A Bush-Veld Day - Majestic Beasts And Sparkling Cocktails

Summer mornings in the African bush-veld are fragrant with the promise of new adventure and opportunity, especially if you are blessed enough to wake up in the midst of nature.

A journal entry for a bush-veld day

On this particular morning I was woken up by the sound of a woodpecker furiously working towards an appetizing high protein breakfast for the mother and the chicks in the nest nearby.

It was at this point that I realized that the harsh morning sun in the African sky had already started beating down vigorously, this could of course also be confirmed by the symphony of cicada beetles successively interrupting the ambient bird songs that filled the air. (For those of you that might not be familiar with this, in Africa the sound of cicada beetles, especially early in the morning, is a sure sign of an extremely hot day ahead.)

The anticipation of the overdue summer rains were at this stage merely heightened by sporadic cat-spits of rain that would tease the barren earth once every few weeks, but even that was enough for the bush-veld to start draping it's dreary backdrop with the wondrous colors of wild flowers.

A quick walk around the camp revealed some half human- and impala lilies flowering, and the thought of these gorgeous flowers blooming despite the seemingly endless drought was enough to instill high expectations for the already promising day ahead.

Below: Half humans are the while flowers and Impala Lilies are the dark pink ones with the white inlay

After some coffee and breakfast, a morning game drive seemed a perfectly suited way to start the day, given that we were here to get some work done after all.

I managed to get a few shots in of giraffe, a smaller herd of kudu as well as some more lovely wild flowers (I have no idea what flowers they are, they were just beautiful), before my camera battery decided to leave me to my own devices so to speak, and died on me. So without any photos to prove it let me just say that we also saw impala, nyala, ostrich, an array of bird life and various smaller creatures & critters that I sadly will not be able to share with you in this post.

This now brings us past the point where we all return to the camp and reluctantly force ourselves to be productive for a few hours allowing just enough time for the camera to fully recharge.

With evening just around the corner, some sable and kudu decided to come make a final stop at the salt licks right next to the camp site, so we decided to settle down while sipping on some fruit infused cocktails as we watched these majestic beasts linger by the camp site up to that the invasive night deprived us of their glory.

The day had finally rested its head and it was time for us to enjoy a cosy campfire, great food and even better company in the invitingly crisp night air that accompanied the full moon, before settling into our tents yet again, listening to natures lullaby comprised of the voices of fiery neck night-jars, jackle, hyena, bush-babies and other soothing bush-veld nocturne sounds.