INDUSTRY NEWS

Feedback on Indaba 2016

by Sebastian van Breemen (Bhejane Nsele)

I came to South Africa in January 2015. A very special year for me, due to the fact that I left a big part of my life behind me, to start something totally new and unfamiliar on the other side of the world. I started studying at Bhejane Nature Training, Ehlathini Bush Camp, located at a quite secluded area of northern KwaZulu-Natal, three hours north of Durban. It as a totally new environment for me – the animals, the people, the nature… my world had been turned upside down. In a good way though. 
Now I had been studying to become a nature guide/conservationist/preservationist for over a year, and I still was not sure about what the incredibly vast industry could offer me. Last week, this changed.

From the 7th of May to the 9th of May, in Durban City, we entered the great halls of the Durban ICC (International Convention Centre). 
A week before this I had, together with my fellow students at Bhejane Nature Training, prepared for meetings with exhibitionists from all around Africa (even outside Africa). We had been going through questions to ask, how to react on questions being asked. We were practising sales pitches for ultimate selling points. We made lists over which organisations or companies we wanted to visit. It was a big deal. The game was on.

As we entered Indaba 2016, we rapidly realized what we had gotten ourselves into. People everywhere, queueing to get passes for the event. Just by experiencing the magnitude of everything, we understood that something considerable huge was waiting for us. 
We got our passes, and started racing towards the ticket controls, and made our way through.

We past the controls. We were in. Now it started to get, as they say, hectic. Small stands everywhere, next to each other, on top of each other. We were advised to first get a feel of the two grand halls that were on display, getting a feel and direction of the place. We took the advice and did so. Some of us got a snack or two to fuel for the occasion. 

An hour or two later, we started networking. I think this was the work of the weekend. Everyone seemed to love to use it. Personally, I had a little bit off a rough start, not really sure of how to open a presentation and how to execute my sales pitch. Rather quickly, I realized that I was not there for hosting presentations of myself, it was rather a question of conversing with people, getting a feel of the industry. If you created a chemistry with your target, then you added the interesting questions about possible working placements with them. 

Under the course of the weekend, I talked to numerous instances. After a while, I lost count with how many. I picked up numbers, gave out numbers, exchanged information and business cards, as well as sending emails to promising addresses. 
Below are a few exhibitionists that I visited:

o Kapama Private Game Reserve
o Kwande Private Game Reserve
o Mashatu Game Reserve (Botswana)
o Mopane Bush Lodge
o Muchenje Safari Lodge
o Nxamaseri Island Lodge
o Makakatana Bay Lodge
o Thornybush Luxury Game Lodge Collection
o Dulini Private Game Reserve
o Makalali Private Game Lodge

Well back at our bush camp at Ehlathini, I thought back on the event. It had been an amazing experience, not as I thought it initially was going to be. We got stressed that it is a serious convention, with people and entrepreneurs paying a lot of money to be able to market their businesses, which it totally was. 

However serious it was though, it was gracefully masked with humour, willingness to explore the industry, and in the end, meet and chat to as many people as possible. 
For me, the trip to the Durban ICC was more to see what I have put myself in to, where I am, and where I possibly might find myself in the next five years. As a bonus on the side, I got a number of possible future employers´ information, that seemed interesting to build a working relationship with me. 

In the end of the trip, I was, to say the least, knackered. But I walked away with something I didn’t comprehend as well before; the understanding of how intense this industry is, how diverse it is, and the endless opportunities that can be obtained through hard work.
I am utterly grateful for the people that made it possible to join this magnificent event!

A Nkombe Experience

 By Hanroe Taljaard

 

It was the start of the third and final trails trip for the year. We knew from the first week on ZRR we were in for a wet one, but never- the- less a unique experience. We watched as rains poured, rivers flooded, followed by the sun and some very hot days as the bush became alive around us. We had excellent sightings during this trails, logging well over 70 dangerous game encounters and some, now well embedded, memories and experiences.

On walking one of the properties close by our main camp on Amazulu, we had some great sightings the one day, to me a day that is the essence of walking trails and getting the opportunity to become part of the nature around you. The terrain was not easy and we covered well over 25km of walking in order to log the, well deserved, 7 sightings for the day. We reached the lodge after walking most of the morning and had a chance to refill our water bottles, as temperatures soared well over 35 degrees. We left the lodge and headed south and after a few kilometers we spotted, far up in the distance, some white rhino feeding on some burnt patches. After tracking buffalo most of the morning, up some very steep mountainsides, this sight was well welcomed.

As you’ll see in the video, we were walking up on the road leading to the area where we spotted the rhino. You could hear the loud thuds of her feet hitting the ground as she suddenly came into view, running down the road we were on. We quickly moved off the road, to our right, and stood dead still. The mother and calf came to a stop about 55m from us. We think the reason for them running down the road, is that one of the bulls we saw up in the same area might have disturbed them and she ran down the road. She was unaware of our presence as the wind was well in our favor. She stopped briefly and moved around the other side of the road as we watched. After making a small loop she came back onto the road as the wind started swirling about. She became aware of a presence and moved in slowly to investigate. She came in to about 25m of us, as we stood motionless. Both her ears pointed at our direction as she sniffed around in the air. It was a few moments of ‘benoude boude,’ but amazing to see this beautiful animal up close and on their level. As soon as she sniffed and became aware of us, you can see how she turns side profile, shielding her calf from us. With a few snorts and grants, she sped off in the opposite direction. 

We continued up the road when they had cleared the area and moved up towards where we had spotted the others. We managed to get a nice sighting of a female and two sub- adults feeding. We viewed them and extracted without disturbing the animals, which is always a successful sighting. Heading up further towards the fence line the female and calf from earlier came out the bush ahead of us. Wind was in our favour and they were unaware of our presence.

We looked on as the calf was in a very playful mood. Running in circles around the mother while vocalizing squeaky grunts. This was awesome to see and was animal behavior at its best. The calf made a few turns by the mother and then started trotting down in our direction. We moved slightly to our left to stay behind a small barrier between them and us; a barrier that a rhino of her size, will make light work of! The calf came to about 40m from us when it suddenly became aware of our presence. You could actually see the shock on the little ones face as it realized we were there. The mother was there in no time, super alert and looking around. The calf made such quick dash back to mom, it tripped slightly over a bush, quickly picked itself up and got behind her large mother. We stood dead still and observed as the female sniffed the air to investigate. I think at this time everyone had pretty much decided on his tree of choice. She looked at us, for what felt like hours, then turned and ran off, calf close by. They went some distance and stopped, as the mother scanned the area intently.

There was so much to learn from the behavior we had witnessed by this female white rhino and her calf on this day. A lot was taken from it. It has happened often that these calves will run into a trails group without knowing that they were there, and can obviously turn into something very serious when the mother feels you threatening her or her calf. Through just standing our ground and remaining motionless she moved off, not sure what to make of the situation. We felt privileged to have been allowed to view these Rhino in their everyday life. It’s just beyond me to think that people will ruthlessly murder these magnificent animals to satisfy their own greed and in the light of all the latest rhino poaching, it was a privilege to be able to be part of their daily, undisturbed, lives for just a few minutes.

Share your comments, feelings and past experiences with us! Email us at hanroe@bhejanenaturetraining.com

Creating Awareness Through Wilderness....

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Elephant Bull Sighting From a Tamboti Tree

During our last Wilderness Trails course we had some exceptional sightings and encounters. In the first week on Zululand Rhino Reserve the spring rains came down and we walked in some very wet conditions. This is a sighting we had of an elephant bull at the waterhole while we were up in a tamboti tree. It gave us an opportunity to view him safely and in his natural environment for almost an hour. We had a sighting of the same bull braking a fever tree in the dry river bed the previous day, with his characteristic long tail that almost sweeps the ground as he walks.

We viewed as the ellie went about giving himself a good mud bath as the rains poured down. He then left the water and went to scratch against an Acacia Fever tree, walking right underneath us, into the dense bush to go feed. It was amazing to watch and be part of this beautiful elephants life for just a few minutes and wouldnt have wanted to be anywhere else; rain, mud or tough terrain!

You'll notice in the supplied video how the elephant uses his feet to loosen the mud and then kicks the mud onto himself. This is a way of keeping cool on hot days but also a means to protect the skin from biting insects. This is obviously at a waterhole, but elephants are also know to start new waterholes with this same behaviour. What will start off in one season as a depression in the earth with rain gathered in it, will over the next few seasons become larger and larger as elephants come and dig down and loosen the mud to wallow in. Eventually the wallow will be deep enough for them to lie in and become larger and larger and in doing so, creates new waterholes.

Was a really enjoyable sighting and just loved watching him go about his mud bath! This is what wilderness trails is all about!!!

Got similar videos or stories of experiences out in the wilderness? Email us and we can post it on the blog!  hanroe@bhejanenaturetraining.com

Creating awareness through wilderness! 

For more information on Bhejane nature training email us on info@bhejanenaturetraining.com today!