Elephant in Welgevonden Game Reserve (Video and photographs)

Photograph and video of an Elephant in the Welgevonden Game Reserve in the Waterberg Area. The Welgevonden Game Reserve is a pop­u­lar week­end safari des­tin­a­tion out of Johannesburg. Only 3 hours drive north of OR Tambo Airport, Welgevonden Game Reserve is a "Big Five", mal­aria free Game Reserve situ­ated in the Waterberg District ... Continued

Hans Merensky Nature Reserve Photo

This pho­to­graph taken in the Hans Merensky Nature Reserve was sent to us by Ester Van Dyk. The Hans Merensky Nature Reserve lies just west of the Kruger National Park and not far from Tzaneen. The main draw card to this beau­ti­ful reserve is the fact that you can walk most of it on foot ... Continued

Waterbuck Twins — Photograph

This pho­to­graph of the Water Buck twins was sent to us by Madelein Calligeris. Madelein took this gor­geous shot in the Big 5, Karongwe Game Reserve near Hoedspruit in Limpopo. According to the Wikipedia entry, Waterbuck stand 100 to 130 cm at the shoulder and weigh from 160 to 240  kg ... Continued

Discovering the Limpopo Province

Giraffe in front of Baobab

Picture your­self relax­ing on the deck of a lux­ury game lodge, watch­ing the sun set over the baobabs, while feast­ing on loc­ally grown trop­ical delights, such as avo­ca­dos, litchis and man­goes. If your goal, when trav­el­ing in South Africa, is to exper­i­ence the untamed, nat­ural beauty, diversity of fauna and flora, then the Limpopo Province is the des­tin­a­tion for you.

Roughly half of the world fam­ous Kruger National Park is situ­ated in this province, along with a host of other nature reserves and game farms, and this makes for a wild, untamed place. Continued

Wild Animal Hosts look forward to meeting you

Jespha — The older ...

In Limpopo, bor­der­ing the his­toric Leydsdorp where gold was 1^st dis­covered in South Africa in 1891, you will find a wild­life reserve and sanc­tu­ary that is held in trust for more than 4500 res­cued wild animals.

Many wild anim­als have been res­cued by the SanWild Wildlife Emergency Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre over the years and what makes this reserve unique is that your hosts are the anim­als them­selves; Among them are two charm­ing French hippo bulls called Tonga and Aldo. They recently “immig­rated” to South Africa from Paris after being con­fis­cated by the French con­ser­va­tion author­it­ies from 2 sep­ar­ate trav­el­ling cir­cuses in France. KLM air­lines donated their air­fares and the hip­pos have form­ally been appoin­ted as the SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary’s ambas­sad­ors for 2008. Continued

Oxpecker Research Facility unveiled at Mokopane

Red-billed Oxpecker

The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa’s Mokopane Centre unveiled its custom-designed oxpecker facil­ity on Friday 18^th July 2008. This facil­ity is for the research of Red-billed Oxpeckers with the aim of breed­ing and relo­cat­ing these endangered birds to areas through­out South Africa.

In the 1900’s oxpecker num­bers were drastic­ally reduced as a res­ult of the use of dips to treat live­stock against tick infest­a­tions. As a res­ult, many oxpeck­ers, whose main source of food is ticks, were killed by the poison. Since that time, aware­ness has been cre­ated of more oxpecker-friendly cattle dips. This has helped to restore the sym­bi­otic rela­tion­ship that pre­vi­ously exis­ted between the oxpeck­ers and the cattle that it rids of ticks. In the wild, oxpeck­ers rid many large ante­lope of ticks. Continued

New Spa in Bela-Bela

Shakama Spa

Spoil your­self and exper­i­ence true relax­a­tion and reju­ven­a­tion at the spa. The Shakama Wellness Centre con­sists of a gym, sauna, jac­uzzi and ther­apy rooms. Reserve your spe­cial treat­ment and be pampered whilst enjoy­ing the sounds of nature.

Shakama Wellness centre is an oasis of calm, peace and relax­a­tion that allows you to shed every layer of stress laid upon you by city life. The spa offers a wide array of beauty treat­ments, mas­sages, revital­iz­ing and shap­ing treat­ments in a cosy thatched envir­on­ment with views over African bush. Continued

New Wedding Venue in Tzaneen

Tzaneen Country Lodge

Tzaneen Country Lodge is undoubtedly one of the most romantic ven­ues for the exchange of your wed­ding vows. Whether it is a small and intim­ate affair for close friends and fam­ily or a lav­ish wed­ding ban­quet, we are able to offer a tailor-made wed­ding pack­age that will ful­fil your dreams and meet all your needs.

Tzannen Country Lodge offers a romantic chapel with lead glass win­dows as well as dif­fer­ent and ver­sat­ile ban­quet­ing rooms. With our new big­ger func­tion halls we can host from the most intim­ate wed­ding up to 400 guests for that spe­cial day. Our lovely coun­try atmo­sphere lends itself to out­door wed­dings and cel­eb­rat­ing your spe­cial day in our land­scaped gar­dens is a very attract­ive option. Continued

Lesheba Wilderness Game Farm in South Africa

'Climb above the clouds, walk with the Rhino — game farm in the moun­tains'.

Lesheba Wilderness

For a truly magical African exper­i­ence, try Lesheba Wilderness game farm, which stretches along the top of the west­ern Soutpansberg Mountains in Limpopo, South Africa.

“The story of the moun­tain and its sur­round­ings should be told in all its intriguing rich­ness and given the pos­sib­il­ity to con­trib­ute to a bet­ter future for human­ity.” - President Thabo Mbeki, Soutpansberg, 20 August 2003

In the far Limpopo Province of South Africa, the magical Soutpansberg moun­tain range rises like an oasis from the sur­round­ing bushveld. This is one of the country's most unique and bio-diverse envir­on­ments and at the top of this moun­tain, in a well hid­den val­ley, lies Lesheba Wilderness. Transcending expect­a­tions of a wild­life reserve, Lesheba offers a uniquely African exper­i­ence with lux­ury touches, warm hos­pit­al­ity and rich memor­ies you'll be back to recre­ate ... Continued

Horse Back Safaris in the Mabula Game Reserve

Mabula Game Reserve

For a Game Viewing Experience with a dif­fer­ence, try an overnight Horse Back Safari at Kwafubesi Tented Safari Camp, situ­ated in the Mabula Game Reserve.

From the moment you arrive at Mabula, your adven­ture begins. After an informal check-in at the stables, your safari begins with a bush ride to Kwafubesi. Luggage is taken ahead for you so that you are able to enjoy your ride with no restraints.

Enjoy a romantic even­ing at the lodge with deli­cious bush din­ing, hur­ricane lamps and open fires. It’s an early rise the next morn­ing, as you take to horse­back once again and enjoy a safari of a life­time. Get up close and per­sonal with the wild and upon your return to the lodge, a well deserved, hot break­fast awaits you before you check-out and trans­fer back to the main gate. 2 night stays at Kwafubesi, can include a game walk or game drive as sub­sti­tu­tion for a second day’s horse safari. Continued

Stately "Lehututu" may not be around for much longer

Article by: By Fred Katerere, BUA News

Bela Bela — The stately Southern Ground Hornbill or "Lehututu" as it is loc­ally called, may not be around for much longer. These huge black birds with their dis­tinct­ive beaks and bright red wattles are part of the horn­bill fam­ily that occurs nat­ur­ally only in Africa and Asia. However, horn­bill num­bers are declin­ing due to loss of habitat.

Southern Ground Hornbill

Many spe­cies will not sur­vive without human inter­ven­tion," says chief exec­ut­ive officer of the Limpopo Tourism and Parks Board, Benny Boshielo. "For any suc­cess­ful con­ser­va­tion effort, the act­ive involve­ment of pro­vin­cial author­it­ies, con­ser­va­tion agen­cies and com­munit­ies is needed," said Boshielo.

The world's 60 spe­cies of horn­bills are rap­idly declin­ing in num­bers world­wide. There are less than 1 500 Southern Ground Hornbills left in South Africa. Their num­bers have dropped by more than 10 per­cent in the past three dec­ades. The province has made the Lehututu its avian flag­ship in the same way it has made the mighty baobab its pro­vin­cial sym­bol and flag­ship of the savan­nah biome.

Mabula Game Reserve is also the base for the The Ground Hornbill Research and Conservation Project star­ted in 1999.

Article from BUA News

Related Links:
South Africa Birds
Visit Limpopo