In the Bush: Table of Contents

Yes! After clearing out some of the backlogs of blogposts,  I can finally begin to write about my bush experience.  (There was also a French test between coming back from the Bush last Saturday until today which kept me a bit pre-occupied and held off the symptoms of "bush withdrawal" for a bit).

As I've been saying to all the South Africans that I've met on the trip and now back in Joburg, "Your Country is beautiful!". If you were following my early posts, you would've realized that I have already fallen in love with Cape Town.  But I think now that I've experienced the magical bush, I have to say, "Sorry, Cape Town, but I've fallen head over heels in love with the South African bush, in particular- Phinda (a game reserve) instead".  (I was quite depressed to leave after staying a week at Phinda Forest lodge, i've never felt that way about any other places in the world.. that means something).


The bush: definition

If you've missed the post on the bush preview, you would've missed the definition of a "bush" and I'm sure I must've confused you so far.  The first time when I heard the term used was when a colleague of mine, Peter the Aussie VolCon, mentioned that he was going to go play "Bush Golf".  The image that immediately came up in my head has a person golfing around a giant bush (plant shrub)/ a golf course characterized by bushes instead of trees.  And I was so confused and asked "What do you mean? How do you play golf around a bush??".  Then Peter explained that "Bush"is the term that South Africans use instead of "country side", kinda like our woodlands/forest/Algonquin Park equivalent. Ahh, now i get it.

There are quite a bit of terms that I still need to clarify with you, but let's just get on with the good stuff as I think you're dying to find out more about why I had the time of my life and how.  So without further ado, let me share some facts/background with you:

Why I was where I was: 


This magical bush adventure was part of a high-end tourism project.  I must say, it was very difficult to concentrate on work in the "resort" environment, but I constantly reminded myself that it was important to focus and deliver.  I'm also extremely thankful for our hosts who have designed a schedule that enabled maximum bush enjoyment and work (minimized sleep, but sleep is overrated anyways - I can sleep when I'm back in joburg, I can sleep when I'm back in Canada).  So truly appreciative of the opportunity to maximize my experience.

(P.S. it is also quite important for me to deliver, as we really want this program to achieve success.  If that is the case, there might be an opp for me to return in a year to do evaluation and recommend expansion! *fingers crossed*)


More definitions


"game reserve" (according to wiki) is an area of land set aside for maintenance of wildlife for tourism and/or hunting purposes. (I believe the hunting part is now dated, hunting areas usually are separate to the game reserves and have a different names, with animals that are bred for hunting/required to be culled).

"game drives" are literally a drive to go see the games (wildlife).  It's known to the rest of the world as a "safari" I think. And the definition of a Safari (according to wiki) is traditionally a big-game hunt but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals.  The word has its origin in Swahili (which is a bit random to be used in Africa).


Now the fun facts (or indicators):


Work-related:
No. of  communities visited: 6
No. of meetings held: 9 (including one with the mayor and councillor!)
No. of entrepreneurs met: ~330


Personal:
No. of reserves visited: 3
No. of resorts stayed: 4 (see post on Lodges  - stay tuned)
No. of nights stayed: 12 (in total)
No. of game drives: 19 (4 in Sabi, 4 in Ngala, 11 in Phinda)
No. of animals sighted: lots!
No. of pictures taken: lots!! (I think video and photos combined at around 12Gb for the two weeks) and hence the delay in post writing, since I don't want to spoil the content by publishing without pictures.



Locations :

As mentioned above, we were at 3 locations: the Sabi-sands game reserve, Ngala game reserve and Phinda game reserve.  The first two are in the Mpumalanga  region while the last was in the KZN (Kwa-zu Natal) province.  You can see a map here for the first two.

Both Ngala and Sabi-sands game reserve share an unfenced border with Kruger National park.  Kruger is one of the largest game reserves in South Africa and covers around 20000 square km of land.  By sharing an unfenced border with kruger, it means that you never know which animals you will see in Ngala and Sabi-sands.  The area is big enough such that it's less close-system like, giving more room for the animals to run around in.  Both Ngala and Sabi-sands are private which means the area is exclusively accessible to guests at the lodges.

However Phinda is a bit different.  Phinda covers an area around 23 000 hectares and is a closed system (well with some fences that don't really work so some small animals do go into the neighbouring reserves - but  more on that later).   The feature of Phinda is that it contains 7 distinct eco systems " - a magnificent tapestry of woodland, grassland, wetland and forest, interspersed with mountain ranges, rivercourses, marshes and pans." according to their website.

The purpose of this post:


.. is not only introductory but I'm hoping that it'll serve as a bit of a table of content and a link page.  I'm going to try to vary up the content a bit, but there will definitely be animal features - the Big 5, the turtle trip, the "boks" as i like to call them, birds, even trees and nature...

In the Bush: Preview
In the Bush: Table of Contents (you're reading it right now!)
Chapter 1:  Where I stayed - high end lodges
Chapter 2: The daily routine & game drives 
....to be continued