It’s Friday Quiz time, we don’t have any prizes to give away this week, but the satisfaction of getting many questions right and learning from any mistakes should be enough to get you through the day! Email your results to Ross(at)rhinoafrica.com in order to be entered into the competition and don’t forget to wish him a happy birthday on this his 30th!
Terence is the glue behind Rhino Africa. The keratin in our Rhino horn. He’s the “I” in our IT department and the “hand” in our handyman.
After being part of the crack squad that organised David’s 40th birthday at the Mount Nelson, Terence took a well deserved break. While Tiger Woods was distracted by his financially calamitous divorce, Terence stole his mojo and set off for the Garden Route to reap the rewards. Four championship courses in five days. , Pinnacle Point, Pezula and Simola. A tough challenge even for Retief…
As befitting a semi-pro like T-Dawg (as he is affectionately known in the office) he stayed in the 5-Star luxury of Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa. Pezula has a spectacular location on the Eastern Head of Knysna in the heart of the majestic Garden Route. It’s perched high above this exquisite coastline and is a sanctuary of privacy and indulgence. The playground of the rich and famous. And Terence.
Set on a stunning 1,000 ha estate, known for its secluded beach, sweeping fynbos landscapes and ancient indigenous forests, the Pezula Resort has breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean, the Knysna Lagoon and the Outeniqua Mountains. There’s fantastic food at Zachcary’s (named after the owner’s Labrador!) a world-class spa (where Little Miss Ryan indulged in a couple of treatments while Mr Ryan was on the golf course), a vast range of outdoor activities and of course a championship golf course. They even have a couple of private castles on the breathtakingly secluded Noetzie beach – special treats only need apply.
Oh, and did I mention that it was also Terence’s birthday? With a just a few years left until he qualifies for the seniors’ tour, Terence took on his first challenge – Oubaai. Oubaai is a spectacular lynx course in Herald Bay (reasonably close to George). A rusty start saw the Ter(ence)minator shoot triple figures. But, on Ernie Els’s hardest and most famous hole – the par 3, 17th, Terence smacked a gem of 9 iron 4 feet from the pin! Child’s play. He three putted.
Things couldn’t get much worse? Or could they? Next up was Pinnacle Point – a dastardly course on the edge of the Indian Ocean. Faced with a tricky par 3 that required pin point accuracy, Terence missed by a proverbial mile. A massive shank down the cliff face – the ball hurtling towards the crashing waves below. By some small golfing miracle, the ball ricocheted off two rocks, went soaring back into the air and landed on the green. Not enough to save Terence the humiliation of a club house guffawing 109. It’s a tough and demanding course – the saving grace was that Terence came out slightly less red faced than his playing partner who managed to break a 6 iron in half out of sheer frustration.
With Terence’s golf skills on the fringes of dignity, it was time for a comeback. What better course for it than the Jack Nicklaus designed Simola? The Simola Hotel includes the Orchid Room Restaurant and Sushi Bar, Sir Roy’s Bar, a professional hair salon, spa and a fully equipped gym. Simola was actually Terence’s favourite course – in his own words ‘it was immacurate’ – he’s not Chinese, but working with computers all day takes its toll on his English skills. On a still day, Terence came storming back with a blistering 94.
Finally, the home course, Pezula – with WAGS looking on, it was time to turn up the heat. Massive slice on the first tee. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And Terence is tough. He’s a man’s man. A Bar One man. He needed an eagle on the final hole par 5 to break 90. Only 5% of golfers ever break 90…
Terence Ryan, the man himself
Terence got a par, keeping him firmly within the other 95% but giving him his best score of the week, a respectable 91 and something for the girls to cheer about.
The Garden Route is a golfing Mecca. There are literally hundreds of courses to play and there are even more luxurious lodges, hotels and guest houses to choose from. We can recommend the best places to suit your individual needs and budget. Just drop us an enquiry and we’ll help you plan your ultimate golfing holiday!
That’s right we have made it into the final stages of the SA Blog Awards in the Best Travel Blog Category, you got us there! This is the first time the Rhino Africa blog has made it this far. Now the voting really starts and with enough votes maybe we can WIN IT this year! All you have to do is vote for us and keep voting as each email address is allowed to vote once every 24hrs.
Follow this link, which preselects our blog in the correct category, then scroll to the very bottom, input the security code and your e-mail address and ‘submit’. After that you will receive a confirmation email with a link in it which you must click in order to confirm your vote!
http://website.sablogawards.com/2010/vote/voteforme/3257
To make it easier to remember where to go we have included the SA Blog Awards widget in the right sidebar of our blog, it looks and functions like this one:
Thank you very much, here’s hoping we can take the lead on this one!
African animals like animals the world over are sometimes born with genetic defects. The most common and well known of these is Albinism. Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the absence of pigment in the skin due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin. Elephants, Impala, Giraffe, Snakes, some bird species and several other species have all been spotted in Africa in their albino form. In 2009 a BBC cameraman spotted a very rare Albino elephant calf in the Okavango Delta, Botswana (Find that article here) in Elephants albino’s are not white but rather pink or reddish in colour.
The most famous of ‘white’ animals in Africa is the white lion. However white lions are not Albino, instead the white color is caused by a recessive gene known as chinchilla or color inhibitor. At one point the Timbavati Game Reserve was well known for having a small population of white lions, and these are thought to be the forefathers of almost all white lions in the world. For the most part these can only be found in Zoos and private collections, although at Sanbona Private Game Reserve on the Garden Route there is a free roaming pride of white lions and there are rumours of white lion cubs being born in the Timbavati again.
The complete opposite of Albinism is Melanism, which is the occurrence of an increased amount of dark pigmentation, resulting from the presence of to much melanin. This results in black or dark coloured animals. In Africa black leopards have been spotted and black impala occur, in fact at Botlierskop Private Game Reserve in South Africa their is a herd of over 150 black impalas! And in the Aberdare Mountains of Kenya there exists a population of black serval cats, here their colouring is thought to help them gain more heat from the sun in the cold weather high in the mountains.
Many animals with genetic defects including Albinism and Melanism don’t last long in the wild. The African bush is a harsh and unforgiving place and lack of camouflage, inability to move or feed properly and so forth mean most animals born with genetic defects are soon prey to predators or simply cannot survive. This much is true for a baby elephant spotted in Mala Mala Private Game Reserve in August 2006. Former Mala Mala ranger Anthony Harding explained that this baby survived for only a few months with a deformed back leg which made it incredibly difficult for it to move around. Supported by the herd it lived longer than would normally be expected and traveled between neighboring private game reserves. It is suspected that the baby finally died under the claws and jaws of a lion pride somewhere within Mala Mala’s borders. The video below was shot on a small digital camera so isn’t the best quality but it shows clearly the difficulty this poor elephant had in getting around. Thank you Anthony for the pictures and video.
EDIT: Warren Pearson an ex-Londolozi ranger tells us on Facebook that he believes it was a pack of hyena and not a pride of lion as previously stated. Either way, a sad end to a sad tale.
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Rhino Africa Safaris are specialists in South and East Africa safari travel focusing on specific destinations such as the Kruger National Park, Victoria Falls, Okavango Delta and Cape Town.
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