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July 2005 Dear Friends      The glorious weather has continued through most of the month of July leaving us in doubt as to whether winter will ever arrive. We do have a feeling, however, that it might still sneak up and bite us from behind. The temperature has reached the high 20’s most days, although we have had a little early taste of the August winds. The skies have been an intense blue with a beautiful clear light, giving a wonderful opportunity for keen photographers. Foreign guests have even been making use of the swimming pool to the amazement of us locals!      We have continued to have wonderful elephant viewing and earlier in the month, guests were able to sit amongst a breeding herd of around 80. They were very relaxed as they quietly moved on through an open area eating the soft bark from the round leaved teak. Several of the very young bulls tried to make a little show by flapping their ears and shaking their heads at the Land Rovers, even approaching to within touching distance of the trackers but their show of bravado was all just an act.

The Ximungwe Pride, with the good looking male, killed another old buffalo in the center of the property and fed off it for 2 days. The old male lion from the North obviously smelt the kill and came wandering down to investigate. The Ximungwe pride, including the male, put their tails between their legs and ran back to the southern side of Savanna’s property leaving the kill to the old male from the North to finish on his own. This is an indication that in the territorial dispute between the two males a few months ago, the old male is still more dominant. It was fascinating for the guests to see the Ximungwe Pride hunting impala and kudu early one evening. The 3 females had been separated from the male but he rapidly joined them when he thought a meal might be in the offing. The lionesses all spanned out to eventually encircle their prey but the herd of impala got wind of it and started to alarm call and the lionesses gave up. It seems that they will successfully hunt and catch their prey once in every four attempts.

	Recently on drive when Paddy and his guests were stopping for drinks, they heard a leopard calling near by. They quickly packed up and went in search of the elusive spotted cat. As they started off, a lion roared in the same vicinity as the leopard and, sure enough, as they came around the corner there was a big male lion lying under a fairly large marula tree. The big male leopard was perched at the top of this marula tree, looking nervously down on the lion that was in turn looking up at him.      This particular leopard was the one with the rather squashed crooked face. Many of you were up in arms last month that we could call a leopard ugly, but believe us when we say that about this leopard! Having considered his position and worked out that he could not climb so high, the lion eventually moved off and the leopard came rapidly down the tree and disappeared.
	The guests had wonderful viewing of two young male giraffes sparring. They were part of a herd of 7 down by one of the waterholes when they started their elegant giraffe “ballet”. There seems no better word to describe the grace with which they alternately gently swing and intertwine their necks. They carried on this gentle swaying motion for over an hour. In the early stages they only seemed to be playing at dominance but after a while it became very violent as they crashed their necks down on each other’s spines, the sound of bone cracking on bone making the onlookers wince at the pain. The larger of the giraffes began to get the upper hand by hooking his head around the hind leg of the other almost bringing him to the ground.      If this should occur, a giraffe is very unlikely to be able to get back on his feet again and death is almost certain. It was interesting to watch as one of the older males suddenly took note of the scene and stopped his browsing. He approached quietly as the battle was really heating up and with no obvious communication from him, the two parted. During this time a rhino and her small calf had come to the waterhole to drink. The baby had been very curious about the giraffe but they soon beat a hasty retreat.

	We have been having regular sightings of cheetah and it has almost been predictable that a cheetah would be seen on a Tuesday.      It became a standing joke amongst the rangers that if it was Tuesday, it must be cheetah day! This carried on for several weeks until the day changed to Thursday.      This all goes to show that there is no set pattern and cheetah are not aware of the days of the week!
	The migrant birds have started to return although it is a little early. The warm weather probably has a lot to do with this. So far we have seen wahlbergs eagles and red breasted and lesser-striped swallows. All the weavers are back and starting to get their breeding plumage.
	We celebrated two very happy weddings in the camp during the month, both wonderfully joyous occasions and we all felt very privileged to be included. The romance of the bush certainly worked its magic on these two couples, and a third guest who proposed to his girlfriend out in the bush on drive. She was taken delightfully by surprise and accepted! We wish them all a very happy future.      We are very pleased to welcome to our team, a new ranger, Geran, and his fiancé, Julia. Julia is a fully qualified beauty therapist and we look forward to her adding a whole new dimension to our Savanna team. Guests will be offered many beauty treatments, and massages to ease away the aches and pains from the off-road driving they are submitted too!      So we come to the end of another happy month at Savanna and look forward to many of you sharing the experience with us again soon.
	Warm Wishes      Paddy and the Savanna Team

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