Tau Lodge, Madikwe South Africa

I left work early on Friday and was picked up by Tendai (he drove my dad and cindy to Madikwe too) and he took me to the lodge. It was great going across the border with him. He told me where to go and what to do. Everyone knows him so they don't give you any hassel. We got to the lodge and I checked in. Tau means lion so everything there has lions on it. It was great! The lodge is entirely fenced so you can walk around where ever you want. I was shown to my little cabin and right outiside my patio was a waterhole. There were waterbuck, impala, warthog, zebra, wildebeest, 2 elephants and a ton of birds right outside my door. It was amazing! There weren't many people at the lodge when I 1st got there. I was assigned a guide, his name was Denzel and a couple from Australia were also with him. We went out on our 1st game drive and that is where we saw the lions from the previous post with the warthog kill and the lions mating in the road. We also saw a black backed jackal and a steenbok which were new animals for me. Our guide wasn't the best for stopping for birds. I liked the guides better in the Delta. They were more about the people and letting them see everything not just the big animals and talking on his radio.

They have a rare bird at this lodge and people come there just to see it. They call it the "morph" it is a crimson brested boubou that is yellow instead of red. I followed it around until I finally got a good pic of it. They had a lot of good birds there. I am still working with the ID on quite a few. I gave Aunt Susie a lot to work on! I have 22 new ones that I know the names of but have to figure out the rest. I have 135 birds so far! I will have a scrapbook just of birds!

Another exciting thing I saw was a black mamba. It was inthe road and Denzel stopped realy fast. They are very aggressive snakes. It went back into the bush. We sat there for a while and it raised its head up to see us. I got a good picture of it! I did complete the Big 5 while I was there so I was happy about that. I saw the white rhino and the buffalo. I unfortunately didn't see the African wild dog. I will see it before I go home! Enjoy the pictures.