News July 2010

The World Cup has had at least one very serious negative effect : the acceleration of rhino killing. Unscrupulous Asian operators have effectively started a war on our Rhino population. Figures for July 2010 are not yet finalised but it would appear that a rhino was killed every 2 days. The total number of rhino killed last year was around 120 - to date in 2010 already over 150 have been killed !

There is a new damned lie being propagated : the fallacy that rhino horn can cure breast cancer. Total unadulterated crap !

I write about this to you in the hope that you do something about it. Sufficient publicity of this horrendous attempt at rhino extermination may cause an outrage that can check the activities of this scum !

The war on rhino has reached unprecedented levels of sophistication : helicopters are now being used in this totally nefarious activity. Gone are the days when our brave rangers could patrol fence lines and follow the poachers’ spoor. All it requires now is about 15 minutes. The rhino is located ; the helicopter flies in; rhino is darted and shot; rhino horn is sawed off; helicopter flies out – really scary stuff !
No doubt cutting out the middleman poacher has made this sordid business extremely worthwhile for these well-heeled heartless killers, willing and financially able to invest in air power to carry out their filthy acts.

We need to be single-minded in our purpose : game park visitors, lodge owners, aviation industry employees, in fact the general public, need to be aware of the problem and if anything suspicious is noted, the authorities must be contacted immediately so that we can guarantee the future of these magnificent creatures that are totally helpless without us. To our previous clients and friends in the safari industry, please make this plea a reality in your lives : let your friends and family know about the plight of our rhino and let’s nail these poacher bastards !

A study of Black and White Rhino in close proximity near Marc's Camp

RHINO POACHING HOTLINE

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Please enter on your cell phone now.

I am told by my cardiologist not to get stressed so as to avoid further heart problems so I shall leave this extremely painful issue and share with you more pleasant matters relating to Viva Safaris.

There has been no rain in July 2010 and, along with the cold weather, this has resulted in the grass turning yellow.

The photo below was taken from the top of the cell tower at Tremisana :

The drying out of the veld has also resulted in better game-viewing. On my last visit to the bush towards the end of July, I personally saw the Big Five in Kruger on one day. The highlight was the sighting of 3 different elephant herds at Nsemane Dam at the same time – I reckon there were more than 100 .
I also had a fantastic drive on Tshukudu where we had really good sightings of lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo.
I had a personal first at Marc’s Camp. I have been enjoying game walks there since 1998 and have never seen Tsessebe ( one of the rarest and fleetest African antelope ). I had a great sighting of two Tsessebe about 100 metres from the Adventure Camp.
I also had an amazing sighting ( late at 23h00 ) of a hyena drinking at the illuminated waterhole at Tremisana. One of our enlightened neighbours, Steve Bailey, has been involved with the introduction of more hyena into Balule Game Reserve. To date he has released three and plans are afoot to reintroduce a few more. The presence of the very large lion pride ( about 20 in total ) may be a limiting factor in the success of this introduction program but so far so good !

Our guides have had an excellent July as witnessed by the Viva Safaris Guides’ reports

GAMEVIEWING REPORTS FROM OUR GUIDES

BONGANI reports as follows :  

FROM 01-06-10

The hippo that used to live at Tremisana Dam has moved, as the water level is dropping. The amount of general game that comes to drink at the waterhole at Tremisana has increased. The natural dam is getting dry. Monkeys are back fulltime at the lodge because the bush is getting dry. The monkeys are creating problems. They try to come close to humans to steal food. Nevertheless they play an important role at Tremisana Lodge : they give our guests a wake up call every morning and remind them that they are in the African bush.

BALULE GAME RESERVE

This month we had sightings of many elephants, buffalos and other animals.
During our Big Five walks we managed to get close to big herds of elephants and buffalos. They were relaxed and enjoying their breakfast just as we were. We left them in peace and love. One day we had a sighting of buffalos and then we heard the lions’ calling and we immediately went back to the Landcruiser. On our way back to the Lodge we came across two big male lions walking on the road towards the buffalos. We turned around to follow them to see what they would do with the buffalos. Before they got close, one of the buffalos heard the alarm call of a francolin and started looking around. After a few minutes it managed to spot the lions and the entire buffalo herd came together. The kings tried to hide but it was too late. They walked into the bush and some of buffalos tried to follow them to work out exactly what the lions were planning.

This month in Balule, we managed to find one of the rarer species : Wild Dogs. It was not easy to find them but we tried very hard. One of the guides found the fresh tracks and all of us followed up. We sighted a pack of eight Wild Dogs very close to the road. It was unbelievable. We spent one hour watching them and everyone in the group was extremely happy. In the whole of Kruger there are only between 250 to 300. Two days later I drove on Balule and I come across the pack again. This day we saw six only. I had one guest in the Landcruiser who was not interested in them – she doesn’t know how lucky we were.

KRUGER PARK

On-07-07-10

We went to Timbavati Picnic Spot and we asked the people what they had seen. Everyone said nothing at all, only general game. About 500 metres away from Nsemani Dam coming from Timbavati, we stopped to look at a Steenbuck. We then were amazed to see a leopard stalking the Steenbuck. Before it got close one of the guests made a noise and the leopard went into the bush. At Ngirivana dam it was busy – many different types of animals like impala, zebra, giraffe, elephants and white rhinos. Later a troop of baboons arrived and enjoyed the fresh water. They then spotted a lioness at a distance. All of them came together but it was not a serious situation. The following day we went in at Orpen gate and out at Phalaborwa gate. It was a wonderful day and enjoyable - everyone was excited about the game viewing as well as the different vegetation zones. The Mopani bush in the north is really different to the mixed woodland around Satara. Luckily we found ten lions eating a buffalo on the road. We had a great view of the lions and hyenas a few metres away from the lions. One of the rangers told us that the buffalo had been killed the previous night. We saw many elephants and buffalos.

On 09-07-10

I rode on the S 39. It was quiet in the beginning, but before we got to Timbavati, we saw a leopard crossing the road. After driving further north we managed to see two big male lions sleeping very close to road. There was no need to use binoculars. We had all the Big Five that day.
 
 
MARK reports as follows :

My highlights for July were as follows:

Highlight 1:
17 July : Went out for a morning walk on York with 9 guests. The walk itself was quiet, but fun. We saw a giraffe walk by on our halfway stop point. On the drive back to the lodge, we came across 7 African Wild Dogs on Balule Plains, just off Mountain View road. They were lying up about 30 metres away. We watched them for some time, whilst they alternately lay, got up and changed position, and 'plonked' back down again. At one stage we saw all 7 get together for a bit of a greeting. A wonderful sighting!

Highlight 2:
4 July : Doing the Tshukudu drive with 6 guests, we stopped just after sunset to watch a pod of four hippos, still in the water. 5 minutes later there were some stirrings in the water and the adult male and female started mating. This continued for neatly 10 minutes, with the poor girl barely getting a breath. She had nothing but her nostrils out the water for the duration, and you could hear that she was battling to get a breath in. Great to see, not something that is commonly seen, I don't think.

Highlight 3:
16 July : We had a true sunrise to sunset safari. I had 2 adults and 2 kids with me for the day. As a result, we did not do the Balule walk, but instead did a nice long morning drive. We encountered a pride of over 16 lions which proceeded to cross the road in front of our vehicle. This, while the sun proceeded to rise in front of it all, a truly brilliant sighting!
That evening, doing the drive at Tshukudu, we encountered more lions. It was a lovely sighting of them at, yes, you got it, sunset! Perfect day!!

Other specials this month have been a couple of sightings of White-tailed Mongoose, Caracal, Hippo grazing near the vehicle, Hyena, scorpions, chameleons, more ellies on the walks, and a Bateleur on the road eating a Francolin that it had just killed. This last one managed to stop 7 cars, almost rivalling a lion sighting!

All in all, it’s been a good month yet again.

 
MAYNETH reports as follows :

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK

My best day was on the first day of the month.

01/07/10
We started the day by responding to a report of a buffalo killed by lions on the S37 near Nwanetsi. When we got there we saw only the carcass. The lions were full and sleeping under the shade. We then drove back and we got a big breeding herd of Elephants crossing the road right in front of us.

We took S100 and about 5km from Satara we got two lions mating. They lay down for a couple of minutes and recovered and mated again. They mated five times while we were there - very close to the road - about 10 metres away.

After lunch we drove towards the gate. When we got to Nsemane Dam we saw a breeding herd of Buffalos (around 200). They were in the shade, very relaxed. Driving back on S106 we saw one male rhino on the road - it was just standing still on the road.

On my last 4km to Orpen gate, we had the highlight of the day : a big male leopard killed a warthog. It was still feeding on the carcass when we left.

 
CHRISTO reports as follows :

These are my highlights:

1) After a great month of game viewing in Kruger National Park, I am setting my focus on Motlala Game Reserve as this month on the reserve there was a few good highlights.

The first highlight took place on an afternoon drive, after a morning spent at the Moholoholo Rehab Centre, when we saw quite a few animals such as giraffe, buffalo, zebras, impalas and a few kudu, but the main highlight was when we went searching for the rhinos. Expecting to find one or two, we found six White rhinos - 3 mature females and 3 teenage calves. At first they were a little tense and after about five minutes they calmed down. We sat for about half an hour watching their beauty. They where so calmed down that some of them even started to lie down and rest a little, This was a real nature experience to our guests as the rhinos where about 6 m from the vehicle.

This was not the only highlight of the day. As we left the Rhino and drove around we got this beauty of a night creature, the weird thing about this was that it was still day time, This Aardvark was a very special sighting as normally they are night creatures and very shy animals as well.
 
2) On a sunset / night drive, we again had a few good sightings such as buffalo, kudu, impala, White Rhino, and a quick glimpse of a young Leopard. When we saw the leopard the guests wanted to go and see if we could get a better view of him, I decided to drive off and return in a few minutes to see if we could see him. The leopard went into a dry river bed not too far from the road ( about 25m). We could not see him but the good thing about this was that we knew he was there and decided to switch the vehicle off and sit for a few minutes. Not long thereafter, we heard the leopard calling. The guests where so surprised to hear the leopard calling in the dark even though we did not get a good visual of the leopard the guests had an experience of a life time.
 
3) On another sunset / night drive we had great sightings of plains game and two of the big five ( Buffalo, White Rhino), But the sighting that made this drive a Highlight was when we spotted a Black Rhino in the thick scrub next to the Klaserie river, I switched the vehicle off and everybody tried to get a photo, but the scrub was too thick, The one guest asked if I could not get them to come out of the scrub, Well I replied as a joke and called to the Rhino to please come out so that my guests could get some good photos of him, Well this was really funny because after about five minutes he walked out of the scrub, not alone but with a female to about 5m from us, looked at the vehicle, turn to the side and moved of back into the thick scrub, just enough time for all to take a photo, The guests were really impressed :did the black rhino understand me or was this just out of curiosity ?

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Black Rhino spotted next to the Klaserie River

4) Out on a early morning bushwalk we had the real fresh bushveld air around us, a few resident Nyalas nearby the camp. As we moved on, I spoke about the trees, termite mounts, birds etc. We then heard the snorting or some wildebeest nearby. On closer inspection we saw that they were looking away from us. We stood for a few minutes to see what was wrong, one of the guests knelt down to have a better view of them and then suddenly grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me down saying to me “LEOPARD” ……unfortunately I saw only a glimpse of the leopard’s back and its tail. After a few minutes we came across the leopard tracks where he had crossed. Two days after this sighting on another early morning bushwalk in the same area we came across a fresh impala carcass. On closer inspection we got the leopard tracks there, along with hyena and vulture spoor. We hope to see more of this resident leopard soon.
 

ISAAC reports as follows :
 
1-07-10
We started the game drive as usual at 09h00. We drove about 10km without seeing anything, except some birds on the road. After a few kilometres we saw Giraffe mating. The dominant bull and displaced the previous bull. At about 10h00 we started to see more animals. At Nsemani Dam, Hippos were out the water, basking on the sand bank. Egyptian Geese was walking along the bank. The hippos were disturbed by the movement of the geese and they all dived into the water.
 
Elephants were swimming at the dam. We had lunch at 12h30 then we took S100 and saw some Zebras, Waterbuck and Elephants. On S41 we saw two lionesses trying to ambush some waterbucks who were very alert. On our way back on Orpen road 4km from the entrance we came across a Leopard that was dragging a young warthog it had killed. It dragged it for about 200m along the road. It went under the bridge for safety from other predators.
 
6-07-10
It was a day of fighting for all species. We drove for about a km from the Orpen gate and two impala rams were in a serious fight for dominance. Just after that, we came across a troop of baboons looking for dead insects and animals which were burnt, because there had been a fire the previous day. Impalas passed through and baboons started chasing them as they sometimes eat meat.
 
On S100 along the river at about 12km some lions were mating. As we drove on, about 2 km further, two lionesses saw a herd of Zebra passing at a distance of 200m. They stood up and we had a clear view of them. The Zebra was alert and the lionesses started chasing them. Unfortunately we did not see what happened as they went through the bushes.
On our way back at around 15h30 at Nsemani Dam, two young elephant bulls were fighting. We watched for about 10 mins then we proceeded towards Orpen Gate.

9-07-10
I started the day by conducting a bushwalk. We saw Giraffes, Buffalos, Impalas and our famous common residents, Nyala. At 07h45 we left for Kruger. On the Orpen road 25km from the gate there was a carcass of a buffalo killed by lions. Only the vultures were around. The lions had already left.
 
There was a big herd of about 500 buffalos at Nsemani Dam. At Satara we stopped for lunch. At 16h00 on our way back, we saw another carcass. There was a male lion walking to the river to drink. We stopped by the carcass and we had better view of the lion.
 
At 16h30 near the Orpen gate we saw a leopard standing at the centre of the road. There were some impalas along the road then it went into the bush moving slowly and crossed the road in front of the vehicle. The impalas were edgy and they ran away. It never chased them and went into to the bush.


RAYMOND reports as follows :

Day of the month was 21st July 2010. All this we saw in one day :

On the H7 at about 10h00, 2km from Bobejaankrans we found a cheetah crossing the road busy hunting. On the S36 we found an elephant in musth charging two vehicles that were reversing like mad. We had to move towards him and went through unscathed. At about 11h00 at H3, 6 km from Satara towards Olifants we found 14 lions very relaxed 4m from the main road. Then we came back to Satara for lunch. At about 14h30 on H3 going towards Olifants again we saw a leopard on a tree with an Impala. On the same road we then saw 4 cheetahs, 2 on the left of the road and 2 on the right. Finally they were all together and went into the bush. On S12 at Ngirivana we had a brilliant sighting of more than 500 Buffalos. Around 16h00 on H7 we found 9 Wild Dogs busy killing and impala and after 15mins 2 hyenas came along and took the rest of the remaining carcass and ran away.
What a day ! The best ever in my many years of game guiding !
 

HAPPY reports that on the 1st July he had excellent sightings of all the Big Five. On the 6th, his surprised guests had a brilliant Leopard sighting – right on the road – less than 1 km from Orpen Gate. By lunchtime the Big Five were in the bag !
 
On the 11th July, Happy found a female cheetah hunting on the open plains near the S 36 turnoff. Once again, he managed to show his guests all of the Big Five.

NEWS FROM OUR LODGES

We have been busy since mid-July with maintenance and upkeep after the deluge of World Cup tourists. All poles are being creosoted and all window frames and other woodwork are being varnished.
 
Marc’s Adventure Camp is being upgraded insofar as a pub, kitchenette and TV room are being installed.
 
The dining room at Marc’s Treehouse Lodge is being re-thatched. Plans are afoot to re-thatch treehouses #3 and # 4.
 
A new paved walkway has been built at Tremisana to include units 13 to 15.

NEWS FOR OUR TRAVEL PARTNERS

I wish to use this month’s slot to introduce you ( if you have not yet met these hardworking pillars of Viva Safaris ) to some of our staff.
 
These guys work very hard to ensure that Viva is as successful as it is. I thank them again for their untiring efforts and loyalty.

Until next month...

With kind regards,
Piero
General Manager
Viva Safaris