All is well at Birkenhead House. We were delayed in London by three hours. Our VIP service did the trick on arrivial in JNB and we just made the plane to CPT with minutes to spare. Off to BH with much anticipation.

The sun was shining and nice weather predicted for all the days in the Cape Town area. Not everyone knew each other but it was apparent right away this was not going to take long for this group to bond. Lunch on the BH terrace looking at the ocean - a wonderful start.

The next morning most of us did the animal training farm. I really enjoyed that and Ken will be posting some pictures hopefully right after this post. They tell the story. We were able to pet a very friendly zebra, 15 month old lions, cheetahs and see so many other animals. This is a place that trains animals for movies. Very interesting. Paul and Maddy went ocean kyaking and said it was the best kyaking anywhere they had been in the world with dolphins swimming all around them.

The shark tour hit a cold day and it took a while for the sharks to come BUT they came back telling stories of a lot of funny episodes and some great pictures. Most of them got in the cage - brave souls! Those left behind took a short drive to see flamingos and visted and ate and ate and then ate some more! Mussells, Kingklip (wonderful South African fish) followed at dinner by more mussells and Kingkip (on request) and an absolutely fantastic rack of lamb (from an experts point of view).

So after three wonderful days a truly bonded group of friends are off to La Residence. We leave in a few hours I hope Ken gets a few pictures posted before we leave.

Photos from the Cornellskop Animal Training Farm:
















A young Caracal.

YAY!! I'm so glad to hear from Group 1!!! Thanks for the great pics Ken! Loved the report on BH, Ngaire!! If you have a moment to ask Paul and Maddy how wet and/or cold the kayaking was Alice and I would appreciate it. We have been trying to figure out what to wear.

The white ostrich is not an albino or he would have pink eyes. He was really beautiful. The zebra loved people and being patted. The cheetah started purring as soon as he was touched and purred the entire time. I guess he really likes all the attention. One of the lions was very relaxed the other lion called. Mojo was not as receptive. We did Not pat him. This was a fun experience.

Today was another gorgeous day for the drive over the mountain. The scenery is great in brilliant sunshine. We left at 11.00 am and arrived at La Residence about 12.30 am.to a wonderful lunch. I indulged in quail breast, carrot ginger soup and Kingklip with roast potatoes and vegetables.

Then the tour of the rooms, they are all fantastic. Catching up while the Internet is good and then drinks and dinner again.

Tomorrow Mala Mala and the first game drive, cannot wait.

Hoping Ken will get some more pictures posted shortly.

It looks like a standoff.


June wants in with the lions. Sheila is quite happy to keep her hands out of harms way. Which type are you?


The 3 seals at the Shark tour.


Ready to go.


This is what quad bikes coupled with a wine tour does to you.

These photos are great! I love the people pics, but oh those animals. Would love to know what it's like to pet a lion. Looks like it would be the same as petting my Golden Retriever....

Jim and MaryEllen, you make me smile! Having fun as always!

Lunch at Birkenhead House.


Lunch at La Residence.

Great pics. Glad to see so many familiar faces. Have a great time and see you soon!

what wonderful photos. Remind me again WHY we cancelled Zebra...oh yeh, Antarctica calling. We are envious. Thanks for such great reports and gorgeous photos !

Hope I get to post this internet not good. La res was great but should have spent one more day. This group was three nights at BH and one night at la res. easy flight to the bush.

Great first game drive. Elephants everywhere ,giraffe , great kudu, three rhinos,two leopards at dark along with a hippo out of the water along with other antelope. Looks like a good group of rangers.

Wonderfully fast dinner and we were all happy to get to our rooms and chill out.

Hope Internet will improve so we can post pictures

I understand how you're feeling, Marcie! We cancelled last year and I will always regret it! Just think how excited you'll be as your trip gets closer!

Ngaire, thanks for keeping us posted.....hanging on every detail.

Thanks for the commentary and photos. Trackers In Training School is back in session.

Cheers, Anne

Mala Mala:


Protecting her mother.


Large Male Kudu.




Blue Wildebeast.


Yellow Bill Horn Bill.


Wart Hog.


Beautiful Female Leopard.




The Ladies were Curious.


Saddle Bill Stork.

Beautiful, amazing photos, Ken! Thanks for posting them. WE CAN'T WAIT!

Great photos, as always Ken! Love that warthog!

Any of the same rangers there from last year?

We have all new rangers this year and they are very good. I did see James, he was driving a couple at Main Camp. The head ranger at Rattray's is Gordon.

Dueling Giraffes:


Three Boys Playing.






Notice the head between the legs.

Are those bird on the giraffe's neck? At first, I thought he had his mane braided.

They are birds and they are called Ox Peckers, and they eat parasites off of many animals.

Today we left Mala Mala. We had a terrific stay with great rangers. Three of the four rangers will be with us for the next group. I am in a rush so I am going to make this quick.
Sightings that we had during our stay that were great between all the vehicles:

Lots of leopard sightings, males, female with two big cubs.
Elephants galore including a teenager that gave a great display shaking his head and carrying on, plus lots of baby elephants.
We had trouble finding the lions but we were successful in the end.
Giraffe necking – Ken posted pictures it was incredible to watch as they were hitting each other and how far down their necks went. You need to study those pictures to see what is actually happening.
Rhino everywhere including small babies. PLUS a courting display I had never seen where they female and male face each other and stomp feet, shake their heads, and make a lot of noise.
A curious little rhino that came right up to the vehicle and mom followed. Just feet away it was really amazing. They were very calm.
Paul is a birder and he saw 70 new varieties of birds.
Lots of off road driving and knocking down trees.
The only animal we did not see but wanted to see was a hyena.
Overall a fantastic three days. Only problem is that it is HOT. Very odd for this time of year. I hope it cools down.
We are now at Singita with our first game drive coming up very soon.

I read on Mala Mala's website that cell phone are not allowed in public areas and on game drives. Are they strict about that? I was planning on bringing mine so that I could get a few photos for posting from my phone. We are not bringing laptops so cannot download photos from our cameras.

Here is the forecast for Skukuza. Looks like a hot one today!

[img:center][/img]

Kim - last year at Mala Mala they would not allow cell phones and specifically cell phone photography on game drives. They do this because evidently people uploading photos to Facebook, etc. has enabled poachers to locate rhinos based on location info embedded in the photos.

I wanted to take some iPhone shots of acacia trees, etc - I said I would turn off location data and not take any animal photos, but they still said no. I don't know about in the public areas - I am pretty sure that I took some lodge photos without any issues.

Thanks Leslie. Interesting. I just found this on another page on their website:


Hard to know which statements reflect their current policy --- either no photos from smart devices at all , or just not of rhinos. Either way, based on your experience last year, I won't plan on getting any photos with my phone. Best I can do for posting will be my old trick of using my phone to take a photo of my camera display! Neither of us have great cameras anyway. We're just going to watch and enjoy and then steal Ken's photos! Or Helen's... etc.

It is not really a problem this year. Many using I pads. Think you could use your phone with some discretion

Thanks, Ralph!!

Good that they have relaxed that rule - makes sense for the rhino issue, but so many people use phones for photos now.

Ken is like a paparazzi, in the right place ALL the time! Such beautiful pix!

We were asked not to take cell phones on our game drive at Mala Mala may be whether each ranger mentioned it or not. Ipads were definitely allowed many used them.

At Singita now. This camp has a pride of 41 lions with all ages. We saw them last year but they were only 23 then. It was a fantastic sighting. New males took over and now this is a huge pride. They knew where they were but could not find. So two trackers headed off into the bush loaded rifles in hand to find them. Unfortunately they trackers said they had headed into Kruger where we could not follow them. They go back and forth between Singita and Kruger they do not know the boundary line. Silly lions. Tomorrow some of us are going to head out earlier to give us more time in the early morning to track them.

During the lion search we had some nice sightings. Great scene with zebra, giraffe, warthogs, Impala. Eventually ken will post pictures. Yesterday one vehicle was charged by a big bull elephant in must. They were all new to safaris so that got their attention. Today right before we reached camp there he was walking down the road. You could smell him extremely well. No passing this big boy. So we had to wait until we could get to a more open area where we could go around. The herd of elephants knew he was coming and were trumpeting and obviously agitated. I am sure right now there is a lot of action going on with the herd. A bull in heat like this can really cause problems for the elephants

Wish us luck finding those Lions tomorrow.

More Mala Mala:




Big Male Rhino.


Female with baby confronts Male.


Two females with babies confront each other.


Baby Rhino comes very close to our Rover to investigate.

How is the weather? I am starting to pack!

Hi Rachel

It has been unseasonably warm. Day we arrived at Singita in the 90's. Today was good. Very light jacket which came off pretty quickly and tonight's drive back to the lodge did not even need that. Actually a perfect day probably 60 to 80 BUT this is very odd. Last year same time we had hot water bottles, fleece and jacket gloves and warm hats. So bring the warm stuff it could change very quickly.

Afternoon drive was great. Caesar is what we have decided to call our big elephant in must. This is probably the biggest elephant I have seen. His tusks are not that long and one had been broken but the tusks are so thick. He is huge. It may be hard to really understand how big he is from a picture.

So we started off and saw him very quickly. The ranger we had decided to go down closer and "pay a visit" to the mighty Ceasar. The ranger we had has worked with elephants for years

We sat for a while watching him and he ambled over closer. Started his I AM BIG AND POWERFUL ROUTINE. The ranger banged on his car and he backed up. Then he came again two or three times. Again the ranger says NO and banged on the car. When he came the last time the ranger banged and started the car and raced the engine. Ceasar stopped and showed his displeasure but then backed up and wandered off. The ranger was explained you have to be firm and loud and give him cause to back off, it a standoff situation. He really was in heavy must you can smell him and it was stinky. But I guess to a female elephant this is a good smell. It was exciting but not scary the ranger was in control. Ceasar was so big and beautiful and we were so close. Cannot wait to see Ken's pictures.

Then off lion hunting again. The Rangers knew where the lions were so we went to that area for a joint sundowners hoping to hear the lions so they could pinpoint their location. All was quiet. We loaded up to head back to the lodge and then the first vehicle saw the lions walking down the road with about 12 Cubs from 2 months old. The little ones were tiny. All the vehicles got a peek at the lions but it was dark and they did not want to use the lights much because of the little Cubs. Tomorrow we are leaving early to go right back to that spot and follow the tracks we should find them tomorrow in daylight.

Then we headed home and found a leopard walking down the road! Totally calm and she has small Cubs so that is on the agenda for tomorrow as well.

So a great afternoon, Ceasar, lions and leopards and high excitement for tomorrow.

Well the day did not disappoint. We were ON THE ROAD a little before 6.00am. At first no tracks in the area we saw them last night but the Rangers systematically fanned out from that point. Then we found some tracks as did another vehicle. That allowed them to pinpoint where they would probably be. It is truly amazing how they do this tracking. We found the lions close to the road.

What a sight. 12 Cubs all fairly young with some around 12 weeks old. There were three female lions with the Cubs. Included in the group was a three month old WHITE lion. Not an albino but a genetic strand that is rare but found most often in the timbavati area. I have always hoped to see a white lion in the wild when visiting kings camp or royal malewane. The ranger we had said it was the first time he had seen a white lion and he is a senior ranger. I was so thrilled even better than wild dogs.

The sighting was incredible. Cubs everywhere trying to climb trees, playing with mom and the other Cubs. While we were watching them the ranger in the other vehicle was waving like crazy. They had sent their tracker into the bush looking for the lions and he was walking right into the pride. We think the lions were looking at him as they were all alert looking in that direction, but the tracker had not spotted them. The ranger immediately left to rescue the tracker. The way these guides both Rangers and trackers walk into the bush knowing there are lions in the area always amazes me. This is how the lions are often found.

The lions started moving and the Cubs were so active. Frankly the scene cannot be described. For the first time ever I wished we had a video maybe someone else has one. Ken took 566 photos. Going to take him a while to deal with that many pictures. We had about 30 minutes with them and had to leave to let other vehicles into the sighting.

We headed to a beautiful lake with birds, hippos, and huge crocodiles. Two Egyptian geese were on a little island. We thought one was dead and the other one was pecking to get it back to life. There was zero movement on the "dead" bird. The Ranger said they were mating but we all thought no way it would lay that still if it was alive. Then suddenly they both flew off together. We decided she was playing dead hoping for an end to the action.

After a refreshing coffee break we started to slowly return to the lodge. On the way we saw a black backed jacket, plus many other animals. It was like grand central station at one point with animals everywhere.

Then if the morning had not been exciting enough we got a call of a leopard in the area that was hunting. Again the looking for tracks figuring out where the leopard could be. The found tracks and knew they had the leopard. We found a young female leopard that had just killed a big male Impala. It must have happened just a few minutes before we arrived. The leopard started eating at the rear of the impala and as soon as anything that had an odor was out she buried the evidence to protect the kill from behind detected. Then she dragged it around to hide it better and left, we were surprised she left. The ranger said she wanted to move off so if hyenas or lions came she would be far enough away to escape. The impala was too big to take up a tree she would have to open it up first and get out all the organs before she could take it up a tree. Perhaps she was too tired and wanted to rest as that takes a lot of energy. This was a different leopard than we saw last night.

Right at the lodge we saw a really large and dark giraffe. Probably pretty old and he did not move off at all we were really close.

Gobbling down some delicious eggs Benedict was a fitting end to a glorious morning. This afternoon we are going to try the lions again, check the impala carcass, and visit an active hyena den. I love being on safari each day is so different and exciting.

We have had three outstanding Rangers here so will be sorry to say goodbye the tomorrow as we leave for Royal Malewane.

By the way Zebra people it was cold this morning I had stopped taking my fleece and gloves. Big mistake thank goodness they had blankets. Weather can change on a dime and it is hot this afternoon. Big temperature changes

Omg, Ngaire! That tiny little white lion, how incredible! Fingers crossed that those of us in group 2 will have the same good luck. Packing today and leaving Monday, can't wait!
----------------
Helen

Packing now!

Last morning at Singita. Little cold again this morning I wore my zebra scarf and gloves.

Off we went at our standard time of 6.30 am. The leopard lost the kill to two hyenas. We were able to view the hyena very close to the vehicle and some had not yet seen hyena. The night before we went to a hyena den but the puppies just peeked out they were too young to go out and play.

The lions were found again and we were on our way to the lions when our tracker (with an incredible ability to spot game) saw two leopards together. Obviously mating leopards. Problem was the male was really kittish and ran away from the vehicle. The female just ignored the vehicle. This must have been a male leopard that came in from Kruger and not as used to the vehicle. We tracked the leopards and kept them in sight and another vehicle came and took over the sighting.

So while we were waiting for our turn with the lions we viewed a herd of elephants in the middle of a thicket of thorny trees. They looked quite different with only the top half of the elephant in view.

We got the call to move into the lions BUT at that moment they changed direction and headed off the property. Pesky leopards got in the way of our lion sighting. Normally I would take leopards over lions any day it was just the little white cub that was the attraction. That is the way safari is - sometimes nothing happening and then other times every thing at once.

On the way back we saw two very young giraffe the ranger estimated them to be about 2 months old. They were SO cute.

Fast eggs benedict and hugging everyone goodbye and we were off for our plane to Royal Malewane. As we approached the airstrip we saw Cape Buffalo all over the airstrip and the vehicles trying to clear the runway with not much success. So we ended up buzzing the runway that got their attention and they all ran off - circle around and next time we were sucessful in landing.

Cape Buffalo all over the place on the way to the lodge. The next group will arrive soon and then it is off to lunch, and then our first game drive at Royal Malewane.