Playful Cheetah Cubs Spotted
There was great joy and excitement in October last year, when a resident female cheetah emerged from the thickets on the reserve with three healthy cheetah cubs in tow! Sadly, at the end of 2021, one of the cheetah cubs went missing and was not seen again. Cub mortality is unfortunately particularly high for this lightly-built big cat, which is often targeted by other predators.
In happier news, the two remaining cubs - one male and one female - have been thriving and are now six months old. It has been wonderful to see how they have brought their mother out of her shell and the three can regularly be seen playing together, providing guests to Amakhala Game Reserve with some truly unforgettable sightings.
These cubs are the latest chapter in the ongoing efforts to conserve Africa’s cheetah. In collaboration with organizations like Ashia Cheetah Conservation (ACC) and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), Amakhala strives to contribute to the protection of this species, while affording visitors from around the world the opportunity to experience these magnificent animals in the wild.
Image Credit: Wesley Gush
A New Baby Rhino
For A First Time Rhino Mom
Image Credit: Cleone Miller
With great delight and excitement, Amakhala Game Reserve celebrated the addition of a new baby rhino calf in March!
Every new rhino calf is precious, as our last few remaining rhino remain under constant threat from dangerous and well-equipped poachers. The birth of this rhino is also all the more special because the rhino calf was born to a first-time rhino mom after a 16-month gestation period! Only elephants have a longer gestation period.
At Amakhala, we go to great lengths to protect the endangered rhino. We know that every birth counts towards the survival of the rhino species and we have various anti-poaching initiatives in place to protect Africa’s most vulnerable.
The Amakhala team is delighted to welcome this little bundle of joy to our family! Not even a month old, this little rhino has blessed Amakhala guides and rangers, and visitors to the Reserve, with some incredible sightings. We look forward to sharing this celebration with guests from all over the world when visiting the reserve!
Image Credit: Cleone Miller
Addo2Fish Marathon
May 21st
The inaugural Addo2Fish Marathon will
be hosted at Amakhala Game Reserve on Saturday 21 May 2022.
We are incredibly excited about this new adventure and its focus: Running To Restore, an initiative to link the land between the Addo National Park and the Great Fish Nature Reserve into a single Conservation Landscape, with biodiversity restored and animals roaming freely. It is an incredible dream we fully support!
The Conservation Landscape focus this year is on building an underpass at the Bushman’s River allowing animals to pass freely under the N2. Our Reserve initiative is training and equipping local community members as rhino monitoring rangers.
Team Amakhala will be running Addo2Fish and you can join us in these ways:
- Come and run with us with a Addo2Fish weekend safari package
- Run the Virtual Addo2Fish on the 21st wherever you are in the world
Amakhala Game Reserve Lodge News
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Woodbury Lodge & Tented Camp
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The new hide has been completed at Woodbury Lodge, with access from the Woodbury walking trail. This viewing deck allows for a much closer proximity to the Woodbury Lodge waterhole: guests have already been treated to exciting views of elephants and
buffalo from this vantage point, along with regular sightings of warthogs and antelope.
The additional night drives offered at both Woodbury Lodge and Woodbury Tented Camp have also been very popular of late. These take place after dinner with the use of a spotlight, and have produced some fantastic encounters with nocturnal species. As assistant head guide Rob Smith reports:
“The brown hyena, aardwolf and aardvark sightings have been out of this world this summer. I have seen brown hyena on every night drive I have taken.”
Woodbury guide, Don Hulett, put his photography skills to good use and managed to capture this amazing image of a brown hyena, one of the rarer species of the bushveld.
When visiting Woodbury Lodge or Tented Camp, feel free to discuss the option of adding a night drive to your stay with your guide, who will be happy to arrange this activity as part of your safari experience.
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This 50-year-old elephant, affectionately known as Norman, makes regular visits to the Amakhala Safari Lodge. Some guests have been fortunate enough to have him slurping up water from their own private pools! On hot days, an elephant can drink up to 200
litres of water.
Due to the ongoing severe drought, there has been limited feed available, so Norman has spent a few weeks around the lodge to enable him to get to any tasty bit. He also pushes trees over, which allows some of the antelope to reach the leaves that would otherwise be too high for them.
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Quatermain's 1920's Safari Camp
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Quatermain's 1920's Safari Camp is a tented camp that is beautifully intimate, rustic and 3-star graded. Giving our guests an authentic nature experience with plenty of personal attention is our passion!
Our guests are transported back to a simpler time - a time when one can switch off from the modern world, enjoy nature, and savour bush cuisine at lamp-lit dinners in a cosy boma. Enthralling game drives or fascinating walks through the Big 5 Reserve is available with our in-house trails guide at no extra cost. We look forward to showing our visitors the natural treasures of the Eastern Cape!
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There has been bustle and great excitement at Hlosi Game Lodge over the last few weeks as we renovated our popular spacious Family Suites. With beautiful new fixtures and fittings, as well as brand new outside showers, these two-bedroom suites are ready
to welcome families of all ages for an unforgettable experience.
All of the Hlosi Family Suites feature large, private decks with sweeping views of the magnificent plains of Amakhala Game Reserve. These decks are also the ideal areas for children to play safely and from which to spot a wide array of the local wildlife.
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Bukela Game Lodge enjoyed a busy month of elephant visits at the waterhole, with the elephant herd appearing almost daily to create many amazing sightings for visitors and staff alike! The new live feed CCTV camera that broadcasts from the waterhole to
the bar has been working well to alert our guests to every arrival of the herd.
The lodge also spent the last couple weeks renovating the Luxury Suites’ bathrooms, which are now fitted out with sumptuous double vanities to maximise five-star comfort in the heart of the African bush.
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Mandi’s Spa at
Safari Lodge
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For many years, Amakhala Safari Lodge guests have enjoyed pampering and luxury spa treatments from Mandi, our local therapist, who is known for her magic touch.
The number of spa treatments has increased over the years and now includes, for example, full body massage; back, neck and shoulder massage; hum and drum in the sun; as well as manicures and pedicures.
All the luxury treatments from Mandi’s Spa are expertly provided in the privacy and comfort of your own room, with a magnificent view of the veld, for a truly relaxing and rejuvenating experience in the African bush.
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It has been wonderful to again welcome international guests from all over the world at Leeuwenbosch! And, with the introduction of cruise ship Day Safaris, we have certainly hosted many fabulous groups of guests.
We have also had some wonderful groups of South Africans visiting us, including a beautiful family celebration of an 80th birthday, a fun adventure for a 10-year-old’s birthday weekend, awesome lunch-in-the-bush groups, and a film production group who shot a reality show right here at Leeuwenbosch!
Thank you to our loyal tour operators - it is fantastic to see bookings coming in from you all again!
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Amakhala Foundation
Rosatom Aquaponics Unit
Image credit: Petro Rossouw
The Amakhala Volunteers have taken charge of the aquaponics system that was recently launched in Paterson. Thanks to their regular efforts, vegetables such as lettuce, spring onion and spinach are thriving.
The aquaponics unit was launched by Rosatom, founding sponsor of the Rhisotope project, as a community outreach initiative to raise awareness of the project among the local communities. The Rhisotope project aims to reduce rhino poaching through depositing radioisotopes into the horn of rhinos, a method the project has now proven to be safe for the animals.
The aquaponics system was installed by leading aquaponic specialists La Pieus Aqua, a local company renowned for installing systems around Africa, under guidance of CEO Rikalize Reinecke, an 18-year-old ecology activist who started her own aquaponics farm in 2014.
“Aquaponics is the most innovative farming method of the new century,” says Reinecke. “This system gives you the opportunity to process food in your backyard and generate an income. One system can feed a family of four to six people sustainably.”
The Amakhala Volunteers and Amakhala Foundation are working towards involving new local volunteers from the Paterson community, as well as high school students and teachers in the running of the aquaponics system.
All produce from the greenhouse will go to feed the families of the local volunteers, supply vegetables to a local soup kitchen and orphanage, and sell fresh produce to local lodges, while building entrepreneurial and business development opportunities for volunteers.
The next training session by La Pieus Aqua will take place in April.
Image credit: Tammy Smith
'Literacy is not a luxury, it's a right and a responsibility.'
- William J. Clinton
On 2 February this year, the Amakhala Foundation celebrated World Read Aloud Day across Amakhala Game Reserve at Sidbury Primary School, iJosi Preschool and the Isipho Multi-Purpose Centre, as part of Nal’ibali’s national reading-for-enjoyment campaign.
World Read Aloud Day is celebrated every year on the first Wednesday in February with the purpose of drawing attention to the importance of reading aloud to children in their mother tongue, because “literacy skills are a strong predictor of future academic success in all subjects – and children who regularly read and hear engaging stories, in languages they understand, are well equipped and motivated to learn to read and write”.
In South Africa, Nal’ibali is the chief organiser of the day. They provide the story for the occasion, and this is read aloud to children around the country on the same day. This year’s story was entitled “A party in the park”, written by Mabel Mnensa.
Thanks to so many people volunteering their time, the Amakhala team were able to read this year’s World Read Aloud Day story to 79 children across the Reserve, who thoroughly enjoyed it! In this way, Amakhala also contributed to surpassing Nal’ibali’s goal of reaching 3 million children.
As Nal’ibali noted in their letter to Amakhala: “Thank you for helping us to reach our 2022 target. With your help, we read our World Read Aloud Day story to 3.5 million children!”
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Amakhala has been acknowledged as a Safe Travels accommodation provider by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA). Amakhala’s lodges are open following the lifting of the lockdown restrictions, and we are ready to welcome both local and international visitors to our magnificent Reserve, while encouraging all to stay safe.
It is our priority to ensure our Amakhala family and guests are protected given the current concerns surrounding COVID-19. Guided by several leading tourism bodies, health organisations and other resources, we are following the strictest health and safety guidelines to ensure we meet all required preventative measures. We have strict COVID-19 protocols in place and take every precaution available to us for the safety of all our staff and guests.
Around 70% of our staff have already received their Covid-19 vaccinations and by the end of the year, all our staff should be vaccinated. We can also arrange PCR tests for our guests to be done at the Reserve, before they fly out.
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