Greetings Everyone!
Hope you are all well and keeping busy. We have had a busy month on the Reserve, with a lot of animal action and romantic happenings.
We shall start off with an update on our little buffalo calf Shona (pronounced “show-na”). She is doing very well and her ‘step mum’ absolutely loves her and is VERY protective over her. She does not mind anyone having a look at her little one, but if you get too close she comes forward, as if to say ‘don’t get too close to my baby’! So we are all very pleased and hugely relieved. Shona is not as big as other buffalo calves her age, so it must have something to do with the cow’s milk compared to buffalo milk. But as long as she is happy & healthy, we have no worries.
Our 2 cheetah cubs are out on their own – we have been monitoring the female cheetah and noticed she had moved off from her cubs, now that they’re big enough to hunt & live on their own. The cubs are usually about 18 months old when the mother leaves them, but these cubs are about 12 months old, which is why we kept a close eye on them to make sure they would be ok. The first 10 days got us a little worried as they did not seem to be able to hunt very successfully, but just when we thought we may have to intervene they did us proud and we found them feeding on a young Impala! We have not been able to get good clear shots of the cubs together, but we have got some great ones of their Mum, who loves spending time around Bukela – at the water hole to be precise!
The next fellow to touch on is one of black Rhinos. He has been a little naughty and for some reason he decided to chase cars that weren’t game viewers. So any private vehicle that happened to pass by, he would chase after it at top speed. While it’s hard not to smile at his chutzpah, we realised the dangers of him either being injured, or causing a car crash. And so – never a dull day out here - we decided to move him to the Northern territory of the reserve where we do not have public road access. The whole process of moving him was quite intense, but managed so professionally by William Fowlds and everyone that came to help, that it couldn’t have gone any better. See our newsletter gallery for great pics of this epic undertaking.
We set off early in the morning to find him. Once we had located his whereabouts we collected everything we needed for his transportation – which included a trailer that Steve & William had built specially in order to carry this massive animal. Once we had all the things required by William to ensure the safety of our rhino, we set off to dart him. The darting was successful, but we had to laugh at how he dropped: in all the open space that surrounded him, he went down with his head right in the middle of a shady bush! So we were soon at work cutting the bush away to make sure he was comfortable and that we had good access to his head.
Water was continuously poured all over him to make sure his temperature was kept under control, and his breathing was monitored closely to check he was stable. Any dramatic change in either and we would have to wake him up.
And then we got ready to lift him onto the back of the trailer. First we had to shift him around
to get him into the correct position. Just shifting position took all 15 of us. Then of course came the tricky part: getting him up on the trailer. Steve & William had designed a homemade roll pad, soapy water & winch system, which worked like a charm. They were very chuffed!
We had some of our guests from Bukela, Debbie & Sylvie, with us throughout the process, and they watched amazed as it all happened. Got a great shot with Mum & Daughter touching the rhino once he was safely up on the trailer and strapped in. Once he was up on the trailer & secured, William rode along with him to check his vitals and to administer another couple of mm of the drug he used to make sure he did not wake up along route.
And at last.................he awoke in his new surroundings. Mission accomplished! A huge thank you goes out to William Fowlds for his – as always – professional handle on treating these massive animals. It leaves us feeling a huge sense of pride for our reserve and the wonderful animals that we get to care for.
Our boy now has a brand new territory to explore and make home. We see him on most drives to the Northern territory and he seems happy, healthy and much less stressed without those irritating brightly-coloured vehicles around.
On a romantic note, we have had a great month at Bukela with honeymooners and engagements! Two of the engagements that took place happened without the ‘better half’ knowing anything about it. Love it when the men take time to think of a lovely plan to surprise their loved ones. (I think it should happen more often?!) Anyway, all details of how it would all happen were only between us and the men in question. Both were very romantic in their ideas of how they would do it. Check out the gallery for some fabulous shots of them up on the ridge overlooking the whole reserve.
Thankfully both said yes, and returned to the lodge to carry on with their special occasion. We had been busy whilst they were out on drive, to make their rooms romantic with a private dinner set up, a bubble bath ready with champagne on the side, and a small fire in their rooms to set the ambiance.......aaaahhhh! Finally, their bed was sprinkled with rose petals......a perfect ending to a special day for each of the couples. We were so pleased to have been a part of the plan, and they definitely left very happy. Hats off to the men!
I never leave you without showing you a gorgeous picture to make you go aaahhhh. Check out the gallery for a gorgeous pic of our baby elephant and her proud mum.
Lastly, we’d like to introduce our new Manageress at Hlosi, Veronique. She has joined Chris on the management side, and has brought to the table not only her 5-star experience, but also her valuable language ability (French & German). Welcome to the Lion Roars team, Venonique – you coming on board makes our team complete, and we’re all looking forward to getting our heads down to some hard work and a great year ahead!
All that remains is a big thank you to all our agents for the wonderful guests you send us. A special thanks to our Russian agents who have sent us two sets of guests from Moscow this month, which is fabulous. Veronique is working on her Russian now…
From us all on the Reserve, we say goodbye until next month
Kerry