Guest Letter

22/10/2011 Africa

We arrived at the Pilanesberg National Park in the dead of the night. It was Friday the 22nd October and we had been travelling for at least 2hrs.
Ivory Tree Game Lodge lay in the darkness, and you could hear the distant calls of the insects, calling to one another. A slight shiver ran down my spine as the cold became more noticeable.
After we had settled into our room, there was an overall feeling that we were going to have a really fabulous time at Ivory Tree, and as we made our way down to dinner we were greeted by our guide who introduced himself as William. Little did we know he would not just become our friend but he would touch our hearts.
The next morning we got up nice and early and made our way down to the lodge to grab some coffee, and maybe a biscuit or two, and then made our way to the jeep. It was a very cold morning and the air was sharp. The sky was a mixture of blue, white and orange, and you could hear the distant sound of a bird that called “Work har-der” or “Drink lag-er” (whichever you prefer), in its own rhythmical tune. It was William that brought our attention to this, (William every time I heard this bird tweet this tune, it really made me laugh inside, as I could really relate to what you had said).
There were 8 of us in total including William, but it soon became 7 when one of the guests had to leave to go home. (Carlos) ha-ha.
The engine revved and off we went into the wilderness. I had my green poncho wrapped around me like a cocoon, with the cold wind blowing into my face. We stopped at some Impala, and our Ranger, William, described them as the McDonalds of the bush and showed us the M shaped mark on their bottoms before adding “mmmm,mmmm Pala.” The whole jeep laughed out loud.
We saw lots of very interesting animals that day. We saw two bull Elephants, eating from a tree as well as lots of Giraffes. I put in a special request, to see Wildebeest, and by golly did I see a lot of them, I was more than satisfied.
We stopped at a picnic site within the park and had tea and coffee and ate chocolate, toffee and blueberry muffins. William told us he had been up at 3am baking them and everyone believed him for just a minute. Even though it was still slightly cold, everybody was in high spirit and we all enjoyed ourselves. William continued to give us lots of interesting facts about the area. But the banter within the truck became hysterical e.g. the tree, dead dog with no bark and man-eating Zebras
William found it funny that I had assumed the Zebra was one of the Big Five because I felt it had been hunted for its skin, after seeing the Zebra skin at the airport and I thought it would attack humans and animals with its hooves. We all laughed as we imagined a Zebra trying to attack us and the jokes afterwards were always about man-eating Zebras. A lady on the trip referred to a Warthog as an Aardvark and this produced more hysterical laughter, and we referred to Warthogs after that as Aardvarks and everybody knew what is was.

It was very exciting when William located a Leopard, it was dark outside and so he shone his spotlight on it on the hillside. This was very exciting for all of us, and was one of the highlights of our trip, and we have William to thank for that.

On the journey back to the lodge in the darkness, William stopped quickly and after leaving his vehicle returned with a Chameleon perched on his hand. This was only one of a few interesting and unusual things that William pointed out, others included, lions footprints, spiders webs, birds’ nests, snake tracks and the effects of burning elephant dung. All of which were really interesting.
William went to great lengths to show us a female lion and her 3 baby cubs, and this was eventually successful when the female lion and her three cubs walked gently passed our vehicle. We also saw 14 Rhino on the Sunday as we made it our mission to find as many as possible.
William helped to create a memory for me that I will never forget and will always treasure.
Dear William
At the beginning of this story I mentioned that you had touched our hearts, and on the way to Sun City, after we had waved goodbye to you, we all cried our eyes out, but they were happy tears because we had enjoyed the trip so much.
You helped make Africa a really memorable experience. You really made me laugh, and I have learnt things about animals that I never knew.
If ever you come to England, you are very welcome to come and stay with us, and I hope I will be coming back to Africa very soon, as it is the best place I have ever visited, and is the only place I have ever felt truly emotional and sad to be leaving.
I hope to see you again, and I hope we can stay in touch. I enjoyed reading the stories you wrote and gave me, I thought they were really good. I miss Africa already and I have only been gone a day.
Have you had an English breakfast tea since the day you tried it?
Thank you so, so much. X
Jasmine Newton

The little ones make the difference

Last night we went out on the afternoon game drive and at last the first summer rains came to Pilanesberg and the insects and amphibians in the Pilanesberg came to life. Dung beetles were spotted, termites were out on their nuptial flight, millipedes all over the road and the very prominent call of the banded rubber frog was present in the early hours of the morning. All of the above mentioned little creatures play a vital role in the functioning of the ecosystem. Dung beetles are responsible for the eradication of all the dung in the reserve and by burying their dung balls they put back vital nutrients and trace elements back into the soil for later consumption by plants and if it wasn’t for dung beetles the entire Africa would be covered up by a meter high dung layer. Termites also play a vital role, they serve as a major food source for a huge variety of animals but also through their feeding habits they put back nutrients in the soil. In general insects are a necessity for all life on earth for example if all the insects in the world would be eradicated, 64% of the remaining animal life would go extinct due to starvation. The insect life on the Pilanesberg is massive and be sure to be on the look out for them on your next stay at Ivory Tree Game lodge. Always remember that real men don’t stand on ants.

Ranger
Gerhard.

Lion vs Leopard

This morning started out brilliantly, as we left the lodge one of our other vehicles called in a sighting of a lioness, TT, and her two cubs. The cubs are about a year and a half old so are already quite big. The lions were about 20 meters off the road in a burnt area, and to make the sighting even better there were two rhino standing in the middle of the road about 40 meters away from the lions. Eventually the lions moved on and obviously the rhino moved in the opposite direction.

After an excited coffee stop we responded to another lion sighting, this one being Noku and her cubs. These cubs however are only a couple of months old. They were on a eland carcass and to our delight there was a big male leopard approaching the kill from the side of a mountain. The leopard took his time as he was very wary of the lioness. Eventually he came within about hundred meters from the lioness when she saw him. He froze in mid stride, there was a standoff for about 5 minutes when the lioness suddenly charged. The leopard immediately ran straight up the mountain to avoid any further attention. The lioness eventually went behind the carcass to digest her meal in the cool shade of a small Beachwood.

To see these big cats interacting is really a privilege that few get to witness, needless to say we were all ecstatic!

Ranger Neill

Nat Geo Lions

Now one might ask himself what National Geographic lions are, so let me explain. In general lions sleep for an average of between 20 and 22 hours a day. But if you watch National Geographic it looks like all they do the whole day and night is hunt. This morning we almost had that!

Leonard and I had a group that really wanted to see some lions up close, so naturally when one of the other rangers found three lionesses we responded. The sighting was absolutely brilliant, they were right next to the road in an area where the grass was burnt away completely with nice green shoots starting to pop out. They came out and walk down the road, then one saw a warthog running across the road and set after it.

She eventually ended up chasing it across the road right in front of us, the second female chasing close behind. As is more common with lions than any other big predator, they missed. Then the one behind us started chasing a wildebeest, but she also missed. Then crazy enough another ranger found two more wildebeest further up the road stalking wildebeest. There was so much going on that no-one actually knew where to go! Eventually one of the wildebeest thought something out of place and gave an alarm call, which of course got all the wildebeests’ attention, enabling them to escape the stalking lionesses.

We spent a good hour and a half in the sighting, unfortunately without seeing a kill, but we still got a lot of excitement and a sighting that none of us will forget soon.

Ranger Neill

Leopard in the Pilanesberg Game reserve

When I started at Ivory Tree Game Lodge in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve there was still a Big Five experience I had not had (LEOPARD).

During my training and introduction to how the Ivory Tree Game Lodge ranger team operates and works as a well-oiled machine, one of the perks was to be able to go on safari with fellow rangers and learn the different ways each and every one conducts an unforgettable experience. During this time I had my first leopard and to make it even more exiting she had a very young cub with her, the sighting was short but wonderful and I will never forget my first elusive cat.

This is where it gets great, since then I have had a number of great sightings of leopard. My fellow Rangers recon I will run out of luck soon enough but I say the bush owes me a phew more, after all, I had not seen a leopard until the age of thirty two, crazy I know.

So here are some of the pictures of sightings. This one was taken on safari by some of my guest from Indonesia. They were super lucky on this day to see this cat after nine in the mornig.

On Mankwe first plain:





This was a great sighting and lasted for some time.

This is one of many sightings I had at a place called red cyanide:



This cub and his sibling as well as their mother have been seen here regularly as there den is nearby.
This brings me to this point, I started this story on the 20/07/2011.
About two months after the previous photo on the 20/07/2011 I have this wonderful sighting of the same cubs with guests from Dubai. So my luck on safari has still not run out!!


So here are the pics




If you look carefully you can see the second leopard behind the bottom of his rump area but only its back.

So yes for me safari's at Ivory Tree Game Lodge in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve has been great this far.

Ranger William.

Ranger’s surprise

Sometimes the rangers at Ivory Tree Game Lodge decides to head into the Pilanesberg National Park to go have some fun, most of the time though it is work related. And if for some reason they have to go to Sun City it is much preferred to rather do a personal little safari through the park instead of driving around the park.

Yesterday was one such day. The rangers had to go to Sun City for shooting practice and decided to drive through the Pilanesberg National Park. Not long into the park we saw some wildebeest, impala, giraffe, and all the usual plains game. What we did not know was this was about to turn into a dream safari.

About 5km from Ivory Tree Game Lodge we saw a vehicle parked off to the side of the road. Some of the guys joked and said it would be elephant, some said rhino, and I took a wild guess and said leopard. When we parked behind the vehicle we couldn’t really see anything, but when we moved a bit back, lo and behold, there she was, a beautiful leopard walking through the open plains.

Her body posture also suggested that she might be hunting, which at this stage we couldn’t understand as we couldn’t really see any animals around. Then one of the guys spotted a warthog under a tree. The leopard moved under a tree right next to the one the warthog was using.

We waited for quite a while after she disappeared into the shade, and then all of a sudden warthog came running out everywhere! It was absolute chaos for the warthog, they had managed to completely surround the leopard, giving her a big range to pick from. In retrospect this might actually be what saved them, as the leopard might have had difficulty deciding which one to chase.

In the end all the warthog managed to escape and the leopard decided to head for higher ground, hopefully to plan her next attempt. What caught us all off guard though was the time this all took place, about half past 10 in the morning. That is always something to remember, the animals don’t read the books we write about them.

Ranger Neill

Wildlife Photography by Kevin Jeffery