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July
2010
Sue
and Gordon’s Notebook
Ouch!!! Winter has really made its presence felt in the reserve.
It came early and we had one particularly biting snap that made rendered
lip balm, beanies and scarves totally ineffectual.
Crackling fires in the lounge and braziers in the boma have definitely
helped.
The
old locals have been predicting an early and cold winter and they
were right. What wasn’t expected was the very late rain.
When the outdoor concert for Johnny Clegg was planned by the Madikwe
Collection it seemed perfectly suitable for the end of May. The concert
day dawned with rain and cold (hello Cape Town) and at the last minute
we had to head indoors.
This is no way dampened (no pun intended) an amazing show.
This once again proved how special Johnny Clegg is, with his music
and wonderful stories
We had a cute but sadly an unwanted visitor in camp a few weeks back. For a while we had noticed that there was a lone male vervet monkey hanging around the outside of camp. Vervets are not normally seen in our part of the reserve so this was strange enough let alone being on his own. He soon ventured into camp and found the merits of staff village and the bird seed that is put out for our camp wild birds. His demeanour and behaviour showed that he must have been someone’s pet. He would let you get very close to him and was in no way scared.
The monkey became more and more brazen with forays into the curio shop. He’d sweep all the items off the table and then run out clutching his latest find. The brunch table did not escape his attacks with sweetener sachets being a firm favourite. Obviously watching his waistline! His presence could not continue as we were concerned that guests would be bothered and even worse the possibility of a child being bitten.
The decision was taken out of our hands when two very large male baboons came into camp and chased him out of camp. The danger is getting too attached to a wild animal and wanting to put human emotions into the situation. I have to admit we did miss not having his antics in camp.
The
Soccer world cup has even reached Madikwe! We always felt rather
removed from all the build up and “rah-rah” that was
being touted for the event. In the course of a ten day period we
had to go to Johannesburg and Cape Town on business and were caught
up in the whirlwind and the atmosphere of the whole event. We brought
back SA flag mirror socks for the guides to put on the cruiser -
much to Jacques disgust! Strange how he managed to loose one on the
first game drive after fitting them and tore the other soon after!
Our television, which we normally keep for sporting emergencies, has
been working overtime with all the games! Having not closely followed
the game before I have been swept up into the whole event. Everyone
in camp is discussing form and referee decisions. Even our vuvuzela
at the bar has been put to good use.
The coral trees have almost lost all their leaves and are slowly starting to bloom. The jacaranda trees are steadfastly holding onto their leaves so it is going to be a while before the morning routine of raking great piles of leaves is over. The days are sunny and bright with the mornings and evenings reminding us that it is winter.
Even when it is resting Madikwe is so very special.
Come and see for yourself.
Warm regards
Gordon, Sue and the Bush House family
July
2010
Hello everyone.
I would like to start this off by introducing myself. My name is Jason Van Zyl
and I am the new head guide at The Bush House and started here at the beginning
of March. I have been a field guide for four years now up to date and can honestly
say that I am still loving it with true passion. My special interests would
be in the field of tracking, birding and more specifically wild animal behaviour.
I am also new to Madikwe game reserve and all I can say is Wow! What a gem in
every way, and for those of you who have already been here before will hopefully
agree with me.
With the winter now nicely set in, one can really feel the chills whilst out
on drive but it is only just a small sacrifice and a huge compensation for those
that brave the cold.
Also, being the dry season, the water holes have provided a fair amount of activity
especially here at the bush house. A huge herd of buffalo of about 100 plus come
around now more regularly in the early evenings and cover the whole water hole,
along with “Hansa”, the local male black rhino and company.
A big surprise for me was the lone sable bull strutting his good looks
around the water and even the young warthogs kept staring and sniffing
with curiosity.
The bush truly has many surprises at the most unexpected of times,
and this proved to be true in the form of very timid female leopard
we came across one afternoon. What a privilege it was to be in her
presence. It almost seems as if the animals have stepped out to show
themselves to our world cup soccer guests.
In the previous newsletter Stefan mentioned the Mica pride of lions that occupy the southern territory with thirteen in total including the territory males. We have recently seen the presence of what we think is four new arrivals; the mother of the cubs is still very weary of the vehicles so she keeps herself and the cubs in the thickets.
The wild dogs and spotted hyenas have used our fence line to their advantage by trapping prey between the fence and the bush thickets, very exciting stuff!
Another added benefit of the winter bush is being able to see the colorful bird species on display as the bush is not as thick. The bush type on the lower lying areas is classified as thornveld and is the habitat to some attractive species which are easily hidden by the leaves in the rainy season. These include crimson breasted shrikes, violet eared and blue waxbills and pied babblers.
We have just witnessed the annual impala rutting season, usually between April and June where mating rights within the breeding groups are established. This always provides for good entertaining action with the mature rams highly vocal roaring and chasing about.
Well everyone that is it from my side until next time.
Take care
Jason.
March 2010
In the few short months since we last wrote it is amazing how much has changed in the bush. The bright emerald green of new rain grass has been replaced with yellow green as the Summer season starts to come to an end. After being witness to spectacular thunder storms that slashed the sky and shook the ground we are now teased by the odd promising build up of cloud that sadly doesn’t amount to anything. The rainy season has now all but finished.
The hesitant behaviour of the animals with our fence coming down has been replaced by familiarity and bravery- particularly with the elephants. After the first tentative checking out of the swimming pool all the bulls now come for a drink and even the breeding herds know where to come for clean water! They have even beaten a very evident path from the waterhole to our swimming pool at the house.
My first experience with a groups of eles at the pool was when I was swimming once lunch time. Slowly but surely three young bulls sidled up to the pool and dipped their trunks into the water simultaneously. They were so close I could touch them! It was a really humbling experience. Gordon took a photo of the Lunch Time Drinkers who are now very regular visitors.
A
huge adrenalin rush was when late one afternoon I was in the pool
(seems like I am always in the swimming pool!)and a massive bull
came to drink. There was no fear or hesitation and I sunk down as low
as I could in the water whilst taking a photograph of him. One could
feel his breath. It was absolutely mind boggling.
Needless to add I did not move a muscle!
All the animals now regard our house as part of the landscape and they graze right up against the side of the deck. Yesterday we had Mother warthog and her piglings(officially piglets)feeding their way through the grass. Their snuffling was punctuated by high pitched squeaking as they comically moved across the ground on their knees.
The wildebeest and impalas with their rapidly growing youngsters take no notice if we are on the deck and move freely around at their own pace.
On two occasions the wild dogs have eyed the low part of the fence that joins the side of our house and the lodge fence. If they put their minds to it they could probably take a running leap and clear it. But lets hope they don’t put it to the test!
As Stefan mentioned the dogs are spending more time with us in the west which is such a treat and we have been very lucky to have had them at the lodge often. Even though one knows how quick these dogs are it is an eye opener to watch them race past twittering and calling.
This last weekend we had a very busy waterhole when ,within a short period we had elephants, followed by wild dog drinking who were then chased off by two lionesses. The guests had just returned from drive and instead of sitting down to breakfast were riveted watching the dynamics.
There have been sightings of all the big 5 on the webcam in the last
month and we are delighted that the nocturnal visits of the white rhino
have resumed.
Our “Local” black rhino Hansa visits us regularly. And we were
treated to a very tense standoff when he and another Male come across each other
late one afternoon. When both parties suffer from poor eyesight and the wind
is blowing in the wrong direction it makes for much posturing and Macho behaviour.
Eventually they both left, heading in opposite directions in clouds of
dust and with bruised egos!
The Eyptian geese have had five youngsters and are very vocal at the waterhole. The adults have taken to strolling on the lodge lawn in the afternoons and walking around the water feature. I’m keeping a beady eye to see if the Koi suffer any casualties!
When
we had a very large herd of buffalo that swamped the waterhole the
family of geese were swimming in ever decreasing circles in the middle
trying to avoid being squashed. They are incredibly good alarm sounders
and whenever they
get excited it is always worthwhile seeing what is coming down to the
water.
Hope to see you soon with us in the Bush!
Warm regards
Gordon, Sue and everyone at Bush House
Hello Everyone
What a wonderful couple of months these have been. The lush green bush has yet again made sure that we are not left disappointed. We had surprises around every corner in all shapes and sizes.
Starting with my favorite, the lions. What a lion spree it has been with a lion sighting guaranteed almost every drive. The ones that especially stood out was the pride known as the “Mika pride”. The pride is 11 lions strong and 13 when the pride males are around. We have spent quite a bit of time with these lions and saw them doing a variety of things, from the youngsters playing, attempting to make a kill ,feeding on a fresh kill all the way to doing what lions do best, sleeping and lazing around.
The males of this pride have also been seen often on their territorial patrols. They are two very strong lions in the prime of their life with a HUGE territory that requires regular marking. We had spend many mornings following these guys as they go about their business of scent marking and the usual territorial roars which I am sure confirms to anyone why they are the king of the bush.
Once again we have got five new additions to our lion population. As the lionesses tend to hide these cubs for the first couple of weeks, they have not been seen too regularly, but once again we were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and got our share of those energetic young ones.
Talking about energetic young ones, we had a very playful White Rhino calf that provided for lots of laughter when he decided that the game viewer was his friend and playfully hopped and jumped around the vehicle.
The rare wild dogs have also been spending a lot of time in the West and we got to see them often. They also made two kills in one day at the lodge, one right by the eastern access and another at the ever popular waterhole of the lodge.
Leopard sighting as always was a rare thing, but what a pleasure it was to find a leopard in a tree with a wildebeest kill. Just like we all imagine seeing a leopard in the wild.
Over the last couple of months we had quite a few enthusiastic birders visiting the lodge. That made for some interesting discoveries and even a couple of new birds for our checklist.
As always the gentle giants provided us with lots of entertainment at the waterhole and on drive. We were surrounded by breeding herds of elephant on many drives but strangely enough we never had any real problems. Usually our breeding herds tend to be aggressive, but fortunately we did not get a lot of that, and I think we all started to realize why they are called gentle giants.
With our summer temperatures rising to the high thirties, the animals needed a lot of water and as usual our water sources delivered their share of sightings. Especially the big herds of buffalo going for a drink at Tlou Dam.
Our
well known Black Rhino bull “Hansa” have also
came round to our waterhole for a drink and spend quite a few days
resting under the bushes in front of the lodge.
Black Rhinos are usually solitary creatures, but we were pleasantly
surprised to see this guy with another female and her calf in the area.
They have gone back to their usual solitary self, but the female with
her calf seems to have set up territory here and have proudly shown
off her calf at the waterhole for us.
That’s it from my side. Hope you all will have many more pleasant visits to this very special place.
Stefan
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