Our Easter trip through South Africa #1

Finally I have time to blog about our trip we made with my dad through the South-West part of SA during Easter break. We drove one way and flew back the way home, while Dirk drove the car back. The poor guy all by himself more than 1500 kilometers, so boring. But he had to stop at 2 places for business...

When I look back to this trip I am still amazed by the nature of SA. You drive for a few hours and the total outlook changes... dramatically. From mountains to flat bushveld, to dessert, rocky coast lines and green pastures, just amazing! My words or pictures cannot do justice!



Since it was the first time for my dad to be in SA I wanted to give him as much as possible the diversity of this vast land. So the first day we drove about 700 km and stayed overnight at a horse stable; Kuilfontein Stables. An authentic farm where they still have cows and horses. However, the horses got new stables and the old ones are formed into bedrooms, a dining room, reception and bar. So cute! And the couple who runs it are the nicest people!

We had a great lamb dinner, since this is the Karoo we were in and they are famous for the good succulent lamb dishes. The girls got up early in the morning to see how the cows were milked. The guys offered JJ and Jezz some fresh milk, but they skipped this warm milk for now ;-) Not knowing that later in the morning this same milk was on the breakfast table! These days kids don't get much interaction with all the farm animals, so this was a nice start of the vacation!


Now up to Amakhala Game reserve to Hlosi game lodge, another 400 km we had to drive to reach our new destination. We are going to hear lions roar!

We are now in the Eastern Cape bush. And on this drive from Colesburg to the Amakhala Game reserve nature is so gorgeous, we feel we are in Texas or in Australia and I expect cowboys and Indians coming by on their horses! Hours of driving and just a few mountains but mostly flat bushveld with aloes all over the place. Different vegetation, I've never seen before. I can't get enough of watching the colors changing because the sun is getting higher and higher, from the morning dew to the dry yellows, the greens from the spiky grasses and the reds in the earth and rocks. Just like a perfect painted picture! The girls by the way don't notice anything, they are sitting on the 3rd row watching a movie on their DVD player....

When we arrive at Hlosi lodge we wait a warm welcome by all the staff. The lodge is situated on a wide open grassland where I see the ostriches roam around the rooms. Each room is a different little lodge with own jacuzzi, indoor and outdoor shower, fireplace, sitting area and bedroom. Very posh and safari like decoration! Super duper nice!! I can stay here for a while :-)



Our first game drive is already at 4pm, before we are treated to a high tea and then off to see the wild animals. Staying at a lodge for a safari in SA is very very nice. You HAVE to experience it once in your life time. It is so magical. To drive in these open jeeps and don't know what to expect. We are looking for the wild animals, while the animals are looking at you from sometimes just a metre away from you and we haven't even notice. They are so well hidden and camouflaged and of course they smell us miles before we have seen them. So you are sitting there and suddenly some of us sees the lions, elephants, cheetahs, zebra's, wildebeests or giraffes and we all take out our camera's and shoot some great shots. It's a very exhilarating and exciting time. You never know what is coming up next. The ranger you drives you around knows so much about nature, birds and the animals around us that we learn so much and appreciate the beauty of the bushveld. These game drives take as long as 3 hours, so by the time we are at the end it is getting dark and the animals are ready for hunting. More action can be seen now, although it is harder to see them, with our lights from the Jeep and a huge flash light we are shining into the bushes in hope to see some action. A different feeling it gives now, and suddenly we hear elephants trumpeting, that means a mother is warning us, we are too close and we better move out of there. Of course they knew we were there, but we hadn't even seen them, they are so big, but so quite. And they are NEXT to us, jeezz.. we got a bit of a scare here!! It is hard to take pictures in the dark, the animals are as grey as the air, so we are hoping we will meet this group of elephants during our next drive in the morning. Back at the lodge we await a delicious 3-course meal. The kids are all sitting on a kiddie table and we adults are together. This time we are sharing the Jeep and the dinner table with a family of 5 from Oxford, UK. The Colebrooks were such a nice family, we had great fun with them!


Being at a safari lodge is always a very intimate gathering. There are only 6 rooms, so you start to know the people and the staff pretty well during those 2 days. It's like a big family sharing a beautiful lodge together! Sharing dinners and breakfast, enjoying high teas, nipping some sherry at the fire places and sharing stories of other adventures and safari's or places to visit in SA. So relaxed, sitting inside while the wild animals like buffalo's are walking around your bedroom or drinking water from the pool where the girls just had swam a few hours before. That is the life at a safari lodge!

The girls are swimming here during the day and at night the buffalo's came to have a drink at this water, while we were sipping some vino at the fire place.

We also met Milo, the meerkat pet, the girls were just totally in love with it and played with him whenever he was around.

Here with their friend Olivia and Milo, the meerkat.

In total you go on 2 game drives, in the early morning and in the early evening, that is the time when the animals are most active. Sleeping animals is no fun to photograph! The hope is always to see the big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino). The phrase Big Five game was coined by big-game hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. Well, this time we saw them all but the leopard, we saw some cheetah's which is also hard to see on safari's. These animals don't look us up and stay hidden and are so well camouflaged. Of course we saw more than these 5. We saw zebra's, wildebeest, spring bucks and a lot of other bucks. Beautiful birds, giraffes, ostriches and so many more animals I can't even think of them all. But the experience is just magical, to see all these animals in their natural environment, not bothered by us, just doing their thing and ignoring us completely. That is, if you stay in your Jeep! You set 1 foot out on the ground and suddenly you see these relaxed animals getting alert, body tense, ears sharp and ready to attack! Our ranger showed it to us. We were near these lions, and they were laying there relaxed. We stopped the Jeep maybe 5 meters away from them, they were OK with it, but as soon as the ranger opened the door, put one foot on the ground and the lion stood up and watched us. His body ready and tense... scary!! As soon as the ranger put his foot back into the car, the lion went back to relax and snooze with his lady not paying any attention to us anymore.






Every day you do 2 game drives, one at dawn and the other one at dusk. Nature is at the most beautiful then and all the animals are the most active. You don't want to see sleeping animals during the day, no fun photographing!
In the morning we take a stop for a small breakfast, some tea, rusks and scones. And this is also the moment to use the bush toilet ;-) First the ranger is going to check out a safe bush for you, no snakes or other animals hiding in there. And during the night drive we have sundowners at sunset. Beatiful setting, enjoying some amarula, gin & tonic or some other drinks and snacks while soaking in the beautiful surroundings!



If you ever get a chance to come to South Africa make sure you go on a game drive! It is magical! And do come and visit us if we are still here!!

Thanks to Stephan our ranger, we had some great game viewing at Hlosi Lodge!

Have a lovely day y'all, tomorrow more of the trip.
Love, Mireille

Oma and the girls on safari

For our safari trip this time with Oma we went to the Welgevonden Game reserve in the Limpopo province. It was only 3 hour drive from where we live. Since Dirk was not going with us and I don't like to drive that far, we went to Clearwater Tshetshepi Lodge in the Waterberg region. Malaria free, which was important to us as well, since we all didn't need to take medication.

Wow, we had a great stay! The lodge was hidden against the mountainside amongst lush indigenous trees with each chalet enjoying the tranquil trickle of a mountain stream - the ultimate bushveld hideaway! Exactly what I wanted for my mom to experience. The real bushveld. It was gorgeous. We were the only guests, since school had just started for the Afrikaanse children, so we were pampered like Queen's and Princesses. Actually that is how they called the girls the whole 3 days we were there; Princess. And the girls loved it of course ;-)

Each day we would do an early morning game drive and at sunset we would do another. The lighting is gorgeous at those moments and the animals are most active. During the hot day they are asleep, so we wouldn't see much.

So you start driving around in your open Jeep hoping to come along the big 5 and many other animals that freely roam the game reserve, which in this case is 150 000 hectares. And nature is just gorgeous!!
And about mid-time you get out of your Jeep and have in the morning some tea or coffee with rusks and in the afternoon you get some Amarula or other drink you like with some biltong, dried fruit, nuts and some other goodies they manage to bring along for us. While we are standing there on one of the open plains I always wonder if there are eyes in those bushes around us who are watching us. I know we are watching them, but are they watching us as well? ;-)


The Waterberg has been described as South Africa's best kept secret. Its rugged beauty, together with its diversity in plant and animal life, has led to the development of several exciting eco-tourism projects such as the biosphere reserve, the Waterberg Nature Conservancy. The 75 mammal species include big game such as elephant, lion, white and black rhino, hippo, leopard and buffalo. African python and the Nile crocodile are also resident, and it is a birdwatchers' paradise with more than 300 bird species.


I love the giraffes they are one of my favorites, so gracious and elegant, with those huge eyelashes (if it is a girl) really nice. It is funny when you stop with your Jeep how they stop what they are doing and just stare at you, most big animals tend to do that. Stare at you, perfect for us to take a picture ;-)


The animal that doesn't do that though is the warthog. They just run away, with their tail in the air, like an antenna, it is a sign for their fellows to follow. We saw many times warthogs, but I could never ever catch them on my camera. Just this one, so I am proud to show you this picture. I have so much respect now for photographers who can capture a warthog (in the wild of course) not in a zoo... since these buggers are fast!!


We were also lucky to see the hippos. There are only 2 in the whole game reserve and they liked the pond close to our lodge. There are a few ponds and they tend to travel from one to another. We drove close by the little lake and they told us we were too close. Started watching us and giving us signs to move back a bit, since this is their territory!! (Our guide told us this) He said that hippos can come out of the water and start chasing you if you come to close, and they are surprisingly fast on land! Luckily I had my zoom on. More than their nostrils, ears and eyes you hardly see...


We saw the Rhino's quite often, there was a group of 2 and a group of 3 grazing close by our lodge. They are very relaxed, don't move much ground, just stay at one field and graze...all day. But don't you dare to come to close with your Jeep and they are not so relaxed anymore!!


Kudus are just amazing beautiful antelopes. With those big ears and beautiful stripes on their bodies. They are just amazing! This is a female kudu, the males have dramatic, long spiralled horns. The females stay in herds with the younger ones, which we indeed saw many young ones with only 4 females. The males leave the breeding herd at around two years of age.

We got the opportunity to see many zebras. Although we saw so many I am still loving these little horses in their pyjama stripes!! Did you know that their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals and can be seen in small harems to large herds. Look at the baby one, still a bit unsure of its legs ;-)


This is a picture of a lonely Wildebeest (or sometimes called gnu) with a herd of Impalas or as they say in Afrikaans: Rooibok since they are reddish-brown in color. The name impala comes from the Zulu language. Impalas are the prey of the bigger predators. When frightened or startled the whole impala herd starts leaping about in order to confuse their predator. They can jump distances more than 9 meters (30 ft) and 2.5 meters (8 ft) high!

These were not all the animals we saw. We saw many many species of birds and other smaller animals. Although we didn't end up seeing the elephants. We heard on the radio of the Jeep one afternoon that a big Elephant bull was spotted, so we drove there and saw his tracks, but we didn't end up seeing him. The same was for the next morning, a group of 4-5 elephants were spotted by another ranger and we rushed to the plains, saw many fresh tracks, and big piles of poop, but again didn't end up seeing or finding them. You would think such a big animals they must me somewhere?? And on the plains it is a wide open field where for miles you can see, but no signs of the elephants. Well, we have to go back and do it again.

Also we didn't end up seeing the lions, tracks yes...lions no! So we ended up going to the Lion park close by our house after our safari. More pictures and stories about that in another posting. But first I will tell you more about our safari adventures tomorrow!

Have a good day,
Mireille