Greetings from the Gomo Gomo team – November 2011

Hi everyone it’s been an awesome month so far in the bush with the wild life being plentiful and the summer season getting into full swing.  The bush has completely transformed from a grey dull site to a lush green landscape from the first seasonal rains!

The Ross pride are doing well with all members still intact but there are 2 adult females, Chucks mom and Droopy which are not looking very healthy at the moment, it looks like it’s veering towards the end of their .  The rest are healthy and fit and we have had good sightings of them in the beginning of the month, half way through the month the left the traversing area, since then we have not had a sighting of the whole pride again.

The 2 adult males caught a Buffalo bull on the boundaries, the cubs are also doing very well and getting bigger by the day. With the 2 bigger cubs having their first birthday in a couple of days. Fat and happy – see photos

The leopards in the area are also doing fine Kwatzima is getting increasingly use to the vehicles and in daytime, her 2 cubs are also becoming very independent and is reaching that time or very close where they will separate from the their mother and go their separate ways, we hope though they stay in the area

The other very relaxed adult female Cleo we see frequently and we have good sightings with her.  Joubers female and her cubs are very elusive and we only get glimpses of them.

Getting to the Elephants, they are at the drinking spot in front of the lodge daily, big and small come to drink and play.  We have had a couple of exciting encounters with Bulls in must, which keeps the adrenalin pumping!

Rhinos are plentiful and sightings of them are picking up as the rainy season progresses.  Legend is making his regular stops at our dam when it is very hot and actually successfully won a territorial bout against a rival which I think is a good confidence booster for him and will maybe increase his chances to get the girlfriend… We think he can do with the company…

We also had 2 very good sightings of Wild Dog’s  the same ones we are getting to see more and more off.

Cheetahs have not been seen the last couple of weeks, but the Buffalos have been here in big herds.

Well that is for now, we will keep you updates

Best regards

Gomo Rangers

Hi there everyone

What a great month it has been. I think it was one of the best one’s so far.

 As everybody already knows we only have four lion cubs left in the Ross pride, and they are doing extremely well. Bertha who is the mother of the two smaller dark ones is an excellent mother and she is also looking after Lisa’s two bigger cubs. It looks like the Giraffe boys are going to stay with the Ross pride and they are mating again, so keep your fingers cross for another white lion cub.

This month alone we’ve seen the Lions about forty times and three of them were at Buffalo kills.

The Giraffe pride with the sub-adult white female is also in good health. We saw her about five times again this month and it looks like there might be about twenty three lions in that pride. They keep more to the South of the area that we traverse on.

The Leopard sightings have been exceptional so far. Kwatzima and her two cubs are doing good, they are the ones we see the most. She is still a little skittish but her to cubs are very relaxed with the vehicle. The other day we had three different leopard sightings with kills. Kwatzima and her two cubs, Cleo and her one cubs and Joubert and her cub all killed an Impala. The kills were made on the ground but they took it up a tree for the night..

We also spotted B.L, the male Leopard on an afternoon drive and we spent two and a half hours just following him. It looked like he got into a fight with with his eyes being swollen and a huge scratch on his nose. This month we had about twenty-six sightings with leopards.

The Elephants are still plenty. Coming down to drink at the lodge’s dam almost daily. The herd’s got plenty of calves so it’s a pleasure just observing them while they’re having fun playing around.

The Rhino’s are plentiful at the moment and we see them on almost every drive, sometimes up to seven on one drive. Legend has been coming down to the lodge for the past few weeks, drinking water and just wallowing in the mud until he’s satisfied and ready to graze the rest of the day. He’s had a hard month so far, losing a couple of fights and we think he’s lost eye sight in his left eye during one of these fights. The other Rhino with the weird growth on the side of his horn has been named Billabong.

The special sightings for this month was seeing a pack of thirteen wild dogs, eight adults and five pups, hunting Impala but they missed their chance.

We also saw four different Cheetah’s. The two brothers we found on an Impala kill, the female with the collar that we saw one afternoon, relaxing on a termite mound and another female cheetah in the south that we haven’t  seen before. All in all we’ve seen about twelve cheetah’s in this area. The two brothers being the most regular of them all.

So as you can see we’ve had a very busy and productive month.

We would also like to welcome Linda to the Gomo Gomo Family, she’s the assistant manager and has taken over all the office work, so I’m back in the bush where I belong.

 Hope to see you all soon.

The Gomo Gomo Team