We arrived at Orpa around 4 PM on Sept 10, spent about an hour getting settled into our room, then off we went to the rifle range to verify the rifles were zeroed. Then took a short drive around part of the farm to check leopard baits and get a brief introduction to the farm. Dirk and Thea decided to keep the safari operation on a personal level so only accommodate one group at a time. There are four rooms so the group can have a number of people in it. The lodge and dining areas are on the second floor above the rooms with a bar and very nice grill complete with pizza oven. Thea does all the cooking unless Dirk does it on the grill. Dirk does all the driving, tracking, and PH work himself unless the group is too large in which case he enlists the aid of one or more of his neighbors which are also licensed PHs. Thea also handles all the housekeeping and laundry with assistance from two native women. Orpa is a working farm so has cattle, sheep, and goats which require water and salt which the wildlife enjoy sharing. No feed is put out for the animals at all, they thrive on the wild forage available. Dirk’s farm has 16,000 hectares which is about 40,000 acres. He also has access to hunt several neighbors’ farms of about the same size. None of these farms are high fenced, one one of the neighboring farms is high fenced which was done in early 2014 but Dirk never hunted there anyway. Consequently, all the animals we saw were free ranging with the ability to come and go at will. Obviously some species prefer specific habitat so can usually be found there. Each species prefer to eat certain types of plants which dictate these areas and as long as the rainy season is good those plants will continue to thrive and the species will hang around, otherwise they’ll migrate to other areas which provide them what they desire. The grass was quite high while we were there making it difficult to spot smaller species in the thick bush but the high grass is good for all the grazers so can’t be considered a negative thing at all. It did make it hard to find a nice trophy duiker since they prefer the thickest areas and are short enough that the tall grass really made it difficult to spot them. We saw a typically gorgeous African sunset that evening and then returned for supper and conversation until 10 followed by a shower and some sleep in preparation for our first day on safari.
