The Suitcase Diaries: Moholoholo Rehab Centre

I've been wanting to take Dru to Moholoholo Rehab Centre for the good part of a year and a half now but every time we think we might visit, something stops us from going as it is a bit of a drive from Nelspruit (our usual SA hole away from the Moz jungle) and we are most of the time just in town to get a few essential things done before heading back to Mozambique.

Well we finally ran out of excuses when my mom and aunt decided we needed a "reunion" and we all decided to head off to the beautiful Limpopo province for the week. Packed and ready to go, Moholoholo most certainly to be the highlight of the week.

Moholoholo lies in the shadow of the majestic Drakensburg mountain, just a stones throw away from the Blyde River Canyon on the R531 near Klaserie and Hoedspruit. We opted to stay at a beautiful bush lodge nearby called the Blyde River Wilderness Resort and meet up with the guides for the 09h00am tour but Moholoholo also offers various accommodation options should you wish to stay on site.

Moholoholo provides a home for many of South African abandoned, injured and poisoned wildlife. Those that can in any possible way be rehabilitated and released back in the wild will be released and monitored. Sadly those that cannot be released have found a permanent home with Brian Jones and his family and great team at Moholoholo which for us the public gives us the unique advantage to interact with some of these special creatures and gain a bit of an understanding of the plight of some of these animals and the dangers that surround them daily.

I have never been a great fan of any animals kept in captivity, yet with the work that Brian and his team at Moholoholo does there is no doubt in my mind that these animals are in paradise as most of the ones that cannot be rehabilitated are living a life of luxury at Moholoholo and perfect safety which goes a long way in the wilds of Africa.

Some of what you will see at Moholoholo will absolutely break your heart including a Lion which was confiscated from a Egyptian Circus, a lioness who was trapped in a snare and very badly injured, a stuffed leopard who after he got trapped in a snare was so badly injured that he couldn't be saved but has been put on display exactly as he was found to educate people on just how bad snaring is and what damage it creates.

Various birds of prey and vultures that have been victims of poisoning, a little baby rhino who lost his mother to poachers, Stoffel the Houdini of Moholoholo (a honey badger) and last but certainly not least Melman the teenage giraffe who was dropped on his head during the birthing process and consequently abandoned by his mother as he has a few "screws loose" so to speak.

Moholoholo has been hugely successful not only for the education of locals through facilitated tours of the centre, but also because Moholoholo is the only facility in southern Africa to have successfully bred the endangered crowned eagle. They have also successfully trapped and relocated 10-15 leopards per year over the last years - some have been relocated as far as Malawi! Offering this relocation option has prevented local farmers from killing leopards they perceive to be a problem.

The Centre also has a long standing and successful Serval Breeding Project which is a success story all of its own. Having bred and released over 160 back into areas where they have previously become extinct. They have received reports that some of the females have since mated with wild males in the area of release!

Watch the video of Stoffel the honey badger that keeps on devising new plans to escape his enclosure on http://www.wimp.com/badgerhoudini/

Crazy Melman and Dru. Melman has now decided its lunch time so he is literally stripping this little tree of its leaves, that was right after he had his morning fun of chasing the lodge car through the visitors parking lot and then having a siesta under the tree (bum on the floor) watching the visitors as they visited the baby rhino.