The Seaview Game and Lion Park is currently busy with a re branding process and will in future be known as the Seaview Predator Park. The boardwalk below the restaurant is one of the main features at the park and visitors can watch the lion and tiger cubs play below. You can also have the opportunity to interact with the cubs and most international visitors love the chance to be able to touch and play with them.
Today is Heritage Day and a national holiday in South Africa. It is also Braai Day which is closely linked to most cultures in the country. I had to work today so made up for it by having a braai on Saturday night. I am exhausted though and can really do with a bit of just sitting next to a fire at a game lodge with a drink on hand like this guy is doing at Pumba Game Reserve close to…
I am always amazed to see some wild animals like elephants and giraffes eat off thorn trees. Elephants take the whole branch while giraffes curl their tongues around the branch and pull the leaves off. How come the thorns don't prick them? The thorns are angled slightly towards the end of the branch and bends over as the giraffe pulls the leaves off. Amazing isn't it?
I stayed over at Pumba Game Reserve with a group of journalists a week or so ago. Returning to the lodge after our morning game drive I didn't really feel like a big breakfast so ordered the flapjacks with bacon, banana and maple syrup. Mmmmmmmmmmm............
Today we celebrate the third annual World Rhino Day not just here in South Africa, but world wide. World Rhino Day highlight the plight of the rhino which is targeted by ruthless poachers all over the world for their horns which are thought to have medicinal properties by the people in most countries in the Far East. Part of World Rhino Day is to debunk the myths and diminish the demand for rhino horn. Up to 12 September rhino poaching in…
On a game drive at Pumba Game Reserve near Port Elizabeth our ranger pointed out a Brown-hooded Kingfisher sitting in a tree next to the game drive vehicle. The next thing he said kinda got our attention. He asked us to look around and see if we could see any body of water. There was none. The Brown-hooded Kingfisher doesn't necessarily feed on fish but also on insects such as butterflies, bees, wasps, locusts and ants. These invertebrates are usually hawked…
Lalibela Game Reserve is situated about 85 kilometers east of Port Elizabeth. The reserve has three lodges (Lentaba Safari Lodge, Tree Tops Safari Lodge and Mark's Camp ) and I recently had the opportunity to stay at the latter. Mark's Camp is the reserve's family friendly camp and have facilities to cater for families with small children. One of our favorite parts of the lodge was the pool deck next to the waterhole at the bottom of a walkway from…
I little while ago I joined a couple of tourist guides from Port Elizabeth on a visit to Amakhala Game Reserve about 75 km east of the city. Although we got to do a game drive we were actually there to see their new boat and to go for a short cruise on the Bushmans River which flows through the reserve. As we were cruising upstream this reflection presented itself for a photograph and I just couldn't say no.
If somebody had to give me a choice of holiday between Beach or Bush I would probably choose Bush 8 out of 10 times. Perhaps its because I live on the coast and is used to the sea, but I just love being in the bush and going on game drives. The game drive I was on in the picture was at Lalibela Game Reserve about an hour outside Port Elizabeth.
Popular theory is that the White Rhino got its name from the fact that the English misunderstood what the Dutch meant when they referred to it as the Wijdmond Renoster. Wijd is Dutch for wide which referred to the rhino's wide mouth. The white rhino or square-lipped rhinoceros is a grazer and eats grass, preferring the shortest grains, hence the wide mouth comes in very handy. Kinda like a living lawnmower.