A full moon rising tonight…and the close,  very close, proximity of Venus and Jupiter will be spectacular… hanging over the deck at Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, where Clive and I are at the moment. We have just come from Senuko where the Nyarushanga Pack have denned and I have been delighted with being able to be close to my favourite African wild dogs again, and to share them with good friends Alastair Pole and Neil Birnie, our granddaughters and staff… special sightings indeed…here are some of Al’s photos:

Mase- white as milk

Look at this gorgeous photo of “Mase” , a  young male dog whom I have named so because he is as white as milk….

Mase poses…

Such a beautiful boy…..

Mase- portrait

Pups are apparent at the den- we can hear them but not see them, carefully shielded from view by the clever Alpha female…they are still only a few weeks old… With the full moon growing, I have noticed again this year that the dogs hunt very late from their den, with a waxing fullish moon, relying on the bright moonlight to enable to hunt far and fast in the cool of the night…

thinking wild dogs….soon we will host a Wine and Wild Dog weekend at Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge- with African Wildlife Consrvation Fund and Jeremy Borg of Painted Wolf Wines…see my blog at:

https://wildlifeandwilddogs.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/wine-and-wild-dog-weekend-great-tastes-and-conservation-at-chilo-gorge-safari-lodge/

Wonder what the Wild Dog packs in the Save Valley Conservancy and Gonarezhou  will think of gorgeous Jupiter and Venus?!….will they and the elephants notice the changing configurations of stellar bodies? The answers might surprise us… This imaginary artwork shows the close-up beauty of both Jupiter and Venus, two bright naked-eye planets that will be visible close together in the skies this week. Last night under that spectacular sky, a naughty bull elephant trampled the garden bed round room 10 last night- and I woke up to hear him chewing! Went to the balcony and growled at him, then he walked to my door, still chewing – so I went to the door and saw the Sabi Star he had just bumped over- grrrrr….I told him how bad he was, beautiful tusks gleaming silver above me in the nearly-full moonlight, and he just lifted his trunk gently in the air to smell me, then walked casually and delicately down the narrow path to the garden tap where he sipped from the drips- before melting away! Gorgeous……Chilo Gorge Lodge truly is Elephant Paradise…

Elephant in the moonlight….