From new staff members to sensational wildlife sightings, the past months have been very eventful at Rhino River Lodge.
Although the area has not had much rain these past months, our lodge lawns are still nice and green which means there is always quite a few antelope grazing in the campgrounds. The presence of these antelope recently caused quite the scene when a female cheetah decided to sneak into camp and make an impala kill not even 10m away from one of our guest rooms! We had to divert all guests to the main lodge area as she had made the kill on the road. She was incredibly relaxed within the campgrounds and allowed us to watch her from a safe distance. What a privilege to have this event unfold right in front of our eyes!
The Rangers have been extremely lucky with sightings lately. The wild dogs that we mentioned in our last newsletter have started to explore the big wild world, providing us with some wonderful sightings of them. Jason and Murray have been lucky enough to spot them while out on game drives. It has been very special having these endangered animals come and meet us all.
Kyle has also had some ‘wow’ moments on game drives. Driving back to camp one afternoon, he happened upon two cheetahs by luck. Deciding to spend some time with them, they followed the cheetahs for about 100m when all of a sudden, they bolted off and started chasing down an ostrich! Their first attempt failed, but still left the guests in awe of their speed, but then they tried again and this time they succeeded in taking down the ostrich. After a few minutes of struggling, the ordeal was over, and the cheetahs feasted on their well-deserved dinner. Ostrich fillet, anyone?
In other news, after looking long and hard for the right person to join our family, we now have a new assistant Lodge Manager, Mzi. We are so excited to have him with us as he is brilliant with guests and staff alike and is our resident poetry and speech master! While he has only been with us for a short period, he has already made such a difference within our team.
We have also had lots of staff birthdays this month, so we’d like to give a special shout-out to Njabulo, our amazing waiter, and Nombuso, one of our talented chefs.
