Capturing The Wild

When one sets out on morning game drive there are very few things one expects as soon as one exits the gate of the lodge. This is something that you learn from experience as it often takes some time before finding the first few animals. This day was different though, keep reading to find out the connection between a leopard, two impala, a tree, two lions, a few hyenas and later two more leopards. After a particularly temperamental thunderstorm rolled through the area we woke to a fantastic blanket of near impenetrable mist. As rangers our immediate thought is, oh, this will be fun trying to spot anything, little did we know what was coming around the corner! I was the last of the three vehicles to set out that morning and as is custom began to pick the radio up in order to request an update if any at all, this would soon prove to not be necessary as upon looking up the runway, not sure what I was hoping to see through the white wall of mist, I noticed both of the other vehicle

Respect is something we are all taught from a young age. When I was growing up it was insisted that everyone receive the moniker of either uncle or aunt, regardless of prior acquaintance or relationship. In the bush respect is life. If you do not respect the land around you or its inhabitants then their trust is lost and you will find it very difficult to live where we do. A few days ago we were witness to a sighting that highlighted this perfectly. We set out on our morning game drive from Chitwa Chitwa Private Game Lodge with the intent of finding a leopard and decided to head into the western reaches of the reserve where we knew there to be a few individual residing. To our great joy little Tiani was found quite early on in the drive and so we joined those who found her in following her through drainage line and thick bush not expecting what happened next at all. Every leopard sighting is special but todays went the route of amazing at a speed akin to a famished che

Often the question arises when out with your guests “how can you do this every day?” The simple answer is, every day is different, every day is special. Last night was both special and different in many ways, the stars had aligned and it all just seemed to work. We had no idea what the bush had in store for us and little did we know it was going to be of such an amazing caliber. Our initial idea was to go back to where the Styx pride (3 females, 6 cubs) had been seen earlier that morning and this was where the magic started. Upon arrival to the area we were greeted to the most adorable sight of the four, one month old, cubs! Their cute little rounded faces buried in the soft stomach fur of their mother as they eagerly suckled from her swollen teats was accompanied by a chorus of soft exclamations from all present in the vehicle and followed by stunned silence punctuated with the occasional soft “Cute”, “Wow” and even “Amazing”. These soft utterances were not enough to truly de