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March has been a month amazing game viewing combined with very changeable weather. We have had a few heavy downpours but not enough to fill up our dams. This has, however, kept our grass green and has brought a new flush onto our clearings which has drawn in the grazing species. Cheetah Flats, the large grassy area not far from the Lodge has reminded us at times of the Serengeti. On one occasion there were 3 different herds of zebra, 2 different herds of wildebeest, 2 breeding herds of elephant, a herd of 600 buffalo, numerous warthog and a count of 26 different rhino! In my 25 years in the Sabi Sands, I have never seen concentrations of game like this. It made it very hard to leave Savanna property during these game drives. On one particular drive 37 rhino, in different groups, were seen on our property. This is a phenomenal amount when you think that most other countries in Africa have very few rhino at all. It is encouraging that our rhino populations are so high and hopefully the powers that be will learn to distribute to areas that can sustain some of our overflow.
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As the days get shorter and the nights a little longer, all our migratory birds are starting to move North. These include the European Barn Swallows that have gathered in huge flocks before they make their long journey back to Europe to breed.
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The numerous herds of elephant continue to grace us with their majestic presence. The herds that are regularly in the Sabi Sands have become so relaxed with the Land Rovers that it gives us viewing probably unsurpassed in Africa. With these herds there seems to have been a baby boom and we have delighted in sitting amongst them very quietly watching the antics of the young.
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The five Mpogo, the coalition of dominant male lions, made a brief visit to our area earlier this month. It was wonderful to see them again and it made us realize what an impact they make to our game viewing experience. This brief visit was obviously a territorial sortie, insuring that area was still in tact. The Ximungwe Pride have been moving their territorial boundaries further north and are now infringing on the Sand River Pride territory. As yet no clashes have taken place, but this could happen at any time. The Ximungwe Pride killed a buffalo earlier this month which was quite some feat as they are very inexperienced when it comes to killing larger game. The Selala Pride have been conspicuous by their absence and have only made one brief visit to our area this month. The big male that is not part of the coalition got out of the reserve by digging under the fence this month and had to be coaxed back and finally returned into the Reserve at 3 oclock in the morning. The Sand River Pride continues to thrive and has provided us with the core of our viewing this month. They have spent a lot of their time along the Sand River where the early morning and evening light have provided us with some magnificent photo opportunities. These cubs are now growing up very quickly.
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The Sand River Pride has spent a lot of time right in the North feeding off a giraffe that died of natural causes. We were a little concerned a week ago as one of the smaller cubs of the Sand River Pride went missing for 2 days. However on the third day, the cub reappeared and we are still not sure where it had been.
The Ximungwe Pride has been doing their usual trick this month of moving up and down the fence line where they trapped wildebeest against the fence. They have learned that this is an easy way of catching their prey. |
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This month has been an incredible month for leopard viewing. As we have been discussing for the last few Newsletters, Mkwela has finally left her cub and as always happens the cub is battling a bit without the support of her mother. We are sure she will make it through eventually. Mkwela and the cub have met up once and Mkwela showed a lot of aggression towards her to show her that there was no longer the bond there. Mambiri has also featured a lot this month and she too is starting to leave her cub for longer periods even though it is only 15 months old. She left the cub for 6 days in one area which provided us with fantastic viewing. The cub, funnily enough, did not get any thinner so it is obvious that it is catching smaller prey for itself.
Two days ago when Mambiri was last seen she was limping badly. This is an old injury that she got when she was a cub. We just hope that she will be alright. The Wallingford male provided us with the most exciting kill right in front of our Land Rovers. He killed a large fully grown warthog sow and what was interesting was the way he used the body of the sow to protect himself from the attack from a second adult warthog. After a few minutes of stabbing the other warthog in her attempt to reach Wally, she decided that discretion part of valour and made good her escape. The worst part about this is that a warthog is one of the most difficult animals to suffocate and it took the big leopard over 20 minutes to finally kill his prey which left our guests in a slight state of shock!
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The good news we have this month is that Shangwe, one of our female leopards, has got cubs again. We watched her and the 3 new cubs, about 5 – 6 weeks, playing on a rock in the middle of the Sand River. It is always gives such a wonderful uplifting feeling to see these big cats with their tiny offspring. |
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It has been fantastic having the big buffalo herds on our property this month. They have been camped on our clearings that benefited from the small amount of rain and are still green. It has been an exceptionally good year for their calving and over 60% of the buffalo cows have calves at foot.
It is with great sadness that we have said goodbye to Emily, who has been our Executive chef for 2 years. She has done a wonderful job in raising the standard of catering at Savanna and helping us to achieve our 5*. We will miss her as part of our team. We wish her the best of luck with her future and know we will all keep in touch. On the same note we are very happy to welcome into our close knit family, Daniel who is a chef from Johannesburg and we feel will bring a different flair and dimension to our kitchen.
We are very proud to have learned that Savanna has been nominated a Gold Achiever in the 2008 AA Travel Guide and American Express Award Programme. The nomination is based on research carried out with the travel trade in South and the UK.
Autumn is now drawing in and our summer coming to a close. We look forward to the start a new season where the weather is cooler but the days are usually bright and hope to see many of you coming back to enjoy so many special experiences with us.
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