Bush Lodge
Another month has flown by at Bush Lodge.
We have had beautiful weather this month, sunny, as well as partly cloudy days, averaging about 27C. The evenings have started to cool off and standing near the fire after the evening drive has become, once again, a treat.
Joining us on their honeymoons this month were, Peter& Vivienne, Neil & Gayle, Lawrence & Josephine, and Catherine and Andrew. We would like to wish them all a very happy future. Miles and Angela were both celebrating their 40th birthdays; we hope you have a fantastic year and many more to come.
We also welcomed back some return guests, the Dewdney family, Andrew, Kathryn, Oli, George and Hal; it was lovely to see them again.
We know everyone enjoyed their Easter. We celebrated with a surprise breakfast in the bush; plenty of pancakes and Easter eggs. Awaiting the guests on their return in their rooms were more Easter eggs and Easter cards.
Everyone was truly choclated out!
With the Easter holidays we had lots of children and families visit us and we decided to add some extra activities to the daily schedule, including football,
cricket and fishing. Steve, Angela, Alex and Paul started off with football, joined by some of our staffs' children, Senzeni, Dnelson and Bonaki. After this they headed off for some fishing with tracker Andrew showing them how to fish in a traditonal way. They all caught a few fish and am sure this will be the best fishing tale ever as it isn't often that you have to leave your fishing spot to let a thirsty elephant come and drink! Another family joined in the
fishing frenzy, Miles, Helen, Hope, Josh and Dan; they were also very successful, although they had hippos keeping an eye on them. Chris played garden cricket with one of his younger guests, Henry, and we will keep and eye out for his England debut!
The wildlife around the camp has also been entertaining us this month. While sitting around the fire after dinner, the genet paid us a visit. He walked around us for a while, and then darted up the tree directly above us, he sat there
watching and listening to us talking for a while before heading off along the trees and out of sight.
There were also some very exciting sightings in the bush this month, White Cloth, the female leopard and her two tiny cubs, are still doing well, the guests watched this
very relaxed mother with her two young suckling. Then a very rare sighting of White Cloth feeding on an impala - but also feeding on the impala was a hyena, they tugged at the meat for a while until finally White Cloth won the battle and hoisted the meat up into a tree, a very disgruntled hyena circling below.
The morning of the 22nd April we were delighted to see a pack of wild dogs, a very rare occurrence here. The pack was 14 strong and all in a fantastic condition. The guests watched as the wild dogs chased an impala into Buffelshoek dam, the impala plunging into the water. The dogs however, stayed on the banks until finally heading off, leaving the impala in the water.
We sadly said goodbye to Julie Kern who has been a fantastic asset to Bush Lodge for the last three months, she has headed off to attend an eco-traning course. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Julie for all her hard work, her cheer and friendliness, not to mention her excellent artwork.
We wish her well in the future and look forward to seeing her again soon.
We welcome Ian Corder from the UK, who will be with us until the end of June.
As our winter draws closer we would like to wish you all well until next month from Kim, Piet and the Bush Lodge Family.

Vuyatela
April was certainly a very busy month with excellent lodge occupancies and non-stop action on the wildlife front. Several sightings of Elephants coming to drink at the dam - a few times it was only one or two bulls - but on one occasion there were 40 of them with their young. The calves were so small that they couldn't use their trunks yet. The same breeding herd was not only drinking, but also swimming in the dam, to the delight of the guests. A hippo visited the camp, grazing around the rooms at night, so that we had to drive guests to their rooms in vehicles! One of the Manyeleti lions spent the day behind the dam wall and stopped for a drink in the afternoon. We also had the Robson Pride quite close to camp. One evening the guests were lucky enough to see a Giant Eagle Owl enjoying a feast at the floodlight at the dam. On one particularly busy day we had giraffe, elephant, impala, nyala and buffalo in front of the camp. A great highlight was when Manana leopard and her sub-adult cubs killed a baby Nyala in front of Khaya 8. The guests were able to watch the whole event from beginning to end from the elevated safety of their deck.
There was also loads of action out in the bush. One group saw a buffalo giving birth, certainly luck was on their side to be in the right place at the right time. We were also lucky enough to have a good sighting of about 14 Wild Dogs on Torchwood, East of Vuyatela. A pack denned there about five years ago, and we are holding thumbs that they have been checking out some suitable termite heaps for a possible home. During the month we had a two-week period where leopards were sighted on almost all drives. Both the mother leopards with their young have been the stars of the show.
Jane and Sean Koegh visited us for their first anniversary. They got married at Vuyatela last year. The Escobars also spent their honeymoon at Vuyatela after their first visit a few years ago. Congratulations and best wishes from all at Djuma.
On the staff front: Thembi Molombo, Jimreeves Nkuna, Rebecca Moolman are all another year older. All the best to them.

Galago
April has been choc-a-block full with all the long weekends. The bush is still very green for this time of year, but there is no doubt that winter is well on the way. Extra blankets, hot water bottles and bigger campfires are all in evidence. With reduced rainfall (at last!) we have been doing a lot of road maintenance as well as mowing the open plains. After the dense vegetation growth in summer we want to reduce fire hazards once the bush starts drying out. Naturally, the shorter grass in front of the camp has encouraged the large herds of grazers there, maybe they feel safer as they can see further.
The guests have seen an increase of elephants lately, with one herd numbering in excess of 100. It was an awesome sight as they trumpeted and thrashed through the bush with plenty of little calves in tow. Some guests were lucky enough to see some of the more rare and elusive Djuma residents - Serval, Caracal, and Civet. One of the highlights was when one of the Kruger Park vets was called in to remove a collar from a 3-year-old male lion. It appeared that no one was monitoring the animal and the lion was out growing his collar. The guests and staff helped distract the lion's male companion while the darting took place. All went without a hitch and the vet was pleased to report the outstanding health of the lion on closer examination. Some of the guests were brave enough to have a closer look, and were suitably impressed as to the size of not only the lion's teeth, but paws too.
Regards from the Galago team, until next month.

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