The Guide's Tale Blog.

An African safari is mostly about seeing incredible mammals. And, if you’re thinking about a safari, your first decision is which park to visit. The Masai Mara, the Serengeti, South Luangwa, Etosha, Moremi, Hwange, or Kruger National Park? All have an exceptional array of large mammals.

Well, there are lots of factors that play a role in deciding which one suits you – cost, ease of access, time of year, length of stay, etc. And all of Africa’s parks have relative strengths and weaknesses. Some are fantastically wild but very hard to get to - and hard to get to usually means expensive as well – while some are easier to get to and much more affordable.

The Kruger National Park in South Africa falls into the latter group, as it’s easily accessible and also one of the more affordable of Africa’s great parks. But there’s another ace in Kruger’s hand, and that is its diversity.

The small safari lodge concept is done better in Africa than anywhere else, and we are fortunate to have visited a fair few on our tours and travels. This month’s featured safari lodge is Elephant Bedroom Camp, located in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya.

The idea for a blog on the birds of Nelspruit gardens and parks came when I needed to add in a day in Nairobi to our Birds & Wildlife of Kenya itinerary, as the clients wanted to come in a day early and relax at the hotel. So I wanted to mention some of the birds they may see in the hotel grounds. I did a Google search, consulted eBird, and did some digging on the internet, and in the end it wasn't too hard to thrown in a few common species that one could find in gardens in Nairobi, with the caveat that I didn't want to mention very common species such as Dark-capped Bulbul and Speckled Mousebird that are common garden birds here in eastern South Africa (which the clients would already have seen). And then I had the thought that there may be birders out there searching for common garden birds of my town (for some reason!), which is Nelspruit (also known as Mbombela), in Mpumalanga, South Africa....

During the first months of this year we ran three walking safaris ('Birding and Wildlife on Foot'), based at Mohlabetsi Game Reserve in the Greater Kruger National Park. These were ably led by specialist walking guide Bruce Lawson, one of the 'big names' in trails guiding. The package comprised three nights at Mohlabetsi, with a combination of guided walks and game / birding drives, plus of course the top-class lodge experience that's provided by Mohlabetsi.

Here's a trip report covering the last trip, which ended at the beginning of March.

Anomalies. That’s what you are looking for in the bush when you are trying to find the hidden and hard to see creatures. You are looking for shapes, patterns, colours, anything that makes a creature stand out form the ‘hard’ part of the environment - the trees, bushes, leaves, branches, rocks etc…