mistadobalina

Looking for limited noise and good wildlife viewing from the deck.

I have heard that at Chitabe, #1 and #8 are the best choices. Is this right?

Thanks in advance.

spiegelcjs

When are you taking this trip? We are looking at the exact same camps for June 2007.

thit_cho

I stayed at the leftmost tent, and it was very quiet, but I didn't spend too much time in the tent other than sleeping, so I can't comment on the views from the deck.

afrigalah

Re Selinda: all new tents plus two extra since I was l

afrigalah

Sorry, all thumbs today...

re Selinda: all new tents now, plus two extra, so things may have changed in the 11 months since I was there. But most of the tents faced the spillway and were pretty equal in game-viewing. The best possibly were at the eastern end of camp, furthest from lounge/bar/campfire etc, because wildlife could approach from two directions rather than just the spillway side. One of those was dubbed something like 'hyena corner' if I remember correctly. Even with a full complement of people, Selinda has been a quiet camp in my experience. It's bigger now though.

mistadobalina

We are going in September 2007.

Thit_cho, which camp is your comment in reference to?

santharamhari

John,

Hi! How are the views from camp compare between Selinda and Zib? and, although the game drive areas are the same......how far apart are both camps?

Unfortunately, Kwando Lagoon also has added two tents up from 6 to 8.

Hari

afrigalah

Hari,

Re Lagoon. Ouch! Soon there won't be room to swing a cat.

Selinda's view is prettier because of the spillway water and reeds. Zib's is a drier view, usually, except that earlier this year there'd been such good rains that the floodplain in front of Zib was covered in water and the hide dugout was full of water. There's a small artifical pan near the hide, and game viewing there can be pretty good...big cats, wild dogs, elephants etc coming to drink only a stone's throw from the bar. Leopards in bed are a feature there, too

Zib's big attraction for me is its small size: just three tents plus one for emergencies/guides/VIPs. If mistadobalina was going to Zib, I'd recommend tent #1. It's the only one facing front, and it's greatly elevated...so high that we thought we were going to be blown away by a dust storm last August. The wind bent one of the steel struts supporting the tent.

Selinda and Zib used to be about three-quarters of an hour's drive apart (the airstrip is in between). But in the last year or so, there's been so much water in the spillway that the journey probably has been doubled. They were talking about building a bridge and may have done so by now.

afrigalah

I should add that a big drawback to Zibalianja's hide when I was there was that a photographer could not see the surface of the water when sitting in the dugout...not much use when trying to photograph animals drinking, although it's fine if you just want very low perspective shots of wildlife with their heads raised. Maybe they've corrected this by now.

santharamhari

Many thanks, John. Lots of uselful info on Selinda/Zib.

Hari