skimmer2

There is a DVD available with both the stolen river and the forgotten river on it. I got it at home and bought in Johannesburg.

HariS

Craig,

You mentioned going to all the WS camps on this visit. I suppose you went to Kalahari Plains? What did you think of it? We hear the manager there is Ras Mundu?

Hari

Safari_Craig

Hi Hari,

I made one mistake - I WAS at Lebala and not at Lagoon! Lagoon was closed. To be honest, we went to five lodges that day and my notes got crossed.

The relaxing end to this trip was two days at Kalahari Plains. It was fantastic; I love the camp. We saw more Orynx than I could ever imagine. At one time we saw 300. We also saw honey badgers at least ten times, many springbok, three cheetah sightings, and much more antelope. We also saw vulture. There are Jackals and Foxes almost every 100 meters. No off road driving or night driving. You do see a few self-drive people especially in the Deception Valley (45 min from lodge) so it is not totall private.

The manager was an Irish lady named Olivia with red hair. Age probably 30-40. The head guide is Russel Crosse who was my private guide in the Delta two years ago.

Craig Beal

skimmer

Craig,

I would have been very surprised if it was the other way around.

We met Russell Crossey a couple of times at Deception Valley last March. He's a very nice fellow and I knew him from a previous visit at Chitabe Trails (or should I say Chitabe Lediba).

The Central Kalahari is a lovely place ... but rainfall has a major impact on your grazers. We witnessed the huge differences (condition of the plains, congregation of game, ...) at some of the pans in a two week time span. I think the area around Deception had some rainfall in April ...

I also remember you said that some of your colleagues didn't see that much last year.

Johan

HariS

Craig,

Lagoon's closing in November for the re-furb. Not until then. So, you took a flight transfer from Selinda to Lebala? Even more surprising!!!!

I would think it takes longer than 45 mins to get to Deception Valley. It's a 30 KM drive through all dense bush once you leave the pan of their lodge. I'm sure their pan is very active with game viewing seasonally......

About privacy, yeah on a mobile trip we had a lot of privacy until the WS vehicles came waltzing down the road (usually late, as it's a long trek down and the animals were mostly inactive anyways).

Btw, did you meet with guests at Lebala during your stop over?

Hari

HariS

P.S: Besides Russell, we met a William who was one of their guides quite often. There was one other guide, whose name slips my mind.

Safari_Craig

Sue from our office had been in the Kalahari last year. She was staying at the temporary camp near Deception Valley Lodge from where you had to drive three hours to get to the game viewing areas. She did not see too much unfortuntately. Emily from my office went to the new camp in February and saw everything I saw plus the Kalahari Lions. This experience, along with the experience of guests recently, give me a lot more confidence booking people here.

We did fly from Selinda to Lebala. We were at five camps that day and only did game drives in the morning and Duma Tau and 1.5 hours in the evening at Vumbura Plains.

There were guests at Lebala but they left for afternoon activites ten minutes after we arrived.

Craig

HariS

Very interesting!!! This won't sit well with many guests who value their privacy.

Thanks for your note.

Hari

HariS

Guess what - Wild dog dens at both Lagoon and Lebala.

At Lebala - pack of 4 denning in the mopane found with 9 puppies about 2 months old. I guess they went into denning early ....... My guess is, this is the pack that did not have the puppies last year. (Not to be confused with the other Southern pack) that had the 9 puppies running around as of October last year.

Lagoon pack apparently went into denning just recently - so maybe puppies emerge in about a couple of further weeks......

Any news from Selinda or Duma Tau about the other packs in the Linyanti would be appreciated in this thread......

HariS

Back to wild dog dens, 2010 ...... should this be of interest to anyone

Another pack of dog denning in teh Selinda concession.

HariS

http://www.xasafaris.com/blog/selind...g-den-up-date/

Link for the above...