2009 Summary

Imbasa has had an incredibly busy 2009 where we got to meet fantastic people from all over the world. There have been many great stories shared around our campfire with the accompaniment of jackal cries in the background. We feel so blessed to be able to share the beauty of this country with overseas visitors, many who return again and again and become great friends of the Imbasa family.

The animals are now calving and are looking fat and healthy after the good rains that have blessed Imbasa and we look forward to a new crop of quality animals. The new buffalo have arrived safely at Imbasa and are doing very well. Considering their impressive size, they are experts at hiding! We have put in four young bulls as an introduction and at a later stage will be getting females in order to breed. Hanna was very impressed to receive for young bulls for Christmas, and she was heard saying that she was surprised and perhaps it was because of Richard´s dyslexia that he misread the word "Bulgari" for "Buffalo" on her whish list.

Kate and Warren´s horseback safari initiative has been a huge success and many of our visitors have been able to experience close encounters with wild animals from the horseback.

We are looking forward to a very exciting 2010, the year South Africa will host the FIFA World Cup. From Imbasa you have the great opportunity to go to Bloemfontein (Mangaung Stadium) and watch the games! We are especially looking forward to the match on June 22 between France and South Africa. Go Bafana Bafana!

Giving back; Plant a Tree and Community Christmas

Imbasa has started a new environmental initiative where every guest visiting Imbasa has the opportunity to donate an amount of €10 for which we plant a tree to help Mother Nature.

As part our strive to give back to the community, we provided Christmas packages for the families living in the local village, who live in very poor conditions and often do not have enough money for food and clothing. As well as donating meat, we distributed sweets and toys for the kids as well as magazines and clothes kindly donated to us. We also try to employ those who want any work on a day to day basis. And we are very proud of the Imbasa football team that is doing very well!

Hunting

2009 was a very good year for our hunters and here are some of the highlights;
John Pullen from the UK finally got the warthog he has been chasing for three years much to everyone´s delight! This was a great season for warthog and many fantastic trophies were taken as well as incredible Impala´s.
Coci Phillipson and Magnus Ofverberg´s group took some great Black Wildebeest trophies topped by Magnus´s massive bull while Filip Tegelberg got the biggest Eland for the season with a magnificent old bull.
Our PH´s deem 2010 to be the year for the Gemsbuck and Eland with some great bulls roaming around the plains.

Golf

We are happy to recommend a visit to the beautiful Magersfontein Memorial Golf Club just 30 minutes from Imbasa. The recently opened 18 hole course is built on historic ground where Bushmen lived for thousands of years. At the turn of the last century the place witnessed one of Africa´s great battles; Magersfontien. Ironically, some of the finest golfers of the time were encamped on the estate preparing to fight. Today, the estate´s peace and harmony pay tribute to this history. We highly recommend you to visit this very beautiful and quite challenging course.

We wish all our friends around the world a fantastic 2010, see you soon!

Hanna & Richard Björklund and all the Imbasa staff