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April 1, 2025 late morning
Bush walk


By late morning, we had a beautiful sunny day. Why yes, that would have been perfect weather for a hot air balloon ride.

When Gail arranged our African safari, she had two priorities that made her choose Kapama Game Reserve: a hot air balloon ride and a walking safari. Our balloon ride has been cancelled after several reschedules. And when a walking safari didn’t show up anywhere on our itinerary, we gave up on that as well.

Yesterday, we finally read our in-room booklet about the services that Kapama offers. The list included a mention of “bush walks.” It turns out they are offered daily between the morning and afternoon game drives, and don’t cost anything extra. So we immediately went to reception and reserved the only remaining openings for this morning.

At 10:30, we embarked on a 45-60 minute bush walk. It turns out that two of our game drive companions, Marc and Georgina, were on the walk as well. Our guides were John and Lans, and they each carried a loaded rifle.


When we came to Reception, we were greeted by four armed guides. They split the group, and we were led by John and Lans.

We drove outside the lodge area to begin our walk. The guides had several rules for us. We had to walk in a single file behind the guides. We had to remain silent. We could not lag or stray away from the group. The purpose of the walk was not to find animals, but to avoid them. Instead, we enjoyed the terrain, the quiet, the sounds of nature, and the small details you don’t get to see from a truck.


We were required to walk silently in a single-file line


The guides stopped regularly to explain sights and discoveries along the way. Pictured here are Gail, Marc and Georgina with Lans.


Here is the abandoned lair of a trapdoor spider


And here is a lair still inhabited by a trapdoor spider


John with some remains that have been picked over by vultures and hyenas. The skull is from a warthog; the outer bones are from a giraffe.


Warthog tusks are highly prized. It looks like a previous visitor has taken one.


John with the remains of a tortoise. Hornbills will pound on a tortoise shell with their beaks until it finally cracks.


You sex a tortoise by turning it upside-down. The flat bottom (versus concave) indicates this was a female.


Here is a much better close-up of the infamous golden orb spider. The big one is a female, with a leg span of three inches. If you look closely, you can see a tiny male on her back. (Yes, she will devour him after mating.)

We spent most of our time with Lans. He was going to become a mechanic, simply because he likes cars. But a woman sponsored him to go to guide school. After a year in Kruger National Park, he has now worked at Kapama for a year. He is a bird expert and loves what he does. He hopes some day to be a mentor and instructor. He is only 23 years old.


Our destination was this water hole, where we took a water break in the shade


A baby monitor lizard catches a bug


The “go away bird” is so-named because it sounds like it is yelling “Go away! Go away!” It also has a cry that sounds like it is saying “Bleah! Bleah!”


Lans and Gail compare bird-finding apps on their phones. Gail uses “Merlin,” which she absolutely loves

We also learned more about Marc and Georgina, the newlyweds who live on the Isle of Wight in the UK. Marc Ross is from Zimbabwe, and grew up in the African wilderness. In his youth he was a male model; he now works for a business consulting firm. Georgina Cutler is a book editor with Hachette. But her aspiration is to be a writer, and she has her first novel coming out in August! It is a romance called “The Man I Loved Before.”

Our bush walk ended up lasting an hour and a half, and we saw some wonderful things that you can only see close-up on foot.


Who knew we were trekking with celebrities? Marc Ross was a male model in his youth. He told us how as a teenager, he took a bus for three days from Zimbabwe to Cape Town to begin his career. (We found this photo on the Internet. Marc is rather embarrassed by it.)


Marc’s newlywed wife, Georgina Cutler, has her first romance novel coming out on August 7.

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