Sabi sands, the sequel.

[The_Norwegian]

11 hours ago, xelas said:

Awesome photography, @The_Norwegian! Your posts/trip report might come in slowly, as long as they will be filled with those fantastic photos!

 

@xelas Thank you for your compliments, and also,, for the patience :-D There are more to come, i think tomorrow, pictures mostly ready, just didn`t want to post all at once, letting the readers catch their breath ;-)

[Hads]

@The_Norwegian what amazing photography. Top trip report as well thankyou.

[Peter Connan]

Awesome stuff!

[The_Norwegian]

@Hads@Peter Connan thank you very much, it`s appreciated very much! 

 

Here are the next installment :

 

By the time the lodgepersonell came knocking on the door for an early wakeup at 0500, I had already been up at least half an hour, the first morning it was by mistake that i set my alarm one hour early, the rest of the trip it was by pure joy of getting up before everyone else, making coffee in my room, stepping out on my porch with the view to the waterhole, just listening to the birds and animals, the smells and just the view of the first rays of sun in the morning. The gamedrives should really leave by this time if you ask me ;-) I was lucky enough to get a very nice room this year aslo, with aforementioned view of the lovweld and the waterhole. It used to be the spa-builiding that was transformed to a two room chalet, so i shared the bulding itself with a very nice man for the US, a doctor, he was rather impressed with my morning-routine. Well, I`m used to waking up early for 13 years, as a shiftworker and start 5 in the morning, so no reason to change my morning-schedule, right? and with no time-difference to speak of, it`s just nice to keep my usual habits for when i get back home :-) 

 

Well, after a couple of coffeecups, we were ready to head into the bush. Here are some of the creatures that welcomed us into their world :-) 

 

 

Then some ellies, these two young boys was measuring strenght and pushed eachother back and fortth, in and out of the thicket. 

 

No safari is complete without a few dozen pictures of impala ;-) 

 

 

The waterhole by the lodge proved very productive, most of the days the elephants kept pouring in, in all shapes and sizes. Well, hardly all shapes, but at least all sizes ;-) 

 

 

It`s always humbleing to spend time with rhinos, this one was more than happy to pose for us!

 

 

In between gamedrives, I had planned to spend a little time photographing birds by the infinitypool by the lodge itself, as the couple of first days, noone was using it, maybe people thought it was to hot to even lay by the pool? Well, a total of 1 day i was able to lay there with my camera, the rest of the days, birds of another kind decided to use the pool. But, i managed to get some ok shots in that one session. 

 

 

 

Afternoon, and out we headed again. You`ll have to excuse me for not remember in detail each drive now, i`m working on dates in my folders by this point ;-) Both, or rather two, of the leopardesses we spent time with my first trip to EP, Xidulu and Tiyani, both had their first litter of cubs, and by november they were roughly 10-11 months, and is actually getting their names these days! However, this afternoon we caught up with Xidulu`s cub, she was by herself this afternoon, looking as pretty as ever :-D 

 

 

We followed her around a little, until she settled on a termite mound, giving us some very nice poses! 

 

 

We then left her to herself, and headed off. Soon enough a male leopard was found on a territorial patrol not to far away, the cubs father, Hukumuri! We headed in the direction of him, but he was heading into a very difficult block to follow him, but somehow we were able to not loose him. Since last year when i saw him, he has lost sight in an eye, no one knows for sure what caused it, but the most likely reason is that he got into a fight with another male when he was apparently trying to expand his territory. They first thought the eye was completely gone, and it surely looked that way from pictures, but luckily, the eyeball was still in its socket when the wound healed. It`s remarkable how these animals are able to heal from pretty severe injuries! If he has any vision at all in that eye is anyones guess, but Hukumuri doesn`t seem to care, looking more like a streetfighter then ever ;-) 

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

Lovely shots from the infinity pool, and more great leopards!

 

I agree about an early start. I want to be in the bush by sunrise.

[Caracal]

I'm really taken with that Cape Glossy Starling? showering but they're all great photos!

[shazdwn]

Those lion shots - wow, just wow.  Can't wait for more

[The_Norwegian]

The next morning after the usual morning-routines, we set out into the reserve, a little chillier and overcast, my kind of weather really, and hopefully the animals were active longer in the morning as the african sun didn`t start to beat down upon the lovweld as soon as it was rising. Almost straight out of the gate, the gameviewer that left a couple of minutes before us, called in that Tiyani the female leopard and her cub was found just a few hundered meters away, on a nice, open clearing. Just was I was hoping for :-) Tiyani, my favourite leopard, gave birth to this cub just a few weeks after i went home last time, so it`s when writing this, about one year old. Tiyani, beeing fairly young herself, shares a playful and fantanstic bond with her youngster. Noone even knew she was pregnant, until she one day she was spotted with a tiny cub, carrying it in her mouth. And it`s no small feat as a first time mother raising a leopard to this stage in the wilderness. So far, so good! By now, passing one year old, the chance of the cubs survival increases significantly.  But i`m rambling, let`s get on with the pictures! 

 

Tiyani beeing stalked and attacked by her young one :-) The cub is btw now named, and is now known as "Ndzutini", wich in shangaan means "one who likes the shadows" :-) Beautiful name for a beautiful leopard! 

 

 

 

 

And a tasty drink of water after a long night! 

 

 

 

More play! This cub has a lot of energy, and has not a camerashy bone in her body! 

 

 

When you have a playful soul and bones made of rubber, there is no boundary for what you can get up to :-D 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This big three was to tempting not to bolt up into, and checking out the birdsnests! 

 

 

 

 

 

one of the tires on our gameviewer needed changing, so we stopped in a dry riverbed, and guess who sat on the bank watching us from 50 meters away :-D Here we were out of the car. She was very very coriuos until mama came and took her with her :-) 

 

 

We then left them to their own devices, and went along our way. Not long after we had came out of the dry riverbed, our ranger heard birds alarmcalling and went on foot to investigate, and before long he came running back and called for the other gameviewer to came to our position, not quiet sure what was going on. When they arrived, they went away on foot, and the other ranger, beeing a snake-expert, brought his snake-stick(if that`s the right name for that device?). They came back, with a bag, and out of the bag he pulled out this and put it in a little three for us so we could photograph it and he could educate us a little bit. Yes, that`s a black one ;-) What an unexpected and very cool experience! 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, this was not fully grown, not that it matters! 

 

However, this was ;-) 

 

 

No, i`m not holding the business-end, i leave that to the pro snakewrangler :-) A black mamba morning! This snake was not far away from the smaller one, and sure enough, he couldn`t resist steve irwin it, and let us get a closer look at it. It was of course released after a little while and went on its way into the bush. 

 

By this time it was time to start to head back to the lodge, i think this must have been enough excitement for one morning ;-) A fish eagle and a black and white egyptian goose as we headed back!

 

 

 

The afternoon drive this day was of the sort that typically comes after a drive where the action is non-stop, very quiet. Actually not much of anything to see, until the sun was almost setting, another car called in that they had located the other female in the area with cub, Xidulu. Xidulu had two cubs, but when they were a few months old, one of them were sadly killed by another female leopard. This cub is the one from the last installment, she is very beautiful, but she is, or at least was at this point, not as secure with cars around as tyanins cub who is just as relaxed as they come, and not shy at all. We caught up with them in a very very dense block, were they had a kill, and just as we found a position were we could get a decent view through the thicket, xidulu was just about to hoist the kill.

 

 

Xidulu came down again straight away, as her cub bolted up and started eating, out of our view. Xidulu however, came over and layed down right beside our car, so close that only a wide angle lens would get all of her in the frame, and not having with me my wide angle, i made the most of it with what i had :-) 

 

 

 

 

After a while, the cub came down, and they both went to relax on a termite mound, and just as we were about to leave, i managed to get a fairly decent backlit shot of the cub. (or at least i think so) 

 

 

 

Well, that was about it for this installment, hope you enjoy it! 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by The_Norwegian

[Zubbie15]

Wow, quite a day! Can't say I've come across many people who have held a mamba on safari! And two different mother leopards with cubs, very cool. 

[Peter Connan]

Magnificent day!

[mopsy]

Great day with leopards @The_Norwegian I stayed at Arathusa many moons ago, it looks like there still is no shortage of them in the area.

[The_Norwegian]

Thank you all :-) It was indeed a magnificent day! @mopsy definitely no shortage of leopards, it`s no doubt that sabi sands is the best area in the world for leopards. 
 

Next installment will come this weekend, if you`re not tired of seeing leopards, because there will be more :-) 

[Robjwilli]

Thanks for a great read and wonderful pictures! I’m visiting Elephant Plains for a couple of nights at the beginning of March so hopefully we will have some good experiences like you did.

[TravelMore]

On 1/3/2020 at 9:42 PM, Peter Connan said:

Lovely shots from the infinity pool, and more great leopards!

 

I agree about an early start. I want to be in the bush by sunrise.

I agree as well! Even though I come in with a 8 or 9 hour difference I'm up and outside before morning light, especially to listen .... if lucky to hear lions!

Great shots at the pool with the water drops!!

Edited January 19, 2020 by TravelMore

[TravelMore]

On 1/16/2020 at 1:17 PM, The_Norwegian said:

Thank you all :-) It was indeed a magnificent day! @mopsy definitely no shortage of leopards, it`s no doubt that sabi sands is the best area in the world for leopards. 
 

Next installment will come this weekend, if you`re not tired of seeing leopards, because there will be more :-) 

Never tired of leopards!  Does E.P. limit 6 guests per vehicle?

[chui71]

Amazing pictures. Sabi Sands always delivers. As I heard you called a snake expert I was sure it was my friend Darryn. Nice to see him in the pic. Do you think Can I forward it to him? 

[The_Norwegian]

On 4/27/2020 at 2:59 PM, chui71 said:

Amazing pictures. Sabi Sands always delivers. As I heard you called a snake expert I was sure it was my friend Darryn. Nice to see him in the pic. Do you think Can I forward it to him? 

Thank you! I`m sorry for beeing slow in my repsonses, time to get this thread rolling again, i have a lot of pictures left ;-) I believe Darryn already has these and many of the other pictures taken during this special morning :-) Just saw and responded to your thread @chui71, the leopard with her cub playing in the three and the others in that installment is the daughter and granddaughter of the female leopard you posted pictures of in your posting, if you didn`t know already :-)