Greetings from the Royal Jozini Estate,
It is a late afternoon in June, a crisp light permeates the air, my mind and body wind down from another day spent on the land. The sun follows its familiar arc to the horizon, a chilly breeze surges through the window, a gentle reminder of the frosty night to come. With the dry season reaching its peak, the acacia lowveld stretches out in front of me – now a rolling kaleidoscope of yellows and browns. Hardly surprising when one considers that we have only had 2.5mm of rain in the last 2 months.
I sit here in my office scanning the mighty Lubombo’s for some literary inspiration, the melodic sound of a chin spot bat is brings me back from my reverie. I can’t help but still wonder how this incomparable location is only 3 ½ hours from DBN and 5hrs from the Big Smoke.
I am pleased to report that the past few months since my February newsletter have yielded great results. However let me begin by saying that on the 8th March we were greeted with a special delivery, his name was Kaden RJ Azran weighing in at 4.03kgs – well done to my beautiful wife for giving me a son. Ruth and I marked his arrival back to Royal Jozini with the celebratory distribution of meat to our workforce and that evening the delicious aroma’s of ‘’shisa nyama’’ was carried on the wind as it swirled around Funga Village.
Moving onto the estate operations, we can say that progress is being made day by day. Additional road works to mountain road, the erection of a new larger sign at the entrance and internal road signs make the estate more user friendly to any investor or visitors passing through.
The respite in the rain has caused dam levels to drop further and we eagerly wait for the levels to rise. This has resulted in both our slipways, Marina and Mapivene, to become non-operational for now. The upside of this is that the developers recently rezoned waterfront plot 33 as a common area for lodge owners and we have been busy constructing a new slipway aptly named Slipway 33. Furthermore at this location, a floating jetty will be installed by the end of June and we plan to concrete sections to assist skippers in retrieving their boats– a big thank you in this regard must go to Mike Oldfield for his assistance.
Game sightings remain stable with no major casualties to be reported. Surprisingly some of our zebra population have given birth during these dry times and the offspring are faring well. Baboon calls echo through the cliffs and both warthog and vervet monkey populations become ever bolder. Daytime sightings of up to 8 bush pigs along Jordana Drive have also been reported by my wife on her routine walks.
The Spring Tiger Festival is fast looming and recent reports from event organisers indicate that there are over 70 confirmed anglers for the competition. It is destined to be a fantastic weekend and an event which can only benefit Royal Jozini 6 and it’s investors through the exposure received. Please contact Des Morkel on tel: 011 609 888, cell: 083 456 7367 or des@bushboats.co.za if you have not entered and wish to do so.
The other exciting news is that we have been given the green light to organise a MTB race within Royal Jozini Big 6.
Proposed dates are for April or May 2013 (to be confirmed). Preliminary event planning is as follows:
- 2 Man Teams / 2 Day event
- 45km per day (2 days) Entry fee of R1200.00 per team (R600 each) for a 2 day event.
- 20Km per day (2 days) Entry Fee of R500 per Team (250 per rider) for a 2 days event.
- This includes a Goodie bag, Water Bottle and event T-shirt.
- The event will be run over a long weekend, competitors arrive Friday, and ride Sat and Sunday.
- R15 000 prize money
The event will be co-ordinated and managed by B-Active Sports Marketing (www.bactive.com) who have been involved in Sports Marketing since 2001 – they have worked their way into events such as 94.7 Cycle Challenge, Pick n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Race, The 5fm Energade Tri-Series, East Coast / Discovery Big Walk, The Amashova Cycle Race and The Comrades Marathon. I have no doubt that they will deliver the goods!
There will be sponsorship opportunities available around this event and if anyone is interested in these, please contact me. I will keep you all updated on progress.
Moving onto the not so popular financial side of things, we are fast approaching financial year end on 30th June 2012. I believe some correspondence has recently been sent out from Unity Properties on this topic, but can I also make a further appeal to investors to assist our year end audit and fiscal situation by making a special effort to settle their levy accounts before 30th June.
Other than that, mention must be made of Jolly Roger Tiger Fishing Safaris, recently set up by the McLeod’s – mountain plot owners. Please visit www.facebook.com/tigerfishingswaziland / www.royaljozinilodge.co.za for more information. Attached is a picture of a fine Tiger specimen caught by Roger on his debut outing earlier in the year. The size was 3, 5 kg caught on Bream Belly Shine – slow drift – within the Swaziland side of the Dam.
Below is another picture of a monster 6.4kgs caught in the Pongola river mouth in early May. Bait unknown.
For those investors planning a visit to see the progress on-site, please feel free to contact me anytime and I personally will give you a tour. If you wish to overnight, don’t forget that we now have accommodation options of D,B+B at Kujabula Lodge – www.kujabulalodge.com – or self catering options, visit www.royaljoziniaccommodation.co.za for more information.
Let me leave you for now with the hope of seeing you soon in these parts.