At Thanda Private Game Reserve many special activities are available for guests. Today I took my guests to a “Hippo and Croc Cruise” on Lake St.Lucia. Great sightings of Hippos, Crocs and many birds. Another very enjoyable day as part of a 12 night stay agenda at Thanda.
African Fish Eagle
Nile Crocodile
Hippopotamus
Giant Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
A new male Lion has arrived at Thanda. Today this magnificent animal was released into a large enclosure (called “boma”) where he will spend some time until he will “take over” a new section of Thanda as dominant male.
When the transport container was opened he jumped out, did a short speed run, gave a few deep growls and then slowly inspected his new temporary home!
This images shows the Thanda’s dominant male Lion enjoying the morning sunlight as the Thanda guest enjoyed watching him!
What a start for a great day!
This afternoon we had some winter rain. Despite the unusual wet weather for this season the Thanda guests enjoyed great game drives with Elephant bulls, a herd of Buffalo and this young Giraffe (in Zebra company).
We were the center of focus for this young male Lion when we watched him and his family feeding on a Wildebeest kill. The Thanda guests on my vehicle enjoyed the attention!
This morning we spotted Thanda’s herd of Elephants in a remote area of the reserve. We watched from top of a hill as they faded in and out of the trees. After the herd had gone by Thanda’s two largest Elephant bulls were making their way across the valley.
Not only the closeup sighting can be magnificent!
Thanda guests often have fabulous Lion sightings. This morning the North Pride was resting on the savanna before continuing their walk to a near waterhole. They came close up and personal to one of our game drive vehicles. A thrilling moment for any safari guest!
Sometimes your best sighting of the day is not one of the big five. Today was such a day. As beautiful and exciting as the Rhino, Buffalo and Cheetah sightings were, seeing this African Harrier Hawk flying from tree to tree and looking for nests was very special.
The Thanda guests enjoyed watching this raptor concentrating on his afternoon hunt (and almost giving some Guinea Fowls a heart attack in the process :-)).
Fight Rhino Poaching from the Air!
ZAP-Wing is a partnership between the provincial conservation agency Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and Project Rhino KZN. 24 game reserves (300,000ha) in northern KwaZulu-Natal currently benefit from daily aerial surveillance and reaction support; over 3,000 rhino are under the ZAP-Wing watch.
Thanda supports the organization and the reserve is covered by the ZAP-Wing.
Watch the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YY883N2d-Og),
check out the website (www.zapwing.org),
and support the fight for Rhinos!
Today’s evening game drive on Ithala was rather quiet. Besides the usual suspects (Zebra, Wildebeest, Kudu and Warthog) I got some funny images of a female Ostrich and when I got back to my room at the camp a Bushbuck was eyeing me for a while before disappearing into the bush.
Now I am off to dinner after a lot of driving 🙂
