Life in the bush!

So i have been in the bush for nearly six weeks now and boy does time fly! For those of you who don't know i am currently at Motswari Game Lodge in the Timbavati Game Reserve, South Africa, completing a 3 month internship and my god is it awesome out here! The animals are incredible and the staff here have been truly great, they have made me feel really welcome and instantly made me feel part of the team!

In the short space of time i have been here i have already learnt so much, but most of all i am finally learning my birds. I have now seen more real life zazu's than you can imagine. But i have to say zazu is definitely the wrong colour! I love how many guests refer back to the lion king whilst they are out here, secretly i do too, but i have yet to let anyone know it!

I do my daily intern duties in reception and sneak off on game drives as much as i can. Every sighting i have had here has been truly incredible. I have never experienced the same sighting twice and it really does make it special. There have been great sightings of the Big 5, as well as several other african animals, including hippo, giraffe, zebra, hyena and many antelope species. Unfortunately, the Timbavati doesn't have great terrain for cheetahs, but i continue to keep my fingers crossed for even just a quick glimpse of this fantastic feline! However, i did have a super sighting of two adult wild dogs and their pups on my first game drive, but sadly i did not have my camera so i don't have any photographic evidence.

One of my favourite sightings here is to see the hyenas around their den. Currently they have adults, sub adults, a medium sized young, and true youngsters. When you catch these guys at the right time and at cooler temperatures they will sneak out of their den. The young will come up to the car, sniff and chew the tyres, so you get an awesome close up sighting of these beautiful animals. It is an absolute beast of a sighting.
Having said that it is truly hard to single out one favourite sighting, i have seen a rhino charge our vehicle, a baby rhino squaring up to a fully grown adult, warthogs playing, lions on a kill, leopards in a tree, each sighting is special in its own way.
Seeing the animals sometimes isnt as easy as it seems, a lot of bush bashing goes on. If there is a confirmed sighting of one of the big 5, then the guides are aloud to batter their way through the bushes to get a better visual of the animals. It can be fun and bouncy but also uncomfortable when branches flick you. But it is all worth it when you are up close and personal!
 

The guides here are more knowledgable than you can imagine, i will for sure learn a great deal more from them while i am here. Here at the timbavati, trackers also go out with the guides, hats of to them, they do an awesome job also. If a track is found, they will be dropped off in the bush and track the animal, quite often a leopard or lions. Both guides and trackers work so well as a team and do their best to find as many sightings as possible. 

Thanks go out to my mum for recently buying me a pair of binocs for out here in the bush! These have been an awesome help in my journey to identifying different birds, learning how to identify each different leopard, and getting a closer visual on animals in the distance!

While i am here, i hope i will continue on my venture to learning more about the african bush and its animals, learning to track and identify animals, and start to learn some of the local language here, Shangaan.

 

  
Being out here has definitely opened my eyes to different career options, i am now considering investing in a field guiding course to expand my knowledge of the african bush and possibly becoming a game ranger one day. The courses are unfortunately expensive so i will have to start saving, but who knows what the future holds for me.

I will do my best to keep you up to date on my bush adventures...