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