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