nature

We are moving into that time of year when the grass is all yellow and the leaves are just starting to change colour. Animal paths are forming all over and watering holes are getting busier. I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly the bush has changed after returning from my off days and according to Shelley I say this every year. I just find it crazy how quickly this happens, but I have to say we have had a few very warm autumn days. The mornings and evenings are cooling down nicely though.

Even though the cold weather is slowly moving in, we are still lucky with a luscious green bushveld after the big floods in February. The water dams and rivers are still full and flowing strong. Welcome to another update from the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve and Makumu Private Game Lodge, your home away from home. I will be covering some of the exciting things that we encountered over the last month.

February has been a rather interesting month. I have not seen so much rain in a very long time. We had nearly 360mm of rain in less than a week and just over 400mm in less than a month. The bush is beautiful, so lush, so green and the river has been flowing from one bank to the other. We even had 3 or 4 days where we could not even cross the drainage at the lodge or cross the river. With all this beauty comes its challenges, like limited areas to drive, and vehicles getting stuck. We had 6 vehicles stuck in our traverse area in two days, including a tractor. For the genuine bush lovers, this did not stop them, they were still out there with us enjoying what nature had to offer, even though sightings were a little slower than what we are used to. There is just so much water at the moment in the bush and small drainages, no animal is forced to go to the river or a watering hole.

I will be covering all the sightings we had during December 2022.

We have reached the end of 2022. We’ve had a great year and we feel privileged to end it off in this beautiful place called home. We’ve had our first good rain this season and with it being so hot and dry, animals have been everywhere, especially around Makumu. All the waterholes have abundant wildlife and birds lurking around on these hot summer days. We just went to go and sit around the waterhole and wait for the animals to come to us. The lodge watering hole was also extremely busy with animals and guests are being kept busy the whole day with animals coming and going, from tons of giraffes to big groups of elephants, even rhinos! Lets’ look into some crazy wildlife sightings below…

Welcome back to another exciting update on our adventures here in the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve. I will be covering all the exciting things that happened over November.

Summer is here in full force with temperatures rising to 38’C. We received some amazing rainfall this past month and you can see the results in the luscious green bushveld. And this is only the beginning.

I will be covering all the sightings we had during October 2022.

Where to start with this report, it has been an epic month sighting-wise. With September and October being 2 of the driest months and temperatures rising it always provides good sightings. The bush is extremely dry and thinned out, the river system is hardly flowing, a small narrow little stream at best, waterholes are pumping with the game and then the odd chance of a spectacular lightning storm as we approach our rainy season. Days are long and nights are short as we leave quite early in the mornings the catch the beautiful sunrise and later in the afternoons to avoid the heat of the day.