Well, we are almost halfway through 2023 – where has that all gone – and winter is upon us. The weather is certainly a lot crisper in the evenings and early morning, which for many is a pleasant change from the blistering heat.

  Unfortunately, this month our Picky View article will not appear due to ‘AE’s’ travels, and to be honest space is an issue this month.

  We have had numerous interactions with people concerning our last issue, more especially about the lead article “State caves in to game farmers and hunters over key wildlife protection”. My dear friend Jan put me in touch with Dries van Coller, mentioned in the above article, who is the Consulting Executive Officer – Professional Hunters Association of South Africa.

  I have been in touch with him, but unfortunately due to both our busy schedules we have not been able to sit together to discuss the article, and get a piece done from the other side of the coin (so as to speak). There are always two sides to every story, and we are very interested to get to hear and understand the other side, from the hunters and game farmers perspective.

  We of course try, at the Kruger2Canyon News, not to hold any bias when it comes to confrontational articles, and we like to give both sides of the story for our readers to make up their own minds. This will be true for said article, and hopefully I’ll be able to get it done for next month’s edition.

  I did have a telephone interaction with Mr Rob Hare, the developer and owner of the construction company building the new mall. Here I will elaborate a little – Rob told me that the delay was due to a revised financing option which his group was busy with, and which would be imminently signed off. When asked about the press release that was meant to be released, and which Kruger2Canyon News did not get, he stated that it was released, and he would send me a copy of the same. I told him that there was a lot of rumour mongering going on, and that the community needed clarification of the situation – was it going ahead or not. He promised to send a mail with the press release as well as an explanation of the developments that had taken place. I have not received any correspondence yet.

  His explanation to me by telephone was that the project was going ahead, Checkers was still in, and in fact Woolworths could also be coming to town! The only matter needing finalisation was the finance deal with the new bank. He also stated to be that he was in no way involved with the Berlin development, and that the new hospital development was not connected to him, and he had nothing to do with it … yet.

  And that was that – I have not heard a thing after I spoke to him on the 2 May, despite having left messages for him to send me the email as promised. I did mention this to Lizmari Wolmarans of the Hoedspruit Chamber (from whom I also hope to get regular monthly Chamber updates).

  I see that Hoedspruit made headlines on ‘Businesstech’ in an article written by Luke Fraser titled “The best wildlife estates in South Africa” – Hoedspruit once again being very apparent on the map!

  Finally, make sure you all follow the Safari Guide of the Year competition (featured in this month’s publication). It is well worth seeing how incredible these finalists are with their bush skills and knowledge.

  Have a great month ahead and welcome the winter, until next time.