Author: Ryan Williams
Placement: 2 months at placement 0020
Period: July 2006 - August 2006
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HERE
Day 14: 20 July 2006
In the morning we were informed a male kudu which lived in front of the Safari Lodge had been spotted charging the fence between Safari Lodge and Shamwari reserve. The decision was made to kill the Kudu and feed him to the lions rather than risk losing him and causing unnecessary damage to the fence. The area the kudu was in is not accessible by road, so we had to leave our Land Rover behind and stalk him by foot.
It was a hot day and the trail was long and hard going. Suddenly Ettiene gave the signal to freeze, he had spotted the male behind some shrubs, he prepared his rifle and took aim. As he sighted the male kudu in his rifle’s scope, he notice the male was not alone, there were two female kudus with him. This came as a complete surprise as no kudu females had been spotted in the area before. As there was a chance that they may be breeding, we backed off and called off the cull. It just goes to show a female could be the difference between life and death in the bush…..That’s why I never leave home without one!!
The luck of the kudu resulted in not such good fortune for one of the blesbok as the lions still needed to be supplemented. This is the reality of the wild, for every winner there is at least one loser. On our way to the blesboks we came across one of the male warthogs. The other male warthog has not been sighted for some time now, there is a good chance the lions (probably JJ) have taken him out for a snack.
Thursday night is bush camping night, no tents just sleeping bags, a fire and the bush all around us. We finished work a little earlier so we had enough time to setup camp before everything is plunged into complete darkness.
Once we had setup camp we headed off to do a night drive. We came across a variety of animals, many of which we had not previously encountered during the day such as porcupine and springhare but unfortunately we didn’t spot JJ and Scar. On our way back to the camp sight we drove past JJ’s Watering Hole and were entertained by an orchestra of frogs and toads croaking away!
The wildlife was unusually active tonight. Throughout the night we heard an array of animals including jackals, hyenas, Aslan (the largest lion at Born Free) as well as JJ. Both lions sounded as though they were just around the next bush!
Day
15: 21 July 2006
Everyone was very tired from the previous day’s activities and we all overslept at the campsite. After a quick breakfast and cleanup we headed back to the lodge to begin the day’s activities. We first went to check if the carcass we had left yesterday had been eaten but it was still there untouched. We hadn’t seen the lions for a few days now so we headed off to locate them. Unfortunately, after an hour of searching we still didn’t manage to spot them, although there were tracks of their previous night’s activities.
We spent the rest of the day finishing off the proposal for the release of the lions into the main reserve.
Day 16: 24 July
2006
We started the day by looking for Scar and JJ but still no sign of them. However, they had definitely found the carcass over the week-end as it had completely been devoured, only the stomach contents and bones remained. This was a good indication that both lions were well.
Although it was slightly riskier as we didn’t know where the lions were, we still continued with the fence maintenance but had two lookouts as an extra precaution. We made some good progress and then decided to head down to JJ’s watering hole to do some frod ID.
The activity turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. The frogs and toads stay well hidden during the day and are far less vocal. Every so often we would hear one croaking but as we slowly got closer it would stop. Finally, Ettiene, Harriet and Nathalie decided to get their feet wet and went into the water to give us a better chance of catching one. But the frogs turned out to be smarter than us…
We headed off to the main reserve to do some elephant/rhino ID. Our first lesson was to understand the difference between rhino pooh and elephant pooh. We drove through the reserve but did not come across a single elephant or rhino. Even though Amakhala is a small reserve, it is a great feeling to know that a herd of 20 elephants can just disappear. Ettiene then drove us to the remains of a young adult elephant who had unfortunately died from stress soon after he had been introduced to the reserve. Even though we have seen numerous elephants, it was still mind blowing to see how large their bone structure is. One of this elephant’s leg bones was almost as big as Raz!!
On our return back to the lodge, we spotted JJ and Scar tucked away among some bushes, we almost drove passed them. They both looked well and their bellies were full. JJ spent most of his time smelling Scar’s urine and making interesting faces which kept us entertained. He then proceeded to demonstrate how a cat uses a bush toilet. Not to be outdone, Scar showed us how a lady does it! After notifying the other rangers on the reserve where the lions were, we headed back to the lodge.
Day 17: 25 July
2006
We began the day wit a visit to the orphanage. The computer class Raz had prepared for the adults had to be cancelled as most of them had gone to PE for another training course. So, Raz joined us in entertaining the children. The number of children at the centre seems to increase each time we visit. Nathalie approached one of the new children, a little girl around 5/6 years old. The poor girl instantly burst into tears and ran away. No matter what we did to calm her down, nothing worked so we decided to let her come around on her own terms. After a good session of running around in the playing field, it was time for the children to have their breakfast. It was nothing special, just some porridge. They lined up to wash their hands and then sat down in a large circle as they were handed a plate of porridge each. Some of the children obviously loved porridge as they gulped it down while others took their time over it. But eventually, everyone emptied their plate. Just like in the west dental care is introduced and encouraged at a young age. So all the children lined up again to receive their toothbrush with toothpaste and a small glass of water to rinse their mouth with. Some children took great pride in showing their cleaned teeth. After everyone had finished brushing their teeth, it was time for us to leave.
We headed off to the reserve to locate the lions. As we approached the main gate also known as Mnoni’s gate) we spotted Scar seating directly in front of the gate and less than 100m away. This posed a major problem as there was a risk that Scar would charge as the gate was opened and escape. But we had to get into the reserve to do our day’s activities. After a short while, Ettiene decided that the best and safest way to open the gate was for him to open and close it. But someone still needed to drive the Land Rover through the opened gate… Ettiene turned to Raz and asked if he was up for the job. After a brief crash course on the different controls of the Land Rover the plan swang into action; but came to an abrupt stop as Raz missed the clutch bite and stalled the engine. Things went more smoothly the second time; Ettiene carefully opened the gate inward so he could slam it shut in case Scar decided to charge, Raz slowly drove the Land Rover through the gate and stopped just after the gate to provide Ettiene with cover as he closed the gate and jumped onto the back of the Land Rover. The rest kept a close eye on Scar and JJ, who we hadn’t spotted but could have been close by aswell, in case of any sudden movements. As soon as Ettiene was on the back seat, Raz drove passed Scar and down the road and out of sight. Scar had barely moved, but in this job it’s better to be safe than sorry as you might not get a second chance. After Raz and Ettiene swapped places, we turned around and went back to monitor Scar and to see if JJ was close by.
We continued with the boma maintenance and started to make some good progress. Ettiene then showed us how to use the GPS system to log lion sightings and for navigation. To test that we had paid attention, Ettiene hid a water bottle which we then had to locate using the GPS system. We passed!!!
Our final task for the day was to locate 4 good specimens of the Aloe plant (Amakhala means Aloe in African) and transplant them to the entrance of Safari Lodge. The task turned out to be more difficult than anticipated as the Aloes were either too big, too small, with broken leaves or not flowering. We only managed to find 2 good ones but as we were running out of time, we transported them to the entrance, left them there and decided to plant them the following day.
Day 18: 26 July 2006
We collected another big load of rubble from Reed Valley farm and continued with road maintenance. No matter how much we do, it always seems like the tip of the iceberg. But we get a great feeling when we drive over the bit of road that we repaired and notice a big difference. We then had lunch at Reed Valley and got a vehicle maintenance lesson.
As we hadn’t had any luck on Monday locating the elephants and rhinos, we decided to have a second attempt. We drove into the main reserve and first spotted a group of vervet monkeys which we had previously seen through out the reserve. However, what we hadn’t noticed previously was that the males have bright blue testicles. If we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes, we would never have believed it! As we carried on driving into the reserve, it looked like luck was on our side as we soon bumped into the white rhino family that lives on the reserve. The family consists of mother, father and a 6 months old baby. We stayed and watched them for a while before we moved on. Mother luck was most certainly looking down on us today as we ran into two of the male elephants within minutes of leaving the rhinos. On our way back to the lodge we stopped at the entrance to plant the two Aloes we had left yesterday; our unique contribution to Amakhala.
Day 19: 27 July
2006
We headed out to Amakhala Conservation Centre where some of the children from Reed Valley School were to receive a lesson on elephants. The conservation centre was very basic and primitive and had very few visitors. However, a new wild life museum was in the process of being built which would attract more visitors. Ettiene went off to collect 10 children from the school and on the way to the centre he took them on a small game drive so they could see the animals in their natural habitat. The children stayed at the centre for about 2 hours before returning to the school and then we continued with our daily activities.
We finished early as we were going camping again and we wanted to fit in a night drive to hopefully see the hyenas. As soon as we had setup basic camp we jumped back in to the land rover and headed to the main reserve as the sun was setting. There was far less activities than the previous week as we only came across a few duikers and a toad which we almost ran over. Unfortunately we had a bit of bad luck as we approached one of the hyena’s dens, the spotlight that we use for night drives packed in and it was pointless to continue, so we headed back to camp.
We had just got the fire started when two of the girls spotted a moving light. At was difficult to tell how close the light was, it was definitely not the lights of a car. As we studied the light it was looking more likely that it was a torch held by someone walking towards the campsite and they were no more than 200 meters away. This was really strange as there should not have been anyone else in the area. The light then disappeared, shortly afterwards we heard two gun shots. The light reappeared and was now moving slightly away from the camp. There was no more doubt in Ettiene’s mind that it was a poacher. He quickly phoned Mike Weeks to inform him that there was a potential poacher in the area and to confirm that there was no authorised shooting taking place.
We quickly put out the camp fire, piled into the land rover and headed towards the last sighting of the torch light in an attempt to apprehend the poacher. Unfortunately, was made extremely difficult as our spotlight had died on us earlier. As we continued our search we could see other reserve vehicles joining on the search, including Shawari’s poacher patrol team who were checking their side of the bordering fence. We continued our search for an hour without any success. It was likely either the poacher had slipped away or was hiding close by until things settled down. We returned to the campsite slightly despondent. Each watch kept an extra vigilant eye throughout the night in case the poacher returned. Except for one false alarm the night passed uneventfully.
Day 20: 28
July 2006
This morning we left camp reasonable early and retuned to the lodge. Everyone seem to be aware of last night’s activities but there seemed to be little additional information. It looked like the poacher got away with it this time. Thankfully poaching is very rare in this part of South Africa.
We quickly checked on the lion and returned to our accommodation as we were all extremely tired from the previous night.
Weekend:
As it was the last weekend for the rest of the group, we did some final sightseeing. We hired two cars for the weekend. Fortunately South Africa is one of those few countries around the World who also drive on the left hand-side. So driving around is pretty straight forward except all distances and speeds are in kilometres.
Three of the girls were experienced horse riders and wanted to do the horseback trail through Addo National Elephant park. On Saturday morning we headed off to Addo which is only 23 km away. We were just 1km away from the reserve when we spotted a large herd of elephants walking through the open plains next to the road we were on. We quickly pulled over and watch this marvellous sight. Sometimes its easy to forget where you are, then you get tango-slapped like this and remember you’re in South Africa. We watched the 65 elephants, including two baby elephants, for a while before we continued on our journey.
After dropping of the girls and on our way out of the reserve we came face to face with a small suicidal tortoise crossing the road. Luckily we spotted him just in time and managed to brake. We watched him cross the rest of the road to safety before we continued our journey to Port Elizabeth. We checked into a hotel, got a bit to eat and then watch the Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (thankfully it was in English) while we waited for the others to join us. In the evening we sampled a bit of the nightlife that is on offer on the beachfront.
We had an early start the next morning as we had arranged a trip to visit the island inhabited by a large colony of Jackass penguins. On our return to the harbour we were surprised by a young humpback whale breaching the surface. We followed him for a while as he came up for air. At one point he surfaced less than 5 meters away from us. It was the icing on the cake of a good weekend.