Animals and their habitat

The vegetation surrounding at Wag ‘n Bietjie lodge is classified as thorn bushveld, and is an open savanna of mostly trees (Camel thorn tree) and grasses.

 

Plants within these veldtipe are the plant able to survive in this semi-arid climate, a diversity of animals are also able to thrive on the drought-resistant vegetation. Some of these are the abundant Armored Ground Crickets, the spritely Springbuck and the White backed Vulture that scavenges on animal carcasses. Birds are usually the first to be seen and easily identified like: blacksmith lapwing, melodious lark, cinnamon-breasted bunting, freckled nightjar, short-toed rock thrush, pygmy falcon and northern black korhaan.

 

A fascinating diversity of animals like Buffalo, sable, giraffe, gems buck, nyala, roan and waterbuck are well adapted to survive in these semi-arid climate and are dependent on the drought-resistant vegetation.

 

Interesting geological features of the landscape are the extremely hard rock type known as dolerite, forms the capping of the koppies around Wag ‘n Bietjie lodge. These were formed by outpourings of lava during ancient times.

 

In certain disturbed (and overgrazed) areas such as farmland along the road from Kimberley to Wag ‘n Bietjie and at the mine dumps, a number of invasive plants have established themselves and are influencing the natural (indigenous)vegetation. The main culprit and largest threat to our natural vegetation is the mesquite tree ( Prosopis glandulosa).

 

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes – Marcel Proust

Fascinating Reptiles

Ever since the time when Adam bit into the infamous apple, reptiles have caused a shiver down people’s spine and our inborn reaction is to scream and run, or on occasion, worse for the reptile, pick up a blunt object and beat it into oblivion. Reptiles however play a vital role in the environment and if one takes the time to study them, they are generally shy but fascinating creatures.

Southern Africa has a incredible diversity of reptile fauna with a minimum of 517 species that have so far been described. These include 151 snakes, 338 lizards, 27 tortoises and one crocodile. Many more species are still awaiting description in the scientific literature. Sadly, many of these reptiles have largely been ignored in conservation management plans and require special attention in the future.

The Puff Adder is one of the most wide-spread snakes in South Africa and can attain an adult length of just under one meter. It is a slow moving snake that relies on its camouflage to avoid detection and ambush prey.

The Puff Adder is responsible for more cases of serious snakebites in South Africa than any other. The venom is cytotoxic, causing extreme pain. Handlers use plastic tubing and a snake stick to carefully capture and handle Puff Adders.

The male Southern Tree Agama is brightly colored to both attract females and warn other males of their dominance status. They form family groups that are centered around clusters of trees. They avoid danger by moving rapidly around the tree trunk and fleeing into the upper branches.

Southern Tree Agamas are unusual in that they feed almost entirely on ants and termites.

The Leopard Tortoise is the largest species to be found in southern Africa and may weigh as much as 12kgs. Their home ranges may exceed 80 hectares

During the breeding season between September and April, male Angulate Tortoises use their enlarged gular shields in intensive battle with other males and try and use the gular shields as levers to overturn and ram their rivals.

The Robertsons Dwarf Chameleon is one of 15 currently described species of Dwarf Chameleon and adults are small  ranging between 4,5 and 10cm in length. Dwarf Chameleons are heliothermic using the suns rays to raise their body temperature and climb into exposed positions in the mornings to bask.

Chameleons eyes can scan almost 180 degrees and can be moved in different directions simultaneously. Their vision is more acute that that of humans.

 

GETTING TO KNOW THE NORTHERN CAPE

Home to the ancient San people, the Northern Cape is about wide-open spaces, an utterly beautiful coastline and a number of unique national parks offering the tourist a very different experience of the South African landscape. This province boasts a colorful history and a variety of cultural tourist attractions and is particularly well known for its incredible annual floral display that takes place in Namaqualand.

Overview The Northern Cape lies to the south of the mighty Orange River and comprises mostly desert and semi-desert. The landscape is characterized by vast arid plains with outcroppings of haphazard rock piles. The cold Atlantic Ocean forms the western boundary. This region covers the largest area of all the provinces in South Africa yet has the smallest population. The last remaining true San (Bushman) people live in the Kalahari area of the Northern Cape. The whole area, especially along the Orange and Vaal rivers, is rich in San rock engravings. The province is also rich in fossils.

The first people of the Northern Cape were the San, who were gradually pushed out of the area by the arrival of Europeans, and other African tribes.  The Dutch came to the area to mine for copper under the famous Cape governor Simon van der Stel.  Mining has always defined the history in this part of the world and, when diamonds were discovered in Kimberley, unprecedented growth took place in the province under the leadership of men such as Barney Barnato and Cecil John Rhodes.  In 1899, the Northern province was the scene of the Anglo-Boer War, where Kimberley was one of the first towns to be besieged by the Boers.

Climate Apart from a narrow strip of winter-rainfall area along the coast, the Northern Cape is a semi-arid region with little rainfall in summer. The weather conditions are extreme cold and frosty in winter, and extremely high temperatures in summer. Sutherland, in the Hantam Karoo, is one of the coldest towns in southern Africa with an average winter minimum is -6º Celsius.  In winter, snow often blankets its surrounding mountains.

Major attractions in the area:

  • Richtersveld National Park
  • Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
  • Augrabies Falls National Park
  • Flowers, Flowers Everywhere During August and September, the area of Namaqualand is transformed into a brilliant carpet of wild flowers.
  • Rock Art
  • Diamond Digging Country Kimberley boasts an excellent museum called the Kimberley Mine Museum.
  • The Big Hole at Kimberley
  • Trains and Trams
  • Moffat Mission Station Missionaries, Robert Moffat and his wife Mary arrived in the Kuruman area in 1820.
  • Wonderwerk Cave Not too far from Kuruman, lies the Wonderwerk Cave.
  • The Kalahari Desert
  • Small-town delights The Northern Province is littered with small towns that are fast growing in popularity with the arty set. Places such as Nieuwoudtville, Calvinia, Poffadder and Springbok are definitely worth a visit, especially for their warm-hearted local hospitality.
  • Orange River Adventures
  • Pella Mission Pella Mission is truly in the middle of nowhere. Approximately 150km from Springbok, Pella boasts a striking yellow cathedral that was built by French missionaries in the late 1880’s.

 

Information courtesy of South African Tourism (www.southafrica.net)

An authentically educational experience

Teenage Volunteering

Teenage volunteering is fantastic way to make new friends, see the world, and participate in unique and incredible community service initiatives. Join GoEco on fantastic programs around the globe, all organized to accommodate teenagers. All volunteers will receive certificates of completion. These projects are amazing resume-builders, great for college and job applications. Teenage volunteering abroad is also a great way to cultivate the foreign language you are studying in school, meet incredible people, and of course do your part to give back to less-fortunate communities abroad.

Teach Children and Surf in Cape Town

Volunteer at a surf and adventure club for children from disadvantaged areas in Cape Town. Be part of an opportunity for children to learn life lessons and stay off the streets. Volunteers receive surfing lessons during the school day and help teach the kids after school.

Cape Town Orphan Care

 

Travel to the exciting tourist destination of Cape Town, South Africa, and give back to the orphaned children in extremely under-served communities. Teach, mentor, and play with these children who desperately seek attention and care.

Cape Town Physical Education and Sports

Spread your passion for sports to children who have had few opportunities to learn and develop their skills in a structured yet fun environment. Inspire children to set goals and stay active, both on and off the sports field.

Orphanage and Teaching in Victoria Falls

 

Volunteer in the majestic and beautiful Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe! Make an impact in the lives of at-risk children by showing them that you care! Have fun, meet new people, and learn about Africa and its incredible culture.

Under 18 Community Involvement

This is the ultimate teen volunteer adventure experience! Enjoy the culture and beautiful beaches while you help with construction and renovation projects at local schools.

Cape Town Community Projects

 

Make an impact on communities living in Cape Town settlements through education, skills development and community improvement projects.

  • Africa: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana

South African cultural experiences

Hanging with South Africans

But nothing beats actually meeting people. South Africa’s many cultural villages offer a close-up insight into the country’s traditional cultures. In the major centers, township tours – conducted with sensitivity and pride – will put you in touch with real South Africans and their history. In the rural areas, community tours will help you get to know the country through the eyes of those who live here. You can discover ancient Setswana astronomy through the lens of a grandmother with an intimate knowledge of the ancient traditions. Or how about being taught to cook line fish the traditional way by the fishing community in Kalk Bay?

Cradle of Humankind

And remember, no matter where you’re from, this is where your roots are. It’s pretty much accepted that human life started in Africa. Most people look at the world differently after a tour of the Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg – one of the richest hominid fossil sites in the world. Fossilized footprints near Cape Town, and the wealth of rock paintings and surviving shelters in KwaZulu-Natal’s Drakensberg mountains and elsewhere in the country, all testify to humanity’s origins on this ancient continent.

Wars, apartheid, reconciliation

More recently, South Africa’s history has been one of conflict and confrontation, but also of reconciliation and restitution. You can explore the battlegrounds where the bloody events that shaped the country took place.From Isandlwana or Talana in KwaZulu-Natal to Soweto in Johannesburg or Langa in Cape Town, our land tells a story – but one that can be difficult to interpret, so it’s worth doing a guided tour. We show the wounds of our past – visit the Women’s Monument in Bloemfontein, or the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. But we also announce our new-found unity. A trip to Robben Island will show just how powerful that attitude can be. We’ve taken a place of oppression, isolation and despair and turned it into a symbol of forgiveness and hope. That’s what South Africans are doing with the whole country.

SA info reporter and South African Tourism

SAFARI WITH SOUL AWAITS YOU AT WAG ‘N BIETJIE LODGE

AUTHENTICAL MEMORIES

Is not something we have or don’t have!  It’s a practice, a conscious choice of how we want to live.  It is a collection of choices that we have to make every day.  It’s about the choice to be real and honest.  Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

SAFARI WITH SOUL AWAITS YOU AT WAG ‘N BIETJIE LODGE

The vast and arid Northern Cape is a breathtaking landscape that is characterized by its plains with outcroppings of haphazard rock piles. Building your own authentical safari with our extraordinary landscape, hosting some of the most beautiful camel thorn trees and wide open fields.

We offer an unbeatable combination of game drives, walks with skilled trackers and exclusive accommodation in pristine natural surroundings.  Wag ‘n Bietjie is an excellent lodge to experience Africa’s earthy design.  We have a committed relationship to social responsibility programs like supporting injured and orphaned animals, building a school for parents less fortunate to send their kids to local schools and providing of meat to workers and their families.

Nature and its surroundings

For the nature lover, we have beautiful wide open semi-arid savanna fields where you will get lost in with its thorn bushveld, koppies, extraordinary sunsets that only you can describe and relive.  To walk along this landscape and taking a gorgeous panoramic photo of the wildlife and its surroundings.  The more authentic the safari, the more you will enjoy it.

Wag ‘n Bietjie is situated in the Northern Cape and with our known hospitality, we will indulge you with our breathtaking cuisines and traditional desserts.   Taking a seat on the comfortable porch enjoying the silence of the bushveld and a cocktail after a long day looking out on a water hole where waterbuck, nyala, warthog and kudu’s drink is always a special treat.

Wild at heart

While building authentically memories, visit the Wild Heart Rehab center where orphaned and injured animals are treated from all around the country and released into their native habit.
 

Memorable accommodation

 

No matter which season, a lounge with nice fireplace telling endless stories of the day or the need to cool off in the swimming pool, we will help you to keep building on the authentic memories.

“Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all” (Alistair Reid)

 

Come and enjoy the freedom of the Northern Cape and its pristine moments and picturesque landscape. Make your journey an authentic one…here at Wag ‘n Bietjie lodge. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Authentic Africa Safari Experiences Can Still Be Found at Wag n Bietjie Lodge

There’s nothing like exceptional wildlife encounters on an authentic safari! It takes you to wild and inaccessible places.

At Wag ‘n Bietjie Lodge with its unique surroundings, wide open spaces of fields and animals roaming freely, is where clients receive a more intimate viewing experience. Awaken your senses and feeding your soul.

Sit back; relax while watching one of the most beautiful sunsets. Enjoy the scenery when the animals such as waterbuck, nyalas, warthog and even kudus come to drink water close by the lodge at the waterhole.

 

PLANTS AND BIRDS

 

While having a nice bush outing enjoy the unique bird and extraordinary plant life. Making it a challenge for the nature experts to identify the fauna and flora and having a great view while you’re at it.

 

HOSPITALITY AND ACTIVITIES

 

Here at Wag ‘n Bietjie we have a generous and friendly treatment for our visitors and guests providing traditional food and drinks while sitting around a nice bush fire. On request, let us arrange a exquisite romantic bush dinner. Take nice game drives with lovely sundowners or sit on the porch and enjoy a cocktail.

Animal lovers can see how a helping hand at the Wild Hearts Rehab centre changes injured or orphaned animals and see how they are re-introduced in their native habitat. Embrace the true connection with nature. At Wild Hearts Rehab center they believe education is an integral component of the anti-poaching effort. Whilst learning about nature, you will also be spoiled with our luxury accommodation and relaxation at the swimming pool or enjoying the lounge area with fire place for the colder nights.

 

TRAVEL EQUALS NEW BEGINNINGS

 

Make Wag ‘n Bietjie your new authentical experience!

 

“African adventure by day and star studded romance by night … let us take you there!”

The Myth of Authentic Travel

For the 21st century traveller, authenticity has become the goal and measure of travel. “Real” travellers avoid expensive attractions, preferring to wander off the “beaten track”. They avoid the “touristy”, wanting to see how the “locals” live. They bemoan tourism and commoditization as “polluting” the culture of a place. “Don’t sell us stuff”, they say, “Give us the ‘real’ thing, the ‘authentic’ experience.”

But what is “authenticity” exactly? As we excavate the term, we find that it is founded on particular ideas of what “culture” is, and should be. And these ideas are shaky.

Robert Shepard, an anthropologist at George Washington University, writes, “What is most commonly referred to as the tourist impact on Others is grounded in the unspoken presumption that these Others at some point in the past have lived in enclosed spaces of cultural purity, protected from outside contamination.” In other words, if tourism is contaminating, there must be something pure to contaminate.

But in reality, there are no untouched and unchanging cultures. The world has always been in interaction. In ancient and medieval times, the Silk Road and sprawling empires (the Romans, the Mongols, the Han). Starting from the 16th century, imperialism, industrialization and globalization. Conquerors, traders, missionaries, adventurers. To say tourism corrupts local culture ignores all the changes that have come before.

CULTURES ARE INTERMESHED, AND EVER-CHANGING. THERE EXIST NEITHER A SPATIAL NOR TEMPORAL BOUNDARY AROUND A CULTURE.

Culture not only changes with time, it also varies within itself in the present. That is to say, culture is heterogeneous, diverse, and hybrid. A country varies hugely within its borders. The city is different from the countryside. The lifestyles of the rich are different from the lifestyles of the poor. The beach-towns are different from the mountain villages. The experiences of one ethnicity are different from the experiences of the other. What authority is able to say what or who gets to exemplify a country?

IT IS BY KNOWING ALL THE DIVERSE THREADS OF THE COUNTRY, NOT SHUNNING ONE FOR THE OTHER, THAT WE GET TO UNDERSTAND IT.

Searching for escape, authenticity and identity: Experiences of ‘lifestyle travelers’

If individuals are seeking „experiences‟ through the vehicles of leisure and tourism, how can researchers begin to understand experiences from a participant perspective? Certainly, this is a complex question that is not satisfied with the simple assumption that individuals seek to escape to authentic experiences. Nonetheless, the theories surrounding escapism and authenticity have been historically relied upon in various attempts to understand participant experiences in leisure and tourism. However, recent post structural approaches have questioned both the possibility of escape and the grounds for authenticity, hoping to bury both of these concepts on the basis of their relativity.

 

Deconstruction has threatened the validity of the meanings and rewards that individuals may perceive in experiences by favoring discourse over subjectivities. The resultant backlash has re-emphasized „self‟, as individual worldviews have been relied upon to re-justify escape as a state of mind and shift the focus of authenticity away from „objectivity‟ and instead towards the authenticity of subjective experiences. With this, movement has come a wealth of research on identity as the notion of searching for a stronger sense of self has gained momentum as a useful tool in understanding leisure and tourism experiences.

 

Existential authenticity

 

Is described as a process of „being in touch with one “sinner self, knowing one’s self, having a sense of one’s own identity and then living in accord with one’s sense of oneself‟

 

Conclusion

 

Modern theories on seeking escapism, authenticity and identity point to each of these concepts as critical in understanding dimensions of tourism and leisure experiences. Although the actual possibility of escape, an objective basis for authenticity and the concept of self have all been subject to deconstruction, the lifestyle travelers in this study seemed to have taken little heed of the supposed „illusion‟ at the basis of their searching efforts. Indeed, the case study has demonstrated that some individuals still seek experiences that allow for feelings of escape and a stronger sense of identity, and that meaning and value may be attached to experiences that provide for these perceptions.

 

Sources:

Cohen, E. (1988) Authenticity and commoditization in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research                  15,371– 386.

 

Cohen, E. (1995) Contemporary tourism  trends and challenges: Sustainable authenticity or contrived post-modernity? In R. Butler and D. Pearce Change in Tourism: People, Places, Processes

(pp. 12-29). London: Rout ledge.

 

Small things in life to keep you going

“You’re looking for solutions that work for everyone in the company. While it’s true that you can’t please everyone all of the time, giving people choices, rather than a rigid set of rules to follow, will ensure a feeling of empowerment across teams.”

Keep happiness in mind

A happy employee is a productive employee, and it’s an entrepreneur’s job to ensure that they are caring for their staff.

“Above all, keep in mind that a business is a collection of people,” Branson says. “If your people are not happy and healthy, they your enterprise’s prognosis isn’t good enough. But if you make sure they have the time and support they need, you’ll set them and your company up for success in the long term.”

(Richard Branson)

Balance in the workplace

Work-life balance involves juggling workplace stress with the daily pressures of family, friends, and self. Modern employees demand greater control over their lives and a bigger say in the structure of their jobs. According to a recent Business Information Review publication, “The search for work-life balance is a process in which people seek to change things in accordance with changes in their own priorities, physical, psychological or both, and these can be triggered in their turn by factors such as: age; changes in working conditions; the demands of new technology; and poor management.”

Studies have shown that employees who have a positive work-life balance do a better job at work, so promoting this balance is beneficial to individuals and the company. This is a practical guide for employers who want to promote a healthy work-life balance for their teams.

Company Outings

One of the best ways to boost employee morale and help workers get to know each other in a non-stressful capacity is by offering an occasional company outing.

For example, you could organize a company-paid lunch either to be catered into the office or at a favorite group-friendly restaurant nearby. Happy hours, holiday parties, birthday celebrations, and park days are other fun ways to get out of the office and bond in a non-traditional setting.

Sources :For more discussion on all things related to employee wellbeing, check out the Disruptors section of Virgin.com