And so autumn 2017 came to an end (it was so beautiful to see Mother Nature changing the plants and trees from green back to a pale colour). The days are now shorter and temperatures dropped drastically from summer – now I have to wear TWO PAIRS of shorts!
Prepare yourself for this winter as it will be COLD early and late afternoon whilst out on game drives. Temperatures can be around 4’C (39’F) and to cope with the Cold, there will be warm blankets together with warm water bottles.
May was a lovely month and provided us not only with lovely weather, but also with great sightings throughout the month.
My favourite sightings and encounter for May 2017 are as follow:
1) We started off on the 1st of May with a “BANG”. Donald and I were following tracks for a pride of 6 lions. After a while of tracking them the tracks disappeared into the bush and Donald got of the vehicle and told us that he will follow the tracks through the bush on foot and that he will radio me should he find the specie. I drove off and decided to drive to the nearest dam (it was early morning and animals tend to drink early to prepare themselves for the warm days which lay ahead).
Just before I got to the dam, Donald radioed and told me that I should come back quickly… I thought to myself “Wow, he is on a mission and that he found the lions sleeping somewhere”. When I picked Donald up he pointed me into the direction of where he saw the animals which he has just founded. We got to the area and to my surprise there were no lions around but a pack of 11 Wild Dogs. They didn’t do much as they were still sleepy and their bellies were full. Luckily one got up, stretched and went lying down again. This was a special sighting as Wild Dogs are RARE to see in the wild AND before I forget about the 6 lions… They were found later that morning by Wayne from Eagle-Owl Camp.
2) On the morning of the 6th (my birthday), we drove to the east hoping to find some great sightings of anything as the weather was perfect. About an hour and a bit into the drive JP from Kings Camp radioed in that he just found a male cheetah basking in the sun. We started making our way into the area and when we got there we saw this magnificent animal walking down the road in the great lighting. He walked past us a few times providing us with great photo opportunities and eventually went sitting down to catch a breath after walking a distance OR DID HE JUST SIT DOWN TO POSE FOR ALL THE PAPPARAZZI? This Cheetah sighting was special, not only because it was my birthday BUT it was my 3rd cheetah sighting in 14 MONTHS!
3) At the end of the month I went on a walk with Anna and her guests. As we were walking, a herd of elephants were spotted and immediately Anna explained how we were going to make the approach. When we got to them we were approximately 95m (99 yards) away and we sat down on top of the ridge which we used as a vantage point and we counted 85 elephants down below us in the dried river-bed. It is always so nice to be out on foot and especially when you get to see so many elephants on FOOT!
That is it and I hope you’ll have a LOVELY time at Kings Camp – Timbavati.
Greetings,
Almero Klingenberg
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