Dear Garonga Diary,
This week a lot has been happening especially with the safari team whilst doing monitoring drives. They had outstanding, stunning sightings which were a great achievement from the team. Taking you in mind that The Greater Makalali Reserve is very big which is over twenty thousand hectares in one drive we spotted two of the Big five that was awesome. Imagine as you drive come across one of the dominant male lions (junior Kalahari) named after his late father Kalahari senior lying down with a fresh scar on the face. Apparently, bleeding which I strongly believe he had a territorial battle or fight in the night or a night before. Again,I can speculate that he lost his brother during the fight and is wandering around looking for him as we know that is a coalition of two. He looked tired, badly injured but we had nothing to help or do as nature fogging is course (nothing beat the bush). Just before we close down we spotted two thirsty dagga boys (two buffalo bulls) having a drink on one of our dams which was a spectacular finish.
Also, Safari team was out there doing a bit of vehicle maintenances cause is part of our responsibility to make sure our vehicle is always well maintained and ready all the time. Sanded and varnishing that was a nice touch this week.
On the maintenance side a lot has been happening behind the scene like fixing some of the lodge equipment, extra. This week one of the duties was to fix, paint kitchen shelves which is part of getting ready just before we reopen again. Believe me, seeing everyone preparing or working like this I could imagine, feel that slowly things are getting back hopefully.
A fire was part of what transpired this week a report came through the radio to alert everyone regarding the fire in Pidwa south which is approximately twenty minutes south of Garonga camp. The first squad to respond or arrive at the scene was Garonga, and then the other teams from the reserve arrived to assist and managed to stop the fire. The fire was caused by a tree that was pushed by an elephant bull to the power line. Job well done to the teams that stopped the fire.
Being in the bush is unpredictable, unbelievable whilst doing our bush clearing we were blessed by stunning male leopard sighting with a fresh steenbok kill, It was great seeing a leopard dragging its carcass into the bush (leopard are secretive and very scared animals) we just missed to see when he made a kill anyway we were excited to see a leopard sighting which you don’t spot them easily.
Read last week’s post in the Garonga Diaries here
Until next week!
Warmest regards.
Josia
