Luxury Safari
A concept like “luxury safari” seems contradictory, since “safari” means being out in the bush, in the natural habitat of wild animals, whereas “luxury” implies the best of what modern man has become accustomed to. South Africa has a number of fine game reserves, one of which, Madikwe Game Reserve, is known for combining “luxury” with “safari” – as a matter of fact, you can expect nothing less than a “luxury safari” at this reserve.
As far as the “luxury” part of luxury safari is concerned Madikwe has at least 14 Five Star safari lodges scattered across the reserve. Rest assured: What you will get, will be equal to the high rating. Some are small and exclusive, hosting 15 guests or less; others can host op to 25 guests and a few go beyond that, hosting 50 – 200 guests. Typically a safari lodge will have a main lodge where people get together and then a number of units where the guests stay. These thatched units are quite separate and private.
The units at Madikwe are all very luxurious. They ooze a typical African ambience, without lacking any of the Five Star luxuries. Guests walk out of their chalet onto a private wooden deck with a view over the Great Marico River or a water hole where one can expect to see the animals gather to drink water; a private plunge pool on your own deck is just what you need to cool off. The main lodge is where meals are served and where guests can cool off in a big swimming pool. You can hardly get a more truly African facility than a “boma”, which originally meant a livestock enclosure or a stockade, a place of safety, used by indigenous African people. Nowadays camps in Madikwe nature reserve all have “bomas”, where guests can enjoy their evening meals under the clear African skies, enjoying the ambience of fires in fireplaces.
Most of the lodges also offer spa and wellness treatments; some even have wellness centers where guests can recover their strength and get relief from the stress of the rat race. A wide variety of treatments are available and these are administered by therapists who know what they’re doing .
Some lodges have clusters of units dedicated to groups like families or corporate groups. Little Madikwe Hills and Little Thakadu, secluded from the main camp, are good examples, , each one having the luxury of its own chef and game ranger.
In general, all of the lodges cater for families and have special activities exclusively for children.
Most lodges have conference venues with all facilities needed for this type of activities. Being only 45 minutes from the Gauteng metropolis, some of these safari lodges have actually become popular as wedding venues.
As far as the “safari” component of “luxury safari” is concerned, you will not be disappointed. Madikwe Game Reserve is the 5th biggest game reserve in South Africa and as many as 15,000 animals live there. This multitude of wild animals are represented in many different mammal species. Chances are excellent of seeing the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, African elephant, black and white rhino and African buffalo); there are also 55 other mammal species in the reserve, and guests can also expect to have regular sightings of the fastest animal on our planet, the cheetah, as well as the highly endangered African wild dog. Many grazers (like blue wildebeest, blesbok and springbok) and browsers (like the stunning kudu and bushbuck) will also be viewed. During the night game drive you have an excellent chance to come across the shy Cape pangolin (ant eater), the fascinating porcupine or a lesser bushbaby.
Ever heard about how a porcupine can defend himself against predators? You have a good chance of witnessing this!
And don’t forget about the birds – 340 different species live in Madikwe – what more can a birder ask for! This diversity is possible due to the variety of habitats and eco systems.
Guests are treated on two game drives each day as well as safari walks. In all cases they are accompanied by knowledgeable game rangers. A special privilege of going on a guided game drive is the fact that game rangers are allowed to leave the road following animals
, like a scarce pangolin crossing the road. Madikwe is exclusively reserved for guests staying in one of the safari camps – no day visitors are allowed. This exclusivity means that guests will not be crowded at special sightings.
A One-Day Trip to the Oregon Pacific Coast
Highway 101, or the Pacific Pacific Scenic Byway, 363 miles or 584 kilometers long, stretches along the Pacific Ocean from the borders of the state of Washington to the border of California.
From the picturesque view of the vast ocean, deserted sandy beaches, numerous ocean cliffs and the majestic Coastal mountains, breathtaking. Observation platforms are equipped along the entire route, from where a magnificent panorama of the endless Pacific Ocean opens.
Almost all coastal cities are tailored to the needs and requirements of tourists eager to enjoy the fantastic views of the ocean and breathe in a unique brackish sea breeze.
It has everything you need for a comfortable trip: hotels, shops, restaurants, historical and maritime museums, theater and music theaters, art galleries and observation decks.
If you want to go to the ocean on a sea vessel for an excursion or for exciting deep sea fishing, use the services of charter companies, which are located in many ports of the Oregon coast of the Pacific Ocean.
You can endlessly list the types of outdoor activities on the coast, such as surfing, riding a quad bike along the dunes of the coast, catching crabs and mollusks, searching for agates, beach combining, but the list will not be complete anyway.
The coastal city of Astoria, located at the mouth of the Columbia River, is the earliest settlement on the northwest coast of the United States.
The city of Warrenton is located eight miles from the city of Astoria on the opposite side of Youngs Bay.
Thanks to gorgeous sandy beaches and a fantastic panorama of the Pacific Ocean, Seaside, about 150 years ago, has become a favorite beach resort resort, an oasis with great opportunities for sports and other leisure activities.
What first comes to mind when mentioning the name “Tillamook”? We dare to assume that, at a minimum, the second association a, most likely the first will be dairy products and the famous Cheddar cheese.
The popular coastal city of Lincoln City, known for its even, wide, seven-mile long beach stretching along the Pacific coastline.
In Newport is one of the largest aquariums, where you can learn all about the underwater life of the western coast of the Pacific Ocean.
A small town on the Pacific coast, Yachats differs from other cities on the Oregon coast in its steep coastline of volcanic origin (black basalt) with many crevices and cavities.
The pearl of the Pacific coast, the city of Florence is located almost in the center of the Oregon coastline. The city is famous for its rich history and magnificent views of the Siuslow River and the Pacific Ocean.
Located on the northside of the Bay Eria, North Bend is surrounded on three sides by Cous Bay Bay. The official symbol of the city, the grand Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge.
Coes Bay is located on the banks of the largest Pacific Gulf of Coos Bay in Oregon, which flows into the river of the same name.
The small fishing village of Charleston, located on the shores of Coes Bay, is part of the Bay Eria region.
The town of Bandon, near the estuary of Coquville, is known for its kilometers of sandy beaches and is one of Oregon’s coastally undervalued cities.
The Western Pacific coast of America is a legislator in the field of offering services in the field of outdoor activities and sports. There are many opportunities for those wishing to be involved in outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, surfing, fishing, whale watching and fur seals.
The Boreal Forest – deep ecology of the north
Reporting on the spiritual ecology of any given arena of nature becomes a fairly daunting ambition. Consider, for example, the starscape of a boreal night, or the endless conifer forest, or the billions of songbirds celebrating residence through the light-steeped boreal summer. Any of these aspects, while enticing on a journalistic level, wordlessly fill the soul with an experience that transcends estimation.
And the depth and intricacy of nature reflects the nature-human interweave.
Boreal terrain typically has acidic, shallow soil over rocky shield, interspersed with rich peat bogs and permafrost – a landscape that underlies a high level of genetic diversity. Lichens, labrador tea, fireweed, lupines, mosses, kinnickinnick, cranberry, blueberry, and soapberry are predominant over 90% of the non-arboreal ground cover. Thus, the rich genetic diversity is counter-pointed by a small array of species.
Within the human profile, experience of the land reveals co-relations – counterpoints and minimalism, optimal diversity and verdant subsistence-survivors.
When Winter rules. . .
Creative streaming surges beneath Corona borealis and Polaris and Sirius. In the far north, one’s soul wakes starkly in the winter, more vividly than in southern locales, to counterpoint the prolonged darkness. Conversely, through the long sun-steeped summer, the sail of soul retreats deeper into reverie.
During the long winter that compels this inner wakefulness, much of nature’s physical community is in a somatic state – including plant life, and hibernators like the bear, chipmunk, and ground squirrel. Some residents – beaver, muskrat, and fish – are subdued beneath their icy ceiling. And subnivean beings eke out a living, with fungi, small plant life, insects, and tiny mammals coexisting under an insulating layer of snow.
Grouse, and even, on occasion, chickadees, during severe temperature declines, burrow into the snow, risking themselves even while seeking safety. And the doorway of death waits on either side – either by freezing or predation.
Within lake and river, oxygen arrangements under the ice present an interesting contemplation. Muskrats, beavers and otters exhale air at strategic spots in the plutonian under-ice realm, maintaining a “breathing account” – a caching of air bubbles, to provide a backup should they need it, numerous little pockets of oxygen against the icy ceiling (CO2 exits by osmosis due to the water’s draw, as lakeweed creates a CO2 “deficit”).
I watch the raven, lofting with ease over great spans of imposing forest, finding sustenance in diverse sources, defying the wind, playing in the face of its icy gust. Calling across the frozen lake, it voices both mischief and mystery, in a tone not unlike a place within that proclaims a hold on sky and crown of tree, an un-cage-able force unfolding its own bold pinions.
Back from the lake’s edge, where a steep rocky grade rises, there is a bright tree growing where little else takes hold. Here, where not even Tolkien’s Ent would choose to prevail, the birch thrives, flourishes, offers up sweet nectar, will not be subdued. And my own paper-bark rooting takes hold on the stony cliff-edge of an interior reach.
When I was in the jungle adjacent to Tikal, Guatemala – one could say the anti-thesis of the boreal realm – I was surprised to see 4 or 5 red squirrels in tandem, running as a pack. The tropical ecosystem, in contrast to the north, tends to go for larger communities of species. Here, in the boreal lands, one finds always a lone squirrel.
A solitary woodpecker drills. A solitary chickadee flits over, not stopping to eat, calling from tree to tree, separated from its merry band of cohorts.
I encounter other solitary beings – snowshoe hare, wolf, moose, marten, owl, grouse, raven, others.
Concurrently, a loneliness begins to pervade my experience. Within this solitude at every turn, an existential pain wells, and persists its way into the kind of force that can lead many to try anything to escape – substances, social conformity, or self-denigration – options chosen prematurely to bypass the silence and stillness in which the pain waits to be met.
In my case, I at first attribute the loneliness to my own issues, but then begin wondering how much of it is about me, and how much about this northern terrain? The boreal wilderness is certainly one of the key regions on Earth wherein profound solitude can be experienced. And, as the border between subjective and objective worlds gives way, all the solitary animals I’ve been encountering are beginning to feel like an auspicious communication.
I find the tracks of a ghostly being who has been nipping birch tips from a fallen tree – a snowshoe hare trail that winds its way through my underbrush yearning, sampling birch-like sweetness and frozen remnant rosehip. With the white-coated hare’s traits of near-invisibility and buoyancy across deep snow-pack, even the darkest winter can be endured.
The long-legged step of my winter’s end moose-roving finds me bedding every second mile to catch my ungulate wind. Watched closely by a keen-eyed interior wolf, yet holding strong of limb and antler against all manner of opportunism, I make my way toward newly budding browse. Powerful digestion forces to assimilate highly lignified browse, such as willow and alder tips, cause my ponderous thought life to re-order its conceptual browsing.
A luxurious-maned marten tracks my squirrel complacency, preying unrelenting upon all my rodent manner, upending the stock-pile of small account, an endless spruce-seed consumption. And all my clippings of needle and cone, scattered at the base of my conifer conquest, amass as so much backlog, of provision, of warding off existential hunger, of squirreling away an account of sustenance.
Facts about Our Ecosystem You Ought To Know
Its components include microorganisms, animals and plants; minerals, rocks, and soil; as well as the local atmosphere and surrounding water sources. Even the body of an animal can be considered as an ecosystem due to the interaction of several processes happening on the inside and outside of it to sustain the life of the animal. Let us look into a few of the ecosystems around us to have a better understanding of the world around us.
- The Earth: One of the biggest and complex ecosystems known to man, the earth, is a thing of beauty with its lush green forests and plush wildlife. The earth is responsible for incorporating several subsystems like the biosphere, the geosphere and the hydrosphere. The Biosphere in itself is an ecosystem as it covers all living things, from plants to animals. The biosphere draws together all formerly living things that have not yet decomposed. The geosphere covers things like the soil and the extreme upper portion of the continental crust whereas the hydrosphere consists of the entire planet’s water, except for moisture in the atmosphere. Bringing all of these systems together, coexisting in harmony is the marvel of our planet earth.
- Plant Communities: The plant community usually is the largest visible part of an ecosystem, and often both the community and the ecosystem are named according to the plants present, that is, by the virtue of their size or numbers, modify and control the environment with processes like photosynthesis helping sustain the life of the other systems. Plant communities range in scale from all soil microbes on an agricultural plot, all the trees in a given watershed or all phytoplankton in a particular harbour to all microbes, animals and plants in vast areas, such as the Amazon basin.
- The Human Body: As part of the biosphere, the human body is the one ecosystem we are experiencing first hand. With various types of cells flowing through our body, from RBC’s, WBC’s to neurons, they all function in unison for a seamless functioning of the human body. The human body is teeming with microbes—trillions of them. The commensal bacteria and fungi that live on and inside us outnumber our own cells 10-to-1. The viruses that teem inside those cells and ours may add another order of magnitude.
Thus, here we have had a brief discussion about the different ecosystems around us and how they function, helping us to have a better perspective about the world around us. Yet there is so much more we don’t know, to know more fun facts about our planet or to study topics of biology with a new approach to learning that offers audio-visual content check out this YouTube channel
Wild animals need us
Wild animals are animals that have not been domesticated. Along with the boost in inhabitants we have now encroached upon places that used to form a habitat for such wild animals. Which is why you would not have to go inside the forest to find a wild animal. Humans have learnt to co-exist with many of the wild animals. It is not unusual in lots of places to have a deer, bear, leopard, coyote and in some cases alligators visiting us in your backyard.
With their forest cover shrinking day-to-day and shortage of prey to feed them, wild animals head towards homes looking for food. Many these animals employ a high sense of smell, this means they could easily smell what iscooking at home or the leftovers you dumped inside trash can. This brings them to your backyard. Many these wild animals mean no harm; they’re just there to feed themselves on the leftovers. Is not like they could burgled a property murder everybody so they could have good dinner.
The initial thought in your mind when we see these wild animals around us is that they are there to feed on us. Which ends up in us instinctively going on offensive to drive them away. But this act of aggression could be misunderstood by the animal and may lead it to defend itself which ends up in difficulties for the people involved. More often it is the wild animals that loose on this conflict. First their natural home and after that their life.
Wild life is very beautiful. They belong of their natural habitat each one of the animals plays a role in maintaining the ecological balance. If one these animals goes extinct it can cause a cascading effect whose results would appear after a period. Plus the effect would probably not be good.
It is peaceful to watch these majestic creatures in their natural surroundings. To see an alligator lazily floating on the surface of lake, a deer leaping through the woods, monkeys hanging from trees. It is actually even cuter to observe these wild animals with their young ones. To look at them take care of their offspring.
Humans need to search for a way to live and let live. We have to find alternate materials to switch our reliance upon forest. And even more importantly humans ought to be more humane and stop the merciless killing of the magnificent creatures just by a game.