CIES SAFARI - Day 1
Seeing that the guests have been to Madikwe Game Reserve and in particular to Mateya Safari Lodge before we thought it a good idea to start the safari off by heading to the southern part of the reserve and spending a bit of time in the vicinity of the local water hole, an area the guest really enjoyed from their previous visit and little did we know that we would be in this area again 2 days later for a sighting of a life time. As we arrived at the pan we found this bull elephant having a ball of a time, using his tusks to loosen the soil around the water and creating in our minds a nice mess of things but for him this was heaven, using the mud to roll around and pack himself with! Later moving from the mud hole to some cleaner water, first by the looks of thing just enjoying himself by spraying himself and everything around him with water and eventually settling for a drink. We spend the better part of an hour with him, watching him as he went about his business which included him being in his element in the mud to drinking and then enjoying, I am sure a welcome mouth full to eat after all the energy spend loosening and playing in the mud!
What we didn’t know was that the afternoon later would be known to us as “Day of Reflection”, as there was another bull elephant and a lone giraffe making there way down to the perfectly still water for a drink, treating us to an amazing sight of reflections.
When they all finished drinking we in turn went off searching for a suitable spot for our sundowners. Finding a nice open clearing, I was later to reflect on the wise choice of area we chose! As soon as we stopped and scanned the area for any signs of local wildlife, deciding that this was indeed the perfect sundowner spot, as I started unpacking the wines and snacks I heard my tracker behind me give off a giggle and as I looked up, there he was, obviously not satisfied with the drink he just had, the bull elephant thought it good to come and join us for a glass of wine! Luckily the bull changed direction and let us be, wandering of into the sunset with us watching in awe as he disappeared into the bush as quietly as he arrived!
CIES SAFARI - Day 2
This was the day meant for finding lions! We heard them roaring through out the night and I had a very good idea of the area they were to be found in, or so I thought! Heading directly to this area we found their tracks, one male and a female walking down the road, the tracks were fresh, no signs of insects walking across the tracks, no grass patterns and no loose grains of sand on top of the imprints! I can still remember saying“They just made their way down the road, chances are very good that we will find them shortly!” or NOT!
An hour later we were still in hot pursuit, getting out of the vehicle every so often to double check the tracks, then, out of the blue, that dreaded call come in over the radio, one of the other rangers have found them, now-where close to where we were searching, 10 miles in the opposite direction! To this day I am convinced that the lions got to a road and jumped across it without leaving as much as a hair imprint! Extremely embarrassed I turned to the guests and explained the situation to them, we decided, instead of racing to the lions, rather to continue on our own and see what else was about.
Every heard the saying, “Early bird catches the worm?”. This Yellow-billed Hornbill might just have to disagree! He was sitting in the middle of the road, eyeing out a colony of red ants. A while later we watched him as he started picking them up one by one and throwing the ant into the air in order for him to get them down his throat. Was an amazing sighting as he allowed myself and my guest to get out of the vehicle, lay flat down on the ground not more than 5 meters from him and did he pose for photos, never mind the ants in our pants!!!
CIES SAFARI - Day 3
We were extremely lucky to have this Crimson-breasted shrike join us at our coffee break the next morning, even more so because he was so relaxed with us being there. Seemed to be the safari to lay down flat on the ground in order to get that low level photo.
That afternoon we had a very memorable drive in sore for us. Finding this mating male and female lion in the south of the reserve early afternoon, spending some time with them and later moving on to head back to the same waterhole we were at a couple of days before. On the way there we managed to find two more lionesses! We could immediately see that they were on the prowl, frowning, ears pulled back, pronounced shoulder blades, tails low to the ground and freezing every now and again to sniff the scent on the ever so slight breeze. We followed then off-road, at a distance so not to give their position away to prey and also as not to interfere with the hunt!
Then, all of a sudden, out of now-where, it was “All hands to Battle Stations”! The females took of with the speed of white lighting, with me following them, trying to keep up, my tracker holding on for dear life, guests bouncing up and down, holding cameras at the ready, as I was trying to navigate between tree stumps, aardvark holes and over Dolomite rocks! The females stopped, their bodies tense with concentration, a fixed stare into the distance on something which we couldn’t see. This is not the normal behavior for lions when on the hunt, racing of then stopping for no reason. We were to be witnesses to something else, something not a lot of people have been fortunate to see. They took of again and headed directly for a clump of trees, one female stopping at the base of a tree, looking up, the other moving passed the first female at high speed, off into a thicket of bush.
As we turned our attention back to the first female at the base of a tree, we followed her gaze up into the high branches and there it was, a half eaten impala dangling down from on of the branches! The females must have smelled the kill when we first saw them and as soon as they were close, the leopard made a hasty retreat, we never saw the leopard. One of the females climbed up the tree, got hold of the kill and, well, fell about 30 yards to the ground, not the best tree climbers of all the cats, but the end result was worth the effort! 
CIES SAFARI - Day 4
A quick update, just can’t resist, on the Brown Hyena cubs. They are doing extremely well, up to their normal playfulness and already starting to display the territorial pasting behavior we all know so well of hyenas.
AFTERNOON AT A WATERHOLE
Field guides are a strange breed of people! What do we do when we not guiding safaris? Well, we go out into the bush on our own safari, to enjoy the bush and maybe to see or hear a bird that you have been looking for or in my own case go after that photo that I had in mind for quite some time.
Rather than drive around looking for animals I decided to go to one of the waterholes in the reserve, set up my camera equipment and wait to see who will be coming in for a drink and do some bird photography. While waiting, there is always something to do, bird watching or catching up on some ideas and think of new angles to make that normal photo look interesting. The waiting didn’t last long! After setting everything up and settling down for what I thought was going to be a long wait, the bush delivered! A giraffe pop up over the horizon and started making her way over to the waterhole, stopping every so often and checking the surroundings to make sure no predators were in sight. Predators are not normally a huge problem for them but all the same to stay out of the way of a lion on the prowl, giraffe stand the chance of falling and breaking a leg, not in the good way as so often referred to, when running from a lion.
Eventually getting to the water, starting to drink. While she was drinking a few white rhino, zebra, wildebeest and a herd of elephant also thought it a good idea to come in for a drink. It turned out to be a busy afternoon and the original plan of bird photography took a back seat for the time being.
After the welcome sight of all the visitors to the waterhole I eventually turned my attention back to the main mission of the afternoon, bird photography!
MALE SOUTH AFRICAN SHELDUCK
FEMALE SOUTH AFRICAN SHELDUCK
EGYPTIAN GOOSE
RED-KNOBBED COOT
