Off Work and Before

Sorry for not posting recently but I have been off work sick and haven’t felt like being sociable (or posting).  Nothing serious, just the usual stuff and a few days and rest has done me wonders.  The days leading up to me getting sick were all fairly busy and a bit of a variation on ‘ground hog day’.  One day Charles (our young Englishman) and I did a fenceline patrol up in one of our hilly sectors up behind an active gold mine.  There was some thought that maybe the mine workers may have been coming on to our property to poach, but no evidence was found.  I quickly discovered why we don’t bother patrolling this area, as no poacher in their right mind would try and get in there!  Mind you, I couldn’t believe it when we found elephant droppings on top of one of the hills (they obviously like rock climbing as a pastime?).  During the walk I somehow managed to split the sole on one of my boots, so I have ordered another pair from Australia.  I know it doesn’t look much in the photo, but it goes right through.

Charles taking a well earned drink after walking the fenceline in the background (we were only about half way through the patrol).

Charles and the venerable old single shot shotgun.  If you look closely in the centre of the photo you can see a straight line heading towards the horizon.  That is our fenceline, and where we have just walke from.

It's a bit hard to see but the split is just toe side of the 'vibram' brand.  Next time I am in Tzaneen the 'Mr Minute' equivalent has said they can put new soles on, so I will also give that a go.

One other day we went to do a liaison visit to the caretakers of a nearby ‘ghost town’, which in the past (before my time) has been an access point to the Farm for poachers, to see how things were going.  The pub in the town has only been abandoned for about two and a half years, and the caretaker was showing us around when we found a metaphorical gold mine!  In the back of the old pub was a pool table and dart board.  The caretaker, who had been roughed up a few months ago by some people after money extended an invitation to us to come there whenever we want, as having us around makes him feel a bit more secure. I also think he enjoys the company.  I think we may adopt it as our social club!

Anyway, bye for now, I should be back to being bit more regular with my posts now.



Gary, the pool shark, in the back room of the old pub at Leydsorp.  What a find!



The team enoying a break and a game of pool.  Pele, the caretaker is second from the left.

A Full on Few Days

It seems like time is flying, we have been very busy, but at the same time there is not a lot to report that would be of interest to most readers.  Unfortunately, the poachers tried their hand again on Fri night, and although we were well positioned we missed them again.  The good news to come out of it was that although they tried hard to dig out a few warthog burrows, they were unsuccessful so no animals were injured. More good luck than anything to do with us.  I find it so frustrating though that with all three incidents that have occurred since I have been here, we have been close each time, but have missed them.

Aside from that the weather is starting to warm up (at last) and all the animals appear happy.  For the wildlife lovers among you, below is a selection of odd photos that I have taken.

Everybody stay safe, and look after the environment.

Gary

Warthogs and an ostrich running towards each other on the plains as we drive past.

One of our herds of impala.  Probably the most common large animal on the Farm.

The only shot I have managed to get of a Waterbok so far.  This one is a doe, the bucks long slightly curved antlers.

This is not an animal!  It is a 2000 year old baobab (boab in Australian) adjacent to the Farm.  To give you an idea of size, there are actually two people sitting in the lower right branch.

Are Zebras White With Black Stripes, or Black With White Stripes?

Sorry for the break in tansmission, but my internet has been down for a few days.  Here is a post I prepared earlier!

The age old question, are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes?  I have had time to ponder this since I have been here, and I now have the answer to this conundrum.  It is an objective Australian view and is not rooted in South Africa’s apartheid past, or its current ‘Rainbow Nation’ focus.

As I have been typing this I have realised that while I see zebras two plus times a day, I actually don’t have a lot of photos.  I will have to rectify that over the next few days, so watch this space for zebras.

Anyway, back on track.  Black or white?  Have a look at the photos below and make your own decision.

'Sugar' a rescued zebra who hangs around Louise's house.

Some more zebras in the bush.  Look closely at the rumps (may need to zoom photo).

Clear shot of the zebra's stripes.

I think it is pretty obvious that they are white with black stripes, because if you look closely you can see the overspray on the white where they were not properly masked when the black stripes were spray painted on!  True, have a close look again.

Anyway, better go it’s my day for cooking today and as we are late in the month meat is getting short.  So I am doing ‘chicken-a-la-range’, like duck-a-la-range, but with our last 7 chicken pieces.  Maybe on a bed of basmati rice, with fresh (frozen) sautéed garden vegetables on the side.

SanWild Farm

A few weeks ago Ms. Dig asked for some more information about the “Farm”, which is what they call the Sanctuary.  SanWild was set up about 13 years ago by Louise Joubert as a trust to rescue, rehabilitate and provide a safe home for wildlife.  The Sanctuary itself covers about 6000 ha and is located between Phalaborwa and Tzaneen in Limpopo Province (I will deliberately not be any more specific than this).  Given the relatively small size of the farm, a lot of research goes into ecologically sustainable stocking of numbers to ensure that a fully viable ecosystem is maintained.  Unfortunately this means that some animals cannot be released to free roam on the farm.  For example we have a pack of 18 African Wild Dogs, which are an endangered species.  This number is about the minimum number for a pack to be viable and effectively hunt, however the Farm is too small to sustain a pack this size free roaming.  Therefore at this stage they are kept in a large enclosure and fed about 4 times a week.  The good news is that there is a possible resettlement option in the pipeline on a large reserve which would mean they will be able to free roam, the ultimate aim for all of our animals.

As previously mentioned, SanWild is a trust and relies primarily on donations and sponsorship to operate.  We also try and raise money for the Trust by encouraging eco tourism on the Farm.  There are two ‘Camps’, Bukisa Camp which is a self cater camp and Savannah Camp, which is fully catered and serviced.  If you want to find out more have a look at the SanWild Website.

Most countries in the world are struggling with significant threats to wildlife, primarily from habitat destruction, impact of feral animals (cane toads in Australia ar a classic example) or human predation for subsistence.  However since I have come to South Africa I have realised that the greatest threat on this continent to wildlife is human greed.  In the western world we have all grown up watching documentaries about the wonderful wildlife on the African continent, and lets face it, for most of us it is a dream to see it in the wild.  Therefore, try to imagine your children or grandchildren growing up in a world where there are no such animals as rhinos, and the only place that they will be able to see them is on those old documentaries, with the root cause of this being purely human greed.

As the header to my blog states we can all do our own small piece to preserve the future, within our own means.  Even purchasing a two dollar save a rhino band or sticker can help.  Just by being aware and discussing these issues with friends we can help combat this poaching.  If you want to make a grander gesture and possibly fulfil a dream to see these animals, why not consider coming to SanWild for a holiday.  You can get the luxury treatment and help preserve the future.  Sounds like a good deal to me!

Well, my information on the farm seems to have turned into an unashamed plug for support!  Just remember awareness is the first step to preserving our future, and no gesture is too small (or too big if you happen to have a fortune and are looking to give some of it away).  Enjoy the photos below.



Bukisa Gate, the main access to the SanWild Sanctuary, with the Anti Poaching Unit Bakkie in the foreground.




Part of our Eastern Fenceline, which is typical of the game fence which surrounds the Farm, about 2.5m high with a number of electric wires (the only thing that will stop an elephant).  In fact this game fence is fairly typical of most fences around Farms in South Africa.



The Rehabilitation (Rehab) Centre, with the gate at the left of shot, the building in the centre is the office and behind is the clinic.

The 'Barn' at the Rehab Centre which contains stalls for animals to 'recover' in.  Some of the stalls on the left of this shot have access to yards.

The clinic at the Rehab Centre, where injured animals are treated.

The aviary at the Rehab Centre to allow birds to recover.

The Lounge and Kitchen area at Bukisa Camp, with pool in the foreground.



One of the Chalets at Savannah Camp.



The Pool at Savannah Camp (I haven't used it).

The Elephants Up the Ante

It was a fairly normal night last night, except for the fact it was raining and therefore fairly miserable.  Hennie and I were doing an observation post (OP), but in a fairly relaxed way as it would be unlikely any poachers would come out in the rain, so we had set up a shelter at the OP location and at the firm base to stay as dry as possible.  Anyway, Hennie wakes me for my shift at 2100 hr and there is an elephant bashing around about 200 m away.  Over the next hour or so it slowly moves away and I relax a bit just trying to stay warm and dry.  Because it’s a bit noisy with the wind and the drops from the trees (it had stopped actually raining recently), I couldn’t hear a lot.  All of sudden an elephant walks up the road, appearing about 5 m in front of me!

Now being experienced at this I freeze, anticipating the elephant will walk past, when he turns, looks straight at me, puts out his ears and shakes his head (a warning sign that he is about to charge).  So I say f@#k this and I roll out of the shelter away from the elephant and take off into the bush with the elephant close behind.  Anyway, after about 3 hours (really 3 minutes) of playing hide and seek in and around trees and bushes, the elephant stops charging and stands there about 20 m away looking in my direction, but unable to see me.  Being a good friend I was concerned about Hennie who had been asleep in the firm base, which was the direction that the elephant was now turning towards.  I figure if I make a noise the elephant will follow me and move away from Hennie, so I shout out “Hennie, the elephants near you but I will lead it away”, I then take off running south parallel to the road to draw the elephant off.  I had assumed that a rampaging elephant would have woken Hennie, and I didn’t expect a response from him which would draw the elephant closer to him.  So here I am running through the bush, dodging around trees and thorns, having the time of my life, when all of a sudden about ten metres in front of me two more elephants appear!  My plan had been working well up until this stage!

OK, elephant behind, two elephants in front, Hennie off to my left, time to turn right.  So I bolt across the road, hurtle an electric fence (yes I can still do that at my age if I am being chased by an elephant), and dodge around the corner of a building.  I will be safe now as elephants don’t like electric fences.  The next thing I know, my radio squawks to life and Hennie in a whisper says “there is an elephant about 5 m away from me”.  No shit, thanks Hennie!  So I respond there is a “whole herd of elephants all around us, but don’t worry I am safe”.  Hennie had managed to sleep through all of the preceding events.  As if this wasn’t enough it then started raining again.

By this stage things had gone quiet and I started thinking about my sleeping bag which I may have dragged out of the shelter with me when I rolled, and it was probably now lying in the rain. A dilemma, what is worse, being killed by an elephant or having a wet sleeping bag?  Naturally having a wet sleeping is worse.  So I quietly climb over the electric fence and stealthily make may way across the road towards my sleeping bag, being very alert the whole time.  Suddenly, an elephant charges down the road about 10 m away, so I do a 180 run back across the road and hurtle the electric fence for the second time that night.  So I am standing there in the rain, watching my sleeping bag get wetter and wetter while the elephant stands between it and me shaking his head as if saying “bad luck Gary, you are going to have a wet sleeping bag tonight”.

After about 10 minutes the herd finally wanders off and I can go and rescue my sleeping bag.  I then move back to see if Hennie had been turned into a pancake, and find him quite happily ensconced in his dry sleeping bag, under the shelter in the firm base.  The rest of the night was extremely quiet but I am sure the elephants went away satisfied that they won that round.  Just another routine night’s work in the life of an anti-poaching ranger.

Miscellaneous

Well the weather has turned here in the last couple of days and it has started raining.  Really miserable!  It is a good thing I finally got my first parcel back from South African Customs with my raincoat in it.  After my requested re-assessment of the import duty, it went from R2 300.00 (about $380.00) to R30.00 (about $4.00).  Go figure?  I still haven’t got the other parcel sent on the same day by surface mail.  Maybe the sailing ship hit a reef and sank?  I am sure I am going to have the same battle with Customs over this one.

Anyway, life goes on over here, a bit like ground hog day at the moment, guard duty and listening posts every night.  We have started to get out onto the neighbouring farms a bit at the moment to get a feel for the poacher access routes, and may well start ambushing on these farms in the near future.

One of the things that goes a bit “under the radar’ here are all of the common animals that tend not to make it onto the wildlife documentaries.  There are squirrels everywhere and tend to fill the niche of ‘Australian possums’ in that they live in the roof and raid the kitchen for any food that’s left out.  Also things like rabbits and hares abound, I guess the small predators have to have something to eat?

I have attached a few other ‘random’ wildlife pictures for your enjoyment.

Vervet Monkey in a typical Low Veldt tree.

The only photo I have of a Mountain Reedbuck (very elusive).  I will keep trying.

Another 'Wildebeest in motion' shot.  The herd followed the Reedbuck above after we spoked it.

Nyala (a type of antelope) Buck.

Nyala buck and doe.

Giraffes

Well just got back in from an all night observation post on the plains.  We have a perfect poacher’s moon at the moment, in that it is full and up all of the night hours, so the night is almost like daylight.  No evidence of any poachers attempting to enter however.  The poacher we were tracking on 8 Aug had been wearing walking boots, which is unusual for the locals here, so his tracks were very distinctive.  Anyway, the other day we were visiting some of the surrounding locations off the farm when I spotted an individual wearing walking boots, after checking his spoor (footprints), I identified them as the same pattern.  When we confronted the individual it turned out he was someone known to the others and long suspected of poaching.  Therefore after a friendly chat to him about the consequences of me finding his footprints on our farm again, I think the message has gone out again not to try and poach on SanWild.  We will see over the coming week.

As Ms Dig has a thing for Giraffes, and not a lot has happened in the last 24 hr, I thought I would post a collection of Giraffe pictures taken over my last two months here.

One of the Girraffe herds on the Farm.

The same herd, with Spitzkop (literally point head) in the background.  Spitzkop is the dominant terrain feature.

Girraffe mother and calf watching us go by.

Bull Giraffe walking through the bush.

Thorns

A few times now I have mentioned that everything in the South African Bush has thorns.  Standing on a road looking at the bush over here it doesn’t look that much different from your typical Australian Savannah Woodland, except for the plant species being slightly different.  However, once you get into it, you find that just about every plant or tree has thorns!  I thought I would post a few pictures to show you what it is like.

A knobthorn tree, so named because each of those knobs has a thorn (like a rose) at its peak.  This is the most common tree, therefore the one mos ofthe elephants push down.

Notwithstanding the thorns, the Low Veldt bush over here is just amazing and I have really fallen in love with the place.  Of course the animals are absolutely amazing as well.  It is like living in a David Attenborough documentary.  Every day (or usually night) I see something new, but unfortunately often cannot get photos of the animals because they are so fleeting or at night.

All my love to family and friends back home in Australia.

Gary

Pussy Cats

Just a few ‘pussy cat’ pictures for my Mum and Brother who are both big cat lovers.  The three cheetahs are currently in a large enclosure while our perimeter fence is being upgraded and in a few weeks they will be released to free roam (we already have at least one wild cheetah in the farm), which will be really cool (the impala and wildebeest may not agree however).  It will be another step towards a fully functioning wild, sustainable ecosystem.  I hope to see them happy down on the plains in the future!

One of our lions being bored and yawning, but at least you get a good view of his teeth.

Two of our young lions, brothers from the same litter.

A young lioness.

Our three buetiful cheetahs (looking with intent at Oertjies the dog).

Still watching Oertjies (somebody needs to tell them that cats don't chase dogs).

Could you get a more beautiful face?

Always thinking about you.

Love Gary

New Staff, Elephants, arboreal lions and Birthdays

Well, it’s been a very busy five days since my last post.  First of all, a very happy 18^th birthday to my daughter for Monday the 8^th of August.  I did try and ring her about 8 times (and left about 5 messages) but obviously she was too busy to answer her phone?  I even got AJ to take a photo of me phoning her while we were out tracking a poacher!

Me attemping to phone my daughter on her 18th birthday!  Our fence had been cut the night before for the first time in a month, although we chased him off before he could harm any animals (unfortunately we couldn't catch him).  It is assessed as a scouting mission so we back tracked him through the neihbouring farms to identify where he came from (successfully).

On Tuesday we got two new staff who wanted to try out to be anti-poaching rangers, a girl and a young English guy.  The girl only lasted 24 hr until she made a decision that being an anti-poaching ranger wasn’t for her.  Maybe it was being chased by BA Umfumu on the first night of guard duty?  Anyway AJ and I have figured out what is going on!  Tradition has it that if you see a duiker (the smallest of the antelopes) then this is a premonition of an ‘event’, as duiker are notoriously shy and live in the thicker bush (it must be a bugger being the smallest antelope in Africa!) and are not often seen.  Well, both times that Umfumu has chased us out of our ambushes we have seen four duikers earlier that day.  Anyway, Charles the English guy has taken to the job like a duck to water so that will ease the pressure slightly, who knows I may even be able to roster a night off for each of the rangers over the next few weeks.

Everybody knows that pussy cats can climb trees, and everybody knows that lions are just big pussy cats.  Therefore as a logical deduction then lions must be able to climb trees?  Well none of the experienced hands here had ever seen it before, but have a look at the photos below!  That is an almost full grown lioness in the tree, maybe 400 kg.  We now also know how the lions get over the two metre high electric game fences.

Lioness up a tree (see the game fence in the background).

Kariba

We were heading out for a night ambush on Thursday and encountered a small giraffe herd (very common here) when I met a young female giraffe by the name of Kariba.  Kariba was brought in as an injured ‘child’ (not sure what the name for a young giraffe is! Foal? Calf?) and nursed back to health, therefore she was hand raised before being released and consequently is quite comfortable around people.   As you can see from the photos, she is quite friendly, although I wouldn’t like to get kicked by those legs.  She is not fully grown but it gives you some idea of how big giraffes are.  If a big male was to stand still long enough it would be possible for me to walk underneath him, like passing through an archway.

Anyway, have a meeting on so bye for now.

Kariba and another young giraffe on the road.

Kariba, note her bent horn which was damaged in the accident prior to her rescue.

Barend taking a photo of Kariba from the bakkie door, to give you an idea of how close she will come.

Kariba and me.

One Percent Sheer Terror!

Somebody once described being in a war as 98 percent boredom and 2 percent sheer terror, well anti poaching operations are a bit like that, except it is 98 percent boredom, 1 percent excitement and 1 percent sheer terror.  Well I had my 1 percent sheer terror last night!

AJ and I were in an observation post (OP) watching a road that was a potential poacher route, with one of us awake and one asleep in firm base about 50 m behind the OP.  At about 1900 hr I was on watch when I heard an elephant down the road which sounded like it was heading my way.  I thought to myself that if it got any closer I would move back to the firm base, wake AJ and wait until it moved off, then F#%K there it was about 20 m away walking up the road towards me!  Not to worry, I had a plan for elephants which I had covered in orders, which was to shelter behind or on top of a small brick building about 30 m away, however the fatal flaw in the plan was that the elephant was between me and the building!  By this time the elephant was only about 5 m away and walking up the road but had not yet detected me.  I thought if I jump up and run back to the firm base it will probably get startled and charge me (a thought which AJ proved true later in the night) and as the breeze was in my face I decided to just stay put and not make a sound.  By this stage the elephant was only about 2 m away and I could recognise it as (Bad Attitude) Umfumu.  Do you know how big an elephant appears when you are sitting on the ground looking up at it?  So with nothing moving but my eyeballs I watched as he leisurely walked past me and headed off down a side road.  You know, once again those long ago instructors at the Royal Military College didn’t cover this one!  Anyway, to slow my racing heart I poured myself a nice cup hot chocolate from the thermos and put in a healthy slug of bourbon from my hip flask (Jack Daniels is only about $30 a bottle over here!) and sat back to enjoy the rest of my shift.

AJ relieved me at 2100 and I moved back to the firm base for a rest.  Anyway at 2222 hr (yes I looked at my watch) I was woken by an almighty racket at the OP site, and I thought to myself while I was lying there that it sounded like an elephant.  The next thing I know AJ is shouting “Gary, Gary wake up an elephant is charging me” as he appears out of the darkness sprinting through the African bush (no mean feat in the dark as every plant has thorns), rifle in one hand, Oertjies (the dog) in the other with an elephant close behind.  Thanks AJ for leading it right towards my sleeping spot!  So next thing I realise we are both running for our lives (literally) when AJ says “lets get behind the warthog mound as it won’t charge over the top”.  So far his best plan of the night!  So we shelter behind the warthog mound in a group of four quite large trees which even an elephant would have difficulty pushing over together.  By this stage we are sure it was BA Umfumu who had circled back around to our location.  To our relief he had lost sight and scent of us.  Umfumu then threw a temper tantrum for about 10 minutes indiscriminately pushing over trees and creating damage around the firm base (I was worried for my pack and sleeping bag) before wandering off randomly pushing down trees across the road to annoy us.

So that was my 1 percent sheer terror for the month!

A photo of Bukisa (not BA Umfumu), just so you can imagine sitting at his feet about 2 m away and looking up at that massive side in the dark, close enough to see the detail and recognise him as a specific individual.

BA Umfumu charging the bakkie (ute) a few weeks ago, and what we would have seen if we had taken the time to look over our shoulders last night (except it was dark!).

AJ and Oertjies the morning after!