Tuningi Newsletter for October 2010

Hallo everyone!

We are sad to announce that we are still waiting patiently for the rain to come! In the past two weeks we have been excitedly watching incredible power displays of lightning and thunder all around us, but to our great disappointment, we have only received four little individual bouts of rain of around 2 mm at a time.

On one occasion, the lightning unfortunately hit a tree in the veld near our neighboring lodge, and caused a huge fire raging through the park, almost burning down five lodges in our area, (including us!!!). Luckily, we had time to do a back burn from our lodge towards the oncoming raging fire and at long last, after an incredibly, suffocating hour, breathing in the thick smoke, the two fires met on the ridge and instantly fell flat, bringing huge relief. The howling wind blew away the horrible smoke in no time at all and we could sit back with great thankfulness to everyone who came to help us. As soon as the first proper rain falls, our ridge will turn into a beautiful green Garden of Eden once again! For now, the elephants are still coming to visit us on a daily basis, swimming and playing in our waterhole for hours. Luckily the nice, fresh Spring leaves on the trees never burnt and still provide enough food for the huge paciderms.

On a much happier note: This month Grant shares his amazing sightings with us in his own words:

October is probably the worst month of the year. It is the end of the dry season but also the long awaited relief of rain. The sightings the last month was as always mind blowing. This time of the year Thlou dam is crawling with big mammals like elephants and rhino. It won’t be long before we get our first big rain then the waterholes will quite down for a bit. For now we are taking full advantage of the waterholes. I must say the sightings down south were fantastic as well. I am sure all you guys will recall to this phrase:” We are heading South today! “

Ever since the pump was installed at a new waterhole on Tau link the sightings picked up rapidly from leopard to black rhino in the area. All the lodges in the Wonderboom node made a contribution towards everything. We do have the same goals after all. Gavin was the mastermind behind all of that so well done Gav ! Gavin also named the pan Makwepa pan meaning black mamba! There was not one day I visited the pan and not seeing animals there. The South-Western pride is also using the pan to ambush their prey at the pan. We have seen them hunting there on numerous occasions. Next time you are at Tuningi be sure that we will take you for a visit at Makwepa pan!

Very early one morning we followed the roaring of a male lion in the South. I thought it was one of the Kgala brothers telling the females that they are in the territory. But to my surprise it was two younger males called the Naledi brothers. They are about 6 years old and looking for trouble.

By the looks of it they want to get closer to the females in the south-west. That will be an epic battle because the Kgala’s are known as fighting killing machines. We followed the younger boys through the schrub and heard the Kgala’s roaring and the younger less experienced males made a u-turn and went back to the east. Half an hour later we found the Kgala’s quenching their thirst at Makwepa pan.

The youngsters of the Kgala’s sometimes think of themselves as leopards. The getting up the tree is easy but coming down is a different story. Once again our lion sightings have been out of this world. Madikwe is definitely the place to be if you want to spend time with these big cats. The wild dogs decided to share the new pups with us after quite a few weeks of searching for them. We were so thrilled to see them, this was the small pack, 5 adults with 5 pups. Keep on reading then you will see what the big pack were doing in their spare time ?

What you are about to see was definitely the sighting of the month. I am sure you guys remember the lone Sable antelope bull that was hanging around our lodge on the ridge. Well he is no longer with us. He was the last remaining Sable in Madikwe. The big pack of wild dogs hunted him down like 800m from our waterhole. We arrived on the crime scene while he was still busy fighting off the dogs. He was just too tired. The number of the dogs got to this big fellow. It was amazing to see how the dogs worked together to get their prize down. After looking at the photo I saw his right front leg was broken so that didn’t help him at all. The dogs used the rocky ridge fully to their advantage and it worked out for them this time. It was also a sad scene to witness, that is nature and she can be very cruel sometimes. We went out later that night to get the skull and horns for parks board. We got there and there was nothing left except the skull and horns. These dogs are incredible, they know to eat quickly otherwise lions and hyenas will catch them off guard especially at night.

That was my story for the month. So get on your email and make the booking for another visit at Tuningi
Cheers
Grant

As Grant just said;
Do not hesitate. Adventure is waiting for you around the corner! Why don’t you come and spend your Christmas holidays with us. We will most definitely not disappoint you.

We have just been re-graded by the South African Tourism Grading Council and was once again awarded our precious FIVE STARS! And don’t forget; Although we are a luxury five star lodge with the paperwork to prove it, we still know how to make you feel comfortable as if you are visiting old friends in your home away from home…..

Hoping to see you soon.
With kindest regards
The fabulous T-team

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