Hi All, Recently we have been trying to find a way to discourage elephants from wandering around the island as they can be a bit destructive. We decided to go the route of studies such as the one done in Tsumkwe (East Namibia in the Bushmen communities) where they discovered that elephants don’t like chillies, and they planted chillies around their crops to keep the elephants from trampling them.
So we decided, since we don’t have chilli plants, to try chilli powder – We tested our theory and it seems to be working! Morne’ threw chilli powder all over the place and after a few sneezes from him, we waited in anticipation for the outcome. That night we had 13 elephants on the island, but they only moved up next to the jetty, close to room 1, which is where Morne’ started with the chilli powder. They haven’t been back until last night, it seems like there were about 4 of them on the island. The wind had been blowing quite a bit, so we guessed that the chilli powder was all gone…
We have been very busy over the last two weeks. We have had lovely guests that enjoyed their stay here. Certain of our guests said that they enjoyed the otter sightings the best, almost more than the lion they saw trying to hunt an Impala at another lodge they had stayed at previously. The weather is up and down, with some mornings still being very cold, but it heats up very fast during the day. Some mornings are less cold, and those days are the best… with a light breeze they are not too cold and not too hot – just perfect! That’s all for now, Morne and Susan
