Loading the buffalo from Bucklands.

This morning was the coldest day we have experienced in the Eastern Cape and I was up at 5 30!! We drove this morning to go fetch the buffalo (heifer and her 1 month old calf) it was freezing!! When we arrived it was a whole 0 degrees centigrade or for my foreign readers it was 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

On arrival we were greeted by a small family of Rhino, a bull, cow and their calf, it was sunrise and my camera was not on the right setting but here are the photos...

Upon arrival I was so glad to see I was not the only one wearing shorts after being told it is not wise. Moving off to the bomas where Hopewell’s buffalo and calf were, there was a lot of commotion as two other bidders had bought some buffalo and were also loading.

It starts where the vet darts all the buffalo in the boma and then he had four small teams of students who each had to look after a buffalo and monitor it while it was down, checking temperature, heart rate and breathing. Once that is done it is the fact of moving the buffalo into the truck and as you will see this is not light work!! The buffalo is moved by using a steel stretcher and on that is a tough material stretcher. The reason for this is so that the metal stretcher will close the gap from the ramp to the truck and then slide the material into the truck with the animal on it; this took about 10 or so men to carry it.

Hopewell’s buffalo were a bit difficult as they had to dart the mother then take the calf out and put it into the truck first which was not easy to catch the little girl!! As our buffalo had given birth a month prior she was rather on the large side and she was carried with great difficulty with almost two teams of men carrying taking turns.

Once in the truck the vet closes it and sent to Hopewell, arriving here was a safe trip for all and the releasing process was quick and simple which was great. The mother and calf ran off into the bushes and found the male and female which were offloaded on Friday!!

sorry that they are so blurry!! need and uto focus lense!!

Buffalo arriving at Hopewell!!

Today we had a male and female arrive and off loaded into the boma successfully. It was interesting to see them come out and run into the area, almost joyful to be off the truck which is great!! Found out some interesting information that it costs R18 per km when transporting game. Here are some of the photos from today

This is a lock that its put on by the vet to avoid any sneaky business that could go on(theft<swapping of game)

This is the bull emerging from the trailer.

Thabo the friendly cheetah.

This is one of those times I think how lucky us South Africans are and how we take the small things for granted and just focus on the negative things happening. #OnlyinAfrica smile! be happy! 

Yet another week has passed at Hopewell Exclusive Game Reserve and an interesting day yesterday as I was driving and came across thabo.  stopped and got out and started stroking him and giving him some loving. next thing I know he hops into the cruiser and acts as if he is "mufassa" on pride rock! was lovely to see him on top and just using it as his look out point! he is so friendly and loves to walk around and be interactive with people.

Buffalo seen!!

Here is a wonderful photo of our herd of buffalo which I ran into the other morning. It was for a brief time that they were standing there, once the photo was taken I looked down at my camera to see if it was a good quality picture and when I looked up about 5 seconds later , the herd had vanished into the thick bush. It was a very good find as in the bottom right hand corner of the photo there is the buffalo calf which was born of the 24/12/2013. Young calves are rarely seen as the mothers will leave them in the bush for a month and the will nurse it occasionally. As seen above, the calf is being protected by the herd and shall be for another 2 years.

This calf will follow its mom for around a year or so then will become more independent and if the female has another offspring it shall loose the maternal bond with the first young and focus on the newly born calf.

Serval bonding!!!!!!!

Good evening!!! Incredible week had so far as by the serval boma I was feeding and they were fairly shy, I was curious to find out why and then I heard the hissing of a cat behind me! I jumped and turned around so fast and it was the male we had released over a month ago coming back. It was amazing to see him there and doing so healthy, I crouched down and took a bit of time with almost getting my hand clawed off a few times, eventually made first contact with the big guy.

He seemed a bit uneasy at first so a stroked him once and then moved my hand. He looked towards me so I then moved my hand towards his face and next thing I know is he is licking my fingers! I obviously had to bring out my phone to take a few photos which made him a bit alarmed and became a bit angry so I backed away from him. 

 Going back a second time I went straight for his neck and gave him a good scratch! Was amazing to see this was happening as I fed him for about a month and it built a bond which is only going to get better

this is a video of stroking him for the third time so it was a casual gentle bonding time.

Remebering my camera!!!

So it has been yet another wonderful weekend here on the reserve where I was left alone to take the reins and manage this place. The day started with the bush cutting to keep the bush at bay. Checking the water holes and the serval, they are still doing well and he one is rather feisty! I went into the boma to feed them and took my camera with and got a few photos of him but there is one which I was rather impressed with.

after that was driving around the reserve checking up on the guys cutting and going deep into the farm on the old roads which is a lot of fun and a bit risky as the bush might have completely grown back in some places so it’s a bit daunting! Otherwise is it was a relaxed weekend nothing too serious happened which is a relief.

Thought this was a lovely photo #mothersday

Here are just a few photos of the land scape that I took on the south west side of the farm.

my gorgeous little serval!

My two boys, Monty and Mitch!

As you all know it was a while go that we got the two serval males who I have grown to love as they have become friendlier towards me and accepting me in their territory slowly but surely. I have been feeding them once a day or even twice a day depending on the weather. a few little interesting things that took place was that the elephants decided to make it their stomping ground and stomp down a few trees , one almost landing on the boma. This tree used to stand about 7m high so it was a large piece of wood which could have easily damaged the boma and set the Servals free.

Speaking of setting free, that is what shall be happening to them which is sad as you build up a relationship but it is a wild animal and needs to be free. I will do it the same as last time and set meat by the entrance of the boma with the gate open. Seeing as they are both males the dominant one will stay in that territory and then the other brother will have to find his own new territory somewhere else.

this was a photo i found of shiela! such a lovely little one!

I believe it shall be interesting to see if the male who keeps the territory won’t just live in the boma with the gate open because there is enough protection for him there to live. The one thing game need is water and you can in a way control them with it. If I stop filling up the water trough he will move to find water and if it’s too far for him to walk every day then he will just make a new territory for himself there.

having a wee bite of water buck for breakfast

The other Servals which have been let loose have only been sighted once and that was at dusk about a month ago. Was such a relief to see that she had been surviving and doing well because she looked healthy and when we saw her she was hunting a small little mouse or shrew? At the time we had a group of guests who saw the female cheetah with her cubs on a bush buck kill, the serval and a caracal on a baby bush buck. 

These were the last Servals that will be coming onto the reserve so now we will have a total of 6. 

I would love comments or any questions about my year or about Hopewell! Thanks