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In the African night, the beat of a drum means news... |
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December 2006 |
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Read about events at Djuma Game Reserve |
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Season's Greetings
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| "The festive season is upon us and Djuma would like to wish you the best Christmas and New Year ever, enjoy!" Click here to read more… | |
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Bush Lodge |
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| "….Lion activity has been plentiful with eight different male lions spotted from four separate coalitions…." Click here to read more… | |
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Vuyatela |
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"… Most exciting for the guests in Khaya
one is that after a swim the ellies usually end up for a lengthy mud
wallow in front of the chalet, only a few meters from the safety of
the deck…."
Click here to read more…
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Galago
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| "We saw; lion cubs, 3 leopards, cheetah kill, elephant breeding herd, buffalos, wild cats, owls etc…" Click here to read more… | |
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Crèche
Update
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| "The last two weeks have been a hive of activity at Dixie Crèche and Nwa Tumberi Crèche in Utha." Click here to read more… | |
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for more information visit www.djuma.com |
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If you would like to subscribe to this monthly newsletter, click here |
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This newsletter is archived in the Drumbeat section of our web site |
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Editor:
Pippa Moolman
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The above photos were taken from the Vuyatela Cam,
hosted by Djuma Game Reserve - most of these images are recorded by
Pippa.
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| Season's Greetings | |
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The festive season is upon us and Djuma would like to wish you the best Christmas and New Year ever, enjoy! We will be enjoying the festive season with our guests and the now lush African Savanna and all its inhabitants. This is also the time of the year to be thankful and we thank all that have supported and visited us during the year, it is you that make us tick. We would like to take this opportunity to announce that Mpumalanga Provincial Government has voted Djuma Game Reserve as the "Medium Exporter of the Year". ABSA / Barclays Bank nominated us and we are very proud to have been honoured in this way. |
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| Bush Lodge | |
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November's weather has been extremely changeable this month from
36C during the day to 20C! We've also had the occasional down fall,
particularly on the 18th where we experienced 68mm in just a few hours.
Combining this with the heat, the bugs have been in heaven. During
the evening the termites have created clouds around our spot light.
Sightings in & around the camp have been awesome with several
different species of snakes being spotted on numerous occasions
including a, Mozambique Spitting Cobra, Red Lipped Herald, Black Mamba
& a Snouted Night Adder. The variety of bird life has been exceptional,
Woodland Kingfisher's, Cuckoo's, Paradise & Spotted Fly Catchers
to name a few, all of which are migratory birds coming back to seek
the warmth and lay their eggs. On a larger scale, we had a welcome
visit by two lionesses from the "Styx" pride, during
lunch on the 22nd, they decided to take shade under the Knob Thorn
tree in-front of the lodge. Elephants & Buffalo have also
been spotted many times cooling off in waterhole near the swimming
pool. |
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| Vuyatela | |
| The evidence of
summer rains is showing all around us. The brightest green is
seen on the new leaves and blades of grass, so evident on the burnt
area to the west of the lodge. After the runaway bush fire in
early October we experienced what would be better described as a moonscape
than a bushveld scene, but now there is hardly evidence of the drama.
Vuyatela has had about 50mm of rain this month, 26mm falling over a
period of 3 days. Most notable after the rains is the abundance of new
born impalas, their red colouration contrasting with the green of
the bush. One has to also mention the return of the woodland kingfishers
with their magnificent turquoise blue plumage and shrill calls. Every year all the staff at Djuma participates in a wager as to the dates of the first baby impala born, the first 10mm of rain and the first sighting of a woodland Kingfisher. The winners were Charmian, Warren and Nestah, respectively. Once all have been correctly guessed, we feel summer has officially started! Animal sighting around the lodge have been amazing. Probably the most abundant have been the elephants that come for regular swims in the dam. On one occasion, there was a breeding herd of about twenty individuals in a whole range of sizes! Most exciting for the guests in Khaya one is that after a swim the ellies usually end up for a lengthy mud wallow in front of the chalet, only a few meters from the safety of the deck. Our hippo is back in the dam - although he may not be the same one we are used to - we still love having him there with his loud "honking" letting us all know of his presence. We have had lions and lioness drink at the dam on a few occasions. The males "camped" out near the dam for two days which was great as the start and end of game drives were exciting. The Sandy Patch lionesses have been busy with successful hunts - a nyala near giraffe dip, and a huge warthog at Vuyatela's bush braai site. Their brood of lion cubs has afforded many guests great safari memories. Congratulations to our honeymooners, the Caravallis from Brazil and the Moses' from Cape Town, may you have many happy years together. We also had the Buurmans and Meijers for their forth visit, this time for Lode Meijer's birthday celebration. A fine time was has with the staff singing birthday praises and then topped with tribal dancing and singing for all guests to enjoy. We thank our student volunteer, Alannah, for all her hard work around the lodge. We wish her luck with her adventures back in England. Edward also visited us for a quick visit before returning to Scotland to be with his family. Happy birthday to Agnes and Handry. Until next month, blessings from the Vuyatela family. |
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November started out with the Lowe family and friends joining us
for a return visit after an absence of a year or so. One morning
they found a tiny new born squirrel at the entrance to the
lodge and named it Peanut. Peanut has returned to Johannesburg with
them to be raised to adulthood, and will either be released to the
wild at Djuma, or another game farm near Mica in Limpopo province.
We hear from Steph Lowe that after a vet check up, the little one
is thriving. |
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| Noreen, Dean, Mary and Tony from Rotary Vancouver. Doris and Thoko, principal and teachers from Utha. Assisted by Helen, Nic and James from Wild Earth TV and Rexon from Galago, Djuma. | |
| The last two weeks
have been a hive of activity at Dixie Crèche and Nwa Tumberi
Crèche in Utha. Dean Rohrs and Tony Davis from the Rotary Club
Vancouver (Sunrise) as well as Tony's wife, Noreen and Mary Watson from
Arbutus arrived to help out at the schools. Their organizational skills
were well used to sort through all the books, paints, crayons etc that
fill the classrooms. Shelving and storage boxes were built to maintain
the new systems in place. They also managed to sort through the supplies
at the schools and make packages of excess paper, crayons and books
and send them to crèches in need further afield. To top all this
off, the Rotarians held Christmas parties for the children which was
quite thrilling as most children experienced playing on a jumping castle
for their first time. From all of us at Djuma, the children, parents and teachers at the pre-schools, our heartfelt thanks for all the time and fund raising efforts Rotary and you personally contribute to our community. |
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Join
us next month and share our experiences as the seasons march on.
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Djuma
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