Author: Bernard

Hot air balloon trips (which we organise at the Vuyani Safari Lodge) have become extremely popular with honeymooners. No surprise there, for it is a breathtaking way of both seeing the stunning Kruger National Park area as well as the famous Drakensberg from its most impressive and, admittedly, romantic side.
The mountain range, basking in the red/pink morning sunrise light, offers a spectacle that is so overwhelmingly unique that it is assured to leave anyone with lasting memories.
The flight pilots are also great entertainers and one learns a lot about hot air ballooning in general. We recommend to enjoy breakfast at the hot air ballooning operators’ own lodge: the hanging bridge to get to the lodge is surprising, and their breakfast are excellent. A great way of relaxing after an exciting balloon flight!

We highly recommend these balloon trips as the perfect complement to an exciting safari holiday experience at the Vuyani Safari Lodge.

Bernard – Vuyani Safari Lodge

Jon-Jon departed on the afternoon Safari as normal. Some of our guests were not back yet, they had left after breakfast to do the Panorama Route.  Jon-Jon’s drive was progressing nicely, exploring the game reserve to see what animals could be found. Justine was on standby to do a link-out to Jon-Jon once the guests returned from their Panorama Route trip.

Jon-Jon had not been out for long before our guests returned and Justine left to link them out to Jon-Jon. They had just come across some giraffe looking very intently into the bush. Now giraffes can be a very useful ally in bush, they often give away the position of predators. So Jon-Jon was quite right to assume that there was something out there. It unfortunately doesn’t always work out that we get to see what the giraffe sees.

At this point Justine was close and Jon-Jon decided to go and collect the guests at the pre-arranged meeting point

Once everyone was on board, off they went again in search of whatever the giraffe was looking at. They had only gone about a 100 metres from where the giraffe was when one of our guests spotted a leopard (youngish female), lying in the top of a leadwood tree. Needless to say everyone was ecstatic, spotting a leopard is fabulous and very special. However spotting one up a tree is even more amazing, even though the archetypal picture is of a leopard up a tree they spend most of their time on the ground. So seeing her up a tree was a real treat. After being able to spend a good 45 minutes with the leopard Jon-Jon and the guests left the spot with huge smiles on their faces, off to go and enjoy another one of Africa’s marvellous sunsets.

Welcome to the Vuyani Lodge blog, where ranger Quinton and general manager Henry can keep the whole fan community of the lodge up todate about recent developments at the lodge, exciting African wildlife sightings and other news. It also allows our previous guests and prospective guests to ask questions directly to the guys on the ground.

🙂