We hope everyone had a blessed and happy Easter, and that the bush treated you well if you visited us during the Easter holiday!
Thank you to those that joined us for our Easter celebration - we had a fantastic time enjoying the food, music and specialty beverages, and the kids enjoyed a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt and Easter games hosted by the Yum! Factory.
Through the month we enjoyed some light rain following the movement of Tropical Storm Filipo, which moved in from the eastern side. Our temperatures were fairly mild, and the autumn colours have set in over the course of the month as the vegetation has started drying out and thinning - perfect for game viewing! Our Fire Danger Index has dropped to “Moderate” following the rain, but we still urge you to be cautious, as always, when lighting a fire.
Lowest Temp: 19.0°C (Avg: 22.0°C)
Highest Temp: 40.90°C (Avg: 32.4°C)
Rainfall for the month: 25.8mm
(Avg: 42.9mm)
Projects of the month:
Our main focus areas were:
- Easter celebration and Easter Egg Hunt
- Elephant Darting (treatment of a snare injury)
- Water conservation
- Malaria spraying Invasive plant control and upskilling of staff
- Road and airstrip maintenance
- Bench repair at Treehouse Pan Hide
- Fence monitoring/maintenance around camp
- Reserve monitoring and mapping
- Sightings tracking
- Continued work in the main garden at reception
- Upgrading of Fire Safety Equipment
Multiple snakes were also relocated, including a large Mozambique Spitting Cobra from the recycling area, and a large Puffadder from the laundry area. Multiple scorpions were also seen, with one removed from someone’s shoe, with some difficulty. Please remain cautious, always!
Our Month Expanded:
Easter Celebration
On Saturday, 30 March, we enjoyed a fabulous day celebrating Easter in the Members’ Area. We enjoyed live music and broadcasting from Hoedspruit FM, delicious food from the Yum! Factory, Freezos, Crushers, Iced Coffees and Boba Tea from Bean & Leaf, and a fun-filled Easter Egg Hunt and other games for the kiddies hosted by the Yum! Factory.
Thank you to everyone who came out and enjoyed the celebrations with us - a great day was had by all, and the treats on offer were certainly well worth it! A huge thank you to our Members, along with Hoedspruit FM, the Yum! Factory and Bean & Leaf for coming out and making it a magical day for all. It was a very happy Easter indeed!
Please note, the below images have been blurred for privacy reasons.
The Yum! Factory spoiled us with delicious food and games, including an egg toss.
Water Conservation
One of our constant areas of focus is Water Conservation. This is something the Conservation Team does every single day and is definitely something we urge everyone else to think about when using water around their Bungalows.
This month, we had 2 incidents on Op Goedehoop, both incidents relating to elephants in the same spot. Elephants are incredibly smart animals, and they are particularly keen on clean, fresh water... and this means they’ll find it at any cost - and remember where they found it the last time!
This was certainly the case here, as both times a lone elephant bull unearthed and broke our main pipeline that runs through the riverbed on Op Goedehoop, coming directly from one of our main pumps to camp. Luckily, our team is on top of it and discovered where the problem was quickly, allowing us to repair the damage and re-sink the pipeline in record time.
This is simply one of the things we deal with, being in a wild area, but it certainly means there is never a dull moment or a predictable day in the field - something we are always grateful for!
Before and after fixing elephant damage to the main pipeline in the riverbed
Malaria Spraying
In preparation for the busy Easter period, our first of three annual Malaria sprays was completed in the first 2 weeks of this month. This included spraying at all bomas, hides and sites, office buildings, workshop space, Member bungalows and staff accommodations.
The spraying this season went a lot faster than usual, and we commend our dedicated team for their effort through the intense heat at the beginning of the month. This time, our sprayers were Difference, Gladman, Kabelo, Nonkululeko and Lesedi, and it went smoothly throughout. Well done, team!
Fire Safety Equipment
Although we are currently in the “Moderate” Fire Risk category, we are moving into the dry season, and this always means we need to be on high alert when it comes to Fire Fighting in the bush. In preparation for the dry season, we have undertaken a massive task - upgrading the fire safety equipment. This is an ongoing task which has been taken on in stages, spread out over the last 5 months, and will continue on a constant basis to ensure we are as ready as we can be.
The Conservation Team has been hard at work making sure that the fire beaters have all had their handles replaced, that all the bomas, hides and sites have had Fire Extinguishers installed, and that all our smaller equipment is being repaired, upgraded, or replaced where necessary. New Fire Fighting uniforms have been issued, organised, and set out, ready to go. But all of this counted as the “smaller” jobs done. The biggest task of all was stripping down one of our old Bowser pump trailers and re-building it from scratch - to brand new!
Ruan du Preez, our Infrastructure and Compliance Manager, took on the massive task of building us a new firefighting trailer, and installing two new Bowser pumps for us too. Ruan has completely re-built the older trailer - and it looks fantastic! This was no easy task, as the trailer had to be completely deconstructed and stripped, and then a new one needed to be built in its place, keeping only the tank, chassis, and axle from the original trailer.
Thank you, Ruan, for putting in so much hard work and effort - we quite literally could not have done it without you, and we are so grateful for the upgraded equipment in our Fire Fighting Fleet!
The new trailer built and one of the pumps installed by Ruan.
Re-done fire beaters and new firefighting uniforms
Our Staff Member of the Month
This month our star staff member is Ruan du Preez.
As Infrastructure and Compliance Manager, he is one of the most experienced welders and all-rounders we have ever seen!
Ruan has just re-built one of our firefighting trailers and is always ensuring that our safety equipment is up to standard and as good as it can be across the board.
Thank you, Ruan, for your incredibly hard work and dedication. You are a true superhero in our team!
Words by Tess Woollgar. Images courtesy of Tess Woollgar, Josh Hibbett and Willichia Venter