"If Zib has experienced a downturn in wildlife viewing is it due to tectonic plate shifts that have caused water changes? Or is it climate?"

Or is it just the change of seasons? I experienced that once in both Linyanti and Selinda: first rain - all gone. (Or nearly all.)

Hi

Some pictures ; 2 weeks ago in the Kwando concession.

Paco.

http://www.pbase.com/africawild/kwando07

Wow... gorgeous!

Sensational pictures, you are an excellent photographer Paco!

Excellent pictures. You have an 'eye' for photography. I liked the kudu with the sweeping horns.

PacoAhedo

You have outstanding photos. Some wonderfully grouped elephants both in and out of the water. The father/child lion shot is a great catch. Cute warthog pair. The trio of hammerkops is a study in browns. You got the sable. The leopard was looking right at home in its own element. Thanks for sharing them along with your report.

Great photos and thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed the backlit giraffe and the Aardwolf....excellent

Vundi was hard at work again I see.......Vundi and I went out together in October for a few drives. There was a very special sighting of a wattled Crane chick, under a week old. I have a photo on my pbase Kwando set. I had originally found the chick with Hector, and every guide then spent the next week looking for it. Was wondering if you had seen it and Vundi mentioned its progress.........................

On my final evening at lebala, Vundi and I located it again, just up from Twin pools in the swamps. It was shoes off, tripod out and a bit of wading.... though Vundi was joking he would swim across any water to see. In short, we actually alternated cameras. I had my 500 + 1.4x converter on which was a bit short with the 5D. So I let him put on his 350D.....1120mm of prime lens. He is now doing an article for Birdlife botswana on it.

Apologies for the highjack

reference my last, just realised its a jackal................

Paco,

Wonderful photographs!!! Congratulations!!! My favourites - the giraffe silhouette, the Lagoon pack dog (very photogenic) and the two warthogs. You got a nice picture of a reedbuck, and that is difficult to photograph as they normally are a bit shy.

Thanks
Hari

Excellent Paco! Some of the best I've seen! Thanks!

Hi Paco,

What beautiful photos - you did incredibly well in 9 days gameviewing!

Love the sable antelope, one of my favourites and also a lot of the ele groups are just wonderful.

Kind regards

Kaye

Hari asked about a trip report. Not sure about the etiquette of posting here, but, briefly....

I've been to about 30 camps in southern Africa and this (Kwando Lagoon) was by far the best, in terms of management/guides and sightings. It was on a par with South Luangwa for quality of game and almost with the density. The location of Lagoon is hard to beat. Deep water in front of the tents and the trees of Namibia across the river.

It rained the week we were there and the Selinda pride moved around a fair amount, but we still had 3 long sightings of Wild Dog (on arrival, the next afternoon and the 2nd evening, with a young Tsesebee kill); the lions tended to be camped near Lebala and seemed to be making inroads into the buffalo herd; hyena were active around their den and elsewhere - we saw a Sable chase them off a kill at a waterhole. We also had great encounters with 2 cheetah, who were marking their territory to ward off another 3 interlopers.

On top of all that were hippo, carmine bee-eaters, fish eagles, and assorted antelope, just giving birth to young. We saw about 20 elephants, but not the huge numbers that had been around recently. Can't complain, though.

Spent another 2 days at Duma Tau - great birds (eg Groung Hornbill) and a lion kill outside our tent; and a couple of days with Linyanti Explorations, near Selinda. Again, large lion pride (same one as at Lebala?) munching on buffalo. Amazing variety in landscapes and all the animals were very relaxed (except new mothers).

We spent 1 day in the company of 2 young American ladies who were working in Gaborone for a month. They only had ONE day in the region for safari and they were only hoping to see giraffe and zebra. Were they impressed!

I hope my photos are half as good as Paco's.

Thanks ... sounds like a good trip

PacoAhedo,

What's next?

Paco,

I think the Ryan you are reffering to (your guide at Zibalianja) may actually be "Rain". Or could it be another brand new guide in Ryan? who knows.....

Paco,

Glad to see that you had such a good experience, and thanks for the excellent photographs and informative trip report.
Were you lucky enough to get a new vehicle at Zibalianja?

Thank you all for your comments.

Almac,no new vehicle at Zib yet but that was not and issue for us.

Hari,i understood Ryan ...but maybe was Rain?
What is for sure is we had rain,but very heavy.The first night at Zib there was a very big thunderstorm and next morning we found out that ¡the lightning hit the roof of the Bar and even start a small fire that was suffocated by Stew!.

Lynn,next are Zib pictures.Maybe later on today i will upload them.

Mcwomble,looks like your time at Lagoon was amazing,that´s great.

Kaye,we did incredibly well in 9 days gameviewing,that is true,but this pictures are only for the first 2 days.


Paco.