We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family, friends & loved ones.
Our season started with a great Lion Roars Christmas Party to celebrate a good year, and needless to say a lot of fun & team building went on! We started our day with a series of games which we had to do in groups of four. Each game consisted of a series of clues and directions – much like the ‘Amazing Race’. We ended our day with an awesome meal, speeches (which lead to tears – nice tears that is!) and dancing. And ALWAYS loads of laughing!
We had a great December with fabulous guests, wildlife sightings and weather! Our weather has been absolutely awesome, with our highest temperature reaching 41 degrees C! Everyone including the animals has enjoyed our swimming pools through this season.
On one occasion whilst guests were enjoying views of the Zebra, Warthog & Impala at the waterhole in front of Hlosi, a rather large visitor slowly and inquisitively approached to see exactly what they were (see this month's gallery). It was amazing how long many of our guests could go without breathing...
Of course, when it's hot, the Bushman's River banks see a lot of action too. See this month's gallery for a great sighting of a family enjoying the Bushman’s River...
Now it seems in every newsletter I end up introducing you to some of our new arrivals. Well you guessed it – we have some more! And I also have some awesome shots of the last month's arrivals who have grown a little, and are not so camera shy any more.
Firstly we would like to welcome our 2 baby white rhino (only caught one on camera) & our baby Aardwolf. See this month's gallery for these pics and for beautiful update pics of the toddlers!
Christmas was great fun and there is nothing nicer than to have a full lodge of guests to celebrate with. We had a great Christmas dinner, and all the guests were spoilt with their
own Christmas tree, mini Christmas cake & gifts in their rooms! We were also fortunate to have a very, very busy Hlosi for New Year, so we decided to invite the Bukela Guests to come down and enjoy the amazing Patterson Dancers for the evening. A great way to wow our guests into the New Year!
It has also been a fantastic month of cat sightings, and I couldn’t help posting some great pics in the gallery for this news letter, as they were deposited into my newsletter photo box by our wonderful Rangers!
Last and by no means least we would like to take this opportunity to thank our Rangers for their effort and passion in delivering an amazing 5-star game experience to each and every guest we have had with us over the past year. During the course of the year some of our rangers have expanded their horizons a bit too, moving into the Lodge management side. So we have some new faces on the ranging team, and some great new energy in our Lodges.
Chris and Sandra, for example, have decided to focus more on running the Lodges than on ranging. Chris has taken on the role of Manager down at Hlosi, so takes only a few Safaris and spends more time making sure the Lodge runs like clockwork. Sandra has also accepted a management role, and is now our Assistant Manager at Bukela. So although you may be lucky enough to have her as a ranger every now and then, most of her energy goes into creating all those great Lodge experiences that make a stay at Bukela so memorable. Thank you to Chris and Sandra for your continuous hard work (or labour of love as we call it!)
This leaves us with a core ranging team of Harry, Wonga and Stuart. And what a team. Our guest feedback constantly reminds us of what a remarkable job these guys do in creating a wildlife experience second to none for our guests. We're very proud of them.
A huge thank you also goes out to Aimee, who is in charge of our Kids Program me down at Hlosi – amongst other things - and makes sure that all those gorgeous bundles of energy are kept entertained while mum and dad get some much-needed R&R! Also to Rodger, who is in charge of the team of guys who keep the lodges and reserve clean and tidy – not forgetting when he brushes up beautifully and does bar duty at Hlosi from time to time!
Of course, a huge part of the experience at Hlosi and Bukela is the scrumptious food. To our wonderful Chefs, Andrew, Lucas, Mrs V, Thembalani and to all our wonderful staff thank you for working so hard to make sure that each guest enjoys their stay with us.
Finally, as always, we must send out a huge thank you to all our Operators/ Agents that have sent us fantastic business. Lion Roars is doing so well because of you and we hope it continues and that we all have a fantastic 2010!
Kind Regards
Steve & Kerry
General Managers of Hlosi & Bukela Lodges