Kwazulu/natal
Ngome is on the battlefields route about 120kilometres from the Drakensberg mountains, it is a very picturesque part of the country generally hosting year round good weather.
This property is 120 yrs old originally belonging to the family of the first president of south Africa Louis Botha, it was in a grave state of disrepair and has taken a year to get the place.
Grave stones have been found in a secluded plot of the garden and efforts are being made to restore this area.
The Bamharta Rebelkion of 1906 was conducted around the Ngome area. On the ranch is a memorial dedicated to 3 of the policeman killed during that battle, and the current chief M.M.Zondis the great great great grandson of chief Bambharta, owns this ranch.
it was my greatest pleasure to see monkeys living a natural life.
There are 23 monkeys living here all of which live in the trees, at the moment they are fed daily at feeding stations as the area they are comfortable with visiting has not enough sustainable bush for them to survive, this means that until the monkeys venture further afield and are ready to leave the area of the ranch true rehabilitation is not possible . these monkeys enjoy the security of knowing there is always a meal for them and that they are safe from hunters.
Monkeys need an area for natural foraging of approx 7 kilometers as a circuit, within the past year the monkeys have gradually moved nearer and nearer to the bush and some have already gone back to the wild it is hoped that eventually they will all do so.
Natural habitat is very near by this include all the sustainable flora and fauna necessary for their continual survival it is due to urban sprawl and unnatural preditors .i.e indescrminant shooting, poisioning cars, dogs, electric pylons that leads to these orphans coming to the sanctuary they may have lost their forest but what they have not lost however is the natural instinct to forage, all of the foraging they do is almost impossible to recreate in artificial enclosures as they instinctively know what is safe to eat they also forage for natural live foods grasshoppers being one of their favourite.
The way this sanctuary is run is that when young or injured vervets arrive at the sanctuary they are cared for gradually within a lame and lazy enclosure (please see page on lame and lazy) whenever possible the older vervets are returned to their own family or area .Depending on their injuries they are kept in the intensive care unit until well enough to be released, the time of the year depends on whether any baby vervets bought in are looked after inside or in the lame or lazy enclosure outside until they are old enough to join the troop . They are checked by the vet to make sure they are free of disease and then are actively encourage to mix with the semi-wild group to gain acceptance, please see separate page on the latest baby Ngome who is at present being looked after..
It is a pleasure to walk around this place and know that you are in the presence of monkeys that have been rescued from sometimes terrible circumstances and that they now have a wonderful life in the trees, free to come and go as they please. It is also interesting to see a wild male sitting on the outside of the troop patiently waiting for acceptance to join in, this evening I observed him being groomed by a young female from our group so he is gradually edging his way in.
Every evening you get the pleasure of feeling that you live in the cage rather than them, when they come to the meshed doors of your living room to let you know they have come home
they are then fed again and then retire for the evening into the trees the orphaned youngsters as they don’t have the warmth of their mother come into the house in the winter so they can be kept warm. It is quite incredible to see the way these monkeys don’t wreck the house and happily take their bottle then get wrapped just as it is dark (which replecates when a wild monkey would go to bed) and allow you to put them in a small cat basket for the night, they never soil their bed and sleep peacefully all night.
The farm has 9 chickens, 8 geese, and at least 60 ducks all living in harmony together, Henry the local african worker has a real raour with all the poultry and watching him feed and put them away for the night is an amazing organised procedure nobody else would be able to perform.
There is 1 large cow and 2 calves,but the most enchanting of all the animals has to be a young goat of about 2 months old he is called grid after being found cold and wet trapped in a cattle grid, he definetly thinks he is a dog but unfortunately is not house trained and has no intention of being so, he sleeps in front of the fire everynight and spends his days outside in the sunshine, I watched one afternoon three monkeys grooming him and him taking great pleasure in them doing so
Sunsets in South Africa have to be seen to be believed every night is a different picture
