lbj

crystalsong,

Chitabe should give you some good viewing and so should LV. However, i would not recommend going to Kings Pool in March/April. That area is heavily dominated by flood plains, now full fro the rains and mopane. With most of the pans full, most the game will be in the inaccessible mopane woodland. I would say go to Mombo, Chief or Duba that time of year. Possibly Lebala or the Selinda or savuti. Though generally the game viewing in the linyanti will not pick up until late may early june

crystalsong

Thank you, Lynn and LBJ.

Lynn, I can tell from your post that you must remember some earlier posts of mine; thank you so much for addressing my questions with such wonderful descriptions. Your description of the delta was not at all silly; it was perfect, and made complete sense.

I am now concerned about King's Pool in very late March/early April as a good option. The reason I had chosen it is because of the stories I have heard about the incredible hippo noise outside the tents; I want to fall asleep to really awesome sounds, and it seems as if King's Pool would have provided that. But now that LBJ recommends otherwise, I'm wondering if anyone on the board has been at King's Pool during March and April, and if they would be willing to share their experiences there?

Thank you.

santharamhari

HI! I hv been to Kings Pool in March. The game really was deep into the mopane and inaccessible. Yes, you hear the hippos all nite long......but you can hear them in several other camps also. However, while at KP we did see the big dog pack and spent a couple hours with them. The game in the KP drive area was really slow, that on request we headed out for a longish drive to the savute channel and accidently bumped into the famous cheetah coalition (savute bros) at sundowners and ended up staying with them for the rest of the evening.

If hearing lions at night is high on your list.....i would also consider duba plains, Mombo, Lebala.......

At KP, i dont know ppl's views but you mostly hear hippos, not just at night but all the time......

Hari

crystalsong

Hello, everyone:

I have another two camps to throw into the mix; Savuti and Kwetsani. Keeping in mind that we will be at these camps in very late March to early April, and that hearing lions and hippos is very high on our list, not to mention other wildlife sounds, of Kwetsani, Chitabe/Chitabe Trails, King's Pool or Savuti, which two would you choose, and why? Do you have any other recommendations for camps where one hears, very clearly from the tent, the sounds of big cats? I love the idea of being in camp and having wildlife stroll through, hearing them walk by, munch food, vocalize, etc.

Any recommendations, observations, opinions, experience and ideas would be most helpful. Thanks.

johan_belgium

The sounds of big cats, you can hear them everywhere. If a lion roars, you can hear it from several kilometers away.

Last year, we had elephants and lions around a waterhole in the evening at Chitabe. Great sounds of both species.

Camping at Savuti (not the camp in the Linyanti) proved to be very successful for me. Some of the girls didn't dare to come out of the tent to go to the bathroom at night. The lions where in camp.

Hearing the cats at night from close distance, you have to be lucky. It's never guaranteed.

King's pool will be nice for hippo sounds but I wonder if the gameviewing will be good that time of year.

If you like to hear all kind of noises during nighttime, I would advice to do a sleep-out at some of the camps. You will love it.

Greetings,

Johan

crystalsong

Johan,

I didn't realize there is another Savuti camp, not in the Linyati? Where is it?

Thanks.

santharamhari

There is the savute elephant camp in Chobe........but, i dont know if it is the same thing Johan was referring to....

johan_belgium

I was referring to the camping site in Savuti (not that far away from Savuti Elephant camp).

Greetings,

Johan

jweis

Yep,

Camps in the marsh are spelled Savute - those up in Linayanti generally use Savuti.

Clematis1

Found this older thread and was especially interested in reading Predbio's comments on Little Mombo in 2003. He saved my sanity at the time when I reported such a horrible Mombo experience and at first it seemed hard for the regulars to believe (and I don't blame them). On top of everything he said, another specific problem when I was there was that the main camp was empty. A group cancelled. They only had one vehicle going out of Little Mombo with 6 guests in it so there was no other vehicle to radio in sightings.

So my short list of favorites would be:

Chief's camp in 03 with two of the best managers we encountered anywhere. They had been at Singita before. Warm, smart, attentive, helpful with meds, perfect.

Stanley's - because of the great ele encounter experience that you can do there - a 4 hour walk in the bush with a semi-tame adopted ele that had been abandoned.

This thread reminds me of how important the current management is.

santharamhari

The current management at both Kwando Little Kwara and Kwando, Lebala are fantastic!!!

Clematis, you should definitely give them a try!!!

Hari

Roccco

Clematis,

Would you mind recounting your "Elephant Experience" activity for the board? I think this activity sounds incredible and I have already signed Alexsandra and I up while we are at Baines Camp in November.

For the unfamiliar, here is a video showing Baines Camp and the Elephant Experience:

http://www.abercrombiekent.com/index...H%5C%5CP%20%0A

Clematis1

Hari, thanks for the tip.

Sure thing, Rocco. In many ways this may be our favorite memory of our first trip to Africa. Your operator makes the booking for you when booking your room. This was a slow time travel-wise, (due to the start of the war) so it was just the two of us and two other people doing the walk. The support team though consisted of the main guy, just terrific, originally from the states, a very soft-spoken, gentle man who truly loves eles, his wife, (I believe born in Africa), also very helpful, a fellow with a rifle in case of wild eles attacking (we never ever felt afraid), maybe 1 or 2 others as support. The main guy talks to you about eles, teaches you - he is just perfect, very sensitive, and it's less like he's lecturing and more like he's just talking to you, which I appreciated. You get to touch the ele's skin, their nose, their tail as you learn about them. You'll get to see the bottoms of their feet and feel them. He does not believe in riding them.

These eles are adopted by him, I think they were either used in movies or as "pets" and not able to go into the wild. He's provided for them in his will because they will outlive him.

Then you get to walk in the bush, lovely plains, taking turns having the ele put their trunks lightly on your shoulder and you lead them. It is hard to wipe the grin off your face, this is just so special.

They stop and pose for photos and you will have the best holiday card that year of your friends, I guarantee it.

Finally you come to a lovely shaded area where another crew has set up a beautiful buffet lunch with tables, tablecloths, silver, fruit. The eles have their hay and special food on the ground and you all eat lunch together. I remember eating quickly because I was so eager to take advantage of yet more photo ops. We got to have an ele "kiss" - another great photo (do not wear good clothes for this adventure). Also, be sure to have a filter protector on your lens as it will get wet. It was all very non-touristy and yet well-planned and I like that my money is going to help support and feed these creatures that would have nowhere to go. A truly marvelous 4 hours you and Alexsandra will never forget.

Clematis1

Some additions - it is Doug and Sandi Groves who adopted the eles who were orphans from culling. They are quite active with African education to teach children the importance of appreciating and respecting each species.

spiegelcjs

: Clematis1

When did you stay at Stanley's and Chief's camp. What month. I can't believe I have not finalized anything yet but have been working on this for ever. We were planning on the first two weeks of June 2007 but my husband now questions if it is to cold at that time of year. What did you all say about the morning temps, and how cold at night when sleeping. Is there any kind of heat. Not looking for hotel like heat at night but maybe something. I love it cold to sleep but his is a spoiled California guy. There is a big price difference between June and July. Is it worth it?

santharamhari

Spiegelcjs,

IF you are willing to pay July rates, you may as well travel in September/october at the same rates for phenomenal game-viewing

Hari

Clematis1

spiegelcjs: We were there the end of May. We are Californians too and I tend to get cold more than most people. I don't recall being uncomfortable sleeping (and I would be the first to notice) although my overall excitement of being in Africa may have helped with a lot of that. My husband remembers it being cold in the AM, getting dressed. We brought long underwear and wore it on many morning drives with our lightweight khaki pants. Gloves, wool hat, muffler (everyone on our drives had that). As the drive ended everyone peeled off most of that. After lunch, we'd take our showers and wash our hair but I recall it was too chilly (for us) to use the outside shower at some places (Chiefs and Stanleys didn't have those anyway). Weather changes of course, but I would not want it to be much colder than what we experienced (meaning I can see why June is more expensive than July). What I really liked about this time of year is almost zero bugs. Email me at [email protected] so I don't clog up this thread. Planning these is a lot of work, you are not alone. You are spending a lot, going a long ways, you want the right trip for you.

napamatt

Clematis thanks for sharing and Rocco thanks for asking about the elephant experience, sounds far superior to Abu.

CarlaM

Thanks for sharing your ellie experience, that goes on my list of things to do!