The morning drive started on a high note when first to be found was 4 Rhino.....we spent some time with them as they offered us great photographic opportunities with the sunrise just behind them. General game was in abundance with great sightings of Blue Wildebeest and Impala. On driving though a crossing we moving along the incline we came across an angry miserable Elephant bull. I looked and could see that he was in full musth and this was the reason for his behavior, he was coming straight at us with fury in his walk. My tracker shouted "reverse reverse he is coming". I put my vehicle into reverse and started reversing but I knew that the drainage line was right behind me... there is no way I'm going to go through in reverse but my tracker said you have no choice. So I reversed and the elephant was about 15 - 20 meters away from me and he was going to do damage. But I just carried on reversing through the drainage line back to the water hole... man that was a close call. All my tracker could say was "one wrong move there and we would have had some fun". We then stopped for a coffee break and then slowly started making our way back to the lodge to enjoy breakfast.

The morning weather started off a little fresh and I knew that a rhino such a huge animal can not hide from me.  So we made our way to the western side to see what we could spot.   Driving around enjoying the bird life and the fresh air and knowing that today would bring me some good fortune... and indeed it did.   We came across five Wild Dogs lying down enjoying the early morning sun it is always wonderful to come across such magnificent creatures.  While I was discussing the inn's and out's of a wild dog, they all stood up and darted off into the thick bush.  Thomas my tracker was pointing out go right go left go right weaving through the dense vegetation trying to keep up with the dogs. Eventually we spotted them again and to our astonishment found them ripping a baby Impala apart, it was a matter of seconds and the five dogs were ripping the impala into five different pieces, and all this happening right next to us. WOW!!!.   The impala was devoured in minutes and with the guest all excited and amazed we decided to stop for a coffee break and ponder on what we had just witnessed.  After the coffee break guess who we bumped into again??? Mbilu (Leopard) lying in a tree having a morning nap, we spent a while with her and she offered us great photographic opportunities.  General game was in abundance with great sightings of Blue Wildebeest, Impala and Zebra we slowly started making our way back to the lodge to enjoy breakfast.

It was overcast this morning so it was a very pleasant start to the morning game drive.  We followed up on the Lions of last night but unfortunately they had moved off and we were unfortunately unable to find them.  We drove along the firebreak road and found two Little Bee Eaters perched on a twig not far off the road.   Further on we found two old Buffalo bulls that had been wallowing in a waterhole as they were still very wet.  General game was in abundance, but we slowly started moving west.   We stopped and enjoyed our coffee at the rocks, the Starlings were around and did not refuse the offer of a piece of rusk they. While enjoying our coffee the call came over the radio that Mbilu (Leopard) had been seen at big dam, we were not far so we made our way there, and to our amazement found her playing with a round leaf teak and having fun.  Suddenly a Hyena came out the bush and went straight at Mbilu but she quickly got up and was ready to defend herself.  Growling at the hyena made him think twice about moving closer.  That gave her enough time to get up a tree and out of harms way. Realizing he could not get her, he disappeared into the direction he had come from, a few minutes after the Hyena had moved off she came down the tree again and made herself comfortable in the shade, she offered us great photographic opportunities, we then slowly started making our way back to the lodge.  On our way back we saw a Verreaux's Eagle Owl sitting in a large shady tree but he took off and swooped straight over our heads.

On our way out the lodge Norman found Lion tracks so we started following them.  We called it in over the radio and the other lodges started following up on the tracks as well, tracks were going in various directions but this just made us more determined to find them.  Then the call came on the radio that the Lions had been found, we slowly made our way towards them. We found them lying in the cool sand in the middle of the road, we spent sometime with them before they picked up their noses smelling something in the air.  They stood up and walked off with one female leading and the cubs following just behind her.  And then to our excitement the leading female caught a Scrub hare which was not enough for one, there was a tussle between two of the females and the one that caught it managed to get away with her kill.   They eventually moved on and we left them be to see what else the morning had to offer.  We drove down the one of the winding roads when Norman the tracker spotted a Leopard face sticking out of a patch of grass, on closer inspection we found it to be Mbilu resting in the grass.  Eventually the sun moved onto her resting area so she got up and started looking for a new spot, she then lay down in the shade of our vehicle offering us great photographic opportunities.  We spent the rest of the drive enjoying this sighting before finally making our way back to the lodge to enjoy breakfast.

The morning started out with a bang, with us finding an Elephant bull in musth on our open area and 3 Jackal pups playing next to them.  The one pup gave the Elephants a stare down but soon turned and ran.   We tried to relocate the windmill pride of Lions and found the tracks at the back of the lodge, and followed the tracks for almost 90 minutes when we saw the worst sight in the world the tracks crossing into the Kruger Park this really was an anticlimax.  General game was in abundance with great sightings of Waterbuck, Impala, Zebra, Giraffe and Duiker.  We stopped at big dam were the Hippos once again gave us a remarkable display.  On finishing our coffee we slowly started making our way back to the lodge to enjoy our breakfast.

The rain had cooled down our surroundings and refreshed the bush.  Even though it was raining steadily the game viewing stayed really good as we encountered a large breeding herd of Buffalo on Gowrie main that was slowly mobile in a southerly direction probable towards a large water source in the area.  The general game density was also wonderfully high with large numbers of Giraffe being particularly wonderful, always a favourite amongst the guests. We stopped for a nice warm cup of coffee at big dam with the Hippos, and were treated to a spectacle of Aquatic bird life.   Salayexe was next up and the setting could not have been better lying atop a termite mound surveying her surroundings. It was just too good and even in what was now increasingly heavy rainfall the cameras came out and the shutter fired rapidly.   We left her be and started to make our way home when on Safari driveway we were held up by another massive herd of Buffalo, slowing our progress almost to a complete halt.  Once through the buffalo jam we made our way east and home.  With no one expecting it on the final turn in the road before the open clearing which is Nkorho open lay the Windmill Pride of lions, what a wonderful surprise to round off the drive, the three four year old males look more majestic every time we see them and one in particular has really come into his own, with what is now almost a full mane.

We had a nice rain downfall during the night making it a nice cool morning. The rain had washed all the tracks clear giving us a new clean sweep of tracks this morning. And did that help as the trackers headed out to open the gate of the lodge that keeps the Elephant out they found the Styx tracks heading around the front of the lodge. We followed the tracks to find the Styx all lying on the north eastern side of Kaakol.  Since this morning was cooler they were still moving around giving us nice walk bys and looking at us with those yellow eyes.  They unfortunately eventually moved into some thick bush and we were unable to follow further.  We left the area and followed up on the Vultures that we had previously seen but unfortunately only found one White Back Vulture.   On our way west an update came in that Mafufanjane (male Leopard) had been found so we slowly started making our way in that direction, on the way we found a magnificent journey of Giraffe slowly grazing on the leaves of a knob thorn tree.   The Leopard had unfortunately moved into some thick bushes and we were unable to follow.  All the game still seemed to be hiding from the rain of last night as the sightings were very slow this morning.  We slowly started making our way back to the lodge to enjoy a hearty breakfast.

THE LIONS ARE BACK was the first thought that went through our minds when we found a baby wildebeest running around alone looking and calling for his mom. When the guests got onto the vehicle we started looking for tracks and had not gone far before we found our first set of tracks going west so we blocked around and found tracks heading east again.  It started getting interesting when one of the guides found tracks heading north and they looked rather on the fresh side you could almost see the steam coming from the tracks, so fresh that 5 seconds later he called in that he had found the Styx north of Nkorho.  Since we were in the area and on first one to call in tracks we got 2^nd vehicle into the sighting.  The adult females were all lying west of a waterhole and the cubs came down for a little bit of a drink.  It was fantastic viewing them again.  We stayed with them for some time and even just before closing down we headed back to view them once again. Some of the guest had tears running of happiness since it was a life long dream to see a lion.   Since we were still on the hunt for Rhino it had become time to look for Londoz rhino bull in the west. As we crossed over into the western section there was no update that would have helped us on the rhino situation. Mafufanyane (male Leopard) and some Elephants were doing the round but we had to dig deep and go into over drive looking for the Rhino.  After scratching around and with no luck we decided to go view Mafufanjane as we were approaching his lock in some serious bush one of the guides called in that they found Londoz rhino bull on A-main.  He was just feeding not really interested in us; we spent some time with him as it was a breath taking sighting viewing this masterpiece feeding.  We left him to enjoy a sundown drink at big dam viewing Hippos and Egyptian Geese having a full go at each other. Two males beating each other up it was really interesting sighting.  I have never seen a sighting like this. They started out fighting in the tree and fell into the water were it continued. At one stage it looked like one wanted to drown the other one. This was a breathtaking coffee break but then it was time to pack up and head back to the lodge, we once again stopped at the Styx pride before closing down.