Since Leaving Port Elizabeth and making our way up to the Game Reserve, we had managed to travel over 1500 miles. By the time we actually made it to the Madikwi Gates both Dad and I were exhausted, this didn't last long however, as soon as we had entered the reserve there were baboons and impala jumping and bounding all over the road and the surrounding bush. I was rather excited by all the activity, not realizing how much we were going to see in the next few days, I made dad stop at every possible moment to take photos. He was not as excited as me!

We were picked up by Patrick, one of the guides, and taken over to the Moth Bush Camp. It was awesome, very basic however as I will explain. The camp was open to all wildlife, the only thing that was kept at bay were the Elephants by a huge electric wire about 3m off the ground, surrounding the camp. Otherwise anything that wanted to come visit us could. We were staying in comfy little cabins, to get washed however you had to go into a fenced off area where there were posh long drops, not exactly luxury but not as bad as I first imagined. To shower they had these Donkey boilers, you put the water in one end, which was being heated by a fire and the hot water came out the other end. With your bucket of hot water you then had to take it and fill and shower bucket which was then pulled up over your head and you let the water out through effectively a watering can. Very funny!

More importantly than the camp were the game drives, amazing! It is much easier to sort of list what we saw as we did see so much!

Day 1 Drive 1:

Giraffe, lots and was very excited best animal!

White Rhino x3

Zebra

Lions, this was awesome, we were following a lead about a sighting of a Leopard and instead when we stopped these lionesses and lions just walked around the corner, wandered past us all and went off into the bush. It was incredible!

Wild dog, these were amazing, apparently they are actually quite rare to see. We were on the night drive heading back to camp, we all hear these strange noises and come upon this pack of 16 wild dogs on a live kill. It smelt awful and looked awful but was pretty cool to watch!

Jackle

Owls

Warthogs, look just like the lion king version, pretty sad they didn't burst into song!

Day 2 Drive 1:

Cheetah, so we are driving along about half and hour into the drive and Patrick the guide turns to us all and says, "Would you like to see a cheetah?" Yes of course 10m into the bush we see this amazing cheetah, right on cue this awesome animal just poses for our photos and then pads off into the bush. It was just fantastic!

Lions, I cannot believe these two brothers. We have seen these guys earlier on in the drive, Patrick gets a call to go off and see some Wild Dog, as we are driving to see them we pass these brothers, I kid you not they we side by side standing on a rock facing the sun. manicured and brushed looking perfect just one of those amazing shots and Patrick just drives straight past… I couldn't believe it the wild dog are more rare apparently. Will never forget that shot just so amazing. When we came back they were asleep, rubbish!

Water buck

Giraffe

Warthog

Cameleon

Zebra (got bored off seeing them)

Hyena

Baboon

Blacked backed Jackel

Day 2 Drive 2

Rhino x 4 1 baby, so cute

Spooted Hyena x2

Zebra, again

Elephant, in fact managed to loose 2 herds of elephant, how that is even possible I have no idea!

Day 3 Drive 1

Snake Eagle

Elephant, didn't loose this herd. There were maybe about 20 or so with about 5 young.

Buck

Wilderbeest

Rhino x 3

Zebra

Day 3 Drive 2

Lions x3 male 1 female

Zebra

Wilderbeest

Spring Bok

Kudu

Day 4 Drive 1

Lions x 8 female, 1 male, x 4 cubs

Elephants 20 +

Buffalo Herd

Giraffe

Warthog

Jackel

So you get the gist we saw lots of animals, was just brilliant. We got up at 5am every morning for the drives and had coffee, then would stop for more coffee and rusks, very traditional South African thing to eat. After the morning drive we all got pancakes and toast for breakfast, yummy! The rest of the morning we could keep ourselves amused, but most of the time was taken with getting water for the showers. Throughout the afternoon new people would arrive and everyone would sit down for lunch and the usual greetings, Dad and I were very fortunate to meet some wonderful people. A few families, one from NZ and the others English, an Australian couple etc I could go on. It was fantastic, I nearly cried when we left!