Mapungubwe - Iron Age settlement

Tuesday 23rd March 2010



Another 5am start and we piled into the van to drive to Mapungubwe, an Iron Age settlement where many archaeological finds had been discovered. Along the way we saw several iconic boabab trees:



We walked up a stairway which gave us amazing views over the landscape:





We also viewed a mysterious set of grooves in the rock which were excavated by the Iron Age settlers and used as a game, the rules of which no one really knows:



At the top we also had time for a group shot:



Further on, we stopped at various look out points where we enjoyed spectacular views over the Limpopo valley, with three countries in one view. Botswana is on the left of the picture below, and Zimbabwe on the right:



In order to get a closer look at the Limpopo river, we ventured across a broad walk:



The broad walk was lined with fever trees, conspicuously yellow and wrongly blamed for early cases of malaria in the area:



The crocodiles in the water were difficult to spot, but my attention was taken by a pair of white-fronted bee-eaters:



Our next stop was for lunch in a hide by a waterhole. This may have seemed normal, but what happened to us next was something I will never forget. As we were sitting watching warthogs drinking, within 1 hour we were visited by two separate herds of elephants which wandered over from the bush in the distance without a care and seemingly oblivious to our presence. The first shot below is probably my favourite photo taken in Africa:













Before and between these visits, warthogs, zebra, vervet monkeys and impala also utilised the waterhole:













The second herd was soon joined by a very large bull:



It was incredible to be so close to so many wild elephants and their young, definitely the best wildlife experience of my life. I used up several camera batteries and could literally have posted hundreds of photos on the blog. We all left the hide feeling that we had witnessed what we had signed up to see!

In the afternoon we returned to the base for a lecture on wild dogs and followed that with a braai and a few beers around the fire...not the worst day of my life!

Repeater Ridge

Monday 22nd March 2010

We woke at 5:30am to be ready to leave at 6am. The mornings are getting progressively earlier! I share a tent with 6 others and I awoke this morning feeling cold. We drove before breakfast out to a hill called Repeater Ridge:



We climbed and used radio equipment to attempt to pick up the locations of all the radio tagged animals in the reserve. It didn't go well and we managed to pinpoint only large areas as possible locations due to the poor signals. Here is Sophia looking for signals:



And here am I trying to make some sense of the equipment:



All was not lost however, as the views from the top were fantastic:



When out on walks, the guides have to carry guns for safety. Here is John 'looking after' us:



Although I feel quite tired, I feel for the others in the group, all of whom arrived from abroad and had a horrible long day to get here on Saturday. Being here before them and after they leave feels a bit strange!

In the afternoon we drove again and saw hippos in a lake by the dam. They were a long way away but I managed to get this picture:



There were also several other wild sights, such as this baby viper and mantis:





The highlight for me though was our first sighting of a group of giraffes. These ones were calm and didn't seem to be nervous of us:





We saw crocodiles in a lake in the distance and then waited to watch another beautiful sunset:





We tend to go to bed at around 9pm and we certainly did today due to the early start. We also need to be up at 5am tomorrow. When we went to bed myself and Gary, who sleeps on the bunk above me, found rubber lizards under our pillows with their tails hanging out. Given Gary's line of work we spend quite some time investigating who may be the perpetrators in order to direct a retribution!

First day in the bush

Sunday 21st March 2010

You don't need an alarm clock in the African bush. After a patchy night's sleep to say the least I was awoken by a cacophony of bird calls. Some of the calls sounded like irritating sirens and I later discovered these were 'go away' birds, characterised by very whiny calls. At 6am we gathered and prepared for a drive into the bush on the off-road vehicles:



As an aside, it isn't only the big mammals that are over sized here. The flies and bugs are so large and so abundant, they are like British bugs on steroids. At dinner last night, one large bug that was over an inch in length kept landing on me and those around me to cries of "what the f*** was that?!" to the amusement of the staff. Here are two pictures of massive beetles I have seen:





There is an ant species which is freakishly large. I put a pen next to them to demonstrate the scale:



We drove into a low density game area to start off with. We saw elephant and wildebeest tracks firstly. My foot is next to the track in the first picture again to indicate the scale:





We also found numerous giant millipedes which we could pick up:



We saw a variety of beautiful birds like this red-billed hornbill:



We returned to the base for an induction. When we're out walking the guides carry guns to protect us. Here is John (one of the most naturally funny people I've ever met) showing us a branch that an elephant had chewed to clean its teeth:



...before his head turned into an African land snail:



Back at the base I took some pictures in the daylight of our home for the next fortnight. Here is the living room area:



The kitchen:



Our tent:



And a close up of my bed on the bottom bunk:



Here is the braai area, which is very important!



Quite comically, this collection of car batteries powers our base:



The reserve is owned by the De Beers mining company, who mine for diamonds nearby to the south. The role of the park management along with GVI is to track and monitor numbers and location of game to control neighbouring crops and private land. Our reserve is named Venetia and has one lion pride comprising 6 lions, and over 100 elephants. There are also two cheetahs.

After some time to relax we headed out on another drive. This time we were on our way to see a group of wild dogs which had been separated by sex into two enclosures.The plan is to introduce the groups, hope they form a pack and then relocate them to a wild area elsewhere. The decision has been taken not to release them in Venetia. The dogs were great to see at such close range and the opportunity allowed for many good pictures:





On our way home we saw a great sunset:



...and a random chameleon:



We ate at the base, drank beer and laughed. Suddenly the place didn't seem so uncomfortable!