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Blackrock cubs

It’s good to be going out on a game drive this morning, I have waited three months, first because of a broken wrist, then high season and the jeep was booked. So, I am really looking forward to the day, it doesn’t matter to me what I see or don’t see I know I will enjoy it anyway.

The terrain is so different from the last time we took a game drive, all the marshy areas are now just soft mud, the pool filled tracks that we had trouble navigating are now dry and dusty. The long grass is short and pale in colour, like straw. The few zebra and wildebeest that remain are doing their best to get what nourishment they can from it. Where the mornings were bitingly cold this morning the temperature was very mild with a warm dry breeze blowing down from the north.

As we pass the second bridge the change is so obvious, the water that flowed over the stones like a waterfall just three months ago is now down to a trickle, I see a lone hippo over to the right where there used to be a whole family. As we get closer to the sand river we drive through large patches of scorched earth where the grass has been burned. This is done in certain areas to stimulate new grass for the purpose of improved grazing.

Before reaching the sand river Alison notices lions on a large rocky outcrop in the distance, this whole area is strewn with rocky outcrops and scattered rocks, driving through it to reach the lions is like driving through an obstacle course. But we make it and are rewarded with four females from the Sopa pride. The Sopa pride is a large pride consisting of around 23 lions, unfortunately most had moved on, we were told they had headed south over the hill, but it was still nice to sit with these four healthy looking lionesses while they relaxed in the sun.

The only sounds we could hear as we sat there in the silence were the calls from various birds and the distant call of an elephant, which was all too familiar to us because for the previous three nights, there had been a large herd of elephants in the camp, causing havoc by tearing off branches and scattering them all over the place. Thankfully, they only enter during the night when no one is present.

After this we had breakfast then went to find the blackrock pride, I was very excited at the thought of seeing the cubs again and to see how they had grown over the last few months. When we arrived, the pride was spread out over a fairly large area, some relaxing in the shade, some wandering around and one lioness eating a warthog. She must have caught the warthog herself because when one or two of the other lions tried to get a little of the kill, she put them in their place in no uncertain terms.

We didn’t stay with them for very long as there were too many vehicles all crowding around them and Alison had heard there was a leopard not too far away, so we decided to come back later when it was quieter and head out to see if we could find the leopard. He wasn’t difficult to spot, he was in a tall tree and there was only one other vehicle present when we arrived. When he turned so that I could get a better look at him I saw that it was split nose, named because of the scar on his nose.

. He seemed a little restless, very alert and even somewhat uneasy, this is not like him, he is a large confident leopard and in a very safe place. We did hear later that there was also a female in the area, we didn’t see her, but this might be the reason for his initial restlessness. Eventually he settled down to sleep. We stayed with him for a couple of hours to see if he would come down, but he showed no signs of this, so we drove to the nearby sand river to have lunch.

The dry months had also had an effect on the sand river which now was literally a bed of sand with narrow rivulets of water winding their way downstream.

As we followed the sand river we encountered many elephant families, each family had at least two babies and quite a few young ones. The sand river is a particularly nice place to have lunch as there are large trees spaced out along the banks offering much needed shade. The only problem was that the elephants were also taking advantage of this and nearly every tree we passed was occupied by them. In the end we had to wait for a family of elephants to move on before we could claim the tree for ourselves.

After lunch the plan was to go back to the blackrock pride, but before we did that, we wanted to drive by the Tree with Split Nose to check if he was still there. And he was; a leopard is likely to spend the entire day in a good, secure location if he is not hungry.

The blackrock pride were still in the same area as they had been this morning, they were now all relaxing in the shade of the surrounding bushes, it is very hot this afternoon. I could barley believe it when I saw the cubs, they had grown so much since the last time I saw them and some of the boys are growing the first signs of their mane. There were 13 cubs altogether but of different ages. You can see in the photos how small they were and how big they are now. This is a very successful pride, the mothers have looked after their young very well, out of the 13 cubs only one hasn’t survived so far. The first litter is now a year and a half old and the second litter around ten or eleven months. You can see from the before and after photos how they have grown. Eventually I had to tear myself away and we headed home.

On the return journey, just as we were about to cross a small river we saw Elephants, what caught my attention is how small they were, in fact there were two fully grown mother elephants each with a baby. I just love baby elephants they are so cute. It was amazing to see close up how they were interacting, and they were not at all nervous of us being there with them, not once did either of the mothers get agitated and warn us off, so we stayed. Just then another two elephants joined them, these two were big but not yet fully grown. We saw many elephants today and every single group had small babies.

The day was nearly over, we continued to the camp but stopped one more time, almost on our doorstep so to speak, to see the male cheetah who’s territory borders our camp.

I hope it isn’t to long before I can get out into the reserve again.

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