The Reserve

The reserve itself is called Entabeni and within this (in addition to the school) there are about 5 tourist lodges.  Some are quite rustic whilst others (like Legend) are top of the range resorts complete with multiple golf courses, quad biking, beauty spas etc.  So from a tourist point of view, something for everyone.

It's a 'big 5' reserve which is a big plus.  This means it has the 5 most desired animals to see: White Rhino, Lion, Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Elephant.  At the time of writing this (after 3.5 weeks here) we have onloy seen 3 of the big 5 as we haven't yet seen a leopard or buffalo.  In addition to the big 5 there are plenty of other animals about including Brown Hyena, Kudu, Eland, Honey Badger, Blesbok, Hippo, and the list goes on.  There are also hundreds of bird species both seen and heard.

The reserve is large and split into 2.  There is the lower crater that the school is in and an upper escarpment where there are some more camps. There is a very steep road (inside the reserve) going up to the top escarpment.  At the bottom we have the lions, cheetah, some rhino, ellies etc and at the top there are no introduced predators (leopards and jackals are around there but they pretty much go where they like).  They have also seen wild dogs on the top before which appear from time to time - so despite the reserve being fenced because the area is so hilly/mountainous it appears to be hard to completely enclose the place.  This is one of the reasons I believe that there are no lions on top, as they may just start visiting neighbouring farmers who wouldn't welcome the mained guests!

The area itself is dominated by the waterberg mountain range and whithin this are 2 prominant bits, the Entabeni mountain (hence the name of the reserve) and the Hanglip (which looks like the face of a man).  I wish I could load some pics to the blog to show both of these but due to the school not wnating us to use all their internet bandwidth we are requested not to upload or download files (emails and this text blog take no space so I'm happy with this :) )

The range is very impressive and gives a stunning backdrop to the reserve.  When the late afternoon sun hits the mountain it is truly stunning. 

At 2 points of the steep climb to the escarpment there are 2 natural pools at the bottom of waterfalls.  These are popular swimming areas and there are tables etc set up there for use as sundowners/afternoon drinks etc.  We been there a coupld of times already and it is so relaxing in the water, and great fun to sit under the waterfalls.  For those who are stronger swimmers than me there are plenty of rocks to throw yourself off into the pools - I may have to brave this one time, so long as one of the guys is happy to save me when I drown!