In my view, children and game lodges go together like Oom Schalk Lourens and a Superman suit. I can’t imagine a bigger banisher of bushveld bliss than the screams of a tantrum merchant startling the zebra.
Okay, our drinks bill came close, but seriously, I’ve never thought: I must spend more time with an eight-year-old in a nature reserve – or anywhere else – so when the chance arose to visit child-friendly Jaci’s Lodge in Madikwe I hesitated, but just for a nanosecond.
Madikwe is famous for its wild dogs, and the last time I saw one was at Ann van Dyk’s Cheetah Centre in De Wildt, which rehabilitates Africa’s most endangered carnivores.
Six of De Wildt’s rescued wild dogs were translocated to Madikwe in 1994 after a rabies outbreak killed the previous pack. Everyone held their collective breath, but 18 years later their population continues in leaps and bounds – more than 27 at the last count with 13 pups born just a few weeks ago.
With only about 3 600 of the dogs in existence, I wasn’t passing up the chance to see a Lycaon pictus in the wild, even though I’m neither a child person, nor ever even felt the need to breed.
After four hours of erratic steerage over pockmarked, ulcerated roads – note to self: take the Sun City route next time – my husband and I arrived at Jaci’s Lodge near the banks of the Marico River shaded by tambotie trees. We were just in time for the late-afternoon game drive with our ranger, David Mosiane, and fellow passengers – a foreign couple with two incumbents of the small girl variety.
Aged eight and 10, Kirsten and Emma spoke fluent English, Norwegian and Dutch. They wore spectacles, orthodontic braces and their hair in two neat plaits. I mentally dubbed them the Kirstenemma Kids.
Like most overseas tourists, they were sampling only the sweetest desserts from the SA buffet – touching down in Joburg, taking a small plane to Madikwe, chilling at Jaci’s for a week, jetting to Cape Town for a stay at Lawhill luxury apartments, another guided tour up the Garden Route, then back to their home in Holland.
I’m prepared to find their European naiveté amusing as we set out in the Land Cruiser and on encountering a journey of giraffe at a waterhole, impart some of my wildlife wisdom, keeping it simple for the girls.
“Giraffe have long black tongues,” say I. “Exactly 46cm in length,” reply Kirstenemma.
Really? Who knew?
“That’s right.” I continue, undeterred. “And that raptor casting about for a tasty trout from the branches of the dead tree is called a Fish Eagle.”
“Yes, when you hear the Fish Eagle’s call, you know you’re in Africa,” chime Kirstenemma, who have clearly been listening to Mosiane.
When you’ve lived here all your life, you take things for granted. So when Kirstenemma ask Mosiane to stop so they can photograph a pair of Grey Loeries in a tree, I can’t help remarking: “Oh, we have lots of those in our Joburg garden. We feed them apples.”
An envious silence prevails as we bounce along the rutted track parting the blonde veld flecked with mauve turpentine grass – Cymbopogon Plurinodes. The warmth of the afternoon sun on my shoulders is a benediction. Birdsong fills the air coupled with the rhythmic rat-a-tat-tat of a Golden-Tailed Woodpecker calling for a mate. Internet dating the avian way, I say.
“Oh, we have much bigger woodpeckers in our garden at home. We feed them peanuts,” say Kirstenemma. Touché.
I’m starting to like Kirstenemma and feel genuinely sorry to see them leave the following day for Cape Town, but it also means my husband and I have Mosiane to ourselves.
On the next morning’s game drive we see lion, elephant, buffalo, wildebeest, white rhino, zebra, kudu, Yellow-Billed Hornbills and even two rare brown hyenas, but no wild dog.
We do, however, see bloodstained sand next to the electric fence – all that’s left of the prey – the wild dogs have learnt to drive it into the fence to stun it, making it easier for the pack to bring it down.
We also see a black rhino bull browsing from an acacia thicket. Mosiane tells us 10 rhino have been poached from Madikwe in the past two years, a fact confirmed by Jaci’s co-owner, Jan van Heteren, over dinner under the stars that evening.
“But Kruger Park lost 200 rhino to poachers this year alone,” he says. “We’re luckier at Madikwe due to our proximity to Botswana’s protected perimeter as well as good local intelligence. Everyone at Madikwe undergoes polygraph testing, including myself.”
Ever since the shock arrest of Dr Douw Grobler, Kruger Park’s former head of wildlife capturing and veterinary services, nobody can be considered above suspicion when it comes to rhino poaching. Despite turning State witness in the ongoing trial, Grobler can still expect a 15-year jail sentence.
“But while everyone focuses on the rhino, the slaughter of 5 000 elephants in southern Africa, Kenya and Tanzania driven by the illegal ivory trade continues unabated,” says Van Heteren. “Oversupplying the market with ivory and rhino horn might be a solution to the poaching problem. I don’t know…”
On the plus side, the Heritage Park plan to join up the Pilanesberg and Madikwe game reserves in North West via a 275 000 hectare corridor is a great undertaking, says Van Heteren, even though it may take 20 years to reach fruition.
“It’s a big step in the right direction.”
Madikwe is run as a joint venture between the state, the private sector and local communities. Having started Jaci’s in 2000 and raised their own children in the bush, Van Heteren says the lodge’s popularity is built on good relationships with staff and guests. After five years at Jaci’s, staff receive 27 percent of the company profits – a great incentive to ensure that everyone has fun. Indeed, satisfied guests keep returning.
“One chap from Botswana has been here 22 times,” says Van Heteren.
“Our child-friendly philosophy is a drawcard.”
It does make sense to encourage young people to preserve this precious environment, I reflect as we set out on another drive with Mosiane.
I’d love to see wild dog, but there are never guarantees in the bushveld.
An intoxicating evening scent of blackthorn blossoms is enough to restore my jaded spirits, but there’s a surprise in store. Before turning back towards Jaci’s, Mosiane makes a detour via the Marico River and there, replenishing their thirst before the evening’s hunt, are 13 wild dogs. The 14th member of the pack has stayed behind to protect the 13 pups in the den. Since the alpha female is one of the most skilled hunters in the pack, she leaves the pups in the care of a babysitter so she can participate in the hunt. The babysitter is often the yearling female (alpha female’s daughter) but Mosiane says all the females may take turns to babysit.
Oh the joy! No two dogs are the same. Each offers a splurge of black, white and tan patterns in a moving painting as they drink, splash and gambol in the water before setting off on their evening hunt, followed at some distance by a brown hyena that will polish off any leftovers.
After the long sigh of repletion that follows the deepest pleasures of the bush, we head back to camp for another dinner and deep sleep in the arms of nature, but it’s a dog day afternoon I never want to end. - Saturday Star
If You Go...
l The 74 990ha Madikwe Reserve, enclosed by a 150km perimeter fence, comprises vast plains of woodlands and grasslands, dissected by the rugged Rant van Tweedepoort, and bordered in the south by the Dwarsberg Mountains.
l Accommodation: Jaci’s Tree Lodge comprises eight suites linked by wooden walkways. Children under 12 sharing with their parents stay free on camping stretchers in the rooms.
l For more information call 083 700 2071, 083 447 7929, e-mail jacisreservations @madikwe.com or see www.madikwe.com
l Getting there: The reserve is about four hours’ drive from Joburg, either via Zeerust or Sun City.