We have had a lot of activity at Viva Safaris in the last two months and I shall restrict myself to three topics : Orphans’ Christmas party; ANC anniversary and Floods .
One of the perks of buying our goods at Pick n Pay is that we get a percentage payback which accumulates to a reasonable amount by year-end. This year, at the request of Comboni Missionary Fathers Ivan and Jose, we decided to spend it all on the orphans at Sancta Maria Parish. Sandy and Marc joined me towards the middle of December in hosting a lovely Christmas party held at the church hall in Acornhoek. Thanks to Ian Kleinschmidt, Manager of Pick n Pay in Phalaborwa who added his own charity, we were able to give 40 orphans an unforgettable party. Not only did they enjoy the party, but each child was given a generous hamper which contained a cooked chicken along with various non-perishable goodies to take home. I learned a new thing about Shangaan culture : we had laid out the sweets, cake, drinks etc on tables and expected the kids to help themselves, but after encouraging them to do so, it became clear that they were uncomfortable in going up to serve themselves. Apparently this is regarded as somewhat akin to being greedy so we all ended up serving the kids – an exercise which in itself was very humbling and fulfilling.
Christmas party at Sancta Maria Parish
January marked the centenary anniversary celebrations of the African National Congress. We still have a long way to go in attaining racial harmony in our wonderful country. Tremisana Lodge, as a microcosm of S A society, is no exception. Viva Safaris has had the enviable record of having promoted meritorious Black staff to management positions for over 10 years. We stand by this commitment. It was somewhat unfortunate that a degree of racism reared its ugly head at Tremisana in the second half of last year. Some of our staff has moved on. I trust that all new and existing staff, of whatever pigment, hue and gender, will accept having a Black woman as their Manager.
The floods hit Hoedspruit in the second week of January. We have had an average annual rainfall of around 500 mm and we experienced 550mm in only three days !
Tremisana got away relatively unscathed compared to other lodges in Balule. There was not too much damage. Marc’s Camp, on the banks of the Klaserie River, was not as fortunate. We lost two treehouses that are presently somewhere on the way to Mozambique and varying degrees of damage was done to all the other treehouses along the river. The electricity supply was not regular so we have had to close the camp temporarily. Wherever possible, guests booked at the treehouses were upgraded to Tremisana. The camp reopened on 1 Feb.
Floods hit Hoedspruit with 550mm of rainfall in only three days!
The floods also had an effect on game drives. Bongani reports that he has lost weight this month doing some digging ! Viva Safaris was fortunate with safaris in the Kruger Park insofar as the only entrance gate that remained open throughout the flooding period was Orpen. We therefore continued to visit Kruger every day. At the time of writing we are fully functional and all game viewing activities have returned to normal.
I took the photo of a near empty Gudzane Dam in the first week of January. The pod of hippo numbering around 60 was having a really bad time so we can be grateful for the rains.
Gudzane Dam: Near empty in early January
GAMEVIEWING REPORTS FROM OUR GUIDES
DECEMBER REPORTS
Wimpie reports as follows :
We've had good rains and most of our major dams are full. It’s great to see all the fish in the dams moving and spawning.
5/12/2011
I decided to do the walk on Oxford.
Half way to our destination I noticed some very fresh lion tracks, and immediately followed them.
We couldn't see the tracks for the entire way, but at least I had a good idea of where they were heading. So I pushed on towards the Olifants river to start our walk. We saw some very nice hippos and monitor lizards along the river. We even witnessed a Fish Eagle catch a catfish.
On the way back I radioed Bongani who was out on a drive to ask for any updates. He responded that he had found the lions whose tracks we had followed. We found them not too far away. It was great to see them nice and close and so relaxed.
Later that day, I took the guests to go and look for the lions again on the afternoon drive. I found something that blew my mind. We came across a male leopard that was incredibly angry, and we later saw why. Another male was close to him, and before we knew it a huge battle erupted between the two males. There was a great raucous noise as the leopards engaged each other, kicking and scratching and biting each other with the outmost rage. I couldn't open my mouth to speak to my guests as I was dumb struck by what we had just seen. We drove back to the lodge in silence. What an unforgettable experience !!!
14/12/2011
I had conducted a very productive game drive the previous night and I decided to follow up on some of the animals we found on foot.
After coffee we set off in the direction of York. On our way there we found some nice general game like impala, zebra and wildebeest. I logged in over the radio as to the whereabouts of my walk and off we went, after a thorough safety briefing of course.
I immediately found some lion tracks and started tracking them, and not long afterwards saw a lioness and her two cubs. What a great way to start a walking safari!! I walked towards Impala Dam and came across some rhino tracks. Stunned by excitement, we went after them. We soon found a very large bull that was busy marking his territory. With White Rhinos you can get fairly close as they are docile and tolerant - unlike their cousins the Black Rhino who will even charge at a tree if it moves in the wind. We got to about 20 metres away before he saw us. My guests were very excited. He looked at us for a while and then slowly moved away.
This was turning out to be an epic walking experience. We took a break on the other side of Impala Dam on some rocks. While sitting there enjoying some snacks and looking at some terrapins in one of the larger ponds, I got the fright of a lifetime! We were sitting next to a pond about 5 metres in diameter when a large crocodile just popped up from nowhere. It seemed too big to even swim around in the pond. After thinking about it for a while it was actually very safe for us as we were sitting very elevated from the edge.
We all burst out in laughter at my reaction, and after settling down we watched him for a while longer.
We found some buffalo on the way back to our vehicle - some old bulls wallowing in a very muddy pond. Their splashing along with the oxpecker birds calling gave their location away. We kept a very safe distance as buffalo are known to be the most dangerous of all big 5.
We finally made it to the Landcruiser and set off to the lodge with hearts racing and growling stomachs.
Life is truly good out in the bush!!!!
Mayneth sent the following :
On the 2nd December, on the way out near Orpen, we had a brilliant sighting of two lions and a lioness, less than five metres from the road. They then walked on the road and were positioned between my open vehicle and that of Bongani.
I had luck on the 6th and 8th seeing another pride of nine lions again on the tarred road. In fact they lay all over the road and refused to budge so we were unable to proceed and arrived late for lunch !
On the 11th we had an exciting sighting of a Leopard stalking a herd of Impalas. He got to within 20 metres of the impalas. The impalas saw him and ran. He then did an amazing thing : he walked onto the tar road and sat down right in front of the vehicle for two minutes. My guests went wild !
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Leopard stalking a herd of Impalas
On the 13th, within 1 km of entering at Orpen, we had a super sighting of Wild Dogs. They were very relaxed and stood on the road about 5 metres from our vehicle. They then sat down in the shade of our vehicle !
Later the same day at Nsemani Dam we saw elephants and hippos as well as a pride of lions with two enormous males. Buffalos and zebras were trying to get to the water but the male lions kept them away. Eventually the buffalo and zebra went the long way round to drink at the other side of the dam.
Bongani had a typically good month :
It has been a good month for there has been much rain and many insects are evident. We see lots of raptors, because they eat flying termites. They wait at holes for the termites to come out in the evening. At one place, I found Yellow-billed Kite, Tawny Eagle and Brown Snake Eagle.
09/12/2011
I started the drive on the Balule Plains looking for rhinos. Luckily we came across one male rhino and we followed it. We also found another two rhinos at Impala Dam busy taking a mud bath. After a few minutes another bull arrived and started fighting with them for about half an hour. It was very close to our vehicle and interesting to see such big animals fighting. All the other animals like the Giraffes, Zebras and Impalas were also watching them. My clients were totally mesmerised ! We then decided to leave because they were now chasing each other and running around the dam and coming too close to us.
11/12/2011
We saw all the Big Five and other animals like the Blue Wildebeest, Zebra, Giraffe, Steenbok and Kudu. On S127 we found a Leopard up the tree eating a Steenbok. At the Ratelpan Hide we had a most unforgettable experience : To start there were big herds of Elephants, Buffalos and Hippos. The Elephants were busy taking a mud bath and playing with their babies. After twenty minutes, two rhinos arrived and joined them. Some baboons started making noise before they arrived at the dam and Impalas came together and looked at the baboons. We drove around to see what was going on and we spotted three male lions hiding behind a tree and eating a Zebra carcass, but there was not much left - only the bones and skin. One came to sleep on the road right near our vehicle.
Isaac reports as follows :
1/12/2011
We drove to Nsemani Dam at around 10h30 and a female lion came from the nearby bush walking through the cars. It went towards the dam and rested under a tree. As we were watching the lioness, more members of the pride came from the bush : two males, six lionesses and six cubs. One male lion lay under a tree while the other passed and went straight to the dam to drink water. On the other side of the dam there were Waterbuck, Impalas and Giraffes. From a distance they were looking very curiously. The two male lions remained at the bank of the river. An Elephant appeared from the bush to drink. After drinking the Elephant walked towards the lions without noticing them. When it saw the lions it chased them away. We were at this typically African scene for about an hour.
25/12/2011
Lots of cars were on the road going to the park. About 20km before the Orpen gate we saw four cheetahs along the fence. They were looking at some Impala grazing not far away. At Ratelpan some Buffalos were spread all around the dam. A herd of young Elephants came to drink, but could not. The Elephants tried to charge to the Buffalos, but they would not leave. As it was very hot, the Elephants moved to the other side of the dam. There they came across a rhino again coming out from the dam. He was not interested in a confrontation and the elephants had a chance to swim and splash water all over their bodies.
26/12/2011
We left Marc’s Treehouse Lodge and it was raining heavily. Everyone was now not sure if we were going to see any animals. I told them animals do not have shelter. We will see more than you expect. I was trying to encourage them. Around 09h30 into the park, we were greeted by an Impala ram chasing a female. On both sides of the road there were Zebras, Giraffes, Gnu, Warthog and Kudu. We drove along the Sweni road and saw a great big male Elephant which was on its knees digging some roots. As we got closer it turned and lifted its ears, but it continued to dig. At 15h00 I took the S127 via S39( the long Timbavati road ). We came across a male lion which was lying 2m away from the road. It opened its mouth wide open yawning. At around 17h20, about 9km before the Orpen gate, a leopard was walking along the road. The leopard was watching the Impala which were 150m away. We drove for about a km from the leopard scene and there were hyenas also walking along the road. This turned out to be a good day for my clients. They really enjoyed themselves despite the rainy conditions.
Wesley, our trainee guide, seems to be doing very well :
I am the newest addition to the rangers of Viva Safaris. I started here about 3 months ago working as an intern getting experience and shortly after that joined the ranger family and started doing a few safaris by myself. I do consider myself rather lucky this month after having a lot of very good sightings :
Leopard kill
This sighting was to me the highlight of my year, and I think will be for a long time my best sighting…
I had a vehicle full of guests and it was getting dark so I decided to make my way back to the lodge. I decided to take the one road just out of curiosity. As I came around the corner we saw 2 impala rams busy fighting each other, hitting heads and snorting. We stopped and watched them. Out of nowhere a female leopard came and jumped onto the impalas actually knocking them both down. Everyone on the vehicle, including me, was absolutely speechless - we couldn’t believe right in front of our eyes this leopard was hunting, so we stayed and watched it a little longer. She eventually killed one impala after about 5-10 minutes. By this time the natural light was almost completely gone so we used the spotlight shining on her. She then decided to slowly drag this impala into the thicker bushes to go and eat…my guests and I could not believe what we had seen………………
White Rhino
This month has been a very good month as I got to see a few rhinos. There was one sighting that stood out for me…
I was slowly making my way back to camp and tried to get nice pictures of the sunset for our guests. I made my way to one of our dams to see if anything was there. I stopped to admire the view of the sunset reflecting off the water. We saw three White Rhino busy running around the dam area covered in mud. All in all it was the perfect setting : we had the rhino running around, the sunset and the beautiful dam that has been filled by the rain we’ve had…we then had the luck of one of the rhinos to come running towards us and stop just where we could get a brilliant view of him
Lions mating
This was rather interesting to me as it was the youngsters of the lion pride that were taking their chances with mating with the females while the big male was away…
For this sighting I actually got a tip from Bongani as to where they were. As soon as my guests were on the open vehicle, I quickly went to the spot where they were. My guests were blown away by the sighting - we just sat there watching them lying lazily in the grass which was rather funny. Two then got up and started to walk away so we slowly followed them to find that they had gone off to mate. The sounds that they were making were incredible : there was a lot of growling involved and at the end the female turned and actually tried to attack the male. We then left them to do their business and went to find the other male. As we turned around we saw him walking on the road toward us. He got closer and closer and at one stage was no more than 1 m away from the vehicle…we all got some great pictures
Big Boy roars
Our dominant male lion’s name is BIG BOY - he is a massive lion with a beautiful mane.
Again one of our guides tipped me off as to his location. I quickly got to him to find him sitting in an open area with no branches or grass clouding our view of him. It was dark so I did shine the spotlight on him and I saw he kept looking up at the sky, so I thought “let’s stay a bit longer maybe something amazing happens”…and it did…Big Boy got up off the ground slowly walked a bit and then stopped and gave us nothing but the loudest roar you can imagine. You could feel the vibrations going through the vehicle with every roar he gave…that showed us there and then why he is the dominant male and why he is the king of the bush
Buffalo Fighting
This is the last but not the least interesting thing I saw on one of my drives this month
It was right near the beginning of my drive when I found a good-sized herd of buffalo. As usual I turned the ignition off and just sat and watched them and then something - I’m not sure what - spooked the herd and they started running away so of course I followed up on them. As I came around the corner there were two massive bull buffalos busy fighting, hitting heads, snorting and running after each other. It was just amazing to see and feel because you could literally feel the ground shake when they ran after each other - it was absolutely incredible
I consider myself a keen birder. This month was a rather good month for birds. Below you will find a list of some very interesting birds seen :
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Saddle billed stork
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Marabou stork
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Wahlbergs eagle
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Tawny eagle
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Eurasian hobby
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Spotted eagle owl
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Scops owl
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Hooded vulture
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Yellow billed kite
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Bateleur eagle
Pieter, usually last but certainly not least, emailed as follows :
The month of December is holiday for most people but not for us. Nice sunny sky, relaxing on the beach, but not for us because for us every day it’s a holiday – although we are at work and earning a salary, we still have the privilege to work in a location that people visit on holiday. The sun is very hot and heats the earth up very quickly and the animals tend to hide away so it makes it a bit difficult to find these animals, especially in mid day. Driving around in the Kruger Park or Balule, seeing the animals ducking for shade, we are craving to swim at the lovely Tremisana pool… or an ice cold beer.
Kruger National Park
2011/11/12
After a beautiful breakfast, and a big storm we prepared ourselves for another day in Kruger. All the clients were worried that we weren’t going to see any animals in Kruger but it was not for us to decide. When we arrived at Orpen gate, the rain had stopped. At the gate there was already a lot of activity of general game. We entered the park and saw a lot of birds that were collecting their breakfast on the tar road : a lot of the flying termites, frogs and snakes that were crossing the road. We saw a big herd of elephants and a lot of babies - you could see it was the first time for these babies to see rain as they were struggling to figure out what this liquid gloss was all about. After lunch we saw a large herd of buffalo and they too were enjoying the rain. I was a bit worried that we might not see much from here on. We started to head back, we saw about seven rhinos in different areas, we got lions and – like cats you could see that they didn’t like the water. At Orpen and coming up to our closing time, we saw a lot of vehicles in one spot. I just had a funny feeling that this must be a leopard – and I wasn’t wrong ! A young male leopard was trying to catch impala that were feeding on the fresh grass. After stalking and no success and a loss of interest the leopard took off and started making his way back towards the tar road. Stop, he’s looking back, he’s trying again! The impalas knew where he was and kept on snorting at him, because these were all young males, they were very brave and stood their ground. You could see that this leopard still had a lot to learn.
Bulule Sunset Drive
17/12/2011
We didn’t have to travel far to find hippo because at our very own dam, Tremisana Dam, we have a visitor! A big hippo bull had decided he was going to spend his time with Viva Safaris - and he’s not even paying for accommodation !
A big hippo bull in Tremisana Dam
After a while we made our way towards York where there was some updates of lions in that area. Now one of our vehicles was already in York so there was no need for me to rush. When we got to Nonwane, we saw a lot of general game and had a good laugh about two baby wildebeest trying to start a family at such a young age. They were just playing of course.
Two baby wildebeest playing
Then one of my clients shouted out that she could hear a lion and I first thought that it was my stomach but she was right. A big male lion was roaring in the distance and it was not far from where we were. I decided to go back to Olifants road to wait for Big Boy to cross the road .
Not far from where we were waiting, Big Boy was lying under a bush. After a few minutes he decided to talk to us again - he must just learn to lower the bass. Everything around us was vibrating from his roar. Then he decided to get up and make his way towards the main road, so we followed him. After a while he crossed the road and lay down on the landing strip. Sometimes it helps to be patient because you never know what will happen next.
Bush Walk
21/12/2011
Morning walk, 05h00, wet grass is not for everybody. But my guests were brave and ready for action. We left the camp to go and walk on Oxford, down by the river. When we arrived I saw that the river was full and the water was brown. That would make the chances of finding hippo much less. As we walked down to the river we discussed some tracks going towards the river, yes it was hippo tracks, but where the hippo were – only time would tell. We walked upstream and saw a lot of bird species and a lot of flowers. I picked some Wild Jasmine for the guests to smell and everybody could recognise the scent. We also saw some velvet mites, that only come out after the rain, they do look like velvet. While discussing some tracks I could hear the hippos in the distance. I knew then where they were. Slowly making our way towards the hippos we saw a lot of monkeys on the other side of the river. We arrived at a big rock where we normally stop for snacks and there they were, all of the hippos were hiding behind some rocks so that any branches floating from upstream could not injure them. At this stage I still had to look around, in case there were other hippos out of the water, but the coast was clear and we could finish our snacks. I wish all a Happy New Year!
JANUARY REPORTS
ISAAC reports as follows :
We drove about 9km after Rabelais and there we had a fantastic sighting of a leopard which had killed an Impala. The carcass was on a Knobthorn tree, just 5m away from the road. .
Towards Nwanetsi 15km along the road two big male lions had killed a wildebeest and only the head and the ribs were left. Vultures were roaming around the carcass trying to get something to eat. One male lion was alert and the other was fast asleep. Usually they take turns to look after their food.
After lunch we took the Olifants road where we saw several elephant bulls and a rhino crossing the road. On S40 we saw a herd of Buffalos.
At about 16h30 we drove back to where we had seen the leopard. It was there, but agitated. One of the cars had a big camera which was protruding outside the car and the leopard may have thought it was about to be attacked.
11/01/2012
This was a very hot day. All the Impalas were resting under the trees. At about 11h30 a leopard crossed the road near Nsemani dam going to drink water. On the other side there were some Impala and a warthog.
Around 16h00 on our way back past Nsemani dam we stopped at the dam to watch some hippos. Out of nowhere four lionesses and one male appeared behind our vehicle. The male came straight past our vehicle and passed right next to us. It then waited for the females to come. All five of them walked down the dam and drank water. The hippos moved towards the lions trying to attack them. One lion roared and the hippos decided to stay in the water.
BONGANI reports as follows :
We have a dam near Tremisana lodge, on the southern side. This time of the year it is always full of water, because of the rains. It gives chances for the hippos to move around the game reserve and we do have one hippo living in this dam. This hippo mostly grazes around the lodge.
We had some floods and most of the dams and roads were washed away. It was difficult for us to do walks or game drives. We always make a plan to make our guests happy and enjoy the holiday with us by giving them options to do other activities. We are lucky at Viva as they have many options.
The other day we found three lions near the lodge. They stayed for two days around the area. It was very interesting, because the two male lions were fighting over the one female. We are expecting new babies after three and a half months.
CHAMPAGNE BREAKFAST
Management has introduced a new product this year and the clients love it.
On the 15/01/2012 it was my first time to do the Champagne breakfast drive. It was so interesting, because we had breakfast in the bush and enjoyed the sounds of birds, frogs and other animals while we ate. We left the lodge at about 06h00. Before we got to the breakfast spot we saw two of the big five : Buffalos and one male lion. We have collapsible table and benches so we stop wherever and whenever our guests want.
The second time the trip was excellent. We drove along the Olifants main road and we came across lion spoor walking towards east. We followed for one hour and we found the whole pride resting on the road to York. One female got up and started walking around and the others followed it. It was nice because we saw them setting up a trap for Impala. They were moving in different directions and one female went into the bush. She attacked from the rear. The rest of the pride was ready for action, but something went wrong, only one small Impala was inside the trap. After a few minutes they managed to kill another one, but it was like a tiny snack for them. There were ten of them.
KRUGER
On the 27/01/2012
We went to Kruger to look for the animals. The first three hours there was very little. After lunch we saw four of the big five : leopard, white rhino, elephants and buffalos.
Big buffalo spotted in the Kruger
WESLEY LOVELL reports as follows :
This month has been a very interesting month : we had a lot of rain here which cut off a few of our roads but this did not stop us from going out and finding the animals. The rain might have caused a lot of damage but it also provided a lot of good laughs with the rangers getting vehicles out of muddy situations.
The Rhino
It’s been a rather good month in terms of rhino sightings. There is however one that stood out the most to me. I was looking at the sunset when one of my colleagues who had joined me on the game drive pointed out a rhino in the distance. We slowly made our way to it and to our surprise it was not one but three. They were all males. I noticed that the one dominant male kept following the other two and kept marking his territory everywhere they went…we followed him for about 1km until they got to an open area where we could see all three very clearly. The other 2 kept trying to mark a territory but the dominant one wouldn’t allow this and eventually got fed up and with his horn gave the one male a quick poke that quickly set him straight
Lions
This was my favourite sighting of this month for one reason : I hadn’t seen it before. Once again my clients and I were watching the sun set when I got a call on the radio saying there were lions just down the road from where we were so I immediately starting making my way there. To my surprise as I got there I had the entire pride of about 14 or 15 lions including 2 cubs coming walking straight towards our Landcruiser. I told my guests to remain seated and just watch and then the most amazing thing happened : we had about half the pride walk maybe 40cm away from the vehicle. All my guest just sat in stupefied amazement as did I for I had never seen the entire pride all together and so scarily close !
Lily the Leopard
The leopard sighting was purely enormous luck. We came to an area which was open and there stood a beautiful female leopard, the same one that made the kill last month. She just stood there and without a care in the world walked off slowly so we followed here ever so slowly until we lost her in the thick bush. That night my guests and I gave that leopard a name - we called her Lily. I was excited as I hadn’t seen her since the night of the kill so it was very good to see she is still alive and well
Buffalo:
I had just started my game drive and was slowly making my way up the road when I got a strong smell of buffalo and saw tracks on the road so I started to follow them. I followed those tracks for about 2km until I eventually found a herd of eight grazing under the shade of a few trees. They were very relaxed while I was there and then all of a sudden the wind direction changed and they could smell us instantly they went into alert mode, smelt the air, had a long look at us and carried on grazing.
Sightings after the flood:
-lions mating
-elephant
Lions mating
It looks like the younger males are taking chances. We got to a sighting to find not Big Boy but one of the younger males busy mating. As they were mating we could here Big Boy busy calling in the distance slowly making his way there. The next morning we went to that spot to now find Big Boy on the job so we think overnight he must have stumbled across them and chased the younger male off and reminded him that he is still the king of this part of jungle.
Elephant
This for me was right up there with the lion sighting. We were en route to a bush walk and just out of nowhere this young bull elephant came out the bushes with his ears out, his head held high giving us all the warning signs. He was just being difficult, so we just switched the engine off and watched him. He was highly confused when we did this as most things run away. He slowly backed off from us but keeping one eye on us at all times and slowly walked around us and went storming off into the bushes. It was a brief sighting but very nice !
This concludes the month of January, it has been both good and bad : we got to see the angry power of nature but also got to see the beauty with each and every animal that we see. I hope you all have enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoy telling my stories to you all
Mayneth reports as follows :
This month we experienced the heat of the Park. There are lots of flowers to decorate the Park.
On the 08/01/2012 on S40 we saw some lions in the shade about 200m away from the road. We waited there for a few minutes, but we could not see how many there were. I turned off my engine. They all popped up and looked like they were hunting. We looked on the far side and we saw a dazzle of Zebras crossing the road. The lions had no chance for a kill, because the zebras were now moving towards an open space. They all stood under one shade which all of them could not fit, because the tree was very small. Close to my car there was a big tree and I was so surprised when all of them moved to that big tree about 10m from where I was parked.
09/01/2012
14km from Orpen Gate we came across a leopard next to the road with a kill on the tree. Great sighting despite the heat !
11/01/2012
There was a pride of lions at Nsemani dam late in the afternoon. They came from the bush, approaching the road with one lioness very shy to come close to the road. The male lion was the first one to come to the road. They started walking parallel with my car and Isaac’s. After 500m of walking along the road they went to the dam were the zebras were drinking water. When the zebras saw the lions they all ran away.
NEWS FROM OUR LODGES
TREMISANA is looking good after all the rains. The clients are happy to spend time around the pool as the mid-Summer temperatures can reach up to 45C. I had an interesting chat with one of our guests who was completely happy with alternatively moving from pool to air-conditioned room and back to pool one day in January when the mercury was surpassing 40C. She was from Sweden and was so excited to be experiencing temperatures of over 40C and loved the pool and airconditioned chalet !
Guests cooling down at the swimming pool
After these heavy rains, some animals have been severely disorientated. We have two Nyala bulls actually eating the flowers inside the Tremisana Camp ! First time we have ever seen Nyala at Tremisana !
Our resident hippo is back at Tremisana Dam. He appears to be blind in one eye and is quite a relaxed old boy. He comes around the camp to eat grass in the late evenings.
The monkeys have been breeding well and the troop now numbers over 35 individuals. So now we have as many monkeys as beds at Tremisana – should keep my mates on Balule happy ! ( They know who they are and I know they read this newsletter. )
The big fig tree outside chalet 1 is in full fruit. I was very fortunate early one morning to see a group of 5 Trumpeter Hornbills foraging at the top of the tree.
MARC’S TREEHOUSE LODGE will be undergoing a major refurbishment after the devastating floods. Treehouse 4 was one of our most romantic treehouses and the tree that was supporting it, a veteran Tambotie, was washed away. We will have to reconstruct this one closer the bank. Similarly treehouse 8 disappeared completely, deck and all ! We shall engage builders to reconstruct this one somewhere else.
An unfortunate sight - what was treehouse 8
Unfortunately there were animal casualties at Marc’s. Ronald personally saw Waterbuck, Impala and Nyala being swept down the river. I am told that one old buffalo bull that lives in the reeds around treehouse 9 obstinately refused to move away. Eventually when the river rose 3 metres he decided he had had enough and irritably crossed the smaller stream and moved up to the Adventure Camp where he was last seen rolling in the mud at the Dam.
NEWS FOR OUR TRAVEL PARTNERS
Thanks to Kimmo and Ant for their film clip on Viva Safaris. You guys did a lovely job. We have posted it at the top of the Home Page of www.vivasafaris.com
After the 3 month trial period, Mufasa Backpackers have decided to discontinue their lease at Marc’s Adventure Camp. Juan and Toini have done their best but were unable to make a success of it in these difficult times. Viva Safaris has taken over the management of this camp from 1 February. The Adventure Camp is available for a long-term lease.
We have had an auspicious start to the year and our January figures were pleasing. It would appear that the overseas market is moving away from luxury lodges to more affordable lodges like ours so we are confident that, as long as the Rand stays within a range of R 8 to R 8-50 to the US dollar, 2012 will be a successful year. We thank you for your sustained support.
Letters & Comments from visitors
Marc’s Treehouse Lodge Guestbook
ellatfisher@gmail.com wrote : “ Thank you Charles for crossing the flooded river to help us get back across ! Had an incredible and unforgettable time here. Thank you all .”
Tripadvisor
“Something else!”
Joe, Haifa, Israel
The environment, the facilities, the staff (especially the madam who runs the place) has all given us an unforgettable experience.
Thank you guys...
“Thanks Alice, Wes, Wimpy and all the rest”
Kristen T, Zurich, Switzerland
I immensely enjoyed the night at Tremisana and the 5 nights at Mark's Treehouse Camp. The rooms where clean and nice, the wildlife is right behind the fence so you can watch it from the chill-out area and the food is excellent. The guides were very knowledgable and good drivers and went out of their way to show us the lions (on foot).
“Fantastic”
Glenda L, Perth, Australia
This is the second visit to Tremisana Game Lodge. As expected the staff made the whole week an experience not to be missed. They were all wonderful. The game views were fantastic, the food was great, rooms were very clean what more can one want! We had a bigger room last time we were there, so the smaller room this time was a bit disapointing, but still worth while being there. Being able to see animals whilst having breakfast was fantastic. We were poleased to see the smaller things, like the different bird life, as well as the big five.
Until next month...
With kind regards,
Piero
General Manager
Viva Safaris
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