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

The month of May has ended as it began with beautiful clear skies. In the last few days we reached the phase of our full moon and the guests were able to witness this huge orange ball going down in the east when they came up to the deck for early morning coffee and then subsequently another huge orange ball rising in the west as the sun came up when they set off in the Land Rovers. It was the epitome of a stunning African morning.

We have had one heavy downpour with thunder and sheet lightening which took us all a little by surprise but it only interrupted one evening in our newly built boma and we have already spent many wonderful dinners around the fire under the stars. We have made great use of the Mabarula Youth in Action Choir, introduced by our barman, Oriel. Their harmony has been a joy and so wonderfully effective by the firelight in the boma. We are very proud of them and the constant improvements that they are making to their singing and feel very happy to know that we can give a little support to the community.

We had a brief visit from the buffalo and the four hundred strong herd came in for a couple of days before, unfortunately, the Ravenscourt Pride of lions killed a calf in front of Savanna Camp. The buffalo then left our area and have not been seen since. However, we do get regular sightings of groups of bachelors that are resident around the Sand River area. Lion viewing has continued to be exceptional, with daily sightings of the different prides with their cubs.

We are a little worried about the Sand River Pride as the two males that we mentioned last month have disappeared and the old male that was seen on the eastern side of our properties is now venturing deeper and deeper into the Sand River Pride’s territory. He has already killed two of the eleven cubs. The females seemed to have positioned themselves right on our western boundary and are hiding their cubs in the tall reeds of the Sand River. We can only hope that he does not find them. The Ximungwe Pride are still doing well and there are still 12 cubs remaining. The Ravenscourt Pride have also managed to keep their litters in tact. This seems to be a very effective efficient Pride and these cubs have given us many hours of exceptional viewing.

There seem to be changes happening within our leopard territorial boundaries. We have two new males that have moved into the Southern section and are putting the Wallingford male’s dominancy under threat. Both these males are fairly shy and are not giving us very good viewing. The Ottawa male, who had been pushed off by the Wallingford male has now made a comeback and he is also putting the Wallingford male’s territory under threat from the Eastern side of our property. There was an amazing incident a few days ago where the Ottawa male killed a warthog in front of our vehicles. The Wallingford male then came to challenge him and a skirmish took place and to crown it all a lioness arrived on the scene, chased both leopards off and stole the kill! This all happened so quickly, leaving our guests awestruck at the exceptional sighting that they had just witnessed.

Mkwela continues to look after her cub. She has had an altercation with another male leopard or a lioness in the past weeks and has a nasty scratch on her tail and one of her hind legs. However, this does not seem to be worrying her in any way and as we write, she and her cub are feeding on a young kudu. Shangwe is still in the process of making her cubs independent. She has been seen with her young female cub recently but she has been showing a lot of aggression towards her that is an indication that it is time for the cub to leave. One of Mkwela’s cubs from her previous litter, known as Mumbiri, seems to be making a play for her mother’s territory. We have seen her on a regular basis in Mkwela’s territory.

We still have phenomenal elephant viewing and the breeding herds are abundant in our area at present. What is nice to see is that these herds seem to be incredibly relaxed and are tolerating the vehicles. We have had some very amusing incidents where elephant have gone to drink and bathe at the dam in the valley below the camp and come face to face with the resident hippo, which has taken great exception to elephant at his watering hole. It has then become a battle of wills as to who has right of way. This hippo does the strangest things. Apart from opening his mouth and showing his teeth to the elephant, he also does barrel rolls in the water and at times the only thing that you can see are his little stubby toes protruding from the water. We are not quite sure how this performance would discourage the elephant from drinking at his waterhole but he seems to think it a great deterrent!

As the leaves fall off the trees, we are seeing more and more sightings of bush babies. This is very encouraging, as we believe that the runaway fire of 1998 destroyed a very large number of the bush babies in this area. We are also seeing a lot more of the night animals such as white tailed mongoose, servals and honey badgers.

We have been seeing an unusual amount of snakes recently and this is probably due to the exceptionally warm weather that we have been having. The snakes have probably been out trying to get a last good meal before they go into hibernation. We have seen a number of large pythons. One female was caught the other day. She was about 4 ½ meters long and exceptionally thin. We only hope that she has a good meal before she goes into hibernation, as we fear that without it she may not last the winter.

It is the start of the honeymoon season for overseas guests and we feel privileged to share the Savanna experience with so many happy couples. We look forward to seeing them and many more of you in the not too distant future.

Warm Wishes
Paddy and the Savanna Team


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	May 2005 Dear All The month of May has ended as it began with beautiful clear skies. In the last few days we reached the phase of our full moon and the guests were able to witness this huge orange ball going down in the east when they came up to the deck for early morning coffee and then subsequently another huge orange ball rising in the west as the sun came up when they set off in the Land Rovers. It was the epitome of a stunning African morning. We have had one heavy downpour with thunder and sheet lightening which took us all a little by surprise but it only interrupted one evening in our newly built boma and we have already spent many wonderful dinners around the fire under the stars. We have made great use of the Mabarula Youth in Action Choir, introduced by our barman, Oriel. Their harmony has been a joy and so wonderfully effective by the firelight in the boma. We are very proud of them and the constant improvements that they are making to their singing and feel very happy to know that we can give a little support to the community. We had a brief visit from the buffalo and the four hundred strong herd came in for a couple of days before, unfortunately, the Ravenscourt Pride of lions killed a calf in front of Savanna Camp. The buffalo then left our area and have not been seen since. However, we do get regular sightings of groups of bachelors that are resident around the Sand River area. Lion viewing has continued to be exceptional, with daily sightings of the different prides with their cubs. We are a little worried about the Sand River Pride as the two males that we mentioned last month have disappeared and the old male that was seen on the eastern side of our properties is now venturing deeper and deeper into the Sand River Pride’s territory. He has already killed two of the eleven cubs. The females seemed to have positioned themselves right on our western boundary and are hiding their cubs in the tall reeds of the Sand River. We can only hope that he does not find them. The Ximungwe Pride are still doing well and there are still 12 cubs remaining. The Ravenscourt Pride have also managed to keep their litters in tact. This seems to be a very effective efficient Pride and these cubs have given us many hours of exceptional viewing.

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