Lukimbi News Articles

November Newsletter

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:56:30 +0000

As the two tracks light a golden dust and the wind whirling an echo of distant calls of mother nature that have become a vibrant frenzy, so our summer safari begins. Cicadas announcing their presence with deafening decibels and woodland kingfishers filling the atmosphere with the remaining chorus are a slight taste of the ambience at Lukimbi Safari lodge.

November has gone by as quickly as winter had. The month brought the Lukimbi ranger and tracker team as much delight as the guests. It is great to see that most of the migrant birds such as Woodlands Kingfisher, European Bee-Eater, Wattled Starling and Violet-backed Starling, just to name a few, have returned at the same time as the grass green landscape. Beautiful flowers such as the lions eye (Tricliceras longipendunculatum), red-stared zinia (zinia peruviana) and the brandy bush (grewia flava) have created a spectacular contrast.

The ranger and tracker team have gone to great lengths to show our guests which creatures inhabit the Kruger Park while just watching Mother Nature create a heart-warming experience. Many of the elephants are oozing from the temporal gland as they come into musth. Great numbers of impala lambs are moving with the herds trying to keep away from opportunistic predators.

It has been great to witness this sudden life of creatures in the Park. The sightings have been great as usual with herds of elephant all around and rhino's ever present. The lion sightings have been astronomical. We have been following a pride of 11 quite often as the pride consists of 6 cubs of a year and a half in age, 4 lioness's and 1 male of about 2 years old. The lioness's have their hands full as they are constantly teaching the little ones how to hunt with a successful kill very now and then. The 5 males are becoming less and less obvious as they have larger territories to cover but there is always at least one making his presence known to us.

A female cheetah and her cub are still roaming on the concession with tracks shown every once in a while but it was on the 20th of November where ranger Zane had found her near the gabbros looking for Impala to feast on. It was not 20 minutes later when we saw her kill an Impala lamb. This was unbelievable to witness.

The leopards have been very scarce. A new male leopard was found on a marula tree in the south of the concession but he did not hang around for us to spend quality time with him.

The mystical black rhino beasts leave plenty signs in the area but one afternoon just before sunset we had an epic yet tense sighting of a very calm black rhino marking his territory on an open area. We had positioned ourselves strategically watching him wallow as he then proceeded to walk straight towards us, passing by about 10 m away. Everyone was holding their breath as he went to his midden to mark and then moved back in the dense vegetation. A real once in a lifetime moment!

A small herd of buffalo crossed the concession but this has been the only sighting of a herd of buffalo coming through. But at the end of their journey lions picked up on the location of the breeding herd. This resulted in one less buffalo as the lions took down a bull and were feeding on it for 3 days. The intense growls and smells stay implanted in your brain after leaving the area leaving you feeling very humbled!

To those that have visited and to those that will still come visit Lukimbi Safari lodge here is a small message:

When the sight, sounds and smells of the African bush have laid a seed in your heart it will grow until you return to the magic continent..

Keep it wild
Danie Vermeulen

July 2011 Newsletter

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:32:29 +0000

The drier it becomes the better the game viewing. I can say this with regard to the amount of big game we've seen such as buffalo, elephant, giraffe and white rhino, but let’s not forget the other smaller creatures such as leopard, hyena, lion, jackal, kudu, steenbuck and common duiker as they were also seen regularly.

The waterholes on the Concession are all just about dry, with only a spring and a couple of waterhole pans with the water barely covering the surface remaining. Luckily the Crocodile River on our border is a life line for the water dependent animals. Buffalo and elephant that stick to the vague home ranges will make their way to the river for water and then back inland to graze and browse to satisfy their diet at this time of the year. The elephants have left dry river beds looking like mine fields especially in front of the lodge, digging to the filtered underground water. It really is a remarkable sight!

Aaron Jones and his guests saw an impala killed by lions after Alfred found two lionesses lazing about. But little did we know that there were another two lionesses stalking impala from the tree line! Aaron and his guests were in the right place at the right time and saw the whole hunt unfold in front of them. It was not two minutes later that we saw seven cubs running out the bush to join in the feast, an awesome sighting!

Alfred Mabunda has been on a role with cat sightings this month. He had eight sightings of leopard, eleven of lion and one of cheetah in twenty drives. Which does not sound much but on the Lwakahle concession that is a huge improvement in game viewing from when we began. Two leopards were found just outside the Concession squabbling over a impala kill. We were not sure which killed it but the male obviously dominated it as the female is only about half his size, truly a great sighting!

Seeing a cheetah in front of Warthog 9 is not a common thing at all! One of our guests was panning with his binoculars in front of the lodge and to his amazement he thought he had seen a cheetah, and it was! Sean and I went down with a couple guests to see if we could relocate her on foot so that Zane and his guests could also capitalise on this rare opportunity. We saw her drinking water and so we gave Zane directions where to come in. We pulled out and Zane’s guests viewed the cheetah going on her way, Brilliant!

Our seven to eight month old hyena pair at the den sight are healthy and we are always assured of a greeting when we visit the den as the cubs are very curious. They are going out more and more with the elders when the opportunity arises or they stay at the den away from danger.

The very rare animals such as honey badger, caracal, civet and white-tailed mongoose have been seen on our night drives but we only spend very little time with them as they are very shy but it is really awesome to have them lurking around.

We've had some really exciting walks this month. Game viewing has been great due to the number of big game animals seen but the birding is equally great because of the localised active pans!

The Ranger team would like to wish Alfred Mabunda and Aaron Jones a long and successful future forward as they have moved on. Alfred has worked at Lukimbi Safari lodge for over a decade and has contributed a mammoth amount to the Lodge’s success. On the same note we would like to welcome Zane and Byron to the rangers team and hope they will enjoy working at Lukimbi and will help to give our guests the epic Kruger experience.

Keep It Wild
Danie Vermeulen

Rangers Diary for March 2011

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:50:57 +0000

As we reach the end of the month and start compiling the notes for this months report, I can’t seem to think how I can possibly describe how amazing it has been. March saw the African sun live up to its scorching reputation, pushing mid day temperatures to the mid and high 30’s and immense humidity. This heat is luckily the end of summer and beginning of all the changes that we experienced for March and April to come. Over the concession we have had various amounts of rainfall ranging from the 60’s to high 80’s.

Change has come in many forms. Visually everything is more yellow and where you look there are signs of trees losing their leaves. Autumn is definitely upon us and with these changes, the small pools of water start drying up forcing animals to move more around and increasing our sightings of predators. The plains game has been abundant in numbers and all the young born this year are almost as big as their parents and the new rutting season has started with the male Impala all competing for females.

As the cooler weather starts settling in the mornings and the sun rise being delayed day by day, we also notice our summer visitors, our feathered friends are moving on back to Europe and more up into Africa. And these are only a few of the changes we are experiencing this time of the year with the change of seasons.

But to come down to a bit of business, regarding the BIG animals that everyone wants to hear of.:

Updates on the territorial and residential mammals

First and foremost, our lion sightings have been some of the best ever. We have had regular sightings of two prides with cubs ranging from three to six months. The mothers had to make more regular kills so seeing these little ones being competitive around the food has been most enjoyable. The five big males have been very active over the concession sometimes together and other times splitting up to cover all corners of their territory. We have also had the privilege of being present when they were competing against one another to show which was the most the dominant as one female came on heat.

Moving on to the leopard sightings of the month is just a mouth full. Nulu one of our residential leopards has been honoring us with her presence on multiple occasions, from having kills and lying hundred meters from the camp in a marula tree calling the whole day. She was calling Nkayambo which is the big territorial male for mating. We have seen two females mating with Nkayambo which is a stunning ordeal lasting three days each.

We also found a den site for hyena not to far from the camp. The fact that it is active and that we can hear their calls in the night times makes it very special. Hopefully this den site has been picked by the alpha female to raise her young. Black back Jackals around the central area has successfully raised one pup that we know of and is still being seen regularly around there den site.

With regards to the big grays, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhino, sightings have been plentiful. The elephant herds have come and gone over the month of March all in search for the last of the marulas and everyday sightings have been of big males some with enormous tusks. Rhino sightings as always have been hundred percent, plenty of white rhinos due to the grasses and even a few sightings of black rhino. Dagga boys, old buffalo bulls, have been seen a lot, along the riverside and pans of water where they wallow and spend most of their afternoon.

I could go on and also go more in depth but this is just a general overview. Suffice to say The Lukimbi Concession is as healthy as ever. We expect more rains in the month to come and the temperature to drop as we go deeper into autumn. With all these changes we sit and watch in awe as the circle of life continues to turn as it has since the dawn of time.

You’re Sincere

Janco Strauss and the Lukimbi Ranger Team