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It was early in the morning in the Lower Zambezi while on a recent Trade Route safari, with 10 people in our group canoeing down the Mighty Zambezi River. Two people per canoe (all couples).The local guide called us together for a short briefing before we started. After that we started canoeing down the river with a lot of excitement. One couple was struggling because it was their first time – the lady was paddling towards left and her husband was doing the same, they were turning around in circles. We swapped partners, the lady and I went together and her husband teamed up with the local guide. After about 500m or so, a big hippo appeared straight ahead of us. Everyone was shaking nervously because we are all aware of how dangerous these animals can be when agitated. The best solution is to move away calmly.

My partner and I were at the back and we were all in a single file. My partner started to focus on the hippo and forgot about paddling, the canoe turned and she started paddling backwards to get away – a very natural reaction. The hippo disappeared and the rest of the group who had made it to the island already were watching on.

The excitement was high because we were struggling to get in and the rest of the group was laughing, busy videoing and taking photos. We made it there safely in the end, from lunch time on we were the joke of the tour.

Safety always comes first but afterwards a little humour goes a long way.

Bongizwe

21 days through four different countries from Cape Town to Victoria Falls is an experience of a lifetime for someone coming to Africa for the first time. With cooler weather in South Africa to dry hot days in Namibia and southern Botswana to the humid and sometimes extreme temperatures of the delta and Zambia. On our recent tour we had some great experiences that gave our trip that “WOW Factor” for our guests.

In Etosha, northern Namibia we had amazing game viewing with 22 lions (5 of which were cubs) in 2 game drivers. The elephants also gave us a good showing with a few old bulls and a large family group having a swim and a mud wallow at one of the waterholes that surround the pan.

We also had the pleasure of sighting a black rhino bull as he wet his lips after a very hot day under the African sun. Unfortunately after having tracked a young leopard for an hour or so we lost the tracks in the Mopane woodland to the east of the pan.

Etosha pan once used to be a vast lake fed by the Kunene River which decided to change its course thousands of years ago. It now stands dry for most of the year getting baked by the sun. When water does grace its beds the pans surface has a wide variety of water birds migrate to its vast openness to breed.

On a perfect Zululand-spring day on our latest South Africa Rainbow Route Safari we were hot and hungry as one is at 11 o’clock , we were hastily making our way back to camp to enjoy a fry up in the shade of one of the acacias next to our kitchen.

We had seen everything in Kruger earlier in the tour- everything except big cats, the holy grail of the African bush. And to be honest, the clients’ candle of hope was seriously flickering by now! When I rounded a bend in the road and saw a male cheetah gorging himself on a freshly killed kudu youngster I had to concentrate to keep my own excitement in check!

The cheetah and the dead kudu were right next to the road!! I eased our tour bus slowly down the road until we were mere meters away from this amazing predator. The cheetah paid us no attention whatsoever, and continued to feed for another minute or so, giving everybody ample opportunity to take some really unique pictures.

The cheetah had eaten most of the kudu’s shoulder, so when it stood up to find a shady spot to digest his meal, we slowly followed him down the road. It was only when he eventually lay down that we saw his brother, perfectly camouflaged under a tree a few yards away.

We spent an hour with these cheetah brothers, who often team up to make hunting and defending their territory easier.

Needless to say, the brunch tasted so sweet!

Yours in guiding

CJ van Blerk

Early in the morning in August while on a Botswana Wild Parks safari, we were cruising in Mokoro’s into the Okavango Delta. Everybody was excited to get there and experience the real life of the bush. I was upfront with my poler and the rest of the group was following us. Listening the Polers speaking their language, Setswane, as our clients tried to understand it. The excitement for what we were experiencing was getting high; people were taking photos of birds, butteflies and everything surrounding us. One of the client took her Blackberry phone to take photos, the poler saw it and said “Wow, what a beautiful Blackberry”. The client thought that he was referring to a bird and she asked “Which one? That one over there?” The whole group laughed until they cried. The blackberry bird was the joke of the whole trip.


Fun times in Africa!

On our recent Trade Route Safari which goes through Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique we stop in the Lower Zambezi Valley where we stay at Mvuu Lodge. On our second day there we were sitting at the bar having just finished lunch, an elephant approached and started eating the paper back peeling tree. We sat in silence for 1hour and 15minutes and watched the elephant with her 3 elephant calves continue their feeding. No one moved, no one made a noise, we all watched in awe as these animals did their thing, only 7m away from us. It was an incredible sighting, everyone was amazed that this happened right where we stayed.

What a great spot! Mvuu Lodge

I recently returned from a South African family tour where we visited many exciting places around South Africa. The most memorable of these locations would definitely have to be Kosi Bay, the clients enjoyed the amazing views of the estuary and the surrounding lakes, in the estuary there are fish traps which are set up by the locals. One of the days we were lucky enough to walk up to the fish traps and see what fish had been caught, in the fish trap we found a fairly large mullet which one of the guests got to spear and then cooked it for dinner on the braai that evening.

On the same day we went kayaking through the estuary where the water is so clear and shallow you could see hundreds of fish swimming beneath the boat, some fish were even jumping out of the water right next to the boat, this was absolutely amazing to witness. To end off this amazing day we went snorkeling through the estuary seeing many colourful and vibrant fish, what a perfect day!!!!

Shaun

Recently on our Botswana Wild Parks Safari, four ladies (2 Americans and 2 Australians), myself and our local guide jumped into a 4×4 open game drive vehicle and set off to Moremi Game Reserve for a fantastic two night and three day excursion. It was quite a chilly morning so we armed ourselves with a couple of layers and a blanket. Soon after we entered Moremi we forgot all about the chill and started peeling of the layers.

Although the reserve is just less than 5,000 square kilometers, it is a surprisingly diverse reserve, combining mopane woodland and acacia forests, floodplains and lagoons. Only about 30% of the Moremi Game Reserve is mainland, with the bulk being within the Okavango Delta itself. One of our Australian friends pulled out her pocket pull-out chart of different animal tracks. We found ourselves stopping at every track that we could see and with a little bit of guidance by our local Botswana guide and myself our ladies did a fantastic job at identifying the different tracks, even bird tracks.

This was great as it got everybody involved and it was very entertaining! Eventually the ladies got very accurate and started on the dung of the different animals! Thank you for a great and entertaining time!

Way to go ladies!