Madikwe is a small (760sqkm) game reserve in Limpopo province, north of the country, on the border with Botswana. From the deck of our lodge we can see the bright lights of Gaborone shining at night. Madikwe is a true Garden of Eden, with every major species represented.
We had forgotten how addictive it is to drive through the bush, surrounded by pristine nature, barely touched by man. The antidote to those African countries crumbling under the weight of their human populations and the trail of pollution and destruction which they leave behind them.
We quickly fall under the spell of the great African outdoors again and become uninvited guests to the drama which plays out in the bush every day. We sneak upon two white rhinos for the first time in our lives and observe them for a long time. The two juggernauts, seemingly oblivious of the extermination of their species which is taking place all around them. In South Africa, the rhino’s last bastion, over 1000 were poached in 2013.
We stumble upon a group of juvenile lions climbing up a tree and fighting over a piece of tree bark like giant kittens playing with a prized toy. We watch mesmerized for over an hour as they come crashing down the tree, or somersault up in the air in mock fights.
