We also got our rifle at last after many months of waiting.  So we did our first bush braai again in a long time and had a great time, I must say the insects are quite hectic around the lanterns on the table, but nonetheless we had a great time as zebra and wildebeest grazed around us during dinner.

Things at the lodge are going great with no major changes during the festive season. All the major maintenance issues are up to date. We will recap in January on the clean up at the building site and get the whole staff area in order with the boma and braai area.  The guys are busy moving into their new rooms and are very excited about it. In the beginning of December I also redid our whole garden at our house with new grass in front and back, you are welcome to pop in when you are at the lodge next time. I also started a small herb garden that got sponsored by Simon Dabbs , thank you Simon ! We will see how long we can keep the klipspringer out.

We had just over 40mm of rain for December and everything looks great. We also had a beautiful full rainbow the one afternoon over the Inselbergs. Was one of my most special scenes in Madikwe ever.

Sighting wise we cannot complain. We got treated to magical African scenes here in Madikwe once again.  I am not sure if all of you know about Ditaba Sepedi that got killed by the Lenyalo males a while back. It was time for them to give the rains over. The North East of the park is ruled by a coalition of three now and they are busy mating with the females in the east.

The Etali female had 2 new cubs and she hangs around Tholo dam. I am sure that some of you who have been to Nkurru the last 2 months can really see a difference in general game numbers since the lions have been reduced. It is great seeing herds of everything around.  The relaxed Maukeng male leopard is also still around and treat us every now and then to a great sighting.

Every now and then we get treated to some or other special moment and one of those days were at Tholo dam where a big bull elephant played around with some lions.

I am sure some of you will agree that it is nice staying out a bit later in the morning and see what is happening at the waterholes. This specific morning we passed Thlou dam later then normal and we found some lions , ellies and rhino at the dam with some general game.

Here’s a few photos of what happened out there:

Hope you guys have a great new year and may all good things come your way in 2012.

Warmest Regards

The Nkurru Team

Hi Everybody,

Hope you are all well ?

I can not believe it is almost Christmas, I only realised it when I made  a point to look at the date yesterday. When you live out here in the bush everyday is a Wednesday and everyday is the 3rd ………. No it is not always like that I just can not believe this year flew by like it did. Regarding the rain we had in total about 60mm so far and everything is turning green and new flowers coming out all over the park.

We had very interesting month at Nkurru again like always. The staff building is 95 % complete and looks great , thank you again to all of you ! All that needs to go in now is the windows and basins. The staff can not wait to move in.

We aslo had  our Xmas lunch in Mafikeng a few days ago and everybody had a great time. We completed a few maintenance tasks as well this month and the lodge looks great:

• New deck lights got installed and looks fantastic
• New pump for rim flow of swimming pool
• New concrete entrance at front door with a slate finish
• New bird bath opposite the entrance to room 3
• We are installing new electrical lanterns along the path ways, it looks great
• Picked up the new umbrella covers for outside umbrellas
• All of us have uniform now and the Nkurru team looks great
• Trimmed down the reed bed completely, very important to maximize filtration and water flow to the waterhole

I just want to say  thank you to Simon and Lynne Dabbs who donated another Bushnell camera for the waterhole. I will do updates on the blog again on who is coming to the waterhole.  They  also donated  an ice cream maker for the kitchen, so get your sorbet recipes out for the hot summer lunches

It will be great to see who is visiting us while we are not around the lodge, hopefully the ellies and lions leaves this one alone

The sightings was again very exiting with good leopard and wild dog sightings. The birding is getting better and better by the day as well. On a more depressing note I am sure you guys are aware of the 2 recent rhino poaching incidents in the north of the Park.  But Madikwe management are doing everything in their power to fight this.

Most of you guys have been coming to Madikwe many years now and when we go out it is not always about seeing the big and fury stuff, but you can not argue the fact that it is great to see a beautiful leopard.  We have been very lucky with the male up in the North western corner, he is extending his territory to Tholo dam.  So hopefully we will get to see him next time you are at the lodge.

With that we wish you all a merry Xmas and a happy new year. For you that is lucky enough to spend the merry season with us we will tell you in person. Remember to pack your swimming gear when you do come , picture this: Gin and Tonic in the swimming pool under a blue Madikwe sky with zebra and impala lazying around the waterhole

See you soon

Warmest Regards

The Nkurru Team

Hi everybody,

I trust you are all well ?

We had once again a very interesting month here at Nkurru regarding sightings and just in general. As you all know the building was a bit of a disaster but it was rectified and the old building is broken down and the new building is going up as I write the newsletter. I just want to thank all the shareholders on behalf of myself and Monique and all the staff , they are all looking so forward to the new rooms.

We have done quite a bit in and around the lodge this month

• the painting of the family unit inside and outside, looks great
• Painted all showers on the inside
• Sanded/oiled windows at kitchen
• The deck lights gets put in next week
• Fixing up the rim flow of the swimming pool and the pipes next week
• The main entrance gets a permanent concrete entrance to main lodge no more mud when it rains
• All the fireplaces in the rooms were taken out and got given a good scrub down
• You guys will notice new products for him/her in the rooms
• All the rooms have new toilet seats, looks great
• Bush cleared infront of room 4/5 , what  difference
• New umbrella covers for swimming pool area got made, still waiting delivery
• There is a new espresso machine in the lodge, old coffee machine will be used for back up

So that is some of the things we got up to this month.

We are taking the staff to Mafikeng 22/23 November for a nice lunch at Mabatho Palms Resort to say thank you for all their hard work during the year.

Ok so enough of lodge matters.

Out in da bush

The game drives this month was out of this world again, even though we are struggling with general game at the moment. We still had quality sightings ,in one week we  had three different good leopard sightings. It definitely has to do with the lion numbers that is on the decrease.

This is the Maukeng male from the North West, we followed him in mid day round about 12:30 and sat with him for more then 15 min.

The next morning we went on another birding trek and I stoppped for I think was a Sabota lark and as we tried to figure out his number plate, someone said softly ” there is a leopard in the marula ” This is the female from the South West that we normally see on the fenceline at the view point.

A few days later we had  her again in a Marula tree after breakfast

It is amazing how one predator influence the whole system. We even see more smaller things at night like african wild cat, caracal and genet. Somebody spotted a white tailed mongoose on Wonderboom the other night, what  a sighting !

Even though the big cats were out we also made time photograph the smaller critters like this slender mongoose. It is amazing what happens when you sit still and let nature just happens around you.

One of the canines everybody asks about when they come to Madikwe is the Wild dogs. We have been seeing them here on the ridge between Kukama, Motswiri , Nkurru ,Tuningi and Buffalo ridge on a regular basis. Zede from Motswiri saw one puppy with them still black so the den has to be here somewhere around us.  We did have good sightings of them as well.

The birding was also very good the last two weeks, when John and Margie Austin were here we did 152 species during their stay which I think is not too bad. The glossy Ibis made his appearance at Tshukkudu dam as well. The rest of the birds including the raptors are all over the show. At Makwepa pan we see a pair of Willow warblers. The black cuckoo shrike can be seen on Greenhouse road in those thickets. Well Id’d Jono The lion sightings have been a bit quite but the other things made up for it.

Madikwe had the buffalo auction in October and they auctioned 46 buffalo…………drum role and hold on for this……they made R 58 ooo ooo . Well done on this project ! No one expected this, it went very well.

They are talking about bringing in 2500 heads of general game next year with the Cheetah introduction early next year as well.

I will keep you guys posted. This is me for this month, see you guys soon at the lodge

Warmest Regards

The Nkurru Team

The Lodge

Monique and myself are on leave after quite a long cycle and a change in the seasons where our days have become really warm and pleasant. Sean Van der merwe will be freelancing for us, we will start work again on the 6th of October.We had quite an interesting month at Nkurru with Nicolas getting attacked by the honey badgers and luckily he just got a big fright and not a single scratch. I am informing you with great sadness that our resident Small spotted genet died underneath the main deck of the lodge,of what I am not sure.

We are busy with quite a few small projects in and around the lodge and have completed a few maintenance tasks as well. We have completed the Nkurru plains project and it looks fantastic. In front of room 4/5 will be cleared next so that one can see through to the firebreak.

We had a walk through all the rooms and drawn up a list of things that needs attention and we will work through list as we have time and days available to attend to it.  Some of the things that we completed the last 2 weeks :

• Sanded and oiled all outside furniture at main lodge and rooms
• Electrical issues in room 1/2 sorted with new fittings and dimmer switches
• Cleaned out all the water tanks.
• Trimmed and cleaned out the reed bed.
• Cleaned up at the staff village
• Nkurru Plains done.

News on our rifle is that the license and accreditation have been approved now we are just waiting for the white card. We have done something new regarding activities at the lodge and that is getting out an astronomy expert for a presentation on the  Southern sky. His name is Vincent Nettman from Astronomy for the nation. Vincent was brilliant, he brought his telescopes along and we did a drive and he did a presentation out in the bush.

All though it was full moon we were able to see for example Saturn and a few other stars and constellations. After dinner he gave a talk and slideshow presentation. If you guys would like to something like that next time you are up here just let me know well in advance. Vincent suggested that after November is the best time to do stargazing.

Game drives:

We had once again brilliant sightings of everything this month and the waterhole also never disappointed. We spent quite a bit of time around Vlei Pan where the sightings of general game have been out of this world.

The Northwestern pride also provides us with hours of entertainment and fantastic viewing. The consist out of 3 females 8 cubs 2 big males with the old Tshaba female with them as well.  With the cubs getting bigger they are moving more and further every week. The 3rd week of September they were all on a giraffe kill up in the North Western corner of the park and Rob the Jackal man were planning on getting some images of his jackal around the kill, but the youngsters had different ideas for the camera trap.

So it is not just Nkurru Cams that gets eaten by the lions. These cats are quite in tuned with todays technology These cubs are really getting big and prviding for them are getting tougher and tougher. The females are really coping well, with the two Kgala males constantly by their side.

Our sighting of the month was of a bird of completely different feathers, we were sitting at Vleischfontein waterhole watching some lions and elephants when this lady showed up on the other side of the fence with her camera clicking away and ignoring us completely, as we are trying to let her know the lions are like 20m. away from her. I can not understand the ignorance of some people , but hey each to its own I suppose. Below is some of the images I took this month.

Hope you enjoyed this months news and see you soon at the lodge.

Greetings

The Nkurru Family

Lodge news

Well its been 4 busy weeks at Nkurru, but all great and exciting. We have settled in getting around lots of things. The two klipspringer in camp had a baby so they are three now. Their names are Klippies -Dad, Coke-Mom Ys-baby. As soon as I get a photo of them I will put it on the site.  We have changed all the products in the rooms to Andrew’s new Beauty Factory products the Earthbound Range. These products are fantastic….and yes I have used some of it as well Thank you Andrew.

We have started cleaning up in the back of the staff village and laundry, looking great so far. It is a great time of the year but we all wish the Tamboti trees will finish up dropping there leaves, Nick is permanently on his rake and broom flying around after the leaves. We haven’t put up another Nkurru cam yet, still working on a plan against the elephants. News from the Kitchen, Monique and Gabriel are working magic so be prepared to pick up a few kilos when you are at the lodge next time.

Water hole sightings :

• Lions
• Elephants
• Buffalo
• White and black rhino
• Leopard
• Brown hyaena/ spotted hyena
• a lot of general game
• The scops owl is calling around the waterhole every night.

We had a big Birthday bash at the lodge on the weekend of the 20th of August, went for breakfast at Madikwe Gardens and had a spit on the fire. For Simon’s birthday we Notched 4 rhino, 3 white and one black. It is great that more people get involved in the conservation and protection of these animals.

Park and Game drive news

It is that time of the year again, FIRE, FIRE AND MORE FIRES ! On the 27th of August myself, Nic and Godfrey help fighting fires in the South East of the Park started at 22:30 till 13:30 the next day. It was the biggest man made back burn in the history of Madikwe. It is amazing how quickly a fire can spread. Luckily no one got hurt and no lodges got burnt down.

The sightings the last while were fantastic and the lions in the South East with the new cubs made sure we had great experiences.

It is great seeing the cubs and the fact that they are all ready so use to the vehicles makes it special for us. They are only 2 months old now. The Madikwe buffalo auction will also be taking place in the park somewhere in October 2011.  The big herd around Thlou dam are hanging around The bush house and Thlou dam currently.

The females of the South East around Vlei Pan, the Jamala females have introduced the cubs to their fathers the  Naledi males and everything went well.  It is such a tense moment for the females when they do introduce them , but these two boys are so chilled out. The plan for the cheetah introduction might happen next year, Declan said. Well this our story for this month, below is a few images of some of the sightings we had:

It is great to be on the vehicle with people who shares the same passion of photography. We can try different things like shoot right into the sun and the results were great. Hope you enjoyed the Nkurru news

See you next time

Warmest Regards

The Nkurru Family

Hi everyone,

As you are all aware there have been quite a few changes at Nkurru lately. Myself and Monique just finished our first week, and everything went great. The staff are so helpful in all ways and we are settling in smoothly.  The hand over we got from Gerry and Adele was so thorough from the  maintenance to the office work, they really made the hand over easy.

There was a maintenance week the last week of July  before Gerry and Adele left and quite a few things were worked on. Below are some of the major things that were completed :

• Main lodge decks were sanded and oiled
• Room 4 and 5 the decks were sanded and oiled
• New aloes were purchased at Madikwe gardens and replanted in front of the main lodge by he turning circle, it looks great !
• All the roofs and chimneys of the rooms were given a layer of paint again.

Just an update on our building project, everything is going well and we will start with the roof and plumbing on Thursday. As soon as it doesn’t look like a building site I will put some photos on the blog.On Wednesday we will oil the main lodge’s deck again and get everything ready for Duncan and Eva on Friday.We got our Land rover back from Nico and so far it is running smoothly.

Nkurru waterhole :

The bush clearing at the waterhole is an ongoing project and will keep happening when we have no guests in camp.

The last 2 weeks the water hole have been extremely busy from guinea fowl to the big elephants everyday. The elephants are really emptying the waterhole when they move in and are extremely protective over this source of life. Nothing can come close to the water’s edge. On Sunday we had a young bull there the whole day chasing of all the other species including giraffe. Species seen at the waterhole lately :

• Elephants
• Buffalo
• Giraffe
• Brown and spotted hyena
• Leopard, during conservation week
• Zebra, kudu, impala and wildebeest
• White rhino , every evening

News from our game drives :

The sightings have been great like always ! Since the South Western pride have been removed our sightings in the South are none existing regarding lions, so we don’t spend as much time in the south as always.

I must say the birding is still excellent down South.

We were fortunate enough to spend quality time with the Maukeng male leopard on Monday morning. He is probably the most relaxed leopard in the Park as most of you have seen him before.

Maukeng Male

Thlou dam is one of the most picturesque places in Madikwe with sunsets at the moment, nothing beats a winter sunset I am sure you will agree with me ? The Wild dogs are still around Tau lodge on the mountain Madonna. We haven’t seen the pups yet, hopefully soon. All we know is that the alpha female stays at the den most of the time so there should be pups. We are extremely blessed to have a yellow morph crimson breasted shrike on the northern fence line and he gives all the birders , serious or none serious, great sightings.

Well that is what’s been happening around Nkurru the last two weeks. We are looking forward in seeing you guys at the lodge. Just to let you all know I am also a keen photographer so don’t forget your camera  :) I aslo try and do a regular blog on happenings in Madikwe, go and have look                                                                                                 Grant Marcus Photography

www.grantmarcus.com

If you guys need any additional info don’t hesitate to contact us at the lodge at any time

See you soon

The Nkurru Family

We are almost through the first quarter of the year and things are going very well at Nkurru.

With the AGM coming up in a few weeks time I thought I’d focus this newsletter more on the ‘nature’ side of things as we will be discussing the operational side of things when we meet.  Just a reminder, the meeting will take place on Thursday 24 March at the Le Sel offices in New Road Midrand.

Now as you might have gathered from yesterday’s email, we had quite an interesting day yesterday.

Yeah, this is the ellie that made Nkurru his home yesterday.  You cannot really see it from this image but the aloes just to the left of the entrance.  Gone!  We’re actually quite luck as this was, apart from a single pathway light, the only damaged caused by our day visitor.  This boy has been around the lodges on the ridge and has now ‘visited’ Tuningi, Kukam, Motswiri and now Nkurru as well.  He seems to have taken a liking to the lodges in the Wonderboom Node so even though I hope he won’t be back, I am almost sure he will!  If you leave him alone he seems to mind his own business and then, when he is ready, he moves on again.

We will be doing what we can to make sure visitors like this don’t stay in the lodge grounds but that being said, when you visit Nkurru it is important to remember that it is the wild and that you always need to keep your eyes open.

Our ellie visitor made his way out of the front gate late in the afternoon with a little bit of  ’encouragement’ from Nik and I.  Let’s leave it at that!

Other than that the waterhole, where we like our wildlfie, has been pretty busy with regular sightings of pretty much everything except leopard.  As you know from a previous post, when Adele and I return from Johannesburg we will be bringing two new Nkurru Cams back with us.  The images from this phenomenal little cameras have been a massive hit and have been circulated far and wide.  As soon as we are back I will get the Nkurru Cam updates back up and running again so that we can do the weekly image post from the NKurru waterhole.

So for now, here are a few images from game drives during the last few weeks which, even with very thick bush, has produced some terrific sightings with the amount, and quality of lion sightings being out of this world!

The Bolekega female has been giving us some amazing sightings around the Wonderboom Gate area.  She has two brand new youngsters which she keeps in the quarry, right next to the Lodges sign.  This image was taken at Pokojwe Pan close to Bush House.

The two new youngsters in the quarry.  Yesterday, 9 March, the other Bolekega sister also arrived on the scene with three of her own cubs.  This promises to make for some awesome sightings of the 5 new cubs and the best of all?  It’s nice and close to the lodge!

The two Kgala males are still the big boys in the South.  They have had a few serious run-ins with the two Naledi males but, at least for now, they are still the dominant males in the South West of the reserve.

The Tshabalala female has just come into estrous again and the Kgala males have not left her side.  Along with her sister and the 5 Maropeng youngsters they must be some of the best lions to view in the South.

The Tshabalala femela with her ‘boyfriend’, the Kgala male.

One of the 5 Maropeng youngsters.  They hang around the Western airstrip and, being very playful, make for some very amusing sightings.

The light at this time of year makes for spectacular scenes and even a Zebra on the airstrip makes for a great African scene.

The last few weeks we have had some serious birders at the lodge and Madikwe did not disappoint.  Sightings of raptors were plentiful and we racked up great species numbers each week.

Now another thing that you have to consider when you come to Nkurru again is a visit to the Madikwe Gardens.  Our last two groups have done visit to this oasis on the eastern side of Madikwe and it is definitely worth the drive to the east.

The Gardens are situated on a concession on the eastern border, just outside of Madikwe.  It’s difficult to describe how the green and lush beauty of the garden’s stand in contrast to the rough Mawike bushveld but the drive out to the east, past Vlei pan and through the Marico river is definitely worth it. An a packed breakfast under the massive trees just finishes things off nicely!

A visit to the Gardens cost R650 per vehicle and this money is used for the upkeep and maintenance of this beautiful piece of property!  When you next visit Madikwe make sure to ask us about a day trip.  You won’t be dissapointed.

Then, before we end off for this month, apparently Adele and I are leaving.  Yeah, apparently.   There have been quite a few rumors that because we both now have our own businesses on the side that our departure from Nkurru is imminent.

So, to put things straight here it is…

Yes, both Adele and I have business on the side.  I run Photo-Africa through which I run photography workshop, photographic safaris and soon also a pro equipment rental division.  Adele recently started up Chiki Chika, a clothing and fashion importing business which is going fantastically well.

The sad reality is that no one can spend forever at a lodge.  Yeah the lifestyle is great, even though it’s not a full time holiday like many people think, but you have to keep your eye on the future both financially and from a personal growth point of view.

During the first two years at Nkurru we had quite a bit of, umm, damage control that we had to take care of but now things are a lot more manageable.  We have knocked most of the large maintenance projects and the staff systems and procedures we have in place are working very well.  There are still days where all hell breaks loose, even though you won’t see it when you are at the lodge but as a whole things are running smoothly enough for us to manage the lodge and out businesses on the side.  We are currently running all our showing, workshops and safaris during our leave cycles and so far so good!

I hope it goes without saying that Nkurru Game Lodge will not suffer because of this.  We will continue to maintain the property, service levels and magic that is Nkurru to the level that meets, and hopefully exceeds, the expectations of shareholders and guests.

So, contrary to any rumours out there, we are not going anywhere yet!

Adele and I will be on leave from 11 to 25 March 2011.  We will be in and around Johannesburg so if you are keen to meet up please give us a shout.

Until next time (and hopefully with more Nkurru Cam pics).

Warmest regards,

Gerry, Adele and the Nkurru Team

* * *

Let me start by wishing you the very best for 2011!  After a long December holiday I am sure you must all be well rested and ready for another year.  Working in the hospitality industry means that you seldomly get to spend Xmas and New Years with friends and family.  Yeah, that’s the nature of the beats but with good friends in the reserve and guests who are more than just shareholders it’s not all bad.

The bush is green, there is water everywhere and Madikwe is looking great!   If you were at the lodge up until November you will recall that Tlou Dam was a massive dust bowl with virtually no water.  All it took was one major downpour to transform it from it’s winter appearance into this.

86mm in one night will dramatic results wherever you are!  Since that first rainstorm we have had pretty good rains and we are currently sitting on about 240mm.

Electricity, Insurance and a Transformer

Now with rainstorms comes lightning.  And with lightning, if you are Nkurru Game Lodge, comes new transformers.  Our brand new transformer was damaged by lightning on 15 December, a day before all the contractors close for the holiday season.  Long story short, we were able to get a new transformer installed the day before Xmas but now, and this has been a drama of note, we do not only have this insurance claim pending butt he previous one as well.

I am not going to go into all the nitty gritty details now, but the short version is that we were paid out for our new electrical cable and it has already been installed and it’s working great.  The rest of the claim is still pending as there are a number of items, such as our previous transformer, that also needed to be fixed.  As things stand, we are waiting for the legal outcome of the initial claim and now also the claim for our second new transformer.

During this same thunderstorm it was not only Nkurru that sustained damage but Mooifontein, Motswiri and Hillside all lost major equipment, from transformer to generators.  To say that it has been stressful / frustrating / annoying is an understatement.  Things have been dealt with but now we are waiting for the outcome of the insurance claims and inquiries which, should it not go our way, might result in our lodge budget taking a bit of a knock.  This is something we have been fighting very hard for because everything else, budget wise, has been going great this last year!  We will obviously keep you all posted as to how things work out.

Operational Matters

Since there is a lot to do and take care of before our AGM I am only going to go over a few small operational reminded now and we can then get back to major items and planning for next year close to the meeting.

• SMS - Please do not SMS the lodge any urgent changes to menu or guest info.  As you know the signal is very bad and we sometimes only get the SMS a few days later.  Email and pone is by far the best to get hold of us.

• Cigarettes - If you smoke, or if any of your guests smoke, please ask them to not throw their stompies over the room balconies.  We recently did a clean up and it was quite shocking as to the number of stompies we had to pick up.

• CapEx - we are currently in the process of putting a CapEx list together for next year so if you have any thoughts please email them through to the lodge.

• Catering - If the lodge is doing your catering, please remember that we need your menu details by no later than 10AM on the Monday before you arrive.  We have to get our orders in to our suppliers by midday Monday.

Staff

When you are next at the lodge, I would also like it if you take the time to ask any of the staff members to take you of a ‘tour’ of the staff village.  This is not only to show you what goes on behind the scenes but it will also help us to manage the tidiness of the village a bit better.  The staff are completely responsible for the cleanliness of the village, their rooms and the area around their rooms and we would love to hear yuor feedback, both good and bad, so that we can take steps to remedy any situation that might arise.

Wildlife

The sightings have not been as plentiful as in winter because the bush is very very thick.  Madikwe never disappointing though and we have been having quality rather than quantity.  Images tell a much better story so here goes:

Photographed this giraffe on the afternoon of 25 December.  Stunning colors!

The Kgala males are still one of the most dominant coalitions in Madikwe.  However, during the last few months the two Naledi brothers have been looking for a fight.  We have found both sets of males with serious injuries but so far everything is still the way it was.  Gonna be an interesting time ahead though!

The latest game count puts the number of elephants in Madikwe around 800.  Yeah, a lot!  You can always be assured of some amazing sightings when you visit Nkurru.

The general game in Madikwe is doing very well.  There are youngsters everywhere!

If you choose to go out in the rain you can get some amazing sightings!  This female was trying to sit out the rain next to the Western Airstrip.  She looked absolutely miserable but we were quite comfy under the canopy of our new Land Cruiser!

Taken at the same time as the image above, this young male was also quite miserable.  when the storm faded a couple of minutes later we watched as the seven lions hunted zebra on the airstrip.  One hour later… close.  Very very close!

When I photographed this image we were sitting on Tlou Dam wall and could literally not see Tswene Tswene.  It was an absolute cloudburst.  Luckily these giraffes kept us busy for a while.  Didn’;t help though and we had to basically row back home.

Just a bit of fun from yesterday’s drive.

Not wildlife.  Simply Ziggy relaxing.

So with that it’s time to say goodbye.

FYI, Adele and I will be on leave from Thursday 14 January until Sunday 20 January.  For the first 8 days we will not be contactable via phone or email as we are heading up to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park with some friends.  Have not been away on a proper holiday for quite some time, and after the last few weeks we are REALLY looking forward to this one.

Will be back again next month as we pick up on a lot of operational matters leading up to the AGM.

I’ll leave you with one last image.  Truly Africa!

As always we look forward to hearing from you.

Warmest regards,

Gerry, Adele and the Nkurru Team

What a few months it has been.  Fires, insurance claims, more fires, new vehicles and even more fires!

Let’s start with this.

I shot this scene from Nik’s View North the day after the most recent fires in Madikwe.  The regular inselberg landscape scene that we all know and love was still covered with smoke from the previous days raging fires.  It was just not as vibrant and magical as it always is but the sky over Tswene Tswene was absolutely spectacular.

On this particular day there was also a strange hangover-type feeling in the west of the reserve.  Many people spent the previous day fighting massive fires that ran wild on the ridge between our lodge and the Wonderboom Gate and the evening was spent checking, double checking and triple checking that the winds did not start another fire.  It was tiring.  Very tiring.

I am not going to go into too much details on the fires but will say this.  It is an absolute miracle that no buildings or infrastructure was lost on Sunday.  I have never seen such a devastating fire run wild without causing massive damage.  Through the perseverance of many people, lots of running around and a serious amount of luck we were able to stop the fire from taking a lodge.  Nkurru never really came into play, even though we were seriously worried late in the afternoon, but our fire breaks are still some of the best in the reserve.  I am also proud to say that our staff knows what they are doing.  My hat goes off to Godfrey for the way he helped to fight the fires and save the various lodges.  I will fight fires with him anytime, anywhere!

The little truck that can.  Our fire cart, as it is in the driveway right now.  We will be leaving the cart like this, ready to go, until the first proper rains arrive.  Our fire cart is probably one of the most important pieces of equipment we have at the lodge and it most definitely brought it’s A-game to the fires of 24 October.  we had to fill up three times during the day and it never missed a beat!

Nkurru – Insurance Claim

Back at the lodge, things are going well even though the last two cycles have been somewhat (read very) challenging.  During out last cycle we had to deal with the damage from the fires and fight with insurance with regards to payouts to try and get our cable fixed.

Insurance has finally paid out for the damage to our cable and we will start installing the new cable on Monday 1 November.  Instead of doing this in exactly the same way as it was done initially, we will be securing the cable by encasing it and cementing it in the places where we cannot dig it into the ground.  Two or three manhole covers will allow us to check the cable and, should the need even arise in future, pull the old cable out and install a new one.

Now apart from the above cable installation the lodge still had to cough up a lot of money for other damage caused, and costs incurred, due to the fire.  This is an ongoing ‘discussion’ with our insurers so we will keep you posted.

Nkurru – Maintenance

As you might know, we had a maintenance week during October.  This was not planned but it was very welcome as we had a lot of smaller, and some not so small, projects to get done.  Here are a few images of projects completed during maintenance week and the week after.

In an attempt to neaten up the front of the lodge we have fitted ‘latte’ around the bottom of the deck.  This is similar ot the deck on the waterhole side of the lodge and makes a huge difference to the look of the front area.

While working with the latte we had ‘latte’ cages built and installed around all the outside aircon units and geysers.  The above image shows the aircon unit outside the wine cellar.

This image shows the new cover on the aircon unit outside room 4.  All aircon units and geysers have been fitted with a cover.  Looks great and, even though it is quite a small thing, makes a huge difference in our attempt to make the lodge ‘neater’.

During maintenance week we fitted a new pool filter.  The old filter cracked and was spurting heaps of filter sand into the pool leaving a sandy mess.  While we were installing the filter we also drained the pool and properly cleaned the surface.  Looks great!  In this image, even though you probably won’t see it, we scrubbed off all the stone tiles and treated then with stone sealer.  Small things, but they all count.

Yeah, this is our spotlight tree at the waterhole.  With the numbers of elephants we get at the waterhole it is an absolute miracle that this tree is still standing.  After a few close calls we decided to pack a bunch o logs around the bottom of the tree.  Looks pretty natural, will keep the ellies away and, when we throw a handful of bird seed into the logs, attracts a huge amounts of birds!

This is an interesting one.  We cut the reeds, seen above, 5 weeks ago.  It is truly growing like reeds.  Earlier this morning we started to thin the reeds out a bit by removing them from the root.  The reason?  They are growing so well and using so much water that the waterhole was not getting enough water!  We removed a lot of the reeds, and added a leadwood stump, in order to streamline the water flow and attract more birds to the open areas in the reedbed.  Strange problem to have at the lodge… something workgin too well?!?

The sliding doors at the lodge are working again!  It was a huge project as all the doors and the entire fitting had to be removed, redone and replaced but at least now both sets of sliding doors are working like they should.  In the bottom corner of the image you can also see a bit of the deck.  During maintenance week the decks at the main lodge and all the rooms were cleaned and oiled.  we oil the decks every three months.

The area outside the kitchen is in the middle of a ‘beautification’ process.  What you see here is the result of filling the area, where there used to be slate stone, with soil and flatten it.  The next step, and this will happen as soon as I find the correct color, is to cover the are with pebbles.  This is all part of CapEx and I reckon it’s gonna make the area look great.  Just out of view to the right is a new retaining wall that we have built to help channel rain water away from this area and the kitchen door.  With the rainy season approaching this was a must!

This might not look very impressive from the image but this was one of the largest projects we tackled during maintenance week.  The image shows the view from the Room 5 shower.  The problem here was that it always felt a little dark and dingy due to all the plant growth but a new chainsaw and a lot of hands allowed us to smash through about 40 meters of sickle bush to open up a view from the deck of Room 4 & 5 all the way onto the fire break.  Looks great!  We also opened up the view from Room 1 and 2 so everything is ready for summer!

Apart form the above there are a lot of smaller projects which we have been ticking off the list.  A lot of these things you probably won’t notice during your stay but they still need to happen!

Nkurru – Rifle Application

There is no new news on this.  You will recall that we have finally been issued with our business certificate (to use and own a firearm).  Our final license application documents were handed in at the beginning of May this year.  Firearm control was, as luck would have it, closed during the World Cup so as things stand now we are still waiting.  We spoke to the local police station, who is our contact in this matter, and they said there is no news yet so all we can do at this stage is wait.

Will let you know as soon as we receive the call to tell us we can go and collect our license and rifle.

Nkurru – New Game Viewer

I have just, literally 5 minutes ago, received an email form the company who is doing our conversion saying that the vehicles roof has just been cut off and that it will be going to the paint shop on Wednesday.  The bullbar, side bars and fold out table has also all been completed and is ready to be fitted ot the vehicle as soon as it returns from the paint shop.

I spent a lot of time on the conversion and when we get our vehicle it will be one of the very few ‘legal’ vehicles in Madikwe.  In order to be registered as an 11 seater vehicle there are certain criteria that have to be met.  Our vehicle will meet all of these criteria and will therefore be a legal vehicle in Madikwe and on national roads.

I will be going on leave next week and during my time in Johannesburg I will go and pop in at the converters to check on progress.  All going well I am hoping to bring the vehicle back to the reserve on 22 November when we return from leave.

Can’t wait for this one!  We’re talking kid in a candy store type of excited!

Wildlife and Sightings

During the last few weeks the sightings have been pretty erratic.  I suppose the numerous burnt areas and us not being able to off road has made things a little difficult but, Madikwe being the park that it is, you can always be assured of some amazing sights.

The Sable’s Final Moments

I am sure you all know about this one by now.  The above image, by Grant Marcus from Tuningi, shows the last moments of Madikwe’s last Sable.  You will see in the image that the sable broke his front right leg and this must be what made the dogs pull him down.  It is very sad that the last Sable had to go this way but nature is cruel and, you never know what is going to happen.

On a side note, the sable’s skull was taken to a lodge, with the intention of it going to Parks Board offices but a brown hyena had other ideas.  The hyena came into the lodge, found the skull and carried it off somewhere.  Let’s hope someone can actually find it.

‘Bulls’ – Image by Gerry van der Walt

He’s back at Nkurru.  Yeah, everybody’s favorite elephant, Tsokwane, is hagning out at Nkurr again.  A lot!

The whole in his ear is unmistakable and he is just as chill as ever.  I photographed him a few days ago while sitting in the floor with my back against the deck.   Gotta love the old guy!

‘Uncertain’ – Image by Gerry van der Walt

Not going down the whole poaching road now, as I might get completely carried away.  Madikwe still offers some amazing rhino sightings and it is great to know that there are people out there who are fighting for these amazing animals.

‘Focus’ – Image by Gerry van der Walt

This is one of the Naledi males photographed at Phuti open clearing.  The two Naledi brothers are the first grandsons of the Batia brothers and if they keep on moving into the areas where we have been seeing them the last while they might have to call on those genes in a big way.

These to males, currently about 6 years old, have been wandering into Kgala territory.

Bad plan…

The Kgala brothers are brutes and do not take to kindly to other males in their territory, as Mateya and his brother knows very well.  Mateya, who is still going strong even though he got lost a while ago and is still limping quite badly, was injured by the Kgala males in a territorial fight more than year ago.

With the number of lions in Madikwe these kind of soap opera plots keep on evolving and things are currently changing so often so make sure to ask about what the latest lion news is when next you get to the lodge.

‘Bull’ – Image by Gerry van der Walt

There is currently very few waterholes in Madikwe.  Tlou Dam is still, well, a puddle but other than that the most active watering holes are down in the south.  The above image is from the waterhole at the old hunting camp down in the south.  Park Board has been pumping it a bit lately and I have had some of my best ever elephant sightings here during the last few weeks.

We have also made a new wtarehole on Tau Link. Makwepa Pan was an immediate hit and is now regularly visited by elephant, the Kgala males and a range of other species.  Awesome spot!

‘La Luna’ – Image by Gerry van der Walt

Winter always means amazing evening skies.  The last few weeks we have been desperate for rain but the evening skies have been spectacular.  Shot this one night from the lodge driveway.

Right, that’s about that for this month.

Next week Adele and I will be going on leave next week.  We still have one annual week left for 2010 so in order to get a decent rest after a hectic two cycles we will be taking three weeks off.  During the first week we will be going to Bangkok (long story and more on this later).  For the rest of the two weeks, apart from a few days in KZN, we will be in and around Durban.  If you are keen to meet up for a coffee or lunch give us a shout on my email address or cellphone.  Always great to meet up!

We will be back at the lodge on Wednesday 24 November so please keep this in mind when you contact the lodge during this time.

Before we say goodbye one more image taken at Tlou Dam earlier this month.

It’s moments like this that make Africa unique and us all coming back to Madikwe again and again.

‘Sunset Queen’ – Image by Gerry van der Walt

Until we meet at the lodge again – take care and stay safe!

Warmest regards,

Gerry, Adele and the Nkurru Team

Yeah, this edition of the Nkurru newsletter should have been online in August but, as mentioned in one of my email, the last 7 weeks have been somewhat of a challenging time at the lodge.  In between insurance claims, breaking vehicles and still going on drive it is quite amazing that there is still a general sense of humor and good vibe around the lodge.  Throughout this tough time the staff has been amazing which helped a lot!  Thanks guys!

Fires Update

A quick update on the fires that raged in the reserve a month or so ago.  Nature is amazing in it’s ability to recover and almost all the areas where the fires went through is showing amazing growth.  The green grass is growing all over the place and as soon as the rains come life is going to explode back into Madikwe.  The general game on these green areas is spectacular and the only thing that really impacts our game drives is the fact that we cannot off-road on areas where the new grass is less than 10cm long.  Almost there!

Electrical Cable Claim

This has been a nightmare.  As you know, our electrical cable got burnt in the fires and we have been working on the insurance claim.  This sounds much easier than it really is and the process is still ongoing.  We have incurred a huge amount of costs trying to fix the lodge and various pieces of equipment that got damaged, which also includes lots of generator costs.  We will keep you posted as things develop.

Game Drive Vehicle

I took the above image of the Nkurru vehicle a few weeks ago and since then it has been giving a huge amount of trouble.  Again.  The vehicle is currently at the mechanic to be fixed which means we are renting a vehicle and costing us more money.  After trying to get the necessary info from all the shareholders, which is apparently an impossible task, one of the shareholders have been able to arrange for a great deal on a new Cruiser.  He will be buying it on his name and then sell it to the lodge so that we can get the process rolling.  Soon.  Hopefully very soon.

Wildlife

Sightings the last few weeks have been pretty quiet.  Some nice one in between but by Madikwe standards pretty quiet.  Here are a selection of images form the last few weeks.

Our resident Klipspringer is still around the lodge.  At last count there were three of the cute little guys living inside the Nkurru fence.  Keep an eye out for them!

This is the Mateya male leaving our waterhole a few morning ago.  With water being very scarce in the park, our waterhole has been very busy!

Our rhino sightings are always great but unfortunately their numbers continue to decline due to poaching.  2010 has seen 192 rhinos being killed by poachers in South Africa.  Very sad.

We found the Madikwe cheetah again a few days ago.  We bumped into him close to the airstrip and spent quite a bit of time following him through the bush.  An amazingly beautiful animal.

Shot this earlier this morning from the lodge deck.  Yeah, from the lodge deck!  Ask me about it when you are next at the lodge!

That is about that for Madikwe wildlife for now.

Now as you might know Photo-Africa, my photography company, runs workshops and photographic safaris.  The workshops are run either from Johannesburg or Pretoria so please drop me an email if you would like more info.  I am also very excited about a number of photographic safaris I will be leading next year so if you are keen to explore more of Africa with me let me know!

Here are a couple of photographic safaris I will be hosting in 2011.

I have been able to schedule all of the above trips in our leave cycles but there will be a number of other trips as well which will be led by some of my other photographers.  These trips are all aimed at getting you in the right place at the right time to create compelling wildlife images so you can assured of amazing sightings and visual scenery.  If you would like any further information please email me at info@photo-africa.com so that I can send you the info sheet and prices for the various trips.   A special Nkurru shareholder discount will apply!

I have not loaded all of the above trips to Photo-Africa yet but will be doing so in the next week or so.  Make sure to check it out!

Anyway, time to get going.  Adele and I will be on leave from 9 to 24 September so if you need to get hold of us please use my private email or cell number.

We look forward to welcoming you to the lodge.

Warmest regards,

Gerry, Adele & the Nkurru Team