Summer delights!

The plentiful rains of the past month or so have changed the appearance of the bush completely.  The vista down to the waterhole and beyond to the rise is now green and lush with the occasional flash of yellow from the African Weeping Wattle. 

'Baboon's tail' in flower

Game tends to be rather more sparse with all the water available in the surrounding bush, but there are other treats to be found – the very beautiful but short lived flower on the strange looking plant commonly known as ‘baboon’s tail’ is one example.  This stunning flower only appears after rains and then transforms the rather ugly stumpy plant with its lovely blooms.

Giant land snail

The giant land snail also makes an appearance after rains.  Normally we see the empty shells lying around in the bush, bleached white by the sun but recently they have been quite active in the gardens (eating the grass), extraordinary to watch as the giant foot ripples over the ground. 

 

 

 

 

One of our favourite sights at this time of the year is the arrival of the young impalas.  We have spotted the first of these in the last week and had a good sighting of them on the birdpool camera trap. 

 

Kudu and waterbuck have also been making early morning visits to the birdpool.  Look at the times on the pictures; it’s definitely a case of the ‘early bird catches the worm’ in terms of successful game viewing. 

 

To complete our news for this time, a wonderful cloud formation ‘snapped’ at sunset one afternoon from the top of the game viewing tower.

Lion seen on camera trap

The birdpool camera trap has continued to catch the regular visitors during the day and night, with impala, waterbuck and duiker having the highest number of sightings.  We always download the latest photos with a sense of excitement as to what we might have captured during the last week or two and this time we were rewarded with our first lion sighting on the camera trap. 

It was a lone male on 18^th October at 10.31 pm, walking in from the side and then standing for a short while at the bird pool, although not taking a drink.   At that time we had been hearing a lot of lion activity during the night and had on several occasions been convinced they were on our entrance road, so it was a real treat to see him come to the bird pool.

Another great sighting happened just two days ago.  We were returning to the lodge when I spotted a jackal on the road just past our entrance.  We stopped to watch it for a few moments and then were lucky enough to see two small jackal pups come onto the road.  They seemed to be fairly relaxed so we quickly drove back to the lodge and picked up our guests hoping to be able to give them a very good view of jackal and pups.  

We returned to the spot a few minutes later and found that the jackals had a den site in an old termite mound right beside the road.  One was asleep in the long grass and the other was being a bit more active – running about and dashing in and out of the den.  We watched for a couple of minutes and snapped a few photographs.  The sleeping pup is well hidden in the grassy undergrowth.   

Finally, I am posting this picture of the moon rising last night over the waterhole.  Every month as the moon begins to wane it rises over the ridge behind the waterhole and makes a magnificent display.  The photograph does not do it justice but the spectacle is worth recording.  Past guests who have been lucky enough to be with us at this time of the month will I’m sure remember seeing it.

‘Gang of Five’ pay a visit

Regular readers to the blog will be waiting to read about the promised elephant encounter that had interrupted breakfast for our lucky guests.......

Ezulwini enjoying his favourite euphorbia plant by Duiker hut

It began with us hearing branches breaking before one of our guests spotted an elephant through the bush between us and the neighbouring property.  Breakfast was quickly finished and we sat down to wait and watch, hoping that what we thought was a single elephant would come closer.  However, as we got a better view we recognised them as the ‘gang of five’ – two big males, namely Soshangane (with a radio collar) and Ezulwini, and three smaller males who are often seen with them. 

Ezulwini spots a tempting, overhanging branch of the marula tree...

Our guests, John and Colin standing on the deck enjoying the spectacle

They made their way through the bush and came out by the corner of Duiker hut.  Ezulwini then proceeded to feed on one of his favourite euphorbia plants close by the wall of the hut. 

The smaller elephants made for the bird bath and drank, and one sampled the very spiky Y-thorn bush beside the bird bath.

The young bulls drink at the birdpool and try the VERY  thorny Y-thorn bush

The marula tree by the splash pool was too much of a temptation for Ezulwini and he broke off one branch before we gently shooed him away.  Marula trees are a great favourite with elephants during the dry season and Ezulwini has several on his list when he comes visiting Leopard’s View.  Unfortunately, a marula tree is no match for a determined elephant and we were slightly worried the tree would come off worst and end up in the splash pool.  We have learned to keep an eye on Ezulwini when he is here and to take action whenever he tries to target our trees - one strong word from Neil is usually enough to deter him. 

Some of the action was picked up by our birdpool camera trap.

Picture from camera trap of the 'Gang of five' moving off into the bush.

We were delighted to be able to share this 'elephant encounter' with our guests - an unforgetable experience.

The Game Viewing Tower gets a Makeover

View from top floor of game viewing tower

Past visitors to Leopard’s View will remember the magnificent view that unfolds as you climb to the top of the game viewing tower.  To the west, the sweeping panorama that takes in the hills of the Escarpment, round to the valley and ridge in front of the tower and of course the view down to the water hole.  The view never fails to impress, even for us, and to sit on top of the tower as the sun comes up over the waterhole or enjoy a glass of wine with the sun going down is probably one of the great joys about living here. 

'Old look' tower

For some time though, we have been aware that the tower has been in need of renovation; the safety railings were rather inadequate and the floor needed relaying.  This was a job that required a few weeks work so we scheduled it into the calendar and began work last month.

Our first job was to strengthen and relay the floor on the middle deck and replace the safety railings.  This of course was more difficult that it sounds as once the floor was taken up there was nothing to stand on and it was rather a precarious task to relay the floor timbers. 

 

The top level floor came next; new decking timbers to be shaped, fitted and varnished and then the new safety railings.  New steel work was added in some places and new furniture on the top floor along with a shelf for binoculars and books.  The finished result is a great improvement.  Repainting of the steel work will follow, but that is a job for another day!

Top floor with new railings, shelf and furniture

 

 

 

The giraffes seen in the pictures were taken yesterday morning.  We were having breakfast with our guests when this group of giraffes arrived and stayed around the waterhole drinking and eating for some time.  I was climbing to the top of the tower for some photographs when elephants were spotted coming through the bush.  Breakfast was forgotten in the excitement of a wonderful elephant encounter – but, that will be in the next posting!   

Lions visit

Evening light catches the lion at the waterhole

During the last week we have had several very good sightings of lions at Leopard’s View.  Our first sighting was a week ago on Thursday 13^th September at 8.00 am.  We were re-laying the top floor of the game viewing tower (more news of that in the next blog), when we saw two lions walking across in front of the water hole.  They did not stop to drink and were intent on going somewhere in a hurry.  Two more lions followed them, but again were moving too fast for us to get any photos. 

Lion seen early yesterday morning

That same evening we saw one young male lion drinking at the waterhole and went down to take a closer look.

He had a limp in his back right leg and after drinking moved off into the river bed where there must have been at least two other lions from the very loud roaring that we heard.  The sound of a lion roaring at night must be the most evocative African sound and can literally send vibrations through the body.  We love to hear it and guests lucky enough to share the experience never forget it. 

This lion seemed to be suffering from a definite surfeit of food

Yesterday, we were treated to another fabulous lion sighting.  We first became aware of lion nearby at 4.00 am, when there were growls that could only have been made by a big cat, although at that time we were not sure if it was lion or leopard. 
 
A couple of hours later we found one male lion very close to the house and were glad we had not chosen that morning to take a walk as he was resting just 150 m away.  Later that afternoon about 5.00 pm the same male came to drink at the waterhole.  He took a very long drink and then lay down to rest.

The lion begins to walk along the road, back to the carcass
Lodge in the background

Not surprisingly, he had a very full belly and took several more drinks before walking off up the hill, and past our house back to where we had found him in the morning.  There he picked up part of a carcass that he had hidden in a thick bush and walked off.  We left him to enjoy the last of his meal, delighted to have had such a memorable sighting.   

We took this picture as he walked right past our vehicle on his way back to the carcass. He looks quite menacing compared to the picture below.

Lion at rest

Spring cometh

Since writing the last blog we have seen quite a drastic change in the weather.  The relatively cool winter’s days and nights suddenly changed in the space of a week and the temperatures soared until reaching a scorching 38.4 degrees about a week ago.  Winter had vanished in a flash and spring was heralded in by the blossom on the knob thorn trees around the lodge and throughout the bush here in Balule.



Knob thorn trees in bloom

Knob thorn trees, Acacia nigrescens, are particularly prevalent in our part of the Lowveld and we always look forward to the burst of flowers and their very distinctive, rather sweet perfume.  The tree is easy to spot in the bush because of the knobbly thorns on the trunk and branches, each knob with a very sharp thorn at the end of it. 

There is a traditional belief that the knobs on the tree can be crushed up and applied to a young girl’s chest to ensure she will later on be well-endowed in that area! 

Knob-thorn trees make up a very considerable part of the diet of giraffes, and they particularly like the flowers and fresh new leaves.  At this time of year they come very close to the decks of the lodge where we have several mature trees and can spend up to two hours browsing there.  It is a marvellous sight and our guests can sit within a few yards of these magnificent animals and enjoy the show.

Other local tree specimens in flower now include the Blue thorn, Acacia erubescens, with a similar yellow-white flower spike and a pair of very sharp hooked thorns.  We have been ‘hooked’ many times by these trees whilst walking through the bush.

  

Male Marico Sunbird

Female Marico Sunbird

The brilliant yellow, pea-like flowers of the Sjambok pod, Cassia abbreviata, make it very easy to identify and it was this feature that stood out amongst all the other trees as I was looking out over the bush from our viewing tower.  Its common name comes from the particularly long seed pods that have a passing resemblance to the “sjambok”, a long whip traditionally made from hippo hide.

An unusually early ‘first rain’ of 19mm last week has given Spring a real kick start and has contributed to the burst of new leaves and grass in the bush.  We are always delighted when the first rain comes but also hope that this is not a false alarm with no more rain for weeks, by which time the new grasses will have burned up.  Having lived in England for most of our lives we never thought we would welcome the rain, but it is the cause for real celebration here in the bush.  Let’s hope there will be plenty more to report on next time.



Winter Wonders

Cape Glossy Starling on the Mountain Aloe

Female    Sunbird on Coral Aloe             

Winter here in the Lowveld brings many delights; the glorious aloes bloom profusely throughout July and August and attract a host of visitors. 










Now is the time we spend many hours trying to get the ultimate photo of the different sunbirds, Starlings or the Black-headed Oriole with its haunting call.  

Black-headed Oriole on Mountain Aloe

The Oriole and Starlings are particularly attracted to the large mountain aloe (Aloe marlothii)  in the centre of the lodge gardens, whilst the tiny sunbirds with their long curved beaks flit around the smaller Coral aloes (Aloe striata) making their distinctive warbling call.

 Red Bougainvillea flower

Bougainvilleas in their vibrant colours make for a stunning show throughout the winter months and seem to thrive in the driest conditions.  

Purple Bougainvillea flower

Impala Lily

The impala lilies are beautiful at this time of year, beautiful pink and white blooms in the otherwise rather bare winter garden.

Finally our little Barred Owlet is seen here on a very chilly winter’s morning.  We spotted him sitting up in a knob-thorn tree near the house with his feathers fluffed up to keep out the cold. 

 

African barred owlet