M a n a g e r s R e p o r t
I must begin by thanking so many of you for all the e-mails of concern for the Sand River Pride, and I hope that I managed to reply to them all. I totally understand the attachment you all feel towards this Pride of Lions and the set of circumstance surrounding the events that transpired have upset us all greatly here on the ground at the Lodge.

As I have mentioned to many of you, it is ironic that these events transpired as a coalition of 6 new male lions moved in from the East, and indeed, in retrospect, it may have been a contributing factor as to why the Sand River Pride felt compelled to leave the Reserve, trying to keep their young away from the new males. We feel sure that if the new coalition had encountered the Sand River Pride with all their youngsters, there is no doubt they would have killed them, which is common practice in a Lions rise to dominance, a non acceptance of young not sired by themselves. However, this does not excuse the actions of some, who were willing to wash their hands of the situation, and it still does not bring back the other adult females who would surely still be alive today if we had not come up against a “brick” wall of bureaucracy and apathy.

Community Development
Once again there has been an incredible response and interest shown in our involvement in the Dumfries Orphanage. The changes and progress that have already transpired have been incredible, and with the onset of winter, it is heartening to know that these little children now have blankets and food to warm them on the cold winter mornings. I know this is still very early days and we have a long way to go, but every step is a step in the right direction.

So many of you have shown interest in this project and I must In particular mention Richard, Rita, Elise and Taryn Lutzer, who took time out from their stay at the Lodge to visit the Orphanage and I think were quite moved accordingly. Thank you for your time and interest, I know it is really appreciated by all concerned. I would also like to make mention of Ken and Ali Verdon, regular guests and long time friends of ours at Leopard Hills, for putting together a container full of “goodies” all the way from Australia, for the children of the Dumfries Orphanage.

Louise and I are planning to spend quite a bit of time out in the community over this next month and I am hoping next month to be able to dedicate much of the Managers Report to happenings at the Orphanage and some up to date pictures of the children and how their lives are changing on a monthly basis with contributions from the Lodge and many of you who have shown such an interest.

The Lodge
The Lodge has continued to attract Elephants in large numbers, and the plunge pools at Rooms 5, 6 and 7 seem to be a magnet for these huge beasts to take time out and quench their thirst on route to the Sand River and back. It is not uncommon at this time of the year for Eliot and his gardening team to have to refill the pools at least once a day.

The game viewing from the main deck is producing good sightings at meal times, and breakfast is often spent watching a herd of Giraffe or Elephant wandering past and good viewing of Rhino out on the clearings during the day. The sighting of the month from the deck must have been Lion’s chasing a Bushbuck across the river bed onto the clearings and up past the waterhole. Unfortunately for the Lions and fortunately for the Bushbuck, they didn’t manage to catch it.

The Team
Million Mashele, our Restaurant Manager, has been chosen by WOSA, (Wines of Southern Africa), to attend a wine course in Cape Town. I know Million is very excited at the prospect of going on this trip and we wish him well, and congratulate him on being chosen out of so many hopefuls. I have attached below the letter Million wrote in his own words as a motivation as to why he should be the one chosen to attend this course, well done Million, you have made us all proud, good luck on your trip. We will be supplying Millions accounts of his travels in July’s Report.

I am a Restaurant Manager at a 5 Star Game Lodge, working with International and Local Guests. At the Lodge we have a very nice beautiful wine cellar. I would really like to learn more about wines so that I can offer our Guests and recommend different wines to the guests to complement our five course gourmet meals. I also think it will benefit the Company and myself and more important, all of the Guests will benefit the most.

I have been at Leopard Hills for 5 years and I also do believe that if you can have that privilege to do this course, it will be the best in my career and it can only go forward. I am absolutely looking forward to do this course so I can also help to teach my colleagues about dealing with wines easily.

Thank you

Million Mashele.

Until the Next Time

I am going to hand you over to Rudi and the Rangers Team for this month Rangers Report. Another great month, and in particular and amazing sighting of the coalition of 6 Male Lions attempting to catch and eat a Pangolin, (Scaly Anteater). Read on for further information.

Kind Regard on behalf of the Leopard Hills Team.

Duncan and Louise Rodgers
Operations Director and General Manager

R a n g e r s R e p o r t

The weatherman says this year will be no colder than the average winter experienced in our area. I’m starting to believe the masses, that the weather man can’t be trusted. May has already shown that a cool, cold winter is on its way. Mornings and evenings are cooler now than they were in mid winter last year. Fleeces, scarves, jackets and gloves are the order of the day. The wonderful thing about our winters though, are the clear blue skies and a beautiful photographic light available for the most stunning image capturing. Another highlight must be that at last we have had a month with no rainfall. Typical winter colours are returning, the leaves are starting to drop, flowers are dying and the grass is losing its green colour to resemble the more familiar tan and brown landscape we are used to.

Elephants
From the middle of the month we experienced an explosion in numbers of the elephant populations. It seems that every elephant herd in a 50 kilometre radius has decided to come and set up temporary home here in our part of the game reserve. An almost daily occurrence was encountering at least a hundred elephants spread evenly between 5 or 6 different herds. Chatting to some of the game scouts and the warden of the reserve it was revealed that a conservative estimate of the number of elephants around is about 700 animals. This is most certainly, without a shadow of doubt the highest concentration of elephants I have seen here in my almost 3 year stay at Leopard Hills. We can only hope that this high elephant density doesn’t stay for too long, the destruction caused by these large animals while feeding on the vegetation is just too great for the environment to cope with. Studies of elephant population have shown that these animals have drastically altered habitats in their quest to find food. Mixed woodland areas have been decimated and transformed into barren grasslands with limited food then available to the remaining wildlife populations.

That all said, it is wonderful having elephants in large numbers here presently. The sightings we are having of large bulls, herds, and tiny calves are astounding. Magical is a word that comes to mind but memorable seems to be a more apt description.
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