Marula Feast

This year we have had a bumper harvest of marula fruits from the marula trees around the lodge.  This tree dominates the landscape here in our area of Balule, with its beautiful patterned trunk and its leafy canopy, which gives excellent shade.  Past guests will be able to visualise the tree by the swimming pool which is a male marula tree.  Interestingly, each tree has a specific gender – the female one bearing the fruits and the male one flowers only. 

Outside the kitchen there is a female marula tree. Over the past few weeks the marulas have been falling to the ground, where they ripen and turn from green to yellow and give off a sharp, sweet scent.  The warthogs have visited the harvest on several occasions as well as baboons and of course elephants.

Marula fruits can be used in various food and drink recipes;  a local, very potent, alcolholic beer; jellies and jams and the delicious amarula liqueur.  With the glut of fruit I decided to try making some jelly and collected a bucket full of marulas ready for processing.  Unfortunately, an elephant got to them first!  He came a couple of nights ago and vacuumed the carpet of  marula fruits from the floor, as well as eating the contents of my bucket!  Our two staff, Lucia and Iris, who were woken by the noise, had to make a lot of noise to keep him from also destroying a young baobab we have growing nearby.

The myth of elephants getting drunk on marula juice is not one that will hold up scientifically – they would have to eat well over one thousand fully-fermented marulas in one gigantic feast for the fermented juice to have any effect.  
 

This young warthog enjoys the feast

There are many stories surrounding the marula tree.  The one I like best is that an infusion of the bark can be used to determine the gender of an unborn child.  So bark from a male tree if you want a boy, and bark from a female tree if you want a girl.  Success rate - 50%!

 

Elephants caught on camera

The waterhole camera trap is proving to be a marvellous tool for helping us to keep track of the animals that come to visit the waterhole.  Since we have had it up and running from just before Christmas we have recorded some fantastic sights, many of which we would have missed because they happen very early in the morning, in the middle of the night or because we just do not happen to be watching at that time. 

 

 

 

 

These elephants visited the waterhole before the rains. 
Notice the size of the waterhole.

January's record of sightings proved to be very interesting when we analysed them.  Before the heavy rains came in the middle of the month we were recording, on average, 9 mammal sightings a day.  These could of course be a herd of impala that stayed around for several hours, or a skittish zebra that came, drank and then moved off after only a minute or so.  Then the rain came and for ten days, when we measured 310mm of rain, the mammal count at the waterhole dropped to 1.3 sightings a day.  Not surprising really when there was water everywhere in the bush.  Every stream and river flowed and every little depression in the soil was full of water.  Even now, a month later some of the roads are still too soft to drive on.  Sightings picked up again at the end of the month to 5 a day as the puddles in the bush began to dry out. 

 

 

January has also been an excellent month for elephant sightings at the waterhole, with 9 separate visits.   There has been a selection of different groups and individuals, including a breeding herd with some very small ones.   During the evening on January 11th the camera caught a herd of elephants drinking.  The results were marvellous - one shot trunks up, next shot trunks down, in perfect synchronisation!

 

The rains have started and the waterhole is growing by the minute.
This elephant seems to be enjoying the downpour.