Tag: tracker

The Vehicle That’s Helping Preserve Tracking in Southern Africa

Posted on by James

In April 2021, Iconic Africa facilitated an immersive tracking getaway at Londolozi Game Reserve, South Africa, to raise money for the Tracker Academy – a non-profit organisation that trains disadvantaged rural men and women in traditional skills of wildlife tracking.
Hosting the event were Tracker Academy co-founders Renias Mhlongo and Alex van den Heever, and they facilitated an amazing and immersive few days in the African bush.

Alex and Renias telling stories around the fireside.

Present at the event was Tim Abbott, INEOS Automotive Head of Region, Southern Africa and Sub-Sahara, and what he saw and experienced there moved him so strongly that he decided to offer the full support of INEOS to the Tracker Academy for the next three years.

Below is part of the press release issued recently by INEOS, detailing the amazing partnership formed through that Iconic Africa Tracking event:

December 2021 – As it grows its presence in Southern Africa, ahead of the launch of its Grenadier 4X4 in 2022, INEOS Automotive is partnering with the SA College for Tourism’s Tracker Academy. The three-year partnership will see INEOS support vulnerable communities through a regional employment programme that aims to promote traditional approaches to wilderness conservation.

Tracker Academy Co-founder Alex van den Heever (middle) with Head Trainers Innocent Ngwenya (left, based at Londolozi Game Reserve) and Karel Benadie (right, based at Samara Game Reserve) and a Tracker Academy branded INEOS Grenadier

INEOS is the first automotive company to be actively involved in an initiative of this nature in the region. The overarching vision of the Tracker Academy is to restore indigenous tracking knowledge and skills in Africa and to continually improve the standards of training and assessment. It aims to prove that ancient tracking skills are relevant in modern conservation management efforts.

Tim Abbott, INEOS Automotive Head of Region, Southern Africa and Sub-Sahara, said: “The Tracker Academy offers us an ideal opportunity to support the reinvigoration of rural communities in South Africa through education and employment. It will allow us to make a meaningful and lasting contribution to the wellbeing of local people, while safeguarding ancient techniques that have protected the environment for thousands of years. We hope that the Grenadier – a vehicle suited perfectly to the conditions of rural Africa – will also play an important role in protecting biodiversity in the region.”

Tim Abbott (centre) proudly assisting with the recent Tracker Academy awards ceremony in Graaf Reinet.
Tim Abbott (left) and John Holley, Iconic Africa Director.

INEOS Automotive will sponsor 30 student bursaries for the Tracker Academy’s one-year course structure from 2022 to 2024. The course will expose students to the diverse range of wildlife in the semi-desert and bushveld biomes. Sponsored tracking courses will only be offered to unemployed, previously disadvantaged men and women, up to retirement age.

“Since day one, our goal has been to empower tracker graduates to become ambassadors for the African wildlife conservation industry,” says Tracker Academy general manager, Alex van den Heever. “We are dedicated to bringing authenticity and accuracy to environmental education, wildlife protection, eco-tourism, monitoring, and research, and we are delighted to be partnering with INEOS Automotive to share knowledge and expertise for the benefit of social ecology and our communities.”

The INEOS Grenadier is already breaking new ground in the automotive space. Given that through this alignment with the Tracker Academy it is also firmly establishing itself in the social upliftment sector, it seems set to take the African market by storm, as well as ensuring a bright future for the ancient art of tracking for years to come.

Londolozi: A Return Home

Posted on by Terri

It has been 26 years since I first journeyed to Londolozi Game Reserve, yet every time I visit I still feel the same sense of giddy excitement I did on that initial visit so long ago, the same sense of nostalgia when I climb up into the Land Rover for the opening game drive of the trip, and the same overwhelming sense of sadness when I leave.

It’s not just the amazing sightings of leopards in trees, lions wading through the Sand River, or being surrounded by the 7th herd of elephants for the morning. It’s far more than that.
This for me was where my true love for the bush began, as I began to see exactly what type of experience it could – and should – be.

My first visit to Londolozi, 26 years ago (I am standing centre). Ranger Julius Ngwenya (sitting in front) has his son now working as a tracker at Londolozi.
And our latest trip, out on game drive waiting for lions to wake up in the evening.

This is what Londolozi does so well. There’s no formula. That went out the window long ago. Yes there is a framework within which the lodge operates – out before sunrise each morning to catch the dawn chorus, night drives following lions on the hunt, bush walks to make you touch, smell, and truly listen – but the reality is that each safari, each time you venture out of the camp gates in fact, is tapered to suit your specific needs.

One of the many herds that inhabit the reserve wade across the Sand River (Pioneer Camp is just out of picture to the left).
The winter months are an especially good time to see elephants in the South African bush.

Birding is your thing? No problem; the focus shifts to the myriad different habitats that the reserve features, with the guide and tracker fully aware of which species are to be found where. Photographically inclined, wanting to capture that magical silhouette shot of a leopard outlined against the vivid reds of an African sunset? The tracking team will find that leopard, and – conditions permitting – the ranger will know exactly where to position the vehicle and what camera settings to use to make sure you nail the shot. There is no such thing as homogeneity in the Londolozi experience. It’s always unique and always special.

You never know what will be around the next corner at Londolozi…

I try to get back there once a year, except these days it’s not just me and my husband but my kids as well, and my brother and his wife regularly accompany us.
We try to stay in Pioneer Camp each year, the most westerly of the Londolozi camps. One of Londolozi’s three Relais and Chateaux camps, Pioneer only has three rooms, perfect for a family of our size. The adults go into two of them while the kids squeeze into the third (which is connected to ours by a discreet walkway).
And for a magical ten days, the camp becomes home.

The camp manager this year was Shannon Dawson, the most wonderful person you could ever wish to meet, and she shares a similar history with us in that she has also been visiting Londolozi with her family since she was small. And now she calls it home too.
Nothing was ever too much for Shannon, and her delightful smile was always there to welcome us home after game drive, morning and evening.

This leopard was waiting for us just off the edge of the Pioneer Camp deck as we returned from game drive one evening!

Travelling out from Atlanta, GA, where I live these days (having moved from South Africa in the 90s), it makes far more sense for us to come for a longer trip, so ten days is usually the least amount of time we will stay. I cannot emphasise enough the value of a longer stay. It allows one to truly sink into a place, to adjust to the flow of the African bush, and get to know the ranger, tracker and camp staff far better than one would in what would traditionally have been a three night adventure.

Our coffee stop one morning in a treehouse overlooking the Sand River.

 

A young leopard cub peers down nervously from the boughs of a marula tree, still uncertain of the best way to descend.

Particularly for those coming from further afield, long stay safaris are slowly starting to replace the three night visits, which travel trends are definitely starting to reflect. The idea it seems, is to go deeper, not broader. Rather than hopping between lodges, discerning travellers are preferring to remain in one place, getting the absolute most out of a visit that they can.
This is certainly what we try to accomplish each time we visit Londolozi.

Tiny wild dog pups emerge from their den as their mother calls them out.

This was our first time back in a couple of years, Covid-19 and other circumstances having prevented us visiting since July 2018.

The best thing for me was just how easy travel was in these times: flights were not a problem, covid-compliant and everything almost seemed easier than normal, especially given that airports are far less crowded. A hop, skip and a jump, and back in Londolozi we were…

And what a return it was.
Lions taking down a buffalo on our first morning, male leopards roaring back and forth at each other, a female leopard with her cubs just learning how to climb, wild dog pups emerging from their den for the first time… The sightings were incredibly varied and seemingly endless.
And in between them was the Londolozi fun; Wimbledon-themed dinners, soccer games for the kids, tracking lessons from Joy Mathebula… Whenever we least expected it, there was something new and exciting on the cards.

Tracker Andrea Sithole – who our family have known for years – celebrates a goal with my daughter Brodi in a soccer game organised for the kids staying in camp.
One of the dominant male leopards that Londolozi is so famous for, drinking only a few feet from our vehicle.

Londolozi doesn’t just thrill with the wildlife. They take you into their world and open your eyes. You get to see what this one wild life we have all been given should really be about: fun, connection, intimacy with nature and ultimately finding the best version of yourself.

I know I find that person whenever I’m at Londolozi.
And you can too…