Shareholders Guido and Nancy were at the Reserve in March and were – as you can read here – very lucky again with many fantastic animal sightings.
Here is their story:
“The first thing we noticed upon arrival was how green the Reserve still was, even though we had not had much rain this year. We saw a lot of snake tracks and actual we did see three black mambas, a thrilling experience! During our days we encountered most of our rhinos across the Reserve. One gently walked out of the bush during our sundowner drinks. Our guide Lucky moved us slowly behind the game drive vehicle, so we would be safe. It doesn’t get much better, than having a drink in the company of such a magnificent animal.
There was so much else to see and do during our stay. Just to name a few things: the wild dogs. And lots of crocodiles lying in the sun at the Hippo Pool, but also one at Tholo Dam, which surprised us, so far away from the river. It wasn’t even a small one, approximately 1,5 m!
Also, Lucky found a leopard, hiding in a tree from the wild dogs, at Cabbage Dam. The next morning, we went back there to check on the leopard, but another surprise came along: a big male lion was seen close to where we were. We found him and Lucky put the car in the perfect position for some beautiful pictures.
The list of sightings is still much longer: we saw saddle-billed storks at Mogorosi, always one of our favourite spots for a sundowner. We found a lot of marula fruit (and beat the monkeys and elephants to them) and our Chef Gofa made us some delicious marula jam.
On one of our last evening drives, we had lots of rain! We were completely soaked, but for our beloved Reserve it was a blessing and well needed.”
Photos and story: Guido and Nancy van Toorenburg