The weather is slowly turning, and the extreme heat of the African summer is beginning to subside. Temperatures are dropping, and game drive guests now require an extra layer of warmth when they set out into the wild in the mornings and evenings. There is a sense of relief among the human and animal participants of the safari world, and the proof is in the pudding – lions are less fatigued, and we’ve had some interesting interactions from Chobe and all the way down to Kruger!
Elephants have emerged in abundance, and our guests have watched them flock to the water and feed on the greenery with visible gratification. Birdlife is, as always, a spectrum of colour and singing calls in both Kruger and Botswana. After such an extraordinarily hot summer, it seemed impossible to imagine the bitingly cold winter mornings, and – let’s not get ahead of ourselves – winter is not yet here, but a cool breeze in the early evening is very welcome! Here is the Week in Pictures…
At Africa on Foot, the incredibly rare and unusual white lion became a feature on game drive as she and a Trilogy male lion, accompanied by a second lioness, ambled into the Klaserie. Both lionesses were in oestrus and the male was dutifully performing his role. A memory of Africa in the making! nThambo Tree Camp, sharing traverse with Africa on Foot, enjoyed the superb lion sighting equally, as well as some fantastic visions of vultures, elephants enjoying the renewed vegetation, and a hippo found returned to a recently filled dam.
Ezulwini River Lodge and Billy’s Lodge have received some magnificent lion action with the constantly dynamic Olifants West Pride. Numerous leopards have also paraded their spotted beauty for guests in the Balule Nature Reserve, and herds of every-sized elephant have plodded and tumbled across game paths en route to and from water.
At Umkumbe Safari Lodge, the presence of leopards is unsurprisingly constant. It’s been a fantastic week on all fronts, from the smallest of insects, to the big cats of the bush. A video of lion cubs trying to suckle from their tired and cranky mother was featured this week, while on the photographic front, we’ve appreciated some of the less dominant members of the safari bucket list. Take a look…
On the Botswana side of the border, things are just as dramatically beautiful as our prestigious Kruger Park. John Chase Safaris – a welcome new addition to the Sun Destinations portfolio – is taking the safari world by storm with their diverse, luxury mobile camping itineraries, spanning the country from Nxai Pan, to the Chobe River. This week, in Chobe: more lion activity, elephants galore (of course, this is Chobe after all), a spectacular sunset, and an up close experience with a spotted bush snake!
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