haha, Dennis, i still remember that report of yours

Hi Dennis,

I had the pleasure of bumping into safarimama under the most bizarre circumstances. One of the things we spoke about was "Angola" as she was to head out there next.

Cheers
Hari

I knew someday Angola would be a topic of conversation by a couple of forum users in Africa. It was just a matter of time and a question of who. So now we know the who--Safarimama and Hari.

The source of the odd title.

http://www.fodors.com/community/africa-the-middle-east/denniss-trip-report-caprivi-strip-vic-falls-and-hwange-park-zimbabwe.cfm

When I searched with Angola as the key word, I got too many results. But I did recall the comment of "you ass" regarding the croc in the pool. Searching for "you ass" narrowed the results nicely.

Lynn, you are the master of the search!

Well, well my dear Dennis, ... yes. Most of the animals were still in Angola and Beaven is still guiding at Susuwe although our guide was an energetic young American named Ryan. He was really enthusiastic about everything, but showed some fear of the few ellies we saw and had a great fear of hippos!!! He wouldn’t get close enough to get pictures of the charge!!!
There was a really skinny kudu who survived mainly because there were no predators, and we saw 3 giraffes, 2 reedbucks and a few red lechwes. I actually very much enjoyed Susuwe, maybe because I didn't expect any animals at all. I enjoyed my time on my Crocodile deck with the birds drinking from the pool.
The highlight was the large-spotted genet every night that came to dinner. She had a cub in the tree waiting for mom to regurgitate what I fed her (meat). They served way too much food! She would take the meat off my fork without touching the fork itself. I was in heaven. So curious, she was also. I wanted to get a picture, but only got her whiskers as she would stand on her back feet and look straight into the camera. The only thing cuter is a cheetah cub!!! Right, Hari?

Beaven was guiding an English couple, who evacuated from Ntwala because of water-phobia. I’m not kidding!! They were not happy with the lack of game and drove 5 hours each way to the Botswana border looking for sable ... yeah .. right!!! I enjoyed the boating sundowners and sunrises. Go with the flow! The birds were good. This was the rainy season and the brush was thick and high. We got no rain though.

Ntwala was flooded. The Zambezi and the Chobe rivers were 2 meters above flood when we were there and rising. That’s the 50-year flood, the worst since 1958. Only cottage 3 was livable and we stayed there. The deck was under water, but otherwise everything functioned. The nature trail was flooded as was number 4 and 1. Number 2 would have been OK, but the loo flushed up (not down). The jetty was also flooded, so we landed right at the main building. They had a room at Impalila for us, but we loved Ntwala. We were the only ones at both camps. One day we hiked up to the huge baobab tree. One day we cruised all day along the Namibia/Botswana waterfront and it’s really sad. Everything is under water. Crocs and monitors are fighting for refuge on village rooftops. The entire island where the Chobe Savannah Lodge used to stand proud is now a refuge for about 50 buffalo.

The flood rose to 3.5 meters after we left and I'm sure the entire island disappeared. Really, really sad! I haven't been able to find out. We tried to contact them from Zambia, but never got an answer.

Glad you had a good time Safarimama and glad to hear Beaven is still there...must be hard for him knowing where the animals are but not being able to cross the Angola border. Probably the same genet as when we were there, but she didn't get close to the table. How cool! Sad to hear about the flooding, hope everyone is o.k.

I think we should go to Angola someday, just to see if it's true!

I'll go if you go; I'm always willing to explore more and deeper. No pun intended with that comment though.

Beaven had a great sense of humor and we hit it off around the campfire etc.

The new managers at Susuwe are Peter and Anna Gava, formerly at Matetsi, Zim. They have been with Islands in Africa for less than a year now, I think and they are fabulous and made my stay memorable indeed. Peter is a genious in every way and everyone loves them. The atmosphere was great. I very much enjoyed learning from him. Also, there's a new park warden, a woman, who listens and is fighting for them to improve the park. There's great promise for the future to improve the infrastructure of the Bwabwata National Park, formerly the Caprivi NP.

Let's go to Angola ... where all the animals are hiding. Although, according to Beaven, they never return from there!!!