Magical Afternoon in Madikwe

There is something in the air around Madikwe that makes every guest here on their first Safari sit up and notice the serene beauty of this land called "Mother of Crocodile". Even though there are very few crocs in the Groot Marico river in the east of the park, they are residing very happily here amongst all the the other spectacular game which is up for viewing on your bedroom deck, or on the game viewing land cruiser.
The park is really looking stunning with a lot of rain falling recently transforming this usually dry landscape into a bustling hive of activity.The migratory birds are back in full force and giving us the sweet music to our ears......
Anyway, yesterday I was with some return guests of mine who stayed at Tuningi 2 years ago, Malcome & Jean Hewitt and their friends Jack & Cathy Macdonald, and we went on the last afternoon safari with them in a very chilled mood we set out into the bush.
We were looking for some giraffe, and boy did we get our worth......
Yip, there were about 8 or 9 giraffe all around the Nare Dam area and they just presented themselves with no bother in the world, and gave us some super photo opportunities like these shots.... we must have sat with them for about 45 minutes before they finally got bored with our presence and pushed off into the thickets. There were some rhinos also at the little pan who stopped in for a quick mud pack and shunted on to satisfy their undying need for fresh grass.

After the Journey of giraffe still lingering in our minds we decided to go for a drink at Nicks view, and enjoyed some good south african wine and G&T's. The view was to die for.....
So the drinks stop lasted a little longer than usual as the scene as just as relaxing as at looks above..I Promise... u should come try it some day with us at Tuningi.

So..... there she was !!!!

The Diperoro Female was sitting slap bang in the middle of the road seemingly looking to catch a spurfowl for a snack, and as they say the rest is just....BLISS.... !!!

Check some of these shots, even though the light was almost gone, I took my converter off to get the most out of my 2.8 f 70 -200 as i could.

That was the cherry on the top, as seeing this magnificent beast in the Madikwe is and should be a treasure of the african bush. We viewed her for about 30 mins before she dissapeared into the scrub after something we could not see................

Until next time
Gavin