We’ve just arrived back in the UK after another great few days at Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp – our ‘home from home’ in South Africa. As always we had a warm welcome from everyone at both camps. We arrived early at Africa on Foot and were greeted by an ever friendly Hennie, Mike and Enoch – host, ranger and tracker. At nThambo, Lily, Matt and Jacques were waiting with our usual drinks (Amstel and Savanna) chilled and ready for drinking, all be it at 11am. Game viewing, as always was exceptional – seeing lions, elephants, buffalo and rhino many times, only the elusive leopard evaded us this time!
It was great to catch up with 2 of the Triology male lions, then the Ross Breakaway lionesses lounging around, doing what they do best – sleeping. However it’s always good to see them a bit more active – late one evening we found the 2 girls trying to dig out warthogs from an old termite mound. We watched them for about an hour in the darkness, until they gave up, exhausted. On our last drive we just missed seeing their 2 young cubs that mum had just been feeding, but they had gone back to the safety of their den site out of our view.
We even got to catch up with 4 of the Ross Pride (a lioness and 3 sub adults), who we haven’t seen since the 3 cubs were only a few months old. We cut our morning bush walk short to go and see them, chomping on a warthog! However, our highlight was again seeing wild dogs, including wild dog puppies, running past our tent and across the open area in front of nThambo early one morning. We all clambered on the Land Rover and started game drive early trying to relocate them. After driving the property for quite some time we eventually found them on a impala kill.
The great thing about these 2 camps is the chance to walk through the bushveld – its such a great feeling being at one with the surroundings. Enoch, Mike and Jacques are all really knowledgeable and share their knowledge about all aspects of the bush, from trees, plants and of course, animal spoor (aka tracks). We were lucky to come across a large herd of buffalo on one of our walks, where obviously we had to be really quiet and crouch down to watch them, watching us!
The hospitality was second to none and the food, wonderful. We were lucky to be at Africa on Foot for “National Braai Day”, where we all got involved in cooking on an open fire – well done Hennie, what a great idea. The fun evening continued as we all migrated to the bar afterwards for a good South African drink and a catch up with friends. Other guests always add to the Safari experience – at nThambo we spent a great time with wonderful guests and as always exceptional hosting by Lily and Jacques, who both went out of their way to make our stay memorable (and in the process converting 6 Americans to life-long English Rugby supporters – well it is the Rugby World cup!).Well it’s all a great memory now we are back in the UK, but it’s time to switch on the Internet and book our next trip back to the Klaserie in January – see you all next year.
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