On safari With Karen From 25 December 2015

25 December 2015

The sunset drive went by tonight without a sunset as the sun had been hiding behind clouds most of the day. But the guests were pleased to see their first animals of this safari.

Apart from a buffalo that was walking along the fence line of the lodge, they encountered several other game species on their drive: giraffes, zebras, impalas, waterbuck, kudu and elephants.

26 December 2015

We set off in the morning thinking the thin cloud layer in the sky would dissolve and it would become a lovely warm day. We were wrong. Half an hour into the drive the guests were wrapped up in blankets as if it was winter, but we still enjoyed our drive.

Our first highlight was seeing our first herd of elephants. Little did we know that we parked right next to a fantastic patch of grass to eat. As the elephants came closer to the road they came more and more out of the bushes. They were feeding on grass and branches. Slowly one elephant started feeding next to the truck. Not a care in the world about us watching them, she kept on plucking the grass right next to us. Soon she was joined by two others. The gentle giants were within touching distance and we sat watching them in silence. When the tuft of grass was plucked empty they moved off (and some of us started breathing again). In the end the entire herd crossed and we had a great sighting of these magnificent animals.

Our second highlight was coming across three cheetahs. They were unfortunately walking away from us, but with binoculars we had a good visual. We then lost visual of them as they disappeared behind bushes. But we saw an impala in the general direction of where they are moving. While everyone gave up we decided to hang around and see what happened. And it paid off as suddenly the impala got wind of something and stood alert. Then he bolted. Two cheetahs gave a half-hearted 10 meter chase but the impala was long gone. A missed chance!

Other interesting sightings: kudus, a chameleon, common grey duikers, a hippo, giraffes, waterbucks, more elephants, a white rhino, warthog mummy with two piglets, zebras, impalas, hyena, baboons and two herds of buffalos including a calf so young that it was just able to walk.

27 December 2015

Eager to see lions we set off this morning in the hope to find some. And we were in luck as we came across two male lions eating off a rhino carcass. It was a highlight and a lowlight in one as we were confronted with the horrible truth of rhino poaching. The carcass was clearly a victim of poaching with half its nose hacked off. Its last stance was to provide food for those two nomad lions. As it was quite close to the road we were treated to some excellent lion shots to take pictures. 

In the afternoon we sat watching two elephants swim for quite some time. It looked like they were having much fun as it was still hot we would have loved to join them in the "pool". To stay safe though we stayed on the shore in the car. They were using the full length of the dam and came closer and closer to a pod of snoozing hippos. Soon they made some noise to deter the elephants but they didn’t seem to notice or care. Then a few scared ones scattered but most hung on to their spot. The elephants drifted away a bit again which gave the hippos some peace. But not for long as the boisterous elephants were pushing and shoving each other closer and closer to the hippos. So much so that they chased the entire harem in all different directions under loud protest. It was like a tv show!

Other interesting sightings: herds of elephants, very cute hyenas, a distant visual of wild dogs but as they are rare it is always a treat, terrapins on the back of a hippo, steenboks, warthogs, waterbucks, blue wildebeests with babies, lots of zebras, impalas, giraffes, buffalos, kudus, common reedbucks, vervet monkeys, a baby crocodile and baboons.

South African National Parks Calls On South Africans To Match Rangers Efforts In Fighting Poaching

The South African National Parks (SANParks) today appealed to the South African public to support efforts by Rangers to stop the massacre of our natural heritage by greedy poachers, who are promise wealth by syndicates.

This year alone, 46 rhino carcases have been discovered in the iconic Kruger N...ational Park which is bearing the brunt of the carnage. Six were from last year and 40 from the past 21 days of 2014. This has brought more resolve from the Rangers Corp to double their efforts to keep the species alive.

This weekend alone saw four armed contacts with Rangers that resulted in the death of seven suspected poachers. Rangers confiscated four hunting rifles, ammunition, poaching equipment and a pair of horns. The death of the seven suspects brings to 11 the number of poachers killed in contacts with our Rangers Corp and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members in the KNP in January 2014. During these incidences two suspected poachers were arrested and eight firearms recovered. These armed contacts take place during the night and present a high level of risk to members of the KNP Rangers Corp.

Well over 80% of the incursions are from the Mozambican side. Multiple incursions of up to 15 heavily armed groups operate in the KNP at any given time especially during the full moon period. They operate in groups of four to six and are aggressive and engage and shoot at the Rangers on sight, creating a daily life threatening situation. The recent recovery of a handgun at a contact scene suggests elevated levels of aggression from the poaching groups. This heightens the fear of losing a ranger to a poacher’s bullet.

Despite all of the above, the Officer Commanding of the Rangers Corp, Major General (RET) Johan Jooste is optimistic that his well thought out long term strategy will bear fruits. “ We brought down the level of poaching incidents last year to 42.6% from 72.6% the previous year, we have also arrested 123 individuals in connection with poaching activities, it is now up to the prosecuting teams, investigators and the SAPS to conclude what we have started. We would like to ask the public, law enforcement agencies and our counterparts in Mozambique, to play their part, match the work that is being done by the Rangers and we will reap the rewards and win this war” concluded Jooste.

Issued by :
South African National Parks

Jock Of The Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick (Chapter 26)( Page 2 ) Our Various Ways

"Goodness knows what the row was about.  As far as I can make out from your heathen, it is because the other boy is a Shangaan and reads the Bible.  Jim says this boy--Sam is his name--worked for you and ran away. Sam says it is not true, and that he never even heard of you, and that Jim is a stranger to him.  There's something wrong in this, though, because when the row began, Sam first tried to pacify your lunatic, and I heard him sing out in answer to the first few licks, `Kahle, Umganaam; Kahle, Makokel'!'  (Gently, friend; gently, Makokel'.) `Wow, Makokela, y' ou bulala mena!'  (Wow, Makokela, you will kill me.)  He knew Jim right enough; that was evident.  But it didn't help him; he had to skip for it all the same.  I was glad to pay the noble Jim off and drop him at his kraal.  Sam was laid up when we left." It is better to skip the change from the old life to the new--when the luck, as we called it, was all out, when each straw seemed the last for the camel's breaking back, and there was always still another to come. But the turn came at last, and the `long arm of coincidence' reached out to make the `impossible' a matter of fact.  It is better to skip all that: for it is not the story of Jock, and it concerns him only so far that in the end it made our parting unavoidable. When the turn did come it was strange, and at times almost bewildering, to realise that the things one had struggled hardest against and regarded as the worst of bad luck were blessings in disguise and were all for the best.  So the new life began and the old was put away; but the new life, for all its brighter and wider outlook and work of another class, for all the charm that makes Barberton now a cherished memory to all who knew the early days, was not all happy.  The new life had its hours of darkness too; of almost unbearable `trek fever'; of restless, sleepless, longing for the old life; of `home-sickness' for the veld, the freedom, the roaming, the nights by the fire, and the days in the bush!  Now and again would come a sleepless night with its endless procession of scenes, in which some remembered from the past were interlinked with others imagined for the future; and here and there in these long waking dreams came stabs of memory--flashes of lightning vividness: the head and staring eyes of the koodoo bull, as we had stood for a portion of a second face to face; the yawning mouth of the maddened crocodile; the mamba and its beady hateful eyes, as it swept by before the bush fire.  And there were others too that struck another chord: the cattle, the poor dumb beasts that had worked and died: stepping-stones in a man's career; the `books,' the `chalk and blackboard' of the school--used, discarded, and forgotten!  No, they were not forgotten; and the memory of the last trek was one long mute reproach on their behalf: they had paved the roadway for the Juggernaut man. All that was left of the old life was Jock; and soon there was no place for him.  He could not always be with me; and when left behind he was miserable, leading a life that was utterly strange to him, without interest and among strangers.  While I was in Barberton he accompanied me everywhere, but--absurd as it seems--there was a constant danger for him there, greater though less glorious than those he faced so lightly in the veld.  His deafness, which passed almost unnoticed and did not seem to handicap him at all in the veld, became a serious danger in camp.  For a long time he had been unable to hear a sound, but he could _feel_ sounds: that is to say, he was quick to notice anything that caused a vibration.  In the early days of his deafness I had been worried by the thought that he would be run over while lying asleep near or under the waggons, and the boys were always on the look-out to stir him up; but we soon found that this was not necessary.  At the first movement he would feel the vibration and jump up.  Jim realised this well enough, for when wishing to direct his attention to strange dogs or Shangaans, the villain could always dodge me by stamping or hammering on the ground, and Jock always looked up: he seemed to know the difference between the sounds he could ignore, such as chopping wood, and those that he ought to notice.

Jock Of The Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick (Chapter 20)( Page 5 ) Jantje

He laughed almost hysterically, his eyes disappearing altogether and every tooth showing, as I lifted his arm to investigate; and then in high-pitched falsetto tones he shouted in a sort of ecstasy of delight, "Die ouw buffels, Baas!  Die buffels bull, Baas!" "Buffalo!  Did he toss you?"  I asked.  Jantje seemed to think it the best joke in the world and with constant squeals of laughter and graphic gestures gabbled off his account. His master, it appears, had shot at and slightly wounded the buffalo, and Jantje had been placed at one exit from the bush to prevent the herd from breaking away.  As they came towards him he fired at the foremost one; but before he could reload the wounded bull made for him and he ran for dear life to the only tree near--one of the flat-topped thorns.  He heard the thundering hoofs and the snorting breath behind, but raced on hoping to reach the tree and dodge behind it; a few yards short, however, the bull caught him, in spite of a jump aside, and flung him with one toss right on top of the thorn-tree. When he recovered consciousness he was lying face upwards in the sun, with nothing to rest his head on and only sticks and thorns around him. He did not know where he was or what had happened; he tried to move, but one arm was useless and the effort made him slip and sag, and he thought he was falling through the earth.  Presently he heard regular tramping underneath him and the breath of a big animal: and the whole incident came back to him.  By feeling about cautiously he at last located the biggest branch under him, and getting a grip on this he managed to turn over and ease his right side.  He could then see the buffalo: it had tramped a circle round the tree and was doing sentry over him.  Now and again the huge creature stopped to sniff, snort and stamp, and then resumed the round, perhaps the reverse way.  The buffalo could not see him and never once looked up, but glared about at its own accustomed level; and, relying entirely on its sense of smell, it kept up the relentless vengeful watch for hours, always stopping in the same place, to leeward, to satisfy itself that the enemy had not escaped. Late in the afternoon the buffalo, for the first time, suddenly came to a stand on the windward side of the tree, and after a good minute's silence turned its tail on Jantje and with angry sniffs and tosses stepped swiftly and resolutely forward some paces.  There was nothing to be seen; but Jantje judged the position and yelled out a warning to his master whom he guessed to be coming through the bush to look for him, and at the same time he made what noise he could in the tree top to make the buffalo think he was coming down.  The animal looked round from time to time with swings and tosses of the head and threatening angry sneezes, much as one sees a cow do when standing between her young calf and threatened danger: it was defending Jantje, for his own purposes, and facing the danger. For many minutes there was dead silence: no answer came to Jantje's call, and the bull stood its ground glaring and sniffing towards the bush.  At last there was a heavy thud below, instantly followed by the report of the rifle--the bullet came faster than the sound; the buffalo gave a heavy plunge and with a grunting sob slid forward on its chest. Round the camp fire at night Jantje used to tell tales in which fact, fancy, and superstition were curiously mingled; and Jantje when not out of humour was free with his stories.  The boys, for whose benefit they were told, listened open mouthed; and I often stood outside the ring of gaping boys at their fire, an interested listener. The tale of his experiences with the honey-bird which he had cheated of its share was the first I heard him tell.  Who could say how much was fact, how much fancy, and how much the superstitions of his race?  Not even Jantje knew that!  He believed it all. The Honey-bird met him one day with cheery cheep-cheep, and as he whistled in reply it led him to an old tree where the beehive was: it was a small hive, and Jantje was hungry; so he ate it all.  All the time he was eating, the bird kept fluttering about, calling anxiously, and expecting some honey or fat young bees to be thrown out for it; and when he had finished, the bird came down and searched in vain for its share. As he walked away the guilty Jantje noticed that the indignant bird followed him with angry cries and threats. All day long he failed to find game; whenever there seemed to be a chance an angry honey-bird would appear ahead of him and cry a warning to the game; and that night as he came back, empty handed and hungry, all the portents of bad luck came to him in turn.  An owl screeched three times over his head; a goat-sucker with its long wavy wings and tail flitted before him in swoops and rings in most ghostly silence--and there is nothing more ghostly than that flappy wavy soundless flitting of the goat-sucker; a jackal trotted persistently in front looking back at him; and a striped hyena, humpbacked, savage, and solitary, stalked by in silence, and glared.

Some Photos taken at Mona Pools (Zimbabwe) of the gentle giants coming to visit while on safari.

Above are some photos taken in Mona Pools (Zimbabwe) of elephants getting close to guests that were on safari. Even when one is trying to have a midday rest, they want to see what is going on. Great fun having these gentle giants coming to visit.

Wildlife in Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe)