Blog - Page 6

An Overview
The KwaZulu-Natal Cabinet has declared the uMkhanyakude District Municipality an emergency disaster area as the drought continues to ravage the country. Areas such as Mtubatuba, Hluhluwe, Umhlabuyalingana, Jozini and Hlabisa have especially been affected by the severe drought. At Hluhluwe, the dam is extremely low at 22 percent. Prior to the drought, the normal raw water flow at Hluhluwe Phase 1 was averaging to 280 cubic metres per hour. This has since dropped to 90 cubic metres. With so many rural communities affected, the KZN Government through the Department of Cooperatives Governance and Traditional Affairs has brought the Umngeni Water Board on board. A contractor has also been hired to drill wells at the Umfolozi river bed which will help increase the daily supply from 1.8 to 10ML. (Africa News Agency)
The KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department has warned that despite the recent rainfall, which has been pouring in the province for the past few weeks, the prolonged drought remains severe.

MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, said the province would need weeks and weeks of sustained rainfall to refill its fast declining water reservoirs to return to water levels considered safe and sustainable. (SAnews.gov.za)

Finding your way to White Elephant Safari Lodge and Bush Camp is easy. We might be tucked away in the top northern corner of Kwazulu Natal, yet it is as simple as directly turning off the N2. In fact we are just a stone’s throw away from Swaziland Golela/Lavumisa border, putting us smack bang in the middle between Kruger National Park and Durban.

In a land where predators garner their prey, we find that only the strongest, fittest and mightiest of creatures survive the battle of life. There is an ongoing war between the great beasts which is essential for retaining the natural order.

By Reece Thornley, Operation Wallacea Dissertation Student at Pongola Game Reserve (June to August 2015)

There are many things about Africa that I will never forget, for as long as I live. Many things beautiful, mesmerizing and a few absolutely bewildering!
However, of all the things in Africa, there is one individual in particular that stands out in my mind. This individual makes me long for the windswept floodplains and dense thicket of Pongola more than any other thing in Africa.
He is staggeringly beautiful, and gargantuan in size. His thick grey skin tinged with copper orange soil and wrinkles that crossed his entire body like deep fjords. His eyes are something I will remember always, sparkling and wise, like a great amber sapphires. A tell-tale sign was his wonky left tusk that protruded inwards towards his long serpent like trunk. There has never been a more aptly named creature to grace this earth…Khumbula, Zulu for ‘Remember’. If elephants had second names, his would definitely be Ungakhohlwa…‘Never forget’.

This is a vehicle- based activity in which we set out to locate Black Rhino, and under appropriate circumstances, approach these leviathans on foot, to truly appreciate their size, power and majesty. From the vehicle, we use signals received from radio collars worn by certain individuals, and the natural signs of spoor, dung and other evidence, to find the rhino.