While out in the bushveld you cannot help but wonder about the world around you. There is a hunger to know more as you observe and embrace the natural world around you. The beauty that exists and a desire to know and understand more about this world we get to call home at Londolozi.
In the world, we live in today information is at our figure tips… Literally. While travelling it is difficult to carry around so many books and reference guides to identify all the different things we see out in the bush. With this desire to constantly know and learn everything we can we always have our finger on the pulse of the latest and greatest applications available to us. All of these are available to the general public and will help you best prepare for your next safari.
Here are my eight insightful apps that are all at your fingertips.
The Birding App
Roberts Bird Guide 2 is Southern Africa’s most comprehensive guide on birds. It has illustrations as well as photographs of the different birds we see. With built-in audio files of their calls, breeding habits, general habits, foraging, food choices, and distribution and migratory habits. As a ranger, this app is invaluable and opens a whole new world into the life of this incredible class of animals. Here at Londolozi with about 400 different bird species, you can keep a list while on the game drive and learn more about each bird and its unique way of being.
The Tree App
While meandering through dry river beds with prominent trees encapsulating you overhead or staring out the open savannah with scattered trees on the horizon. The Tree App SA is a rich tool to identify and know more about the trees around us. This app not only gives you insight into the description of the tree but explores the uses both medicinal and traditional as well as the flowering and fruiting season. This app also allows you to identify trees that are new to you through a key system so that you can learn more about them and identify them out in the field.
The Mammal App
Stuarts’ SA Mammals 5th Edition app allows you to discover all the mammals around you, with detailed species descriptions and more than 3000 photographs and illustrations. It also allows you to connect with your tracker as the tracks and signs of each animal engage you with the signs of what animal has been here. With summer approaching and the start of new life, it gives you detail on each animal, their breeding, and gestation which helps you understand the mammals more.
The Frog App
The arrival of summer is certainly evident when passing by a body of water and the chorus of frogs is right beside you. These amphibians sometimes difficult to see can be heard in the characteristic choir around you. The Frogs of Southern Africa app allows you to identify the different calls of the frogs as well as identify each species as they come to life.
The Weather App
The change in season does not mean that there is an accurate way to anticipate exactly what weather one would encounter on safari. However, the Wunderground weather app has for me proven to be the most accurate weather app when trying to determine what the elements will be. The weather station called Sabi-Sand Game Reserve is situated close to Londolozi and provides us with a good prediction for the weather for the day. This can only help with what to pack and what to expect while on your stay at Londolozi. Along with the weather forecast for the upcoming week, it tells you when sunrise and sunset, as well as the phases of the moon as well as when it rises and sets so you know which day would be best to star gaze with the Night Sky app.
The Star App
As the sun begins to set a whole new world begins. With the night sky beaming above you and wanting to know more. As the moon goes through its phases and the milky way is illuminated making sense of the world above you can be daunting. The Night Sky app holds a wealth of information on all the stars and constellations. As you hold your phone up to the sky it guides you through the night sky. Move around the sky as it zooms into the stars that you are seeing. Each star, their age, how far they are away from earth, and a description of it. This app really brings light into the darkness.
The Camp and Blog App
These reference guides are invaluable as a guide and allow you to learn more about the world around us. The Londolozi App allows you to learn more about us and our camps and the place we call home. It also has our latest blogs and gives you access to our camps and experiences you could expect here at Londolozi.
The Leopards of Londolozi Website
After you have spent some time here at Londolozi and observed some of the Leopards of Londolozi although not an app. The Leopards of Londolozi website provides a rich history of the leopards we currently see here and their lineage tracing back to the 1970s. It allows you to collect Leopard cards over your stay and over time to identify each individual leopard you see.
These eight online references are a great way to know more about the world around you and provide useful insights into the life that exists, while carrying it all around in your pocket.
Kirst Joscelyne
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