.
On the way to the gate to drop off 4 guests we saw 2 Leopard tortoises and a very small Rock Python. I fetched 2 other guests from the Lodge and dropped them off at South gate and dropped the other 3 guests off at Base Camp. On the afternoon of the 5th I had to pick up 2 Guests from South Gate and take them to the Lodge. On the afternoon of the 9th I had to pick up guests from South gate and take them to the Lodge.
On the afternoon of the 22nd I got two guests again and Winneth was my tracker. We saw some Oxpeckers fly up close to Mganka pan on the pipeline and when we drove in we found the Buffalos there. We sat there for a while and the guests couldn't really speak English so it was very quiet. We looked at a lot of general game and tried to explain a few things to the guests about the animals. On the way back we found the Male Lion walking on Gwala Gwala. He was sniffing around and scent marking just about every Guarri Bush next to the road. He walked to the junction with Uphetshe dam and went to sleep on the road.
The next morning we were looking for Elephants and Rhinos, but had to be back early. C2 and C4 (Rhinos) were on the Mathuna/Thambothi cutline. We also found B1 next to the cutline close to Thambothi road. We went looking for the Elephants in the South and found their tracks below Calimont. We found a young bull at the junction Main South/Nyosini and the rest of the herd had already crossed, but we couldn't go to look for them since we had to get back to the lodge. I dropped the guests at South gate after breakfast.
At lunch time on the 29th I picked 2 guests up at South gate. The one lady was ill so I offered to take them on drive when they wanted to go so that we could go back to the lodge if she started feeling worse. I took them out on drive the next morning at 07h00 and we were tracking the buffalos for quite a while from Mkhaya/Mathuna before we found them behind the Predator Bomas. On the way to the lodge the Wild Dogs were on the first corner on Phakama from the Off-loading ramp. They went onto the link road and slept there. I then went to drop my guests off.
We went out again in the afternoon looking for the Elephants, but they were in a big block close to the tented camp. We went back early, because it was getting cold. On the morning of the 31st the Male lion and a Phinda female were on Gwala Gwala at the usual place. I went to the Lodge to wake up the guests and took them to the Lions. Both Phinda females were there with the male now and they had killed a warthog in the bushes. We sat there for a very long time before we went back to the lodge. After breakfast I took them to South Gate and they departed.
Prepared By
Mariana Venter