brandywine

PhilBill,

I really enjoyed your trip report also, it's funny how we were almost at all the same camps, but things differ or we came away with different opinions. It was very odd to me that the food at LV was not up to par when you were there, as the food was good on both of our stays. So I hope that was just a fluke (maybe a temporary chef?). I'm not any kind of expert of course, but LV is probably the best or one of the best managed safari camps I have stayed at, but again, that may be hard to keep up with their long time manager leaving.
Also, Chitable Trails was our most disappointing camp as far as game veiwing goes.
It will be interesting to see each of our opinions about Selinda (if I ever finish my report).

Philbill

As you can see...we had some great viewing at CT including the kill and of course with the ellies in camp! we saw a large herd of buffalo which was unique in terms of numbers.
At LV Dardley (whom I understand has been there for ever but I don't know for sure), Lawrence who is relatively new, and Unozeba were the managers and did a fabulous job. Not to forget Jacks at the bar. We were quite sad to leave! We were there is August. I would say that the three of them were always visible and checking in with us, knowing all our names of course, and they were great.
At both these camps our guides did a LOT of tracking to find the animals which was fascinating.
Hint: Selinda was our party camp!!!!! Late nights around the fire..that reminds me; I should get working on that!

Dana_M

Hi Brandywine,
Thanks for the trip report. I enjoyed it all, but particularly the portion on Chitabe Trails since I was just there in July. I agree completely about the friendly atmosphere at the camp. And your night in the hide sounds wonderful. I also enjoyed your photos, especially the sable. As you mentioned..what a beautiful animal. I've never seen one myself. Thanks for sharing.

Dana

brandywine

I finally finished my report (for my own benefit) and thought I may as well post the remainder:

Selinda

Arriving at Selinda after Little Vumbura is quite a change of scenery, Selinda being very dry even in June. The flat open terrain makes for long vistas and gives one the feeling of being out in a great wilderness area (somewhat similar to the feeling in parts of the American West). It was about 45 minutes from the air strip to camp, and we were lucky to spot a herd of roan on the way to camp, off in the distance and moving quickly, but still we were fortunate to see both sable and roan on this trip.

The new lounge area at Selinda is quite large and beautifully decorated, very open with a view out to the spillway. After check in procedure, we were escorted to our tent #4, but then quickly went back to the lounge area for afternoon tea and our game drive. We thought that we had arranged a walk and camp out night at one of the trail camps, similar to what we had done a Chitabe, months before coming. But unlike Chitabe Trails, no mention was made of this when we checked in. We decided not to bring this up, as I guess we were getting a little tired by the time we reached this camp, so I don’t know what would have happened if we brought it to the Manager’s attention.

This evening’s game drive was my favorite at Selinda. One of the lionesses had been spotted with the cubs, so off we went. This turned out to be great fun, and kept us entertained for the entire afternoon, the cubs and one lioness all milled around a termite mound posing all afternoon and into the evening. It was great watching the interaction of the cubs and snapping dozens and dozens of pictures. We found the two males a little ways off in the distance, but they were full and lazy, and of little interest compared to the cubs.

Dinner at Selinda is served (at one long table) rather than buffet style which is nice. Before leaving for the afternoon game drive, you are given a choice of two entrees. The food is good, but not great, I would say similar to other 5 paw camps. The one thing that I did not personally like here is that dinner is served promptly at 7:30. So it always seemed a bit rushed to me, making evening game drives somewhat shorter than other camps, then back to your tent for a few minutes before being picked up for dinner, then sit at the fire for about a minute and get a drink and immediately go the dinner table, maybe getting one quick gulp of your before dinner drink. I’m not sure what the rush at dinner time was all about, but not very relaxing.

The next morning, no sooner had we left camp when we observed an interesting encounter – two young bull elephants chasing off the two male lions. Really funny to see the “king of jungle” lions skedaddle when chased by two irate bull elephants. We watched the elephants for a bit, then went off to find the lions. Our guide apparently had an idea where the lions were headed, so he was able to get us out in front of them, and then we had an excellent time for the next hour or so, watching in the morning light as they came in to drink, rest a bit, drink again, marking, roaring, etc. The lions wandered off a little ways, and our guide informed us that we had a flat tire. So he climbed out, but asked us to stay in the vehicle a bit longer while he did some prep work. Then we all got out of the vehicle, but stayed nearby, keeping watch on the lions that were now further away.

Unfortunately, after the tire was changed, we were told that the spare tire did not have adequate air to continue our game drive. Since we were not too far from camp, we returned to the maintenance area to pick up a new spare, and to get air in all four of our tires. While I’m on the vehicles, I’ll mention that we found these at Selinda to be the oldest and most uncomfortable vehicles of any camp we have so far visited. The middle seat in the two front rows had been taken out so there was no where to place coats, and bag with extra camera gear, binoculars, etc. – this stuff just had to sit on the floorboards and sort of slide around. Also, one of the seats in the front row (right behind the driver) was broken, so that the seat back laid back at about a 45 degree angle-OK for looking up at the sky, but pretty bad for game viewing. Since no one else wanted this seat (including me) my husband used it for the days we were there, meaning that he virtually had no back support for any game drive.

Anyway, to continue, we then went for a long off road drive that we were radioed into to see a lone lioness with a kill. This lioness was well hidden and almost invisible hiding in the high grass far far off the road. I really have to give credit to the guide that found this lioness, it seemed nearly impossible to me that he could actually have located this. Then back to camp and lunch. After lunch, we sat in some chairs that are provided to look out onto the spillway and just relaxed for a while; it’s really a nice view. Then we checked out the gift shop, but there was nothing much there except a stack of the Jouberts DVDs. Not too much to report from the afternoon game drive, near dusk, we followed a lioness along a road for a while, our guide seemed to think that she was looking for the rest of the pride, she would stop and listen for awhile, then continue trotting on down the road. We headed directly back to camp at dark, when some eyes showed up in a tree in the spotlight, we all yelled at our guide “please stop”. It was a genet, but by the time we stopped and backed up, it had slipped back under cover.
The next morning rather slow as far as predators, but we did come across a large herd of zebra near the spillway. I think this may have been the largest herd of zebra I have seen. There was one lone wildebeast that was hanging around with a group of zebra, and quite funny to watch as he seemed to be trying to fit in with his new friends – a few zebra rolled in the dust, and then the wildebeast went to the same spot and also rolled around for a bit. Our guide told us that an animal (an herbivore I guess) that is separated from its own kind will try to hang out with any other group in order to avoid being alone and becoming easy prey. We also saw some jackals this morning, a male and female or course, and another one that was probably still young, although not really that much smaller. Our most interesting sighting was a young Bateleur that was perched so nicely for picture taking. He had some kind of small kill in his talons, and we were able to keep approaching slowly until we had a really nice view.

We went on a longer drive in the afternoon to an area we had not transversed previously. It was an area rather torn up by elephants, but apparently is sometimes favored by the dogs, but no sign of the wild dogs while we were at Selinda. While we were at Little Vumbura, several couples had just arrived from Duma Tau, and had all seen the dogs there, and I believe this is the same pack. So I guess we were in the wrong camp at the wrong time as far as that goes, but can’t be helped of course.
Another interesting sighting of a lone animal keeping company with another species – this time a tsessebe with a group of ostriches, really strange. We spent most of the afternoon until dark with a female cheetah with a kill in some brush right by the side of a road (we were radioed to the sighting). This is the first time I had witnessed a cheetah feeding, and much different than watching lions feed. She would feed for a few minutes, then sit up, listen intently and look all around, then back to eating. It looked pretty nerve wracking to me, the way she had to constantly be on alert while trying to feed. Anyway, she made out good, consuming so much that she actually moved away for a bit and laid down with a very full stomach. Then she went back for some more. It was getting dark, so we had our sundowners in the vehicle watching the cheetah and the sunset; this was our last night on safari and a wonderful ending!

We had an early flight (7:30 am) from Selinda back to Maun to catch the 10:00 am flight from Maun to JNB, so unfortunately missed our morning game drive. Spent a long afternoon at the airport in the international terminal, where there is plenty of shopping, then back to the U.S.

In general, the game viewing at Selinda was pretty good, and the landscape is very open with long views. Our game drives seemed a little repetitious, that is, we seemed to go over the same area and roads most days. I believe the concession is quite large, but not sure that we saw that much of it. Maybe it’s large but with limited roads? I thought we would go all the way to the lagoon one day, but we never did. The tents are quite nice, good size, and the bathroom area is lovely – very open with a large tub in the middle, double sinks and open shower. There is also a small bottle of port and a couple of glasses on the writing desk. The tents are spaced closer together here than most other camps that we have visited, so we could hear our neighbors. Also, the camp is fenced on the back side - the staff village is located right behind the camp, so there’s a little more foot traffic on the trail behind the tents. The somewhat closer spaced tents, and the fencing, the staff area, etc. made this camp not quite so private or intimate, and not quite as “wild” feeling as our other camps. There are only two tents on one side of the lounge, and seven tents on the other side, so I think perhaps the other side with two tents would feel more private.

Twelve days of game viewing in the wilderness was a great vacation! It’s always so hard to have to come back to the real world. Even though we were not able to spot any wild dogs on this trip, one thing I was looking forward to - I was ready to get to see my own dogs!

HariS

Nice report, Brandywine ..... agree with your observations in the Selinda.

Rgds,
Hari

sally_bee

thank you so much for this report!! i got so excited and want to visit there and feel i have much informations and experiences about Botswana before i go ,thank you again so much

cybor

Loved all your pics - particularly the mirror of the 2 lions drinking.
It's hard to catch them doing anything except snoozing.

You itinerary sounds fabulous and got my attention b/c I'll be going to Selinda, Chitabe Trails and L. Vumbura - do you have a favorite?

What was the deal with the broken seat at Selinda? I'm guessing that they're weren't any other vehicles - true? I reluctantly booked Selinda b/c Zibilianga (sp.) raised their pricing above my budget - makes me wonder.
Oh, and who were your guides and what were your trip dates?
Thanks for finishing your informative report.

melissaom

Nice trip report - thanks for sharing! It brings back happy memories of Seba and Selinda, which we visited this month.

Cybor, we are just a few weeks back from Selinda. You should ask for Mots - he is an awesome guide.

As for the vehicles - they were super comfortable when we were there. Each person has their own bucket seat and there are no middle seats, which is really nice if you are taking pictures. I guess it is a matter of opinion. But, we didn't have coats since we were there in the hot season, so I can imagine if you had lots of layers on you might not want to put them on the ground next to your seat.

brandywine

Cybor,

I think I read somewhere here on Fodors that Selinda was supposed to be getting new vehicles in September, so when you go next year, you should be OK. Maybe Melissa was there after the new vehicles were in use. I'm not sure why the middle seat is taken out, unless you paid for a private vehicle, and could use the floor space for a tripod - that's the only reason I can think of. But the main problem was the broken seat back. Our guide at Selinda was Mots, he was fine. The other guide that seemed to be an excellent tracker was BB, but the other guests commented that he was unhappy with his situation or his life, or whatever, I don't know what that was all about, hopefully resolved now.

Our favorite camp was probably Little Vumbura, but I also loved Seba. Both of these are the delta camps with beautiful scenery, and we had good game viewing at both.

I really like Chitabe Trails camp, it is small and very friendly, and definitely do the camp out night at the hide if you can. It is not as luxurious as the camps that have been recently remodeled, but it is really just fine. We just did not happen to have great game viewing while we were there, but it seems that most other people have had better luck. There are several guides at Chitabe/Chitabe Trails that have been there a long time and really know the concession well, so I think it's hard to go wrong here. Our guide was Ebbs and he is quite good. But if Newman is there during your stay, then you should request him, he's the king there.

Melissa, I'm glad that Seba is getting some visitors, we had a great guide there, and the best food!

HariS

Brandywine,

At Selinda main camp in June .... we had one of those "New vehicles" with no middle seat. IMO, they were a bit high up for decent photography ...... not much to complain about, except the trucks were not provided with beanbags and the like ...... that would have come in handy!

I did have one of the battered old vehicles at Zib camp to myself and wasn't happy at all with it.

Hari

afrigalah

Brandywine,

Thanks for your informative report on Selinda. Some telling and unfortunate changes there under the new ownership. You've mentioned a couple:

1) dinner prompt at 7.30 (no flexibility at all?). It's easy to see what kind of clientele they are now looking for. I recall our first visit to Selinda: we found the Selinda pride with a fresh zebra kill a few hundred metres from Zibalianja camp, and generously radioed Zib. But no, their clients weren't interested, having just returned to camp for dinner. That was good for us...we had an undisturbed viewing for the next hour or so with the lights of Zib visible in the near distance.

2) Less privacy between the tents. That's a consequence of putting more tents in the same space; the camp has been expanded and upgraded with little if any thought to its ambience.

John

brandywine

Hari,

Hopefully the new vehicles are at the camps now, and satisfactory to everyone. I know from reading many other trip reports that it's hard to please everyone as far as vehicles go! Although having a spare tire that was not really useable seems to be more of a maintenance issue than a new vs. old issue. Maybe because new vehicles were arriving, they did not want to put any expense or time into maintaining the old vehicles?

John,

Well obviously, this was my first time at Selinda, so I can't compare the Joubert ownership to Linyanti Explorations if that is what you meant. It is my understanding that the Jouberts have done away with all hunting on the concession, and opened up the small camp (Motswiri?) to try to develop a presence at that end of the reserve, so there is something to be said for that. Of course, the rates have also gone up considerably starting next year.

Regarding the tent spacing, I was reading another report about another camp, where the guest thought that the walk from his tent to the lounge area was a bit too far, and I guess would have appreciated having the tents closer, so you never know, everyone has their own preferences. For us, relaxing at our tent in the afternoon without hearing the sound of other human voices is part of the African experience.

I can understand that a larger camp makes the logistics for dinner a little bit harder, trying to get everyone back at nearly the same time. But it did feel rushed, and there was no time to stop at night for a genet. But what if it was a leopard, would we have stopped, I certainly hope so. Maybe just setting up dinner at 8:00 instead of 7:30 would have helped.

I just want to say again, that we did have excellent lion sightings there, I don't think I will ever forget the first night with the cubs, and the next morning with the two males at the spillway. I also really appreciated our cheetah sighting, and with the open terrain, I suspect this is a good place to actually have a chance to see cheetahs in action.

HariS

Brandywine,

Don't know if they have deceided to go thru with the winetasting session from 7PM to 7 30PM when you sit down for dinner. That was the talk when the wine cellar was getting ready. And oh! they have two huge humming air conditioners in there too ..... if all of this is as per schedule, would make for an even shorter game drive!!!

But, sure ...... if their target market desires that kind of experience, then by all means i suppose they are justified to create just such an experience ......

and hope everything's okay with BB ......

Hari

atravelynn

Thanks for the final installment. I'll be checking the pics a little later.

If you thought you had arranged a night at the walking camp in Selinda, but did not go, it would be worth checking to see if you had paid extra for that experience. You don't want to be charged for something you did not get.

Great lion-ele encounter to go with the lions and cubs.

A tsessebe with the ostriches is a fun combo. A final cheetah in the sunset is indeed a grand finale.

I'm sure your own dogs were ready to see you too.

HariS

sorry, missed your comment on the spacing between tents ...... i was on the left side of the lounge, and can't remember anything in particular with being too close to the next tent (atleast on my side). However, i thought the bathroom design was a bit too unnatural and meshed-in.

Agree though, the lounge is beautiful and the design of their dining table in particular is fabulous!!!

Hari

GeoffG

Brandywine,

For years Selinda has been renowned for its lion. So if you did not have a spectacular sighting you can consider the trip was a dud.

Yes. The open flood plains make for excellent cheetah kill action. I have witnessed four cheetah kills there and many other sighting with them feeding on a carcass.

On one fabulous morning (Oct' 2002) I saw eleven individual cheetah in 2 hours.

At one of those the 3 boys were harrassing a female with a sub-adult cub. You should have heard the bizarre noises they were making - Particularly the female who was trying to get away and also protect her male offspring.

From all the descriptions I've read here I definitely do NOT like the changes to the Selinda.

Geoff.

afrigalah

brandywine,

The end of hunting in the Selinda concession is probably the only good thing to have happened there in the past three years...at least to most of us who are in a position to compare the old with the new (I appreciate that you have no comparison).

I've not been as fortunate as Geoff to see that many cheetah at Selinda, but we have seen at least five cheetah there on every single trip...always the 'brothers', and often a female with one or more cubs. We've had numerous wild dog sightings, and as Geoff says, always lion-- the "home pride" was more than 20 strong in the early 2000s, and there were nearly 40 lion in the vicinity of Zib lagoon in 2002.

John

atravelynn

Using GeoffG's lion standards, my 4-night stay at Zib in Aug 2006 was a dud. Since I had come from Duba Plains and Vumbura with lots of lions, I was not disappointed in the lack of Selinda lions. Right after I came back from Selinda, I read an article in one of the traveler mags, maybe Conde Nast or Nat Geog Traveler (I was leafing through mags at a bank) and the article was on the decline of lions, specifically Selinda.

The one good thing for me about Selinda's change is that it will become one less place competing for my limited time and money.

atravelynn

Brandywine, You had plenty of good lion pics both day, dusk, and night shots. The fish eagle and the coucal were great bird photos. You caught some of the beautifully colored grasses at Chitabe with your buffalo herd. I remember taking grass photos there, it was so lovely. Some nice ele shots, like the one speckled with mud. I was just about to comment on all the baby giraffes, when I had a deja vu. I scrolled back through the posts and, sure enough, I had noticed the giraffes the first time. And the fish eagle. Enjoyed the second viewing of your slide show.

HariS

Talking about changes in the Selinda - i truly wish i had experienced the "old selinda" as described by Afrigalah, Geoff and Sniktawk on these forums ..... something, i will regret!

All this cheetah talk makes me want to mention this - in the new Selinda, i'm not sure if they know what their clients are looking for! The reason i say this - we had been tracking for the two cheetah boys all morning (Kanawe) and there were signs that they had just gotten into the concession from up north i.e.,Kwando on their way South ....... we didn't have much luck tracking the boys.

Another guide (the resident Zib guide) dropped his guests off at the airstrip after brunch and found the cheetah boys there ....... he knew we had been tracking them all morning, and didn't mention a thing ..... i spent the afternoon reading a book!!!! Not a word ..... i did go straight there in the PM drive (skipping high tea as usual) and they had left .....

Finally, Kanawe tracked them down the next morning (after having to change two flat tires) with great expertize. He first looked for tracks around the final few termite mounds and then mentioned that they haven't crossed over into WS as yet. Then through the corner of his eyes, he saw the boys and we raced over and saw them scent mark the final few termite mounds and then it was "GOOD BYE" .... they went into Duma Tau.

My point being, they are lucky to have great guides like Kanawe and wish they weren't as regimented in their attitude. Also, the area and terrain around the Selinda is truly spectacular IMO and it is a pity that they don't take advantage of the fabulous outdoors opportunities (no, i'm not counting the bush dinners!!!)

Cheers,
Hari