Bruno, the owner and guide has spent 17 years restoring this 42000 acre reserve and there are now numerous wild animals, birds, fauna and flora. His knowledge and passion for conservation of the biosphere is inspiring (if occasionally slightly intimidating!) and there are now over 3500 game on land that had been destroyed by years of cattle farming.
We were woken/deafened at dawn by the birds and went for a four hour walk before it got too hot. The first morning walk involved rhino tracking which we could hear munching in the dense bush, Rusty wasn't happy!
The second morning walk was to a big waterhole where we watched oryx, impala, zebra, wildebeest, warthogs and tortoises.
This tortoise apparently brought down a wildebeest...
The afternoons were for reading and snoozing, followed by another long walk in beautiful light to vantage points in the surrounding hills.
Delicious lunches and dinners were cooked in this kitchen with all the mod cons.
My limbs are scratched and bug bitten, I'm mucky and sweaty, but it was a magical experience. You can see more animals on a traditional game drive, but it is so much more exciting to walk in their territory with all the sounds and smells and have a staring match with a huge eland.
It's going to be very hard to go back to mass humanity after this experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment