Sometimes it’s the little thing that make all difference.  We’ve been having Bush Dinners every Wednesday and Saturday during October (book now, we still have some vacancies), but planning the occasion meant the girls had to have some serious input.

So we got a bush toilet!  It’s porcelain, it flushes, and guests can enjoy dinner drinks without having to worry about the consequence.

The bush dinners have proved extremely popular. The evening game drive ends in the bed of the uMsunduze River at a natural crossing.  We set out the tables with white linen for a 3-course meal, parking the game drive vehicles as a shield on one side and lighting a bonfire on the other.  With the clear skies of the past few weeks and light from the moon the lantern and candle-lit setting is quite beautiful.

Guests love lions.

They love to look at them, photograph them, and tell everyone how close they got to them.

Guests love lions.  Except possibly the guests from this weekend.  New to game reserves, the couple were happy to have ranger Frances take them reasonably close to a male who was relaxing.  However the male woke up and joined by his brothers came nearer to the game drive vehicle and settled down to call out to the females.

Rangers call it "vocalising".  The guests called it "shattering".  Nothing can really prepare you for the visceral experience of your first lion roar, especially one at close range.  The vehicle vibrates with the powerful resonance and your chest cavity quite simply shakes.

In ranger raptures, Frances turned round from the driver's seat to her guests to enthuse about the quality of the sighting, only to find one quite overcome by the experience.  It was enough, more than enough.

On the guests' request Frances avoided the lions for their remaining drives.

Of course other guests were disappointed they only got to see our boys sleeping, which lions do most of the time (18 to 20 hours a day!!).