Category: Ranger’s Journal

 

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

A slightly chilly hello to all of you out there in the big cities of the world.

A few days ago I walked out of my front door and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves with each step that I took. The noises of this season are different from all the others, and it sounds, no matter how hushed, as crisp as the autumn air!! With the unusually late rains we had this year, it was still green and ‘Summary’ in the bush until just the other day, but then a tremendous cold spell hit our country and turned the whole landscape into an autumn splendor.

Everywhere you look crunchy, yellow, red and brown leaves are falling to the ground and the grasslands have turned into golden fields. The cold spell has passed for now, but we are taking the scarves and beanies and blankets out of their hiding places to be on stand by for next month when Winter will be here in full swing. This is the perfect time to come and visit us, as this is the time of year we sit around the cozy, wood fireplaces in the lodge, sipping gluwein or sherry; waiting to taste the mouthwatering pots of slow cooked, comfort food that the chefs have prepared.

This time of the year, game viewing is also at its best. The bush is thinning out, and thus enables us to spot the wild life much more easily. the animals have to constantly visit the water holes of the park to quench their thirst so the viewing at waterholes is brilliant. The best thing to do in the winter months is to put on your beanie, scarf and woolen socks, wrap yourself in a nice thick blanket and sit quietly in the hide at the water hole and watch Nature’s drama unfold in front of your very own eyes…..

We are once again extremely aware of the role this game reserve is playing in helping to conserve countless animal and plant species that could well have been extinct by now. By planning and managing the Madikwe game reserve on a sound ecological basis, there is no doubt in our minds that we form part of an indispensable corner stone of southern African conservation. Our black rhino are doing so well, that we have already had to start swapping some of them with other reserve’s rhinos in order to diversify the gene pool. One of our wild dogs is highly pregnant and looking for a den as we speak. She can produce up to 14 pups if we are lucky! Even the tsessebe, which are officially as endangered as the black rhino, sable and the wild dog, are reproducing rapidly. The best news is that we have counted more than 350 disease free (TB free) buffalo in our recent head count.After only introducing 66 of them ten years ago!

Buffalo used to be found throughout Africa, from Cape to Cairo, but as a result of habitat loss to domestic stocks and hunting they are now confined to formal game reserves. With the spread of the debilitating bacterial disease, Tuberculosis, as well as foot and mouth disease over the past twenty years, buffalo populations have been further decimated. In Kruger Park alone, some 50% buffalo are affected with TB. Effective vaccines and adequate preventative measures are still being tested and developed but in the meantime hoards of buffalo are spreading the disease at a rapid rate and once infected they can live for years with few symptoms or may die within weeks or months. Here in Madikwe our buffalo are all clean of disease and when we have enough animals we can help to re-populate some of our country’s other reserves with healthy animals, thus going some way to re-balancing nature. What a privilege to be able to play a small part in conserving our heritage.

May is also the month that everybody in the travel industry trek down to Durban for the huge, yearly South African Travel Indaba. It is here, amongst 12 000 other delegates that you realize once again, just how many destinations, just like your own lodge, there are in Africa. This is why we have to re-confirm that : THE PEOPLE MAKETH THE PLACE!!!

If it was not for the enthusiasm, knowledge and total dedication of our game rangers, the passion of our chefs, the eye for detail of our housekeepers, the alertness and warm personalities of our waiters, the super service of our barman, the knack for preventative maintenance of the maintenance men and the skills of the management team to keep everybody positive and proud of their lodge, Tuningi could well have been just another destination. We, however, refuse to become part of the crowds.

Please come and visit us during the next couple of winter months and come and bask in the warmth of Tuningi Safari Lodge!

Till the next time
Kind regards
The T-team

For enquiries please contact :

reservations@madikwecollection.com

Warmest greetings to all of you once again!

We just could not wait another minute to bring you the GOOD news!
Those clouds that were teasing us last month, finally burst open and rain poured to the ground in buckets full! How incredibly thankful we all are. In a matter of three days we had three thunder storms that brought almost 40 ml of rain. One week later, we were blessed with another amazing 16 ml. Although this was not nearly enough to fill the dams and water holes, it has changed Madikwe Game Reserve from dry, yellow aridness in March, to lush, green dust free beauty, once again!

We are not worried about the dams so much, as all of them have borehole pumps that can keep up the water levels sufficiently through the dry winter months. If the grass and trees stay as dry as they already were last month, the animals would not have had enough food to carry them through until November. But thanks to this rain the future seems brighter.

In fact, we are looking forward to a wonderful winter period. We can already feel the crispness in the air on the early morning drives. It is also clear that autumn has arrived by the sudden absence of all the migratory birds. It is amazing how you wake up on a certain day and suddenly realize that there is not a single Bee eater, European swallow, Red backed shrike or even a Diederick cuckoo to be seen. This is when you once again stand in awe of the greatness of it all. Just to think that a little bird knows the calendar better than you; a clever human being….

We had a fabulous Easter weekend at Tuningi, full of families with lots of kids. This called for exciting Easter egg hunts, very creative egg painting competitions, and needless to say, a complete overindulgence in chocolate of any shape or size!

On the game viewing front, we can easily call April the month of the lion and wild dog.

We have been seeing lions of all shapes and sizes on a daily basis, and sometimes guests were able to count six or seven different groups or prides seen during their three or four day stay at the lodge.

This morning, for example, we went to see Ditaba and Sipedi (the two huge, resident males) in the early hours of the morning. From there we proceeded to bump into the Mica pride busy stalking a wildebeest. (This pride consists of an adult female, three young males and two young females). To our great surprise, a female leopard suddenly appeared from the bushes next to us and also started stalking the wildebeest. Needless to say, the wildebeest got totally spooked by the smell of two different predators on its tail and ran off in a great cloud of dust. And then the leopard realized there was a big pride of lion lurking around far too close for comfort and also disappeared in a great hurry.

The lion were still on a mission to catch something and not ten minutes later, we found them around the corner busy devouring a Hartebeest. This is not much food for six lions and we saw how quickly they finished their kill! In fact it took them less than an hour.

Then as we were off to see the wild dogs another ranger called to say that we must come and see the Etali female and her three cubs if we had time. What ‘lion luck’ we have been having!

Everything seems to be against Africa’s wild dogs as they struggle to survive the antipathy of man; the loss of their habitat and heavy reductions in the numbers of their natural prey; their never-ending conflict with powerful hyena clans and prides of lion and the ravages of a variety of epidemic diseases. Madikwe is renowned for the success of the breeding programs and we are fortunate to have amazing sightings of them.

Wild dogs have been typecast by man as cruel, wanton killers. In many parts of Africa they are still poisoned and shot by farmers who view them as a menace to livestock. These prejudices conceal much that is to be admired about these gorgeous animals. Members of a pack help in rearing puppies, cooperate in hunting, share food, defend their kills from hyenas and rally to the aid of a relative attacked by a lion.
They are gifted with extraordinary staying powers and once on the track of an animal its living hours are few. Although their methods of feeding on a animal before it is dead are cruel in the extreme, it is an experience of a life time and definitely an indelible one, to see this happen in front of your own eyes.

We really hope that you will come and visit us soon and promise to share with you all of these wonderful experiences we keep telling you about in our newsletters. Why don’t you try and break free from your normal routine and come and soar with the eagles here at Tuningi.

Phone our bookings office right now, and book your holiday of a life time.
We can’t wait to see you!

Till the next time
Kind regards
The T-team

For enquiries please contact :

reservations@madikwecollection.com

Hello again to all of you!

We hope that all of you are getting ready for the Easter holidays and that most of you are planning to spend it in the lovely Madikwe. We also hope that some of you are coming to visit us here in Tuningi, in particular. It is a real honour for us to entertain return guests over and over again, or to hear that people have come to visit us on recommendation by their friends or family.

We still have not had any rain, but have not lost hope yet, as the clouds have been building up over the last couple of days every afternoon. This might just result in a nice thunderstorm that can fill the dams and waterholes to see us through winter.With the bush this dry already, the game viewing has been quite spectacular over the last month. The grass is very short for this time of the year and the animals congregate around the water holes as there is still more green grass and foliage around the wet areas.

We know very well that, even if we offer the guest the best ever accommodation, food and service, the game lodge experience is not complete if the game viewing is not up to standard. For this reason we employ rangers that are not only acute observers and communicators, but also true naturalists with a passion for the living world. Guests at Tuningi are afforded the opportunity to share in their intimate wisdom and understanding of nature.

In March, our rangers showed our privileged guests a great time as usual.

The elusive black rhino was seen at Inkwe pan often. As they are still on the endangered species list, it is always most exciting to see them.

Last year in July, one of the female lions had three beautiful lion cubs, which we saw all the time. We were very worried about them, as lion cubs often get killed by other lions, hyenas or wild dogs, but we are relieved to report, that she has been a great mother so far and that we still have the privilege to bump into them every now and then.

Although there is not a lot of water in the pans and dams at the moment, the elephants still entertain us on game drives with their extravagant bath displays. You can watch for hours as they play with each other and roll around in the mud. Some of the dams are fed by boreholes, and the elephants know exactly where the fresh water runs from the pipe. The older bulls insist on drinking only the pure water from the pipe, which causes a lot of drama, pushing, shoving and noise. Great game viewing!

A leopard sighting is always unbelievably exhilarating.

Leopards are widespread throughout South Africa , and the only large cats able to survive outside protected areas. Being solitary and primarily nocturnal ( and able to subsist on small prey) they can go about their life mostly undetected in comparison to lion who are group living and in need of large prey, or cheetah, who are diurnal (active during the day).

An estimated 15 to 30 leopards were enclosed within the boundary of Madikwe Game Reserve when it was established in 1991. It takes a lot of luck, skill, and patience to track a leopard, but sometimes we just happen to be at the right place at the right time. These are moments never to be forgotten. Every time a leopard is spotted in the reserve, excitement grows, because the more these skittish cats get exposed to the game vehicles, the more relaxed they will become around them. This will result in them becoming more confident around vehicles and less likely to shy away from them.

This month we had an awesome sighting of a leopard with her three cubs at Chlou dam. This happened while we were parked on the dam wall, watching, elephant, buffalo and rhino. You must think that this is too good to be true, but it was just one of those fantastic moments in our lives!

We also often see a beautiful leopard, hiding in the rocks in the Inselbergs. It takes a practiced eye to spot him, though.

We received a fantastic gift from our dear friend Hilary Wylie this month. She bought Tuningi a surveillance camera to put up at our water hole. This camera now sends the images of what is happening at the water hole to a TV screen in the bar. For the first time we are now able to see who has visited us while we were not looking. We can also keep an eye on the water hole at any time while we are in the bar area and alert the guests to go and see the action first hand. This is extremely exciting, for the elusive leopard usually comes to drink when nobody is watching.

The game drives are definitely not just about chasing after the big and dangerous stuff! Our guides will teach you about termites and butterflies and squirrels and stars and moths and birds and grass and trees and, and, and….

They will also show you the most unforgettable African sunsets in the world!

Well, we can carry on for ever, but will rather chat to you again after the Easter holidays. Happy egg hunting, and all of the best to you!

Kindest regards

The T-team

For enquiries please contact :

reservations@madikwecollection.com

Warm greetings to you all once again from a scorching hot month in Madikwe.

We have had a wonderful, busy month at the lodge and once again feel incredibly privileged to have been in the position to meet so many fabulous people.

As usual we had a lot of children visiting us, and as you all know by now, we make it our business to educate them about Nature and all the small things bright and beautiful out there. For those , too small to sit through the long hours of a game drive, we have made a special ‘play room’ full of interesting things to play with. Those on game drives get very special treatment from the rangers who all adore children, stopping and giving attention to even the smallest creatures in the veld, like dung beetles, tortoises, guinea fowl and dragon flies. The little ones get to go on there own short drives to Inkwe pan and back, gathering feathers, dung, rocks and other things to use for our treasure hunts.

Come meal times, we organize special Boma barbeques for the kids and teach them to bake bread on sticks over the fire. We also have pizza making, story telling and star gazing evenings. While all this is happens, mom and dad can have a romantic dinner on their deck and really experience the romance of the African Bush.

The greatest excitement of this month was caused by the two huge lion brothers, Ditaba and Sipedi, who killed an enormous Eland bull, almost on the lodge’s door step.

How privileged we were to be able to see the whole process of how Nature works. It is truly mind blowing to even imagine how much strength it must take for a lion of about 180kg, to pull down an ox-like creature, the largest African antelope, of between 700 and 800kg, even with the help of his brother of another 150 kg. Well, let me tell you, these two big cats had a feast of a life time after this great accomplishment.

The first night, after the kill, they kept dead quiet and just ate and ate until they were almost ready to explode. By the second night, they were still eating, but started roaring madly every ten or twenty minutes to let the whole of Madikwe know that no matter how full their stomachs were, they were not about to share even a tiny little morsel with anybody…. Not even the rest of their extended lion family.

By day three, the jackals, hyenas and vultures started to gather on the outskirts taking great care not to get too close to the two, by now obese, lazy kings of the bushveld. They were still guarding the rest of the, terribly smelly heap of meat from a distance, but started showing signs of moving on. At this stage, they would still give a big roar, here and there, but managed to do so without even lifting a head. They truly had had enough to eat!!!!

This is where Nature tells its story best.
With this rotting peace of meat, lying in the sun for days on end, one would expect terrible disease to spread rapidly through the area. Mother Nature, however does not allow this to happen. She promptly sends in the vacuum cleaners of the bush.

First came the jackals, known to have cast-iron stomachs, who pick at the last bits of the rotting, putrid meat. Then enter the hyenas. They have a massive scull with a prominent medial crest to anchor muscles that empower their jaws. This enables them to eat and digest bones, horns, and even teeth. They are also the only carnivores that eat skin and hides, just to disgorge the indigestible hair at a later stage.

While this is all going on, hundreds of vultures gather in the trees around the rotting carcass to wait their turn to complete the cleansing job.
For this purpose, each type of vulture has a different feature.
The Lapped faced vulture, for instance, has a very strong beak for opening up the pieces of the carcass that is still covered with hide.
The Cape vulture and White Backed vulture has an unusually long neck, enabling it to stick its head deep into the carcass and clean the bones from the inside.
The Hooded vulture on the other hand, has a fine precision beak for getting to the tiny bits and pieces still clinging to the bones right at the end of the whole process.
All of these vultures can digest even the most horrifyingly rotten meat, as they have acidic digestive systems, leaving the piece of the bush ,which only days ago, smelt like death, cleaned up and disease free.

How utterly amazing Nature is !!

Book your next holiday at Tuningi as soon as possible! You will be amazed by the pure exhilaration of it all.

Can’t wait to see you, spoil you, enlighten you, befriend you……..

The T-team

Warm greetings to all of you once again!

We hope that you all had a wonderful long holiday and that you are now happily settled back into your normal daily routine.

We also hope that you will soon start dreaming about your next African Safari.
Before you decide on where you will be going, please read the letter below that we took off two of our guests’ web site. They stayed with us for five days in the last week of December 2006.

We would like to thank Matt and Vanessa for sharing this with all of us and we hope that it will inspire those of you who have been here before, to come back and those of you who are still thinking about it, to pick up the phone and make that booking!

Safari…in Madikwe Africa
December 29, 2006
11 PM

Going on safari has certainly been one of those amazing life experiences that we will remember for a long time. Observing the animals in a natural setting is extraordinary, but seeing them in their environment adds that extra dimension. Once outside the confines of the lodge or off the vehicles, our lives were at risk from any number of species – lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, mambas, puff adders, cobras and scorpions to name a few. Without the professional guidance of our rangers, even the vehicles would not protect us from many of them if tell-tale warning signs were ignored or misunderstood. It is sobering and somewhat awe-inspiring to suddenly become one of the “lesser” species in a raw Darwinian environment.

In a similar vein to our Alaska trip last year, once inside the reserve there was little to link you to the modern world. There were no televisions, no radios and no cell phones – only the noises of the bush, the brilliant starry skies and a very thin wire surrounding the lodge separating us from “the wild”. There is a solitude and tranquility that develops almost immediately….so much so that after five days away we were a bit overwhelmed when we returned to the regular hustle and bustle of our hotel in Johannesburg.

Madikwe is a 75,000 hectare game reserve in the north-west of South Africa bordering Botswana. This park is particularly noteworthy in that it was designed specifically to provide opportunities in an underdeveloped area of the country while promoting animal conservation. It is a joint venture between the government, private industry and most importantly the local communities. To establish the park, degraded farming areas were cleared, a perimeter fence was erected and the largest game relocation in history was undertaken to transfer around 10,000 animals into the park. It is joint managed, and by all accounts appears to be a resounding success for both the local communities and of course the animals!

We were fortunate enough to see the “Big Five” (elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo) as well as the very rare African Wild Dog which is one of the features of Madikwe. However, every day was like a lottery – and whilst seeing the big five was exhilarating, the gentle grazing of a giraffe, the frenzied jumping of bush babies and the laboring of a dung beetle could be just as rewarding.

Bush Transport
Our transit to Madikwe was also a “first” for us. Not only did we have a private plane to take just the two of us there, but it was also a private 6-seater plane. It was extraordinarily personal flying in something not much larger than an SUV . It’s difficult to describe the thrill of flying low over miles of bush that you know is teeming with big game. Landing was pure adrenalin as we banked sharply before skidding left and right along a short dirt strip cut out of the bush. The “arrival lounge” was a large tree under which a safari vehicle was parked.

Nkwe Tracking
The elusive leopard (“nkwe” in local Tswana language) was a major attraction and on one occasion, after much searching, we spotted a large male stealing off and blending into the bush. Gavin and Johann rapidly piled us all into one vehicle and we bounced off road trailing the graceful cat until it decided to lose us, somewhat oblivious to our attentions. It was thrilling being on the “hunt” (modern-day photography style) and when we lost the trail, we returned to a nearby tree to find two dead wildebeest calves carefully placed in a high branch for a future meal. Along with our lion and elephant encounters, the sight of the poor calves was a sharp reminder than we weren’t in a zoo.

The Safari Experience
Our lodge Tuningi was a very small and personal outfit with space for only 16 guests. Gavin, Quentin, Heidi, Benny and the team made us feel like part of an extended family, and we enjoyed the company of the other guests. Deep baths overlooking the bush, outside showers, delicious meals and friendly staff made each day a luxurious pleasure. However, comforts aside, the safari routine itself was unexpectedly tiring.

The morning starts at 5:15am so that you can depart at dawn for your first game drive of the day. Coffee is usually served somewhere spectacular in the park following by a huge breakfast sometime later in the morning back at the lodge. Between breakfast and high tea you basically sleep, read, swim or just laze around taking in the sights and sounds of the bush. The waterhole at the lodge is regularly frequented by wildlife so the safari continues even while resting. Late afternoon you depart for your second game drive which ends at nightfall, but is broken up by extremely civilized sundowner drinks somewhere within the park. Often dinner is served in the “Boma”, an enclosed and elevated area close to the waterhole under a huge fig tree after which the lodge is named. A roaring wood fire, paraffin lanterns and local folk songs sung by the staff make it a pretty magical experience, especially when a large herd of elephants wanders by to drink and play.

A wonderful experience and something we intend to repeat in the future.
Matt Tottenham and Vanessa Butler

We hope that you enjoyed their encounters at Tuningi! If you want to chat to them you can find them on www.tottler.com

We wish you all highly successful 2007, and a year full of love and happiness!

Until we meet again
The T-team

Dunelle@madikwecollection.com