Collected Moments of Survival

The question of course is how it should end?  Waking early today is really easy. The anticipation of even more bush action makes rising an absolute pleasure. However, the rain is back again. A gentle mist has settled over the Sabi Sands Reserve. Our smiling faces belie the obvious challenges of travelling on an open vehicle with rather sensitive camera gear. Using blankets and ponchos, we wrap everything up tightly and head out. This time we head out West of the Lodge and we are looking for a pride of Lionesses that have brand new cubs. A sudden shout from Geoffrey our tracker brings the vehicle to a stop. He points off to the right into a sea of long grass. We scour the bush desperately screwing up our eyes and only after he literally takes out his ruler and pointer can we see what it is that has him so excited. The tiniest tip of a Leopard’s ears. It is the mating couple. They are far from where they were last night. It is astounding that he managed to see this tin...

The divine brunch prepared by the Sorceress in the kitchens of Tree Camp at Londolozi goes down a treat. Then it’s off to our heavenly “chateau” – you can’t call the digs at Londolozi “rooms” – it is tantamount to an insult to the glorious luxury in which we are ensconced between the game drives.  After a quick spit and polish and a short 40 winks it is time to head off again. The rain has lifted slightly and although there is still cloud cover the quality of the light is encouraging. Decision made we head back to the Lion sighting of the morning. More likely than not, the Lions will have found the unfortunate Wildebeest as the Vultures had been gathering when we left the sighting earlier. From a distance we can already see the circling Vultures. As we near the sighting the presence of the birds of doom is overwhelming. They adorn every tree and bush while there is an ominous gathering taking place on the ground. The Wildebeest is no more and one of the coalition Lio...