Botswana in May
 

What are the best areas for game in Botswana in mid may. I would like to avoid the Mombo's and Kings Pool's type of camp as opposed to the Little Vumbura type. Previous trips have included Duba, Sandibe, Selinda, Mombo and Vumbura but all in July and August.
Another option, although very different is Ngala tented camp...any thoughts. Thanks

Plenty of options, Lebala, Lagoon, Little Kwara/Kwara, Zibalianja, Selinda, Duma Tau, Chitabe, Savute......

Hari

Hello,

If you don't mind returning to some of the same places in the Delta, both Duba and LV sohould be good in May. If you'd prefer a new camp, I'd recommend looking into Chitabe.

http://www.wilderness-safaris.com/ca...mp;method=menu

Another option would be Kwara.

http://www.kwando.co.za

One camp that's actually at its best around that time of year is Chief's Camp -- the game-viewing is at its best before the floods come in. However, you mind find it a bit too '6-paw.'

http://www.sanctuarylodges.com/chiefscamp.htm

In the Linyanti, I'd suggest looking at Savuti (the open area of the channel will still offer good game-viewing)

http://www.wilderness-safaris.com/ca...mp;method=menu

The Selinda reserve should also be quite good -- it sounds like you might prefer the smaller, more rustic Zib to the new upgraded Selinda.

http://www.wilderness-safaris.com/ca...mp;method=menu

Kwando Lagoon and Kwando Lebala are some other options, though in my experience the grass tends to grow taller and thicker in the Kwando reserve after the rains, which can impede visibility, so this wouldn't be my top recommendation.

Cheers,
Julian

Hi Julian,

Taller and thicker at Lebala and Lagoon? and mysteriously shorter next door at Selinda and Zib?

Even if the grasses are longer due to more than average rainfall, then that's part of the job of a superb guiding/tracking team to find the animals. IMO, you are going to miss the ele and buffalo herds that time of the year, however!!!

Regardless of your choice of camp, you need to spend a bit more time in the Linyanti area for productive game viewing.

Hari

Julian, thanks, Chief's camp actually looks like a winner. Do they traverse the same ground as Mombo? I have been there twice and have had great sightings but this seems to be half the price. I don't mind luxury but the game's the thing.
Regards,
Eric

"...in my experience the grass tends to grow taller and thicker in the Kwando reserve after the rains, which can impede visibility..."- Julian

Personally, any of those Hari mentioned (or Chief's for that matter) would give you a memorable experience. The height of the grass has some impact, but guides who know the terrain and the current wildlife situation easily counter that. You certainly need to spend more than a few days in an area to know its potential best. Dipping your toes in the bathwater will tell you something, but the full experience comes from immersing yourself totally. Some of my most interesting experiences have been when we've come up on animals when visibility is minimal.

John

Hello Eyelaser,

Chief's no longer traverses the same area as Mombo -- each camp now sticks to its own side of the reserve.

Hi Hari,

On my trip, the grass was a LOT taller at Lebala and Lagoon, and the guides said that it looked more like May than June (due to the late rains) which is why I mentioned it here. Partially it was because the Kwando vehicles are a bit lower to the ground, but visibility was pretty poor. Spencer is a great guide, but he really had to work hard. I found that Lagoon had better visibility than Lebala did.

NB This is not a comment on the guiding at Kwando -- I think it's just a question of the terrain. The area near the Savuti Channel and Selinda Spillway is just a lot more open than the area near Lebala.

Cheers,
Julian

Julian,

You spent one night at Lebala!!! I'm not going to take the time to continue this discussion.....the end!!!

But, closing thoughts....Lagoon having better visibility than Lebala???? Jeez!!!

Hari

Hi Hari,

I did the ground transfer from Lebala to Lagoon and the terrain definitely seemed to open up as we headed north (towards Lagoon). I saw the same thing happen as we headed south (towards Selinda).

I'll say this one more time since it doesn't seem to have gotten through - I'm not criticising the guiding at Kwando. Spencer was amazing and I was amazed by what he managed to pull out of what were definitely less than ideal conditions.

Cheers,
Julian

Julian,

I fully get your point that you werent complaining about the guiding, especially with someone like Spencer...

Interestingly, the terrain is heavily wooded the further north you go (in the direction of lagoon). There are plenty of floodplains in the immediate Lebala game drive area. If the guides feel the gameviewing isnt productive in a particular area at a given time, they wont drive you there....maybe that was ur case? i dont know that. All i do know was, you did two game drives (one of which was a transfer to Lagoon-which is heavily wooded)

Lebala in Setswana translates to - wide open spaces.

Some flood plain regions that come to mind are, Twin Pools, Old Hippo Pools, Vlei road etc etc etc., i can go on and on....but, i wont bother....

You perhaps feel Lagoon has better visibility because you spent two nights there.....

Julian, the grasses in some places of Kwara (all flood plains for miles and miles) were much much taller, and i'm talking about Sept 1st (the more than average rainfall is a huge factor)...but, with a good guide (Doctor) we located a relaxed female leopard and with patience she was up on a termite mound in fantastic light!!! Incidently, the lions were killing buffalo every 4 days or so. (upto and during my visit). My point being, it's all about animal movement, good guiding, patience and luck!!!

I think i'm done with this discussion....however, if you or anyone else wish to put in closing thoughts....more than welcome to do so!!!

Hari

Btw, yes....wide open flood plains from Lebala camp all the way to the Selinda border.....if you dont stop for any sightings en route, should get to the border in about 15mins max. (Spencer's driving!!!)

Hari

I've done road transfers from Zibalianja/Selinda to Lagoon and back, and yes, generally, the further north we were, the more heavily wooded it was.
Of course, there were still some fairly big open areas in the north, but the terrain was quite different. However, I found the nature of the terrain and the amount of growth on it quite inconsequential to the game-viewing experience. On one afternoon drive on hard ground with lots of scrub, our driver and tracker (OB, the driver, is now at Selinda) did a brilliant job picking up and following the tracks of lion for several kilometres. We ended up having sundowners on a patch of higher ground, looking down at the lions on the river flats. The lions looked up at us as we wandered around our vehicle. Both parties were comfortable with the distance separating us :)

The bottom line is that the shorter the stay at any camp, the less useful it will be in helping one to assess the quality of game viewing. Unless the concession is of the postage stamp variety, there are often too many different areas to explore properly in just a day or two. That's why I regard three nights as the bare minimum for any camp, and have spent more than a week in the Selinda concession on each of my visits there.

A light-hearted rule of thumb for judging a camp and its offerings: camp comfort, one night; food quality and hospitality, two nights (allowing for the manager and/or cook to have a sub-standard day); wildlife, three nights.

John

Hello Hari,

I think the main difference in our experiences was due to the time of year we travelled -- you were there in towards the middle of the dry season, whereas I was there at the tail end of the wet season, so things were very different. The grass which was a big factor when I was there would have died back by the time you travelled. If the OP hadn't mentioned May as their time of travel I wouldn't have mentioned the grass at all, but Spencer described it as typical late May growth (depsite being the end of June). I expect that it's much more open during the dry season, just as it is over the border in the Linyanti.

If there was some way I could book the Hi-Lux truck in advance, I'd be open to returning for a dry season stay for a comparison. I'd certainly enjoy the chance to spend a few more days with Spencer!

Personally, I believe that terrain can have a major impact on the game-viewing experience -- different species prefer wooded versus open areas, and visibility (and the ability to follow animals on the move) is certainly affected by terrain. A good guide can certainly make the best of whatever terrain he or she encounters, but some areas simply offer easier access to the game or more plentiful game due to their particular combination of environmental factors. For instance, the presence of a river or waterhole in a reserve can make a huge difference in game-viewing during the dry season, which is why so many camps are positioned beside rivers and waterholes.

In the end, real estate is the same the world over -- it's all about location, location, location.

Some people seem to have gotten the erroneous impression that I don't think I had decent sightings at Lebala and Lagoon. If you look back at my trip report you'll see that this isn't the case -- I thought the sightings at both camps were quite good (especially at Lagoon) though I did have some issues with other things.

As you know, I normally advocate a three night minimum as that really enables you to get to know the terrain. While this is ideal, I do think that it's possible to get a general sense of what the game-viewing is like after two nights (four game drives) providing you have a decent guide (with the caveat of course that wildlife is impredictable and you can't and shouldn't expect National Geographic-quality sightings around every corner). You can certainly evaluate the quality of the guiding based on what the guide can do with the conditions they're faced with -- this is why I think Spencer is terrific.

Interestingly, I've learned that many agents will visit a camp for a few hours and move on to another camp without even doing a game drive, in order to hit as many camps as possible (2 or 3 camps a day). I saw a couple of agents doing this on my trip.

Cheers,
Julian

Julian, yes it was drier than end June. But i have visited Lebala during the green season on a prior visit.

Julian, at this point i just want to shake hands and kill this thread....i'm sure you concur!!!

Hari

Julian: I think its important to remember there are huge variables from year to year and even site to site with weather and vegetation growth. I saw reports from June 2004 (I think it was with the big floods) where people complained that the high grasses in Duma Tau and Savuti were big hinderances to their game viewing. People should understand that May is a high grass season in northern Botswana and its difficult to predict if it will be thicker in Lebala or Savuti. Micro factors each year will decide this in areas that are relatively close together.

All any of us get is a snapshot in time and we all tend to make a lot of opinions based on our very short experiences. Even using the 3 day rule of thumb some people will be at a camp just at the right time for 3 days of wild dogs and then they will not be seen for 3 weeks at that camp. What a different impression that leaves. The best we can do is add up as many snapshots as possible and then we can at least generalize some trends for what areas tend to offer the best experiences and at what times. Since most of us can only log a few days a year in personal experience this board becomes very valuable in providing additional experiences.

Hi Hari,

Consider your hand shaken. It's been a very weird year in Botswana, and I look forward to returning in a more normal year to check it out again.

Hi Bill,

I couldn't agree more -- what made the comparison between wet and dry particularly interesting to me was that I had travelled on exactly the same dates last year, which was a rather dry year. I definitely don't want people to get the wrong impression from reading my trip report -- this was not a normal year in Botswana, and I tried to make that clear in my report.

Personally, I was really happy to see how great the game-viewing was during my trip. late rains and all!

Cheers,
Julian

Thanks Julian, glad it's sorted out....

Btw, on a general note, i should have mentioned this earlier but lost it in my train of thought....the grasses in the bush is also influenced by game movements....For example, we have all seen the impact of stampeding buffalo herds that crush the grasses in areas that they often move through....you can almost see it flattened out? As Julian, rightly pointed out...it is a weird year in Botswana and took much longer for the large game to come out of the inaccessible mopane woodlands...

Hari

Hi Hari,

Good point about the movements of large animals -- as several people have noted, the ellies (and to a lesser extent the buffalo) stayed back in the mopane until quite late this year.

Cheers,
Julian

"...you can't and shouldn't expect National Geographic-quality sightings around every corner..."- Julian

"All any of us get is a snapshot in time and we all tend to make a lot of opinions based on our very short experiences"- Pred

I think to some extent we've been talking at cross purposes here. Julian's quote above puts my mind at rest. All too often, I get the impression that people want their safari destinations to be like over-populated open-range zoos, with 'instant gratification' viewings around every corner. Many of us know that it's odds-on that in the not too distant future, most of Africa's remaining wildlife areas will be no more than that (before they disappear altogether). Some of them are already. So while I enjoy the prolific game-viewing experience as much as anybody, I also love the times when the animals are difficult to find, when you can experience the true essence of the bush and the real excitement of coming up on wildlife in its 'secret' places. Those times assure me that in some places, the time of the open-range zoo is a way off yet. Whereas, the bigger and plusher the camps get, and the shorter the agents' visits are, merely bring the time of the zoo closer.

Julian, if you can, give us a list of those agents who make flying visits, so those of us who want to avoid them can do so ;)

John

*PS the kind of agent I appreciate, a friend of mine, rarely makes camp visits shorter than two nights. I understand why short visits are sometimes necessary. But he prefers to spend days in one place and to make repeated visits, so that he has in-depth experience of it. I think, for example, he's been to Selinda about 25 times. He's not my agent, but I'm thinking of engaging him; he keeps putting me off because he doesn't want to be seen to be poaching me from my agent.

Hi John,

Some of my most enjoyable (and spectacular) sightings have been when we stayed with one animal for an entire drive, watchin it go about its business. Unfortunately, this is really only possible if you book a private vehicle, as it's hard to guarantee finding vehicle-mates who feel the same way unless they are veteran safari-goers. I love the challenge of tracking the more elusive animals, like the dogs -- it makes finally seeing them more rewarding, though it can also be frustrating at times when you just manage a glimpse of a tail disappearing into the mopane!

FWIW our normal minimum stay is two nights for a game reserve, one for a hotel. I'd originally wanted three nights at either Lebala or Lagoon but the availability wasn't there. However, my night at Lebala meant getting to meet Spencer, so it was still a plus!

Cheers,
Julian