Regular guests Mike and Fiona Clark are back at nThambo Tree Camp for their bushveld fix! After spending a week in the Kruger National Park, they arrived at nThambo two days ago. Fiona sent the below update of their first few game drives.
“Well here we are back at nThambo Tree Camp. The bushveld looks very different to the barren, dusty place we left behind in October. It’s now lush and green after the recent rains. We’ve been here for two days now and already had some wonderful sightings including two of the most endangered carnivores! Our first sighting was of a female cheetah walking slowly in the middle of the road. We stayed with her for a few minutes before she wandered off following impala and disappeared into the long grass. After seeing lots of general game, we found a lonely bull rhino at sunset, quietly grazing in the distance. On our way back to camp, Luan, our ranger, spotted another cat in the spotlight – this time it was a male leopard crouching in the grass. As we stopped to get out our cameras, he decided he was camera shy and bolted off into the distance. We followed him as he made his way through the bushes, but lost him as he made his escape.
The following morning, was another wonderful drive. Just after leaving camp at 5am, we came across a pack of wild dogs. They were obviously on the hunt – running along the road and through the bushes, making it very hard to follow them. Eventually we caught up with them, as they had just caught an impala. We spent a good 30 minutes with them, as they devoured their breakfast, a matter of a couple of feet away from the vehicle (so close in fact that I had to change the lens to my camera!). Back on our way to camp we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by a breeding herd of elephants, milling around us. It even included a male bull in musthe, who surprisingly was very chilled. Back in camp we ourselves sat chilling in the midday sun with a cold beer waiting to see what the following nights drive would bring. All we needed were the lions and buffalo and we could tick the magnificent 7 off the list ( the name given to the Big 5, plus cheetah and wild dog).
And our luck was in. Firstly we came across 3 old buffalo bulls, hiding deep within the bush. We tried to get closer to them to take some photos but they were a little grumpy and kept running off. But luckily we came across a large breeding herd of buffalo a little further down the road, positioned nicely for some decent photos. We also saw a crash of 4 rhino, giraffes, zebra and a spotted hyena. But the highlight was seeing the ‘local’ male lions – the Trilogy, having just killed a waterbuck. Two of the three males were lying with full bellies by the side of the road, – one a little angry as we viewed him close by. The third male lion was more interested in a female from a local pride, than his breakfast – they were sat a little way off, trying to get some ‘alone time’, but having no luck with all of us trying to get a photo!
So that is the ‘Magnificent 7’ seen here at nThambo Tree Camp in only 2 days – including a wild dog kill – wow! Let’s see what the remaining 5 days will bring.”
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