Wild Dogs on the hunt

Young Subadult Female Leopard

The winter months are starting to take a hold on the bush as the last remaining puddles and pans are drying out, this of course means better game viewing for us and this last trip confirmed that. In a 3 day trip we followed two sub adults Leopards for over an hour, watch 4 Male lions marking their territory, followed a pack of Wild Dogs while the hunted Impala, Had amazing interaction between a brave male Leopard trying to pinch a meal from a clan of hyena’s and loads of Elephant and Rhino. It is a great time to be in the bush!

All these trips will be set departure dates for next year 2011, and I will be leading all of them. I will update you all on the departure dates and prices of these amazing tours into some of the most diverse wildlife areas on the planet.

Get the word out as I am offering discounted rates for people who through word of mouth bring clients to Open Skies! That’s right if you have ever dreamed of doing these tours but thought it out of your reach, think again!

More details to follow!

Well I have been absent for some time now as we have been very busy over the last month. We have been in Mozambique, the Kruger and the Timbavati and the game viewing has been sensational. Now as the World Cup is a mere two weeks away, I just wanted to remind everyone of our exclusive Timbavati World Cup Special.

Two nights in the World Famous Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, fully inclusive of all drinks, Meals, Activities and Gate fees for R 3 500 per person.
This is exclusively through our website enquiries and should you book directly we will also offer a return transfer from Nelspruit to the Timbavati and back again for only R 450 per person. To enquire email info@openskieswild.com or call +27 82 563 6210 or +27 71 870 3031.

We look forward to introducing you to the Africa we love…

Quenching a thirst in the Great dry land

Colin and Christine Micklewright

Can you believe we are already at the end of March, how this year is flying by. Well, I am just back for a few days after a truly magical trip with the Micklewright’s, we spend time in both the Kruger and the Kalahari.

I have to be honest, if the Kruger be my wife, then the kalahari is my mistress, and oh how I love that dust covered wench (paraphrasing the great Stephenson Hamilton) .

We started our trip in the southern portion of the park at the beautiful Lukimbi lodge. This area provides great rhino viewing and we managed to see many of them down there. The object of this part of the trip was more than just game, it was game of another kind, Golf! We enjoyed a magical round of golf at the now World famous Leopard Creek Country Club, with its spectacular view’s over the Kruger National park and its waterways teeming with crocodile and hippo’s, makes for a very unique place to enjoy the game.

Playing our approaches to the 9th

I will keep the result of our match private but it was a tightly fought event! Now the only two briefs I was given by the Micklewright’s was that Colin wanted to enjoy some golf and both of them after many years of safari’s in many different countries had still not seen a cheetah and it was up to me to find them 1 or more.

After a very enjoyable few days at Lukimbi we headed out deeper into the Park and after waiting 45 minutes for a herd of about 1000 buffalo to cross the road we continued onto our camp for the night at Lower Sabie. As we rounded a bend in the road I shouted lion, then quickly retracted the statement as I realised that what I was actually looking at was a beautiful adult male cheetah. He was quickly joined by another male and we were treated to a half hour of them walking along side us, playing and even scent marking! What a start to our trip and the culmination for the Micklewright’s of 10 year search for these elusive animals.

1 of the Male Cheetahs scent marking

As we drank a cold Windhoek beer over looking the Sabie river we watched a Leopard with some cubs on the opposite bank. After the wonderful Cheetah sighting the pressure was certainly off.

We had a fantastic time in the Kruger and even sat whilst a herd of 120 Elephants grazed across an open plain finally crossing the road around our vehicle.We then went onto Tanda Tula for some more golf and game viewing.

We were once again treated royally in the Timabavati with sightings of Rockfig Junior and her cubs and one of the resident Lioness showing us her 3 week old cubs for the first time. We had to sit for nearly 2 hours but eventually we had great sightings of all three healthy little spotted bundles of fur. And after a great round of Golf at Hans Merensky it was time to bid farewell to the Kruger and time to head to the Kalahari. Whilst we spend a night in Johannesburg my team shot ahead with the vehicle to meet us at Upington airport the following day.

Little cubs still doing very well

The Kalahari provided everything and more from watching a Cheetah mother teach her 18 month old cubs how to hunt springbok to having the surreal experience of watching a leopard hunting down an open river bed. Most nights we fell asleep to the sound of roaring Lions and on our last morning up in the most northern and isolated region in the Kalahari we had the privilege of watching a pride of 7 lions crossing the dunes after listening to the all night around our camp.

We saw Cape Fox, Bat Eared Fox, Brown Hyena, Striped Pole Cat and many many Lions.

A huge thanks must go out to the Micklewrights who had an adventurous spririt right up top the last morning. What a trip and lets hope all our tours are as spectacular!

Class room for cheetahs; Mother showing her sud adults the skills they will need to catch Springbok

Greetings once again! I’m just out of the bush for a few days and thought I would give you a little update from our last trip into the bush.

The group I was guiding was very keen on walking and as I am sure you all know by now, walking is my thing!!! I love nothing more than getting off the vehicle and exploring the wilds on foot! On the second last morning we headed south and started walking at about 6:15 am. The air was cool and pleasant and it was the first clear day we had had out if the last three. We hadn’t been walking long when we hit a group of buffalo heading north east, now this was a little strange as I had seen tracks but they were heading straight south, at any rate we viewed the herd and then proceeded to skirt the herd. We had just crossed to the opposite bank when we encountered another group of buffalo heading South, I was now a little confused. We followed the herd slowly as they headed southwards but then everything became clear as we hit more buffalo heading North East! We had walk smack bang into the middle of two herds of 400 plus buffalo as they criss crossed each others paths.

Now as you can imagine this put us in a rather awkward situation as we found ourselves surrounded by about 900 buffalo all moving in different directions. Then just to add insult to injury we came across a rhino who was also in the middle of everything and was getting slightly agitated by the amount of activity around him. At any rate we had now been walking for well over half an hour and had moved about 1km, time to get out!

Now one thing my experience had taught me is that where there are 800 plus buffalo, you can be assured there is a good chance the lion won’t be far behind. So as we slowly started bumping into less and less buffalo I started scanning the vegetation for any signs of the big cats. Well it didn’t take long but a little growl gave their location away. There not more than 20m from us were three lioness’ and 1 young sub adult male. Fortunately for us this was a group I knew very well and had encountered on foot for about the last 5 or 6 years and as such they settled very quickly and obligingly let us view them for about 10 minutes before I left them to their slumber.

Amazingly we had walked for 2 and a half hours and only covered about 3,5-4km not much in distance but in adrenalin it felt like we had walked 20 km.

On days like that I am reminded what a privilege it is to be in a position to enjoy wildlife at an arms length and be able to watch them doing their normal activities. It is only on foot that we are able to move from casual observer to active participant.

Wherever you may be I hope the Skies above you are Open!

leopard cubs exploring the World

Greetings from the bush, and what can we say this is certainly going to be a summer to remember. Due to the strange weather patterns, early rains and then long hot dry spells, the game viewing has continued to provide us with some splendid game viewing options.

After having completed a 6 night birding trip in which we managed well over 300 bird species I had the great privilege of welcoming back one of our first guests and his family. Now all of the Gordon’s are avid photographers adding a slight element of pressure to the safari as I didn’t want to disappoint and disappoint the bush did not!

On our arrival we had a greeting party of three stunning bull elephants, Two Leopards in separate trees and a couple of Buffalo Bulls escaping the heat in a mud pool, all this before we had even got to the camp. After such an arrival a welcome Gin and Tonic was followed by a beautiful evening under the stars sitting around the camp fire enjoying traditional South African fare.

The early morning game drive started with a bang as we followed up on a tip off that Leopard cubs had been seen in the vicinity and after a short look we were rewarded with an amazing sighting of the two of them exploring their surroundings. Even though it was slightly overcast Nick managed to get the above shot, which I am sure you will all agree is a real winner!

Over the four nights we got many opportunities for some incredible shots and even the White Lions got into the swing of things.

As we enjoyed the coolness of the last evening  we were serenaded by the resident coalition of Lions as they called from just beyond the riverbed at the camp, what a way to round out 10 glorious days in the bush and I am sure we will be seeing more pictures from the Gordon family over the next few weeks.

I will be heading back to the bush tomorrow so until then may all the Skies above you be Open!

Well can you believe that we are already one month into 2010, time sure does fly when you’re enjoy the best that Africa has to offer. Now I am sure you are all eagerly awaiting the start of this years world Cup in SA and I am pleased to announce that we have secured accommodation for the group stages in our favourite little camp in the Timbavati. So if you or anyone is interested give us a shout at info@openskieswild.com and we will see what we can do for you!

A very happy new year to one and all, we here at Open Skies Wish everyone a truly blessed 2010 and may all your dreams come true. If the last few weeks of 2009 are anything to go by, 2010 should be an amazing year.

Wow were to begin, well over the last three weeks we have had 4 groups on safari and the amazing thing is that every group had something amazing in their trip.

A quick checklist of all that was seen:

1. Rhino’s Galore on every trip both walking and in vehicle
2. Elephants eating, Elephants Sleeping, Elephants on Foot, Elephants bathing and on one afternoon drive an elephant managed to spray the entire group with a combination of elephant snot, mud and water. As you can imagine the hilarity that ensued!
3. White Lions, the sighings have continued since our first viewing and they are prooving to be a real superstars as everyone wants to see these little treasures.
4. Leopards, hunting, sleeping and even a leopard with two 3 week old cubs. It was their first time to see game viewing vehicles and a truly special sighting.
5. Cheetah, yes amazingly in the last week we have now had three great cheetah sightings. 1 mother looking and calling for cubs, a different female with five 3 month old bundles of fur following her and a female on an impala kill with 3 9 month old energetic cubs
6. Wild Dogs yes we have infact seen three different packs over the last week. one pack of 16 and another of 12 and then 2 dogs out on the look out for potential prey. These animals are amongst the most endangered carnivores on te continent and to see so many is indeed positive signs. We were even priveldged enough to see them in action hunting, what stratergy and what stimina they showed.
7. General Game, everywhere. Zebra, Wildebeest, Kudu, Giraffe and buffalo in abundance. The good rains have left them in great condition and most of them are sporting new additions to the herds.

To sum it up in one word, Phenomenal!

Looking forward to seeing you on safari in 2010