I am often asked what the “good” and the “bad” season is in this area, and to be honest, there is no such thing here. Every season is different, and there is no “wrong” time to visit here. All seasons are very different, and they offer their pros and cons.

The dry season lasts from June to early October, but sometimes first rains set in in late September, but this is rare. May is usually also mostly rain-free, but the odd short showers to occur now and then, but we have many years with no rain at all in May.

Now “rain” in this area means usually relatively short and very strong bursts of rainfall, often at night, followed by clear skies shortly thereafter. It can rain a whole day or two, but this is quite rare as a matter of fact. The sun shines 90% of the time during rainy season too! (so for all our guests from Britain, the rainy season here is very, very different from the British winter!). The rainy season is also in the summer, so temperatures are very high then. The winter is the dry season, and so one gets cooler temperatures with lots of sun, in fact sun is quasi guaranteed in the dry winter months.

Please see some photos below that were taken over recent days. One can see that the foliage of the bush has dried up to a large extent, and that it is thinning out too. The dry season is well and truly upon us! This is a popular time for photographers, as the pictures are the sharpest given the very low air humidity levels and also the heightened visibility as the bush is much thinner. Of course the mornings are a little colder, as well as the late evenings, but that said, the daytime weather is glorious and the sightings recently are as good as ever. And we have had some spectacular sightings over recent days, that’s for sure! Photos are going to follow over the next few days to show what our guests have seen on their safaris.

I would like to introduce a beautiful bird, as seen a few days ago: the Verreaux’s Eagle, also known as the Black Eagle! (see the photo below)

Its official name commemorates the French naturalist Jules Verreaux, who visited and explored Southern Africa in the 18th century. Now this is a BIG bird. It measures up to 90cm in length, with a wingspan exceeding 2m. It preys on large game: guinea fowls (another bird), rodents of a similar size, but there are reports of it even hunting and killing monkeys and small antelopes! The way they hunt is similar to modern warfare: it uses cliff corners to avoid detection and surprises its prey by its sudden appearance. These eagles mate for live, and their nests are usually located in cliffs, only rarely in trees. It is not the rarest of birds, but to see one this close is a real treat!

 

 

 

This is quite a rare sighting!

Pierre took this photo a few days ago when he was out with guests in the Kruger Park on a day trip.

I have seen myself a entire crash of over 20 rhinos sleeping in the morning on our reserve, but as we approached them they all woke up and walked off, so I could not take a photo of them.

In general it is nice to see rhinos peacefully enjoying their lives. The current poaching frenzy in South Africa is now starting to seriously endanger this species, and, little known to the wider public, 90% of all of Africa’s rhinos live in South Africa, and of all of those, 80-90% live in the Greater Kruger Park area. So this area is absolutely vital for the long-term survival of this famous (and imposing) African animal.

Our own reserve is home to white and black rhinos (of which there are only 3000 surviving specimen in the whole of Africa!), so if you want to see rhinos in the wild, and get close to them, then an African safari at our safari lodge is just perfect! Your visit here will help the protection of the rhinos, and there are not many more noble things to do than to help nature conservation.

Enjoy the photo!

Gilles, our in-house creative arts director, was out with guests a couple of weeks ago, and came about one of the most spectacular sightings we have ever had at the lodge! A cheetah munching away at a very, very recent kill!

Gilles sent through the photos, and I wasn’t too sure if I could publish it, as the sight of it isn’t the prettiest in the world. Gilles also took a good quantity of film footage, and he will collate it all and publish it on Youtube in a few days. The link to this video will follow on our blog! Promised.

For now, see the three best photos I have.

While it was obviously a very unfortunate day for the killed impala, it was a great day for animal conservation, as cheetahs count amongst one of the most endangered species in Africa. Wilderness area destruction through human activity expansion, mostly related to cattle farming, has pushed cheetahs to the very brink of extinction. It is a real pleasure, and a privilege, to see the numbers of them rising on our conservancy, and we thank all our guests for making the reserve and conservancy viable for the long-term. We hope to see more of you in the future, so that the conservation and protection efforts can be improved further, and that more land owners can be convinced to add their lands to the conservancy and hand it back to African nature. With over 36,000 acres so far, the conservancy is one of the most successful in South Africa, and the kind of African safari experience one can have here is second to none in the country! If you would like to know more about the safari reserve, please visit our website at www.vuyanilodge.com or call us on +44 78 70242893.