South Africa Game Lodges
News From Marloth Park
Genie Retief is a renowned birding guide and wildlife expert who lives and works out of the Marloth Park Private Game Reserve on the borders of Kruger National Park. She is available for small group, private and exclusive tours through the park and in any of the birding regions of South Africa. Feel free to contact Genie on any matters wild or bird life in South Africa
I found a dead bushbuck fawn in the veld yesterday. It was so tiny with a wet head and chest that at first I thought it had been still-born. But on closer inspection it transpired that it was at least a month old and the wet areas were the result of being partially swallowed and then regurgitated by an African Rock Python. Looking around hastily in case the python was still around, we continued our work.
Our work this morning was to find and remove a very invasive weed called Chromolaena odorata, which can invade and totally take over the riverine habitat in our reserve. Where is our reserve? Well, Marloth Park is a wild-life conservancy which has the Crocodile River as a common border with the Kruger National Park. It has the same vegetation as the southern area of the Kruger Park. Here the houses – mostly small lodges – are built among the trees and animals are free to walk where they please.
Date: July 15th, 2008 |
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Ecotourism Africa Style
Ecotourism
The concept of ecotourism in Africa has many facets and interpretations, but at its most fundamental it is an effort to ensure the long-term viability of vulnerable and threatened ecosystems through the medium of the tourist dollar. The term applied is high yield, low impact tourism, which is obviously bad news for the low yielders amongst us, however in recent years potent lessons have been learned in this regard throughout Africa. In particular this is true in east Africa where budget tours sold on the street corners of Nairobi have tended to fill the key wild life preserves with hordes of mini buses, often obliterating any authenticity in the experience of wildlife Africa.
A secondary factor that has often preceded irredeemable environmental destruction is the fact the local communities living on the fringes of established national parks and wildlife areas are isolated from the ebb and flow of tourism, and rarely see any material benefits. Competition for grazing and hunting rights also tend to negate any goodwill towards the conservation movement, which is in many ways a battle lost for the hearts and minds of the common people.
Community Involvement
A combination, therefore, of selective, high return land use with a discernible return to local communities is a no-brainer if poverty is to be defeated and the environment preserved. It is an idea that has gained much currency over the last 20 years or so, with a variety of project types such as the Zimbabwean CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources) movement. At its core this includes local communities in projects related to commercial hunting or ecotourisim in their areas, but tends on the whole to be donor supported, which is an inherent defeat of the concept of sustainability.
Date: April 2nd, 2008 |
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Volunteer work in South Africa: A helping holiday
Volunteering holidays are a highly enriching and immersive way to experience a foreign culture at the most grass roots level.
A number of exiting and exotic opportunities are now listed on Bootsnall, where you can choose your destination, activities and budget.
Most include accommodation and some include meals and excursions, all look like fantastic life changing experiences.
These selected opportunities currently exist in South Africa:
Animal Rescue society near Cape Town, South Africa:
This centre is a domestic animal rescue organisation located near Cape Town. Their goal is to provide animal health care and sterilisation to the local impoverished communities along with running an adoption programme for abandoned stray animals. Your work here will take on many roles from feeding and caring for the many animals to working closely with staff as they go out into the local informal settlements to collect, return and vaccinate animals on site. There is also the opportunity to work along side the resident vet, who requires assistance daily; this is not for the faint hearted. On quieter days you can get involved with a programme called ‘Open Paw’ which is a training programme to help the dogs understand basic commands helping with the adoption process.
Lion Monitoring Expedition in South Africa:
This is a chance for any lion lover to get up close and personal with these magnificent predators and other African mammals. Work alongside experienced researchers while learning and putting into practice, tracking and research techniques in South Africa. The reserve is based between the small towns of Gravelotte and Mica in the Limpopo Province and covers over 30,000 hectares of African wilderness. It is home to elephants, leopard, white rhino and various antelope species; you will be in the midst of some of the worlds most fascinating wildlife on a day-to-day basis. This is an amazing opportunity to learn about conservation and predator management, while enjoying a truly wilderness area, excellent wildlife viewing and at the same time contribution to African wildlife conservation. Your assistance in actively monitoring a lion pride is vital for the future development and success of this project and would make a fantastic addition to a gap year, sabbatical or annual holiday.
Date: September 13th, 2007 |
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Impressions of the Kruger
It’s tough to get back in to work after being on holiday and I am already planning to escape to Madagascar or thereabouts.
My impressions of the Kruger park have changed somewhat for the better. The facilities are greatly improved and have a “swish” factor that for sure did not exist 5 years ago. Also the whole surrounding area has gone through a major revamp and the towns of Nelspruit, White River and Hazyview are almost unrecognisable. Real coffee from a real espresso machine was obtainable from all of the larger rest camps within the park, in times gone by this …
Date: March 27th, 2007 |
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Skyways; Gecko Lodge rainforest canopy “foofy slide”
Yesterday , we got up early and had booked at the skyways treetop ride above the rainforest canopy. It is run from the Gecko Lodge on the Sabie Road in Hazyview, and take groups of up to 8 up to the top of hill by Land Rover and then you chicane down or what we call in South Africa a “Foofy Slide”. I don’t know how it got that name, but it is quite ubiquitous here. The forest is lush and thickly wooded with indigenous trees, which is quite rare for the area, as SAPPI ((South African Paper Product Incorporated) guess) has planted thin pine almost everwhere for use in the countries toilet paper etc.
Date: March 18th, 2007 |
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Canyons, Cheetahs & Kruger
Canyons, Cheetah & Kruger
Canyons, Cheetahs & Kruger is somewhat cheaper in value as Boots n’all trips go. It is certainly not as good value as the Dunes, Delta & Falls option. In truth adventure travel through Mpumalanga, unless you happen to have to stop and change a flat tyre in a hijack hotspot, or one of those long freeway shoulders where livid red signs warn you for your own safety not to stop, is likely to be minimal.
The main features of the trip: Blyde River Canyon, Kruger National Park, Edeni Private Game Reserve and an endangered species reintroduction program are all worthwhile, but they come across a little as short hop trips of the kind one might take from a backpackers lodge while waiting to jump on an overland truck or to fly out.
Date: April 24th, 2008 |
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Luxury Lodges & Private Game Reserves
A signature feature of African travel is the concept of luxury wilderness and game lodges. This approach to touching the wild in Africa is usually not for the faint of pocket, but in exchange for this a high degree of exclusivity can be expected, coupled with the work of celebrated interior designers, and the attentions of accomplished hospitality professionals against a backdrop of one extensive private wildlife reserve or another. There are certain destinations that are better at this than others, but arguably the crème de la crème of luxury wilderness hospitality establishments anywhere on the continent are currently to be found along the Botswana/South Africa/Mozambique axis.
Touch the Wild in Style
In the area of the Kruger National Park, for example, there are some two dozen high profile game lodges clustered on the fringes of the main reserve. The usual fare of game walks, bird watching, relaxation and Haute Cuisine can be selectively combined with spa facilities, aroma therapy, health & wellness, and a variety of sporting options, all within, against or upon the raw bushveld that defines the region; and all feeding easily into the vast facility of Kruger National Park itself. In KwaZulu/Natal, associated with the St. Lucia (iSimangaliso) Wetland Park and the Hluhluwe National Park is the themed Hluhluwe River Lodge, and further north the superb Pinda Lodge situated on a 22 000 acre private conservation area in the Maputaland region, and also associated with the greater St Lucia Wetlands reserve.
Date: March 27th, 2008 |
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Most poisonous animals in South Africa. Top 5.
In Australia, just about everything is toxic and deadly. It is home to the worlds only known poisonous mammal, the duck billed platypus, the stupendously lethal box jellyfish and the blue ringed octopus, amongst many, many others.
True Blue Aussies are not going to lose sleep coming to South Africa, but perhaps the British, who’s most poisonous animal is the house cat, may be more tentative.
Date: May 22nd, 2007 |
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Kruger park; 2nd game drive
We did another long game drive today from the Phabeni gate to the Orpen dam and then circled around to come out of the Kruger National Park Gate. It took about 7 hours or so and saw some incredible scenery. There are 2 lookout points that you must not miss if you are in the area. The hide at Orpen dam and the Nkumbe lookout, which overlooks miles of plains.
Date: March 18th, 2007 |
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Wildlife at Sabie River Sun
Hippo’s only feed at night and can travel large distances in their search for enough short grass to fill them up. Every night at 6:30pm the wardens here open the gates to let the hippo’s out to graze on the fairways and also down to the Sabie river banks. There are 25 hippo’s in the lake and come out tentatively one by one and are only seperated from you by a single strand of electric wire and little pole which the daddy hippo would use as a toothpick. Out of the 25 I saw one baby hippo, about as big as a medium sized dog, scampering around trying to stay in his mommy’s shadow. Glad I did not bring my Jack Russel, Maxy, he would have been in there trying to play with it staright away.
Date: March 18th, 2007 |
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