Todays highlight was the hyena den. We went at the right time, mom was gone and the three baby hyenas were out and playing. Absolutely adorable. A picture will follow. We saw a large journey of giraffe, lots of elephants, buffallo and just missed seeing honey badgers.

The lions with the cubs were seen tonight moving deeper into Rattrays land. They have been on the border of Rattrays and a neighboring lodge. So looking forward to tomorrows drive.

This morning we had a ranger that likes to track. There was activity with the wild dogs so we went to see if we could find them. Found tracks but no dogs. Fewer animals in this area, but we did see a nice group of zebra.

Then he found leopard tracks. He said the leopard in this area has a cub. It was past the time to be back but he went off road looking for the leopards. Huge payoff on the leopard!!

We saw a leopard (either a male or the mother of the cub on a rock) Terrain was pretty tough but he did not give up. Then we saw the cub and followed it until it went into a tree. What a fantasic sighting. The 8 month old cub kept going up and down the tree branches, constantly changing position. Probably the best sighting we have ever had of a leopard cub. I will post some iphone pictures but Kens pictures will be better.

Tonight's game drives were all good. Everyone had a good night.

Todays highlights were as follows:

A lion who had cubs went hunting a leopard that was in the area. He found her and the lion stole the impala kill and the leopard escaped up a tree. Then the lion dragged the kill back to her 3 cubs and then the rangers were able to find the cubs. We were able to go as the last vehicle so could spend a nice amount of time watching them chasing and playing with each other. They also tried to eat some of the impala kill.

We had two sets of giraffes necking. That is how the male giraffes fight by slaming the other giraffe with its neck - hence the phrase, necking. Amazing to watch and you can hear the slam when the giraffes hit each other.

Two large male lions with three females, unfortunately they were sleeping.

A baby rhino and baby elephant interacting. The rhino was just curious, the elephant was all upset. Flapping his ears, picked up a branch and shook it at the rhino, making a ton of noise. Then the elephant finally backed up as I guess he was scared of this little rhino.

Our chef at Rattrays is wonderful. Super flexible with serving the meals as we like them. Delicious food and makes a gluten, lactose free and no onion options available for all the food, Whether it is pastry, salads and main courses. Sam's the Man is what we are saying!!

Pictures will follow tomorrow.

Last full day at Rattrays. It was a very misty day and it was quite beautiful. I burned off fairly quickly.

The morning started within a few minutes one of the vehicles found a leopard. We joined them in the sighting and stayed with that leopard for over two hours. This was the favorite leopard for our ranger and it was like she wanted us to follow her. She was the leopard that lost her impala kill the night before. Our ranger told us she is young and spends more time hunting birds and smaller animals but is still capable of killiing an impala.

She was so entertaining going up and down a tree, posing on logs, and all the time stalking for birds or small prey. At one time she sprung quite high 3 times and pounced on what was below but achieve success. Absolutely fun watching her and could not believe how long we had stayed with her.

We stopped for some coffee and saw the mother and baby rhino in front of us but we had the whole coffee set up in place. After we finished the coffee we could not find her. But we did see vultures in a tree so investigated but no kill.

The time at Rattrays had just flown by and tomorrow we are off to Madikwe our last lodge.








Ranger Peter - Joe & Janice - Chris & Linda



Kingfisher

Water Buck

Fish Eagle

Leaving Mala Mala was very interesting. Not sure how many giraffe were there but at least 15 all around the airstrip. So the rangers had to chase them off the runway. They were on both sides. Plane was delayed by about 25 minutes. The giraffes kept moving around. Just as the plane was on final approach a giraffe appeared and started crossing the runway. It got off the runway just in time.

Food here has been really good. Had a fantastic rack of lamb last night. Very cold here, this morning was COLD.


Report from last night and this morning.

Last night
By the time we arrived and had lunch we left late for our game drive. The hunt for the Cheetah with cubs was not successful. The we had a Super Highlight. We saw an Aard Wolf! Never seen one well before, just a glimpse at Tswalu in the dark. They look like a small tiger. Orange coat with stripes. The ranger said it had been 5 years since he saw an Aard Wolf. We followed him for quite a while. Pictures will follow.

This morning.
We went searching for the Wild Dogs. No luck. Then we went searching for two male Cheetah. No luck. Then the call came in they had found the female Cheetah and her three cubs. We drove as fast as we could and arrived in time to see the Cheetahs on a termite mound. Theubs. little ones ran away but returned. We got great pictures.

The we went to have coffee with the whole group. On the way back again we saw the Cheetah and the cubs. We let the others know and we followed them to another termite mound and they posed for us again.

They found the dogs late in the morning. So our rangers dropped us off for breakfast and went to track the dogs and see if they could find them so hopefully we will see dogs today!

Pictures will follow.

The Aardwolf


Black Back Jackal.

Kori bustard

Cheetah.

Cheetah with cubs





Our watering hole outside our room at Madikwe Hills.

Evening Game drive, on 6/13/23.

The Brown Hyena is the rarest Hyena. Found in very few places in South Africa they are around in Madikwe where we are right now. We went by a Hyena den and had a great sighting. Two babies hyena were present. One quite a bit bigger. The smaller one stayed with us for a little while and then retreated into theen. The larger hyena walked around a lot before disappearing in thick brush. The other vehicles saw the mother as she returned to the den.

Saw lots of animals on the way to a wonderful sundowner where there was a fire “that did not smoke” a lookout where you could have a great view, all kinds of liquor it was like a huge bar and lot of things to eat. The chairs were arranged in a semi-circle and I did a little event for those that were having birthdays this month.

Morning Game drive on 6/14/23 morning

We started off looking for the wild dogs. They are here but we cannot track then down. Word is the alpha female gave birth to puppies yesterday. I asked about lions and two males had been found. The drive was fantastic. Red roads, while roads and black roads. A volcanic hill that was all red rocks. Beautiful scenery in this area of the reserve. It took us a while to find them and on the way we went over a dirt soccer field. That was a surprise. We found the two males not in their prime yet ,about 3 years old. Still big and good-sized mains. The lions are Kalahari lions in Madikwe. All very large. Basically sleeping but head up at times.

Then on leaving elephants were making a racket and we saw they were upset by a black rhino. These black rhinos are very hard to see, usually in the thickets where you just get a glimpse of them. An aggressive rhino not like the gentle white rhino. He was in a clearing, very close to us just off the road. Then he moved away from the elephants and stopped behind us in the road and posed. Then he trotted to the other side of the road and started slowly moving towards us. Stopped probably about 30 feet away. Lots of cameras clicking away. Then turned and went into the thicket. Best black rhino sighting probably never see one that close again.

Then we went to the largest watering hole in the reserve. It was so special. About 30 zebras excited to get to the water, little ones included. Some waded into the water to drink. Two Cape Buffalo, wildebeest, impalas a hive to activity. Loved this sighting and I am sure elephant would have shown up if we had waited but we were already late for breakfast.

Amazingly the other vehicles also saw different black rhino. So hard to see it was just a black rhino morning.

Evening Drive 6/14/23 – Our final safari drive - We were all hoping to see the dogs.

Again we started off looking for dogs. It seemed like we would never see them so we asked to see some more the lions one of the other vehicles had seen.

So off we went. HUGE lions, the male had a stunning dark mane, the adult female lions were huge as well. Seven lions in total. They were sleeping but now and then they raised their heads and moved.

Fun thing was a warthog getting in its burrow for the night. He was pretty big and they go in backwards. It took quite a while for him to wiggle into the burrow like squeezing something into suitcase you don’t think will fit. We had some nice elephant encounters.

FINALLY we got the word that the DOGS were coming down the hill. We flew as fast as we could to get there just in time for the first dog to arrive. This dog was followed by one more dog. Only the two dogs seemed to be coming. They were hunting. One dog would go into the bush to flush something out to the second dog who waiting. Team work for sure. Unfortunately they went into a thick area and we could not follow. However, we were all thrilled to have finally seen them.

At the hotel in JNB now and saying goodbye to everyone was so sad. Good news is that we will be seeing most of them in the near future so that really made it easier.

Ken will post some pictures, probably before we leave JNB

We were busy in JNB. Visited with Sandy and Denny. Then dinner with my contact in South Africa. In the morning we had breakfast and then packed up. Lori and Richard arrived and we visited with them. Nancy caught us just as we were going to the airport. So no time for pictures.

We arrived in Doha at around 12.00 am. Boarded the 2.00 am flight to DFW and sat on the plane for Dallas for an hour. A maintenance issue. Then we had vacate the plane with all our belongings. They said for business class to go to the business lounge and pointed for the direction to go. There were about six lounges. No idea which lounge so we went back to the gate and got the name of the lounge and a stewardess walked us to the right lounge. So here we sit now 4.00 am.

On the departure board for our flight number shows departure at 7.00 am. So hopefully we go then, 5 hour delay. Not bad during the day but after an 8 hour flight with arrival at midnight it is a long time. We seldom have flight issues like this so I guess we were due to experience something like this.