Savanna Private Game Reserve for safari accommdation in South Africa in Sabi Sands

The month of June has continued like May with really stunning weather, clear skies and crisp cold mornings. We have only suffered a couple of days of cloudiness when a cold front moved through but this was short lived. Although we are grateful for such wonderful weather, the lack of real winter could be a problem later in the season. It is not unusual after such mild weather for a drought to set in. The bush is, however, still looking lush and thick in places after unusual winter rains. The common spike thorn tree is flowering, this normally happens in spring and the marulas, which generally drop their fruit in January, are dropping their fruit as we write. This is almost totally unheard of.

We had a visit from three of the Ravens Court lionesses recently, when they walked up the grassy area between the back of the lodge and the railway line, stalking a female warthog and her two offspring. That particular day, one of the lionesses gave away their presence too early and the warthogs made a quick getaway. Not to be defeated, the lionesses returned the next day to take out one of the young. This was quite a sorry sight as the baby warthog hardly made a mouthful between the three of them. It was interesting to watch as two of the lionesses with their jaws firmly clamped to their prey were unable to eat for fear of losing out to the other one. This battle of wills continued for a good half hour while the third lioness quietly watched on. It only took a momentary loss of concentration while the two lionesses took an aggressive swipe at each other and the third one moved in and stole the kill.

The guests had amazing viewing after the Ximungwe Pride had killed a buffalo, which had become separated from the big herd. The big male lion had already had his fill by the time the rangers arrived on the scene. There were initially four lionesses with six cubs. They were then joined by another two lionesses from the same pride and a further six cubs. At one stage there were nineteen all feeding together. It was extraordinary to see at what an early age lions become aggressive and the snarling and viciousness shown between young and old. One of the cubs was injured in the feeding frenzy and it is believed that its hip was dislocated. Unfortunately, this cub has disappeared and we believe it to be dead. This feast went on for several days. From the beginning a multitude of white backed and hooded vultures took up their positions in the surrounding trees waiting for pickings but soon became bored until only a patient few were left.

The two territorial lions that operate in our area finally met up and clashed. The older male from the North with his greater experience seemingly got the better of the younger better looking male from the South. He has ended up with his first scars, which have finally given his handsome face a bit of character. However, both lions have now made sure that they keep within their territorial boundaries and are quite content to roar at each other from a distance.

One of the most enjoyable sightings was a very relaxed breeding herd of elephants with a calf probably only hours old when it was first found. The mother still had blood on her front legs and the calf was taking very shaky steps. As this age, baby elephants have no control of their trunks. It was wonderful to see how the whole herd rally round and help look after the newborn. At times, it looked as if its legs would crumple and it was determined to lie down, but the mother or one of the others would nudge it gently along by using a trunk behind its back legs or under its chin. We have also had frequent viewing of small herds visiting our own water hole.

We have a number of new male leopards in the area. The two new males in the South are amongst the ugliest leopards that we have ever seen. One of them has a face that looks like it has been squashed by a bus, and a kink in its tail. The other has a huge dewlap indicating that he is an older male, and a drooping eye that is constantly weeping. Neither of these males is very relaxed and we are not able to view them in the day, but our guests were fortunate enough to see one of them killing a scrub hare right in front of the Land Rover. Maybe we are rather biased because of our handsome Wallingford male. Mkwela, the female leopard, went missing for nearly two weeks and we are not sure where she has been but it is good to have her back and we are seeing her again on a regular basis.

At Savanna we have had the most wonderful sightings of giraffe, in numbers of up to fourteen in a group. The herd of four hundred buffalo have been coming and going on a regular basis and are back on our property at this moment. It was a nice sight to see a very large rhino bull come into the herd of buffalo, congregated around a small and very muddy waterhole, and proceed to wallow while they totally ignored him and, seemingly oblivious, continued drinking from the stagnant pool. We seem to be having a baby rhino boom and have been seeing a lot of very young.

During July we have several weddings at Savanna. The above photo with our ranger, Shaune and tracker Nordick has been given the title “Honeymoon Express”! We very much look forward to these happy occasions and any other that you may wish to celebrate here. Please do not forget send any special, different or amusing photos that you have taken to Christa at christa@mweb.co.za for our website and not more than 1 megabyte in size please.

Warm Wishes
Paddy and the Savanna Team


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	June 2005 Dear All The month of June has continued like May with really stunning weather, clear skies and crisp cold mornings. We have only suffered a couple of days of cloudiness when a cold front moved through but this was short lived. Although we are grateful for such wonderful weather, the lack of real winter could be a problem later in the season. It is not unusual after such mild weather for a drought to set in. The bush is, however, still looking lush and thick in places after unusual winter rains. The common spike thorn tree is flowering, this normally happens in spring and the marulas, which generally drop their fruit in January, are dropping their fruit as we write. This is almost totally unheard of. We had a visit from three of the Ravens Court lionesses recently, when they walked up the grassy area between the back of the lodge and the railway line, stalking a female warthog and her two offspring. That particular day, one of the lionesses gave away their presence too early and the warthogs made a quick getaway. Not to be defeated, the lionesses returned the next day to take out one of the young. This was quite a sorry sight as the baby warthog hardly made a mouthful between the three of them. It was interesting to watch as two of the lionesses with their jaws firmly clamped to their prey were unable to eat for fear of losing out to the other one. This battle of wills continued for a good half hour while the third lioness quietly watched on. It only took a momentary loss of concentration while the two lionesses took an aggressive swipe at each other and the third one moved in and stole the kill.

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