One morning, after leaving the lodge with the plan of finding fresh white rhino tracks for us to follow and hopefully locate the owner, we hadn’t progressed very far before our plans were put on hold. Just by the old hyena den on West Valley Road that leads from the lodge there was a breeding herd of buffalo (Syncerus caffer) on one side of the road, and on the opposite side of the road, lying alert under the magnificent mountain acacias (Brachystegia tamerandoides) were the younger members of the Chiredzi River Pride of lions (Panthera leo).

Swifts and swallows are both well-known birds in southern Africa. These two families of birds are often confused due to their similar body structures and mannerisms. They are both highly manoeuvrable birds, with streamlined bodies, often with a forked tail, small beaks, short legs that are unsuitable for walking and relatively long wings.

One of the activities we offer is a full day trip to our southern neighbour – the Gonarezhou National Park. It is a massive area covering in excess of 5 000 square kilometres. ‘Gonarezhou’ means ‘place of many elephants’ and some of the largest-tusked elephants in Africa may be found here. We invariably stop at Chilojo Cliffs for lunch, where a 13 kilometre sandstone rampart, of different coloured rock strata, rises 200 metres above the floodplain of the Runde River.

We had an action-packed afternoon with a breeding herd of about 30 elephants, north of Sosiji. A little calf had wandered off from his mom, and found himself on the wrong side of the road as we came along. Full of cheek and bravado he stood in the middle of the track, flapped his ears and swooshed his trunk at us. His mother and aunts materialised seemingly out of nowhere, and quickly closed ranks around him.

As we left the lodge at dawn we heard lions calling, so dashed off in that direction. We found them near the airstrip in a mopane thicket, finishing off an impala carcass that we suspect they’d stolen from a leopard. As they left the thicket and walked into pools of light we enjoyed amazing viewing and photo shoots of all 12 lions, including two large males, females and juvenile cubs. Seeing them bathed in early morning sunlight diffused by morning mist was spectacular!

The morning drives are often the most rewarding. A recent one that springs to mind was when we saw four of the Big Five in two hours. The many sightings included a pride of nine lions watching a herd of about one hundred Cape buffalo, two elephant bulls feeding near the airstrip and a mother…

On the afternoon of the 16th, the five were found where they were resting in an open clearing, enjoying the last warming rays of the winter sun. As the golden light started to fall, the cats started to become more active. Big yawns, stretches and clawing of trees ensued, and with that, a black-backed jackal spotted the cats.

After much doubt and concern as to the migrations arrival on the concession, 21st June was the day they arrived. This year has seen their arrival delayed by 1 month and this is due to the noticeable rains Tanzania has received this year. With their arrival, our predator sightings have been fantastic, with many kills being seen by our guests. In particular, the Butamtam and Nyasarori prides have been gorging themselves on wildebeest which pour into the area.

We had a great morning drive with half the morning being heavily fogged out, giving us a wonderful mystical bush adventure feeling. Our guests enjoyed some awesome photoshoots of various animals in the fog such as kudu, eland, impala and, my favourite, a hippo bull thrashing around in the spooky-looking waters of Sosigi Dam, where he tried to get a hammerkop bird, that was using him like a taxi, off his head.

One morning, after leaving the lodge with the plan of finding fresh white rhino tracks for us to follow and hopefully locate the owner, we hadn’t progressed very far before our plans were put on hold. Just by the old hyena den on West Valley Road that leads from the lodge there was a breeding herd of buffalo (Syncerus caffer) on one side of the road, and on the opposite side of the road, lying alert under the magnificent mountain acacias (Brachystegia tamerandoides) were the younger members of the Chiredzi River Pride of lions (Panthera leo).

Swifts and swallows are both well-known birds in southern Africa. These two families of birds are often confused due to their similar body structures and mannerisms. They are both highly manoeuvrable birds, with streamlined bodies, often with a forked tail, small beaks, short legs that are unsuitable for walking and relatively long wings.

This month we have had a total of 46 different elephant sightings. Towards the end of the month has really picked up with more and more breeding herds utilizing the area.

We had an action-packed day, but the highlight was a breeding herd of about 30 elephants north of Sosigi Dam.

Ambling down the aisle of a cathedral mopane forest came an elephant, the sunlight throwing gold onto its grey hide. We stopped a good distance away, and the leader kept coming, followed by the rest of the herd. They approached within three metres of the vehicle’s bonnet, and then stood there considering their options. We daren’t have moved as the engine noise might have unsettled them, and there were tall trees flanking us.

The Kruger National Park is a geological wonderland. Some of the oldest rocks in the world can be seen in this iconic game reserve. A geological map of the Kruger shows that the main rock types are organised into broad bands, oriented in an approximately north-south direction. The park can therefore be basically divided into the older granitic rocks (estimated to be between 3.5 – 2.5 billion years old) on the western side of the reserve and the basaltic rocks (estimated to be around 250 million years old) on the east.

One of the activities we offer is a full day trip to our southern neighbour – the Gonarezhou National Park. It is a massive area covering in excess of 5 000 square kilometres. ‘Gonarezhou’ means ‘place of many elephants’ and some of the largest-tusked elephants in Africa may be found here. We invariably stop at Chilojo Cliffs for lunch, where a 13 kilometre sandstone rampart, of different coloured rock strata, rises 200 metres above the floodplain of the Runde River.