The changing of seasons from summer to autumn has brought with it some spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Here, Stefan managed to capture the beauty of a sunrise from Earth Lodge!

Earlier this week we received some more rain which saw this inquisitive Spotted Hyena venture into a small puddle.

We have enjoyed countless leopard sightings this week!

The Kashane male was seen taking refuge within the grounds of the Amber Presidential Suite at Earth Lodge where he seems to have come off second best against a porcupine!

We waited for 40 minutes with all our lights down as Maxabeni male leopard lay less than 10 meters from a young impala. He patiently waited for the right moment before pouncing. With the darkness surrounding us, the only senses we could use was our hearing as we heard the bleating of the impala as it took its last breath. We put on our lights and observed this powerful leopard hoist the carcass up a tree.

We were the only ones there and with our guests who had visited many lodges on the African continent, were left speechless at witnessing their first kill. A feeling of mixed emotions surrounded by bouts of adrenaline!

After following up on some fresh drag marks, Ronald and his tracker Mike found a young female leopard who had recently hoisted a juvenile impala ram into a Marula tree. Clearly tired from the ordeal, the leopardess rested providing our guests with some fantastic photographic opportunities and viewings of her over a number of days.

After a decent tracking exercise, we enjoyed watching the young Kigelia female leopard scan her surroundings for a potential meal. She then found a Scrub Hare which just managed to escape a fatal end!

The Little Bush female was in hot pursuit of a female leopard that had moved through her territory just moments before.

We have had some wonderful sightings of general game as well as some of the many species of birds we see here at Sabi Sabi.

The three Birmingham males made their presence known this week as they were seen hunting a large herd of buffalo, however, they were unsuccessful in their attempts.

The Mhangeni Pride of sub adult lions was seen quite a bit towards the end of this week. Quite a few of them were nursing wounds from injuries sustained during hunts but nothing serious. We are hoping these young lions will go from strength to strength as they gain more experience and confidence in hunts as they are in need of a good meal.

We end this blog with a sighting last night of the Southern Pride! Louise picked up on some lion tracks yesterday morning and after many hours spent looking for the lions, our safari team successfully located them yesterday evening! We had a sighting of 7 lions, of which 6 are Southern Pride members, and a sub adult male who is unknown to us. Of the 6 Southern Pride lions, 2 are adult females, 3 are sub adults and there is one younger cub. Unfortunately, we did not see Floppy Ear/Mandleve with the pride.

Until next time...