Hello Everyone!
We hope You are all having a great summer where us in the Eastern Cape in South Africa are trying to keep ourselves warm with the start of winter? Out on the Reserve our winter has definitely started - along with some fantastic rainfall. The reserve definitely needed it and it is awesome to see things turn green again. The animals are sure grateful!
Anyway, besides that it has been another great month, and alot of cosy fires to return to after each activity. Nothing like seeing your guests faces when they are met with a hot towel and a sherry to warm them up!
The reserve has had quite a few little additions in the past month. Creatures I always seem to forget to write about, but they are so fun to watch is our ostriches! We have got 9 new babies and they are going strong! Parents are on high alert in case our cheetah decide on a snack! (which they seem to be doing of late - perhaps their metabolism gets affected by the winter too?.........you know how us humans can't seem to stop eating in winter??!!)
We have a beautiful baby giraffe too, that is soo tiny compared to his mum that you can't help but 'ooh' and 'aah' as us ladies seem to do the minute we see a baby anything!!!
Our white rhino should deliver any day now, so will keep you up to date on that little bundle!
Our cheetah cubs are growing up fast and are so beautiful. Mum is allowing us to see them now quite close, without invading their space. The 2 cubs are so inquisitive and love to look at us! Then you see them quickly run to Mum like she has given the order to move on already!!!! Our guests have really had the most amazing viewing of Damara & her cubs and have left with awesome photos to show the family. We have attached some pretty special moments, that we got to see with our guests.
WOW - I have just been told we have a new baby elephant - born last night! There is restrictions on the viewing, as it is so little - but I promise you some beautiful photos of him/her in my July news letter!
We unfortunately had to dart one of our rhino again, as his transmitter had stopped working. But it all went well and he didn't even now the difference! Steve got to go up with the vet in a helicopter so they could get a clear shot to dart him. Whilst they were looking for him, Steve got some fantastic photos of Hlosi - and wow it looks good! He said it was a really awesome experience to have seen the reserve from the air, and fairly low down - so needless to say we were all a little jealous!
Anyway, as I said the darting went well and as our vets are so good at what they do - letting each person have a go at one of the many things that take place whilst the rhino is down - weather it be monitoring his breathing, or keeping him cool with water, or taking his temperature - it all counts and makes the guests feel ecstatic to have been part of the operation. So all good here.
Fishing has been quite fun this past month. Some of the guests that are in for a few nights have opted for an afternoon fish and have come back with huge barbel, which we have released into our waterhole outside the Lodge. Nothing interesting to pan fry, but certainly entertaining for the keen fisherman!
And before I end off, I have attached a couple of photos of some awesome shots of a visitor we had at Hlosi early the other morning. Some of us were standing just inside the dinning room watching him as he went about scent marking and as you will see.........what cats love to do best! This peice of news is sooooo exciting for us, and is definately not something you see everyday. Gotta keep some juicy news for the end of the news letter - can't have all the excitement at the top of the page!!!
Well, again, we thank all those operators that have sent us guests, and we look forward to a whole lot more!
Take care everyone & we'll catch up again at the end of July, with some more news from the bush!
Kerry and the rest of the Lion Roars Team
