Done and Dusted

The studying paid off: The exam results of the FGASA Specialist Marine Guide exam have been released and our principal guide from Tailor Made Safaris managed to get 95%, one of the highest scores in the country. He will now get ready for the subsequent practical assessment and hopes to be fully qualified in a couple of months. A big thank you to everyone for their support and best wishes for the exam. We hope attaining this new qualification will enable us to give our clients an even better safari experience in the beautiful coastal areas in KwaZulu-Natal. Tailor Made Safaris: At your service.www.tailormadesafaris.co.za


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Tailor Made Safaris studying for Marine Guiding Qualification

At Tailor Made Safaris we always aim to improve our safari product, so now it was decided it was time for our principal guide to attain a specialist marine guiding qualification, so he can entertain future guests amongst others with cool and interesting 'did-you-knows' about the incredible amount of life we find here on the sandy and rocky beaches! Tailor Made Safaris: At your service.www.tailormadesafaris.co.za


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Black Rhino in South Africa

Black Rhino are often considered aggressive animals, but most often their 'aggressiveness' is nothing more than simple curiosity. This photo was taken by www.tailormadesafaris.co.za on one of their tours, and shows a black rhino that has just decided to approach. Seconds later it actually started running towards us, but it stopped about 10 meters away from our vehicle, having established the nature of the sounds he heard earlier, and thus having satisfied his curiosity. The 'charge' was an impressive sight nonetheless though!


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The Beauty of Tembe Elephant Park

On our last tour, Tailor Made Safaris spend a few days at the beautiful Tembe Elephant Park. Below 10 photos from a futile attempt to catch at least some of the beauty. Click on the photo for an enlargement.

White Rhino on morning game drive

Elephant at sunset

Herd of buffalo approaching through the savanna

Parade of elephants

Elephant youngster quenching its thirst

Grumpy old fella

Beauty Queen

Isilo, said to be the biggest tusker in the Southern Hemisphere

Isilo once again

And Isilo again

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Raptors in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Today, as usual, a morning spend birding in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park next to St. Lucia Estuary yielded a decent score again. In a few hours we got 2 secretary birds, 1 fish eagle, 2 steppe buzzards, 1 african long-crested eagle, 1 crowned eagle, 2 yellow-billed kites, 1 southern banded snake eagle and 1 brown snake eagle. Three photos taken today (Click on the photo for an enlargement):

African long-crested eagle

Brown snake eagle

Steppe buzzard

Best Regards,

www.tailormadesafaris.co.za

Best wishes for 2011!

Tailor Made Safaris wishes you all the best for 2011 and we hope you have had a most enjoyable New Years Eve! Ours was 'different' for a change. Not with family, not in the cold, no partying, but just 4 days of hiking in the majestic Drakensberg Mountains. With guests, we usually stay in 3 to 5 star accommodation, but now on our own, we opted for a small tent. The plan was to ascend from the parking lot at 1354 m. to the top of 'The Dragon's Back' and 'Champagne Castle' at 3254 m., over a period of 2 days. There we would then spend New Years eve in a comfortable cave, enjoy the spectacular views the next morning, and to start our return that afternoon. To keep a long story short: The weather Gods were not always on our side... At times it was beautiful and sunny, at other times cold, wet and miserable. The 'comfortable' cave turned out to resemble a very moist dungeon, and during the night proved to leak on dozens of places. So I am not staying there again... The spectacular views, we never got to see, as we were engulfed in a cloud that refused to clear. Hence we started our descend rather early on New Years day. Below is a small photo-essay of the New Years of Tailor Made Safaris. You can click on the photos for an enlargement.

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Day 1, relatively gentle rolling hills.

Day 2: the weather looks promising. Tonight we'll sleep in a cave on top of the ridge.

The view from our tent on the morning of day 2.

The 'comfortable' cave...

We slept very well here... NOT!

Day 3: Start of our descend of Gray's Pass.

Afternoon day 3: Down below everything is better.

Morning day 4

Morning day 4

Well, we'll all have to get back to the office...

And Leopard again...

Alright, we have to admit: Not once did we have a Christmas feeling over the last couple of days. For us Dutchies, Christmas is inherently linked to cold, darkness, twinkling lights, snow or rain, grey skies and sitting indoors. How different was the Christmas this year, which we spend in Tembe Elephant Park on Christmas Day and Makhasa Game Reserve on Boxing Day. Warm, sunny, blue skies, outdoor dinners, game drives and rhino tracking. Elephant sightings were good as usual in Tembe Elephant Park, but the cherry on top of our Christmas pudding was a leopard mom with a one year old cub that decided to linger around our vehicle for more than half an hour! See the small photo essay below for an impression of the Christmas of Tailor Made Safaris: