The Vuyani Lodge Blog

Yesterday evening was the first drive I have taken out in around two weeks as Jon Jon and Justine have been doing all of the safari drives lately. Not having a lot of information about where and when last the animals had been seen, I set out for a bumble to see what was around on our large game reserve.

As Murphy would have it the drive started out really quiet with me discussing some of the pretty birds we have in the area and giving our two new arrivals, Richard and Tiffany a better feel of their new surroundings. As time went by we saw a nice group of giraffes, loads of warthogs, zebra, wildebeest and a huge Kudu Bull. We also bumped into Impala, Waterbuck and a few Nyala.

So by my standards a pretty average drive, we needed something great we needed something cool, we needed one of the Big 5.

I decided to head off in the direction I thought we might bump into a few Rhinos. After checking one or two of the bigger dams in hope that after the scorching hot day there might just be one of the horned goliaths taking a leisurely wallow. With no luck and light becoming worse it was time to look for a place where we could watch the sunset and hop out the car for a leg stretch, of course then everything happened. En route to our decided Sundowner spot we slowed down to view a heard of Gnu racing across the road in front of us, when just to our right stood a massive White Rhino cow and her eighteen month old male calf concealed behind a few Gwarri bushes. Not a great sighting of them as we couldn’t really get descent photos but one of the big 5 none the less. The sighting was fairly short lived, so off we went again on track towards our sundowner.

Coming out onto one of the main roads it came to my attention that the lions had been there the morning before and had headed in the direction of where I had planned to stop for drinks. A brief explanation and indicating to the guests that we were on the right track, we proceeded down the cutline. The lion tracks disappeared from the road into the bush, blowing my enthusiasm down the drain once again.
Pulling up on one of the dam walls we spotted three Hippos enjoying the last bit of sunlight. A brief look around before getting out the car I spotted a lion lying under a bush staring at us. Wow, this safari drive was turning into something decent after all. We spent a short time viewing the lion then decided to leave them and go for a quick break.

Getting back into the car I switched on the spot light and shone it around a bit to find we had been joined by a Spotted Eagle Owl which we had not seen come in and land in a tall tree close by.

Heading back toward the dam wall where we had left the lions we found that there were actually five of them, all scattered around in the bushes not far from where we had left them. We spent a bit of time with them moving the car into different position making it possible for Richard and Tiffany to get descent shots of the five Lions.

A storm was brewing so we decided to make our way back to camp a little earlier, leaving the lions we headed in the direction of home. A short time later in the road a pair of eyes was lit up by the spotlight. I was not sure what it was so inched forward to see if we could get a closer look at the animal standing in front of us. Upon closer inspection I informed the clients that I thought it was a Hyena and moved closer for a better look and some pictures. The animal then turned revealing to me that it was in fact a Brown Hyena and not a Spotted Hyena. Spotted Hyenas are more dominant than Brown Hyenas so usually they are not found in the same area. I had never seen one before and although the sighting of it was not fantastic, it was easy to identify and make this the highlight of the game drive (and also a personal one!)

Quinton Chick – Lodge Manager and Guide

On Moditlo we are lucky enough to play host to the increasingly endangered wild dogs and last week was an awesome week for sightings with these amazing animals. The first encounter was at one of the bigger dams on the property. As we drove up to the dam, we saw something dashing up the dam wall, at first we were all unsure but as we got a bit closer we realised it was one of the dogs. Lately we have been seeing two males and one female together so we pulled in closer to see if we could get a glimpse of all of them. When the dam was clearly in sight we could see two of the dogs, and even better they seemed to be chasing a female kudu. The kudu was looking very bewildered and was running out of options as the dogs were behind her, there was lots of shrubbery in front of her and the dam was closing her escape route to the side.

I couldn’t believe this incredible sight and thought we were going to see something very, very few people get to see, a wild dog kill. The guests were obviously thinking along the same lines as one of them started repeating “Run kudu go!”. The kudu moved a few steps forward and seemed to be planning her escape but then the dogs stopped, they seemed to loose all interest in the kudu and stood looking at the water seemingly interested in something else. The kudu was frozen with fear and kept her eyes focused forward as the dogs slowly backed off and ran back up the dam wall, I was still hoping to see some action and secretly wished the dogs were retreating to try again from a different angle. Although wild dogs are the most successful predators in Africa, a large female kudu poses a challenge to the small framed animals when they are unable to rely on the rest of the pack to help them.

By this time the third dog had also made an appearance but he had previously been injured and wasn’t able to keep up and actively hunt with the other two. The movement of the other two dogs up the dam wall sent both a big, beautiful nyala bull and a small agile duiker running in opposite directions across the wall. The kudu, still frozen in fear, looked on as the dogs trotted across the rest of the wall and came over to the open patch next to the water where we were parked. First the injured male arrived and lay down, he was soon joined by the other two. All three of the dogs could not have been more than 20 meters away, lying down peacefully. This was not the extreme sighting I had expected when we first realised we had spotted the dogs chasing a kudu, but it was still amazing as we got to see their interaction with and the effect of their presence on other animals. It was also an awesome opportunity for us to all see the pack nature of the dogs and the care they give to all members of their pack. Even though one of the dogs was injured the other two do not leave it behind and if they had been successful with a kill he would have been provided for.

The last thing I had expected was for the dogs to come closer and lie down right in front of us. The scene was beautiful with the sun setting over the mountains, the tell tale shape of hippo faces just breaking the surface of the water, slighting obscuring the reflection of the clouds and three sleeping wild dogs. This was a safari outing that our guests won’t be forgetting any time soon!

Justine Brown – Guide

Wow, the week has a been a fantastic one on the Rhino front, with us and our clients seeing Rhinos on every drive for nine drives running. We were able to see eleven different individuals ranging from a thirteen month old calf to a giant Bull weighing in at approximately two and half tons.

Within the different sightings there were a few interesting safari experiences including a very up close and personal mock charge as well as seeing two sub adult bulls being confronted by the big guy. Usually Male Rhinos would not tolerate any other males in their territories but because the two younger chaps were showing submissive behaviour, he let them off with a half-hearted snort.

Other sightings included jackals, kudus, a porcupine, giraffes, eagles, owls amongst others …

Jon-Jon departed on the afternoon Safari as normal. Some of our guests were not back yet, they had left after breakfast to do the Panorama Route.  Jon-Jon’s drive was progressing nicely, exploring the game reserve to see what animals could be found. Justine was on standby to do a link-out to Jon-Jon once the guests returned from their Panorama Route trip.

Jon-Jon had not been out for long before our guests returned and Justine left to link them out to Jon-Jon. They had just come across some giraffe looking very intently into the bush. Now giraffes can be a very useful ally in bush, they often give away the position of predators. So Jon-Jon was quite right to assume that there was something out there. It unfortunately doesn’t always work out that we get to see what the giraffe sees.

At this point Justine was close and Jon-Jon decided to go and collect the guests at the pre-arranged meeting point

Once everyone was on board, off they went again in search of whatever the giraffe was looking at. They had only gone about a 100 metres from where the giraffe was when one of our guests spotted a leopard (youngish female), lying in the top of a leadwood tree. Needless to say everyone was ecstatic, spotting a leopard is fabulous and very special. However spotting one up a tree is even more amazing, even though the archetypal picture is of a leopard up a tree they spend most of their time on the ground. So seeing her up a tree was a real treat. After being able to spend a good 45 minutes with the leopard Jon-Jon and the guests left the spot with huge smiles on their faces, off to go and enjoy another one of Africa’s marvellous sunsets.

It’s not only about the big, well known animals in Africa, there are
some lesser known ones that are worthy of a fair share of attention.
Impala and warthogs are a guide’s go to animals if the drive is quiet.
They are the kinds of animals you can rely on, the animals you see
every day, everywhere. When nobody else is out and about you can spend
some time with these two. They are the source of myths and the butt of
jokes. They can be the kind of animals that are overlooked but if
everyone else is hiding you can count on them to show up and they

deliver when it comes to entertainment and interest. Everyone has,

pretty much, seen impala and warthog within 30 minutes of starting

their safari holidays at the Vuyani Safari Lodge. But people never
seem to tire of them.

The warthogs inevitably provide more entertainment value while the
Impala provide the interest. At the moment the warthog sows are young
of about 3 months so a warthog sighting usually gets the following
reaction “Ah, they are so cute!” Which to be honest they really are,
Anything small gets that kind of reaction but the hoglets are
particularly cute with their bally’s attitudes and their blonde manes.
But as soon as everyone reaches for their cameras and tries to capture
that cuteness, the affectionately named “bush rockets” dash away into
the long grass, in single file with mom up front and tails raised.

This raised tail is a source of one of the cons guides like to con
their guests and entertain themselves with. People always notice the
warthog’s tails up because when they run away their tails are always
up and not just slightly raised but completely up, at a right angle
to the backs. So why are the tails up in this manner? Well, warthogs
have extremely tight skin and when they run through the grass they
need to close their eyes so that the grass seeds don’t bother them.
Due to the extremely tight skin, when they close their eyes the skin
pulls tighter and thus their tails pop up. Luckily, a side effect of
this is that it allows the little ones to keep track of mom as she
races through the grass.

But these guys and girls are not considered cute by everyone and have
the honour of being included as one of the five ugliest animals in the
African bush. They also have a pretty bad-ass reputation of being very
brave and extremely tough. Looking down a warthog burrow has been
likened to looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. The pace at which
they come bulleting out of the burrow can inflict some serious damage.
This is part of their appeal and adds an element of danger to each
encounter.

Warthogs always prove popular with young and old, first time guests or
people who have lived in the bush their whole lives. A firm favourite
with everyone which is good because they are everywhere, everyday.

Justine Brown

The moments I love the most are the peaceful, the calm and the quiet moments when the animals don’t know or don’t mind that you are there. This can be tricky to achieve with a loud vehicle filled with excited guests on a safari holiday but I have been lucky enough to do a fair amount of tracking lately.

Recently when we were on the morning safari drive we noticed a lot of white rhino activity; territorial scrapings, fresh dung added to middens and a lot of fresh tracks along the road. We followed the tracks in the road for some time until we came to a river crossing, we could see where they had crossed so we headed across the river and picked up their tracks on the opposite bank. Soon after crossing the river, the tracks led off into the bush, we quickly grabbed radios and off we went following the tracks on foot.
The tracks were very fresh so we made haste as we were trying to step quietly and keep not only our eyes open but all of our sense alert. In parts the tracking was relatively easy, we could clearly see where the bushes and dew had been disturbed but in parts it was more difficult with this area being very popular with rhinos and there been a lot of tracks of varying ages.
Walking through the bush gives you such a different perspective and the opportunity to get really close to the smaller things you wouldn’t necessarily notice from the car. While we were on the rhino trail we were also lucky enough to come across some impala and a little further on some water buck. That really got my heart rate going as at first I did not see them but could only hear something crashing through the bushes. After a couple of deep breathes and a few steps further we spotted the rhinos we were looking for. They were a mother and calf, feeding merrily, it was awesome to watch them relaxed and calm. Although we couldn’t see them clearly, they were not far and the feeling from seeing animals on foot is so much more exciting than from the vehicle. You can see the finer details and you can even smell them and totally appreciate the real, enormous size of the animals. We watched them and tried to co-ordinate for the vehicle to get a visual but sadly the animals spooked and dashed in the thicker bush further from the road. We decided to leave it at that, deciding to try again on the later drive and as luck would have it that afternoon they came across four rhinos lying in the road.
Although the sighting from the vehicle was amazing, from a ranger’s perspective, I wouldn’t trade the reward of finding and viewing these incredible animals on foot.

Justine Brown

Junior Ranger at the Vuyani Safari Lodge

This morning we had the oppurtunity to see a fairly uncommon Eurasian Hobby Falcon on our Morning safari drive . Very Cool.

The Hobby is a Paleartic Migrant which only visits South Africa from October through to April. They unfortunately do not breed in South Africa.

They feed mostly on flying insects, small birds as well as the faster flying birds such as Swifts and Swallows. Bats also make a up a part of their diet.

As with most Raptors ( birds of prey ) the female is larger than the male. They reach a length of around 32cm and only weigh in at around 215g.

A first time sighting for myself!

Quinton Chick – Lodge Manager and Guide

Been here just under a month and have settled in nicely. I have started taking guests on safari game drives and every day brings something new and exciting. One recent experience definitely stands out. We headed out on the evening drive and made our way south from camp, thinking we would pick up on elephants as they prefer the thick vegetation in the south of the game reserve.
Not long into the drive we picked up fresh signs that the elephant had been around (fresh broken branches, tracks, dung etc.). We circled a block we thought they were in but it seemed they were not going to come out. Quinton decided to head in on foot to see if he could get a visual while I carried on circling the block. Not long after Quinton radioed in that he had spotted them and the ellies were moving east towards a main road. I circled the block one more time in a definite quicker lap time but still no sighting.
I collected Quinton and decided to circle one last time. We noticed that they had already crossed the two track so we backed up and headed towards a main road. They were definitely making us work for a sighting. As we travelled down the road fresh signs were clearly visible on the road and I had the feeling an encounter was around the corner. Low and behold a couple of corners later a big bull in must (heightened testosterone levels) was waiting for us in the road. By the high decibels behind me I know the guests were just as excited as me. I stopped the vehicle to see what he was going to do.
The bull approached to about 5 meters straight ahead with ears out trying to intimidate this foreign thing in front of him. He slowly moved off the road so I made my way forward only for him to come back into the road and do the same thing. Once again he moved off the road so I made my way past with some speed, but he was having none of it so he gave chase with a huge trumpet. Stopped the vehicle and he circled around us and stood atop a termite mound breaking bushes and digging his tusks into the ground, so I turned the vehicle to face him and revved the engine. All of this took place 5 to 10 meters away so my heart and the guests hearts were beating a “little” quicker than usual. He finally realized we were not going to be intimidated so he moved off into an open area and we could finally leave the sighting. I have to be honest that I checked the side mirrors more than once to make sure he was not following us back to camp. This was by far the best elephant sighting I’ve ever had and the first up close and personal experience I’ve had so far. All guests really enjoyed it and the experience would be a talking point for the next couple of days with loads of question asked. Encounters such as these are worth the entire safari holiday trip.

So for now that’s been a real highlight that sticks out and I am looking forward to many more!
Jon-Jon

Earlier on in the week we were handed over an African Rock Python from a close friend in the nearby town of Nelspruit.

The python had made its home on a farm where it was living near a dam where the owner keeps ducks and geese. Over the last nine years or so the farmer has been trying to catch it.

Our friend Franz Reiling was then called to see if he could get his hands on the snake. It had just eaten a duck and was lazing around in the water. Franz entered the dam and after a brief struggle managed to get the snake out of the dam and into a transportation bag.

The python arrived then with us on Monday. As the snake had been feeding on water fowl for just about all of its life we decided that we would release it at one of our dams here on the conservancy, where there is a decent amount of food available for the snake. The release was a successful one and we believe the snake has settled in quite nicely and enjoying its new home. We are excited about future safari sightings of this imposing snake that can reach up to 6m in length and can consume small crocodiles, impala, gazelles and warthogs when fully grown.

The Vuyani Safari  Lodge team would like to welcome Jon Jon and Justine to the team. They will be spending six months with us as part of their one year Eco Training Course.

The year has started off great with 115mm of rain last night and with more on its way. It has been raining now for about ten hours in a row. The Mbezi river on our Moditlo Game Reserve has started to flow. Please see the pictures!

We hope everyone had a great festive season, we wish everyone a fantastic year to come and we hope to be able to welcome you for a safari holiday some time soon again!