Still enjoying every minute !
Greetings from the bush... I've only got 10 mins to spare before our next drive. I cannot access my Gmail a/c here so I trust all is ok on the other side of the world...
It does feel like being on a different planet here... we have totally forgotten the concept of our English homes and work by now. Every game drive is different and gives us new thrills. And every day we still see animals we had not seen before.
We saw a genet last night (cute little thing... but just its tail, unfortunately), and this morning we drove an hour to see our first elephants (5 of them... the big female even stared at Nathalie big time and started to walk towards her so she squeezed nearer me for comfort....) but then when we got back to the lodge at lunch time a herd of 18 came to drink to our water hole so it was even more spectacular. Within 5 minutes, they were followed by a herd of 400+ buffaloes, wow. I'd never seen anything like it. Most people who go on safari regularly had never seen that many together either. Last time we were caught in the middle of the mad rush hour for buffaloes and again Nathalie was feeling a bit nervous... especially our driver had just told us that, of all the 'big 5' (lions / leopards / rhinos / hippos / buffaloes), the buffaloes are the number one killer. But we obviously survived to tell the tale.
We also saw an ostrich this morning and another beautiful sighting of a leopard walking around -a big male who was exploring and marking his territory. Nathalie managed to do a great video. I'm trying hard to get got shots too but because their coat is so spotted it's impossible to use the 'auto focus' option so I have to constantly manually focus which takes longer. Last night we saw TWO leopards together (same male and a female) and it's very rare as leopards are solitary animals and they only mate for 4 days once in a blue moon.
So we've been blessed with exceptional sightings, even for this part of the world. Nathalie so loves the leopards, they are her favourite by far and yesterday we saw no fewer than three in just 2 hours. In most other places you'd be lucky to see 3 in a week! It is truly a remarkable place. I didn't realise that where we are is actually just off Kruger (in the greater Kruger area).
Anyway, we're just having a ball... my suitcase arrived at noon today, yipee. It failed to make it on time last night as the driver set off from Jo'burg too late and didn't make it before the reserve closed its gate. At least I can wear my own clothes for the next 3 days.
It's still too cold for comfort at night but just great weather by day. And to have lunch in the open air, as you are overlooking the water hole where hundreds of buffaloes are drinking or enjoying a mud bath is just something that you don't experience very often. Lots of dust in the air as they move around - all very atmospheric.
Our fellow guests are very nice, some have got incredible binoculars and are happy to let us use them so we can see the animals even closer... it's like watching them in HD. Just amazing quality.
We even saw a small herd of zebras coming to drink from a lovely little pond today... with their beautiful stripes reflected in the still waters. It was just picture perfect. The lion cubs we saw twice yesterday have now moved back to the Mala Mala private reserve, where they were born, so we were truly lucky that they chose to spend 24H just a few meters away from the border onto our patch as rangers have to respect the lodges boundaries. It's also why there are so few vehicles here which is SO neat.
I'd better get changed now.... one has to wear much warmer clothes in preparation for the much cooler nights. Bisous, Sylvie x
Greetings from the bush... I've only got 10 mins to spare before our next drive. I cannot access my Gmail a/c here so I trust all is ok on the other side of the world...
It does feel like being on a different planet here... we have totally forgotten the concept of our English homes and work by now. Every game drive is different and gives us new thrills. And every day we still see animals we had not seen before.
We saw a genet last night (cute little thing... but just its tail, unfortunately), and this morning we drove an hour to see our first elephants (5 of them... the big female even stared at Nathalie big time and started to walk towards her so she squeezed nearer me for comfort....) but then when we got back to the lodge at lunch time a herd of 18 came to drink to our water hole so it was even more spectacular. Within 5 minutes, they were followed by a herd of 400+ buffaloes, wow. I'd never seen anything like it. Most people who go on safari regularly had never seen that many together either. Last time we were caught in the middle of the mad rush hour for buffaloes and again Nathalie was feeling a bit nervous... especially our driver had just told us that, of all the 'big 5' (lions / leopards / rhinos / hippos / buffaloes), the buffaloes are the number one killer. But we obviously survived to tell the tale.
We also saw an ostrich this morning and another beautiful sighting of a leopard walking around -a big male who was exploring and marking his territory. Nathalie managed to do a great video. I'm trying hard to get got shots too but because their coat is so spotted it's impossible to use the 'auto focus' option so I have to constantly manually focus which takes longer. Last night we saw TWO leopards together (same male and a female) and it's very rare as leopards are solitary animals and they only mate for 4 days once in a blue moon.
So we've been blessed with exceptional sightings, even for this part of the world. Nathalie so loves the leopards, they are her favourite by far and yesterday we saw no fewer than three in just 2 hours. In most other places you'd be lucky to see 3 in a week! It is truly a remarkable place. I didn't realise that where we are is actually just off Kruger (in the greater Kruger area).
Anyway, we're just having a ball... my suitcase arrived at noon today, yipee. It failed to make it on time last night as the driver set off from Jo'burg too late and didn't make it before the reserve closed its gate. At least I can wear my own clothes for the next 3 days.
It's still too cold for comfort at night but just great weather by day. And to have lunch in the open air, as you are overlooking the water hole where hundreds of buffaloes are drinking or enjoying a mud bath is just something that you don't experience very often. Lots of dust in the air as they move around - all very atmospheric.
Our fellow guests are very nice, some have got incredible binoculars and are happy to let us use them so we can see the animals even closer... it's like watching them in HD. Just amazing quality.
We even saw a small herd of zebras coming to drink from a lovely little pond today... with their beautiful stripes reflected in the still waters. It was just picture perfect. The lion cubs we saw twice yesterday have now moved back to the Mala Mala private reserve, where they were born, so we were truly lucky that they chose to spend 24H just a few meters away from the border onto our patch as rangers have to respect the lodges boundaries. It's also why there are so few vehicles here which is SO neat.
I'd better get changed now.... one has to wear much warmer clothes in preparation for the much cooler nights. Bisous, Sylvie x
posted by Sylvie at 1:04 PM
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