Big 5 Sightings 16 – 22 April 2012

Our highlight for this week was to see Mvula, the dominant male leopard in our eastern traversing area stalking and also killing an impala.

Mvula the male leopard with his impala kill. Photo by Richard Davis

Monday, 16 April 2012

(29ºC)

• Lamula the male leopard with a juvenile kudu kill east of Little Gowrie drive way
• Ntima scent marking on MMM south close to Hoffman’s drift
• Salayexe scent marking on EP delivery road
• The Styx lion pride resting on A-main
• A breeding herd of about 15 elephants drinking water at Big Dam

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

(28ºC)

• 1 Elephant bull feeding just off One Eyed Pan
• Salayexe stalking impala on EP delivery road
• The Styx lion pride on a kudu kill just off Jerry Drive
• 1 Buffalo bull resting in the water at 2nd Windmill
• A breeding herd of about 12 elephants feeding on A-Main

A young elephant enjoying a mud bath. Photo by Willie Woest

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

(27ºC)

• 9 Lions of the Styx pride resting next to Safari airstrip
• An unknown male leopard walking north on Robson’s boundary
• Tingana, the male leopard, moving west from Kraaines
• A small herd of 5 elephants feeding south from 5-way Junction
• 4 Female lions of the Tsalala pride sleeping in the Manyeleti river close to Nyati Bamba Road

Thursday, 19 April 2012

(28ºC)

• 2 Female lions of the Nkuhuma pride and their 2 cubs walking west down Pump track
• A breeding herd of about 15 elephants feeding on Marula Bult central

Friday, 20 April 2012

(28ºC)

• A breeding herd of about 20 elephants feeding on Rhulani road
• 2 Female lions of the Nkuhuma pride and their 2 cubs resting on Pungwe open area
• Salayexe scent marking on Puff Adder road
• 3 Buffalo bulls resting in the water at Rhino Pan
• A breeding herd of about 20 elephants feeding and drinking water at Rhino Pan

Young male lion cub of the Styx pride. Photo by Morné Fouché

Saturday, 21 April 2012

(29ºC)

• A breeding herd of about 25 buffalo feeding on Shirley’s open area
• Mvula stalking and killing an impala south of Delta South road
• Thandi, the female leopard and her cub eating an Impala on Wessels old driveway
• The 4 Magingi male lions sleeping on EP airstrip
• The Nkuhuma lion pride feeding on their buffalo kill at Boundary Pan

Sunday, 22 April 2012

(32ºC)

• A small herd of about 5 elephants feeding on Leopard Drift
• 1Elephant bull feeding on a marula tree in Picanini Utah
• The 4 Magingi male lions on a buffalo kill at Grisly Bear crossing

Big 5 Sightings 09 – 15 April 2012

Our Big 5 highlight of the week was spending time with the two male cheetahs. What amazing, elegant creatures they are!

Two male cheetahs - Morné Fouché

Monday, 09 April 2012

(31 °C)

• The Styx pride of lions resting on A-Main
• A breeding herd of about 25 elephants feeding on Simbambili firebreak
• Tingana the leopard scent marking on A-Main
• Two male cheetahs resting at Kudu Corner

Tuesday, 10 April 2012

(27 °C)

• A breeding herd of about 150 buffaloes resting on Gowrie Main
• One elephant bull feeding at Simbambili firebreak
• Another elephant bull feeding on Robson’s boundary
• A breeding herd of about 15 elephants feeding and drinking water on EP open area
• Tingana the leopard walking south from Leopard Drift
• Salayexe resting on EP driveway

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

(27 °C)

• A breeding herd of about 150 buffaloes resting on Oom Corrie’s loop
• Salayexe the leopard sent marking on the firebreak west of Pungwe Pan
• Three buffalo bulls resting in the riverbed, just north of Serengeti
• One elephant bull feeding on our southern boundary

The pack of wild dogs - Morné Fouché

Thursday, 12 April 2012

(27 °C)

• A pack of nine wild dogs resting on Gowrie Main Road
• One buffalo bull resting on EP open area
• A breeding herd of about 25 elephants feeding on Methlowani Road
• Salayexe scent marking on Rhino Ring East

Friday, 13 April 2012

(26 °C)

• One elephant bull feeding on Robson’s Boundary
• One buffalo bull drinking water at Serengeti
• A breeding herd of about 150 buffaloes feeding west of Treehouse Pan
• Lamula the leopard stalking impalas on the eastern side of Treehouse Pan

Saturday, 14 April 2012

(28 °C)

• Eight wild dogs chasing impalas on Sawmill
• Four young Tsalala lionesses playing in the riverbed south of Rhino Ring South
• One elephant bull feeding north of EP Manyeleti Crossing

Lamula the leopard - Morné Fouché

Sunday, 15 April 2012

(31 °C)

• A breeding herd of about 25 elephants feeding around 5Way Junction
• Four Tsalala lionesses stalking a male waterbuck close to 2nd Windmill
• Salayexe the leopard scent marking on Marula Bult North
• Tingana the leopard scent marking on EP delivery road

Manager’s Report March 2012

WILD PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Roy the hippo. Photo by Alan Castle, UK (Elephant Plains Guest)

March turned out to be a busy month around the lodge! We had a lot of guests in camp and the game viewing was out of this world. On the maintenance side, we are continuing work on the thatch roofs around camp. With the vast amounts of rain we had this year, some of the roofs got slightly damaged. The idea is to maintain them regularly, rather than to end up having to redo them completely at a later stage.  Everything else has been running smooth around camp, to a point where I decided to do some game drives for a few days.  Because we have a high occupancy, our rangers spend most of their six weeks work cycle doing two game drives per day. I always think it’s nice to give one of them off for a few days and this also gives me a chance to reconnect with the bush. In their “off” time they then help out with general maintenance, bush clearing etc. It was great to get into the bush and to see the wild dogs, lions and my favourite leopard, Salayexe. She is still as pretty as always and was seen mating yet again with Tingana. He is massive for his age.  I would go as far as to say that he might be even bigger than Tyson, but it is really difficult to say when they’re not standing right next to each other. And that we do not want!  We have been seeing two packs of wild dogs, one pack of two and one pack of nine. It is crazy to see them running around, hunting anything that crosses their path. The pack of two struggle a bit more and are not as successful as the pack of nine. But we did see them taking down an impala right in front of our vehicle!

Two hyenas walking down the road. Photo by Willie Woest

Francois was out on the roads for most of the month, sorting out the areas that still needed to be fixed after the heavy rains in January.  We also brought a TLB in to help dig up gravel and fix damaged mitre drains. We have started throwing gravel on the surface of our roads. Gravel holds moisture better and does not wash away as easily. At this stage we are trying to resurface our driveway and some of the game drive roads that have a lot of traffic on them. It is a timely process though. First the gravel needs to be dug up, and then it needs to be transported to the various roads. Afterwards, it needs to be flattened and then we need to spray it with water and roll it in order to compact it. But the end result is looking great and you could see the difference when we received a quick 70mm of rain the other night. Once again, regular maintenance is the answer. Never underestimate the power of water, though! It is shocking to see the amount of ground that it can pick up and wash away. In most afternoon showers, tons of soil gets transported from one area to another. Take for example the January floods. The river beds had dropped in depth over the past few years and a lot of them were overgrown. Now, after the floods, the riverbed has risen in some places by as much three meters and most of the overgrown vegetation has also washed away. Driving in riverbeds while off-roading is still a no go at this stage as the sand is too uneven and there are still massive pools of water in various parts of the riverbeds.

We are waiting for the veld to dry our sufficiently in order to be able to burn firebreaks around the lodge. Because of all the rain we received this year, the vegetation and fuel load is extremely high, making veld fires a greater risk. We will be burning an area to the east of lodge and burning a fire break around the camp. Not on the open area, but mostly on the western side. For people that are not too sure how a firebreak works, I will give you a little more detail. The idea is to burn a section or strip of about 60 meters on the perimeter of you property or around your house or lodge. Burning fire breaks should be done early in the dry season as it’s easier to manage and chances of creating a runaway fire is a lot less. Firebreaks form a protection boundary around your property. If there is a runaway fire somewhere in the bush, the chances of it reaching your property is a lot less as this break also helps easing the fire’s strength as well as speed. For this project we have a whole fire fighting kit and as soon as the grass is sufficiently dry, we will have the go-ahead. Another interesting factor is the other things you need to consider while planning for an ideal day to burn firebreaks. Not only do you need enough manpower, but wind, temperature and even sightings in that surrounding area all play a major role.

Mating leopards Tyson and Salayexe. Photo by Willie Woest

On behalf of the Elephant Plains team, we would like to wish the following staff members a happy birth day. We hope you had a fantastic day filled with love and laughter. May there be many more!

Yoldah celebrated her birthday on the 6^th of March. She is the cheerful lady who works magic, being responsible for the entire lodge’s laundry.

Clement celebrated his birthday on the 23^rd. He is one of our trackers, always a pleasure to be around, with his knowledge and sense of humour.

Etienne junior celebrated his birthday on the 26^th. He is the little man that runs around the lodge – acting as if he’s in charge!

Louis celebrated his birthday on the 28^th. Louis has come a far way at EP, from carrying bags during check-in and check-out when he started out as a junior ranger, to being one of the favourite rangers on drive. His laughter can be heard everywhere in camp.

Well, that’s all from my side this month. Have a good one!

Wayne Dovey

I now had you over to Chef Roxanne for a delicious dessert recipe.

White chocolate Panna Cotta, served with Berry Coulis

White chocolate Panna Cotta, served with Berry Coulis

Ingredients

• 45 ml Gelatine
• 500ml Fresh Cream
• 150 g Castor Sugar
• 500l Plain Yoghurt
• 250g White Chocolate

Preparation

Dissolve the gelatine in hot water.

Combine the cream, castor sugar and yoghurt in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until smooth and warm.

Add the gelatine and stir until mixed. Do not over-heat, or the yoghurt will curdle.

Remove from the heat.

Pour into eight glasses, cover and refrigerate for about 6 hours, until nicely set.

Berry Coulis

• 1 Tin of Black Cherries
• 100g Fresh Mixed Berries
• 100g Fresh Strawberries
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 1 ½ cups Berry Juice

Boil all the ingredients together until a sauce consistency is reached, blend together and leave to cool.

Place the Panna Cotta onto a plate and then garnish with the Berry Coulis. One can also garnish with fresh mint leaves and Chocolate Cigars.

Serve and enjoy!

Rangers Report March 2012

This month was once again full of action and surprises. You can definitely see that the bush is slowly transforming to its winter coat, but certain areas close to riverbeds are still nice and green. This time of the year is very exciting because it’s the start of the impala rutting season, where the males will compete for a few weeks to see who’s the strongest. It’s getting darker earlier in the evenings and getting lighter later in the mornings, with a definite chill in the air, so it’s safe to say that we are slowly going into winter. Game viewing was once again out of this world! We had wild dogs in our area for most of the month and to put the cherry on top, we also saw a female cheetah and a caracal. We had good rains before the winter, with a total of 93mm. The days were nice and warm, with an average maximum temperature of 31°C.

Elephants

Styx lioness yawning. Photo by Willie Woest

We had wonderful elephant sightings this month of some fantastic breeding herds with small babies. They are always a treat to watch as they explore the surroundings and swing their little trunks around – not sure how to operate them properly yet! We also had a few big males in musth, following the breeding herds. Females approaching oestrus are usually wary of these big males. They would carry their heads higher than normal, with eyes opened wider than usual, watchful instead of downcast. They would quickly move out of the way when an adult male approaches. If followed by an adult male, the female would leave the herd and walk rapidly away with her head very high, and her tail raised, an oestrus walk. Sometimes she would go around in a circle to rejoin the herd. When the male tries to overtake the female the oestrus walk turns into a chase where the female may go a kilometer or more from the herd over a period of a few hours. The female will stop fleeing when the bull gets within touching distance, whereupon he will attempt to mount her. The chase and particular, the copulation, may provoke ear-flapping, head-shaking and also vocalizing. The distraught behavior of elephant cows during the 2-6 day oestrus creates a disturbance and often excites the other elephants.

Buffaloes

At last we saw a small breeding herd of buffaloes that came through into our area and stayed here for a short while. Some of the cows have small calves with them, as well as last season’s calves, who will still accompany the cows for another few years. It will take the newborn calves a few weeks before they can keep up with the herds for several hours at a time. If the females give birth in the rest period of the herd, she will be left behind and will be forced to go into hiding with the new baby. The only problem with this is that they won’t have the protection of the herd, so they would be very vulnerable to a pride of lions. At the moment we see less bachelor herds than usual. Mating takes place late in the rainy season and this is where the majority of the dominant males have gone: back to the breeding herds, to claim the right to mate and get closer to the females.

Lions

The lions once again kept us busy this month! The black-mane male of the Majingi coalition is often seen joining up with the Styx pride these days. The Styx pride and the black mane Majingi had definitely made for some good sightings. It’s also very nice to see that the big boy spends some time with his cubs and his females. The other three Majingi’s are still very elusive, most probably defending and expanding their territory. BB’s older daughters did come and visit for a short while before they disappeared again and the four young Tsalalas were seen on a regular basis. We even saw them having a stand-off with six hyenas close to our lodge! BB also came to visit a few times on her own, maybe just to check up on the four younger ladies. At a stage the Sabi Sand Game Reserve was basically run by four coalitions; the six Matimba’s in the north, the four Majingi’s in the central part, the four young Southern Pride males in the south and then the three older Mapogo’s in the west. The four Majingi’s are moving more south and ended up pushing the Southern Pride males more westwards, into the territory of the old three old worriers. This is where they came across one of the Mapogo’s, old Mr. T, and in the process killed him to proof a point. Soon we might be down to just three, but who knows what this year will bring?

Salayexe the leopard sleeping in a Marula tree. Photo by Willie Woest

Leopard

Salayexe was again seen mating with Tingana, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that she did conceive this time around. If it is the case, it’s just another 110 days and we might have brand new cubs in the area. Salayexe is still a young leopard and only seven years old, so she still has another few years to raise more litters. Tingana is definitely turning into a beautiful male leopard. Only a few months ago he was a very shy male and look at him now. Shadow is getting better with the vehicles day by day, but still has her moments that she just disappears and is nowhere to be found. Ntima is now the old lady in the area, but is still looking very good. Her two daughters Kwatile and Ostrich Koppies are also in and out of her territory. Tyson came in just for a short while, marking his territory along Londolozi boundary and left again shortly after. We are unsure of what happened, or why he left this northern part of his territory, but he could be in search of more females, or better territory. Kurula is leaving her two youngsters alone for very long periods of time, it’s almost time for them to leave and explore the bush on their own. By leaving them for so long, it forces them to start hunting for their own food.

Special Sighting

What a treat to see the female cheetah attempting to hunt right in front of us. Although the hunt was unsuccessful, it was still a privilege to witness her immense speed!

Did you know?

The Nyala is the only antelope where the male and female differ in color. There is also a very big difference in size. Because of this, the male is called a bull and the female a ewe.

Hope you enjoyed this month’s report. See you out on game drive soon!

Morné Fouché

Big 5 Sightings 02 – 08 April 2012

Our Big 5 highlight of the week was seeing Mvula and Ntima, the two leopards, feeding on a kudu kill together. What a wonderful sighting to watch these two unrelated leopards, male and female, feeding together.

Mvula and Ntima - Louis Liversage

Monday, 02 April 2012

(26 °C)

• A breeding herd of about 15 elephants feeding south of Kraaines
• One unknown male leopard moving north on Robson’s boundary
• Two elephant bulls swimming in Big Dam
• One buffalo bull moving west from Puffadder Viewpoint

Tuesday, 03 April 2012

(28 °C)

• One buffalo bull feeding on Rhino Ring East
• A breeding herd of about 20elephants feeding north of Impala Road
• Matifuma the male leopard with a big impala male kill on Francolin Road
• One elephant bull feeding east of Pungwe Pan

Wednesday, 04 April 2012

(30 °C)

• A breeding herd of about 40 elephants feeding on A-Main
• Salayexe the leopard scent marking on Saseka Road
• Two elephant bulls feeding on Shirley’s open area
• One buffalo bull resting in the water at Rhino Pan

Dwarf Mongoose - Morné Fouché

Thursday, 05 April 2012

(29 °C)

• A breeding herd of about 20 elephants feeding on Puffadder Road
• Salayexe the leopard moving east from Saseka
• The Styx pride of lions resting north of MMM Boundary
• Lamula the leopard moving south from Ingwe Mati

Friday, 06 April 2012

(28 °C)

• Four buffalo bulls resting on our southern boundary
• Mvula the leopard killing a juvenile kudu right in front of us close to Treehouse Pan
• Matifuma the leopard resting on Saseka Road
• Tingana stalking kudus on Milkberry Road
• A breeding herd of about 30 elephants drinking water on EP open area

Saturday, 07 April 2012

(30 °C)

• The two Nkuhuma females and cubs resting north of Knobthorn Pan
• The Styx pride of lions resting on Nkombi Road
• A breeding herd of about 30 elephants feeding on Kudu Drift
• Tingana the leopard scent marking around Big Dam

Two juvenile waterbuck grazing with a female - Louis Liversage

Sunday, 08 April 2012

(32 °C)

• A breeding herd of about 30 elephants feeding on A-Main
• The Styx pride of lions moving south on Airport link
• Mvula and Ntima, the two leopards, finishing the kudu kill at Treehouse Pan
• Tingana the leopard resting on Josie’s Road
• Salayexe the leopard with s duiker kill on Rulani Road
• Another breeding herd of about 30 elephants feeding on Simbambili driveway

The TheraNaka Experience

 This month we are focusing on a treatment that is ever growing in its popularity at the African Health Spa and with good reason…

Being a therapist myself I do not often get to go for pampering, so when I do, I make the most of it and the TheraNaka Experience is just the way to do it!

The Theranaka Experience

The treatment starts on the back, being the area that the majority of us struggle with. It is where most of our stress manifests itself. Our backs are tight, stiff, sensitive and full of knots. This is why a good 30 minutes is spend, focusing on the back to make sure that the muscles are relaxed before the focus moves a little bit higher to the neck and sculp.

The tension you feel in your neck finds its origin in the tight muscles between the shoulder blades and not necessarily in the neck it self. Once these muscles have relaxed the time spend on the neck is more effective. As we turn you around to comfortably relax on your back for the second half of the treatment the weight of your body pressing down gives me as therapist the extra pressure needed to work even deeper in to the neck causing it to relax completely.

After working out all the knots and rubbing all those sore and tense muscles, it is time to enjoy the final stages of your treatment. We end of with a scalp and foot massage. This is where pressure points are allocated and once stimulated through massage, causing you to completely relax so deeply that most of my clients fall asleep at this stage. This complete relaxation is truly a sensation that needs to be experienced in order to truly understand!

I hope to welcome you to the Spa on your next visit to come and experience it for yourself!