MANAGERS REPORT

Dear Friends

September has been a great start to spring with hot temperatures as expected. The clearing in front of camp has opened up as the available grass is depleting from the winter grazing and the deep red soil showing through more and more. Herds of Elephant and other antelope are seen daily coming to the water hole for a drink as all is now ready and waiting for the first rain of the season to fall. The rainy season stretches from mid October through to April. This however is not guaranteed with rain some seasons starting to fall only as late as December or January. The past three years we had intervals of 700mm, 200mm and 800mm of rain respective, with no indication of what this season would bring.

Molatedi créche

The crèche is nearing completion as the ceiling was put in this month as well as the glass for the windows. The contractors are currently busy with the painting of the ceiling as well as the undercoat on the inside walls.

Employee of the Month

Our employee of the month is Elizabeth Thebyane who works in the housekeeping department. Elizabeth is a room attendant and has been with us since July 2007. We thank her for her dedication and effort put in to ensuring guests get spotlessly clean rooms with fresh linen and all the other small touches that makes for a special holiday and comfortable room.

Now over to Jaco and his team for this month’s Rangers Report.

Hennie & Adriënne de Clerk
General Managers

RANGERS REPORT

It is the end of September here at Madikwe Hills and spring is in full force. Some species of trees have flowered or are still in flower. Usually the Acacia species are first to flower announcing the coming spring. In this area the first to start flower is the black hook-thorn Acacia mellifera. During the beginning of the month areas of the reserve where these species are abundant was covered in a white blanket as millions of these little white flowers appeared. They filled the air with a most glorious odour that sometimes get so potent as to give you a nasty spell of hay fever. Soon after the knob thorns Ac acia nigrescens follow to bloom along with the wild pears Dombeya rotundifolia. It is wonderful to see some colour back into the bush but the fact remains that we are still waiting for our first rains here in Madikwe. Some trees will start to flower even without rain since they have deep root systems that can tap into underground water and are mostly governed by their phenophases. A plants phenophases describes the way that its genetics time the sequence of events during a yearly cycle. These events includes the time it should flower, set seed, start growing leaves and when it should start losing its leaves as it goes dormant for the winter (deciduous species). These phenophases are controlled mainly by photoperiod and to a lesser extent the availability of water. The longer the days become the more species of plants will start to flower until the onset of the rains when the whole bush will be covered in vivid green and a rainbow of colourful flowers.

Wonderful animal sightings also accompanied the already beautiful month of September. Most notably to me was the one on the Saturday the 27th. The afternoon drive started out a bit quiet with only a couple of sightings of the more common species like zebra, wildebeest, impala and steenbok. We headed into the mountains and on the plato we stopped often to admire some plant species you find only there. And then around the next corner we saw some zebra and all were looking in one direction snorting alarm calls for all to hear. As we approached we saw the reason for the disturbance. A gigantic male lion lied under one of the thick trees looking straight at the zebra. However, instead of turning and running away with afterburners roaring these brave zebra actually approached this lion. It was in a relatively open clearing and confident in their superior speed the zebra continued taunting this sleeping lion. After all you only have to worry about the lion that you don’t see. One stallion got within 30m of this great beast before his confidence deserted him and send him fleeing in the opposite direction. The rest followed quickly and disappeared into the bush. All while the lion just lied there totally uninterested.

We continued on to a nearby waterhole where we found 8 giraffe busy drinking water. What a site to see such a skyscraper bending down to drink. You can almost feel the effort they put in to do this vital little daily routine. As they finish drinking they flick their heads upwards sending large spray’s of water through the air. We left the water hole only to discover a huge herd of elephants approaching it not 500m away. There was every conceivable shape and size from almost new born to 6 ton behemoths. The females were acting very aggressive and protective over the calves and we had to make several hasty retreats before everyone crossed the road to the water hole. Now the sun was setting and we decided to take some sundowners not too far from the water hole. In this almost soundless environment we enjoyed the setting sun and suddenly a huge roar broke the silence into thousands of little pieces. I was still trying to get everybody’s attention to listen when I realized that everyone was gone and already standing on the vehicle like meerkats, nervously peering into the bush (drink in hand and not a drop spilled) to try and establish the lion’s position. I smiled at my amusement and reassured everyone that we were a safe distance away from this most intimidating cat. We quickly packed up and proceeded in his direction where we found him making his way to the water hole still announcing his presence to everyone for miles around. He was soon joined by 2 females and 4 tiny little 4 month old cubs and they proceeded to the water hole to go and drink water while a lonely old White rhino bull watched intently. Just then the elephants arrived and they were walking to the water not knowing of the lion’s presence. Suddenly they noticed them and then all hell broke loose. Angry females came charging out of the bush straight at the lions, not holding back one inch. Now it was every lion for him self and they scattered in all directions trying to avoid trunk, tusk and foot. The sound was unbearable and confusion rained. Lions growl at their annoyers, elephants trumpeted and rumbled sounds that shook your body while the earth shook as 160 tons worth of elephant chased after the lions. Dust hangs in the African night like a shroud making the visibility very poor and this helped to make the chaos even more chaotic and the confusion more confused. After a couple of minutes things started to calm down. The elephants have secured the water hole for themselves and with the calves safe from any lions they started to relax. As the dust settled we saw a couple of very nervous and bewildered lions on the bank at the opposite side of the water hole. They will have to wait to drink tonight until the real kings of the bush have finished.

This was a real amazing and humbling experience and something we all will cherish for ever and never forget. Other amazing happenings also took place to the other rangers here at Madikwe Hills as they explain:

“Even though this was only my 4th month in this reserve I can already say that I’ve been blessed with awesome sightings. I was privileged to see a Leopard kill not to far from my vehicle. We had 3 different Lions roaring next to us on different occasions, one of those 2 males and 2 females joined in the chorus. My guests and I saw numerous Lions feeding on their kills. I had my first Black Rhino sighting in this reserve this month. We saw another honey badger in the road. We saw the very rear Jameson’s Red Rock Rabbit very close to camp. Even in camp we had amazing Elephant sightings at our water hole almost daily. One morning during ‘morning coffee’ before the game drive, plus minus 200 Cape buffalo came to drink at our water hole just in front of the main deck. It’s also nice to see the seasons changing. A few Acacia species like the Blue Thorn, Black Thorn and Knob Thorn is blossoming and the sweet smell is almost overpowering at sunset. A few migratory birds like the Black-headed Oriole and Red-breasted Swallow’s already returned. This and many more brilliant animal sightings made this an amazing month and I can not wait to see what the following months in Madikwe hold in for me.”
Werner Dippenaar.

“As a result of the late August winds we experienced this month our animals were a little more skittish than normal (animals bed down when wind blows, because the sense of smell and hearing deteriorates) making them more vulnerable to predator attacks. Then, on the other hand it provided some spectacular predator sightings.

Yesterday the 28Sep I had an amazing morning and even better afternoon drive. The morning drives animals were: Lion, 6 Rhino, 2 Herds of elephant and a spotted hyena and this all within 15min of leaving the camp! The afternoon drive we saw the whole big 5 as well as a caracal. This was only my second big 5 drive in this park in 2 years; it was a memorable one and will stay with me for a very long time!”
Frans Jordaan

As everyone can see we had a spectacular month here at Madikwe Hills with all our animal friends. The bush is always full of supprizes, all you have to do is look out for the signs and be patient enough to wait for things to happen. And more often than not they do happen in the most spectacular way you can imagine. I am proud to call this little piece of Africa my home sweet home.

Kind Regards,
Jaco Becker and the Madikwe Hills Ranger Team

Sightings for the month:

Lion: 42
Leopard: 6
Elephant: 37
White Rhino: 41
Black Rhino: 9
Buffalo: 16
Wild Dog: 5
Hippo: 6
Brown Hyena: 15
Spotted Hyena: 27

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