Two of our favorite lodges and South Africa's most sought after Relais & Châteaux properties are offering a wonderful special "The Sense of South Africa". From Cape charm to African safari excitement- The Sense of South Africa has it all!

Le Quartier Français, Franschhoek & Singita Game Reserves, in the Sabi Sand and Kruger National Park, have joined forces to bring you a sumptuous 6 night treat.

Book 3 nights at Le Quartier Français and 3 nights at any of Singita's South African Lodges (Singita Ebony or Boulders in the Sabi Sand or Singita Lebombo or Sweni in the Kruger National Park) and experience an intimate, never-to-be-forgotten, escape from everyday life.

The Sense of South Africa Experience Includes:

At Le Quartier Français

• 3 nights accommodation, including breakfast, in a Four Quarters Suite
• Fully stocked bar
• Sensual couples massage & romantic turndown
• 3 course bistro dinner in iCi & an 8 Course Tasting Menu (with wine) at the Tasting Room
• Wine & charcuterie tasting at Môreson Wine Farm & a half day personalized wine tour

At Singita

• 3 nights accommodation at one of Singita's South African lodges
• Breakfast, lunch & dinner daily, teas & coffees & all drinks**
• Bottle of South African Méthode Cap Classique on arrival
• 2 open Land Rover safaris a day
• Walking safaris with an experienced guide
• Relaxing Swedish massage spa treatment
• Private wine tasting & dinner

**Includes all premium wines, spirits and liqueurs and excludes champagne

Rate: R41,850.00 per person sharing-no single rates apply
Availability: 01 February-15 December 2009.
Subject to availability. Terms and conditions apply.

ROAR Africa can include this as part of any other experience we create for you.

For more on Singita see our comprehensive previous post or Singita.
For more on Le Quartier Français.

Wine lovers will be interested to see South African Wines featuring well in the latest Wine Spectator Ratings and Reviews (March 31, 2009). Here are just four of the outstanding performers:

• Vin de Constance, Klein Constantia 2004 earned a stellar 94 points.
• Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon, Stellenbosch 2006 - 92 points.
• Kanonkop Pinotage Simonsberg, Stellenbosch 2006 - 91 points.
• Mulderbosch Faithful Hound, Stellenbosch 2005 - 90 points.

For more on these wines and others see the list published by Cape Classics, "the preeminent US importer of the Cape's vinous treasures" here.

Wine Spectator defines their 100-point scale as follows:
95-100: Classic; a great wine
90-94: Outstanding; a wine of superior character and style
85-89: Very Good; a wine with special qualities
80-84: Good; a solid, well-make wine
70-79: Average; a drinkable wine that may have minor flaws
60-69: Below average; drinkable but not recommended
50-59: Poor, undrinkable; not recommended

This weekend Yvette Taylor, Executive Director International of The Earth Organization drew my attention to an article "The elephant man" in The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009.

David Adam tells the fascinating story of Lawrence Anthony's work from rehabilitating elephants on his game reserve Thula Thula in South Africa (see previous post Elephants free captive antelope) to rescuing the animals from the Bagdad Zoo during the Iraq War. This story, outlined in Babylon's Ark, a 2007 book which Anthony wrote with journalist Graham Spence, has attracted the attention of Hollywood, with a major film, Good Luck, Mr Anthony, in the works.

"I knew Baghdad had the biggest zoo in the Middle East and I couldn't stand the thought of the animals dying in their cages. I contacted the Americans and the British and said, 'You have any contingency plans?' Nobody was interested. I couldn't get any support from anybody so I thought, I'll just go. I went there for the animals."

The article includes a link to a picture gallery and the recording of David Adam telling the story.
Listen here.

Some of you attended and enjoyed the premier of The World Unseen with ROAR Africa here in New York last year. [See previous post] The film has been doing excellently and we encourage you to see it. If you're in South Africa or have friends there who might be interested, please pass on the this message from the Writer/Director Shamim Sarif. Many thanks, Deborah

***
Feb 13th, 2009

Hello Everyone

Today our movie, The World Unseen, is released in South African cinemas and I wanted to ask you to please go and see it, and to encourage everyone you know to see it also.

We won 11 SAFTA awards last Saturday, in addition to the 9 other awards we have picked up internationally.

Below is the link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlD3EprZp5M&feature=channel_page

And these are the cinemas where you can see The World Unseen:
Nu Metro Hyde Park – Johannesburg
Nu Metro Canal Walk – Cape Town
Ster- Kinekor Rosebank Mall – Jhb
Ster-Kinekor Gateway Nouveau – Durban
Ster-Kinekor V&A Nouveau – Cape Town
Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn Nouveau – Pretoria

I have also attached a review sheet.

Thank you so much for all your support up till now, and I hope you will forward this to everyone on your email lists!

Best wishes
Shamim

***

Acclaim for The World Unseen Film
(click to expand)

The touching story of Alexander's friend trying to rouse him (previous post) reminded me of another amazing elephant story from South Africa. In 2003 conservationists watched in amazement as a a herd of elephants rescued antelope from a relocation enclosure.

A private game capture company had been working on the Thula Thula Exclusive Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal capturing antelope that were to be relocated for a breeding programme. Shortly before relocation the antelope were being housed in a boma enclosure which was approached by 11 elephants.

Lawrence Anthony said his capture team thought the elephants were approaching the enclosure to share the bales of lucerne being fed to the captive antelope. The herd circled the enclosure while the capture team watched warily. This went on for quite a while until the herd seemed to back off from the boma perimeter fence. The matriarch, named Nana, moved to the gate and very carefully and deliberately undid all the gate's metal latches with her trunk and pushed it open.

"At this stage the onlookers realised this was not a mission for free food, but actually a rescue," said Lawrence.

The herd watched the antelope leave the boma and dart off before they walked off into the night. They did not give the food a second glance.

Thula Thula resident Ecologist Brendon Whittington-Jones said: "Elephant are naturally inquisitive, but this behaviour is certainly most unusual and cannot be explained in scientific terms".

I have heard that these elephants were themselves captured and relocated and that perhaps they remembered that ordeal. This is unconfirmed.
=============
Postscript 02/19/09:
See interesting comment posted by Yvette on the background of these elephants. After reading this I found Lawrence Anthony's website with details on the amazing story of these elephants and Lawrence as "The Elephant Whisperer".

I came across this moving story in the The Natal Witness , 13 Feb 2009, by Schalk van Schalkwyk:

Goodbye, old friend

Kruger National Park — Tourists watched in tears as an elephant bull bade farewell to its “friend”, the deceased bull Alexander. The bull tried to chase vultures and hyenas away from Alexander’s carcass and even tried to pick him up.

Alexander, one of the Kruger National Park’s largest elephants and a familiar sight in the area around the Mopani Rest Camp, died last weekend, apparently of a heart attack. Tourists parked near the carcass watched as an elephant bull arrived there and tried to lift up its friend. The carcass was about 20 metres away from the main road.

“I don’t know whether he was saying goodbye or whether he was trying to wake him,” said Susan Andjelkovac, an honorary game ranger.

The bull first chased the hyenas and the vultures away. He then tried to manoeuvre his big tusks under Alexander’s head. During one of the attempts, one of Alexander’s tusks nearly pierced one of the bull’s eyes. By then, game reserve personnel had already removed Alexander’s heart and lungs for examination, and the scavengers had also got stuck into the approximately six tons of meat.

Andjelkovac relates: “The bull sniffed and touched Alexander all over with its trunk. When it could not lift Alexander, it went and sat down on top of him. It even urinated on him.

“I cried so much. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen something like this. I can’t get it out of my mind. A guy in a car next to me and my sister-in-law asked us with much concern whether we were okay, we were crying so much.”

After trying for about half an hour to get Alexander up, the elephant bull suddenly left. It later appeared that he had just gone to have a drink of water, as he was back again a little while later. Another 15 minutes later, he seemed to realise that his old pal would not be able to get up again. He then placed his trunk over the spine of the carcass and stood dead still for about a minute before disappearing into the trees.

That evening in the camp, some of the women said they had not seen such passionate love for a friend in a long time. They said that everyone — men, women and children — “bawled their eyes out”.

Alexander’s grieving “friend” broke off one of the dead elephant bull’s tusks with one tug, while a team of workers took 45 minutes to pull the other one out.

Game ranger Johann Oelofse told what happened when they arrived to remove the tusks.

“He [the ‘friend’] first chased off a bunch of vultures before rubbing up against Alexander’s body. Then he took the tusk between his own trunk and tusk and there was a crack as he pulled the tusk out..’’

The tusks will be stored in the ivory safe at Skukuza.

*****

Note from Rob: There are many stories of elephants apparently mourning their dead but we must be careful when we ascribe human emotions to animal behaviour. We don't know what the elephants are doing when they investigate the bones of their deceased. Elephants often closely examine tusks they find in the field, and even carry them around as if they recognize their former owners. It was reported on censorbugbear that Alexander's "friend" carried the tusk he removed towards the rangers and left it about 8m from them before returning to the body.

According to a report on IOL, Johann Oelofse of Mooiplaas, Kruger National Park, dismissed speculation that Alexander and the bull were ‘old friends’, saying:
"We don't know they were friends. ... Probably in their wanderings of this area, they spent quite a bit of time together. But the bulls are very solitary. There's no strong coalition between them. It's not like they were bosom buddies and the one was really crying out. Until we start speaking elephantese, we'll never know."

Whatever these beautiful creatures are doing when apparently mourning it is clear that we do not fully understand them. They seem capable of greater understanding and consciousness than most people credit them with and they deserve our respect.

Picture from Die Beeld newspaper.

JaxFax Travel Magazine (February 2009) featured a two week South Africa trip with Roar Africa including Safari, Cape Town and the Winelands. BEST BUYS pg 33.



Click the page image to read further or find it here at JayFax.