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Dunlop the Tyre eating Leopard from a clients point of view

Hi Everybody,

on the 4th December 2017, we had guests with one of our guides Robbie Williams, and this is what they encountered while out on game drive. This is the account as written by the guest, as well as a short video of what transpired. We hope you will enjoy and be enthralled by the encounter that these guests had. It is when you as a company have feedback such as this, that one can truly say, that we have some of the best guides in the industry, and for this, we will be forever grateful to them.

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK (South Africa)

02 DECEMBER – 05 DECEMBER 2017

This is an entry that I wrote for our fabulous tour guide in Kruger,  Robbie Williams of Nhongo Safaris.

In his near 20 years as a guide in the park he rates this incident as one of the 'crazier' events/sightings that took place. 

So here you are Robbie, this one is for you, here's to what will inevitably be a great book.

Ever since I was a child I had known it was my mothers’ eternal dream to go on safari in Africa. It would often come up in our family conversations when discussing our top of our list destinations. However dreams can have the propensity of remaining just that, aimless thoughts that lie sedately in your mind, uncomplicated and uncommitted to ever finding a way to realisation. It had seemed, in my mind at least, knowing the financial situation of our family growing up, that my mothers’ dream would always be just that, a fantastic dream without the means to be realised.

We were a lower middle income migrant family that lived in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Not that we ever struggled in life, my father worked tirelessly as a storeman for our national carrier, Qantas for nearly 30 years. But making plans for what felt like an adventure for the rich and famous was somewhat contrary to our standard , and somewhat mundane, biennial visits to Belgrade, Serbia where our relatives lived. I,(we), were fortunate enough however to have substantially discounted airfares, (which we could afford), through Qantas, due to my fathers’ tenure with the company.

In recent years our family circumstances changed. My father passed away five years ago and I, now older and earning a reasonable salary, was now in the fortunate  position to be able to make my mothers’ dream come true, which is something that I had personally always wanted to do for her.

Thus this brings me to a story that took place in Kruger National Park, on a Nhongo Safaris tour,  guided  by the wonderful Robbie Williams, who I now consider to be a life-long friend.

For me personally I had always thought that in going on safari you needed to have a particular kind of passion or yearning for a specific style of experience. As I said, this was a dream that my mother always had, it was never mine. Truth be told, at the start of this adventure I anticipated that the only real amount of excitement that I would have would be the joy and happiness I received from knowing that my mother would be fulfilling her eternal dream. But hey, life is never short of surprises and you know the quote that goes, ‘Africa changes you forever…once you have been there, you will never be the same’. Let me tell you, not a truer word has been spoken. Africa, in particular Kruger NP, had a wonderful impact on me.

This story however is not about my own minor epiphany but rather about an encounter our safari group had with a somewhat curious and cheeky leopard that earned the nickname ‘Dunlop’.

Sighting location: S112, Southern Kruger

Date: 04 December 2017

Time: 09:30

During our second morning in Kruger our guide Robbie had wanted to follow up on the sighting of a pride of lions. I don’t recall exactly where it was but somewhere during the drive to the last known locatio of the pride, Robbie received a call of a dual leopard sighting on a road nearby that was occurring at that moment and thus made the decision to go and investigate.

It was probably a 5-10 min drive later that we sighted two safari vehicles stopped on the road, and right in front of them were two amazing looking leopards, with beautifully dark rosettes, light to dark golden coloured fur, a shortish ringed tail and beautiful white bellies. These cats were simply majestic.

Robbie stoped about 15-20 mtrs away from the other vehicles and it took about 10 seconds for us really to really comprehend what was going on. On closer viewing it appeared that one of the leopards had taken an interest to the tyre and mudguard of the front right wheel of one of the safari vehicles in front of us, and there we sat in our vehicle just watching as this cat pawed away and then licked both the tyre and mudguard for what seemed like an extraordinarily long period of time.

A question from a guest in our own vehicle to Robbie was, ‘Is this a common thing for them to do?’, to which is responded, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘No, this is highly, highly unusual’.

For me personally I didn’t care whether it was unusual or not, the sighting was absolutely mind boggling and magical. It felt like there was a big playful cat just roaming around the streets of downtown Kruger NP looking to be mischievous and alleviate a bit of boredom from being out in the wild all day, taking a break from having to utilise its natural instincts to survive. This schism, the clear break that we tourists have from the reality of being in the natural habitat of wild animals is really a danger as our awareness of what is real becomes blinded by a false sense of security.

Now, I’m not sure what the trigger for Dunlop was but after a few minutes he got up and started to move, tracking directly toward our vehicle.

Approaching slowly, almost languidly, the mood in our vehicle started to change gears. Cameras ready, phones pointed and held high, poised to capture fantastic shots, the leopard made its way to the front left tyre of our car. Rubbing itself against the tyre at first and then climbing under the vehicle, again it started pawing and licking, and then biting first the wheel and then mud guard. Sprawled out on the dirt road, laying on its back and looking upwards, it was, I’m sure, an exhilarating site for all those other groups that had now surrounded us.

In many ways this was the unforgettable dream sighting that we all wanted. The perspective however, which I feel in a situation like this gets kind of lost, is that this is not a Safari Disneyland. These animals are wild, we’re inhabiting their environment and believing in the predictability of their actions is both as ignorant as it is possibly stupid.

Robbie, constantly calling for updates for the positioning of the leopard from both within the vehicle and by radio to those that were surrounding us then said something that snapped my brain into a state of hyper vigilance…’Guys, keep your hands inside the vehicle, be as still as you can’.

After what felt like an eternity Dunlop got up and slowly started walking down my side (the left hand side of the vehicle), I was seated on the highest bench on the back left hand side. All of a sudden I felt an overwhelming rush of anxiety and fear. This situation and this action pushed me into a sense of panic. But, to completely understand my blinding burst of fear I need to recount a situation, or rather an encounter some 7 years earlier to which I immediately regressed.

Years ago I had been travelling through South America and during my time dedicated some 4 weeks  to  undertaking volunteer work at a Wildlife Sanctuary in Bolivia.

Parque Ambue Ari was, and still is, a park that cares for many different types of animals, inclusive of such beautiful animals as jaguars, panthers and pumas. The work of the dedicated staff and myriads of volunteers that move through the camp involve, for a large part, taking these domesticated cats  (I say that facetiously), out for walks in the jungle environment of the Bolivian Amazon. Volunteers literally tie a rope onto the collar of a selected cat, wrap a harness around themselves and click themselves in via a carabiner. These volunteers, of which I was one, were tethered by a 3mtr length of rope to a power, unpredictable animal. That is all the protection that we were afforded.

Now, youthful exuberance aside, there is something fatally flawed in believing in the total safety that we implicitly placed in that process. I discovered quite quickly that the false faith that I trusted to my 10min training and induction was crudely misplaced when on the second walk that I did, with a fully grown female puma, she turned on me, pinned her ears back, snarling and with animalistic fervour grabbed my leg with both its paws, claws cutting through my trousers, and then wrapped its jaw around my right knee. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite like the dismay, complete fear and overwhelming disbelief of being attacked by what is effectively a wild animal.  In an attack that lasted a matter of seconds the hundreds of thoughts that populated my mind all ended the same way, this attack could potentially kill me, this shit is real!

For whatever reason the attack was only short and the puma backed off, but the fear that accompanied that attack has always lived with me. This moment was now just about to be revisited.

Back in Kruger, sitting in an open vehicle, exposed on the back seat, I was frozen stiff. There was a leopard not 30cms from my feet, hovering with all the wild ferocity and unpredictability that a cat of that nature should have. Anything could have triggered an adverse reaction, if it has been spooked or simply curious and had jumped into the vehicle, what then? What would be our reaction? What sort of panic and what some of carnage could have ensued in that sort of scenario?

I simply held my breath and willed it to walk away, anywhere else at the moment was good enough.

‘Dunlop’ passed around the back of our vehicle and walked around to the front right hand side near the driver's door.

Robbie had armed himself with a baton of some sort, I’m not sure exactly what it was, but he and I both knew that in a real attack, what it could be used for could be counted on zero fingers. At best it could have been a momentary stall.

For other passengers in our car I know that this experience was not fear driven but sheer excitement, I’m sure had they have placed their minds into the possible consequences then their thoughts may have been  different. Better for them I guess. Ignorance truly can be bliss.

Perhaps a minute later ‘Dunlop’ made his way off, tracking back passed us and along the dirt road we had driven in.

I literally breathed a sigh of relief.  A crazy, crazy encounter that in many ways we were both fortunate to experience and fortunate to get out of with just our photos and nothing else added.

What an experience! What a head spin!

To use a catch phrase from Robbie, TAB, That's Africa Baby!

For more information on our safaris, please visit www.nhongosafaris.co.za

The decade-long fight to save the kruger's rhino against poaching

Hi Everybody,

A very nice article written by "Vertical Magazine" titled "The decade-long fight to save kruger's rhino against poaching". This just brings into perspective the trails and hardships that all have gone through and are still going through to save our very endangered African Rhino species we have in the Kruger National Park. The relentless onslaught of poaching groups coming into the park to destroy this species of animal for no reason but greed. Sometimes morale can be low, especially when you see the scenes of a crime, the gruesomeness that goes with the crime is sometimes not humanly possible to process, and leads to somebody suffering over the long term with PTSD. it is a constant battle to keep the teams focused and ready, not only in body, but also in mind. The mind is one of the most powerful organs of the body, if there is a short circuit in the left or right atrium of the brain, many things have the potential to go wrong. When you are fighting a war like we are in the Kruger National Park, it resembles to the tee, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, where you have troops returning that look fit and well, and to the human eye, could turn around and go right back to the battle front, but there is always that possibility that some of them have the underlying problem of PTSD. Not an easy thing to treat in the field, so one has to look very closely for signs of this, even in our special ranger corps in the Kruger National Park, PTSD has the ability to raise its ugly head.

For more information on our safaris, please visit www.nhongosafaris.co.za

Lion Photos taken early morning

Good Morning Everybody,
It is always nice to see photos of wildlife, and especially lions, as it is one of the species of African Wildlife that most visiting guests when asked want to see. These photos were taken by one of our guides Amanda while out on an early morning game drive. It is always great to have guides that have good cameras, that can take good photos, but as good as the photo is, it is at the same moment that one must understand that there is a very fine line between guides taking photos and doing the job of guiding clients. Guides have to understand, that when coming into the sighting, their full concentration must be on their clients, and not on their personal job of taking or teying to take the best photos. This is deemed to be totally unprofessional, as your guests and their needs always comes first in every way, even if that means that you as the guide loose the shot of the dat, month or year. a guide never sacrifices their clients for self gain in any shape or form.

I in my days of been a guide, witnessed so many times, guides coming into a sighting, and you see the guide taking photos, before the vehicle has even come to a complete stop. and this goes on for ten minutes, before a word is said to the guests on the vehicle, all this time, the interpretation that should be taking place, is totally non existant, thereby leading to complaints, bad atmosphere on the open safari vehicle with the group or even boredom. Not a pleasant place to be.

A professional guide, always thinks of their guests, and puts everything else second. Always keep it clean, and professional with no room for complaints and guests finding fault.

Below are some phots from the same sighting:

For more info on our safaris, please visit www.nhongosafaris.co.za

Drawing a living Eye

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN TO RECREATE AN EYE LIKE THIS ????? Then you need to keep a look out for our four special "Art Safaris" coming soon. all done in conjunction with one of South Africas best wildlife photographer and artist. keep a watch on our website at www.nhongosafaris.com for all the information you will need need. We will only be doing four of the Artist Safaris a year, with a maximum of six people for seven days. Two will be in the "Greater Kruger National Park", and two will be at "Tiger Canyon" in the Orange Free State.
So for all those wanting to experience and learn something completely different, this is for you.

For more info on our safaris, please visit www.nhongosafaris.co.za

The importance of happy clients

When in the tourism industry it is the ultimate requirement that one develops a product that is aligned to the visiting guest, and is something that they can not only enjoy, but also learn from, thereby taking home new knowledge gained from their visit to South Africa. Guests under all circumstances have to be told of both the good and the bad things of the country, thereby giving them a balanced view of the country.

A lot of safari operators have always taken a stance regarding the discussion around politics and race relations in the South African context, we at Nhongo Safaris, have always regarded this conversation as important an necessary for firstly people to understand where South Africa has come from, and where the country is currently heading.

We have certainly experienced over the years that the necessity for a well balanced guide, who is firstly very knowledgeable about the bush and wildlife together with environmental interpretation skills, but at the same time, is well up to date with what is going on in the country of South Africa, and the the world, so in order to keep guests concentration and entertained, it is extremely important to have somebody who has a wonderful knowledge of all that is going on.

It takes time to nurture a guide from the time that they start working with you, that you invest the time and content to get them up to a certain level. Once this level has been achieved, what is the tendency to happen, is that the guest or clients, get an overall experience, go home or proceeding further on their holiday with a huge positive outlook on the country, and a client or guest that is happy and does not actually want to leave.

We have been very lucky over the years, to be a balanced safari operator, that have put a lot of time and effort into our staff as a whole, and we continue to reap the benefits of this, as we have received a lot of feedback from our visitors on this subject. Keep up the good work guys, as we are definetly are on the right road.  

For more info on our safaris, please visit www.nhongosafaris.co.za

2019 TripAdvisor Award

It is May 2019, and time for the "TripAdvisor Awards". It is with great happiness that we announce that in 2019 we have managed to get another "Certificate Of Excellence", as well as from time to time, we have also had "Editorials" written about us.
We would just like to take the opportunity to thank our wonderful guides and staff, that have worked really hard to make sure all the guests have a wonderful experience, and are well taken care of.
Without these guys, it would be impossible to get the recognition from "TripAdvisor" that we do.
2019 is a special year, as it is the tenth year that we have got this award, and it has been a long road to get our product offering right, that potential guests and clients feel comfortable booking with us, to experience a wonderful "Kruger National Park safari".
Nhongo Safaris over the years has always lived by one slogan, and that is to "Arrive As a Stranger, But to Leave as A Friend". It is great to see that we have taken over and own the saying that "Our Journeys Change Lives".   

For more info on our safaris, please visit www.nhongosafaris.co.za

The passing of a great friend

Marc, Dorothy and family, there are no words that can be said at this time, in the passing of your dad and brother "Franscois", there is never the right time for anything like this. We count ourselves so lucky to have had him as a friend. We are certainly going to miss the laughs, the chats, the hard times, the good times, but most of all we will remember the friendship we had.
Your dad loved his elephants, and we have certainly lost a man that was a great elephant in the tourism industry in South Africa. But always remember it is not for ever, as you will see him in heaven one day. Francois my friend, it is not goodbye, but see you in heaven, regards to your mom and dad and Katinka as i am sure they are really enjoying seen you again my friend.

Black and White, a bit of a change

Today we have a bit of a change. Some nice photos taken on Shannon and Kara's last safari with a group from the UK. The girls and guests had a smashing time, with all of the big five been seen, and more. It is the first time, we have tried black and white, and i must say, it makes for a pleasant change.

Just remember to book your safari early, as it gets pretty booked up. Now that South Africa has been named the best safari destination in the world.

Chaos the Lion responding well to Radiation Treatment

JOHANNESBURG - Chaos, the lion from the Lory Park Zoo, underwent his second round of radiation for skin cancer at the Mediclinic Muelmed in Pretoria on Wednesday. 

The lion is being treated for skin cancer on his nose, after being diagnosed with the rare condition in April.

Now recovering after his second session, the 16-year-old big cat will undergo further treatment in the next few weeks.

According to his vet, Chaos is responding very well to the treatment.