Olifants River Private Game Reserve

Hi there, Everyone,

Monday 22 am, An absolutely beautiful morning, nice nip in the air, check out idube, then down to the causeway, along the river and pels drive, hundreds of guinea's, a troop of baboons and at the top of pels pass, a lone giraffe bull, up glacier valley, very appropriate name, along parallel clearing and at warthog find some impala, decide to go along the RWLR and then off along zozo hut, for the sable area, impala here and there, 3 zebra come into drink and when we go past sakekan nwana, find plenty more impala, wildebeest bull and another herd of 5 zebra, back to sable, for a cuppa, before moving onto rhino, down at the wallows another herd of 8 zebra, this time. more impala around rhino and we take the road to sand, more impala, then up to the 4 pylons and down to big and onto double, nothing at the 2 dams, but 3 large herds of impala, between them, we stop for breakfast at double and then up the cut line for the 4 pylons, another 2 large herds of impala, then through sunset, hide, impala, dotted about the place and 5 giraffe near hide, finally the road to the RWLR, through the tunnel, short cut, home.

This evening we decide to pop along to the sable area, see if we can find the cheetah, intended to be home just on dark, so just took a rechargeable spot we use off the deck, well on our way home, as we are about to cross, at vetsak onto warthog, in the grass, under that knobthorn, 2 lioness's are lying there, they are soon joined by a 3rd. these are the lioness with the cubs, we call it in, and the Ochse's, Anderson's, and Martin Botha & friends join us, now warthog plains was full of impala and we were sure that they would take one of them, some of the impala even started blowing, but they passed right through them, without taking one, and amongst all this 4 jackal were running around, also causing some confusion amongst the impala, well we lost the 3 lioness's, so while we were sitting at the warthog parking, from behind us a wildebeest calf appears, I mean calf, couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks old, runs right past us, with the 4 jackal following behind, well it goes back towards the palm, next thing a brief bleat and a lioness has killed it, the other 2 then appear, but they don't touch it, turns out one of the lion has come in and he's taken it from them, when we try to get closer, he picks it up and disappears into thicker bush along the palm, the lioness then sort of smell around, one wanders off north, anyway we call it a night and head for home, near idube, 2 hyena walking up the road and at the house a beautiful civet.

Tuesday 23 am, Beautiful morning, along to warthog, have a search for the lion, but no luck, meet up with Martin, while up at Geoff's table, he hears them calling some where between them and nkhonkoni, and we find tracks leading into the same area, so in that dry river system, below the dam. We continue our drive, as usual plenty of impala about, find a small herd of elephant on tamboti link, and a rhino on the 4 pylons road, east of rhino pan, then at the office crossing of the palm, 5 giraffe, and thats about the lot.

Wednesday 24 am, Clear morning, howling gale, we stay home.

Thursday 25 am, Another beautiful clear morning, dead still to start, but then the wind comes up, like yesterday, turns the drive miz, the usual impala everywhere but with this wind, all in tight herds, mostly out on the plains, the only other spots, the croc at double, took a s/a impala and is busy feeding on it, also a number of terrapin feeding off the carcass as well, then where the palm crosses the RWLR, a herd of 35 buffalo feeding near the road, and 5 giraffe, further up along the bank, home.

Friday 26 am, No drive this am, down to Hazyview, to pick up our Son & the grand kids,Tae & Dylan, they are here for the next 10 days, fantastic.

Saturday 27 am, People winter has arrived big time, only 5 deg"s on our deck, freezing, we don't leave till much later, around 8 or so, pretty quiet, impala of course, a pair of rhino along the palm, near the wallows, a lion is called in between big and double, but by the time we get there, he has moved off, quite a long way in, we only see jackal and plenty of vultures, we find 4 more jackal along zozo hut road and then 2 more rhino, on the little loop opposite ians pan, giraffe and warthog on warthog pan, we continue up the airstrip and then down glacier, pels pass, and then along the river, impala, baboon, home.

Sunday 28 am, Another very cold morning, about to set off on our drive, tell you about it in the next drive. You all take care now.

Roars & Trumpets, N&M.....