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We arrived in a rain-soaked Rustenburg a little late for birding so after checking in at the Safari hotel on the edge of town, we went out for pizza. Safari hotel was comfortable and we slept like logs before getting up early for breakfast. It rained throughout the night. At breakfast, it was still raining and a heavy fog had covered the Magaliesberg. We departed immediately after breakfast with the idea of doing some atlassing around Kgaswane Mountain Reserve. This turned out to be a disappointment – the weather certainly was a problem, but after paying to enter the reserve, we discovered to our great irritation, a marathon going around the loop road in the reserve. With runners, cars and people everywhere, there was just no point and it took all my self-control not to run over the people on the single lane loop road. We exited the reserve in disgust much earlier than planned and vented our annoyance at the gate clerk who neglected to tell us about the marathon. With rain still pouring down we turned west and drove without incident to Zeerust and then north to Madikwe. This was a surprise for Nicola as a present for our fifth wedding anniversary – a bit of a treat for putting up with me for five years. We reached Abjaterskop gate in the late morning; although still heavily overcast, it was at least not raining anymore. But birding was still slow as we drove east towards Thakadu River Camp – our accommodation on the Groot Marico river. On the way we added about 20 species, including Cape penduline-tit, Southern pied babbler, Gabar goshawk, Yellow-bellied eremomela and Groundscraper thrush. The last few kilometers we had to push a little faster though to get to Thakadu by 2pm. From our first arrival at Thakadu, we were taken care off most wonderfully. Our bags were offloaded and the car keys taken to park the car elsewhere. A hot towel for our faces was welcome in the cold and we were immediately escorted to the dining area for a welcome cocktail and lunch. Since we had some left-over pizza in the car, we only had some salad before being taken to our luxury tent: a large tent with a massive bed, lounge area, espresso machine, air-con, private deck overlooking the Groot Marico, en-suite bathroom – it was magnificent! We quickly unpacked and walked back to the dining area for a few snacks before leaving on our first game drive at 15:30. Apart from ourselves, there was just one other couple in the vehicle with us – snobbish folk who cared little for anything other than the Big 5. So with our guide focused on finding the Big 5, we didn’t really have much chance for birding and the only interesting birds we added were Southern pale chanting goshawk, Red-billed buffalo-weaver, Little bee-eater, Pearl-spotted owlet and Red-crested korhaan. The nice thing about Madikwe is that all the rangers from all the lodges are in radio contact. When something special is located by someone, it’s called in and then all the rangers go on a queued standby so that everyone gets a chance to see the sighting well; this also ensures that there are never more than three vehicles at a time at a sighting. We stopped briefly for an elephant with a broken tusk but then went on standby for a small pride of lions. When we got our chance, our ranger (Lazarus) was able to drive right up to them – literally within five meters. The lions were completely unperturbed by us and we spent a good twenty minutes photographing them from all angles. It started raining again and we did not envy the couple of vehicles that inexplicably, did not have canopies. The occupants were dressed in heavy-duty ponchos but still looked decidedly miserable. With sunset approaching, we drove to the small airfield. The rain had let up again and with massive thunderheads in the east and a setting sun in the west, we took some unbelievably pretty sunset photos while having sun-downers and snacks. Just after 6pm we left and slowly made our way back to Thakadu for dinner. This was a fancy three-course affair that was simply delicious. Dinner was done just after 8pm and we went straight to bed.
Sunday morning dawned relatively clear of cloud but it was bitterly cold. Dressed in all the warm clothes we had, we had a quick cup of coffee before departing for the morning’s drive. Two brothers from the UK, one now living in SA, joined us today and we were delighted to find out they were interested in birds too. This meant we were more inclined to call stops for birds and about twenty minutes into the drive we did just that when we discovered a small bird party. A noisy group of Meyer’s parrots were joined by Chestnut-vented tit-babblers, Southern pied babblers, a pair of Chinspot batis, Long-billed crombec, Green wood-hoopoes and a Marico sunbird. We heard the previous day that a group of four cheetahs, all brothers, had a scuff with some lions that injured one of them, and now everyone was on the lookout for them. Not long after we left the bird party, the call came in that the cheetahs were found and we started making our way south towards a power line. There were lots of groups wanting to see the cheetahs so after getting our queue number, we stopped for coffee and muffins – very welcome in the bitter cold. Soon after we left, and Lazarus drove straight into the bush until we were able to see the other vehicles around the cheetahs. We got our first look at the one injured brother, resting for a bit while his three brothers walked west. He then got up, called to them and slowly walked west as well. We followed him until we saw his three brothers coming back for him. Re-united, they turned west again and we followed for another few minutes until our time was up. The cheetahs were very photogenic and we snapped pictures as fast as we could. It was well past 9am when started heading back to camp. Along the way we discovered that our bundu-bashing has cost us a tyre and we had to stop for a quick change. All of us pitched in and we were on our way again in less than ten minutes. Back at Thakadu we had a nice breakfast but as it was already after 10pm, it was actually less than three hours until lunch! The two gents who shared our game drive this morning were excellent company and we chatted over lunch and did a spot of birding together towards our tents in the afternoon. Some more snacks followed at 15:00 before our afternoon game drive started. Our snob couple had departed after the morning’s drive so now it was just Nicola and I and our two new friends, Darrol and Mervyn. Despite the weather improving significantly since the previous afternoon, it was still very cold and we were all dressed up and had no issue with using the extra fleece ponchos handed out by Lazarus. Birding-wise, we saw Violet-eared waxbill, Pearl-spotted owlet, Rattling cisticola and a few other common birds. We reckon the cold weather dampened the birds’ spirits since there certainly wasn’t as much going on as we would’ve liked. There was a small enclosure where four wild dogs were kept separate from the main group – they were related to the main group and Madikwe’s management did not want them to breed. We got to see two of them tearing at a carcass – although not truly a “wild” sighting, it’s always nice to see wild dogs. We visited a different pride of lions and stayed with them for a good twenty minutes and watched in amusement as a herd of elephant walked passed and chased off the lions. We had sun-downers some distance from the lions before making our way back to camp in the dark. The only nocturnal animal we saw was an African scops owl. With no imminent rain, we had dinner in the camp’s boma – another gorgeous three-course meal. With our departure from Madikwe on our minds, we went to bed with heavy hearts.
The next morning dawned clear and crisp but just half an hour into our morning drive, the clouds started to gather and by 8am it was completely socked in, the mountains covered in fog and it was viciously cold. Mammals were shy this morning but we got great views of a Southern white-faced scops owl, and also added Golden-tailed woodpecker, Burchell’s starling, African wattled lapwing, Coqui francolin and African harrier-hawk. We were back at camp for breakfast before 9am. Darrol and Mervyn spotted a White-throated robin-chat outside the dining area and I got to within less than a metre of this pretty bird. We ate quickly as it was a long drive back, packed up and checked out. We drove back the same way we came to try and complete at least one full protocol pentad we started two days earlier. Our raptor list continued to grow with nice sightings of Black-chested snake-eagle and Greater kestrel but there wasn’t much else of interest. By the time we exited the park, the weather had improved and by the time we reached home a few hours later, the skies were finally clear of cloud.
It was a short but magnificent weekend. Madikwe is hellishly expensive by our standards but the service we got at Thakadu River Camp was absolutely top-notch and very luxurious. Perhaps we’ll visit again with our ten year anniversary….
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