Category: Tuningi Safari Lodge

As always, friendly Bush Greetings to all of you!

What an amazing time we once again had at Tuningi this past month, with more return guests than ever, out of the ordinary rain storms, even more out of the ordinary visitors and fantastic game viewing all on the cards.

Last night, 135 mm of rain came gushing down, turning every thinkable road in the Park into a flowing river and filling every single dam in the Reserve completely to its capacity. Needless to say, this is a fantastic bonus at this time of the year as we can now be certain that there will be more than enough water around in the upcoming dry months as well as beautiful green grass for all to eat, even in Winter!

On the topic of strange guests checking in…. We welcomed the Agrizzi family back to Tuningi for the fifth time this month, only this time they had a brand new edition to the family! Although it is completely against the rules to bring pets into the Game Reserve, they had special permission to bring their baby monkey with them, seeing that he is in training to help disabled people who can’t help themselves.( almost like a guide dog for the Blind).

Although we are all completely against taming wild animals, we could not help falling for the little oak’s charms and noticing how helpful he was with passing on stuff to Granny and realizing that he could really mean a lot to a helpless old pensioner.

We also had great fun with all the kids coming back to visit, and tried to teach them as much as we could about Mother Nature again. We spent time with loads of elephants at the Little Tuningi swimming pool and went on fabulous kiddies drives, not only looking for the big animals, but also stopping to get out and study the little things like the interesting dung beetle behavior.

And over to Gavin to give you his report on the famously fabulous game viewing in Madikwe:

Rangers Report

Hello once again everybody from a season changing Madikwe Game Reserve.
Yip, winter is on the way, as you go out on the morning Safari the morning freshness is addictive as the earthy smells and bird song greets you as the sun slowly rises over the Dwarsberg mountains.

So this month has got to be the month of the lion cubs, and the leopards of Madikwe…..
There are currently 4 different lionesses with 9 cubs in total running around the lodge, with one of the lionesses frequenting the lodge at the waterhole on a regular basis. All the cubs are almost all of the same age (+/- 8 weeks), so they are soooo cute !!

The other females are regularly found on the safaris, and the Kgala males are extremely proud of their progeny as they are spending more and more time on the ridge making sure that no other males enter the territory and commit infanticide.

As far as the southern prides are doing, they are going from strength to strength with the young Marupengs now reaching sub-adult status, and seem to have an uncanny knack of climbing trees, which makes for some awesome photography opportunities. The Mica Pride are also doing exceptionally well, but are being forced further west into the Tshabalala and Marupeng Territory due to the 2 Naledi males moving in from the east, which has been causing some friction between the two prides.

The wild dogs have been doing exactly what they are supposed to do, and that is to give us rangers a huge challenge to locate them. If you have ever been on a safari looking for the wild dogs, you will understand how difficult it can be to find them, BUT if you do…… The sightings of the 2nd most endangered carnivore in Africa is something that us rangers get very excited for, as you are almost guaranteed to see them hunting at extreme speed as they chase down the impalas of the MadikweBushveld, culminating in the most efficient team work you have ever witnessed in the natural world.

Ok…finally the stars of the show are about to impress you all, as the elusive spotted cat which is the PINNACLE of every safari has been making regular appearances this month.
Every guest that comes to Tuningi asks this question… “Are there leopard sightings in this park ?”, and our response is yes, yes, yes and getting better !!!
We have been working on the young male from the north west of the park for almost two years now, and I think we have finally cracked him (habituated him to the vehicles).
So……eat your heart out Sabi Sands!!!!

There is another leopard from the southeast of the park which is also providing us with some awesome sightings, as she loves to climb trees, and is becoming a real star in the Madikwe Game reserve, as all the rangers from all over the park are on a constant mission to track her down to find their guests the “ultimate animal” in the savannas of Africa!!

So that is another successful month at Tuningi Safari Lodge as far as the game report goes…..
DON’T HESITATE TO BOOK NOW!!!!
See you all soon on our SAFARI WAGONS where Myself, Grant and Christo would love to show you around this magical place we call home !!

Lots of warm bush regards,
Gavin

And that is it from me too!
Come knowing what you want to see.
And see what you do not know.
Lose track of days.
Discover endless tranquility.
Take it all in.
Through your eyes, your ears, your hands, your soul.
And leave with a new found sense of discovery.
A nagging urge to return.
Tuningi Safari Lodge.

Hope to see you soon!
Kindest regards
Heidi and the Fabulous T-team

P.S. If you want to read more: Go to www.mysafari.com to read a beautiful publishing about Madikwe Game Reserve and our Lodges.
Also remember to book your photographic Safari at Tuningi with Gerry vd Walt in May! There are still a few places left.
And lastly; follow us on Face Book and Twitter for daily updates on all the excitement that is TUNINGI!

For enquiries please contact :

Greetings from the lovely Bushveld in Africa once again!

With February being famous for being the month of love, we have once again been astounded by the way our lovely continent can effortlessly touch people’s hearts! Almost every single guest who visits our Lodge leaves with a promise to return as soon as they possibly can! This is because they all realize that they have fallen unashamedly in love with Africa during their brief visit. How privileged we are to be able to play a part in this kind of love affair time and time again.

As always, we got to meet and spoil so many people. The grown-ups enjoyed the game drives, fabulous food and wine, a massage or two and of course the peace and quiet while we were entertaining their kids, painting t-shirts, creating all kinds of arty animals out of clay and going on treasure hunts! We have to admit though that this month the Mundi family took working with play dough to a whole new level, by using natural sticks, leaves and stones to support their brilliant creations. We will most definitely try and keep up the good work!

I asked Grant to tell you more about the game drives:
This was another good month at Tuningi. The sightings were out of this world once again, especially the big cats. We had lions playing in water, climbing trees and a leopard stalking and catching a water terrapin one night.

I must say that the spotting of the game is quite difficult with all the tall grass and thick bush. Despite this we had exiting times on safari. One morning after a hefty thunderstorm we decided to go south in search of the South Western lion pride. We found them on the main road playing in a huge puddle of water. It was like we were watching the swamp lions of the Delta

A few days after this eventful morning one of the Lionesses in the north decided to show her brand new cubs. We think that they are not even 2 months old yet. We felt so honored that she had the confidence to bring out her cubs and share this special moment with us. She has been hanging around lately so we get to see her quite often.

Not long after our great afternoon with the cubs we spent about 2 hours all on our own with the South Western pride again. They had just finished a zebra kill and decided to cool off again. Even mom joined in on the fun.

On a more serious note ……we witnessed the two Naledi brothers tugged into one another on a cloudy afternoon. They are with two females in the east at the moment and there was no love lost between the brothers. When it comes to the females, male lions want them all for themselves, sometimes to extreme results of injury. Luckily they normally recover sooner than seems possible. Till next time!

Cheers, Grant

Join Photo-Africa as we set out to photograph one of the most endangered animals in Africa. The Madikwe Game Reserve is, apart from being one of the premiere Big 5 reserves in South Africa, one of the best places to see and photograph the charismatic African Wild Dog in the wild.

From 5 to 9 May 2011, Tuningi Safari Lodge will play host to our photographic safari with the main goal of photographing Madikwe’s Wild Dogs.

And on that note, we say goodbye till next month! We hope that you will also get a chance to come and visit soon. Just consider yourself warned… you will be hooked in no time at all!

Warmest regards,
Heidi and the fabulous T-team

P.S If you can’t wait a whole month to hear from us again, please add us on Face Book as your friend and follow our daily updates! You will be amazed….

For enquiries please contact :

Greetings to all of you once again from Tuningi Safari Lodge.

It is difficult to find the correct words to describe the awesome beauty of the bush in the Madikwe Game Reserve in its present state.

Even for us, who have been living here for a couple of years, and who’s wealth is already measured in gorgeous sunsets, the dense green shrubs, the colourful flowers waving at us around each corner, the brilliance and abundance of hundreds of buzzing insects and the unusual sight of overflowing water holes, renders us absolutely speechless! And to think, that we were desperately begging for rain not even three months ago. As the saying goes: ‘Be careful what you wish for!’ Just in the past two months we have measured much more than 200ml of hard rain bucketing down.

The most wonderful thing though is that we never had to cancel a single game drive because of bad weather and that the sightings were still out of this world, despite the denseness of the bush. The muddy roads created lots of fun for rangers and guests alike as most people love to test their 4×4 skills every time they get a chance!

We saw more cats than ever before- especially the elusive leopard…

Lions were also easier to spot than normal as they were trying to avoid the long wet grass and rather chose to walk around on the dryer open roads. Our favourite lions at the moment are the Tshabalala females with their handsome, playful cubs. They are just the cutest, loving family around!

One would imagine that the rhino’s would be hiding, with all the talk of rhino poaching going on, but they seem to pop out all over the place, enjoying the lovely green grass and abundance of miniature yellow flowers as a special little treat!

We were even lucky enough to be entertained by the hugely endangered black rhino one day! He was standing out in an open clearing sniffing the air as if it was the most normal thing to do! With them being browsers and not grazers like the white rhino, you only ever get to spot them in the densest parts of the park. What a treat to be able to really get a good look at the curled lip which differentiates it from its white counterpart. He actually came casually walking right up to the vehicle for an in depth investigation and then ran off with a last disgusted snort in the air, leaving all of us speechless for minutes!

Tlou dam as well as Vlei pan, which two months ago offered little more than a mud bath to the animals, are absolute hives of activity at the moment. You can find big herds of everything moving around the dams at almost any given moment, just enjoying the nice fresh water of taking a cooling bath in the terrible heat. The baby elephants, especially, cannot get enough of swimming and playing in the beautiful deep clean water at Tlou dam.

And last but not the least-
Our chefs were also having a great time experimenting with the giant edible mushrooms growing on the termite mounds after a big rain storm. These giant mushrooms are the epitome of every vegetarian meal! You can cut big fat steaks out of them and fry them in butter, garlic and cream and it will top any juicy rump steak grilled to perfection in a Michelin star restaurant!!

On that note, I wish you a wonderful month of February with lots of lovely, romantic moments around Valentine’s Day! In fact, why don’t you pick up the phone, make that booking and bring your partner over to Tuningi for an exciting, romantic weekend she will remember for the rest of her life???

Hope to see you all soon!
Kindest regards
Heidi and the fabulous T-team.

P.S If you can’t wait a whole month to hear from us again, please add us on Face Book as your friend and follow our daily updates! You will be amazed….

For enquiries please contact :

Warmest greetings to you all once again!

We hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas, a fabulous holiday, and that a brilliant new year full of love and prosperity is lying ahead of you.

We, here at Tuningi had a very busy, happy festive season with lots of return guests yet again, coming to spend their second or third visit with us. No words can describe our delight when a familiar face appears around the corner for ‘check-in’! It constantly feels like old friends and family coming to see us. In our opinion, this is a sure message that we are doing something right…..

This is why we will let you, our treasured guests, do the talking this month. Here with, the last two pages of Tuningi’s visitor’s book for your perusal:

“Amazing, wonderful and special place. Thank you so very much for such a warm welcome!” – Regards, Liz Camisa ( Travel)

“This is such an amazing place. It reinforces that I am African and belong in Africa. Thank you to all the amazing staff. The elephant experience we had was incredible. Thank you for an amazing weekend.” – Kugan Govender

“ Dear Heidi, Gavin and all the Tuningi Staff; Thank you for 3 spectacular days here. Your gracious hosting, knowledge of all around us, coupled with the beauty and wonder of Africa have given us an experience we will surely love to repeat ( and spread word of to our friends in the US). Thank you for opening our eyes to this part of Africa” – Susan, Tim, Racheal and Leah Yashar-Brown

“When it is snowing in Sweden, we enjoy all the animals and the wonderful atmosphere here at Tuningi! Thanks!” – Katikka Stahl

“Today was the best day in my life! I saw one of the wild dog’s pack. There was 8 wild dogs. My dad is going to be very jealous!” – Nanna Stahl 10 years

“On Wednesday I went to a Lodge and it was so nice there. Me and my family saw giraffes, lions, hyena, elephant, zebras, Kudo and a rhino but we did not see a leopard and a buffalo. The best of all was the pool because it was our own pool!” – Ebba Stahl 7 years

“Fourteen lions in one day. Amazing! Thank you so much for an unforgettable experience. We WILL be back!” – The Lewittes Family, New York

“Once again we had such a wonderful time. Staff from A –Z couldn’t be better, so friendly, made us feel so at home. Food excellent and beautiful presentations. Well done! I’m always so proud to bring family and friends from overseas to Tuningi. You make such a good impression of South-Africa every time. May you all be blessed!” – Lilian and Frank Bertchy

“Words can never describe the joy you gave each and every one of us during our Christmas vacation to South Africa. Tuningi Lodge is as close to heaven as it gets. Way exceeding our expectations. The generosity and warmth of Management and ALL staff was truly what made our family fill our memory bank with times and experiences we shall always cherish. Thank you for sharing your home and your hospitality. You all are the best. We hope that one day you will come to the States so we can return your generosity. Happy New Year – It has been a New Years Eve we will never ever forget!!” – Lots of love, Teresa and Gus Smith

“Once again we had such a wonderful time. Staff from A –Z couldn’t be better, so friendly, made us feel so at home. Food excellent and beautiful presentations. Well done! I’m always so proud to bring family and friends from overseas to Tuningi. You make such a good impression of South-Africa every time. May you all be blessed!” – Lilian and Frank Bertchy

“Words can never describe the joy you gave each and every one of us during our Christmas vacation to South Africa. Tuningi Lodge is as close to heaven as it gets. Way exceeding our expectations. The generosity and warmth of Management and ALL staff was truly what made our family fill our memory bank with times and experiences we shall always cherish. Thank you for sharing your home and your hospitality. You all are the best. We hope that one day you will come to the States so we can return your generosity. Happy New Year – It has been a New Years Eve we will never ever forget!!” – Lots of love, Teresa and Gus Smith

Well, there you have had your say. What more can WE say???

Keep well, and pick up the phone as soon as you have secured the dates of your next holiday. We are all waiting to see you again!

Kind regards
The Fabulous, Friendly T-team

For enquiries please contact :

Warmest greetings to you all once again!

At last! It rained! Maybe not as much as we were hoping for, but enough to turn the whole reserve from dusty and grey, to lush and bright green!

The most wonderful thing about the month of November in the bush is that the Impalas start dropping their babies. We all wait with the greatest anticipation to spot the first one of the season. One day there will be none, and the next day they seem to be all over the place. This creates havoc amongst the predators as all of a sudden easy food appears around every corner!

We have been up to all kinds of adventures this month!
For our year end function, we all went to Sun City for the day. It was great to just spend some fabulous quality time together as a team, out of our natural surroundings!

We came back revived and ready to take on another year with passion and enthusiasm.

We also organised a fantastic evening in the middle of the bush, with members of the philarmonic orchestra to come and play for us! This was to raise money to help stop rhino poaching in our country. To date 285 rhinos have already been killed for their horns this year alone! This means almost one every single day. We managed to raise almost R70 000 on the evening and used the money to set up and kit out a professional anti-poaching unit in Madikwe!

Last week we invited 20 grade six pupils from the Tswaragano Primary school near Zeerust to our Lodge. We educated them about conservation, animal habits and how a Lodge operates and treated them to a fabulous lunch and we also visited our favourite pre-school in Suppingstad to deliver buckets of sweets, lots of clothes and shoes and some Christmas crackers just for fun.

By now you must be wondering if we ever had the time to get out on game drive to see the animals! Well, we obviously did!

Christo will tell you more about that side of things:

Wow what an amazing 5 months it has been at Tuningi. Madikwe is such an amazing place, even after 5 months out in the veld almost every day, I can be sure there will be something that will leave me in awe of nature as has happened a few times in the last month.

Slowly but surely the drought is losing its grip on Madikwe, we haven’t had plenty of rain yet, but with the rain we had we can already see a big change in the veld. It is amazing how grateful this part of the country is of rain, only a small shower and the grass grows centimetres a day.

The wonderful news in the park is that the wild dogs has started running again, our small pack has three pups and now numbers 8 in total and our bigger pack now numbers 16 dogs in total! The last month we have had some amazing wild dog sightings, especially since the smaller pack seems to favour our lodge and the surrounding ridge.

It is also with great excitement that we welcome back all the migrant birds, needless to say that our birding is exquisite at the moment. Grant and I were lucky to stumble upon this Wahlberg’s Eagle in a pale form (quite rarely seen).

As always our lion sightings have been spectacular in the last month, Makwepa pan (a little pan fed by a solar pump that was Gavin’s idea) has really played a big part in many of our lion sightings and we regularly find either the Kgala males or the Chabalala females in the vicinity of the pan.

Another animal we have seen more of lately is the mythical and legendary Black Rhino (or more politically correct) the Hooked-lip rhino (or even more politically correct Dicerosbicornis). But enough of politics, these animals are slowly moving back to their previous home ranges and territories as the bushes and shrubs they feed on start sprouting new fresh leaves after the fire we had in the winter, thus making it easier for us as we now know where to go look for them again.

Well that was just a small glimpse in to what we get up to, if I have to mention all the wonderful and amazing sightings we have seen just in the last month I will probably get sued by the board of newsletter distributers (???) or someone that owns the internet (???) as it is just too much to mention.

Well we hope to see you at Tuningi soon to get a personal glimpse of the wonderful game viewing Madikwe has to offer.

Christo

Well, we won’t be chatting again until after Christmas.
We really hope that you will all have a fabulous festive season and that some of you will be joining us here at the Lodge for your Christmas holidays.

Keep well and kind regards
The adventurous T-team

For enquiries please contact :

Warmest greetings to all of you once again!

What a fabulous month September has been! With it being a dry month, with lots of dust in the air, the sunsets were even more spectacular than at other times of the year. Needless to say, our Rangers have been clicking away with their cameras like there is no tomorrow and surely produced some award winning photos!

Once again, we have been spoilt with lots and lots of return visitors. We have loved every minute of it. The greatest challenge for us is to see to it that each visit out-shines the previous one! At the lodge, we think up all kinds of new dishes to cook and more and more exciting things for the kids to do.

On the other side, the rangers go to even more extreme lengths to show our guests the rarest, the most extravagant, the cutest, the noisiest, etc animals on the planet.

This month Gavin tells us all about the best sightings of the month:

Ranger’s Report September 2010

Hello everybody,

This month has been a hectic one, the bush is getting extremely dry at the moment, and with suicide month looming, it will only get drier until the first rains fall, hopefully towards the end of October.

So with it being so dry the game viewing is very good because you are able to see quite far into the bush and able to spot the animals a little easier. The waterholes are cooking with huge herds of buffalo, rhino and elephant on a daily basis, as they come to quench their thirsts and to cool off in the mud as the daytime temperatures are reaching the early 30’s already.

The sightings of elephants at the lodge’s waterhole is also extremely active as 5 or 6 herds a day are passing by, which allows for our guests to get up close to them by viewing them from the deck. We were very lucky one night as we watched in amazement as 200+ buffalo joined us for a boma dinner under the African stars and our famous Fig Tree (FicusTuningii – lodges name).

As for the lions, well…..
Lion sightings in Madikwe are probably the best you will see anywhere in the world. The Mica pride are slowly moving their territory closer to the lodge from the east, as there is a new coalition of males which seems to be pushing their way in. The females don’t enjoy this too much as they have had 2 youngsters – “The Jabulani cubs” which could be under threat from the new males, therefore are forced to move in on the “Tchabalala” females territory. They came together two mornings ago at an elephant carcass, and there was a huge amount of roaring and scent marking to re-establish the boundaries. The Mica pride won this battle, as they outnumber the Tchabalala’s two to one.

The Tchaba pride to the north west have been intercepted by the Kgala males, which were in their oestrus cycle 2 weeks ago, so hopefully we will have brand new cubs in about 105 days from now !!!

On a more serious note, the Mateya male found his way into one of our sister lodge’s fence boundaries last week, and was seen laying on the pathway in front of one of the rooms….yip there were guests in that room, luckily the ranger found him before he found the ranger !! So we were called in to help get him out of the camp, but it was not as easy as it seemed, as he managed to find the thickest bush to hide under preventing us from shooting him with an anesthetic dart. We eventually got him under, and removed him from the lodge, where we later brought our guests to have a closer look at this magnificent animal as he was recovering from the drug. It was a great opportunity for the guests to touch the male lion and have a look from close up.

The wild dogs have still been elusive to say the least but we did manage to see them on a few occasions as they came to hunt around the Vlei pan area. We have confirmed that the big pack of 12 adults have now got 5 pups and that they are starting to run with the adults as they go in search of food.

The smaller pack of 7 adults are still in the Dwarsberg mountains to the south of the reserve, and we have only confirmed 1 puppy so far but I am sure there are more… Watch this space next month, as we will definitely see the dogs more often from now on!!

The cheetah has also made a welcome appearance in the last week with a couple of sightings around the airstrip and to the north west of the Park.

And just to finish and put the icing on the cake……
Christo had a huge stroke of luck when he located on a PANGOLIN !! Yes this is his first ever sighting in his career to give you an idea of the rarity of this animal, generally because of its shy and nocturnal behavior.

OK, that is it for this month.
Summer is in the air, the birds are returning from their migrations, the trees are blooming and the first baby Red Hartebeests have been born………………
Book now and join us in very exciting times ahead!!!

Lots of warm bush greetings,

GAVIN

Well, there you have it once again!
Please come and visit us soon! We can’t wait to see you again!
Kind regards
The Fabulous T-team!

PS : Don’t forget to check out the kiddies’ works of art!!

For enquiries please contact :

Warm greetings to you all!

Spring is in the air and life is just beautiful! August has been a terrific month for us here at the Lodge with lots and lots of old friends returning for a second or even third visit! We welcomed back people like the Barnards, Summerlees, Rebuffos, Varneys, Piechotas, Gomersall, Heuslers, Adams’, Shonborns and Kurlands.

No words can describe our delight when a familiar face enters our front door! We immediately go to our archives and dig up photos and memories of a previous visit and obviously try to turn the return visit into an even more memorable occasion than the previous one. A great example of this is of little Erin Kurland who took three years to come back! How wonderful to see that gorgeous girl again. We first met her when she was only three years old. How she has grown!

For those of you who have not been to Tuningi…… Come soon! Such a lot of return guests should show you that we are doing something right!

It is of course not just the Lodge, the service and the friendly staff that secure return bookings, it also has a lot to do with the amazing job our highly qualified Game Rangers do in showing off the abundance of game in the Reserve.

August seemed to produce the most fabulous lion sightings with some very awkward behavior like climbing trees, wrestling, taking mud baths, pretending to be leopard, killing enormous antelope, etc. Here are some guest photos.

Some more detail on the sightings from Grant:

We have been extremely lucky this month with animals around the lodge. With no rain and no water in the small pans around us the elephants, buffalo lions and even black rhino were regular visitors to our waterhole at the lodge.

But the most exiting of them all was when the Kgala Etali brothers killed a big eland bull just outside the lodge. I actually woke up one morning around 3:00 from the commotion outside. We only saw the evidence on the morning drive.

Eland are the largest antelope and can weigh up to Kg 850. They didn’t even move the carcass into shade or cover. I just think it was to heavy and knowing male lions they are very lazy.

We had fantastic interaction between the boys and a lioness that joined the feast after two days. The great thing about this sighting was we could see how everything disappeared gradually and how the scavengers were waiting patiently for the boys to finish up and go. Even the vultures were hanging around in the surrounding trees. Sadly they never got a chance to get down for some real action. At one stage one of the males used the vehicle to stalk a snooping spotted hyena. Lions in general hate hyenas but male lions have an obsessive grudge against them but most of the time the hyenas are one step ahead.

In the afternoons there was very little action and we mostly saw them eating early morning and in the evenings. For the rest of the time they were digesting in a deep sleep. They were there for about 5 days before they decided that they had enough. They really did a good job of finishing the carcass.

The only they left was the head and vertebrae and a few ribs. We went back on the fifth morning and found a few hyenas chomping away on the bones. These guys have extremely powerful jaw muscles and are capable of cracking open some really big bones.

That is more or less how this Madikwe CSI scene unfolded with all the evidence disappearing in front of us.

One afternoon we had the most bizarre sighting of black lions at one of the dams in the north. We arrived there and found three lions buried in the mud busy eating something. We couldn’t see what it was but we gathered that some antelope was thirsty and got stuck in the mud. In nature it works like this: one’s loss is the other one’s gain.

We went for sundowners with the idea to return to the dam and hopefully the lions would be out of the mud, and oh boy were they out in full force and feeling really sorry for themselves. This just goes to show that lions do scavenge as well.

We all thought that these lions woould never be the same again but we saw them the other day and they do look a little better.

Will chat soon
Grant

Well, if you are still not convinced that you should come and visit us soonest, I rest my case!
Have a wonderful September until we chat again!
Warmest regards
The fabulous T-team

For enquiries please contact :

Warmest greetings to all of you once again

As always, time has flown by as quick as lightning. It feels like just last week that we have sent out our last news letter.. I think it is because nowadays we are all communicating regularly on Facebook.
It is just wonderful to be in contact with so many of you on such a regular basis. We just love seeing our Lodge and some of your game drive experiences featured on your photo albums. Those of you that have not joined us yet, please do so right away! You will be updated with all the best sightings of the week, the who’s who of the lion prides, the cutest new baby photo’s, the politics of the wild dog packs, the elephant escapades, the best holiday deals, our chefs latest food trends and much, much more!

July was as wonderful and exciting as every other month of the year.

The only big difference was that South Africa ended the World Cup of Soccer in GREAT style and that we celebrated Nelson Mandela (MADIBA)’s ninety second birthday on the 18th of July. All South Africans joined in a notion of ‘DO GOOD FOR 67 MINUTES” to honour this incredible man.

We at Tuningi made vetkoek and minced beef for the children at our pet- project at Suppingstad pre-school and took some hot chocolate with as a special surprise!

To round it all off, our by now, legendary guest, Hillary Wylie, donated money again and helped us to buy nice soft mattresses for the little ones to sleep on in the middle of the day. Some more donations by Monita Laurent and Ron Delmont, helped us to get them all new hand gloves and warm socks! How WONDERFUL it feels to be able to spread the love!!!

Back at the Lodge…..

The game viewing has been magnificent as usual. One evening we were joined by the whole Mica pride for sundowners! What a beeeeg surprise! We all had to grab a drink and jump back into the vehicles, just to sit quietly and watch the inquisitive youngsters nosing around our tables full of juicy snacks!

On another day, to our huge excitement, Gavin found the only cheetah still alive in the reserve. What a rare sighting! We are so relieved to see that he is still in super condition and going strong.

The African wild cat was also spotted on more than one occasion, but let’s hear what our new ranger, Christo had to say about his first month at Tuningi :

“As a new addition to the T- team I still have to pinch myself everyday to make sure I am not dreaming. Working at the most amazing lodge with people that welcomed us with open arms into the T – team family still feels a bit unreal.

Talking about unreal, the game viewing this month was out of this world. We had various breath taking sightings of the Kgala males mating with some of the females in the park, (so pretty soon we should have a few more little yellow fluffy things running around).

Thlou dam also offered us the best of Madikwe, with large herds of elephant and buffalo congregating around the dam everyday. This is due to the fact that this late in the winter most of the smaller dams and pans have already dried up. This assembly of elephant and buffalo offers us remarkable animal interaction and sometimes tears of laughter as the baby elephants mimic their older siblings in chasing the buffalo around with a bewilderment of shrill trumpeting and little ears flapping.

Some of our more rare animals also made unexpected but very much appreciated appearances. We were very lucky to spot brown hyena on a few occasions, not usually viewed during the day, as they are nocturnal animals, and also had the most astounding African wild cat sightings, rarely seen as they are highly endangered and quite elusive.

The wild dogs also contributed to the wonderful sightings we’ve had recently. Definitely the most mentionable was when a pack of 12 dogs chased a kudu in to Thlou dam (yes, Thlou dam is cooking) where they killed and then proceeded to devour the young kudu bull and then played around the dam, sometimes right next to the game drive vehicle.

We went back to the dam early one morning to see if we could locate the dogs again, but to our surprise we found two young male lions with some of the remains of the kudu that they had dragged out of the dam and were desperately defending their steal from a clan of hyenas. We watched in amazement as the lions time and again charged at the hyenas to keep them away from the spoils. We realized again, that if you are desperate, you have much more guts than what is good for you! Even if you are operating in a crowd…..

Just can’t wait to get out there every day!
Remember to join us on Face-Book for our daily updates and best photos of the day!
See you soon
Christo

Well, just to round it all off…

A huge piece of our lovely bush was destroyed last week by veld fires which we all had to fight for three consecutive days, sometimes till after mid night as it was also threatening to burn down our lovely Lodge!

The most amazing thing is, though, that all the horrible blackness and devastation that the fires left behind, has already started turning in to a new green wonderland. How wonderful NATURE is. By next month Spring will be here, all will be green again, hundreds of little flowers will start pushing their colourful little faces to the surface and lots of chirpy migratory birds will be appearing on the horizon as they come back to our warm and sunny weather.

If you still have not been here, Do not hesitate! Make that booking today. As our quote of the month says: Why not???
We can’t wait to meet you!
Until we chat again
The friendly T-team!

For enquiries please contact :

reservations@madikwecollection.com

Warmest greetings once again from the African Bush!

We hope that you are well and that you have all had a great mid- year break! In South Africa June was all about the soccer World Cup! Hundreds of thousands of soccer fans arrived in our country in droves and the vibe has just been unbelievable! Most visitors not only found the soccer exciting, but also took some time to discover our beautiful country. Needless to say, we entertained many of them here at Tuningi and as always gave them a chance to experience up close and personal encounters with our fantastic wildlife!

We also introduced them to warm and flawless service, fabulous traditional cuisine, the best of South African wine and as always, ensured an all over unforgettable holiday! In a matter of days, some freezing cold weather changed the lush green vegetation into a dry looking grey and brown landscape. This has noticeably thinned out the bush and made for even better game viewing than we were used to before! It is espessially easier to spot leopard when the bush is less dense and our guests were spoilt with quite a few of these very special treats!

Once again, the Tuningi rangers showed their amazing talents in tracking even the most elusive of animals. This time it was Gavin who found the fluffiest little new born lion cubs hiding in the bush. As with tradition in Madikwe, the ranger who finds new cubs first gets to name them and with all the soccer fever in the air this month they were named after the World Cup soccer ball and are called ‘THE JABULANI CUBS’. They are four weeks old now and we expect to see more of them as their mother gradually starts to allow them to walk around with her as they get a bit older. It is just awesome to see such cute little gems in the wild and something everyone hopes for on every drive.

It seemed as if this great find was a sign of more lion sightings right through the month, so I asked Grant to give you an update on some of the incredible stuff our soccer fans experienced! Over to him, then….

On Tuesday morning we drove for hours before we actually saw something. These days, the winter chill is quite cutting when we leave on safari at 6:30 in the morning. We went out in search of lions . Normally we stand a better chance of finding them in the morning because they are still active and walking around. After our 3 hour drive we decided to go back to the lodge for breakfast. The whole morning we had been following signs of the south western pride but couldn’t locate on them.

Then as we were heading back I spotted some zebra not far from the camp and could see something was unfolding. I switched off the cruiser and could hear the alarm calls of the zebra and the birds. As we drove on slowly I saw the blood-stained face of a male lion in the yellow grass. I then knew we had just missed the kill. We drove in and found the three males busy feeding on the zebra.

We could see the brothers were extremely hungry so they didn’t even flinched when we drove in. We didn’t stay long and went for breakfast. After breakfast I told my guests that we should go back there. What a sighting we had. As we drove up I counted not 3 but 7 lions hanging around waiting for their own piece of the zebra. The interaction was amazing between the 3 different groups of lions. The Lenyalo males made the kill and then Mutuzi brother and sister with the Muratie males joined in. The Muratie males got a piece of the action because they are a coalition of 2. It was the Mutuzi’s that did not succeed. The young female was not confident enough to take on the males.

After a while one of the Lenyalo males decided to drag the carcass off into cover. That was when the action started. The reason he dragged it away was because the other lions had made a move on his food.

This was really the month of the lion. Our lion sightings were spectacular. It was late afternoon at Tau dam in the south west of Madikwe and we were bathed in golden light. The adults were still sleeping at the back of the dam so the youngsters decided to come and amuse themselves at the edge of the water. These are the Maropeng youngsters and they have grown quite a bit. They are 9 months old now. From a lion’s point we did not do too badly.

The picture below is Thlou dam in the north. For the winter it doesn’t look too bad. We had very late rainfall this year and this is the result. Well this is me for now. Come and join us on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates on our safaris in Madikwe.

Till next time!
Grant

Well, as you can see, there is never a dull moment here at Tuningi!
Come and visit us soon! We guarantee that you will have an unforgettable holiday!
Until next month!
Warmest regards
The T-team

For enquiries please contact :

Warmest greetings once again from the African Bush!

 At last, Autumn has arrived in all her glory, Leaves are falling on the ground in spectacular colour displays of orange, yellow and red. The early mornings and evenings are freezing cold, while the days are beautifully crisp but nice and comfortably warm.

We have had a very exciting month as our Executive chef, Marita Pelser, won the first ‘CHEF OF THE YEAR’ competition launched by Judi Dyason, who trained most of the chefs at the community lodges and Peter Channing, a director of the Madikwe Collection.

All the Collection lodges took part and were judged by Stephen Billingham, President of the South African Chef’s Assosiation as well as the Honorary president, Martin Cobald. Fabulous food was presented, all with a South African theme and Tuningi walked away with the trophy.

Well done Marita!

We also hosted the famous ‘White Zulu’ of South Africa this month! Johnny Clegg was here to perform ‘unplugged’ in front of sixty of our guests.

Although the weather threw us a curve ball or two, we never gave up and moved the venue from the bush braai site to the warmth of Tuningi’s Lapa at the last minute. What a huge success! Everybody just loved it and are already begging for another show.
Make sure not to miss something like this again. It truly was an unforgettable experience.

Instead of asking one of the Rangers to tell you about their sightings of the last month, one of our guests was so kind to let me have a look at the journal she wrote during her stay with us.

Here is a small extract from it. I thought you would like to hear about Tuningi from a guests perspective, for a change. Thank you so much to Rona Train, all the way from the US of A !!!

“As the only guests, we were given the prime suite with the best view of the elephant walk. Often photos online are deceiving and the actual accommodation is disappointing. In this instance, the photos did not do justice to the suite. It had a lovely huge bedroom with a king bed artfully draped in mosquito netting, plenty of storage, a stone fireplace opening to both the bedroom and large bathroom, a grand tub (with three rubber duckies), two sinks, and as the website indicated, the shower actually was outdoors but secluded. In fact, Grant told us we were staying in the best facility on Madikwe Reserve, and we began to believe it. After unpacking, we took quick naps and walked the slate stone path to the lodge for lunch.

It was the first of the beautifully presented and delicious meals we enjoyed at Tuningi. We had a chance to grab a few more winks before our first safari drive. We learned that the word ‘safariya’ is originally Arabic and describes a voyage or expedition during which discoveries might be made. Our first discovery was a baby puff adder, which Grant picked up by holding it behind the jaw to expose the fangs. This is the most venomous snake in Africa, and because its jaws are not hinged, can ingest rodents much larger than you would imagine. A beautiful yellow hornbill flew to a low branch for us to admire. Since this is not the mating season, both males and females look alike. When the time is right, males develop brilliant plumage to attract the girls.

Grant’s primary quest was for lions. He told us that he had been searching for them for three days, and a previous group had walked their legs to stumps in vain. Walk??? Not us. With the aid of radios, the various trackers could keep in touch and alert each other to their sightings. Lions are one of the few carnivores on the reserve, and will trap and eat anything they can. They look for the largest prey, such as wildebeest or rhinos, but an unlucky impala will do for a tasty snack. Grant showed us lion tracks, and was determined to find the source.

On the trail we spied a striking crimson-breasted shrike (a bird) just passing through. It became apparent that there was an actual road system through the bush. Wide red dirt roads led to narrower dirt roads which led to parallel but easily visible ruts which led to intermittent ruts which led to just plan scrub. And Grant fearlessly and sometimes very quickly drove us through them all in search of awesome sights.

Having confidence that a pride of lions were at a watering hole, Grant introduced us to an“African massage” as we bounced over a very rocky path to our destination. And there they were: 2 moms and their 1-to 2-year-old sons and daughter. The fathers were not in the area. From the swell of their bellies, Grant deduced that they were thirsty and lethargic following a good feed. They drank, they rested, they moseyed around a bit, and we found them fascinating. We had been warned to remain seated if we saw lions, but nothing else about our presence seemed to attract their attention in the least. We saw a large herd of impalas crossing a road in the distance, and wondered if the lions were up for a snack. It was interesting to observe the mother lions take notice of the herd, but they were too far away and the lions were not hungry enough to take action. Lions are powerful but not especially fast, so are cunning hunters who ambush their prey and depend upon surprise for their success. The impalas were not in striking or ambush position, yet we heard the alarm sounded by the impala lookout, warning the others that danger lurked nearby. Being unable to approach the waterhole, the impalas made do by grazing the salt lick. The white salt was visible in the dirt, and Grant told us that the animals also lick the iron from the red dirt.

We began our journey home and came upon elephants beginning to cross the road. We stopped to let them pass, watching them strip leaves from branches and gather huge trunkfuls of grass as they progressed. One very mature girl turned and walked right to our van, and I was ready to crawl under the seat for safety, until Grant assured me that to them we were just scenery. Sure enough, she just lumbered past us and kept going. I did note her extremely creased and wrinkled hide, and remarked that this is what happens to those who get too much sun.

As sun was beginning to descend, we re-traversed the rocky massage road and spied a rare sight: a mother white rhinoceros and her child. They were truly prehistoric, and did not choose to wait for us, so we didn’t have a long time to view them.

From a distance we caught a quick glimpse of kudus, similar to impalas but with very large ears. And frequently we saw zebra families. They are absolutely beautiful. Their markings are distinctive and unique, with black and also grey striping on white. Many even are beige instead of white across their back and sides. We learned that they identify each other by the unique striping of their rumps, sort of like zebra bar codes.

Our afternoon safari had lasted three hours, and by the time we returned it was 6:45 p.m., very cold, and dark. Our body clocks were very confused, and we were grateful to defrost with an alcoholic beverage and a wonderful dinner set in front of the warm fireplace. Following Grant’s recommendation, I chose the ostrich for dinner. It is red meat, mild and not gamey tasting, and very lean. The cherry sauce probably negated the low calorie count.

A very hot bath prepared us for a wonderful night’s rest, and we agreed that the previous 13 hours had been a memorable introduction to South Africa.”
Rona Train

We surely hope you have enjoyed that!
We will be running around all over the place this month as we will be hosting the World Cup Soccer and all the fans coming from all over the world.
Keep well until we chat again
Kind regards
Heidi and the fabulous T-team.

For enquiries please contact :

Hallo once again to all of you!

Winter is finally upon us! The only thing that is hiding this fact, is, that the bush is still completely green and lush, exactly as it has been the previous months. It seems as if we have skipped autumn this year as there is not a single golden or orange colored leaf around! Although the temperature has fallen significantly, it has continued raining right through the month of April as if it was the most common occurrence. The leaves will only start coloring, once the rain stops. After that they will fall slowly to the ground, thinning out the bush for even better game viewing than we are used to already.

Even though there are still lots to eat out there at the moment, the migratory birds have stuck to the program and felt the need to leave us for their usual greener pastures. Every April we stand in awe as the bee-eaters, swallows, rollers and some eagles all gather their guts, and fly away, often for hundreds of kilometers.

European Bee-eater		European Roller

These bird species are dependent on insects, flowers, fruit and seeds for sustenance. Food-sources like these are invariably at their highest concentrations in warmer areas, allowing birds that migrate to have a better chance of survival, particularly if they have to breed – possibly needing as much as 30% more energy then, than usual

Migration also has the spin-off of making life easier for birds that stay behind, resulting in less competition for scarce resources. Some species take a leisurely trip, stopping frequently at places of interest along the way. They take up to two months to get from South Africa to Europe. Others do not mess around, covering the 13 000 km in less than three weeks. Route selection is based upon food requirements, resting places, landmasses and prevailing winds. It still remains to be known how the birds know where to go, though. It is just one more of Mother Nature’s wonderful secrets.

Wahlberg’s Eagle

The Parks Board has just finished a game count in the park which showed us all that Madikwe as a Nature Reserve, is truly a great success story.

Amongst lots of other exiting game sightings, Grant and his guests had the privilege of watching some lions fight over food one day, and I asked him to tell you all about it.

We could really feel the difference in temp. Winter is on our doorstep. Driving slowly along I got the update that there were a pride of lions not too far from where we were. The grass was wet so I knew they would prefer to walk in the road, so we took our time to get there. We found all the females lying in the road and the one male next to the road. This was the Tshaba, Sebabas and Tsholo male.. This pride roams the north western sector of the Park

I saw that it was only the Sebabas there and that the Tshaba was missing. After a while, we spotted her, pursuing some zebra but with no success. They all got up and moved east along the road then all of a sudden they all turned north. I could see they were on to something. Suddenly all hell broke loose. They stumbled upon the two Serety males whilst busy eating on a wilde beest. They were caught off guard and the Tsholo male used the situation to his advantage.

To our surprise he chased off both males and really climbed into one of the Sereties. His brother ducked and abandoned him. The Sereties are very inexperienced in contrast with the Tsholo male who already has quite a few fights behind his name. The sounds and everything was majestic! We felt so small while we watched this scene unfold. It happened so quickly that I was too slow with the shutter. While Tsholo chased the Sereties around, the females with one young male took advantage of the situation and started munching on the food. The big male returned and all the females made way except the young male…..BIG MISTAKE !!!

Tsholo showed his full fury and took it out on the youngster. He was already pumping with adrenalin so it was even worse for the youngster. But if he knew his place he could have avoided that hiding. We all thought the youngster would back off but he kept his ground and Tsholo allowed him to stay on the carcass. The lions were on a roll after their victory. A black backed jackal paid dearly with his life for coming too close to the feeding lions. We spent a good time with the cats while they were feeding. What a morning we had.

Cheers
Grant”

Last but not the least!
Remember to book in for the weekend of 28 May. The wonderful Johnny Clegg, a real South African icon will treat you to an unplugged musical experience around a fabulous campfire in the middle of the bush! Do not miss this opportunity!

Also please watch out for us on the 26th of May on SABC 2. Tuningi will be featuring on the Afrikaans program ‘ PASELLA’ at 07h30.

Well, until next month when we chat again!
Have a wonderful Mother’s Day and keep planning your next trip to Tuningi.
We can’t wait to see you again!

Warmest regards
The T-Team

For enquiries please contact :

Warmest greetings to you all once again!

Here at Tuningi, we are constantly teaching our guests to look past the tip of the finger. If the sight of the blue skies start filling you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the bush suddenly has the power to move you, if you find the air exhilarating, if an animal is killed right in front of your eyes and you actually get to understand the reason and live the moment even if the violence upsets you, then you must rejoice, for your soul is finally alive!

What a wonderful month we have had! The game viewing has been so awesome, with all kinds of exciting and rare sightings been recorded by our rangers, that I decided to ask Gavin to tell you all about it in his own words!

WOW!!!

Firstly, the lions…..
Well the Tshabalala females and their now 5 month old youngsters are getting on extremely well, and are growing bigger, and bigger as they have just been weaned off of their mother’s protein rich milk, and are now subsisting on fresh meat.

The Tshabalala’s are finding wildebeest completely irresistible at the moment, as we witnessed at the beginning of the month….. It was a windless evening with all but the night jars’ soothing calls in the distance, when we located the two lionesses in full stalk mode and as I swung the spotlight to the north I noticed a big herd of wildebeest grazing happily in the long green grass unaware that their biggest foe was about to make an incursion into their tight knit circle. We were observing their sleek body lines as they weaved in between the bushes downwind of the wildebeest, when suddenly from nowhere the wildebeest scattered in all directions with one of the females in hot pursuit of the lagging wildebeest caught totally by surprise. The dust eventually subsided with no visual of the lionesses or the wildebeest when a loud bellowing noise erupted out of the bushes to my south. I quickly turned my spotlight in that direction and there she was hanging tightly on to the throat as the struggling wildebeest finally succumbed to the brute force of one of the strongest predators in the world.

The guests with me at the time were so fixated on what they had just seen that they were completely speechless for about ten minutes after the wildebeest had died as I reassured them that the “ death of one, is the life of another”. The lionesses then suddenly stood up and presumably went to fetch the cubs. The next morning the carcass was empty with only a hyena and a jackal finishing off the scraps. This pride has killed no less than 6 wildebeest this month with two in one go on one occasion. So if the females keep going at this rate the cubs seem to have the survival odds stacked in their favor.

The prides from the north west and east of the park are also doing very well and they have been seen mating last week, so in three months time, we may have new bundles of fur running around !!

Sitting at the waterholes in the park have given us many awesome sightings of the big herds of buffalo, elephant, zebra, wildebeest and rhino which make their appearance at the waterholes on a daily basis. The elephants and rhinos especially love the mud baths on the hot afternoons which help them beat the heat of the afternoon sun as well as ridding them of the parasites which reside on their pacciderm skins.

Large journeys of giraffe have also been a big bonus as you are driving around the park looking for the elusive leopard; they have a sense of calm about them as they stroll around in search of some juicy acacia trees to nibble on. Two giraffe were also killed by three young male lions and the Mica pride from the east giving amazing interactions between the brown and spotted hyenas fighting each other off for the remains of the carcasses.

As far as the wild dogs go, things couldn’t get better!!
The Dwarsberg pack (14 dogs) have been terrorizing the impala populations in the park, killing and devouring the antelope on many occasions in full view of our lucky guests who were brave enough to get up on these now chilly mornings.

On one occasion at Vlei pan, we were following the Collection Pack of 6 dogs for about 20 minutes observing their stealth and speed as they charged after a herd of impala when they disappeared in a northerly direction. We then decided to go for a sundowner in one of the open clearings and just as everybody started sipping on their gin and tonics and enjoying the variety of snacks on offer, one of the guests who went behind a bush to “mark her territory” came running back towards us with a rather bewildered look on her face shouting “ HYENA……HYENA…. !!!”

We all looked back at her with great amusement, only to see a wild dog chasing an impala at high speed right passed our drinks table, with the rest of the pack in hot pursuit.

So we ordered the guests to jump into the vehicle and leaving our table, drinks, snacks and all to follow the dogs. The wild dogs ended up chasing the hapless impala into a waterhole with only its head sticking above the water. The dogs were all running around the water’s edge with great excitement trying to reach their prize.

Well…… it wasn’t long after that, when one of the dogs jumped into the water towards the impala and grabbed it by the throat and unceremoniously dragged it to dry land when 6 hungry wild dogs ripped it apart in spectacular fashion. Five minutes later there was only a few bones remaining.

But wait, it gets better!!!!

All the excitement and giggling noises the dogs made drew the attention of none other than…. THE MICA PRIDE!!!

Yip, now the dogs themselves were in grave danger as the lions started stalking the dogs that were blissfully unaware of the impending danger. It was just about dark now, and the lions would have the upper hand with the deteriorating light conditions. The lions were now only 30 meters away from the dogs and creeping ever closer when a loud bark echoed into the cool night air….. Lions charged……dogs fleeing everywhere!!!

Luckily, all the dogs managed to escape the lion attack and the situation was neutralized leaving the lions to sniff around the scene of the crime to find not much but a few bones. This was one of the most amazing moments we have ever witnessed in the bush. Anyway, we returned to our sundowner tables to reflect on what we had just seen.

That was not the end of the wild dog sightings, as we were once again following the Collection pack around one morning relentlessly searching for a meal when we heard the high pitched giggling sounds of what could have only been the Dwarsberg Pack. The Collection pack froze dead in their tracks with ears outstretched in the direction of the noise.

Suddenly they all took off towards the raucous with us hot on their heels only to find the Dwarsberg pack ripping an impala to pieces. What happened next was a colossal clash between the two packs of dogs of which neither me or Grant had seen in our ten years of guiding. There were dogs everywhere, chasing each other at high speed around the vehicles and screeching and howling at each other as they obviously were not enjoying each other’s company. Words cannot describe to you all what we witnessed that day but it lasted about 25 minutes before we lost the visual of them moving south away from us.

To close on the wild dogs, the Alpha males and females from both packs have been seen mating at the beginning of the month so in about two months or so they will be giving birth to anything between 5 and 10 new born pups, which will boost the population of what is the rarest carnivore in Africa at the moment!!

I told you it was WOW !!!

Anyway….. to round off a great month of game viewing the leopard sightings in the park have been getting better as well with the very relaxed female from the south making her appearance on several occasions not far from the lodge and if you are lucky enough to see her she is the ultimate pinnacle of every safari.

So……. Make your reservation!!! Come to Tuningi and you too can be witness to all the ongoing saga and drama of the African Bush ……………………
Kindest regards to all of you,
Until we chat again.
Gavin.

On a completely different note! Lord Madikwe, as we love to call him, came for yet another visit to Tuningi.