Pilanesberg Game Reserve - New website

We have just launched our newest website marketing the Lodges of the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.
Easy to book, fast response time and best prices.
Big Five Game Park

BOOK HERE - http://www.pilanesbergreservation.co.za/

 
From budget venues, the Manyane and Bakgatla Resorts, to the luxury private Lodges in the Pilanesberg  Game Reserve such as Tshukudu Bush Lodge, Shepherd's Tree Lodge or the larger Ivory Tree Lodge.
Also recommended would be Bakubung annd Kwa Maritane Bush Lodges. Recent additions to the accommodation in the Pilanesberg are venues in the Black Rhino reserve which is open to the Pilanesberg Game National Park. The Lodges there offer game drives on the Black Rhino Reserve property as well as in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve. We offer accommodation at the Black Rhino Lodge as well as the Pilanesberg Private Lodge. All these venues have accest to and are close to Sun City !

For those who wish to selfcater at a luxury Lodge there is Buffalo Thorn Lodge in the Black Rhino Reserve

Book all these Pilanesberg accommodation venues from this new website !

BOOK HERE - http://www.pilanesbergreservation.co.za/

My Recent Visit to the Kruger Park – Keith Marallich

I recently had occasion to guide a tour of four youngish Germans to the Kruger Park. I was looking forward to this; I had not been to the Kruger for some time and was looking forward to visiting the spiritual home of so many South Africans after a long absence. I picked this group up at the O R Tambo in the late morning and made my way to Hanna Lodge, on the Panorama Escarpment. This was a good choice, as it gave the clients some time to unwind and more importantly, offered them some good food, something that would be sorely missed during the next few days! Upon arrival at Hanna Lodges’ entrance gate, we had to stop for a flock of ostriches that seemingly were all over the place, together with large numbers of warthog and in the distance what looked like hartebeest and impala. Hannah Lodge was a good as ever, and dinner that evening was superb. Even though there were not that many people in residence at the lodge, they did not hold back on the food, and a fine dinner buffet was on offer. 

The following morning after a good breakfast we made our way down the Abel Erasmus Pass and entered the Kruger Park at Orpen Gate. I must say that I was immediately aware of the fact that this area had received much rain – in fact, they had cyclone weather together with some flooding earlier in the year and evidence of this deluge was everywhere, manifested in the amount of surface water and in the previously dry riverbeds that were now constantly trickling water. I was a little concerned about this as my experience is that if there is water available at previously dry pans and waterholes, animals are scarce near the public roads and difficult to find. This was the case, and we did not see much on the 47 kilometre drive from Orpen Gate to Satara – some elephant, lots of impala, zebra and some hippos at the Nsemani Dam. This scarcity of animals may also have had something to do with the time of day, mid morning to mid midday, possibly the worst time for game viewing.

After checking in we went on an afternoon drive on the very popular S100 – reputed to be one of the best game viewing roads in the entire Kruger Park, but all we saw here were some general plains game, although we did have a nice sighting of some elephants drinking at the N’wanetsi River where it crosses the S41 road. Unfortunately, with the setting sun which we were driving directly into and the dust of the S100, visibility was poor so not much was seen on the first day. I suspect that this is what rally drivers must experience being behind faster cars on the Dakar Rally through the desert, all this dust and low light! I was hoping for an improvement for the following few days. 

Now with a good few hours under our belt today, everyone was looking forward to dinner, and we duly arrived at the dining room at Satara in preparation for our dinner, only to be told that they do not serve dinner any longer! The reason? They have increased the dinner prices and because of this people stay away - they do not have enough customers to justify a buffet, so they only do one on Saturday nights (and this night happened to be a Sunday night, so I was twenty-four hours too late or six days too early)! Now I am no economist, but maybe, just maybe, lower your prices, take dinner reservations (with a deposit if needs be) and then cater for those people that have booked dinner – it workd at Hilltop Camp in the Hluhluwe uMfolozi Park. The result of this was that we were obliged to have dinner in the cafeteria, where we ended up with burgers and toasted sandwiches for dinner. Fortunately for me, the clients understood and were not that upset. More was to follow on the food front the next morning – this time it was through my mistake – no-one else can be blamed.

After our slap-dash dinner I decided that we would not return to Satara for breakfast (one does not want to take too many chances here, does one?) – we were to stay at Skukuza the following two nights, so I resolved to do an early morning game drive in the Satara area and then have breakfast/brunch at the Tshokwane Picnic Site en route to Skukuza. As is my wont, we started out early and I did quite a long drive along the S36. We saw some general game and lots of elephants. At one point in the early morning, in some fairly thick bush, a bull elephant broke out of the bushes, out of nowehere and came straight for us, ears well open, standing tall and trumpeting – this was serious stuff! With some fairly deft backing up, (brag, brag), and the elephant coming down the road after me, a fine time was had by all. I suspect that the elephant was either chasing another one, which we did not see, or was being chased by another one, which we also did not see, or was following a breeding herd or something else along those lines, but whatever the reason, he decided that he had better things to do after all and left us in peace to wipe the sweat from our collective brows. He disappeared into the bush, trumpeting all the time, sounding very much like a large group of vuvuzela bearers at a World Cup soccer match, getting fainter as he moved further and further away to whom knows where.

Where the S36 re-joined the tar road, we came across two dead lions just off the road. Actually, after a while they both moved, so they were not dead, but they may as well have been. The only excitement they afforded us was when the sun got too warm and they moved into deeper shadow and out of sight. Time to move on, bacon and eggs are calling.

When I arrived at the Tshokwane Picnic Site in response to the call of the bacon and eggs (and this was now mid-morning), lo and behold, I discovered that this popular picnic site was closed! This was because of the flood damage from earlier in the year, and I admit, this was my mistake – I should have checked to see if it had re-opened. Alas, we now had no option but to push on to Skukuza where we then had an early lunch, very similar to last nights’ dinner, but acceptable, this was after all lunch.

I was not going to make any mistakes with any future meals, so I went to the restaurant at Skukuza to see what they had on offer for dinner as in my previous and many visits here, it had always been a buffet (as was the case at Satara), but to my consternation I found that they too had done away with the buffet, but were offering meals on an a la carte basis, and the menu for each individual day was posted at the entrance. The menu? Too little choice (one in the group was a vegetarian, which was not catered for) and too expensive for what was on offer. Fortunately, Skukuza, being the largest camp in the Kruger Park, has two restaurants, so we ended up having all our dinners here at the Selati Restaurant. They have a fixed a la carte menu that may change only twice a year, and although fairly expensive, their service and meals are not too bad and certainly the best that is to be found in the Park. No complaints here.

The next morning we did a meandering drive down to Lower Sabie for breakfast – I wanted to see what has changed here in terms of their meals, and also, this is a good region for some great game viewing. Lower Sabie does not offer the buffet breakfast any longer, so we had the set breakfast at the cafeteria – a choice of three breakfast dishes. Not too much of a problem, how much can you really mess up bacon and eggs and toast? Game viewing was quite good, with a nice sighting of two lionesses, one of which was pretty bored with being stared at and showed this by giving off a massive yawn. It was on this road that we also had a good sighting of a trio of white rhinos.

For future visits to the Kruger Park I am a little concerned about the meals. The Kruger Park, although a great wildlife destination, was never known for its fine dining and gourmet meals – they are after all a wildlife conservation organization and this is where their focus is. All the camps used to offer a buffet dinner (of varying degrees it must be said). However, it now seems as if each camp has its own meal system on what may or may not be on offer for dinner. If the two largest camps in the park, Skukuza and Satara do not offer a buffet, and the second largest camp in the Kruger Park, Satara, only has cafeteria meals available for dinner, what of the smaller camps? I will have to tell future clients that any visit to the Kruger may result in a lottery as far as dinner is concerned, and any client who feels that they have to have good meal choices that are well presented, may have to look at a private concession lodge inside the park or a lodge in the private Sabi Sands or Timbavati Reserves adjacent to the Kruger. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with the quality of the food that we had, it is simply the presentation, choices and level of service that one has to grit one’s teeth about when dining at the camp cafeterias. I can get by with a “take away” type of breakfast and lunch, but want something just a little bit more refined for dinner! May, just maybe one day, SAN Parks will look at getting outside commercial restaurants into the Kruger Park – it can’t be too difficult having someone like Spur at these camps, surely? (For those internationals who don’t know Spur, it is a standard South African family restaurant, serving basic meals, but with so many choices, and even though it is not fine dining, it should suit almost everyone.

What about the main reason for the visit – the wildlife? We saw lion every day, except for our first day on arrival, and were quite lucky to have a fairly good leopard sighting one afternoon. Bird sightings, even though this was mid-April, were still pretty good with a martial eagle and a ground hornbill posing very nicely for us along the main road between Lower Sabie and Skukuza. The rest of the “big5”, elephant, buffalo and to a lesser extent, rhino, were regularly seen and then of course plenty of zebra, giraffe, waterbuck, wildebeest and more seen in abundance.

I have included some photos hereunder – this is simply a small selection of the photos that I took on this trip, and covers a cross-section of animals that were seen – I trust that you will enjoy them.  

Madikwe Hills - Chris Moerdyk report

February 16 2012 at 08:27am


By Chris Moerdyk

Comment on this story
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
You don't have to worry about bathing outdoors only the animals can see you, and they don't care.

Related Stories
There is no greater feeling of contentment than standing stark naked on your own private deck surveying an unbroken vista of pristine Africa, following an early-morning skinny dip in your own private plunge pool and an invigorating outside shower. It is the ultimate in communing with nature even if it terrifies myriad animals and birdlife which, after many decades, have probably never adapted to seeing homo sapiens in the buff.
I love the bush with a passion. Nothing on earth destresses me quicker than the smell and all enveloping warmth of Mother Africa at her natural best. But I do get somewhat miffed when I am forced to spend my first waking moments and that half-hour before I go to sleep sharing Ma Africa with strangers.

I want her all to myself.

I also get a little bitter and twisted when, on a game drive, we happen to come across something exciting such as a pride of lion next to the road, or a leopard dozing in a tree, or a kill when, within minutes, we are surrounded by dozens upon dozens of game vehicles, cars and lumbering camper vans that turn a tranquil Mother Nature moment into a Hollywood production of whirring cameras and frenetic pointing and shouting.
Which brings me to a little bit of serendipity I experienced recently –in one of the best luxury game lodges I have visited anywhere in Africa, in one of the best-managed game reserves on the continent.

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

I am talking about Madikwe Game Reserve, set in the Marico bushveld slap in the middle of Herman Charles Bosman territory and nestling up against the Botswana border.

The reason I have fallen in love with Madikwe is not because of its big five or almost 500 bird species, but because of its management – game rangers and trackers who try as hard as possible to keep out of each other’s way so that you always feel you are on your own. And, most importantly, their wonderful rule that no more than three game vehicles may gather in any one place. A brilliant rule that should be applied everywhere. But, before going on about the spectacular game and our sighting of black rhinos and an extremely rare bird, a word or two about our lodgings.

The Madikwe Hills Private Game Lodge is what one would expect of a five-star establishment, and more.
It is set on the side of a thickly wooded hill with the entire lodge raised off the ground to about mid-thorn tree height and joined by a network of wooden walkways. The entire lodge is built around rocks and trees and every suite is charmingly decorated to look like part of your own luxurious family holiday home rather than one of those terribly contrived hotels where they measure the distance between the magazines and the fruit bowl on the coffee table and make sure that your goodnight chocolate is absolutely in the centre of your pillow.

Madikwe Hills is elegantly casual. Our suite had a large lounge, massive bedroom, huge dressing room, a bathroom from here to eternity, all glass fronted with views over the acacia-studded plains. A huge rambling front deck was raised above ground level and incorporated a plunge pool which was at a perfect temperature to allow you to have a refreshing dip without making your testicles contract to somewhere near your backbone. But my favourite feature was the magnificent brass outdoor shower which I chose over the indoor version in the bathroom. With the entire unit private and protected from public view, I could swim and shower in the raw – communing with nature and getting a little sun on my lily-white bum even though it scared the animals. On our last morning we had a young bull elephant no more than 50m from the deck watching me shower. He stared for a bit, waved his trunk fairly suggestively (I thought) then wandered off shaking his head. I think he was laughing but he might well have been looking for somewhere to throw up.

Our morning and afternoon game drives were superblyprofessional under the guidance of our ranger, Barend, and tracker, Lebo.

We got to see a pride of lion, white rhino, black rhino, elephant and buffalo but somehow missed the leopard. Still, four out of the big five is pretty good going for a few hours. Madikwe is also well known for its wild dog. We didn’t see any but we were told that they were seen heading en masse in the generaldirection of Botswana at about the time I was skinny-dipping. Anyway, with both my wife and I keen birdwatchers, as were the young couple from the UK who shared our game drives, we revelled in Barend’s ability to spot birds. We added four more lifers to our bird list. But it was number 473 on our list that gave us the most joy.
It was the rare yellow form of the crimson-breasted shrike – something most birders only dream about and which even Barend had never seen before.

Equally exciting was not only managing to find a family of rare black rhino but having one of the young males mock-charge us –with the result that the video I took is now one of the most prized in my wildlife collection.

Madikwe Hills Lodge is one of those places that exceed your expectations from the word go. The service is outstanding, the accommodation better than most and the game viewing superb. But, most of all, with so many reserves becoming more and more crowded, Madikwe – and particularly the location of Madikwe Hills Lodge – makes you feel that you really are in wildest Africa. That you really are in the back of beyond. In fact, it’s more than that. Just think of the back of beyond and you’ll find Madikwe Hills just beyond that.
Strangely enough, it’s only a five-hour drive from Joburg or Pretoria but most guests choose to fly in to the reserve airstrip on Federal Air that operates between Gauteng and Madikwe.

But here’s another interesting thing. Round about the beginning of every year is animal mating season in Madikwe. We saw impalas rutting away as though there were no tomorrow;lions mating with almost royal disdain for the whole process of procreation; amorous white rhino males being rebuffed by tetchyfemales trying to have amud bath; turtle doves scurrying about the ground in ritual mating dances; and two baboons bonking their hearts out in the middle of the road. But it was when I was watching the male rhinos being given the cold shoulder that it suddenly occurred to me that whenever I paraded about our deck in the raw and had a bit of a skinny dip, my wife would sneak away and lock herself in the bathroom. - Saturday Star

If You Go...

l Madikwe Hills Private Game Lodge: Six stars in my book
Game viewing: excellent
Accommodation: 10 out of 10
Cuisine: 7 out of 10
Service: Always with a smile
Spa and gym: I don’t do gym but the reflexology almost beats showering in the sun
Malaria and goggas: Madikwe is malaria-free and goggas are kept at bay with efficient mosquito netting
Temperature: Even in January it was in the mild mid-20s with moderate humidity. It does get cold on winter nights and early mornings

Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park Lion

On a recent visit to uMfolozi and Hluhluwe Game Reserves we saw one of the famed "Tree climbing lion".
Here is a picture of one relaxing from his lofty vantage point. That was quite a climb. These lion are regularly seen in the Corridor / Seme area of the Park.
Photo Lana Williamson.

Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park December 2011 - Jeremy Williamson

It has been a number of years since Lana and I had visited the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park. My two daughters were keen to rekindle memories of old, Jodi wanted to introduce her two sons to the bush at an early age. Lee was out from the UK on holiday, so despite December not being my ideal time to visit we decided to spend a few nights in the park.

We visited the Umfolozi sector of the Park first, overnighting at Mpila Camp. We enjoyed fairly good sightings of most species including three independent sightings of lion and a rather dynamic herd of elephant. Such action within the herd and the younger members all wanting to make some statement at this Land Rover parked in the road. Young Michael loved them and I am sure will always remember the youngest of the “brave” who rushed up towards us, shook its head and almost fell over.

Braais in the bush, lion calling in the early morning, the whistle of a reedbuck as I opened the Chalet door at dawn to watch the sunrise – memories. I was impressed with the improvement in the equipment supplied to guests, the comfort of the beds and the pillows !! I used to have to bring my own. Did this time too but it found better use in the car when the young lads tired. The house-keeping at Mpila camp was pretty good too, general maintenance as well. It was on the tar road to Hilltop Camp from Mpila that some serious maintenance is required – the potholes were reminiscent of those we experienced on the Great North Road in Zambia many years ago. I noted that sections had recently been repaired – roads are an ongoing maintenance requirement I am sure.

As we headed north so the density of the bush increased, there is serious encroachment. Sections of the Park I remember so well when I was visiting the Park on a very regular basis were now totally overgrown with Sicle bush and other pioneer plant species. This impacted severely on the enjoyment of the northern sector with some of the sections not warranting a visit due to the lack of reasonable visibility.

As Hilltop Camp is the only camp in this Game Reserve that has a restaurant making it easier for International travelers and Tour Operators to cater, it is consequently the favored venue for our overseas guests. I despair when I hear how poor the sightings at this time of year are. For a 1 night stay it is impractical for guests to be able to visit the far more rewarding Umfolozi without some guidance or experience. This was not always the case. I needed to see for myself and the poor reports from our Tour Guiding operation and guests seem valid. A pity as the carrying capacity of this Park should really be quite high compared to some of the private venues and even Kruger Park which has less rain and more impoverished soils. I must compliment the work achieved on the reduction of the invasive plant species. An enormous amount of money has been spent on this – certainly there is visible evidence of success.

Hilltop Camp was much the same. Some pleasant surprises too. Milk, tea and coffee sachets in the units. Improved beds and pillows, sleeper couches and new utensils in the kitchens. Then for those that need, Limited DSTV in the rooms as well . The restaurant was busy and a snack menu with extended hours is a good idea – very popular. I must say the gardens at Hilltop have really grown, it’s a veritable forest there. Beautiful and well maintained.

Our early morning game drive to Seme was disastrous , possibly the worst I have ever experienced and the weather was fine. This was redeemed on our exit drive to Memorial gate where we had some reasonable white rhino sightings and a fairly large herd of buffalo. In all good to see how the Park was faring, note made not to visit during peak summer which made me despair for our clients who travel here to miss their dreadful winters.

My Visit to Phinda – Keith Marallich

I was fortunate to visit the Phinda Private Game Reserve during early December. This was a belated birthday present, but a number of factors played a role in choosing the date. There had to be availability of course, and then reservations could only be made at very short notice – 24 hours before taking up the occupation! What was good about this short notice thing was I then had a chance to look at the weather forecasts for the next two to three days prior to making the reservation, and unfortunately this is where things fell apart a bit. As from early November the weather seemed to be against me. My primary reason for going was for photography, and to complicate matters more, my main aim was to photograph cheetah and black rhinos – quite a tall order, but I was confident that Phinda could deliver! However, I did not want a cloudy sky or rain - the light I hoped for had to be perfect, with blue skies and low sun. I was maybe a little too demanding, but at short notice, with the benefit of weather forecasts, I felt that this could be done. Little did I know that the best laid plans of mice and men…

Every week I was diligently checking availability and weather, and as the month of November grew longer, so nothing changed - 40%, 50% and more prediction of rain (and you don’t have rain without clouds) for all weekends in November. The first weekend in December looked great, but then I hit a snag – that was the one weekend that I could not go. So, what about the next weekend of the 8^th to 11^th December? The following weekend after this was a long weekend and I had a tour at this time in any event, and Phinda was pretty full from then on. January, February and March was just too hot for me, so it was now or never (Never…? too strong a word!). The weekend of the 8^th to 11^th December would have to do, so I duly made my reservation. I also would have liked to have stayed at just one single lodge for the duration of my stay, but with the COP17 conference in Durban coming to an end at this time, this was not possible, so I stayed the first two nights at the Phinda Vlei Lodge and the last night at the Phinda Forest Lodge.

Phinda is a short three hour drive from Durban and easily accessible to any type of vehicle. Upon arrival I was greeted and shown around Vlei Lodge, before being shown my room. I was also warned that I should keep at least my screen doors closed as there were vervet monkeys about, and they did tend to monkey around a bit, but who listens to these warnings? Whilst setting up my camera to take some photos of the suite (I was in the bathroom at this time), I heard a racket from the adjoining bedroom and rushed through, only to find a monkey helping himself to the wrapped nougat which was on offer. He got away with some nougat and sat in the tree above the room; artfully unwrapping the candy and enjoying it. This of course meant less nougat for me. The suites at Phinda Vlei Lodge are free standing, and fringe the reserve’s unique vlei (wetland) system along the edge of the rare sand forest and are intimately integrated into the surrounding African bush. This lodge comprises six thatched suites which each come complete with a luxurious ensuite bathroom, dressing room, private plunge pool and game viewing deck, all overlooking the grassy vlei.

The public areas consisted of a lounge, an inside dining area for when the weather was bad and an outside dining area for when the weather was good. With the weather conditions as they were, this meant that half my meals were inside whilst the other half were enjoyed outside.

Hereunder some photos of the Vlei Lodge.

The game drives at Phinda Vlei Lodge were usually pretty good, but unfortunately for me they were mostly in bad light. The Friday morning drive was done in some light drizzle and for the afternoon drive I did not even take my camera along, such was the rain. Probably the last drive at Vlei was the “worst” of the four, as we travelled all the way to the furthest reaches of Phinda to find elephant. We did in fact find a herd of about 50 to 60 animals, as well as other general game, but for the four hours that we were out, the light did not play along, so I did not take any photos of these magnificent beasts. We also spent quite a long time during my stay here trying to find leopard, as there was plenty of evidence of their presence by the number of fresh tracks that we found, but apart from one very “small” sighting, we could not find them. I will hereunder detail some of the more exciting sightings that were seen and general animals that were seen on both the Vlei and Forest lodges’ game drives included white rhino, and lots of them, nyala by the ton, reedbuck, impala (and many had lambs that were recently born), zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, baboons, the odd duiker, monkeys, wart hog, buffalo, hippos and more.

Some of the sightings from Vlei Lodge, in no particular order, that stood out for me were the following:

- A lactating lioness laying on top of a mound fully at ease, with an odd yawn every now and then. Her cubs were nowhere to be found, but they should have been fairly close by.

- Two large male lions (and even in reasonably good light) that I was told are the two dominant males of the reserve – a large area for them to cover.

- A black rhino and her sub-adult calf. A few days later we also saw a black rhino and calf and maybe this second sighting was of these same two animals. Phinda has roughly about thirty black rhinos on their property and this highly endangered animal seems to be doing well here – long may it continue. Just on that note, with all the rhino poaching currently being experienced in South Africa at the moment, Phinda have not lost a single rhino to poachers, neither the black or white variety.

- Five cheetahs, made up of two males, one female and two sub-adult cubs. The males were obviously trying to impress the female, but she was having none of them. I must also say that every time one of the males approached the female, the cubs would give voice to their displeasure with strange bird-like mewing sounds (very difficult to put into words, this strange bird-like mewing sound).

- A very young white rhino calf with its mother. This little animal reminded me somewhat of an aardvark, with its large ears and small body. One of those animals that all on the vehicle ooh’d and aah’d about.

- A wildebeest that was trying to give birth, but with little privacy. The baby’s front legs were already protruding from the mother, but every time she settled down to do what had to be done, she was surrounded by more wildebeest from her herd and sometimes even some zebra. We never did see here complete her birth.

- On that same morning we were watching a mother cheetah and her two sub-adult cubs, just lazing about on a termite mound. All of a sudden the mother perked up and looked off into the distance, this intense look soon to be followed by both cubs. What they had seen, and which we saw a few seconds later, was a male lion bearing down upon them from a distance. Needless to say, the cheetah left in a hurry, being chased by the male lion, which never caught them, because we saw these animals again.

- Two male cheetahs devouring an impala lamb. We had found the remains of an impala lamb that had been killed and eaten a short time before we came upon them, just starting on their meal of a second impala lamb in probably as many hours. They had just started and within 20 to 30 minutes it was all over – all that was left of the impala was the bottom bit of four legs, some skin and a few bones. We even watched them crunch their way through the impala’s skull and I suppose a two week old impala still has a soft skull. All this on the afternoon that I did not take my camera!

After my visit to Vlei Lodge, it was off to Phinda Forest Lodge for my last night. Set deep in the heart of a rare and beautiful dry sand forest, the spectacular Forest Lodge fuses architectural design and conservation. The creation of this safari lodge was an exemplary exercise in building eco-sensitive structures with a light footprint (not one tree was felled during construction). Inventively designed in Zulu Zen style, each handcrafted, glass encased suite is a combination of glass, wood and minimalist design incorporating high-gloss wooden floors, richly tactile fabrics and crimson Zulu artefacts. These sixteen private stilted suites each feature luxurious ensuite bathrooms with double vanity hand basins, and viewing decks. There is also a sparkling rim flow swimming pool and lodge sitting areas with expansive viewing decks affording panoramic views of the game-filled plains. What one finds quite a lot of at Forest Lodge is the red duiker, browsing within close proximity to guests.

Hereunder some photos of the suites and general areas of Forest Lodge.

That afternoon I went out with my new guide, Wayne, and we went looking for leopard. We did find a leopard, or more accurately, we found about a ¼ or less of a leopard. No, let me rephrase that, we saw only the tail of a leopard. This animal had crawled into deep undergrowth and only its tail was visible – but it was a leopard sighting. There are obviously quite a few leopards at Phinda, but these are not often seen, being the secretive animals that they are. Had we been prepared to wait there a few hours, we would in all probability have seen the leopard eventually move off, but there were other animals to find.

We also found two male cheetah, and lo and behold, the light was improving, in that the sun was shining, albeit a bit watery, but I did manage to get some half-decent photos of them in various poses. We did learn later from the other guide that was also viewing them that they made a kill (yes, you guessed it – another baby impala) and this was witnessed by the people on the other vehicle - lucky them, unlucky impala. So, as far as I was aware, the score was cheetah 3, baby impala 0! What we later did find was the two dominant male lions, but this was in the dark twilight and they were disinclined to move, so we did not stay with them for too long. The following morning produced quite a lot of general game and again two black rhinos, but again the light let me down, but hey, one does not see black rhino ever day! We also saw the two male lions, but they had followed the leopard’s example of the night before and had ensconced themselves into a deep thicket where they had settled for the day.

Phinda is a superb destination. Set within easy reach of the Indian Ocean coastline and the famous iSimangaliso Wetland Park (St. Lucia) in northern KwaZulu-Natal and is known for its abundant wildlife, diversity of habitats and wide range of activities. Thanks to its coastal rainfall pattern, Phinda enjoys a lush green environment that contains seven distinct ecosystems - a magnificent tapestry of woodland, grassland, wetland and forest, interspersed with mountain ranges, river courses, marshes and pans. With six lodges sharing an area of 23 000 hectares (56 800 acres) guests are assured an exclusive game viewing experience.

If one has the time, and if one has the money, and if one has the passion for wildlife, you can quite easily tailor-make an itinerary to suit your viewing preferences. For example, if cheetah and black rhino are high on your list of animals to see, Phinda is the place to go. If it is leopard that you have to see, Phinda has four sister lodges in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve which will undoubtedly produce an abundance of leopard, but very, very few cheetah and surely no black rhino. If it is lion, elephant, buffalo and more, either of these areas, i.e Phinda or the Sabi Sands, can take care of this. In fact, depending on what type of animals you want to see, South Africa with its vast expanses can offer you much in terms of wildlife, from the abundant elephant herds of Addo, the marine wildlife off our southern Cape coast, the one hundred and forty seven mammal species of the greater Kruger Park, the dry Karoo and desert regions, the rhino populations in KwaZulu-Natal, the cross-over between Kalahari and bushveld in the Pilanesberg and Madikwe areas, the options are almost limitless, and as for the birding…..we’ll leave this for another time.