John & Deb Italy/South Africa: Idube Game Reserve

After our early morning wake up we had a quick cuppa and headed out on safari number 2. After about 15minutes we came across a good sized herd of buffalo who were just starting to wake up. Not too far away, we were alerted by the other jeep, that a group of 4 lions had killed a buffalo probably in early hours of this morning and were just laying around. Surprisingly the buffalo were still hanging around and quite aggressive towards the lions, running towards them and snorting, then the lions would retaliate and the buffalo would ordinarily run away, but this time they just retreated and kept then repeated the process for about 40minutes. Our guide Rob, said that usually one or the other runs away, but this didn't happen and he's only seen this happen a couple of times in the 13 years he's been here! Incredible!
We then came across another leopard, baboons, a huge male rhino and 2 smaller females, zebras and a female water buck! This is really just amazing and we get so very close to the animals you start to feel very unthreatened.
We returned to the lodge for a cooked brekkie at about 9am then had a bit of a look around the lodge. There is a rope bridge that leads to a camouflaged bunker, where we saw more buffalo drinking.
Time then for a nap, then the drums beat for lunch at 2pm then off on drive number 3 at 4pm.
Waiting to go our our afternoon drive, a male leopard entered the lodge grounds and started stalking one of the Nyala, so our guide Rob was called, or rather yelled at, and he came out rifle in hand and chased it off. Pretty exciting, to say the least.
So then took off on afternoon ride and went back to see how the lions were doing with the carcass. They were really really full, and just laying around and the vultures were starting to fly in to pic at what was left after the lions moved on. Between them and the hyenas, there will be absolutely nothing left! We spotted more buffalo, elephants, Eagles, Impala and some female hyenas with cubs around their den. Again, an absolutely wonderful afternoon with sundowner drinks. A bit cooler here today and tonight, but supposed to be a warmer day tomorrow.