•    The week started with the Shinzele male leopard in the heart of his new territory, just north of the Mabrak drainage line. We followed him through some thick stuff, before he settled down to rest after quite a grooming session.

•    A single hippo bull decided to lie in the shallow waters of Piwa Pan one morning. This pan is not deep enough for him to submerge, so it allowed us some great viewing at close proximity. I am sure that he did not stay there for the whole day, and as soon as it got really warm, he would have moved to some deeper water.

•    This week has been pretty quiet with regard giraffe viewing, with us having to drive to specific areas to find these amazing creatures. We were therefore very fortunate to have a herd of 6 at Shonalee clearing, right out in the open.

•    A very skittish male leopard, which we very seldom see, was found this week on our concession. He is named Ndlevane, which means ‘ears’ as he has small peculiarly shaped ears. We do not know much about him, but he is not very comfortable around the vehicles. He had a kill in some thickets in the Mabrak drainage line, and after giving a few snarls at us, came charging out at the vehicle, stopping only a meter from the front wheel! He hastily retreated to the thickets, after which we decided not to push him and leave him alone! Fortunately later, we found the Shinzele male again lying in a huge Jackalberry tree on the banks of the Sand River. In contrast to Ndlevane, he was so relaxed with the vehicle, that he hardly opened his eyes for us, only once standing up to change positions.

•    The male cheetah remained on our concession this week, and we were very privileged to see him stalk some impala near Hlabankunzi dam. When he got to within striking distance, he dashed off chasing the impala, disappearing into some thickets. After 10 minutes of searching, Paddy eventually found him with an adult female impala kill, which he had already started eating, for fear of losing it to another predator. The next morning we discovered that he had in fact lost the kill to one of the Mapogo coalition who had been with the Ximungwe pride not too far south of where the cheetah had made the kill. A few days later, the cheetah appeared again on the clearings just off Little Serengeti and for a short while seemed interested in hunting some adult waterbuck bulls. He seemed to decide that this was not a good idea, and lay down again in the shade, where he rested for the remainder of the afternoon.

•    Toward the end of the week, he pitched up again in the south on the large open clearings of Savanna, where we watched him for two days, before he headed east off our concession. During these few days, he gave us some perfect displays, lying in the classic cheetah pose on top of a termite mound, surveying the savanna.

•    The large herd of buffalo has been very prominent this week. We have had numerous sightings of the herd, and it is wonderful at this time of the year when there are a large number of very young calves in the herd. We had a very interesting sighting when the large herd came to drink at Lion Pan, when it seemed that two cows had somehow got their calves switched! The one cow was very upset, realising that the calf with her was not her own, and was searching frantically for her calf. The second female seemed to have just given birth, and had probably not formed a proper connection with her calf yet, and did not seem as bothered with the older calf following her! In the end, however, they did find the correct calves, and made the swap, after which everyone was very happy!

•    The wild dog sightings have continued this week with them roaming around Savanna’s part of the concession. As is usual with these animals, they very seldom remained still, and we have given some of our guests quite a workout on the back of the land rovers while trying to stay with the pack! On one occasion, after having a quick drink at Windmill Mackenzie, they took off east in such a rush, that they were lost for quite some time! They were found again later coming for another drink, having clearly made a kill and finished it within about 25 minutes!

•    Some great news is that Tlangisa has returned to the south after last week’s foray north, where we hope she will take over Mambiri’s territory. She was found near the southern end of Mackenzie Airstrip, trying to hunt some impala, but without success.

•    We have not seen much of Hlabankunzi or her remaining cub this week. Tracks of her and the cub were found where it was presumed she took the cub to a kill, but the block she disappeared into was very thick, and she was not found. On Saturday, she was found near Windmill Kruger, looking in very good condition. We followed her until after dark, hoping she would do some hunting, but she decided to lie down again for another rest.

•    On Sunday, we had fantastic viewing of Metsi, which started in the morning with her posing beautifully in a marula tree! That afternoon, we followed her tracks all the way to west of Magodi Pan, where we spotted one of her 11 month old cubs in the open clearing. It was attempting to stalk some impala, which had seen her a long time before and were alarm calling. It returned to its original spot, where we found the second cub, and were treated to some wonderful viewing of the two of them chasing each other and playing in the open clearings! To top it all, Metsi returned and joined in all the chasing and playing, before eventually leading them south of Mackenzie Camp and in to a thick drainage system where we no longer could follow.

•    We finally had a good view of the Ximungwe female with the tip of her tail missing and her 8 week old cub. She and the female with the two older cubs had an impala kill in the Mabrak just north of Skwenga dam. We only saw the one cub though, which is fantastically relaxed with the mother, and gave us wonderful viewing. We are not sure what happened to the second cub, but hopefully it was just resting in some thick bush with a full belly.

•    The bird viewing has been very good this week, and we had good sightings of the saddle-billed stork and a very co-operative spotted eagle-owl, which posed for a long time before flying off, allowing us to get some good photographs.