Before the last bit of greenery faded, we came around a corner and found a small herd of elephants ambling through, feasting on the lush grass and vegetation. This youngster felt the vegetation wasn’t sufficient enough and wanted a top-up of milk from its mother.

The Nkoveni Young Male is such an entertaining leopard at the moment, but I guess, all young leopards go through a period of adventuring and exploring, life has no limits and they have not yet grasped the concept of energy conservation. Here he rests proudly in one of the many marula trees he climbed and stared up into the sky amused by something.

Over the last week, we have had a number of sightings of the Kambula Males moving through the reserve. Yesterday morning,g we had just two of them marching south together. Constantly looking over their shoulders as if something was trailing them. Did they potentially have a run-in with other lions, and that is why they had split from the other two brothers?

The Kambula Males are striking young lions, well, not really young anymore. Ranging between 6.5 and just over 7, these males show a few battle scars, hopefully some that will lead to them being big dominant males around here soon and firmly claiming a pride of females.

Looking over his shoulder, towards where his brother had settled down. We eventually left them resting here, but based on their movements I am pretty sure they would have continued moving during the day.

This Jacana walking through a shallow puddle of water near the causeway had a rather entertaining illusion to it. Not only was there a decent reflection but also the fact that is looks like the Jacana is walking on water.

The Nkoveni Female’s movements have been somewhat erratic and unpredictable. We have recently been seeing her venturing well into the Nhlanguleni Female’s territory to the west of our camps.

As we were setting out from camp in the afternoon, we had a few elephants approaching the airstrip, so we set up a low angle and got these two crossing with a moody sky in the background.

This image is from a while ago, but I love the late afternoon hues of purple and blue with a regal male cheetah resting upon a termite mound,d scanning for any prey. It was a blustery afternoon, perfect conditions for a cheetah to hunt in.

It is fascinating to see how quickly the impala lambs grow. They are only a few months old now but fully equipped and capable of evading danger and surviving out here.

Unless you have this incredible mother on your tail, the Makhatini Female and her family are thriving at the moment and with the cubs now nearing a year old, their appetites are growing rapidly, but with that being said, they are getting involved in the hunts more often and learning the skills necessary for independence.

It was quite a mesmerising moment this, expecting the Bateleur to fly away, I edged closer and closer. But it stayed, so I whipped out the camera and snapped a few shots. The contrast of its dark black feathers against the royal blue skies,s punctuated with the striking red face and feet, made for a decent shot.

Not a common leopard to be featured, but it was so good to see how large and impressive the Nsuku Male has grown into.

It seems contradictory to edit a black and white subject in a lush colourful landscape into a black and white image, but I love how the contrast of the stripes just stands out and is accentuated with an edit like this.

Mother Nature’s resilience astonishes me. I am pretty sure I saw this exact zebra about a year ago with an enormous wound on its left bum cheek. I couldn’t find my photo of it to confirm, but this zebra suffered an injury, likely at the claws of lions, which tore the striped skin. Now that it has healed the stripes are mismatched with the scars from the claws straight through the middle.

I seem to have found myself on the banks of the Sand River with wild dogs fairly frequently of late and a few images feature in this TWIP, but here the alpha male of the Toulon Pack stands, eager to dive into the water and cross. But the fast-flowing water and potential dangers that lurk within hold him back.

After finding the Nkoveni Young Male resting in a marula tree, we spent some time with him to see what he would get up t,o and this is pretty much all we got in about an hour of waiting. Him peaking over the branch to see if we were ready to leave him in peace.

Pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? Not quite! But at least one Ndzhenga Male resting out in a clearing was a good compromise.

With a very full belly on a rather warm afternoon, this Ndzhenga Male could hardly sit still, panting away after just quenching his thirst. You can see this by his wet chin.

The master opportunists, a few hyenas, lounge about on the airstrip early one morning, probably just waiting to hear any alarm calls or distress calls indicating an easy or free meal. However, the impalas in the distance had not let their guard down.

While filming a stunning scene with these elephants feeding away on the grass backlit by the golden hues of the setting sun, I thought it would be nice to get a wide-angle shot of the scene with the elephant’s silhouette and the wild flowers in the foreground.

In a recent virtual safari, the male cheetah climbed a mound and allowed us to drive around him, getting a 360-degree view of him. We also snapped this up close shot of his face while he was resting there.

While sitting with the wild dogs, hoping that they would cross the river, a large elephant bull joined the fray. After quenching his thirst, he showed the wild dogs how it was done and walked through the river.

Shlurping up litres of water into his trunk, this elephant certainly got his fill. Each trunk-fill containing between 4 and 8 litres, before spraying that down his throat.

One wild dog, the alpha male, hoping to lead the charge, plunged into the river and bounded to a small sand bank in the middle.

Realising nobody followed he swiftly turned around and crossed back.

One of the Ndzhenga Males put on a show for us, walking through some long grass backlit before settling down here and roaring multiple times.