So wonderful to be back on safari.

We arrived at a new lodge called TANDA TULA.
I saw the lodge a few weeks before it was open and the finished product is fantastic.

Animals everywhere. Elephants came into the water hole. A huge group of mongoose ran over the lawn while we were eating lunch. Nyala everywhere both male and female. Rooms are stunning and the main lodge is great. Exceeding my expectations. Food has been good so far.

First game drive sightings. Lions with the remains of a kill. Giraffe, kudu, more elephants, hyena den with babies. Very dry here the river beds are totally dry.

Will get some pictures tomorrow. Right now I need to go to sleep.

Ngaire.

Good to hear the new lodge is even better than expected…so wish we were there too. Looking forward to photos.

Some pictures below. Ken is still working on his camera pictures but we got a few shots with his iphone I can post.




Elephants at the water hole. They keep coming all day. The deck is close to the water hole. Really great. Today some Cape Buffalo came also.


Rummycube in the bush. Kim - Ngaire - Alice.

Have Rummycube will travel!!! Good stuff - Wish I was there to share in the fun!
Love the photos of the animals. Fantastic they are coming so close to the Lodge.
Enjoy😁

Todays sightings



Tons of elephants here. This was a long line of Ellie’s this was just three of them.



Male Cape Buffalo that are old are kicked out of the herd. They are called Dugger Boys and they group up together. We saw quite a few of them today. They were around the elephants. We witnessed a “standoff” between the buffalo and an elephant. The elephant caved and left. Too much bush in the way to get a shot.


This was not our shot. Using other people’s pictures if they are good.




Young hyena came out of the den. Hoping more would follow but that did not happen.

It was Alice’s birthday today. Some pictures of the birthday girl.

This morning it was windy which usually means a quiet game drive. But we still had some highlights today.

It started with an elephant very close to the vehicle stripping a tree and eating the bark. Never seen an elephant that behaved like this one. The way he used his trunk was amazing. I loved the sighting.



Then we found a giraffe about to give birth. There were two legs of the baby sticking out. She seemed to be very relaxed and often walked closer to our vehicle. We stayed with her for about 90 minutes. The babies legs were not moving so rancher thought it might be going to be still born.




On the way back we saw a leopard in a tree. This morning the other vehicles saw two different leopards. One has a kill in a tree so he will hang around for the day.



Just outside the entrance to the lodge we saw a wildebeest and elephants coming back from the Tula Tanda lake.



Great morning in the end. Everyone was excited at breakfast as they all had great game drives.

Good news. The giraffe we saw with the legs out of the mothers was born and is in good shape. Some of our vehicles saw them and showed me pictures.

We were on the hunt to find a rhino to complete the big five. It took a while but we did find him but cannot post pictures of the rhino. We also saw other small antelope and an ostrich.

After the rhino we went back to the leopard in the tree and while we were there she came down and disappeared. It was dark so we could not follow her.

Meanwhile the other vehicles followed up on the leopard we saw in the morning. Plus the baby giraffe and the lions with cubs.

Unbelievable day.

We wanted to see the newborn giraffe that we saw the day before with the feet sticking out of the mother.

We started our drive and very quickly found the baby giraffe. We were very close but my phone was dead. I will get someone to air drop pictures and post it later.



Then we went to see the pride with the tiny lions. Again I could not take pictures.


Then we went to see sleeping lions with a very large male and a female who gave us a great view of her belly.

Then we were told there were wild dogs. We drove fast and it was quite a distance. But we found them and there were six wild dogs. We followed them through the bush one of things I love the most. Coming right behind the dogs were more hyena than dogs. In the sky a vulture was also following the dogs. The dogs had made a kill but the hyenas stole it. Dogs usually succeed to make a kill.




We left the dogs and went to the hyena den and for the first time for us the baby hyenas were out playing.


We followed that up with a leopard in a tree.

The lodge had prepared a surprise bush breakfast for us. Birds were waiting for crumbs but one bird stole a pasta
.

Then coming back right at the lodge was a big bull elephant. We watched him for a while.

WHAT A MORNING !!!

This is a great lodge that has shown us outstanding game. The chef was great and one of best set of rangers we have ever had.

After our evening game drive we were surprised with another event for drinks. It was very well done.

Never can get the pics to show up on my office computer, just the text, so I will look at them later, but I would have so loved to have seen the baby giraffe being born. The obstetrician in me would have been wanting to do a breech extraction.

This is a picture we took at Tanda Tula of a leopard.



So we are now at Makanyi and this post is from last night and this morning.

We were excited to hear there was a herd of around 700 Cape Buffalo on the property. Not seen a huge herd like that for many years. Between the TB in Buffalo and then the drought both these issues significantly reduced the numbers of Buffalo.

On the way we saw ground horn bills(large birds that are prevalent here at Makanyi) Some elephants with a baby elephant. Some warthogs with a baby all busy eating.

The sight of the buffalo was amazing. So fantastic to see a big herd. The sun made it hard to take pictures of the whole herd.




After viewing the buffalo we came across five male lions about three to four years old. Part of the Birmingham pride. They were of course sleeping.




The next morning we heard the five males had killed a buffalo. So that was the first order of the day to see that kill. When we got there the lions were still eating the kill. Will not post that picture a bit too graphic to post. Amazingly they had almost finished the whole carcass.

We also saw a rhino and baby but cannot post pictures of rhino.
On the way back to the lodge we saw about three giraffes.

For those who have been to Makanyi AMOS the chef is back. I love his food. This is a picture of a chocolate mousse cake we had for lunch.

Do this afternoons safari was a little quieter but we saw some good things.

We came across this hyena calling off sitting in some water.



Then we went to the biggest water area on the reserve. It was full of hippos. A hippo came out of the trees headed for the water. A much larger hippo was not happy about that situation. He came out of the water and onto the bank. The invading hippo quickly retreaded. The picture of of the largest hippo.


There were birds around the water. We saw two storks close to our vehicle. Cannot remember the name of the storks.


At the sundowners drinks we saw rhinos crossing in front of where we were parked. A little too far for a picture but fun to see them. Stunning colors in the sky as the sun went diown.

So today started out slow as all the vehicles were looking for the Birmingham pride with stumpy (a lion whose tail was bitten off) she is still in charge of the pride. The tracks show the lions close to the lodge. We never found this pride but the guys are out now trying to find them.

However we saw the five male lions sleeping, quite a lot of giraffe, and a large rhino. But the highlight was the hyenas. They had the remains of buffalo kill. Must have been around at least 10 hyenas.
A few vultures had arrived and one hyena had control of the head with horns. He took off and all the others were in pursuit. Great sighting.




This hyena had a small bone.


This hyena had the whole head. The other hyena followed him.

Tonight’s drive was good.

We saw a large rhino still with a tusk along with three other rhinos. The large lake was fantastic today.

Hippos out of the water with babies on the mother’s back.

Two big crocodiles out of the water.


Elephants very close. Terrapin on land and saw them slide into the water. These were large terrapins.

Then finally went to the middle of a group of elephants. All sizes and all very close.

Great last morning at Makanyi. LIONS Highlight was finding a female and male lion that we thought were mating. You never have to wait over 20 minutes to see the deed. Well this female kept coming up to him, using every possible way to get him to cooperate. Finally he got up and limped to the water to drink he had an injury on one of his back legs.



We also saw the lion called stumpy somehow she lost her tail. She is old but still the leader of the pride.

Tiny baby rhino with a mother with a very large horn.
Interaction with two male lions and with zebras.

THEN OFF TO MALA MALA

Started off with a choice between looking at the elephants or a large group of giraffe. We decided on the giraffes and found they were looking at a leopard.




We followed the leopard and some impala came by but she did not attempt to get one. Then we had a great sightings of elephants coming to the water with baby elephants.




Next stop a lion pride of 18 lions. They were sleeping but got up pretty quickly got sone nice shots of them drinking after their sleep.



Final treat two giraffes necking which is their way of fighting. They were seriously hitting each other with their necks against the other giraffes body.


Pictures tomorrow time to go to sleep.

This morning was quieter than usual. These are the key things we saw.


A female elephant with an incredibly long tusk on one side and broken tusk on the other side.

We saw a male and female lion at a watering hole as impala approached. The alarm sounded and the impala’s ran away. I understand they had been stalking zebra but with no luck.



THIS AFTERNOON

Temperatures were high today in the 100 degree range. Really messed with the game drives. We did see a crocodile and some lions at the end of the day. Of course we saw elephants, giraffe, antelope but nothing really exciting.

The heat has gone. Nice weather today high of 80 degrees. Had a fantastic morning. Had a gteat ranger today Deon
I


Highlight was a leopard mother and her cub. One of the best sightings we have had with leopard cubs.




Some good elephant interaction with a bull elephant pushing a female and her baby away from a tree he wanted to eat.


Then we saw a pride of lions and they were not sleeping. So love watching lions that are awake. They are very loving towards each other.



We also saw a leopard in a dry river bed along with some lion cubs we have not seen before. Plus elephants trumpeting with the cats around. Lots of noise and things going on.



We followed the leopard and she came across some impala. The leopard saw the impala but the impala did not see the leopard. We thought we might see a kill but as usual it did not happen. Lost sight of the leopard and the impalas moved on.

Plus later in the drive we saw another leopard. Lots of leopards today.
Decided you have seen enough pictures of leopards.

On the way back we saw a lion pride of 18 Lions from a high bridge crossing the river. Zebras and impalas came down to drink on the other side of the bridge.


The lions quietly disbursed and made their way behind bushes to where the zebras were drinking. But as usual the zebras and impalas saw them and ran off.

Fantastic afternoon.

Giraffe were on the agenda first as we sighted a large number of giraffes. Great shots of the giraffes who were very active and running at times they normally just amble along.

Some when down to drink but the sun was in the wrong direction for photos. This one came out as a unique photo.


After the giraffe action we started off quietly looking for yet another leopard. We were in a dry river bed when we saw an elephant with his trunk in the river bed sucking up water that was below the sandy river. Seen this before but it always amazed me.

Followed that up with a leopard in a tree with an impala kill on the ground. We waited for a while watching her until suddenly there were bees. We left because of the bees. Never experienced bees on safari before.

THERE ARE NO PICTURES ON THE NEXT ADVENTURE IT WAS DARK.
We were on our way back to the lodge when we saw four rhinos going down to drink in the river we followed them and took some great pictures (we cannot post rhino pictures)

We spotted a male lion on the side of the river. We went over to that area and he started roaring. Then me crossed over continuing to roar. We followed it for a while. This is an incredible treat they are so loud it is one of my favorite thing to hear lions roar.

Or ranger decided to go to the rest of the pride that were all coming together to see the reunion between the male lion and the pride.

It was starting to get dark and lions were coming in all over the place. Total of 18 lions in the pride but a break off part of the pride seemed to arrive as well. I believe there four of them. Lions everywhere.

There was buffalo and water buck in the area. It got very dark and we were deep in the bush. How our ranger could drive was beyond me. We were knocking down trees (that spring right back up) waiting for a kill. A lot of vehicles joined the situation it was very exciting. This is what I love the anticipation of a kill and the incredible driving of the rangers. I was in heaven.

However we already were an hour late so we headed back missing the cocktail hour but back in time dinner.

This morning was another fantastic game drive. All the vehicles went looking for tracks to see what they killed last night.

We found a leopard and followed that young leopard through thick bush. We called in the sighting to our other vehicles.

So the last full day was great. The lions killed a buffalo during the night and we saw them eating this buffalo. Vultures in the trees waiting for scrap's. This cub got all the way into the buffalo.



While we were there five buffalos turned up. Our vehicle was parked where if a conflict happened we would out of harms way.



Two young male lions were taunting the buffalo. Once the buffalo did a fake charge. All this bantering between the buffalo and lions went on for a while. Incredible to see. Finally the largest female make a charge and the buffalo ran away. So much fun to watch.

We also found a leopard that we followed into some difficult bush. The leopard was about a year old. Later one of our vehicles saw the leopard jump into a tree and catch a squirrel. Great morning.

Final drive. We went back to the buffalo carcass to see the vultures. Kind of a nasty scene of the carcsss so not posting but tons of vultures around and a little fighting between vultures.



Then we found a leopard so many leopards here. Laying on her back.

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Next was a zebra and baby.


Final viewing was a good bye to the lions who have given us great sightings.