Ranger Fireside Stories

Guests visiting Umlani Bushcampoften wish us to share with them, special stories of our wildlife encounters! Here's a taste of some of our most memorable. Enjoy! Marco Schiess

My first game drive

I was living in Joburg, wore a tie to work each day but had visited Umlani on numerous occasions. I knew my way around the property (well sort of) and I knew the difference between the barrel and a butt of a .458; anyway there was a bit of a crisis and they had a photographic group in camp for the weekend and one of the guides had gone missing, so Marco called and asked if I wouldn’t mind guiding for the weekend.

It took me about 5 seconds to decide, closed the office and I was on my way.

We got there about five hours later and Marco; as well as the managers Morten & Tatum explained what they wanted us to do and we jumped in boots and all. The guests arrived an hour or so later and I psyched myself up for my first game drive.

I welcomed the guests aboard the vehicle (all fanatical wildlife photographers from Pretoria) and “the question” came – “so how long have you been here Tom?”  I nervously answered “about an hour longer than you”, which elicited worried looks and nervous giggles and off we went.

I really don’t recall much about the drive, except I learned much about how best to give guests good photo opportunities, lighting, shadows, etc; (never realising that I would one day use these tips when I started guiding professionally).

At one stage during the drive however, I heard a squirrel’s alarm call off in the bushes to our right.  That impressed the guests; I knew a squirrel’s alarm call!  I suggested we go off road to see what was causing the disturbance (in those days we went off road for squirrel calls, hopefully no one does these days). Not far off the road, we found a squirrel perched precariously in the top of a very scrawny Mopani tree and an African wild cat was sitting below it.

After about 10 minutes, the squirrel lost its nerve and made a dash for it.  Sadly it didn’t get too far and the cat trotted off with a very dead squirrel hanging in its mouth.

Things went better after that, the guests sort of had an idea that I sort of knew what I was doing.

To any potential new visitors to Umlani – they don’t hire city slickers like I was then as guides any longer – you will have an outstanding experience with a qualified and experienced guide.

Tom Vorster

Lions on a zebra kill

We were out on a drive one morning with Leon Smit as the Ranger and George, his Tracker, and came across the Rothsay Pride. At that time they had about 9 cubs of varying ages. They all looked a little thin and were very fidgety. Leon said they looked hungry but the morning was already very warm and the forecast was for a very hot day. George, in his wisdom, said they will not hunt now until the day cools down so we went back for breakfast.
 
We went out early that afternoon, leaving at about 15:15 hrs in order to find the pride before George's prediction of them going hunting before the temperature reduced. The Land Rover at that time was an old 1960's model with an electric fuel pump. During the morning and also leaving camp it would suddenly stop. There was a lead under the driver’s seat which kept coming adrift feeding the fuel pump. Leon would have to get out of the vehicle and on his back, crawl under his seat and make a temporary connection. This continued throughout the drive.
 
We eventually found the Pride. Already they were stretching and yawning, a sure sign they were going to move. After about 15 mins they started to move off into very thick bush after a spell of prolonged rains. We proceeded to drive around hoping they would cross the road on the other side. You've guessed, no sign, so off went George to try and find spoor. We drove around and, yes, several stops with this lead coming adrift to the fuel pump, Leon under the Land Rover, us on top keeping a sharp lookout. George eventually joined us and had found spoor saying the pride were moving quite fast. We drove off at a fair pace to try and get ahead of them, under George's instruction. On the way we came across three Zebra. I always remember Leon saying “Watch out zebra, the lions are after you”.
 
The sun was now setting. We came to a stop and there appeared to be quite a lot of bird and noise activity to our left. We decided to skip sundowners. George said drive on giving Leon instructions which way to turn in-between the vehicle stopping if not for the fuel pump, for George listening to the bush. It was now nightfall. I feel sure even Leon was thinking George was giving us the run-around. The Land Rover with its pump stopped again and under his seat, once more, Leon went. I was by myself on the back row of seats with the video camera and Marilyn in front with the 35 mm camera. At this stage I thought I must video Leon, I switched on the video lamp and just happened to point it behind the vehicle up the track and i nearly s--t myself. There was a whole load of young lion's running towards us. They were now only about 4 meters behind as I switched the lamp off. They proceeded to pass either side and the ones on the offside jumping over or knocking Leon's legs!!!!
 
Leon appeared and said what was that? Only George was able to get any sort of excitable sound out of his mouth in Afrikaans!! We proceeded to drive on about 100 meters around a corner and there were the adult lionesses bringing down a Zebra, with a little help from some juveniles as shown on Umlani's Fan Club Facebook picture I posted.
 
We were at this kill for hours. Yes, you have guessed we could not move once again!!! The sighting was quite awesome. The lioness which was suffocating the zebra, afterwards controlled the cubs in age order, youngest first ensuring they had a good fill before allowing the older ones in. The carcass was moved around by the pride which was great for me in order to get different angled shots. Hyenas and jackals arrived and were chased off. Lots of little fat blown bellies around us as the cubs gorged themselves, lying on their backs.
 
We eventually moved off being pushed by another Land Rover from one of Umlani's neighbours, as the pride were relaxed having had a good feast. The next morning, no sign of the pride, only the stomach contents of the zebra and full looking vultures in the trees. Later that morning we came across two zebra. It was quit obvious from their behavior they were missing their colleague and Leon said I warned you, next time listen!

All the very best,

Colin Voisey

How a Rhodesian Ridgeback kennel got it's name

10 years ago we spent a second vacation at Umlani. I stayed there in summer 98 during the ranger course at Moholoholo and liked Umlani that much, that my husband Daniel and I spent the millennium change at Umlani bushcamp.

In February 2000 we got our first Rhodesian Ridgeback male (he was born a few days before we left for South Africa) and at Umlani we decided that should we ever breed Ridgebacks we would call our kennel Umlani.

In 2004 we founded the Rhodesian Ridgeback kennel Umlani and just two days ago our second litter is born.

In the last years we travelled a lot in Namibia and Botswana. But a third stay at Umlani bushcamp is on our wishing list. We will come back!!

Kindest Regards

Stefani and Daniel

Discovering new born cubs

During a morning game drive in late July 2005 I picked up the tracks of a pride we call the Machaton. One of the lionesses of the pride was heavily pregnant at the time and we had seen her the night before so we knew the births were not too far away. Lions will usually leave the pride to give birth so I was very wary of following single tracks, but since I had spoor of the whole pride I decided to follow.

The tracks led me down into the dry bed of the Machaton River and I soon found the pride lying in the sand and so decided to head back to the vehicle and drive in with my guests. As my presence was very obvious in the riverbed I decided to cut through the bush of the riverbank so I wouldn't attract too much attention to myself or scare the lions away.

As I jumped onto a dead log I heard something move in the grass below me and my first instinct was that I'd disturbed a francolin, but that soon changed when I heard the tiny squeak of lion cubs. I didn't have much time to think anything else before the mother came charging through the bush desperately trying to scare away what she perceived as a huge threat to her newborn cubs. She stopped about two metres from me as I shouted at her and tried my best to balance on the log I was standing, knowing that if I fell or showed too much weakness she would be on me very quickly.

I had left my rifle in the car as I knew the pride very well and had always been very confident in my abilities to avoid confrontation with lions especially, but as she repeatedly lunged forward at me I thought I may regret my choice. Instead I used my arms, clapping and waving frantically at the lioness and shouted as much as I could, realizing that I'd have to move backwards to save myself as the cubs were literally below my feet.

I tried to take one step backwards whilst maintaining eye contact and continuing the clapping and shouting, but as soon as I moved she lunged at me again, clearly very suspicious of my intentions. I had to move though so I took one step back as she growled and hissed showing me all her teeth and luckily I was able to move away from the cubs when I saw the rest of the pride moving towards the area. I was then able to move further away until I could move freely back to my guests who had heard all the noise and wanted to know what had happened!!

Although a very close call I'm so relieved I was without the rifle as I think I may have had to use it had it been an option. The incident reminded me just how truly wild our animals are and that the rifle is always an absolute last resort even when the situation seems very bad!!

Formen Mathebula

Charge by the Keer Keer males

One morning I was walking towards the main camp from my room when I saw a shape ahead of me that I couldn't recognize and since I had walked this path hundreds of times before I stopped. For those of you that have never seen Umlani it is a camp set on the banks of the Nhlaralumi River and so to walk from my room I follow a path that gently slopes downhill for about 150m. I have to walk this route most mornings to wake up guests for the game drive and this walk was like many others before... and after!

On this morning it was still quite dark and I struggled to see exactly what it was that stood in front of me until it stood up and began walking towards me. It was a good 30 metres ahead of me, but this distance seemed to suddenly shrink as I recognized the frame of a big male lion and I instinctively started to move backwards and as I did so he began to move faster and growl with every step.

I clapped my hands and shouted at him to try to slow his advance and he moved off the path into the bush, when suddenly I heard a noise behind me. I spun around instantly and saw a second male lion moving towards me very quickly. I chambered a round in the rifle as I realised that the first male was also still coming at me from the other side and not knowing which lion to shoot, as I would only get one shot, I decided to shoot neither and put a round into the ground between them. Luckily they immediately ran into the bush away from me, but not knowing how far they would go, I too decided to turn and run for my house that was within distance.

Once I knew I was safe I drove down to camp and found most of the guests awake and wondering who was shooting so early! I explained what had happened and then took them off on their game drive... starting with a good lion sighting!! Although I still walk that path every day we have decided that in the winter months when the mornings can be quite dark we should maybe use one of the landrovers to get to camp! I think this story is also a good reminder to the guests as to why it's so important that they wait in their rooms until we have checked the area before waking them up with a soothing cup of coffee!

Formen Mathebula

Elephant charge

At Umlani we try to show our guests the bush from various perspectives and walking allows us to take a look at a lot of the smaller things that we often drive past on the game drives. Occasionally the bigger things also feature on these walks and most of the times we are allowed to view these animals from a ground level without any problems. It really is a great way to fully understand the size of many of these creatures and provides the most natural of sightings, but sometimes we are reminded just how wild these animals are.

On a morning walk with a small group of guests I heard a noise that told me there were elephants up ahead of us so I carefully tried to get a view so I could decide what to do. We saw two bull elephants in the distance and were able to watch them feeding and slowly moving away from us until they disappeared into the bush.

We then continued our walk and moments later saw another, larger, male elephant standing very still about 50 metres away from us. I stopped the group and told everyone to remain as quiet as possible, but he began moving towards us rapidly almost immediately.

Running from an animal in the bush is very rarely a good idea so I decided to stand my ground and see exactly what this animal intended to do with us. He was approaching very quickly and telling my guests to stay behind me and to stand still I pushed a round into the chamber of my rifle. I shouted at the elephant and tried to make him stop, but still he ran at us. I aimed my rifle and as the elephant got closer and closer my aim lifted the rifle higher and higher. At about 10 metres the bull suddenly stopped and quickly moved back away from us, but immediately turned again and came back at us. I kept my aim on him until he stopped again, now with less than three metres between us, the elephant so close that all I could see above me was his chin, tusks and ears.

I came very close to pulling the trigger, but didn't want to, telling myself that if he moved forward just one more centimeter I would have to stop him. We stood there facing each other with my guests behaving perfectly behind me. The elephant kicked a log towards us and sand and dust flew up from the impact. He was trying to intimidate us to make us run, but we stood still and stood our ground until he slowly moved backwards away from us. I kept my rifle aimed at him until he turned and walked away, allowing us to do the same and I headed straight for camp.

It is important to mention here that the guests really did react perfectly to this situation and if anyone had moved away from the group I probably would have had to shoot the elephant. This scenario really is a reminder again that even the most severe situations in the bush can be faced and solved without pulling the trigger and that whiskey is sometimes the best way to end the walk and calm those nerves!

Formen Mathebula