Geo: -24.7435, 26.2573This afternoon the lodge was quiet, so a few staff members went for a small game drive. Declan drove Jaci, Jan, Manny, Paul and myself. We didn't go very far when we spotted a pair of white rhinos in the distance. We drove off the main track to a smaller track to get a bit closer to them. We were able to watch them from a close distance for a few minutes and then they turned around and walked off into the bush. Declan drove back to the main track. Jaci requested that we have a look at Jamala's waterhole. Jamala is one of the many lodges in the game reserve. As we drove towards the waterhole, a white rhino was approaching it. We watched it walk along the water's edge. Then it drank ... read more

Geo: -24.7435, 26.2573This afternoon I went for a small drive with Roel and Paul. We wanted to have a look at how much damaged the fire had done to the bush. Although it was hard to tell how much damage had been done by only driving on the few roads. There were some trees still burning, their trunks alight with embers. I hope there were not many animals injured. We drove over a little hill and saw a small herd of breeding elephants. They were a bit cautious of us. We watched the elephants, which ranged in age and therefore size as well. The littlest one was staying right by its mother's side. I really feel for elephants at this time of the year, as there does not seem to be much food for them. It ... read more

Geo: -24.7435, 26.2573Today I took half a day off work to join Paul and some other guides in the park for a birding competition that started this afternoon. We were meeting the other teams at the airstrip at 2pm to go through the rules. There was one other team at the airstrip, each team of mixed staff from various lodges, there were also two other teams from the other side of the park that could not make it to the meeting.In our team there were five of us. We chatted for a few minutes and then drove off in different directions. I was honestly more interested in seeing animals than counting the different bird species. We didn't drive very far at all before Paul stopped the car and everyone else got excited about the birds. They ... read more

Geo: -20.5573, 28.5126I had such a great night's sleep. It was so good to sleep in a bed and have plenty of hot running water. Unfortunately we could not enjoy a sleep-in as we had organised a day trip today. We left the B&B just after 8am. The drive to Matopos National Park took us about half an hour. It was about a twenty minute drive to the reception of the camp ground. Along the way we drove past beautiful scenery, mostly because of the interesting rock formations. Especially picturesque was the view of the lake where the water was ever so still. We were running late, so didn't have as much time as we would have liked to enjoy the view. The guide wasn't at the reception yet, so we had some time to bargain ... read more

Geo: -15.9455, 29.3115This morning we all went for a game drive. The first interesting sighting that we had was a pair of male impalas that were play fighting by hitting each other with their horns. They briefly stopped to look at us and then continued fighting. A little while later we got out of the car to go for a short walk around a little water pan that was full of water plants. I was a bit concerned that there could be hippos hiding in the water among the plants, so I frequently scanned the water and was on the look-out for a charging hippo. Luckily the only animals we saw was a family of ducks.Continuing on we saw a lonely bull elephant that was not bothered by our presence. For the next hour we did ... read more