Current status of the farm ( Thanks to Glen for this report)

a.       Roads: The roads in most parts have been badly damaged; having been badly eroded after mitre drains quickly filled up with silt and were bypassed by the large volumes of water rushing down the lengths of the roads. River crossings in some cases have become hardly recognisable, covered in debris and eroded or built up with sand deposits (probably belonging to our roads). Other roads hold mud traps that aren’t obvious until you find yourself buried up to your axels in mud, leaving little chance of escape. A few roads are not all that bad, but unfortunately lead onto other roads that are impassable, requiring that the entire route has to be closed to traffic. In other cases most of the road is still fine, but the 5 meter section of badly damaged road makes the whole road impassable. For this very reason, most of the roads remain closed to traffic. The main access roads are accessible and shareholders are at least able to reach their residences.

Blyde Brug

Rain Jan 2012

The rain seems to have stopped for now. Reports received this morning from the Hoedspruit area are of blue skies and sunshine. This break in the weather is allowing Glen to assess more fully the damage and to determine absolute priorities such as re-erecting fences to prevent loss of game and prevent breaches of security. Glen has indicated that one of the main priorities will be to restore the access road. The damage to the farm is massive and most roads are still impassable.

Sadly, the rain from Cyclone Dando has caused extensive damage. Reports received this afternoon are that the dam walls of Demonia and Henshaws have been broken through due to the enormous amount of rain.

Early this afternoon Glen reported:

Hoedspruit is wet!

It has been raining heavily in the Hoedspruit area since early yesterday, and it is still raining. Reports from Hoedspruit and the farm are of flooded roads and houses. Henshaws Dam is overflowing,  the Mohlabetsi River is in  flood, and  roads have become  rivers.

Regrettably, the farm is CLOSED until further notice. The access road from town has been washed away in places, and is inaccessible. Repairs to the road will be effected as soon as the rain stops.

Regards

Below are two photographs from Shannon Thomson, which you may find interesting.

The access road from town to the farm has been washed away in areas. The road is not usable at present. Access to the Residential area is not possible due to flooded roads. We have received reports that the road from the Strydom tunnel is closed and the Blyde River is expected to overflow the bridge. The road from Phalaborwa is closed as the Olifants River is in flood.

Mariaan and Juan de Klerk (former Site 43) witnessed an incredible sight in the Kruger Park wen a small elephant got into distress in a deep rock pool and was rescued by the mother elephant. An incredible example of the dedication of animal mothers - pity some homosapiens mothers don't display the same tendencies.

Please have a look - it is really interesting and a wonderful experience to have witnessed.

YouTube: 

Photo essay, preparing to transport seven sub adult lions to their new home on a newly established reserve in Limpopo. (Click on the pics for high res!)

Photos by: Brianna Hackler (Student volunteer from Savanna College of Art & Design, USA)

Impala Bait: Glen and Francois preparing the Impala bait to attract the lions to the tranquiliser darts. Tranquiliser gun and darts: The bait, securely tied to a tree, has been put in place and the darts are prepared. Three dart rifles are allocated to the Vet, Brian Jones of Moholoholo and to the Glen so that the entire group can be darted as quickly as possible. The first! Once all the preparation is complete and the "marksmen" in place a tape recording of a buffalo in distress is played over the speakers. Not long before the first of the group comes running in, attracted by the prospect of easy prey.

Young Elephant Bulls on Jejane: (Photo by Francois Oberholzer)We currently have 2 young bull elephants resident on the reserve. Whilst other than some minor head-shaking and trumpeting there have been no reports of serious threat from the pair – yet! They are still fairly young and will not come into “musth” until they are at least 25 years old. “Aftand” was older than 25 years of age and he had demonstrated his “musth” condition whilst resident on the farm.

Fortunately there were no receptive females present at the same time and he headed back to the Klaserie and Kruger Park where “the grass was greener” for mature elephant bulls.

When elephant bulls are in “musth” they are extremely dangerous and should always be given a very
wide berth. In any event it is extremely foolhardy to intrude into their so called “comfort zone”.

Hi Everyone

If you get onto the website and look under farm managers report (or http://www.jejane.co.za/tags/house-repair) you will see some photo's of the progress we are making with the repairs to the farm managers house.

Please have a look and see what it looked like before.

The photo's taken were at the15th March.

I will be there next week to check progress and will keep you updated.

Regards Mike Griessel

Hi guys

We have upgraded the server of the website. It should be much quicker and easier to download content. Those of you that can please try and dowload some photo's or content sightings etc and give us feed back.

Regards

Mike Griessel

So sad to hear about the animals being killed by our vehicles. Is it sooo difficult to chill out on the Farm? Why the need for speed? It is not easy to sleep at night knowing you have killed a critter unintentionally. Try putting the vehicle into 2nd gear and letting it go at its own pace - it is the closest that you will get to automatic driving as the vehicle seems to stay on its own path. Let us slow down now please.

December is the best time for Sue and I to retreat to the farm, and spend a decent amount of time down there. This year was a very good “no exception”. We managed to fit in three weeks of “ho‐hum”. Undoubtedly, the best game viewing ever, since 1993. Especially, the first week and a half, everything was everywhere. All the people we spoke to, had the same to say. Most drives produced at least 3 of the big 5, with numerous interesting small things, general game, and great birds. The most amazing experiences, however, came from a few lion sightings.