Wilderness Bisate Concession newsletter – June 2025

Our camera traps have kept up with the side-striped jackal family in the centre of the property. The pups are now fully grown and seem to be slowly moving to territories of their own. We are also still seeing serval activity and genet sightings in the same area, with our serval cubs doing what they do best, and evading our camera traps, only being seen by our eagle-eyed guides, showing the occasional flash of spots to the guests. What makes the serval cubs being around so special is that serval only stay in a habitat if they feel completely safe, and have an abundance of prey.

We are pleased to bring back a very popular segment, our Bird of the Month! A somewhat intermittent visitor to Bisate has decided to make the concession its home with our newest residents being a family of black-headed herons. These elegant birds were first spotted by our guides, Jimmy and William. They noticed that every morning they would see one flying over the helipad towards our small dam just in front of Wilderness Bisate, and decided to investigate the dense vegetation of the area in between. After some seriously quiet path-finding and bundu bashing, they eventually came to a clearing not far from the little dam where they had first seen them. Not just a beautiful pair of herons, but a rather bewildered looking juvenile. The good news is that the family has since moved to the helipad, and all are thriving in their new home, making us all so happy here at the Lodge.

With the dryer months now hopefully ahead of us, we have reached the end of our major sapling planting season. For the last four months all have been working incredibly hard to take advantage of the rains, and we have managed to increase our tree population by 9,500 local species! The team will now switch gears and focus on maintaining the nature trail, lodge and nursery gardens in the coming months, so that it continues to look beautiful for our guests. This preparation is vital, as we also use this window for collecting seeds from the trees and plants on the property, to restock our nursery and greenhouse. The greenhouse has been absolutely filled to the brim with Afromontane bamboo plants and these will hopefully be ready for planting by September. All in all, we’ve had a very successful and productive planting season for 2025. 

And we really couldn’t have done it without some incredibly generous donations from our kind guests. A little really goes a long way, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank you! We even had a very special moment when a guest who had planted a tee in 2019 came back for a second trip and managed to find and plant another tree right next to the original from six years ago! Quite an achievement, if you ask me. 

Absolutely everything - Staff were amazing, especially the massage ❤️ Liliane was fabulous, keep what you do! So happy to get a photo of my tree from June 2019 and today June 2025, wow what a difference. Looking forward to newsletter😊 – L

Outstanding experience! Beautiful lodge in a beautiful place. Great service & personable staff. Enjoyed everyone & everything! – J&M

The staff touched our hearts with all the love and happiness. We couldn't have asked for a better experience! – V&N

The wilderness team was so kind, caring and helpful. They are very accommodating of any request. 10/10 service! – C&N

Friendliness, high level of service , Property is wonderful, room is excellent. I have stayed at many wonderful places - this tops the list! – J&T

Made us feel welcome and at home. Went above and beyond in every aspect. Best trip we have ever had. Exceeded expectation in all aspect! Thank you. – B&C