Isn't it amazing how fate has a habit of placing you in the right place at the right time?  We were convinced by friends of ours to go to their Game Reserve for the weekend in the Eastern Cape.  No sooner had we arrived, and we heard about the plight of a little bushpig being kept for the pot by farm labourers on the adjacent farm. Our friend explained to the staff that we would take the pig and rehabilitate him. The next morning, tragedy of the cruellest kind had happened.  Snorky was hobbling around on a broken leg.  Our friend was devastated by the cruelty dealt out to this little friendly pig, coming to the obvious conclusion that the labourers had deliberately broken the pig's leg so that he would be destroyed and they could feast on the meat.  We drove across to see the pig, who was now cowering under a bed in one of the kraals, obviously confused as to why the previously friendly humans had turned on him.  We loaded him up immediately and drove him 1 1/2 hours through to Graaff Reinett to have his leg pinned.

Snorky was in a bad condition physically. The fleas were just crawling all over his hairy body.  Snorky spent the balance of the weekend with us and then we brought him back to Tenikwa.  Being a "pig", it was difficult to keep Snorky's bandage clean, but when he went to our vet for a bandage change, we took the opportunity to X-ray his leg and found that although the break had healed well, Snorky was dragging his hock badly and it was feared that he may not recover fully from the break to be released.  Our vets decided to remove the bandage and instructed us to keep Snorky quiet.  Not so easy with a little pig who is haring around the house with the dogs!  Being completely accustomed to people by the time we took responsibility for him, we had to embark on a slow weaning process, but he was really more habituated than we would have liked, to be able to release him back into the wild.

When we started looking for opportunities to release Snorky, we realised that releasing him into the wild was not possible - not because of his leg, but because Snorky has no fear of humans. Infact, he would most probably seek out human company in preference to his own kind, and this would result in him being shot or snared. Brothers Safaris had sent a group of veterinary nurses through to Tenikwa, and assisted us on a snare hunt.  They were enamoured with Snorky and his plight.  This led us to approach Dr William Fowlds about Snorky's possible release on Amakhala Game Reserve.  Soon, the idea took shape and became a reality.  Permits and motivations were submitted, and we got the go ahead from Cape Nature.

And so on 30th July 2010, we loaded Snorkey into our vehicle, and he started on the final leg of his journey back to the wild.  At Amakhala, Dr Fowlds was waiting for us, and we drove to the boma where he took this great leap out the vehicle .  Snorky was very surprised to encounter thorns which pricked his nose!  He has a long way to becoming bushwise, but the large elephant boma where he has been housed is a great start for him to get to know the resident bushpigs and the rest of the inhabitants at Amakhala.  Now begins his final preparation for release.  At Amakhala, he is going to have to get used to natural food and he will obviously have to learn to fend for himself once he is released.  We felt a little sad leaving him behind, but consoled by the fact that, for Snorky, he's been given a second chance at living a normal bushpigs life in the wild where he belongs.

The pine trees at Mermaid’s Slipper Restaurant on the banks of the Bitou River is home to a large colony of cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis, and a couple of Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea cinerea.

In December, during the violent storm that caused widespread flooding in Plettenberg Bay and Knysna, many of the newly hatched chicks were blown from their nests and were left to die beneath the trees.

We are so fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful places in the country. As we drive from The Crags to Plett, I love to look out the window at the indigenous forest, scanning the branches for birds and sometimes if we are lucky, in the morning catching a glimpse of a lone bushbuck nibbling at the grass shoots on the forest edge.

Unfortunately though,  through the rehabilitation work that we do, I know that what we see on the surface, is merely an illusion and the saddest rehab admissions for us, are the animals who arrive at Tenikwa as a result of the destructive nature of man.  Not a week goes by, without some wild animal being displaced, being forcibly removed, being abandoned, through intolerance and a continual destruction and degradation of their habitat.  Plett is “spectacular by nature” but it is the very nature of Plett that is disappearing faster than most residents realise.  And we are not unique, it’s happening all over our country, all over Africa, and all over the world.

Today (23rd October) is a very happy day for us, but also a very sad day. Today, we released Woody, the Wood Owl.

We knew it was time. When I fetched Woody from his orientation cage yesterday afternoon, he kept flying back onto the perch. He was trying to tell us in his own words, this is where I belong. All night, Woody was restless in his night-time cage. He wanted out.