The lion sleeps tonight… or not?

When we have guests we always hope that we will see animals around the lodge or that we will hear the lions roar at night. In September we had a full camp with 8 guests when we heard the lions roar at night. At first they were a little further away but after everyone had gone to bed they came closer. The guests go a real concert.
The next morning two of our guests went on a bushwalk. They went with an open

Birthday party in the bush

Saturday afternoon we had a party with a few friends for Corné’s birthday. With 31 degrees it was a nice warm day and we sat on the terrace. Since everybody brought kids it looked like a children’s party and our boys had a great time! They even played with water in the afternoon. We just sat on the terrace and enjoyed chatting. The bitterballen (Dutch snack) that I made were a great success and it was even suggested that we should open a snack bar.
Rob en Michelle stayed for dinner. We made potjiekos and this was a great success too.  Al in al it was a great party.

Regards from the bush
Miriam

Medical care in South Africa

Soon we have to have our annual check-up at the dentist with the whole family. In the Netherlands I was always frightened for these events and if I had to come back for a treatment I used to have stomach-ache hours before the appointment. After my first visit to the dentist here I’m cured of that. Alex is a very nice guy, he is good with the children and he makes me feel at ease. Since I am here in South Africa my old grey fillings have been replaced with new white ones and although it is still not fun to sit there with your mouth open, I never had stomach-ache before these treatments. Of course the fact that they don’t even ask if you want anaesthetics but just give it to you (something that you have to specifically request in the Netherlands) could have something to do with it as well…
After a treatment the assistant always calls the next morning

Growing up in the bush

Our children have a fantastic childhood here in the bush. They grow up in this beautiful nature, in a country where they can almost always play outside and in a place where they have lots of space to play. From the moment they started crawling they have been getting healthily dirty and their daily bath was never a luxury. Now they get a little bigger they can run around, play football, build huts and in a few weeks time it will be warm enough to swim. They love going with Daddy in the bakkie (pick-up) to bring the garbage bags to the dumpster at the gate and our old Landrover is their favourite. Yesterday we drove at the end of the afternoon  

Four tips to get the best out of your safari

Although there is much more to see and do in and around Hoedspruit, the Kruger Park with its wide variety of animals stays the biggest attraction. Here four tips to get the best out of your safari.

Choose the right season for a visit
Each season has its own pro’s and con’s and it is worth your effort to look into this and choose the right season for your needs. From October till March it is the rainy season so you can expect some rain. It can be quite warm in this time and there will be more insects. On the other hand, the bush will be lush and green and many young animals are born in this period. The denser vegetation can make it a little more difficult to see the animals though. From April till September

Homemade Dutch snacks

People regularly ask me “what do you miss from the Netherlands?” My answer is that I, besides my family and best friend, don’t miss anything. Still there are some things that I maybe don’t miss, but that would be very nice to have here. There are some products that you can’t get (or very difficult) here. Drop is one of those, and when we visit the Netherlands we always take back a lot of this typical Dutch candy. Sometimes guests bring with some drop for us and that is very much appreciated. This way we don’t have to miss this typical Dutch candy completely here in the African bush.
Something else that they don’t have here is kroketten (and some more of these typical Dutch snacks). A while back we visited a Dutch friend who surprised us with homemade kroketten. She gave me the recipe and last week I finally tried it. It worked out really well and the kroketten were delicious! I still have quite a few in the freezer so we can enjoy them some more before I have to make new ones. Because of this success I decided to try something else as well

Exercising

Since about one and a half year I go two or three times a week to an exercise class. It is perfectly timed with Niels’ school, I drop him at school and then at half past seven my class starts. This movement class, as it is called, lasts 45 minutes and is varied. The exercises are a mix of pilates, yoga, steps and workout with little weights. It is designed to improve your posture en, develop your muscles and to keep you moving. Our teacher, Vinnie, is not only a good teacher who knows what he is doing, but he has a lot of humour too. Therefore we regularly have, besides exercise,  a good laugh in our class that is mainly composed of women.

Because of illness (first the kids and then I got sick too) and school holiday of Niels it had been over a month

giraffes and zebras

A few days ago we had giraffes drinking at our waterhole.

There was a family of warthogs too.

African folklore

The local people of Africa have many fables and legends about the origin of life and about the animals. On one of our trips the guide told us this story around the campfire;
Why the hippo spreads its dung

In the beginning, when the world was young, the hippo lived in the water but instead of grass he ate fish. With his big mouth he could eat a lot of fish and soon he became bigger and rounder.

One day the Creator said to the hippo, "You are too greedy, you will eat all the fish!” The hippo promised to eat not so much

Two amusing good books about the life of a safari guide

Peter Allison is an Australian who gets stuck in Africa during his travels at the age of 19. He is offered a job on a lodge in one of the private reserves on the western boundary of the Krugerpark in South Africa and wrote two books about his adventures as a safari guide.

He writes with a lot of humour and his books are easy to read and funny. Each chapter is a story of an adventure and can be read separately. In Don’t Run Whatever You Do and Don’t Look Behind You Peter tells

Pirates in the bush

It is still school holiday so I had to keep the kids busy. To practice for Niels' birthday (he wants a pirate party) I painted their faces.

Ten different ways to see animals on safari

When you think about safari the first thing that comes to mind is game viewing from an open vehicle. Besides that there are other possibilities, here ten ways to see game.

1.       Visit the Kruger Park. Go out in your own (rental) car to find game or book a daytrip to Kruger Park with a guide.

2.       Explore nature by foot accompanied by an armed guide during a bush walk. The emphasis lies on the small animals, trees and tracks, since the bigger animals are difficult to approach on foot. In the Kruger Park you can do walking trails of several days.

3.       You can do an elephant back safari. On the back of an elephant you go for a walk in the bush in a Big Five reserve. A unique experience that gives you the opportunity to see the bush from a different perspective and also brings you in close contact with these special

Kobie Kruger, Mahlangeni and All Things Wild and Wonderful

In the eighties Kobie Kruger lives with her husband, who is a ranger, and their three young children in the Kruger Park. She wrote two books about her life in the African bush. With a lot of love for nature and a good dose of humour she describes her life on a remote ranger post. They regularly have adventures with animals and she even raises a lion cub. The books are a must read for anyone who loves stories about Africa and the animals. On Todio you can find an elaborated review of the books.

Since we live here in Balule in our own piece of African bush, I sometimes feel

school holiday

Niels is only in pre-school, but I have already noticed that the South African schools have more holidays than the Dutch ones....
It is now winter heer, but Niels has a whole month holiday! Since it is quite busy on the lodge as well it provides some chalenges to keep the kids busy.

The elusive leopard

The leopard is one of the “Big Five”.  Since leopards are solitary and shy animals that are most active at night, it can be difficult to find this elusive animal. The best chance is early in the morning or late in the afternoon, unless you are lucky enough to find a leopard in a tree, where he is taking his afternoon nap. Leopards live solitary and are excellent hunters. They stalk their prey till a distance of 5 to 10 metres before they jump at it. They like to live in rocky areas and close to densely vegetated riverbeds where they can hide. Leopards can climb well and often

new update wounded cheetah

The gamewarden reported that the wounded cheetah was seen again. Her leg seems to heal well and she looked alright. Apperently she manages to get some food.
We are glad she is recovering on her own.

Ten things to do in and around Hoedspruit

This area in South Africa is known for the Kruger Park and the bordering private reserves. But other then safari, there is much more to see and do in and around Hoedspruit. Here ten things that you can go see or do.

1.   Visit the Moholoholo rehabilitation centre for animals. Here they take care of wounded and orphaned animals and they try to rehabilitate them.

2.   Make a boat trip on the Blyde dam. The dam is located in a beautiful nature area and you can see hippos, crocodiles and water birds amongst others. You get another view on the canyon and there is a rare tufa-waterfall.

3.   Visit the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC), also knows as the Cheetah Project. They breed here with the endangered cheetahs and the centre has other endangered species like wild dogs and ground-hornbills.

4.   See the Blyde Canyon with all its beautiful waterfalls

Lions, the king of beasts

For many people, seeing a lion is the highlight of their safari. Especially the male, with its impressive manes, looks majestic. Although you always need a little luck to see the big cats, the lions are seen regularly here in Balule on the game drive. On our lodge we regularly hear them roar. When they are very close Corné takes the guests in our Landrover to look for them. At several occasions we found them and had them right next to the car, like you can see on this movie. From the lodge we have

Saying goodbye…

Saturday morning we said goodbye to our beloved dog Dusty.
Dusty was a Scottish Collie and more than thirteen years with us.

When we came to Africa seven years ago, he came with us and although he was almost blind, he adapted well to his new life here on the lodge. With an age of over thirteen years old he was very old and the last year he slept most of the day. But he was still healthy and didn’t have any pain. He regularly came to me for a cuddle and ate all the crumbs that our children dropped. Saturday morning he quietly died.

Elephants, gentle giants

Elephants are one of the ”Big Five” and are beautiful creatures. The females and young live in herds, while the males wander around alone or in small groups. The giant animals can move through the bush without making a sound. It regularly happens that suddenly an elephant appears at our waterhole. Only when he starts eating or drinking, you hear him and all of a sudden see him standing there. At the lodge we had some adventures

mini gamedrive

Here in South Africa we have beautiful weather in the winter, especially here in the Lowveld. Although it can be cold at night, the days are sunny and 26 degrees Celsius.

Yesterday we went with our family on a mini gamedrive on our

Unexpected visitors

On a Thursday in March, about lunchtime, our friends Kim and Sander called if they could stop by. Kim was just back from the Netherlands and had drop for us and some Dutch magazines. When you live in a different country these things are always most welcome! An hour later we sat on our terrace and their dog Nero was playing with our dog Willow. Willow is our enthusiastic White Shepard. Nero is the pup

update wounded cheetah

The wounded cheetah (Century) is back in Balule. Right now the game-rangers are looking for her, so they can dart her en take her to the Cheetah project where she will be nursed and reunited with her 2 cubs.

Wounded cheetah

Wednesday morning Corné drove with two colleague property brokers just outside the reserve when they saw a wounded cheetah on the side of the road. Corné called the game-warden of our section of Balule, who send someone over to watch the cheetah until the vet arrived to dart the animal. Corné and his colleagues stayed to watch of course. We suspect that this is the mother of two young cheetahs that were caught ten days ago because their mother had abandoned them. I was lucky enough

Saturn, Lord of the rings

The planet Saturn can be seen beautifully now in the night sky. Saturn is one of the most fascinating planets because of its rings. Through our 10 inch telescope you can clearly see the rings sticking out on both sides of the planet. Some of the larger moons can be seen as well. Saturn is one of the gas planets and the second largest planet in our solar system, after Jupiter. The planet is about nine times farther from the Sun than Earth. With the naked eye it can be seen

Lunar eclipse

 On Wednesday 15 June there was a full lunar eclipse. As astronomy lovers we off course wanted to see that. We had only one couple as guests, Trevor Carnaby with his wife and baby of 9 months old. Trevor is the writer of the books “beat about the bush” with a lot of information about the animals here in Southern Africa. We have both his books (about mammals and about birds) and were happy to hear that he is busy with more books and that stars will have a place in one of them. They have bought a property here in Balule and since they still have to build their house, they came to us for one night. They are very nice people and it is nice to have such an expert here in the reserve.

Trevor’s wife was tired and wanted to go to bed early but he was keen

Safari

Although there is much more to see and do in our area, most guests on our lodge come mainly to do a safari. The reserve where we live, Balule, has besides all the normal animals also the so called “Big Five”. Our reserve is an open system with the Krugerpark and the animals can roam freely in an area the size of the Benelux. On a safari, or game drive, you go looking for wild animals in an open vehicle. Our latest guests were very lucky; besides elephants they saw a pride of 14 lions! The day after other guests saw a herd of buffalos and also elephants. Although not all game drives are that successful, they usually see

The “Big Five”.

The name “Big Five” originally comes from hunting. It was used to indicate the five most dangerous animals to hunt. Nowadays everyone who goes on safari wants to see the Big Five, but which animals are they? The Big Five are the lion, leopard, elephant, (black) rhino and buffalo. Although you always have to have a little luck, the lion, buffalo and elephant are regularly seen on game drives here in Balule or on a daytrip in the Krugerpark. It takes a little more luck to find the shy leopard and although rhinos are seen lodge we have seen four of the five already. The lions usually keep their distance but sometimes we see them walking by. We regularly hear them roar and if they are close Corné will take the guests out in the Landrover op to look for them. Buffalos and elephants are regular customers at our waterholes and even the shy leopard has shown himself once. We are now waiting for the rhino. Tracks of the white rhino have been found at our waterhole and in the dry riverbed next to our camp, chance of seeing a black rhino are very slim at the moment.

Karma in the Bush

Do you believe in Karma? Or that, what we do, think and say in our daily life, comes back to us in a certain way? I m quite down to earth and always have been sceptical about “dreamy” stuff. But in the last few years here in the South African bush I have started to believe in Karma.

Karma and its results are seen as a natural principle, a law of “action and reaction". There is no God working here to punish or reward. A good deed naturally has pleasant effects for the one doing them and bad deeds naturally have unpleasant consequences.
So when you do good things you will get good things in return and if you can enjoy

Buffalos, the brooding ones

Buffalos are maybe the most unpredictable of the Big Five, especially the old males that can’t keep up with the herd anymore and wander around on their own, or in a small bachelor herd. Because of their habit to roll in the mud they are also called “dagga-boys”. Dagga is the local name for cement and the dried up mud on the buffalos sometimes looks like cement. The first years that we lived here we saw mainly these dagga-boys, alone or in a small group, at our waterhole and in the dry riverbed next to our lodge . About two years ago we had a herd of about 40 buffalos at our waterhole a few times and last year we even had a herd of over a 100 animals!

Once I had an exciting (and little bit scary) encounter

Divining-rod, science or superstition?

On our lodge here in the African bush we have our own borehole from which we pump our water. We are lucky to have a strong borehole, since water is important and not always naturally in this dry area. Last winter we had problems with the water, we could only pump for a short while at a time. Since it was at the end of the dry season we were a little scared that the water level maybe dropped too much, but luckily that was not the problem. The handyman, André who helped us to take the pump out of the borehole, noticed that

Volunteer projects

In this area are many wildlife projects where they take care of animals in need. The best known are Moholoholo (a rehabilitation centre for animals) and the Cheetah project, where they breed with the endangered cheetahs. Bur there are many more projects, from rehabilitation for all sorts of animals and education of local people (Daktari), till specialised care for

(Exiting) encounters in the bush

Since I live here in the South African bush I regularly have unexpected, nice and sometimes exciting encounters. A nice encounter for example was the giraffe mother with baby that was on the road when I brought Niels to school the other day. The impalas, zebras and wildebeests that I saw on my way back are in the same category. In the seven years that we now live in the Balule Nature Reserve I have had many of these encounters with different animals while driving to and from Hoedspruit or just looking from our terrace. Even after seven years I still find it very special to see animals passing by from my office window.

Unexpected was the elephant that came to our waterhole last week. I walked out off the office

Moholoholo, rehabilitation centre for animals

At about 50 minutes drive from our lodge is Moholoholo, a rehabilitation centre for wild animals. Here they take care of animals that got wounded (often because of men). They also take in orphans and if possible the animals are rehabilitated and put back in nature. This is not always possible however. The animals that cannot go back

A monitor in my bathroom

A while back we woke up very early. Our youngest son woke up crying at half past four and I just had him back to sleep when I heard something on the attic. At first I thought of a mouse, but the sound was too heavy for that. My husband, Corné, heard it too and went to investigate. Armed with a flashlight he went upstairs. Soon he was back again and told me that it was a monitor, but that it went behind some boxes to hide.

The whole morning

Rhino poaching

South Africa has the largest population of rhino’s in Africa. In large parts of Africa rhino’s are extinct already. The reason for this is poaching. In Asian countries, especially China and Vietnam, people believe that the horn of the rhino has medicinal value and they are willing to pay a lot for that. In Yemen they want the horn to use as the handle of their ritual dagger. Until a few years back South Africa managed to protect its rhino population very well

Lions and Easter-lunch

Friday evening around 6 o’clock we were just at the dinner table when Nicolus, our bar- and handyman, came running in. “Lions at the waterhole” he shouted and we jumped up. Armed with our camera we went outside as silent as possible since we didn’t want to scare the lions. At the water hole we saw a lioness and from the bushes a lion appeared. A bit further in the bushes we thought we saw more

Kruger Park

We have a lodge in a private reserve just outside the Kruger Park, so where do we go when we want to get away for a few days? Right, to a lodge just outside the Kruger Park!

With the kids and Corné’s parents we went this week 2 nights to a lodge close to Komatipoort, in the south east corner of the Kruger Park. Since we heard from guests that is are a lot of road maintenance between Hoedspruit and Hazyview, we decide to take the longer route via Graskop. We drive through the mountains and the beautiful panorama route to this nice village where we stop for coffee and a waffle. Then we drive to Nelspruit, where we have another stop. We do some quick shopping in the mall and have a warm lunch so we don’t have to cook tonight. The last drive is from Nelspruit to Komatipoort where we arrive late afternoon. The kids have been great in the car and can run around on the little piece of grass in front of our bungalow, while we take our things inside. We eat bread on our veranda with view on the Crocodile River and have a glass of wine. The next morning we take it slow. We get some groceries in Komatipoort and have lunch in a resort close by, where there is a play area for the children. That evening we have a braai (BBQ) and when we sit on our veranda after dinner it starts raining. We get a text message from Tinyiko, our staff member who takes care of the lodge and the dogs, that it is raining in Balule as well. The next morning it is time to go home already. We get up early since we want to drive home through the Krugerpark. We enter the park at Crocodile bridge  and drive via Lower Sabie, Tshokwane and Satara to the Orpen gate. Although we don’t see that many animals we have a nice day. We do see three of the Big Five; elephants, buffalo’s and a lion, and other game like giraffes, zebra’s, impala’s, waterbuck etc. I especially enjoyed the herd of elephants with the baby’s. Late in the afternoon we get home so the children can play outside a little before it is time to shower and go to bed.

We had three nice days and are ready for the busy weeks ahead.

Regards from the bush,

Miriam

Just another day at the (bush) office

As usual I get up at half past six. I help Niels to get dressed and at seven we leave for school. During the 6 kilometres long drive to the gate of the reserve we see impalas, guinea fowl and a jackal. The guinea fowl run in front of the car for a while as usual before they dash of into the bushes or realize that they can fly. Doves and hornbills fly up from the road when I approach and a squirrel runs off into the bushes. Once were on the paved road we see vervet monkeys at the side

Elephants come to visit

It is half past nine in the evening; our guests are just back from a game drive and are having dinner when we hear something in the bush. It sounds a bit like growling and our first thought is lions, but it doesn’t quite sound right. Then we see a big shadow passing just behind our watering hole. It is an elephant and they can make a low rumbling sound. We see bigger and smaller shadows and realise that it is a breeding herd. First it looks like the elephants will pass just outside the light on our watering hole, but then one turns and comes for a drink. Soon a second elephant

Swimming

It is the end of March and that means that the swimming season here in South Africa is over. It is still warm enough and our European guests still go for a swim, but for the South Africans the swimming season has come to an end. At school the season is closed each year with a froggy-gala for the little ones. All pre-school children and their parents are invited for a morning of water fun in the school swimming pool. This event takes place on the last Friday in February and after that there is no more swimming at school till next summer.

Here at the lodge we give it a try once or twice in March but Corné and I have adapted well to our new country

Knock, knock, who’s there…

For weeks now we are being terrorised by birds.

The birds are a few hornbills, also known as Zazoe from the Lion King. Every morning as soon as it gets light they start knocking at our upstairs window. These birds have quite a big beak so their knocking makes a lot of noise. Since it is still summer here in South Africa, it gets light quite early in the morning and we don’t really enjoy our wake-up call.

We chased the birds away many times already and even thrown rocks at them in the hope of scaring them but they come back

Giraffes and braai

It is Saturday and we have no guests on the lodge. The personnel are home for the weekend and we have the lodge all for our selves. In the weekend we always take it slow and today we have given ourselves the day off. I am relaxing at the terrace, reading a magazine, while I keep an eye on the children who are playing together. Then I see a movement in the bush, a long neck sticks out above the bushes and slowly moves towards our watering hole. If I walk a little closer I see some more giraffes eating from the trees. The giraffe that I saw first stops at the edge of the water. Then his long front legs spread

Power failure

It is Friday morning quarter past six, we are awake but still in bed. In fifteen minutes I have to get up to get Niels, who is still asleep, ready for school. Dennis is wide awake already and is playing.

All of a sudden we hear a loud bang and the power goes off, since we are wide awake now we decide to get up. Corné goes out to have a look and after a few minutes he is back with the message that two of the fuses of our three phase power are blown. We immediately call Eskom (our power supplier) and they tell us someone will be there within six hours

Breathtaking stars

As a child I already had a fascination for stars. I think I was about nine years old when my brother in law pointed out the Big Dipper to me for the first time, and from that moment I was hooked. Although I already owned a book about astronomy when I still lived in the Netherlands and had looked up to the breathtaking sky of the southern hemisphere during our travels, the real fascination came when I came to live here in South Africa. Especially in winter the sky here is so clear that you can see the Milky Way beautifully.

Corné also got interested and together we watched the beautiful stars that we knew so little about at that stage. We learned some basic knowledge about the Southern Cross

Be nice to your computer.

At our lodge we get all sorts of guests and many of them have an interesting story to tell. On New Years Eve we had a very nice American guy who worked in the IT-business. He had done several jobs but was now specialised in solving computer problems for people. As a computer user who knows not too much about the actual computer I found this interesting and we started talking.

On his question what kind of computer I have I answered “no idea, a normal one” and he gave me a compassioned look. His next question was how my relationship with my computer was. I found it a strange question but answered

A cobra in my kitchen

On a Sunday afternoon I walked into the kitchen to get some juice for the children when I saw a snake disappear behind some things. In the seven years we live in the bush now we got used to encounters like this so I stayed quite calm. I first got the juice for the kids and brought it out. Because I didn’t want to risk losing the snake and having him startle me later I got our snake-stick. This is a stick of about a metre long with on one side a sort of a beak that you can open and close with a handle on the other side of the stick. My friend happened to be visiting that day with her one year old son. She lives in the bush as well and has even more experience with snakes

It is never boring in the bush

We now live seven years here in the Balule Private Nature Reserve and we have seen many animals around our camp in that time. We also had our share of adventures with some of the animals. I still find it very special to have these animals just in our backyard. Sometimes it is quiet for a few days and then all of a sudden a waterbuck or a kudu stares at you when you walk out the door. The past year we have seen four of the Big Five around our camp. In winter we always see elephants

Introducing myself

Hi,

I'm Miriam and since 2004 I live with my husband Corné in South Africa, in the Balule Private Nature Reserve to be precise. We have build our own lodge here in the bush where we receive guests. Our two sons, Niels of four and Dennis of two are born here and grow up in this beautifull environment.

The reserve where we live is close to the famous Kruger Park and all animals that live