AQUILA COMES TO TOUWSRIVIER RESCUE

The town of Touwsriver has been split in half by floods and the community is now dependant on Aquila's feeding efforts to transport food and blankets across the fast flowing river.

A team of Aquila Private Game Reserve staff, owner and rescue diver Searl Derman, Berni Daniel, a skipper who also works for  Cape Sea Safaris (also owned by Searl Derman) based at the Radisson Hotel, took over 10 trips to transport and distribute 500 large tins of food, almost a hundred loaves of bread, 100+ blankets and almost 500 servings of soup to those so badly affected by this tragedy.

For the past five years Aquila has run a soup kitchen feeding approximately 1200 meals per month to the disadvantaged children of Touwsriver. The children get to swap litter for food which cleans up the town and the recycled litter is sold to pay for the local school teachers...teaching the children sustainability. For the next few days Aquila has pledged to donate over 1000 meals a day which would need to be transferred by boat if the river has not subsided.

TOUWSRIVIER RESCUE

14 November 2008 – Due to the last few days of torrential rain in the area, the 4-star Aquila Private Game Reserve has had to temporarily close for five days as a majority of staff living in the flooded town of Touwsriver are unable to cross the N1 national highway and are frantically trying to save their own homes from flood damage.

States owner and founder of Aquila Private Game Reserve, Searl Derman: “It’s a great honour to know that we’ve been recognised by the industry not only for our exceptional facilities and service excellence, and unique Big 5 educational experience but also acknowledged for our various conservation and community upliftment initiatives.”

Derman recently hit the international media spotlight when he learnt of the conservation wildlife emergency on Robben Island and called in his specialist staff from the Animal Rehabilitation Centre (ARC), a non-profit organisation based at Aquila Private Game Reserve, dedicated to the conservation of endangered species and involved in various research projects, funded by Aquila

Dear wildlife enthusiasts,

Welcome to the official Aquila Private Game Reserve website.

Since the 4-star Aquila Private Game Reserve was founded, its ethos and that of our team of dedicated staff, has always been to educate guests on the importance of wildlife conservation, how it affects us all and what we as individuals can do to protect it and indeed the environment.

Aquila is not yet another luxury game reserve and lodge, its primary purpose is to offer an educational experience to all who visit in the hope that knowledge will enrich our understanding of the importance of living in harmony with Mother Nature.

Over the years, Aquila Private Game Reserve has gone to massive efforts and expense to source and re-introduce wildlife into the Cape region so that local residents and visitors alike can benefit from the same and therefore we are proud to offer an authentic African Big 5 safari for the first time in 250 years.

We are especially proud of our efforts of reintroducing our lions and lion cubs that we saved from a doomed ‘canned lion’ fate. The support from industry, local and international media has been outstanding and reiterates our ongoing efforts and stance against animal cruelty – such as the despicable canned lion hunting industry. Aquila’s lions thrive in their massive sanctuary while enjoying the breathtaking terrain of mountains, valleys, rivers and kloofs.

In another of our conservation efforts, we currently offer our visitors a complimentary educational introduction to our cheetahs, highlighting the plight of the free ranging cheetah and their critically diminishing numbers. It’s important to note that our cheetahs were captive bred and not ‘born free’ nor do they form part of Aquila’s game drive and the experience is strictly controlled and in the interest of cheetah survival worldwide. Guests however are not allowed to directly interact with the cheetahs but are given a comprehensive talk on the plight of these beautiful cats.

Central to conservation is education and to this end we regularly invite, free of charge, various under privileged schools to the reserve to experience this first hand.

Inform - educate – empower!

Respecting that we are part of a community, our annual efforts to uplift the nearby town of Touwsriver is ongoing. Winter soup kitchens, feeding approximately 12000 children per month, a sustainable recycling ‘food for litter’ campaign, fundraising events for blankets, pet food and veterinary service rallies and indeed employment are some of the ways we strengthen our ties with the town.

Our responsible tourism, social upliftment and job creation efforts have not only been hailed in The Argus as “Champion of the Poor” but has also received us unparallel national and international publicity. We are also very proud to have been in the top 3 finalists of the prestigious FEDHASA responsible tourism Imvelo awards for the past 3 years.

We look forward to welcoming you to our prestigious reserve either as a day visitor or overnight guest where you can immerse yourself in nature while enjoying the various types of luxury accommodation and fine South African cuisine.

Searl Derman
Owner - Aquila Private Game Reserve