Monday 25 August 2014

Sabi Sands: February 2010 (Part 3)

This is the 3rd episode of a way overdue trip report from February 2010. If you need to catch up, check out PART 1 and PART 2 before carrying on with this post...

My lovely wife and I had a pleasant afternoon lounging around our room at Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve with its private plunge pool (summer months in the Lowveld are hot and humid). She took this photo of me looking out over the bush...



This photo shows the inside of our luxurious room - what comfort!



Soon enough, after stuffing ourselves with lovely teatime treats, we were off on our afternoon drive as the clouds were building for storms overhead. This photo shows Marius Coetzee driving us around the roads of the Sabi Sands - do yourself a favour and check out his website for some amazing photography...


Our first notable sighting of the afternoon was a journey of Giraffe (that's what a group of them is called) underneath a stunning rainbow (what is it with this trip and rainbows?)...

One of the bulls obliged me by going to stand in the perfect spot - how kind of him!




We then received word of a nice lion sighting, and proceeded there immediately. The Ximungwe pride was relaxing in a riverbed, and the sole surviving cub of that year's litter was playing with his mother. This little one had been dubbed "Supercub" due to the hardships he endured up to then, and the fact that he somehow kept up when the pride was on the move - which they did without consideration of a cub's presence in their midst.






As you can see, it was a fruitful sighting as far as photography goes. The mother was not very impressed with her cub's incessant playfulness, but she bore it like any good patient mother would. Shortly after leaving this sighting the heavens opened up and we got properly drenched!! Thanks goodness for the parkas in the vehicle (which I used to cover my gear which was on loan from Nikon South Africa)!!!

I hope you enjoyed this trip report thus far. More to follow in the 3rd episode...
Have a great week!

Morkel Erasmus

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