Madikwe

As we made our escape from the kids, we drove 3 hours towards madikwe, which means mother of all things in nature. We pass many towns with funny names like hooimooi. The landscape is getting dry we pass a few platinum mines. The amazing thing about this country is their roads and they are all well kept, I think the weather helps too. In the 300km we travelled, only 50 was on dirt.

The provincial government 15 years ago bought up all the cattle land in this area and converted it into a game reserve. There are now something like 15 lodges and 7 more to be built. We pass sun city on the way and the small reserve there, which in the next few years will be joined up with Madikwe to create the largest reserve outside of Kruger national park.

Here are some shots taken from inside the car, the donkey cart with kids was a good one but a bad shot on my part. People seem so happy and the province seems rich, see the houses, they are brick and not shacks closely huddled together. The provincial govt has successfully provided work for the residents.

We stayed at Jaci's lodge, more photo's and the safari later but they have a profit sharing scheme with their workers and they are all from around the area. Our guide, Samson said its easy to become a bush guide when you grew up in the bush recognizing tracks and stuff.

After we passed the gate we were greeted by a large male elephant, convinved that he was planted there for teh tourists we snap a shot and zip pass, later did we find out that was a rare and close sighting, we should have lingered on a bit longer. Many of the guests are really into game reserves, they have been to more than 10 trying out all sort of reserves.

Anyway, search Madikwe, or Jaci's safari lodge or even www.MTbeds.co.za for last minute good deals!