A long weekend in the bush

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In life timing is everything and by this time last week, I really needed a break. Luckily the English bank holiday gave me an opportunity to take a long weekend off work and a chance to relax.

The one thing I really wanted to do was to go on safari while in South Africa and see the "big five" (Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Leopard and Buffalo). Other people from work have been to the Kruger national park but there is malaria present and the faff of having to take malaria tablets put me off.

Closer to Pretoria is Pillensberg, a park which has the big five and you can drive yourself round. However, I have heard that it can be busy. My lonely planet came to the rescue with the suggestion of Madikwe Game Reserve . This is a bit different to Pillensberg as you cannot self drive through the park and the only way to visit is to stay in a lodge. Once in the park, the lodge will drive you round.

I did some research and found that most of the lodges in the park are 5* luxury places (and very expensive). Both the cost and the type of places put me off. However, there was one other option: Mosetlha Bush Camp. This place was different to the other options. It is an eco lodge, designed to be close as possible to a traditional bush camp.

On Friday morning I set off for Madikwe. Its about a four hour drive from Pretoria but I had to be at the park gates for 12:30. So I decided to leave at 7:30 to give me plenty of time and allow me to stop on the way. While in South Africa I have been using the Navfree app on my phone as a sat nav and it generally works well, especially considering the maps are based on open street map. However, for some reason NavFree thought that the speed limit on the road from Zeerust was only 60kmh instead of 120kmh! This meant it was suggesting it was going to take a lot longer to get there and made me a little worried about time until I realised what was going on.

In the end, even with stopping for an hour in Rustenberg, I made it to the park gate with about ten minutes to spare. The park gate attendant was very friendly and was curious where I came from England. I was also surprised when he asked me if I had a gun. The park gate attendant completed a pass and I was allowed to enter the park. I had to drive about 14km into the park. This was the only time I would drive in the park other than leaving. The reason for this drive was to get to the administration office where I left my car over the weekend. The road into the park was unpaved and very bumpy as it hadn't rained in months. It was also made more interesting as they are tarmacing the roads and I had to drive around the side of the new road in places. Once I arrived at the office I was met by Paul from the bush camp who collected me from my car along with my luggage and drove me to the camp. On the drive to the camp I saw my first wildlife at a distance: elephants at the nearby water hole.

As I said the bush camp is an eco lodge and as such has no mains electricity and water. I have been trying to explain this to people at work and they look appalled but for me it wasn't a problem. No mains water meant that to shower I had to collect water from a tank and then put it through a cute little heater (called a donkey boiler). The donkey boiler is heated by firewood. Water is poured into it and hot water comes out the other end. The little donkey works really well - if anything too well, as the water is too hot to directly shower with and needs to be mixed with cold water. Once I collected the hot water in a bucket I would take it into a shower cubicle. The shower was basic but effective. Its simply a bucket with a shower head at the bottom. So before showering I would hoist the bucket down, fill it with hot water and hoist it back up. Once in position I could open a valve and the shower head would empty the water. For such a basic facility the shower was really effective.

The other aspect of not having mains water meant that the toilets were a ventilated pit. Basically a normal toilet seat where the bottom of the toilet opens into the pit. To flush it, I would wash a jug of water down it. Despite being an outdoor toilet, the ventilation worked well and there was no smells. The other thing to note is that you are advised not to go to the toilet at night. The reason being is the camp is unfenced. Strictly there is a fence but its only a high level series of wires to try to stop elephants. Apparently a few years ago an elephant did get through the fence and they had to strengthen it. The advice on not going to the toilet is a good one, as recently leopard tracks were found in the morning.

This isn't the first time I've stayed in a place with no main electricity. Back in Argentina, I stayed in a farm (Orca spotting down on the farm)which had a generator. The bush camp didn't have a generator. At night they use parrafin lamps to light the camp which gives a magical quality to the place.

Included in my stay were all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and the food was excellent. The camp tries to make the food as much as possible authentic South African.

Anyway thats enough about the camp. The main reason for visiting was to see animals and the bush camp didn't dissapoint. Incldued with the stay was two bush drives a day. One at early morning and one in late afternoon / early evening. On the first afternoon drive we saw lots of elephants. Particularly special was seeing a couple of elephants bathing in the water hole. We also saw one elephant a fair bit: a bit male bull elephant in musk, who was hunting for female company. On that first drive we also saw giraffe and rhino at a distance, along with Kudo, Eagles, Impala and Jackyls.

The next morning we were waken up at 6 so we could leave the camp at 6:30. The rangers of Madikwe share a radio system, so that if animals are sighted they can relay the information to others. This is also used to ensure that not too many vehicles surround the animals. A "standby" queuing system is used if there's already enough vehicles watching, allowing other parties to only join once a vehicle leaves. The only animal sightings not radioed are rhinos for the fear of poaching.

This radio system allowed us to hear of something of interest. Our ranger Jonny wouldn't tell us what it was until we go there. When we got there we found out... a pride of lions had caught four young zebra and they were feasting on the dead zebra. It was interesting the lions eat, especially since the group included a male, a few females and some young cubs. Once the lions had eaten they decided to relax and fall asleep. This gave the opportunity for a cheeky Jackyl to steal some food.

On other drives we saw had further lion sightings, saw giraffe, buffalo and wilderbeast and even had a white rhino cross our path. There was only one of the big five left to see: a Leopard. Leopard are quite elusive and like to hide, so is unusual to see one and we were expecting not to see one. Until the final drive that was. On the radio we heard that one had been spotted and Jonny rushed to the location. We went to the spot and drove around trying to find it but with no luck. Another lodge group arrived and tried to find it. This vehicle must have given the Leopard a fright as it it bolted out of the bush it was hiding and ran down the road in front of us. The only problem was that it was too fast and far away to get a good photo. Oh well, I guess that means I'll have to go back.

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