And Leopard again...

Alright, we have to admit: Not once did we have a Christmas feeling over the last couple of days. For us Dutchies, Christmas is inherently linked to cold, darkness, twinkling lights, snow or rain, grey skies and sitting indoors. How different was the Christmas this year, which we spend in Tembe Elephant Park on Christmas Day and Makhasa Game Reserve on Boxing Day. Warm, sunny, blue skies, outdoor dinners, game drives and rhino tracking. Elephant sightings were good as usual in Tembe Elephant Park, but the cherry on top of our Christmas pudding was a leopard mom with a one year old cub that decided to linger around our vehicle for more than half an hour! See the small photo essay below for an impression of the Christmas of Tailor Made Safaris:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody!

Nowadays everybody Photoshops a stupid santa hat on a giraffe or an elephant, so we decided not to stay behind...

Best wishes for you all, keep well

Nick and Freya

Bark Spiders are well camouflaged, beautiful looking, but yet freaky looking too, spiders that in appearance mimic the bark of trees. Some even go as far as having thorn look-alike protuberances from their abdomen. As soon as it is dark, it descends from the branches where it has been hiding all day, and makes a classic orb web, where it sits throughout the night catching insects. As soon as the sun comes up, it eats its own web again, to recycle nutrients and energy, and sits on a branch for the rest of the day where they are extremely well camouflaged. When night falls, the cycle starts over again...

Turtle nesting

Turtle season has started since November and this offers guests the amazing opportunity to view Loggerhead as well as Leatherback turtles laying eggs on the beaches of Maputaland. Undoubtedly the best beach to view this spectacular phenomenon is at Bhanga Neck beach at Kosi Bay. We went there recently with a group of friends, and one of them managed to take a beautiful shot of a female that had completed nesting and was on her way back to the ocean.

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Leopard in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park

Lately quite a few leopards have been seen by us from Tailor Made Safaris and other tour operators in both the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the Hlulhuwe-Umfolozi Park. As is often the case, most leopards only showed themselves on the days/moments we didn't have a camera with us. Yet, this individual female below in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi proved to be the exception. Although it was moving around a lot, we managed to view it for a good 10 minutes before it finally disappeared out of view. And luckily in the between the bouts of moving, she sat down a couple of times so a few decent shots could be taken . The photo below is our favourite of the day. It was taken using a Nikon D80 and a Nikkor 400 mm f 1:3.5 prime lens.

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Love is in the air...

It is spring in South Africa, which is a beautiful time to visit the country. All birds are busy nesting and engaging in courtship behaviour. This yellow weaver male is busy constructing a nest.

This little bee-eater has caught a delicious beetle for his partner, just before I caught him on camera...

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Great Sightings at Tembe Elephant Park

Tailor Made Safaris had some awesome sightings in Tembe Elephant Park recently! Amongst the many elephants we also came across some other, more elusive, members of the big five: A beautiful Lion and two of the highly endangered Black Rhino! To finish it off, we encountered an even more endangered Suni, South Africa's second smallest antelope. A fully grown adult is about the size of a hare.. www.tailormadesafaris.co.za