Thornybush Game Lodge - All Inclusive Hoedspruit

I've just received mu luggage today, after South African Airways lost it on the way from Livingstone. Fortunately, I was able to buy some underwear and borrow some things from others in my tour group. This is a much more diverse group than the last one, with 14 travelers from England, the U.S., Canada, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, the ...

... them. I went on a horse ride yesterday for 2 hours in the Mountain view reserve. I was given a HUGE white horse named sammy. Of course the most mischievious of the bunch as I was the most experience rider there. I loved him though, we made a great pair as I loved his enthousiasm and he loved trotting and running so it was great. The views are stunning on horse back though as we get right close to the mountains and part way up them. We saw ...

... to hear the lions calling all night long. They were on both sides of Twines. Sound really travels out here so it's not like they were in our yard (which has been seen in the past) but being able to hear them is awesome. We had a lecture on lion management from Makalali's head warden yesterday. That was super interesting and also very sad. He was picking 2 of 7 lions from a group so they could be introduced to Makalali and the rest were euthanized since there was ...

... rather um large. they have visited our watering hole for two days now and have hooked up with a female who looks pregnant. it would be great to see cubs but i don't think that's going to happen. we also haven't seen the leopard or cheetahs since the bush is so thick. we got a telemetry reading from the cheetah collars but that's it. the floodgates are now officially open though. Windgat, a male bull elephant, greeted us after our visit to the orphanage. he ...

... had time to study, play table tennis, volleyball or just chill until lunch was served at 3.15pm. After lunch we went for another bush walk or game drive at 4pm and back for dinner at 7.30pm. After which it was time to crack open a few beers and share a few stories around the camp fire, not a bad life!! Two students a day would be on 'duty'. Which meant that once every 10 days we had to get up 30mins earlier, give the ...

... to Kruger National Park and the Panoramic Drive. Kruger was brilliant and we saw elephant, lion, zebra, kudu, nyala, impala, waterbuck, ground hornbill, and loads more, too many to mention. We had lunch in the park at one of the rest areas and stayed in Nelspruit for the night. The next day we drove from Nelspruit and drove around the Panoramic Drive stopping at Gods Window, Potholes, Graskop, where we had to walk to reach the viewpoints ...

... management (to avoid the inhumane culling operations), and it allows people like us to learn about conservation of wild animals, their movement and their habitat. When we landed at Hoedspruit airport we immediately felt the difference from Cape Town. We felt as if we had discovered the real Africa, as opposed to the 'tourist' Africa. This sentiment was further enhanced when we learnt that the airport encourage cheetahs to run wild nearby, to ...

... safaris mas, por la maniana y por la tarde. Como se que me va a desilusionar otra vez, no se si quedarme en este pedazo de hotel y disfrutarlo un poco. Pasado maniana estamos en un canion de cerca de por aqui, y el domingo ya volvemos a Johannesburgo, desde donde cada uno, por fin!, coge su vuelo de vuelta a Espania. Por fortuna, no son los mismos. Yo, GUAY!, hago una parada de unas cuantas horas en Zurich donde tengo una visita que me hace muchisima ilusion.

... legs seem somehow insufficient to support the their tall bodies. We stare, transfixed in amazement at these huge creatures, just watching them eat, staring at their spotted skin, the mane, floppy ears and rich brown eyes staring right back at us. We snap countless photos and finally consent that we can move on. Next we run into a huge group of impalas, the young ones bounding around in a huge circle, dad says it's their morning exercise routine. We dodge a big turtle waddling ...

... were getting a bit agitated . They started flapping their ears and scraping their foot on the ground like they were about to charge, so we took some photos and got out of there. That night we slept in the same sort of permanent doe tents as the previous night and had about 4 hours of sleep again. We had to be up early to go on our morning game drive. I think most people (including me) fell asleep on the drive and it was down to our guide to scout for animals. Luckily for us, we didn't miss ...