April 2026

April has come to an end and left us feeling rather damp and cold. Much to our surprise, we had another month of generous rainfall, a whole 162.5mm of rain! It is not typical for April to be so wet, we were expecting the rainy season to be behind us by now. But we will take what rain we can get, the bush is soaking it up and looking vibrant still! Our average temperatures for this month have been quite cool, with our highs averaging at around 22’C (72’F) and lows of around 14’C (57’F), but already dropping as low as 6’C (42’F)! We are likely heading into a very chilly winter! The sunrise is currently at 6:37 and setting at around 17:45.

With the temperatures getting notably cooler and the hours of sunlight becoming less, it is highly recommended to pack in those extra warm layers! It seems that our feathered visitors have headed north for the warmer climates, we won’t be hearing the Woodland Kingfishers or seeing the European Bee-eaters again until our Summer returns.

We have had some unusually cool days this month and it most certainly affected some of the animals’ behaviours. When the rain is pouring and the temperatures are chilly, the wildlife of Madikwe also prefers to stay in until the weather improves. Most of the animals will remain in the shelter of the thickets and away from the wind, we don’t blame them! There were even a few days where we were trying to find elephants with no luck, can you believe it?

Despite a few days of the general game sleeping in, we have definitely had some great predator and scavenger sightings. The Addo and Matata lions have still been roaming the east and we have found them on a few occasions with the females of the Kietumetsi pride, potentially creating a new generation of cubs… time will tell. As for the Kwena pride, with the amount of rain we had this month, it seems as though they were on the other side of the river when the water started to rise, so we will have to wait for the water levels to drop before they cross back over and grace us with their presence.

Whilst we are on the topic of rain, and as I am sure by now you have figured out that we did indeed have lots of it this month! The weather slowed down the construction of the new hide quite a bit. So unfortunately, we will need to wait on the big reveal for the new hide just a little while longer, but we are feeling very optimistic that it will be well worth the wait!

Until Next Time!

The Mateya Team