Sightings at Nkurru Game Lodge

I am currently freelancing at Nkurru Game Lodge in Madikwe and even though the week started off very slowly, to put it mildly, things started picking up this morning - which cannot be said about the weather... it is getting VERY cold!!

Here are a few of the images from this morning's drive.

Found two big male rhinos just after leaving the lodge. The light was perfect and we all got pretty excited about the photo opportunities but these two gentle giants did not feel like a photo-shoot so early on a winter's morning. Got a few shots but the best part was that we actually started seeing animals again... yesterday nothing!!

We get to see quite a lot of Kudus in Madikwe. Nothing strange about that. This particular guy had us quite confused and worried though. From this angle, he looked perfect. Big guy, very healthy and apparently just another beautiful antelope. When he turned around we got quite a fright...

On his right side, this Kudu had some very serious looking injuries. From what we could see it looked like he had an open wound on his cheek area and his eye was also wounded very badly. This is not the kind of images I would normally post, but seeing this guys in this state got me thinking. Even though he was obviously very badly hurt, he carried on regardless. No feeling sorry for himself, no blaming the other kudu, just carry on with his everyday activities. I reckon these injuries were sustained in a fight with another male and this little tussle has left this guy in quite a bad state. His vision might now be compromised on the one side, but all over he was healthy, alert and hopefully will be around for quite some time.

After the kudu we finally found them...

The Etali female and her two youngsters. The cats have been making things quite difficult the last few days but this was one of those great 'surprise-moments'. We came around the corner, just about to stop for our morning coffee, when the three of them came strolling down the road. Nothing like being met head on by a couple of lions early in the morning! We followed them for a while and as they decided to cut back into the thick bushes around the Inselbergs, we stopped for our coffee break. Great sighting, great coffee!! :)

We are heading out this afternoon to hopefully get a look at the Batia brothers. These two legends in Madikwe are around 14 years old and still quite a site! (Should perhaps do a bit of a history on them at some point... Hmmm...) Hopefully I will be able to post some some images of the 'old boys' soon!

As always I look forward to hearing from you!

Gerry