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Talamati is situated South-East from Orpen Camp on the S145

Its on the S36...between Orpen and Satara...very nice camp, stayed there in July...love the waterhole right outside the fence and the hide...had our braai that night with an elephant feeding just on the other side of the fence next to our bungalow...closest I have ever been to one...it did not seem like our fire was at all bothering him..

Home after a superb trip to the Kruger in early August.
Were lucky to see so many interesting things and had two nights at Tal.
We also saw honey badgers, sable, rhino and elephants there but most amazing for me was seeing three wild dogs run down to the Fairfield waterhole to scatter a herd of sable and try to take a young one.
Absolutely fascinating to see the defense behaviour of these beautiful antelope; strangely a large group of wildebeest ran off at the dogs arrival to come back after about ten minutes in a wide phalanx and chase the dogs off; took a while but was successfully achieved.
My first sighting of dogs -sixth visit to Kruger in ten years. I was elated!

Just back from there...

The camp is absolutely stunning. Units 1 - 4 have been updated with new kitchen and bathrooms and floortiles, making it a little more modern yet keeping the Africa feeling.
The area around Fairfield waterhole has been burned recently and looks like a golf lawn now, giving very good sightings. There are abundant lilies and another unnamed flower growing there.
We saw, aside from general game, some roan and sable, Senegal Lapwing, a breeding herd of elephants and little bee-eaters. Plenty of birds around, and if the baboons come up just aim a long lense at them and they flee.

The roads are in very good condition, only a few spots are currogated, just let out your tires a little bit or speed up, and you'll not notice it.

Just as a hint, in the reservationspage you will only find the sunsetdrive. All other activities are possible though, including walks and bushbraai, just call the manager and he'll arrange it.
They did not get the trophee for best camp for 5 years running now...

The A team spent two nights in this wonderful bushcamp. We stayed in units 1, 2 & 13.

Unit 1 has a lovely view of the (dry) riverbed. It has two bedrooms with twin beds. One bedroom has a bathroom en suite.

The camp has two (bird)hides, the hide opposite reception gets a lot of action. We saw elephants, impala, waterbuck, a [strike]crocodile[/strike].water monitor & lots of birds. And Woodland Kingfishers. Hundreds of them. Waking me up at 4 am. Every morning. I [strike]hate[/strike] love them.

Bungalow #11:



One of the 2 hides:



(Photo's by GP)

We paid a quick two-night visit to Talamati during December 2007.
This was our second visit to this camp.
Herewith just a few general remarks on the camp that might be of interest to future visitors.

Location of Units
We stayed in the “dreaded” unit number 1 this time around.
Yep, the baboons are still sleeping in the trees next to number 1, but we actually thought it was a really nice unit.
Firstly, unit number 1 offers quite a decent view of the riverbed (unlike some of the other units) and is nicely tucked away in the corner of the camp, quite close to the perimeter on both sides.
Despite the fact that it is situated quite close to the reception area, it was still very private in our experience.
Secondly, as far as the baboons are concerned, maybe we were just lucky but they did not give us any trouble and it actually made for quite some fun to see them coming in to sleep at night and going out again early in the morning.
They are apparently still causing trouble though.
According to one of the Sanparks officials the baboons ransacked unit number 8 just the day before we arrived.

We had a nice stroll along the entire perimeter.
IMHO unit 11 (for its privacy) and units 1 and 5 (for its limited view on the riverbed) seems to be the “nicest” from a location perspective.
However, overall I think all the units are basically the same.
They all look great.
None of them offers any clear view of the riverbed from your veranda.
I certainly am not going to bother in future to try and arrange beforehand for a specific unit to be allocated to me in this camp.
We’ll just stick with whatever we get.

Accommodation
We stayed in a two-bedroom guest house.
We did notice some changes (improvements) to the interior furniture since our last visit – especially in the bathrooms.
Generally, our unit was once again well kept and it was an absolute joy to stay there.
However, we did notice that the upholstery of some of the furniture was still in some serious need for replacement.

Service
The manager on duty at the time of our arrival was Patson Makhubele (I think).
Like the last time around, she (and all other Sanparks assistants we dealt with) was very friendly and efficient.

Sightings
Spotting was generally very difficult, given the time of year.
Also, like I mentioned before, it was pouring with rain for most of our stay.
From a birding perspective we did manage to add a few new ones to our short list in the Talamati area, but overall the rain kept them birdies away.
New birding highlights for us in the vicinity of Talamati was the Long-tailed Paradise-Whydah, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Double-banded Sandgrouse, Bennetts Woodpecker, the Red-backed Shrike and lots of Southern Carmine Bee-eaters.

Animal wise, Talamati was good to us again, given the circumstances.
My brother-in-law saw a caracal chasing a small impala on the plains in front of the bird hide at Talamati late on the first evening of our stay.
I didn’t believe him at first, but on our late afternoon drive the next day we saw a caracal trotting over the road just in front of or car just outside Talamati, so I guess I should start believing him now.
We also saw a beautiful male lion the one afternoon just outside the camp (although very far) and two more females with a cub the next morning also just outside the camp (once again very far).
Other than that, we saw plenty of the usual general game (impala, zebra, waterbuck, elephant) on the planes in front of the camp.
Unfortunately no sign of the resident leopard this time around though.

Roads
A lot has been said about the gravel roads around camp.
IMHO the roads around camp were all in a good condition, despite the heavy rainfall at the time.

Overall
We think this is a wonderful bushveld camp and we will definitely be back for more sometime in the future.

viewtopic.php?t=21824
Hope you have a good time

Talamati is still a very special camp...I don't think much has changed..I was there in April.. great sightings..
Leopard and Sable on the S36 the Mondzweni waterhole and the Shimangwneni Dam..
Look out as we were told by the guard at Muzandzeni picnic spot that there are 3 leopards in the area..
2 young ones and a mother.
The S140 from Talamati to Orpen was very badly corrugated so I wont give that a try..generally I found the area to be more open that further south...enjoy and have a great time!

Usually from round about half past four or five to 8, its three hours long and the night drive is usually two hours long.

Hi

Spent 2 nights at talamati at the beginning of the week.
Sunset drive is from 16h30 to 19h30 and night drive from 20h00 to 22h00.

On the sunset you'll stop for interesting things, talk t to the guide, stop for sundowners in the bush, and see plenty of animals. We found a side striped jackcal- our guide has been in the park for 16 years and its only his second sighting!

On the night drive you'll mainly be looking for animals, and its REALLY cold!

I'd recommend the sunset, ask for Andre from Orpen to do the drive if you can!

Enjoy

I have a booking at Tamboti camp in a few weeks.
I am hoping to take the road past Talamati on my way up to Tamboti from Tshokwane.
I know the Talamati Road is marked as "Guests Only" -
I just wanted your views on how morally bad it would be for me to take this road even though I'm not staying at Talamati

This is no longer a no entry ....the only No Entry sign is just before you turn right to go to Talamati camp, but please be aware this was the worst road I travelled in April ...much more corrugated than the S36 leading to Talamati and no sightings at all...maybe it had something to do with the road

Hi. I visited Talamati in July and found the S36 is much better for sightings (look out for leopard/sable/lions @ Shimangwaneni dam and vicinity). BUT, there is also a lot of animal activity around Talamati - some visible from public road. We also did see 3 lions on the S145 and 5 rhino at the Mahlabyanini waterhole . However, all the roads around Talamati is VERY badly corrugated . Go with the flow, but IMHO, I would stick to the S36 up to the tar road (H7). Gives you a chance to stretch some legs at Muzandzeni picnic spot and check out the resident ellies.
ENJOY!

Hi
Just got back from KNP, we stayed at Talamati Aug 7th for 3 nights the S145 was very poor condition ie very corrugated however while there they were re grading the S36 north and south of the S145 so hopefully they will continue on the other roads. The only no entries were as shown on map Hoyo Hoyo, Imbali, and Talamati.

We saw a herd (sorry if wrong wording) of 18 sable 2 k's from camp. 3 lionesses at the camp water hole as well as Rhino there, also saw several pairs of hyena within a few k's of camp.

It was our 1st time in KNP I can see the appeal with Talamati but i felt it a bit too remote

Hi to every one this is my 1st posting on a very good forum

phil