views

Summer is here. With temperatures rising to 38’C, our guests enjoy splashing around the swimming pool with a cold beer. What better way to enjoy the endless views at Makumu? Welcome to another update from the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve and Makumu Private Game Lodge, your home away from home. I will cover some of the exciting things we encountered over the last month.

Winter is coming. This month we started to truly feel the cold mornings and chilly evenings. The changes from summer to winter have been noticeable for a few months, regarding the bush density opening, the seasonal grasses dying out and most, if not all, migratory birds have gone. Blankets, hot-water bottles, and plenty of hot drinks are quite necessary to stay warm. We can truly get excited for the winter season ahead. Our local pans, such as Malembeni and the pan just in front of the lodge will start to see more and more activity as water sources will be scarce. Even our lodge swimming pool will get some more visitors. We have already had some elephants come by and enjoy a drink. Let’s get into some of our amazing sightings over the last month.

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…