Just recently my family and I spent five absolutely magical days at a friend's bush camp in the Timbavati. It has been one of the best short break holidays I have ever had. I really, really love the African bush and to me it is a whole different world, a whole different vibe, a whole different language and I can literally feel my soul recharging and my heart singing. Our hosts were Melina and Andreas Liebenberg from Bateleur Eco Safari's and I cannot sing their praises enough. Andreas is like a Professor Dumbledore of the bush, from his knowledge, his experience, his patience and teaching skills down to his obvious love for what he does. The assistant guide and tracker, Elias, was really amazing too!
We tracked and found five magnificent rhino; made fires from scratch; made rope from sisal; sculpted with clay from a water hole and learnt so much about the magnificent trees, insects, birds and animals around us. The stars at night, while sitting around the campfire were spectacular too along with the story of Orion and Scorpio. We searched for Bark Scorpions with a UV light at night and found some Flat Rock Scorpions the next day and held them in our palms. My girls washed themselves with the leaves of the Devil Thorn creeper (brilliant natural soap); kept insects away with Wild Grape Leaves; learnt which was the toilet paper bush and my eldest used the leaves of the Lead-wood tree to help with a sinus headache. We were all in our element; it was the perfect family break.
I think the magic for me was in experiencing just how miraculous nature is. Whilst I love seeing the big animals and the magnificent leopard we were lucky enough to see, for me there were so many magical 'smaller' moments that equaled those of seeing the big animals. One of them was seeing how a type of grass seed (I forget the name) plants itself. Andreas showed us how when the little stem gets wet, it starts twirling and winding and in doing so embeds the seed at the end of the stem into the soil! I was totally enchanted!
Here are a few of the hundreds of photos I took (I was just so in love with this whole vibe!)
Rhino spoor and after about 2 and half hours we found them
Our classroom in the river bed ...
Making string
Making fire
Our traveling fire
Getting the clay ready
Note the visitors in the background ...
Beautiful design on the underside of the Terrapin
Breakfast time
European roller having breakfast
Washing ourselves after a midnight feast!
Of course, let us not forget the spectacular African sunsets!
I can highly recommend a few days in the Bush with the Bateleur Mobile Camp They do corporates, families, children's groups from age 8 upwards, ... and what an enchanting getaway! It will definitely go down as one of my top ten holidays EVER!
No comments:
Post a Comment