Summer in the Bushveld

Bushveld Gem

Eye to Eye With Giraffe

It’s Mango Time

Later in the morning, boxes of mangoes from a farm down the road and local litchis are the breakfasts we most enjoy. Maybe, there’s something about the smell of all this luscious tropical fruit making the inquisitive giraffe poke their heads through the leaves to investigate.
 

Blue Agama

It’s Blue by You

High noon and the Agamids come out to play or could be that’s just when we notice them. These brightly coloured lizards have strong legs and don’t shed their tails. That wonderful display of colour allows them to regulate their body temperature.
 

Duikers go-a-courting

From the Treehouse

Another kind of magic has taken over the Treehouse. One early morning on the balcony, bushveld coffee in hand, we watch young lovers wandering through the garden. The dainty duiker ewe is a frequent visitor but we’ve never seen the two of them together before.
 

Don’t Mind Me, I’m Snacking

Hot and Humid

In the bushveld, January and February are traditionally the hot months of summer. Drowsy languid days, soft and humid are interrupted with warm wet rain. But the rains don’t come as often and grazing starts to look decidedly tired between the showers.
 

Downstairs Zebra

Gems Come in Many Sizes

There’s a little gem, hidden away in the eastern most part of Mpumalanga, the place in South Africa where the sun rises. This place, called Nameless, is home to the Treehouse and the Nyum Nyum Tree.
 

Humble Bumble Bee

My Ears are Buzzing

Summer in the bushveld is also throbs with the murmurs, chirring, buzzing and humming of thousands of insects. Cicadas, grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles, wasps and hornets and stacks of the humble, bumble bees, busy collecting food from the undergrowth and the flowers add their voices to the cacophony.
 

Zebra and Giraffe From the Balcony

Calm After Christmas

Like most other places, December signals the start of the holiday season in the bushveld and the animals retreat into the quiet, secluded and inaccessible places. Near the end of January, calm returns and with this, the animals begin to reappear.
 

Between a Rock and the Dung Beetle

Dung Beetle on the Roll

If an insect could be considered iconic, it is probably the dung beetle. This is the famous scarab so beloved by the Egyptians for thousands of years. Exotically iridescent, they are busy from morning to night, diligently collecting dung and turning it into beautiful spheres. The beetles are sometimes called rollers; they roll the dung into these round balls for courtship, food or a nursery for their young to grow up in.

High summer in the bushveld and yet ‘another face to this very special place’ we call home.