News in March from The Bush

Another month has flown by here at Tau, we are still hopeful for some more rain, and the mornings are starting to feel a little bit on the crisp side. We are delighted to have a new addition to our guiding team. Jesse has joined us from another reserve and we are now a team of 9 field guides here at Tau.

We are also a bit sad, as the big male lion, Kgakala, who was often seen in our area is no more. He was very old in lion years, but has left a fair few offspring around the reserve. He gave lots of people lots of joy, but such is nature, he will certainly be missed here.

On a lighter note, four lovely ladies from Australia have just left us after staying with us for 5 nights. Clare, Natalie, Martina and Matilda have had some really nice sightings, including a pride of lions feeding on a giraffe carcass, cheetah sleeping in the sun, a huge herd of elephant interacting at the dam and 50 or more buffalo spreading out through the bush close to the lodge. Staying for 5 nights also gave us the opportunity to spend some time looking at some of the lesser known beauties of the bush. We sat for a long while at a brown hyena den, watching a youngster relax in the afternoon sunshine. We also spent around 20minutes following the most relaxed serval I have ever seen. It was walking elegantly through the grass, then stopped and flushed a snake out from inside a bush, before carrying on its way. We also stayed for quite some time, watching a group of 4 elephants having a fantastic time in the mud outside the lodge, with a very small baby totally covering itself in mud, before realising it couldn’t see, and trying to rub the mud from its face on Mom’s back legs! Meanwhile, a slightly older elephant lost track of his group and went trumpeting off into the bush, before he was called back and chastised for going off on his own. We were also joined in the vehicle by a beautiful grass hopper, which the ladies took great delight in photographing. We also spent a while looking at the night sky, no lights, no sounds, just appreciating this fantastic place that some of us are lucky enough to call home. It is really special for us guides to be able to spend some quiet time with guests to try and really make them feel part of the environment.

It was great to meet you ladies – we are already missing you here at Tau and hope to see you back again soon. Kelly x