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News from Zululand
Leopard Mountain wins the 2006 AA Accommodation Awards for Game & Nature Reserves
On Saturday the 9th of May at the 2006 AA Travel Guides Accommodation Awards, Leopard Mountain Game Lodge received the 2005 Hall of Fame Award for the Game and/or Nature Reserves category. This will be the third year that Leopard Mountain received this award. This magnificent 4 star lodge has now won prestigious AA Travel Guide's awards for the past 6 consecutive years. It also received Tourism KwaZulu-Natal "Service Excellence" award for 2004, the Zululand Chamber of Business award for Business Excellence in 2002. And recently was certified as a site of conservation Significance which recognizes Land in private ownership that has significant and provincially important conservation elements
The 2005 AA Travel Guides Accommodation Awards programme is a well-known programme, now running for the twelfth year, has become a widely used quality indicator for tourists choosing a place to stay. It is open to any type of accommodation establishment that is a member of the AA Quality Assured Programme or the National Star Grading System. Participating establishments receive questionnaires from AA Travel Guides that they give to their guests to complete., these are returned by Freepost and processed independently, after which semi-finalists and finalists across the country are visited by a team of trained and experienced assessors.
Bush Cuisine
Biltong and Cheese Bread
(This is a tasty and easy to make home baked bread to have with open sandwiches)
3 ¼ cup Self Raising Flour
1 pkt thick white onions soup powder
500ml Milk or maas
½ cup grated cheese
2 eggs
1/3 cup chopped biltong
Pre heat your oven to 180ºC
Mix all the ingredients together
Spoon mixture into a small bread tin
Bake for +/- 45 min or until cooked through
Delicious serve hot out the oven
Our Zulu Culture
Still today in times of trouble and illness Zulus turn to the ancestors and traditional diviners to assist them. Diviners undergo a 3 year apprenticeship and are looked up upon for their powerful influence on the Zulu society.
They are easily recognizable with there ornate headdress. They carry a wildebeest-tail fly whisk which symbolizes their authority. By throwing bones and animal sacrifices they read the scene in which the artifacts lay to assist them to help cure their patients. Traditional healers "Inyanga's" have a vast knowledge of plants and roots which they blend to form natural remedies of treatment of illnesses. From various barks, fruits and roots they make medicinal potions "muthi"which is often mixed with dried snakes, bones or animal innards.
Tips from our Tracker
When the family first started building Leopard Mountain Game Lodge in 1997 we would see this bird every now and then. In the past week Wayne and myself have seen this bird twice, so things are looking up for the Bronze-wing Courser!!
Rhinoptilus chalcopterus
(Bronze-wing courser)
Sexes are much alike growing to 25cm. In flight a white wing-bar and tail-coverts are conspicuous. They are usually seen in pairs or in small groups. Their call is much like that of a Dikkop "ji-ku-it" or a harsh "groor-raang" Mostly heard at night. Bronze-wing coursers feed on insects especially enjoying grasshoppers, (Poor suckers) have the wonderfully decorated eggs of lavender and mauve spots with blotches of dark brown. They lay them on bare ground in clutches of 2 – 3 eggs.
Plants
Dovyalis caffra (Kei-apple)
Classified as a shrub or small tree with many short branches. They have dark green, hairless leaves that grow in clusters. They have small creamy green flowers which can be see single or in clusters. The fruit which is velvety yellow only grows to 40mm in diameter it is edible and makes the most delicious jam or jelly.
Naturally they are found in coastal forest, bushveld and riverine thickets but are also used in gardens to create an indigenous hedge.
Funny Bones
Once upon a time, in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat, contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle. The frog hopped into the princess' lap and said: " Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me. One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I once was and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so. "
That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sauteed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled and thought to herself: You don't have a chance in hell!!!
Brain teaser
Thank you to everyone who responded to our last brainteaser. Congratulations to Chris Hattingh from Gauteng who sent in the correct answer to the riddle. You have won yourself and a partner one free night at our award winning lodge, dinner, bed and breakfast.
Last Month's brain teaser was:
No sooner spoken than broken.What is it?
Answer:
Silence
........You too could be the lucky person to win yourself and a partner a free night including dinner, bed and breakfast at the lodge, so hurry and email us the answer to the riddle below to be entered in our lucky draw (competition closes 15th August 2006):
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
There is an ancient invention still used in some parts of the world today that allows people to see through walls. What is it?
News from the lodge
This month we have some funny, exciting and interesting news for all our readers.
Ryan who is the Game farm Manager has for a full week been coming into the lodge and complaining that someone has been opening watering hole taps on the reserve, which is a huge waste of water as we all know!! Then finally he finds his culprit..... a very clever Warthog.... who has learnt to open the taps.
Good news for the Black Rhino!! Over the Easter week-end we were not only visited by the Bunny to deliver all the eggs, but were surprised with a Baby Black Rhino. Karen who does the tracking has not been able to see whether it is a male or female yet, but just knowing that the Rhino's have settled well enough is wonderful news for us.
On the Game drive Tyrone and Tim have not only been seeing more and more spoor of the elusive Leopard, but have also had had a wonderful opportunity to see a leopard kill as well as hearing them call.
It seems that every day brings another exciting aspect of being on a large Game Reserve. |
