MANAGERS REPORT

Dear Friends

Another month has gone by and we are getting closer to the end of the year again. Time seems to be going by faster and faster every year where we have to pause for a moment and just look back at our lives and appreciate what we have. I started my bush career 10 years ago at Leopard Hills after spending time in various hotels and restaurants. The past ten years has been absolutely wonderful and I can honestly say that life in the bush is a gift which we cherish every day. Where else will you find an office with a view like mine? I was fortunate to meet my wife in the bush and we have a beautiful bush baby “daughter” Mia who just turned 9 months old. She starts her day by watching the birds outside our house every morning and ends her day off with a magnificent sunset on our porch every afternoon, I hope that as she grows up she will appreciate the environment she is growing up in. 

We have had no rain so far, but a few serious wind storms and lightning bolts in the distance over the mountains. The bush is very dry and temperatures are reaching the 40’C mark on a weekly basis. This temperature rise is a good indication that the rain is coming, as the heat normally builds up to a point where the heavens open up and the rain pours down on us. No better smell than that of rain during the first down pour. Everything gets washed down, cleaned and ready for the summer season.

Game viewing in front of camp is still very productive with the waterholes providing drinking water for the animals. Some guests were fortunate enough to witness a lioness hunting in front of the camp on the clearing, where she pulled down a young zebra and killed it. A meal fit for a king or queen in this case.

Employee of the Month

Our employee of the month was Mabel Seroke. Mabel has been with Madikwe Hills since the beginning, and is still going strong, giving the same great service in the laundry as she did from day one, with a big bright smile. Thank you Mabel and well done.

Molatedi Créche

The Molatedi crèche is nearing completion and should be ready to hand over to the community by the end of the year to open for the new school year. Apart from the fact that the building is standing, we still need to fit shelving in the store room as well as furnish the crèche with some equipment.

Thank you to the following people for contributions towards the school.
Patricia Mogeau
Jonathan & Jacqueline Alexander
Patrick Seager – Plascon paint South Africa.
Janine & Mark Frost
Janet & David Nuttal

Any persons interested to support the Molatedi crèche, we are looking for sponsors to assist with the following items: 

 

There are two class rooms; 1 for babies and the other for children aged 1 - 5 years of age.

Baby room

• 4 – 5 camp cots
• Mattresses for the cots
• Soft toys for babies
• Pictures for the walls
• Loose carpet to play on
• Any additional equipment used in a baby’s room
• Carpet

Toddlers class room

• Small plastic tables with chairs
• Black board
• Pictures for the walls
• Any educational toys and equipment
• Musical CD’s
• Fridge
• Little Black Scooters
• 2-Plate Stove
• Microwave

After the completion of the crèche it is our intention to stay involved in the project and provide a continuous support structure for the crèche, which I will bring to your attention in next months news letter.

Thank you for your support and we hope to see you at Madikwe Hills very soon.

Hennie and Adrienne de Clerk
Managers

Over to our rangers for the rangers report.

RANGERS REPORT

Jaco

It has been a wonderful month of October here at Madikwe Hills. The weather has been nice and hot and the animal sightings were just as good. Even though we are still waiting for some decant rains we were fortunate to have at least a little. Water on the reserve is very scarce at the moment and is concentrated only around the lodges and a couple of big dams, needles to say we are enjoying a multitude of sightings at the lodge’s watering hole. Everything from antelope to the big 5 comes to drink at some time or another. A couple of weeks ago we counted no less than 200 elephant in front of the lodge before the afternoon game drive and that evening a herd of more than 150 buffalo came to drink as we were sitting down for dinner. Predators exploit this basic need for life by hanging out near watering points and ambushing their prey as they come to drink or leave.

One afternoon our guests were fortunate enough to witness, from their lunch tables a big lioness stalking, chasing, and killing a young zebra not 100m from the deck of the main lodge. One of my guests even got the whole event on video camera.
These things are difficult to see even at the best of times and usually takes a lot of time, effort, patience, and a fair amount of luck to witness. 

 

We also were blessed this month with a fair number of leopard sightings. One night myself and my guests decided to stake out a dam in the middle of the reserve after following leopard tracks close by. We hoped that as the sun set it might bring this highly illusive spotted cat out to come and drink some water. When we arrived at the dam the sun just set and we were treated to a big elephant bull drinking water, 3 white rhino’s standing nearby and some buffalo in the background. We were witnesses to quite a comical sight as we watched the elephant bull drinking water. After he had enough he became very bored and started to play with the water. He was standing on three legs spraying water everywhere around him. He would curl up his trunk over his head and spray water onto his it, and after he would stare, watching us almost like he wants to see our response to his shenanigans. We had a good laugh at him and satisfied that he entertained us enough he slowly started walking back to the bush. We headed back our selves when my tracker gave me the signal to stop. Right in front of us in the grass the eerie glow of two fiery eyes were unmistakable. Finally our leopard decided to come and drink some water. She slowly walked over the dam wall and went down to the waters edge where she had a good long drink. After she had finished she got up walked straight past the vehicle watching us with intensely golden eyes and disappeared into the bush. All of us on the vehicle started breathing again and then the nervous chattering started. What an unbelievable sighting of this most enigmatic big cat. We also found several other leopards during the month which included a female with two young cubs in the northwest of the reserve and our big resident male on the 31st of October.

Werner

Some days it’s the smaller critters and not the “big 5” that walk away with the glory. I was treated to my first Pangolin sighting in my guiding career this month. And what a sighting it was… It was out in the open next to the road and we could get off the vehicle to get a nice close-up look at it. Besides all the general game that comes to drink at the lodge’s waterhole daily we also had a few rare leopard sightings this month between the guides, quite a few lions on kills and even a few vocalizing next to the vehicle. We also had our first rains for the season this month. One afternoon in particular that comes to mind my guests and I were all the way in the north of the park at Kolobeng dam.

We were enjoying this spectacular view in front of us from the elevated view of the dam wall. Three young male and two young female lions drinking below us with dark rolling thunderstorm clouds in the background with this typical calm before the storm feel. We suddenly heard something that sounded like the ocean in the distance. It wasn’t long until we realized it was wind approaching. Within half a minute we were in the middle of a sand storm with heavy gushing winds. Even the lions huddled up closely, closed their eyes and flattened their ears in an attempt to keep the dust out. We sat for about 10 minutes with the back of the vehicle pointing into the wind hoping it will die down before we realized well have to move on. Half way back to camp it also started raining wish at least helped the dust to settle. By the time we got to Tshukudu dam, not too far from camp, we were soaking wet and didn’t care anymore either. We stopped at the dam just watching the rain fall on the water enjoying the view and the glorious fresh “rainy” smell that I can’t even try to explain here. When I looked back all four guests I had on the vehicle had huge smiles on their faces. It is moments like this that sticks in a Guides mind for a long time.

Frans

October and November in Madikwe is hot with temperatures in the high 30°C and even low 40°C. This however does not mean fewer animals, with great sightings of Black Rhino, Leopard and lots and lots of Lions. With no rain yet some of the only watering holes that have not run dry yet are situated in front of the lodges, making it possible of seeing almost all the big 5 from your balcony. With large herds of Elephants in the mornings and even larger herds of Buffalo at night time. We are also happy to report that we have some new additions to Madikwe. Our wild dogs had pups of witch 5 have survived bringing the total of wild dog to 24 .Some more lion cubs where also born bringing the total of lions in Madikwe to over 80! All that we are now waiting for is rain!!! Hopefully with lots of rain we will have lots of babies in December and January of all our plains game!

Pieter

The best black rhino sighting for the month was of an adult female rhino and her young calf. When we first got a glimpse of the animals, they were quite far from the road and we could barely make out that they were black rhino. They slowly moved in our direction, so we decided to stay right where we were. Moving closer could probably spook her and she might charge off, back into the thickets. Luckily we were down- wind from them and very quiet. She came to about 30 meters from the vehicle when she saw the vehicle and froze. She stood still for about 30 seconds and then decided to charge at the vehicle in an effort to chase us away from her calf. She stopped about 10 meters away from the vehicle, turned around in a circle and then charged again, stopping a little bit closer. After the second charge she trotted off into the thickets with the calf running close behind her.

 

Number of sightings for the month:

Lion: 169
Leopard: 12
White Rhino: 60
Black Rhino: 5
Elephant: 89
Brown hyena: 12
Spotted Hyena: 32
Buffalo: 28
Wild Dogs: 15
Hippo: 8