Death of Tshukudu Game Lodge Founder and Son

I am very sorry to announce that the founder of Tshukudu Game Lodge in Limpopo, Ala Sussens and her son Ian Sussens were killed in a car accident on 6 April 2010. Ala was a safari doyenne, one who cared deeply for animals and was known to take in any injured animal and nurse them back to life. This is why on any visit to Tshukudu you are likely to find tame animals like leopard, cheetah, elephant and any number of other creatures that you can actually touch.

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Guests at Buffalo Ridge Safari Lodge had a surprise visit from an opportunistic elephant, who simply couldn’t resist the cool, crystal clear, swimming pool water on a hot spring day in Madikwe Game Reserve. 

Photographed by 18 year old Tom Rudolphie of The Netherlands.

 Buffalo Ridge is a community owned safari lodge in the beautiful Madikwe Game Reserve of northern South Africa, near the Botswana border. I love this area.

For more reviews of lodges inside Madikwe on this blog see:

http://www.safaritart.com/?p=618

http://www.safaritart.com/?p=248

Do you speak Russian? If so, perhaps you can tell me what the comment below says. It’s nice to know this site has readers from all over the world, even if I can’t always understand what they say!

Brothers Safaris offers African safaris with a difference. Dr Peter Brothers is an African wildlife Vet and Registered Tourist Guide, who allows you the rare opportunity to enter his world.  

His next safari immobilizes lions to monitor and treat them in the Amakhala Game Reserve, near Port Elizabeth. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime hands-on experience with lions that very few people are privileged to encounter. He involves you in the procedures carried out while the lion is immobilized, like blood sampling or collaring. Or you can simply observe and monitor a wild lion while this giant pussy cat is fast asleep (hoping all the while that he doesn’t wake up)!

Amakhala Game Reserve have rhino (white + black), elephant, cheetah, buffalo, lion, giraffe, black wildebeest, zebra, tortoise and over 16 antelope species and this veterinary safari allows time for traditional game drives and learning more about African wildlife.

 Dr William Fowlds - a wildlife veterinarian and the co-host of this veterinary safari - owns and runs Leeuwenbosch with this family, on the Amakhala Game Reserve. Accommodatin consists of the Country House & Shearers Lodge, one of which is your accommodation while on this 4-day African veterinary safari.

When: 7 – 10 December 2009 

Where: Amakhala Game Reserve – approximately 40 minutes from Port Elizabeth Airport

Amakhala Game Reserve began in 1999 as a joint conservation venture and today has six independently owned lodges. All are owner managed by the descendants of the original families who arrived here with the British settlers of 1820.

Brothers run other veterinary safaris working with all sorts of African animals like elephant, cheetah, antelopes, etc, take a look at their website to find out more on www.brotherssafaris.com  or email; info@brotherssafaris.com

It is not often that I get the chance to sleep within the sounds of snoring elephant, but I did at the Knysna Elephant Park guest house, Elephant Lodge. I also had the chance to ride one of the elephants, all of whom have been rescued and now make up a tight knit herd. Knysna Elephant Park are one of the good guys of elephant back riding, with strong ethics and the welfare of their animals paramount.

When Harry met Carrie

Harry is the dominant bull of the herd and the largest at about 3 metres tall. I felt like a pimple on his back, my legs didn’t even reach the end of the blanket. 

Harry is enormous, and I had my arms firmly clasped around my softly-spoken guide. Harry was born in 1989, but arrived at Knysna Elephant Park with Sally when he was 5 years old - still a real youngster. Harry is a gentle giant and shows tenderness towards the babies, which is apparantly unusual for a bull elephant.

Harry and I were going along nicely when he decided it was time for bed and started trotting across the field towards his bed chamber. The Knysna Elephant Park ele’s have very nice quarters, each with their own stable (somewhat larger than for a horse) filled with leafy branches to strip and a bed of hay and straw. When an elephant trots, especially one the size of Harry, you know about it and I felt rather wobbly and liable to fall off at any minute. 

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The 18-room Mfuwe Lodge, which overlooks two lagoons that are abundant with wildlife, has a large reception area particularly suited to wandering elephants. They see no reason why they shouldn’t walk straight through, eat their fill and walk out again.  They can be seen approaching, so guests and staff move out of the way behind railings and stay still wile the herd troops through. Sometimes the elephants stop and investigate the people or sniff things on the desk,  but have never threatened anyone. After all lunch is waiting!

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My first introduction to Makanyane Safari Lodge was a face to face meeting with an elephant at the door of my cottage. “I’ll just go and shoo him away, said the lodge manager, Garth Kew. So he walked towards said elephant and shouted “Shoo!”  Elephant ignored him, so Garth ran towards him waving his arms shouting “Stop eating my trees.”

Ele got a fright and like a dog caught being naughty, tucked his tail between his squeezed-tight buttocks and took off at high speed down the path, straight towards me!

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When people say Africa isn’t for cissies….these photos explain what they mean. But you can still be a cissie and come to Africa, just don’t go camping in the bush on your own.

This is probably the biggest bull elephant I have ever seen and these people were lucky to come out of this situation alive.

I had my own very close encounter with a family of elephant in a 4×4 with the manager of a reserve near Kruger. A huge matriach was in front of us, a mother and baby suddenly appeared at our rear and thick bush lined the track, then they both charged!

The manager did the only thing possible, which was to call their bluff with loud hoots, shouts and revving towards them. The ele’s charged again and again, trumpeting loudly and shaking their great heads. I never took a single breath. I was transfixed with fear and helplessness. We couldn’t back down - that would have been suicide - and the elephant didn’t really want trouble,  they were just making it clear that we should be more respectful in future.  So they acquiesced and departed in a huff.

In this case, the ele decided to trash the camp. If that monster was coming towards me I wouldn’t be standing there smiling into the camera.

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