The tourist season has been adversely affected by the Iraq war and Viva Safaris has experienced a slowing down in tourist traffic. Nevertheless we are pleased to report that we have bought CheetahInn - situated in the same area as Marc's Camp. The Cheetah Inn has 20 en-suite rooms as well as a 45 - delegate conference room. In addition , there is a 9-hole golf course and a 700 m landing strip ( coordinates 24 29 52 S - 31 05 14 E ). We realise that there has been a lot of neglect by the previous owners and we have a big job in getting the standards to the levels our international tourists expect. We are confident that we can use the immense potential that the Cheetah Inn has and are hoping to get things under way by early August. We have decided that it would be best to start with a new name and will rename the hotel " Jabula Lodge ". Jabula means " Be Happy " and we hope that we will have many happy tourists at Jabula Lodge.
Gameviewing in the last two months has been generally good - there have been periods when the game seem to disappear and then reappear miraculously. The probable reason for this is the prolonged drought conditions.
NEWS AT TREMISANA
The Balule Game Reserve is going through its worst drought since we bought Tremisana in 1995. The animals move around the reserve looking for food and are seldom seen at a fixed place regularly .We are seeing more aardvark on our night drives and we think this is as a result of a decreased lion activity. The elephants are still very active and are presenting Camp Manager Ziggi with the usual headaches . Ziggi had a new watering point built ,1,5 m off the ground to keep the warthogs out , but the elephants still want to drink borehole water by breaking the pipes . We are now engaging a contractor to dig a 2 m trench and bury the pipes . The garden at Tremisana is still very beautiful as we water the plants on a daily basis - we hope that the boreholes don't dry up on us.
NEWS AT MARC'S CAMP
The drought here is every bit as bad as at TremisanaLodge. The garden now has no grass - coutesy of the myriad nyala, impala, kudu , bushbuck and buffalo that are struggling to find food. The majority of the buffalo have been placed in a holding boma where they can be fed lucerne . Our herd of 6 "daga " boys is still found at the conference room area and another herd of about 15 drink regularly from the dam at the obstacle course and the swimming pool at the Adventure Camp. We have rebuilt treehouse 5 and are considering beefing up the security of the treehouses. The conference centre on the river is now complete and we look forward to our first group in June.
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