While waiting for the Plaque Rock Female to lead me back to her den, she eventually emerged from her shaded sanctuary to quench her thirst before settling in a sea of greenery. There was a ray of golden light breaking through and illuminating her face perfectly.

While enjoying an afternoon drive along the Sand River, we found a large male elephant, too close to focus on the entire animal I chose to zoom in on the details and textures of the elephant’s ear that was covered in some dried mud.

After a recent deluge, all the ephemeral pans are filling up causing a frenzy amongst the foam nest frogs, I spent the morning filming the nest-building process of these frogs as each male jostles for the best position to fertilise the female’s eggs. Stay tuned for more on this early next year. The eye in focus is one of the males, and the creamy coloured round ball to the left is one of the frogs eggs.

One of the Ntsevu Females rests in the shade with the rest of the pride just out of view. The temperatures were soaring on this particular morning and although I was cooking away in the sun there was such a contrasting look on her face as she made everything seem perfectly fine and was not phased at all.

The mother of the three youngest cubs in the Ntsevu Pride gets collected from a thicket nearby and brought across to the rest of the pride.

On an afternoon bumble around seeing what we could find we settled here to watch the sun set and had such a stunning view across the Sand River.

Seeing this Tawny Eagle Land in a small dead tree, I sat waiting for it to take off hoping to capture it with its wings spread wide. It was all lined up to take off towards me and would have been perfect, but in the last minute it turned and took off the other way.

While sitting at the Plaque Rock Female’s den we had this large male giraffe come down to the water’s edge as though he wanted to have a drink, after much deliberation, he moved on. Possibly sensing that there was danger lurking close by.

Another visitor while we were watching the Plaque Rock Female and her cubs.

Late one afternoon, the Xinkhova Female was resting while digesting a recent meal of impala lamb. She is such a beautiful young female leopard that I felt I needed to include this image of her in post-meal contemplation.

It is the season of new life, we stumbled across this young impala lamb, hiding away in a thicket gaining strength and energy to practice walking while its mother was out and about feeding.

Often hearing about the different species of vulture we try and describe the size difference and shape of the beaks to guests, here is a perfect example of the Lappet-faced Vulture’s enormous beak compared to that of a White-backed Vulture.

With all the new shoots of vegetation growing through now, this large elephant delicately plucked off a new branch from an Acacia and gently placed it in its mouth.

The Nkuhuma Male has been dealt his fair share of misfortune over the years and has still been roaming the crests of Londolozi alone. He spent a brief period with the Skorro Breakaway Male. I wonder if they will meet up again and form som slightly more permanent bonds?

The adorable Plaque Rock Female’s cubs tucked away in the shade at the first den.

Colours of the Yellow-fronted Canary and Blue Waxbills come through against the dark soil of the waterhole.

With the Nkhuma Male walking off to our left we looked across and had these kudus watching his every move, letting off their deep husky bark, warning all passers-by that there was danger in the area.

With the pans and wallows filled with the recent rainfall, elephants and the like have been enjoying repeated mud baths, here the mud had caked on this elephant’s wrinkly skin adding a further element of texture to what is already an interesting detail.

At the new den, we were patiently waiting for the cubs to join their mother, the Plaque Rock Female on top of the boulders. One cub came up and joined here there giving us this incredible photographic opportunity.

By far the most adventurous little cub I have seen, it came off to the side of the den and perched on this rock allowing me to snap some amazing footage and this shot.

Peak-a-boo! Apart from the mother on the top of the rocks, can you see the tiny little one in the shot somewhere?