The above photos were taken from the Vuyatela Cam, hosted by Djuma Game Reserve - most of these images are recorded by Pippa. Chris Stamper and Piet Marimane are operating the roaming camera to great effect.

Rain & Milliah

Mark

.. and a merry time was had by all

Greetings from our oasis in the bush. We have had a great deal of rain with over 80mm in an hour one late afternoon. Gowrie dam is almost full and looking divine. Our resident Hippo is back and a huge number of general game are hanging around the lodge. It has been an absolutely great month at the lodge with a lot happening. Before getting into the details around the Lodge and the Bush, we would like to apologize to all about the difficulty in getting through to the lodges. We have been without land phone and data lines for three weeks. After hundreds of calls via shaky cell reception to Telkom (SA) we had to deal with no telephones, Internet and fax facilities right through the festive season. We trust that they will be up a running for the next festive season, as we can't seem to get a direct answer out of anyone at Telkom! The closest explanation for the shocking service is that our phone system is outdated and parts are hard to come by.
The first week of December saw all lodges occupied by close friends and family of Jurie and Philippa Moolman for a celebration of their 40th birthdays (and 16th wedding anniversary) and the celebration of Vuyatela's 6th birthday. The Day of the celebration happened in style with delicious food, superb entertainment by "The Glitter Sisters" and a few "wanna be" glitter sisters too. Jurie and Pippa also took this opportunity to thank all the Djuma staff for their dedication and hard work for the last year. There were three awards handed out to staff for going beyond the call of duty for Djuma. Eric Nkuna our workshop manager received his award for a nasty angle grinder accident a couple of years back. Aubrey Ngobeni got his award for his dedication to Djuma and its property at all cost. He was avoiding a slight vehicle accident by trying to stop a moving safari vehicle with his hand; needless to say it broke with no damage to the vehicle. He spent a great deal of time recovering for that, as one uses you wrist all the time whilst on drive. Last but not least Warren Pieterse our Maintenance/Assistant manager revived an award for literally putting his "cheek" in the line of fire. You will remember a couple of months ago we had Inge and Luc's house burn to the ground and in the effort to get the blaze under control Warren managed to get between a shard of glass and the bush after a gas bottle exploded. These awards went down well with the entire team. It was a day of great stories and exchanging of fond memories. Even with the celebrations happening we had some exiting developments in the bush in the early hours of the 4th. Lions managed to kill a baby Wildebeest. There were five lucky partygoers that got to see this lion kill. click here for some photos of this party
We have also celebrated Christmas a little early this year with all our Staff children. We had a Christmas party with a gift for each child, jumping castles and kiddies entertainment. All had a huge amount of fun and the pressies were highly appreciated by the children. On an even kinder note we had four large boxes arrive for the United Kingdom from Cathy Bor. The boxes were packed with Christmas gifts for some of the less fortunate kids in the villages. Each pressie was made up by a child in the UK they popped a photograph of themselves in each little gift box. They were well received and much appreciated. We would like to thank everyone that was involved in this very touching Christmas gesture on behalf of the Dixie and Utah communities and our selves.
The Sandy Patch Lion pride has new cubs again and another female is lactating. We were finally introduced to the cubs just after Christmas. We have had amazing Leopard sightings around the reserve too. One of these was an encounter between a female Leopard with cubs and a Hyena. The hyena came off second best from this encounter and beat a hasty retreat to its den. The Impala lambs are about a month old now and are seen regularly around the lodge huddled together to protect themselves from danger. There are a couple of new Zebra foals and Waterbuck claves too. We had a sighting of a Giraffe that was about a day old on the open area behind the lodge. We have had a number of breading herds of elephant come by the lodge and swim in the dam to all the guests' delight. The Sandy Patch Lionesses have been hanging around the lodge often, even killing a Baboon close to Khaya eight one morning. They also managed to stalk and chase a herd of Waterbuck right up to the Gym but did not manage to pull one down.
We had some really amazing guests over the last month, from the New York Girls, Jacqueline and Jill to Bruce and Christine Cox from the UK to name a few.
We had an extraordinary Christmas Eve and Christmas day dinners with stunning trimmings. The weather cooled down so it was a treat to be able to sit down to some lovely hot roasts and festive fare. All had fun and with a little rain just to add a bit greener to the bush, it was sublime.
We celebrated a few birthdays this month Graham, Judith Mogane, Jimmy, Eric and Gladness. From all at Vuyatela we wish you a great year ahead. Solly, one of our rangers had an unfortunate car accident outside the reserve but is recovering well and back in the driver's seat. On a very sad note we lost one our beloved friends this month. Eric, the English Bull Terrier, experienced liver and heart failure and a vet was called out to end his suffering. All, especially the Moolman Family, is missing him.
New Year celebrations came around at a speed of knots, but Marietjie and kitchen ladies made sure we had a delightful meal and evening the festivities started with cocktails in the bush, Warren and Life had us all relaxed with their delectable drinks. We were entertained by a dance group for a while that managed to get some of the guests to join in the fun. After dark we all departed back to our respective lodges to freshen up for the evening ahead. Needles to say that with such early wake up calls in the morning we had a large majority of folks in bed before midnight as they were clearly "bushed".
From all at Vuyatela many happy returns for the New Year.
Until next month, Mark and the Vuyatela team.

Christmas for the Djuma Kids!!

New therapy spa at Bush Lodge

Local children's Chior

The Bush Lodge team

Warm greetings for 2006 from Djuma Bush Lodge. We trust that this finds you well and having celebrated a wonderful festive season with family and loved ones. Perhaps even sporting a few extra pounds (as I know we all are)?
We had fantastic Christmas and New Year's celebrations and once again our chefs, Eunice and Lynneth, did us proud as we feasted on delicious South African specialities such as lamb potjie and braaied chicken flatties. The weather too was perfect - somewhat unusual as most years, it rains - and we were able to enjoy a wonderful sunset cocktail function in the bush with tribal dancers, before heading back to Bush Lodge for more cocktails around the pool, with the stars overhead. Life whipped up some potent cocktails so I can safely say there was much merriment around the table as the evening wore on. The staffs' children also had a Christmas party, which was held at Vuyatela, and the joy on the children's faces as they played on the bouncy castle and opened their presents was quite delightful. Pippa must be commended on wrapping some 90+ presents quite beautifully! Another party had been Pippa and Juries' joint 40th Birthday Party. It was an event much anticipated by all and the party turned out even better than we could have imagined. The stage show was awesome, the food out of this world and the DJ made sure the party carried on throughout the night! Djuma definitely knows how to throw a party and thanks must go to Pippa and Jurie for going all out to make sure everyone had a good time. Already we look forward to celebrating their 50th.... click here for some photos of this party
The lodge has been extremely busy throughout the past month and we hosted a number of families and groups as well as honeymooners Huw & Cari-Anne and Jeremy & Nikki. Congratulations to both newlyweds. The hot weather means the pool has been getting a lot of use and some days it's just the only way to cool off. The Spa is now finished and Nonku is delighted with the end result, as are we all. Well done to George and his crew on another fine job. The Spa is decorated in soothing blue colours and is an oasis of tranquillity with its own garden. The full range of treatments is now available at Bush Lodge, as we've added an en-suite bathroom to allow for body wraps and facials.
Out in the bush, Piet has completed the repairs to Djuma Dam, the wall having been damaged some time ago. The good rains mean that the dam has already got water in and so Piet and Chris relocated a number of tilapia fry from another dam. Hopefully they will thrive and a healthy ecosystem will develop again around the dam. As always the lodge is teeming with birds and the nesting boxes which Chris put up around the grounds are all occupied and we now have Golden-tailed woodpeckers, crested barbets and Greater blue-eared starlings nesting in them. There is also a white-throated robin nesting in a small scrape in the ground in front of Chalet 1. Unfortunately, the two lion cubs from the Sandy Patch Pride pictured in last months newsletter we suspect have since died as they haven't been sighted for a few weeks now. The other lioness has however given birth to her cubs and the guides have seen them a few times. Time will tell if the other cubs are still alive, but it doesn't look too hopeful at this stage. The leopard cubs are thriving and the male in now almost as big as his mother. We see them quite often and even their mother is slowly relaxing. We've had a fantastic month for leopards and we had a guest who over a 5-day period saw 7 different leopards. The guides have also sighted some new lions and a pride of 5 females and 2 males have been seen. Lastly we congratulate Chris on passing his guiding exam.
Until next month,
Liane and the Bush Lodge Team

New Year's Celebrations at Djuma Game Reserve

December was very busy at Galago with only a few open days available. The rain experienced at the beginning of the month was something to behold. The large dam just behind the camp over flowed and the plain in front of the lodge has already had a trim. Rhinos have been visiting the pan in the early mornings and a breeding herd of elephants have been regular visitors too. Naturally the wildebeest and impala lambs are always entertaining when it is the turn of their herds to visit the waterhole for a quick drink.
It was wonderful to share the festive season with return guests, The Bournes, Dandridges and Tokers. We also extend a warm welcome to the four parties experiencing Galago for the first time, and we hope to see you all again soon. The Richardson party, from the UK and SA were lucky enough to see four leopards and a cheetah on their first drive! It was hard to top that off during the rest of their 5-night stay, but somehow, Morris and William outdid themselves as always.
Wishing all our newsletter readers every blessing for 2006, from the Galago team.

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