Author: Focus Online Dev

Hi there to all of you again,

It is the end of January and all our New Years resolutions have already turned into a distant memory! We have all started indulging in all that is healthy as well as ‘not so healthy’ with a vengeance again. With cuisine being one of our most important features at Tuningi, we have been lucky enough to find another super talented chef to join our ranks. As foodies, we are obliged to try more interesting, different and deliciously modern recipes all the time and those of us with more adventurous palettes are having a ball trying out all of these new flavours. We are, as always, cooking true South African cuisine in its most exquisite form.

During the month of January we have had more than half of our yearly expected rainfall. 263 ml to be precise! This has brought out some strange and wonderfully surprising plants and fungus pushing through the drenched earth. The most wonderful find for this month, however, is definitely the gigantic Batswana mushroom. This mushroom only occurs after extremely heavy rainfall and grows in termite mounds. It is non poisonous and tastes absolutely fabulous fried in garlic butter and a little bit of cream. Although we have started hoping to see the sun after a whole week of rain, we would also have loved to find a couple more of these incredible specimens to fry up!

Luckily, the Tuningi experience is not just about being in the luxury of the lodge surroundings all day and floating from one meal to the next. Adventure awaits on the two game drives our guests get spoilt with every day. As you have already noticed, the rainy season is known for its abundance and babies are being born left, right and centre. We found the most adorable black rhino baby with its mother the other day, and as they have been on the ‘most endangered’ list for years, this is especially exciting to see.

We also found a proud white rhino showing off her new baby at Boscia pan. Just too adorable! For those of you that have not been educated by our highly knowledgeable guides, yet: The white and black rhino are both grey in color. The difference is that the white rhino has a wide mouth and the black rhino has a pointed, curly upper lip. The white rhino is a grazer who eats grass with its flat lips and the black rhino prefer to eat leaves from trees with its curly upper lip. The white rhino’s baby usually runs in front of her mother when in danger, while the black rhino’s baby usually follows behind.

The high rainfall caused much excitement amongst the elephant babies. The dams are all full to the brim, and elephants just love to play in the water. We have been lucky enough to watch the babies play for hours at a time. They literally play with each other like naughty children and you can clearly see the excitement on their cute faces as they splash around and push each other in and out of the water.

Last, but not the least! Last week, as we came around a corner, we stumbled upon a huge fight between two of our lion prides in Madikwe. When the reserve was established hundreds of antelope and other plains game was first introduced. Once we were sure that there was enough food for the predators to catch and eat, we introduced 11 lions in 1995. In 1997 one more was introduced and nowadays we have around 55 healthy lions. These lions move around in family prides and all have certain territories they defend. These territories however, sometimes slightly overlap and at other times, the prides take chances to enter the enemy grounds when they smell a kill and think that they can maybe get lucky and score a bite or two. This is exactly what we think happened when the Mica pride of six, and the Dipelo pride of four met right in front of our eyes. The two oldest females of each pride took each other on in an awesome display of power. The bulging muscles and the deep growling sounds stunned us all into silence. After what felt like an hour, but was actually only a few minutes, the two groups decided to rather run off in opposite directions than sustain unnecessary injuries that can maybe prevent them from hunting successfully in the future. Needless to say, the adventure was relived in detail that night around the boma fire back in the safety of the lodge!

Well, with Christmas and New Year behind us, for those of us that still require a special event to move us to adventure, there is Valentines Day and Easter around the corner! For the rest of you, simply check your diary, choose a week to take some time off to spoil yourself and your family, pick up the phone, and make that booking!

We just can’t wait to see you again!

With kindest regards
The T-team.

For enquiries please contact :

Festive greetings to all of you!

We hope that you had a fabulous Christmas day and a fun filled New Years party and a wonderful holiday spent with all your loved ones!

We at Tuningi had a very busy and most exciting month. We were fully booked with mostly families and lots of children everywhere. Great friendships were formed and we are sure most of the guests and their kids are going to keep in contact with all the other people from all over the world that they have met here at the lodge.

We went out of our way to educate and stimulate our younger guests, as usual. Kiddies drives were the order of the day with feather collecting, identifying of tracks, dung spitting competitions, finding eggs in nests and lots more…..

Back at the lodge we were creating works of art out of play dough, reading books, building puzzles, painting t-shirts and swimming in the pool for hours.

The grown-ups, on the other hand, had just as much fun on game drives as well as back at the lodge.

A couple of masked weavers chose the trees with overhanging branches next to the main lodge swimming pool as the ideal spot for their nesting frenzy. We were entertained for hours by the weavers that were all frantically busy building nests for their fussy wives in time to lay their precious eggs. It was a hive of activity all day long as these guys were flying up and down collecting building material and then bringing it back and skillfully weaving a home for their offspring. After securing the initial attachment to a suitable branch, the weaver builds the ring- the foundation of the nest. Next, the roof is woven over the top ring, followed by the bulbous egg chamber. The ante-chamber, which serves as the foyer of the home, and the entrance to the nest are then completed, followed by the entrance tunnel. Once the female has critically inspected the male’s handiwork, she either gives her approval or tears down the nest and makes him start all over again!! If approved, she then adds the finishing touches by providing a layer of soft, thick lining to the egg chamber. Lying in the sun next to the swimming pool watching the birds work so hard is truly a humbling experience.

You can see how the young bird’s first attempts at nest building is a little bit more unskilled than the others and then how they become more skilled in choosing the right materials and perfecting their weaving technique. The more the female breaks down the nest, the better these males become in their weaving and knot tying abilities. Practice makes perfect!

Out there in the bush, babies rule. The babies Impalas finally dropped in the first week of December and are just the most gorgeous creatures on earth. Baby zebras, wildebeest and hartebeest can also to be seen all over the place. The predators are all in perfect condition as they can catch these little babies easily for a little snack whenever they feel like it. New born baby Impalas are even small enough for birds of prey to catch and eat!

Lots of interesting things happened out in the bush this month.
Firstly a huge white rhino was trampled to death by a very aggressive elephant bull in musk. The elephant did not feel like sharing his watering spot at Tlau dam with the rhino and a deathly fight erupted. Tshaba, the lioness and her offspring found the dead rhino first and obviously could not believe their luck in finding so much meat without having to kill it themselves. They feasted on the enormous carcass for days and then made way for all the other scavengers to finish off the job and get rid of the awful smell.

The two Bartia brothers, who are the oldest and biggest lions in the park also surprised us with their enormous display of strength. We were all beginning to worry about their hunting skills as they are really getting old now with the hair falling out and not having all their teeth intact anymore, but they showed us exactly what they are all about by bringing down a huge zebra on their own, and carrying it around as if it did not weigh in at at least 250kg!

Unfortunately we have some bad news as well.
The two wild dog packs in the reserve that were doing so well, finally bumped into each other this month and as instinct got the better of them they had to fight for their territory and genes, resulting in four mortalities. Two dogs of each pack were viciously killed leaving us with a pack of six and one of sixteen at the moment. Luckily it is almost denning season for the wild dog so we are hoping for lots and lots of healthy babies in a couple of months!

Wow….. Although we do not always understand it, Nature can be very cruel but fortunately always gets the balance right in the end.

Best to book your holiday at Tuningi soon if you want to come and share in the season of plenty. It truly is a special place.

Until next month.
Hope to see you soon.
Kindest regards
The T-team.

For enquiries please contact :

Warmest greetings to all of you once again,

We can not believe that it is already time to start scratching around for Christmas decorations. The up side of this is that most people are going on holiday shortly! We can not wait to see those of you whom are coming here to Tuningi. You are definitely going to experience the holiday of a lifetime.

Well, next month we will be telling you all about the December holiday season, but for now more about what happens here at Tuningi in the month of November.

It occurred to us that every seemingly insignificant little bush, shrub and weed have turned into beautiful works of art. They have all suddenly come into bloom and are donning the most beautiful summer colors after the good rains we have had. To further enhance the beauty of it all, gorgeous moths, butterflies and insects are fluttering around the flowers in a frenzy all day long. If you take the time to stop in the middle of the bush this time of the year to sit quietly and look around you, you will discover this most beautiful display of colour. Sometimes, it is possible to count more than six different little flowers in just one spot!

Talking about flowers…. This month we had the privilege of hosting a real live flower straight from Hollywood. The famous movie star, Kate Hudson came to the Reserve to star in a shampoo advert. She is a true, natural beauty. Although it was very hard work to get the crew, the stars and the animals ( wild, as well as tame) all to work together and be at the correct spots at the correct times, we all had lots of fun and are sure that it was highly successful.

Because of the abundance in food and water at the moment, the animals in the reserve are all in mint condition. All the antelope seem to be fat and healthy and their coats shine in the summer sun. Temperatures are rising in the middle of the day and this time of the year you would find the most unusual gathering of animals in the shade of the big trees, all trying to escape the heat. A huge bull elephant could be standing quietly taking a nap under the same tree as a couple of warthogs scratching around for a midday snack. A little bit higher up, a couple of monkeys could be sitting peacefully getting rid of each others fleas, while some squirrels could be running up and down the tree trunk going about their business. The Lodge inhabitants will of course all be lying around the pool soaking up the sun rays at this time of the year.

Last week we had a close encounter with exactly one such huge male elephant at the Lodge boma. This elephant had just broken his tusk in a fight with another male. The blood was pouring from the base of his tusk and he was obviously in severe pain. He kept scratching the painful side of his face on our boma railing, and in so doing left a blood trail and damaged some of the wood work. Elephants at around the age of thirty become dominant males through years of battling with other males for the right to spread their genes. Only the strongest males will be able to sire young. They often break tusks in these vigorous fights but luckily tend to learn quickly how to get on through life with only one and a half a tusk or sometimes just one tusk.

Game drives are extremely exciting at the moment as they often drive straight into a spectacular thunder storm. The raincoats are always handy and after the storm the guides get to show off their 4 x 4 driving skills. While skidding around in the mud, you may bump into some of the big cats. They do not enjoy this wet time of the year and tend to keep to the open roads until the shrubs have dried out again. These thunder clouds create the most awesome photo opportunities and often keep our guests clicking away for hours.

As usual, lots of wonderful children came to visit again. All of us at Tuningi thoroughly enjoy the company of kids. Although we go all out to teach them about conservation and bush ethics, they usually are extremely perceptive and often we are the ones who learn from them! Their untainted, carefree and innocent honesty brightens up the Lodge and many a game drive.

As you know by now, absolutely everybody is welcome at Tuningi. We love to host the romantically inclined honeymoon couples, the avid birders, the tired city slickers, the adventurous children, the exciting family gatherings and all other possible holiday makers from all over the world! Remember to keep us in mind when you start planning your next holiday. We want to show you true hospitality!

We really hope that you will have a wonderful festive season and that we will see you again in the near future.

Kindest regards
The gracious T-team

For enquiries please contact :

Hallo again!

As all of you, who have been to Tuningi Safari Lodge will agree, we pride ourselves on the fact that we offer, not only some of the best game viewing opportunities in the world, but also exclusive fine dining, some of the most sought after wines available in our country, friendly service all round and most of all, homely comfort in five star surroundings.

Tuningi has officially turned three last month.
As a birthday present we received a GOLD award from the ‘Diners Club Wine list of the Year’ competition. We obviously feel extremely proud, as it was the first time we entered this competition. We were not only judged on the wines we keep. Points were given for the range of wine prices, the wine in harmony with the style of the food we serve, the choice of varietals (red, white, sparkling, dessert, sherry, port, brandy etc.)the districts in South Africa represented and even the standard of the glasses we serve it in. Remember to try some new names on the wine list on your next visit instead of just opting for the house wine! We have carefully selected each one for your enjoyment.

Out in the bush, it is still extremely dry. Although we are expecting Spring, we have not seen too many new shoots on the trees yet. Last year we had two thunderstorms early in September to settle the dust and boost new life in the plants. We have not had any signs of rain to date but have seen on the weather forecast that there is a good possibility of rain for the first week in October! We are all holding our breath, as this will change the reserve instantly into a brand new world.

Directly after the first thunder storm, green shoots will be seen every where, trees will start blossoming ,new grass will push through the sand, insects will start buzzing around in a frenzy and the migratory birds that left at the beginning of Winter will start making their way back home to Madikwe. It is truly a remarkable time of the year and a privilege to be able to see how thankfully the bush can transform itself from an arid dry land to a lush bush oasis in a matter of a few days after just a little bit of rain.

September 2007 will be remembered as the month of the wild dog.
We finally got a quick glimpse of the TEN new wild dog puppies we have been telling you about! Their mother is finding ways and places to hide them and keep them safe. They are now four months old and obviously on the most wanted list of sightings for every game drive going out into the bush. The mother has unfortunately decided to keep them out of sight for as long as humanly, or rather, doggedly possible. She keeps moving her den into thickets and rocky mountain areas where no vehicle ever ventures. The only reason why we got to see them was because she felt the need to move her den and someone happened to stumble across them at exactly the right moment. The rest of the pack have been hunting all over the place and providing for their extended family. They all eat their full on a kill and then run back to the doting mother to regurgitate some meat for her and the pups to eat.

Now that it is confirmed that they are all still well and alive, Madikwe as a Reserve is proud to announce that it continues to be a successful and viable habitat for the highly endangered African wild dog. The total wild dog population in Africa is only between 3000 and 5000. We are sure to see much more of them from now on as they will soon start accompanying their mother and the rest of the pack on the hunt.

On the other side of the Reserve we have been keeping three grown male dogs called Star, Scarface and Tattoo in a confined area for a while. We brought them to Madikwe from Venetia Game Reserve a while ago with the plan to form a new pack with brand new genes in Madikwe. Years ago when space was still taken for granted and the African plains stretched over thousands of hectares, dogs like these would have run for hundreds of kilometers to find different females of different packs with fresh genes to mate with. Unfortunately, in this day and age, all Game Reserves have to be fenced in to keep the animals safe.

After a long and hard search for some females to join these boys, we found five sisters in Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape. One, of two and a half years, and her four younger sisters. It is an extremely costly project to move animals around but luckily the owners of Tuningi together with Federal Air offered to sponsor the project. In the beginning of the month, the girls were flown over 1400km from the verdant bush of their birthplace to their new home in Madikwe. They were placed in the same enclosure as our excited three males but were still separated by a fence. For a week the girls and boys were fed on each side of the fence in order to make contact and get to know each other and then the fence between them was lifted and to all the onlooker’s great delight the lot made friends instantly.

They will remain in the boma for another month to enable them to form a real pack with the correct behaviour and will then be set free to roam the plains of Madikwe. How awesome !! Ironically, as these dogs are starting a new era in Madikwe we are reminded of a sad event that took place exactly two years ago in September. We had to stand by and watch how lions killed the old alpha male (14 years old) of the then, 19 strong Madikwe pack, as he got stuck in the mud at Tlou dam. He was trying to assist one of the other dogs who got stuck in the mud earlier while trying to get hold of a piece of a lion’s abandoned kill. Unfortunately, the lion returned and killed both of them! What a great loss and a firm reminder of the harshness of life in the bush.

Luckily our new dogs came from game reserves where lions were ever present. They will know how to watch their step, and not to take any unnecessary chances once they are out there in the wild again. Soon we will have the Dwarsberg pack of 18 dogs as well as the Shamwari pack of 8 running around freely, turning every sighting of them into a great occasion.

If you go on to our Tuningi website at Newsletter Archives you can go back into the archives of our newsletters and catch up on all the exciting events that have taken place here at Tuningi in the past.

It is time to say goodbye again.
From the warm heart of Madikwe we greet you in anticipation, waiting for the first drop of rain in the dusty road……
Will surely keep you posted!
Until next month
The friendly T-team

For enquiries please contact :

reservations@madikwecollection.com

Greetings to all of you once again!

As usual we are standing in awe of nature and the greatness of it all.

During the windy, dry month of August all at Tuningi had the privilege to observe the behavioural changes in the animals of Madikwe in their great struggle for survival. As the months go by and the condition of the bush deteriorates, every animal has to work out its own way of dealing with hunger and the scarcity of water.

Some animals like the Kudu who usually eats only leaves can, all of a sudden, be seen eating grass. Elephants have been pushing the trees down to get to the nice juicy bits of roots just under the ground. The Impala on the other hand, out of the blue, eats leaves instead of grass. The baboons have to rely on protein like insects and birds instead of the fruits, berries and flowers they are used to eating.

The predators, on the other hand, are giving birth to their young all over the place. The reason being that the animals they usually prey on, are out of condition and don’t have as much energy as usual. This obviously makes the hunt easier and gives the mothers a great opportunity to feed their young as much as possible to make them strong and healthy.

Tshaba, the beautiful, strong, new mother lioness, has been showing-off her three, healthy looking cubs on a regular basis. They are all in mint condition and it is clear that they have more than enough to eat at the moment.

The pack of eight wild dogs has all of a sudden changed to the pack of eighteen wild dogs as one of the females had TEN healthy puppies. Unfortunately, we do not have a photo for you yet, but will show you some pictures next month. She is an extremely good mother and keeps them in hiding all the time. The rest of the clan is hunting a lot and taking the food back to her and the pups so that they keep healthy and strong. The pups have been seen twice, so far.

The other day we were sitting at Tau dam when seven of the wild dogs all of a sudden appeared, chasing a female kudu. The kudu decided to run into the water to get away from the dogs, but as we all know, nothing chased by wild dogs, ever escapes death. The dogs promptly killed the kudu right in the water and munched away happily until some elephants got thirsty and made their way to the water.

This caused havoc as elephants never like to share their drinking spot with anybody. They chased off the dogs that had to wait patiently for them to quench their thirst, before they could return to their feast. When they had their fill, they most probably each took a few bites back to the den where the new mother was waiting.

We have also found a brown hyena den with three of the cutest looking little babies you have ever seen. Brown hyenas are dark, shaggy looking creatures looking almost like a German Shepard dog. They live south of the Zambesi River in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Southern Angola. They have been exterminated in South Africa except for the northernmost Northern West Province (where we are located) and the Northern Cape provinces. With them being so rare, we are always extremely grateful when we see them breeding successfully like this. We estimate that we have between 10 and 20 brown hyenas in Madikwe.

August brought more excitement in the way of us getting invited by Parksboard to bring our guests along one evening while they were branding some lions. We all got the opportunity to see how the lions were darted, fell asleep, got branded with a hot iron, measured and examined and finally woke up in a horrible state of grumpiness. Even the children could get out of the vehicles, once the lions were unconscious, to go up and touch them and really inspect them from close up. This was a most memorable evening and we are so happy that the lodges and the parks officials have such a good relationship so that we can all share in these adventures. The branding of the lions helps us and all the rangers to keep track of which lion is which and who is mating with whom, etc.

And finally…… As always we had the opportunity to meet wonderful people like you who arrived as strangers, but left as friends. We also got to know and love so many of your children and hope that we have left a little footprint of the bush in their hearts which will urge them to conserve nature when they grow up and make them want to came and visit us here at Tuningi, every year from now on!!!

We are looking forward to next month which will hopefully bring Spring.

Hope to see you all again soon!
Kindest regards
The T-team

For enquiries please contact :

reservations@madikwecollection.com

Hallo again,
Before we could blink an eyelid, another month has passed in this amazing part of the world!

Although it is still winter and quite cold on game drives, the days are beautiful and sunny and call for midday snoozes on the swimming pool loungers, overlooking the lodge’s water hole. More and more animals are visiting our water hole at the lodge as the bush is getting dryer.

We are really privileged to have a group of giraffe on our door step almost every day. It is just wonderful to watch them coming for a drink. As you all know, owing to the anatomical design of their bodies, giraffe have to splay their legs in order to reach the water. They feel very vulnerable as they know they are putting themselves in danger when they are in such a strange position to drink. Giraffes have large, powerful hearts (up to 12 kg) that are needed to pump blood through their large bodies, especially, against the force of gravity up to the brain. A selection of valves prevents sudden pressure changes and damage to organs- particularly the brain. A special pressure-reducing mechanism prevents brain damage when the head is lowered. The skin and muscle of the lower legs also fits tightly around the leg bone to keep the pressure high and force the blood up against gravity – much like a pilot’s G- suit. Is Nature not AMAZING?

As soon as every one has had a drink and all are back in their usual upright position, they have a good look around to see if all is safe, and then move off carefully.

On the subject of giraffe….. our rangers again showed our guests the most awesome sightings this month. The most exciting show was again put on by Ditaba and Sipedi, the two huge male lions we keep telling you about. They managed to pull down an enormous giraffe quite close to our lodge. With them being so close by, we could go for an extra look around late in the evenings, after dinner, and watch the night action as well.

As the giraffe is such a large kill we could share in the whole cycle of events for almost six days! Firstly, the two big lions let Etali, (the female with the three one year old cubs) join in the feast. A day later, the two younger males, called the Naledi’s, discovered the kill and swiftly chased Etali and the cubs out of the area so that they could have a turn. The next day a brown hyena could not contain himself any longer and made a fatal mistake. He came a little bit to close to the lions that could not believe the audacity of the intruder and killed him with one bite to the back, which broke his spine. They just left him there next to the giraffe carcass and continued their feast.

On the sixth day, they could not fit another piece of meat into their bulging bellies and moved off. A clan of spotted hyenas immediately moved in and with the help of jackals and vultures finished off the rest of the giraffe as well as the dead brown hyena. It was almost like watching a motion picture!

More fantastic news is that we have found another lioness with three tiny little cubs of more or less two months old! We call her the Tshaba female. She is a very good hunter and we believe that she will be a very successful mother like Etali. We will keep you up to date and show you photo’s as they grow up.
Better still……Why don’t you come and visit and see them with your own eyes?

Make that booking now, and come and share in the adventure at Tuningi Safari Lodge. Remember to bring your kids along, because no school in the world can teach them the things they will experience here with us.

Until next month
Keep well
The T-team

For enquiries please contact :

reservations@madikwecollection.com

Warm greetings to you once again!

We were extremely honored this month to welcome back some of our favorite guests for the second time. They all agreed that they came back to Tuningi to be pampered, to surround themselves with the peacefulness of it all, to forget about the real world for a while and just to be….

Zoya, who was three when she came to visit in February for the first time, and has turned four, since, of course came to play and learn more about the wonderful animals in the bush. She is definitely our most beloved guest who never misses a game drive and behaves like an angel all the time! She has already promised to return for the third time in November.

As you all know, we are now right in the middle of the coldest season of the year and we are not trying to hide the fact that we are shivering with cold on the game drives every day. This, however, is NO reason to stay behind, as this time of the year fortunately also guarantees the best game viewing ever. So, no matter how tempting it is in the early mornings to turn around in bed and have a good old sleep-in, there is just too much going on out there to miss.

Although, game viewing in Madikwe is very impressive all year round, this time of the year is especially good. Almost every guest visiting Tuningi in June has seen the magnificent seven. This does not only mean that they saw lion, leopard, buffalo, white rhino and elephant, but that most of them also got to see the black rhino, cheetah, and wild dogs!! On top of this, they also came home bragging about brown hyena, spotted hyena and caracal.

To most of our friends visiting Africa for the first time, the beautiful zebra, hartebeest, eland, gemsbok, giraffe, kudu, sable, impala and wildebeest were just as impressive. Even the warthogs, monkeys, bush babies, rabbits and mongoose were cause for much excitement.

Back at the lodge, we have lots and lots of special ways to warm up the shivering musketeers on return from their endeavors in the bush. For starters, the wood burning fires are now constantly roaring in the fire places in the main lodge.

We have also stocked up on the best South African red wines currently available. We serve pots and pots of hot chocolate all day long and have also acquired a fabulous new coffee machine for freshly brewed, steaming hot cappuccinos. After dinner, you will find your fire crackling in your bedroom and a hot water bottle sneaked in to your bed, in the real colonial, old fashioned way, because as you already know, we make it our mission to spoil you rotten during your stay in Tuningi!

We have been privileged to have hundreds of elephants visiting our water hole on almost a daily basis.

It is just wonderful to sit and have lunch while literally being surrounded by elephants. These huge giants look almost harmless when they slowly make their way past the lodge to go for a drink and a leisurely mud bath.

Our guests have sent us beautiful photos of this month’s best sightings.
Steve Ornberg and Greg Ginold sent us this awesome leopard they saw in a tree, and also a photo of Itali’s three cubs munching away on a baby zebra.
If you look back to March’s newsletter you will see how tiny these three cubs were a year ago when we first saw them!!

More good news from the bush is that it is now confirmed that the wild dogs are denning. This means that one of the females now has had anything between 6 and 16 puppies. We will still have to wait patiently for two months to get a glimpse of them, as the puppies only start following the adults around from three months old.

Do not fear! We will definitely keep you posted.

Please phone South Africa – +27 11 315 6194 right now and make your appointment with adventure, true luxury and homely comfort, all at the same time.

See you soon.
Kind regards
The T-team

For enquiries please contact :

reservations@madikwecollection.com