The dry season is upon us.

Like everything in life, winter time has its ups and downs.

It is so good to be back at the lodge and in the bush, to be able to chat and share some of my photos with you guys again. As well as letting you know what is happening out there in our beautiful Madikwe.

We came across this herd of Elephants crossing the road. Rushing off, it appeared as if they were late for a shopping special at the local market! Samuel and I decided to make our way to Tshukudu dam in the hope to meet our giant friends there. Not too long and to our delight we saw a cloud of dust approaching.

In winter, if it is a big herd of animals, you only need to look for the dust cloud, it is so cool! It is a total giveaway that there is something on its way.

…and as quickly as they arrived they left again. Amazing! From the biggest to the smallest!

Time for our feathered friends:

I could never get enough of this one species, the Rollers!

This is a Purple Roller.

However, the cream of the crop is most probably the Lilac-breasted Roller with his amazing colors.

From the beauty to the undertakers of the bush, the Cape Vulture.

According to my opinion, the next two birds are most probably the friend of all guests, the Snake Eagles.

The Black-chested Snake Eagle.

The Brown Snake Eagle.

This one, with his curled beak, is a Pied Avocet

The next bird is one of the culprits that are more than likely to give you and your tracker a heart attack while on foot in the bush, the Double-banded Sandgrouse. Now why would I say that? You know they are very sneaky little creatures. They would wait until you are almost on top of them and then they will shot up in to the air, leaving you with the feeling of fear and grabbing your heart to try and calm it down. I am talking from experience, it happened a couple of times in my guiding career.

The next one speaks for itself, the Snouted Cobra

Staying with reptiles, the blue headed tree agama. They look so scary, but in actual fact they are so timid and harmless to humans. They are most probably more scared of us, than of what we are of them.

This is just one of those ones, the Zebra looked up and smiled to us for a snap away.

Since the park’s management tarred the main road going downhill, we started to see these little guys more and more. On the photo you can see them standing right next to the road, they are licking the salt and minerals off the road.

I have to say that we do stay in one of the best areas in the world! Just look at the sun set we had.

A moon rising, some people will call it a blood moon.

Good bye until next time