Day 1 - Antelopes & Zebras

After arrival, lunch and tea time, it was already time for our first safari by horse. Today we would take it slow, just so we could get to know the horses and riding style along with the group. I was surprised how smooth everything went, the horses and full group (10 people!) were all at a very good level and coherent speed. We did mostly walk and trotting, but many canters as well to enjoy our first savanna rides. And there they were: our first animals to admire in the savanna: antelopes, zebras, ostriches and aardvarks.

1) The antelopes were quite frequently present in this Matlapeng valley, however they stay impressive to watch at. We saw both Impalas and Kudus, both known antelopes with the beautiful antlers for the males. The Impala is the most common antelope in the bush, which are way smaller as compared to Kudus.

2) Of course, the zebras couldn’t miss out, so we encountered several small herds of zebras, quietly grazing without any disturbance of our horses. We could observe them from very close by, as horses are very quiet and peaceful animals themselves. It was almost as if we were blending in the wildlife. Amazing! Olwen told us you see the difference between male and female by the size of the belly and the stripe under the tail: females have a bigger belly and black stripe under the tail, whilst males have smaller bellies and white stripe under the tail.

3) Next, we also saw some ostriches. They were passing by and funnily picking the ground. These animals keep amazing me, they look so weird yet some form of elegance with the feather package and small neck and legs. They can run very fast and be dangerous so we couldn’t get too close.

4) Finally, he big deep holes in the ground are made by aardvarks, also called “earth engineers” in Afrikaans because of their brilliant digging and making of underground halls. Even though aardvarks damage roads and fences, they are regarded as important ecosystem engineers. The aardvarks create structures which may hide food resources and provide refuge for other species from predators, climatic extremes and fires. Czytaj więcej