There are thousands of reasons why I love the Bushveld, and this day was another reminder of how nice a day out on safari really can be. The first few drives were nice and quiet; we saw some really nice birds, rodents, insects, amphibians and plains game, but none of the big 5 or any of the exotics. To me the rest of the life in the Bushveld is just important as the infamous big 5; but it is always good to see these famous animals too.

Then in one of our game drives it all happened. On our way to try find the elephants we found two Caracals, one female and her young; a really beautiful sighting. Luckily after that we managed to find the majestic African elephant. Not long afterwards, I saw a blackish coloured animal going into the drainage line so I immediately turned my vehicle and went to find it. At first I thought I had lost it, but then we saw it in beautiful daylight, an African civet which is usually spotted at night.

Shortly after that we had two rhinos on the open plains, a mother and her calf. Very close to the rhinos there were some buffalo lying down in a mud pan trying to shelter from the heat of the day.

So it turned out to be a successful day when I decided to stop for some sundowner drinks. We decided to make one last turn to go look at some hippos in the water when I heard on the radio that, not far from me, there were three lionesses. They were very relaxed with our presence, going about their natural behaviour; playing and growling at each other. Finally, we had our sundowner drinks as the sun set behind the beautiful mountains – a good end to a good day.

Jakes – Kapama River Lodge
03/02/2013