A trip to the Mahenye Sand Forest from Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge in the rainy season is a voyage of discovery….

First comes the ride through the Mahenye Village, a haven of big trees, hand painted huts and friendly faces…

Mahenye village children… collecting water

This Mohawk-adorned cattle herder has great charisma…as do his gorgeous spotted beasts!

cattle herder and his Nguni cattle…

Stopping frequently, VERY frequently…along the way, as is the habit of master botanists Bart Wurstens and Petra Ballings,  we learn about  stunning scarlet  longipedunculta flowers…

Bart and longipedunculata

Thomas Mutombeni and Bart discuss the Cleome genus, while a tiny chameleon becomes the  shy centre of paparrazzi attention…

cleome, chameleon, Thomas and Bart…

Clive gets a lesson in Hibiscuses…..

Clive gets a lesson in hibiscuses from Bart….

Entering the Sand Forest, emerald-shrouded pathways lead ever deeper into the enticing scenery and I feel like I am walking through a fairy tale of the best kind, bright butterfly wings, beetles and millipedes decorating the way, birdsong and shafts of sunlight filtering through the impossibly green leaves…

the secret path in the sand forest

and all enhanced by the possibility of sighting or at least hearing  a long-tailed forest bird which is one of southern Africa’s most spectacular species, a  Narina trogon, with bright green body and crimson breast….

Narina trogon -photograph by Neil Gray

Millipedes of every variety….

gorgeous green millipede

and here is a very fat, rolled millipede, who, if you look closely, has his own set of tiny hitch-hiker lice ……!

fat millipede and hitchhikers…

Passing a tree trunk, I am distracted by a tiny mollusc….

interesting little snail in the sand forest

which, in turn, leads me down a side path to an ancient baobab, where are the recent pegs and ancient peg marks of  honey-gatherers adorning the pitted grey trunk of the tree. What stories this tree could tell of the last few hundred years and more….a treasure trove of fables, moral tales and fairy stories!

Pegs and giant land snail

Maybe this Giant land snail, sheltering in a peg hole, is plugged into some of those stories that are whispered in those peg holes….

Giant land snail in peg hole on baobab trunk…

Our fascinated way leads us past many funky fungi………

funky fungi

and down enchanting pathways, onto the GREAT tree…a Xanthocercis zambesiaca, common name Nyala Berry, which dwarves Bart and Petra…

Xanthocercis zambesiaca, with  beetle, Bart and Petra…

so many special birds abound here, often shy, heard but not seen, but no less the fascinating for happy birders….jungle dwellers such as Green Coucal, Narina trogon, Gorgeous bush shrike, Red throated Twinspot, Scaly throated honey guide, Chestnut fronted helmut shrike, Southern banded snake eagle, African broadbill….the list goes on!

Petra Ballings has created a stunning collection of images of Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge…

(https://flic.kr/s/aHsk8tguv4)…….

Petra and chameleon