Africa Wild

H7 (Orpen to Satara) major breach at S24.404923 E31.549712 (S106 to be used as alternative by light vehicles (under 4 tons) only). Expected to reopen by October 2013.

On the H7 just west of Satara you will pass Nsemani Dam which is situated in very dense country.

The habitat is great for waterbuck and you will always find hippos in or next to the water grazing on the lawn-like banks of the dam. Leopard are also regularly seen in the thickets around the dam, as are small antelope like steenbok and duikers.

Nsemani Dam is also home to a great variety of birds, including blacksmith lapwings, Egyptian and Spurwing geese, African fish-eagle, African spoonbills, gray herons and red-billed buffalo weavers.

Park off next to Nsemani and just look...listen...and enjoy the wildlife that generally live in and around a dam. You should not be disappointed.

The Orpen-Satara Road usually has plenty of game in the pockets of thornveld within the mixed marula and knob-thorn woodlands. Thornveld is often an indicator of sweet grazing and there are usually herds of impala, zebra, wildebeest and buffalo along the road.

There are also usually large buffalo herds along the H7. Although they have a bovine appearance, they are one of the most dangerous animals of the African bush. The best game spot on the H7 is probably around Nsemani Pan, 7km west of Satara. Nsemani is on a narrow strip of ecca shale which divides the granite woodlands of the west from the eastern basalt plains. The landscape is one of broken thornveld with rocky outcrops, such as Mathikithi Koppie (315m).

Nsemani is probably the best place to see white rhino in the Satara area. Elephant, giraffe and kudu enjoy feeding on the surrounding Delagoa acacia and many-stemmed albizias, while steenbok and duiker find protection in the denser pockets of bush.

Look out for steenbok around Acacia tortilis trees – they often feed on the dry pods that have fallen on the ground. The big carnivores often lurk on this stretch of the H7. Indeed tour guide Henry van Eck was lucky to survive a leopard attack at Nsemani in September 2003. The big cat apparently leapt into his open vehicle and mauled his leg before he managed to fight it off. Rangers later tracked it down and shot it dead. Official reports indicated the leopard may have been previously fed by tourists, thus becoming dangerously overly-familiar towards humans.