basto

Hi torrem,

I am too waiting for the next part, thanks for a great report!

regards,
Tom

Botsfan

Okay, torrem. I admit that most people going to Jack's these days are aware of what the activities are. You were lucky to be out on the pans because they do a three night rotation, and most agents suggest that three nights are best. you happened with your two nights to catch on to athird night.

Six years ago my brother-in-law joined me on safari and I took him to Jack's. He drove the quad bike with me on the back. At dinner he
[who likes his wine] had just one glass of wine, while I had several. He had no idea what was about to happen, and I didn't want to spoil it for him. When he found out, as did the party of nine Americans with us and were excited at the prospect, he said 'I take it the bar's still open?'. WE all had at least one 'nightcap'. They all thanked me for keeping it quiet.

I must come clean, I am a regular at Jack's and this October I'm taking a girlfriend with me, whose husband doesn't fancy a safari. It will be my 12th visit.

Super is a valued old friend of mine, and was just telling you of things that had happened. We all do that around the dinner table, and the more safaris you go on, the more stories there are to tell.

It really is the luck of the draw at camps,and the managers can make a great difference. I have met some good ones at Jack's , and one or two who left something to be desired. It's a quirky place and does upset some guests. But I thnk that thegreat majority enjoy the marvellous magic of the Pans.

I shall be very interested to read your report on Mapula, as it will be on my list for next time.

I'm enjoying your report immensely.
I'm just a bit touchy about my friends at Jack's

Jan

torrem

No problem, botsfan, I can understand its not nice to read bad things about people you consider friends. But I'm honestly putting it they way we feel it was.

It seems there are many guests that visit Jack's regularly, so it definitely has its loyal fans. It's just not the right place for us, I guess.

torrem

Aug 17th- Mapula

We flew from Jack’s to Mapula on the exact same plane we used to fly kasane-jack’s, with the same pilot also, again we were the only tourists on board, and a guide from Jack’s joined us because he had to go to Maun to buy a car or something. The pilot, Travis, is a nice lad and flew low over the delta so we could see some animals, which he pointed out for us. We saw many elephant, hippo and several herds of red lechwe. Seeing the delta from the air was one of the trip’s highlights, with the maze of lagoons, swamps, channels, islands; flying is really the best way to see the delta. The flight is 1.5 hrs, so we landed at 3pm

Mapula Lodge. I loved this place. What a change from Jack’s. From the moment we stepped out of the airplane I felt the good vibes, which got stronger when Josiah (our guide) and John (our tracker) cheerfully greeted us at the airstrip and explained how the activities work (game drives, mokoro, bush walks). Things kept getting better when we drove past a large herd of kudu on the way to the lodge, and it was pure joy when, just like 1km from the lodge, we took a short detour to see a pride of lions devouring a warthog they had hunted earlier that day! It was a small pride consisting of one big lioness, a young female (daughter of the big one, Josiah explained), and two 8-month old cubs (male & female). This was among the best sightings of the trip, even Josiah was taking pictures with his cell phone!

When we arrived at Mapula (a 30 min ride from the airstrip+ 15min we spent with the lions), Doctor (the manager) showed us to our room (they call them “chalets”, we had #4, there are 10), we dropped our stuff, had tea & snacks and went straight out on a game drive at 4pm. We went directly to the wild dog den, which is a 45 min drive from the lodge, on the way there we saw tsessebe and elephants. Upon arrival at the den, we saw the 7 adult dogs in the pack (two of them are under-1yr-olds from last year’s litters), lazily scattered around the den’s entrance. So within less than two hours after arriving we had seen lions eating and a pack of wild dogs, both firsts for us. Amazing start. We waited by the den for a while, without much happening, and then the dominant male looked inside the den and made some sounds, as if calling the pups out. And out they came, first only the little heads, then they started walking out of the den one by one, thirteen pups in total.

Josiah explained that, like last year, they had two litters: one from the alpha and one from the beta females. Unlike last year, this time the litters were born shortly apart so they hadn’t figured out yet how many were from each female. Some of the pups were slightly larger than others, so I guess they should be able to tell soon, although the little things move around so much that it’s really hard to count them!. Thanks to the information posted here by Bill (PredatorBiologist) I already knew about the pack and the two litters the year before and all that, so I was like the smartest kid in the class, Josiah was impressed...

We spent around 1.5 hours with the dogs, watching the pups fighting and chasing each other, some even playfully biting the adults (which on a couple of instances didn’t like the game...),etc. At some point Josiah asked if anyone wanted to leave and have our sundowner drink elsewhere, to which we unanimously answered “No!” and stayed with the pack until it got dark. No drink today. Then we nightdrove back to the lodge, seeing reedbuck, african wild cat, giant eagle owl, all firsts for us. Got back at 8:30, just in time for dinner.

The food is probably the clearest area for improvement at Mapula. I think it wasn’t bad at all (I really enjoyed the Ox tail the first night), but my wife didn’t like it, and I agree the food here is one or two levels below the average at other camps in the area.

What I liked the best about this lodge is the atmosphere: very relaxed, completely laid-back and nonchalant. Totally “Hakuna Matata” style. Doctor’s personality contributes to this for sure, he is such a character, always joking, and has a contagious laughter, we immensely enjoyed our conversations with him by the fire. Like in other camps, the manager and guides sit with the guests at dinner, but here it really seems they do it not just because they’re following the rules but because they actually enjoy it. There’s a strong feeling of community in this place. I also loved the “24hr self-service bar”, you just go behind the bar and fix yourself a drink anytime. My wife also liked this relaxed attitude, but she would have appreciated a bit more formality (eg: staff wearing uniforms).

The other guests were all European, very different crowd than in other camps, most of them were way more experienced in safaris than us, had done camping trips in other African countries, a few were intense photographers, etc. Their varied backgrounds and lifestyles made for very interesting dinner conversations (eg, there was a family that had driven all the way from Europe to Beijing, camping their way through all the “-stans” in central Asia). There was a very funny moment when a guide was talking about his family to an Italian guest, and the guide explained that his father has two wifes, the Italian almost choked!

The chalets at Mapula are cool. Rustic and a bit basic, definitely no luxuries at this lodge, but comfortable. We liked the decoration, simple but looks very African, the whole chalet vaguely resembles a hut in an African village. Ours even had a tree branch going through it! The front part of the chalet, which overlooks the lagoon, is open (i.e., no wall), just has a mosquito net separating the room from the wild. I loved it, my wife found it a little scary. The bed was big and comfortable, a tad short though. The mosquito net over the bed was the best we’ve seen, it doesn’t just cover the bed, but also an extra 30-40 cm all around it, very practical. The bathroom is nice, it has an tin-like bathtub inside and an outdoor shower, has two wash basins, which look like tin buckets. We also had problems with the toilet flush here, it kept running, they had to come in and fix it several times. The hot water normally works well but we had to take a cold shower once because none was coming out, we told Doctor and when he came into the room to check, the hot water was back.

Another area for improvement is the cleanliness of the room. I mean, it’s not really dirty or anything, but it is less tidy than in other places (huge contrast vs Camp Moremi, our next camp, which is spotless), and there are more bugs. This didn’t bother me at all, though my wife found they have to put more effort into cleaning. In her opinion, this is because the manager is a local and not a westerner like elsewhere, so his quality standards may not be as high. Maybe. Anyway, It’s true that this lodge is a little rougher than the typical camp, not a place to expect lots of pampering and luxury.

What Mapula definitely is, is a place for serious game viewers. Everything revolves around game viewing and they are very flexible with schedules, provided that everyone in the group agrees to the changes. Lunch time and dinner time are never excuses for cutting short a good sighting here. Some examples: The English family in our group explained that the morning of our arrival they extended their game drive until 1:30 pm because they were watching the pride of lions we saw later, they saw the lions hunting the warthog. And the last morning, a group of Italians that were doing the mokoro excursion were informed of all the lions we were seeing, so they got off the mokoro and were quickly driven to the sighting. Also, the “standard” drives are a little longer than at other places: 4.5 hours instead of the more usual 3-4 hrs.

I really liked the vehicles here, they are large land rovers with three rows of three seats each (plus two seats in front), the middle row is elevated vs the front row and the back higher than the middle one, so viewing is good from the three rows, although the back row is very bumpy. The best is that the car has no roof, it was the first time we experienced this, and we think it’s much better than having a canvass roof, especially for seeing birds. The car also has a small seat on the hood up front, which is where the tracker seats (except when close to dangerous animals, when he climbs back and seats next to the driver...).

This was the only place where we had a tracker in addition to a guide/driver, and we found it really helps you see more things. Plus, Josiah and John make such a great team, they are both very familiar with the area and have an incredible eye for game spotting. Josiah also has a fine sense of humor that makes the long game drives even more enjoyable.

The area around Mapula is beautiful –I guess most places in the delta are-, feels very remote even though they told us there are a few villages not too far from the lodge. The terrain is very rugged and they frequently drive off-road, which is fun but very bumpy (specially in the back row) and you have to watch out for branches (no roof). There’s plenty of water around, to get to the lodge you have to wade across several channels and small ponds, some of them around half a meter deep, there’s even a very rustic wooden bridge that is almost at water level, seems incredible that it can sustain the weight of the vehicle. The lodge itself has very nice views over a lagoon, you can see hippos and birds.

We were lucky with the group of people we were with in the drives, a French couple and an English one with their pre-teen daughter (we were impressed with how well-behaved she was). They were all experienced safari goers and with total focus on game viewing. At the end of our first game drive, Josiah asked what we wanted to do the next day: either the usual 6-10:30 drive, or get up earlier and do 5:30-10:30 to have a better chance to see the dogs hunt. The answer was “why not start at 5 o’clock”?. So we agreed to a 5:00 wake up call, leaving at 5:15 (no breakfast, quite hard-core).

We actually woke up shortly before 5, because a young elephant was browsing right by our chalet, later we were told that a herd of 8 had visited the lodge during the night. We jumped in the car and went to the dogs’ den, it was still dark when we arrived. Unfortunately, Josiah announced that the dogs had already hunted, you could tell their bellies were swollen and some had blood in the face. He explained that it was unusual for them to hunt at night, but sometimes do it when there is a full moon like this night. He also said that this pack hunts at night more often than others (they also hunted during the night 2 days before our arrival), perhaps because they are disturbed by our visits.

So we just sat there looking at the dogs while the sun was coming out. It was very cold but they gave us ponchos, much better than blankets, so we where OK. My wife almost fell asleep, going out so early without even a cup of coffe was too much for her. After 25-30 min, the dominant male called the pups out of the den, and he and other adults started regurgitating food to feed them and the alpha female, who according to Josiah had stayed back guarding the den while the others hunted. This was another of the top highlights of the trip, watching the pups hecticly fight for the food, literally taking pieces of meat out of each other’s mouths, while the adults were seemingly trying to put some order into the whole process. A few vultures -lappetfaced and white backed- and bateleur eagles gathered in the surrounding trees hoping to snatch some scraps.

After the feeding, the pack –including the pups- went for a short walk (their “morning exercise”, Josiah said) around the area, and then all the pups went in the den while the adults started their day-long siesta time. So we left the place after a few minutes and went for a much needed coffee break. We had stayed a little over two hours with the dogs.

The rest of the game drive was not nearly as interesting as the dogs, we saw the usual antelopes, zebra, birds, elephants, etc. One elephant did a mock charge really close to the car, some people in the group got a bit nervous, but Josiah kept his cool and didn’t move the vehicle. One thing we noticed here is that animals in general (with the exception of the dogs and lions) are more skittish than in other concessions, very frequently antelopes ran away as soon as they noticed the car. On the positive side, this allowed us to see kudu and impala jumping, which is always entertaining.

Got back to the lodge around 10:45, had brunch and then a long siesta. We agreed with the rest of our group (now only the English family, the French were gone) to do a mokoro ride in the afternoon. It was our first mokoro ride ever, we enjoyed it muchly, but felt it was too short (4 to 6, no “night-mokoring” allowed). We basically just went around the lagoon, then stopped at an island for a sundowner, then back to the lodge before dark, took amazing pictures of the sunset from the mokoro. We practically never lost sight of the lodge during the excursion. I’m not sure if this is true, but I feel there probably are better places in the delta to do the mokoro ride, where they take you out for longer and further. In any case, it was entertaining and relaxing, except when we got too close to a couple of hippos and had to back-track. In the middle of it, Josiah explained that that morning a mokoro almost got overturned by a hippo, the poler fell in the water and all, not very reassuring. I actually thought he was joking, but during dinner found out it was true.

Before dinner, we enjoyed drinks and conversation by the fire with Doctor, Josiah and our English carmates. After dinner, straight to bed. We were so tired. We had agreed to another 5:00 wake up call...

The following morning it was lions galore. We asked Josiah to take us to the other side of the buffalo fence (which runs through the concession), to see a different area. My wife insists that on this other side (the inside) of the fence there was much more game, but I think it was basically the same on both sides. Surely, we saw more lions on the inside, but many more elephants and the wild dogs on the outside, and in any case we only stayed there for two nights, so it’s just the luck of the draw. Josiah’s view was that most species can cross the fence at will, and it’s broken in many places anyway.

Shortly after leaving the lodge, still pitch dark, we saw the big lioness and its daughter that we had seen on the day of arrival (the 2 cubs weren’t with them). We followed them for a while, Josiah said they were on a hunt, but they walked into thick bush and we decided to move on.

Then we followed some leopard tracks, without luck. We then arrived to the other side of the fence, there was light now. Saw zebra, wildebeest, giraffes, and then we started looking for a baby elephant carcass that another guide had sighted the day before. As we were closing in on the carcass (20+ vultures on a tree), John sighted a lioness lying on a mound some 500m away. We got closer and saw that there was also a big male lion close to her. They both had huge bellies, surely they had been feeding on the ellie.

We were with these lions for 15-20 mins, then John sighted some younger lions a few hundred meters away. They were drinking in a small pond, also full-bellied. There were 2 young females and a young male. Shortly after, another young male arrived and started drinking. Then they all walked to where the full-grown couple were. Josiah explained that this pride has 8 members: 2 big brother males (we only saw one of them), 2 adult lionesses (so far, only seen 1), and the 4 youngsters we saw. After spending some more time watching the group, we decided to go check the elephant carcass. There was not much left, only skin, the skull, some bones and a rear leg on which the remaining adult lioness from that pride was munching. To everyone’s surprise, we saw yet another adult lioness like 30 meters from the carcass. This one did not belong to that pride and looked very sick, on closer inspection we saw it had a very nasty looking wound in the chest and another on the side. Josiah said that she had been gored by a buffalo when hunting and the wound was infected, in his opinion she was going to die soon; she had a 3-month old cub (which we didn’t see) that will have no chance of survival after the mother dies.

So in total we saw 10 lions in one morning, not bad. We had some coffe and drove back to the lodge, seeing more antelope, elephant, zebra, etc and 4 different groups of ground hornbills, a pretty cool looking bird. Funny that we had never seen this bird and all of a sudden we saw so many. Got to the lodge (10:40ish), picked up our stuff and some sandwiches and out again to the airstrip for a 12:00 takeoff

Next chapter (not until Wednesday- travelling again!): Camp Moremi

basto

Hello Torrem,

and thanks for your report on Mapula. You had some excellent game-viewing and the atmosphere at camp seems really nice.

Do you know if you can walk as well at Mapula?

Did you see the buffalo fence? Feels a bit strange with a fence, but perhaps it´s not a big deal when you are there.

I think I really have to find the flights needed for our March trip as soon as possible

best regards,
Tom

torrem

Tom, yes you can do bush walks at Mapula. We thought about doing one the last morning but finally preferred to do another game drive. We did do a bush walk at Duma Tau and liked it a lot.

We did see the buffalo fence when we went to the other side. It's not a very imposing fence really, like 1.5m high, wooden posts with wire in between. It has a very basic gate so vehicles can cross to the other side. I don't think the gate is locked or anything, just hooked on to a post. Actually, we left it open for the 3 hrs or so we were inside the fence...

PredatorBiologist

torrem: thank you for that, wonderful detail and so much experienced in just 2 nights. It makes my weekend to see my favorite camp through someone elses eyes, and the picture you paint is almost identical to the one in my mind.

I'm glad you witnessed the emphasis and flexability on game viewing -- unfortunately a style that has gone missing in many locations. I also will never understand how more expensive camps do not use trackers, as you observed the guide/tracker team is important and one of the best ways to enhance a visitors experience.

It sounds like you also were touched by the magic of the community of the staff, the people have a warmth and enjoyment of being there and having your company more than I have found anywhere else.

I do think some of the best game viewing is on the inside of the buffalo fence as the open plains there are very rich but there are also many other quality areas. Did you see sable antelope? The one thing I would change is removal of the buffalo fence (not that it is up to Mapula or it would be gone) but you are right it is dilapidated and does not prevent most animals from moving between both sides and you only usually see it briefly when crossing over but of course no one wants to see that in an otherwise gorgeous wilderness area.

Fantastic viewing with the wild dogs, waking up and seeing the feeding must have been very special. I particularly love the moment when the dominant male puts his head in front of the den and releases the pups to come out, amazing sights and sounds.

Looking forward to the rest of the report!

Rundu

Excellent description of the place. We are very much looking forward to our stay there. Would you recommend a particular chalet?
Regards

atravelynn

"What Mapula definitely is, is a place for serious game viewers. Everything revolves around game viewing."

That says it all. Your viewings of VERY early morning dogs and lions confirms that. Thanks for the comments on a most intriguing destination.

torrem

PB, thanks for your comments, glad you enjoyed the report. We didn’t see any sable antelope in Mapula, although they told us is a rather common sight. You’re right they really make you feel welcome, when we were leaving Doctor was jokingly pleading: “please stay, don’t go to Moremi, we want you here...”

Rundu, I didn’t check out the other chalets, but they all looked very similar. Chalets 1-5 are on one side of the common areas, and 6-10 on the other side. 1 and 10 are at the extremes, so choose those if you want more privacy, or choose 5 or 6 if you’d rather be closer to the central part.

torrem

Aug 19th- Camp Moremi

We flew with Mack Air, in another 6-seater Cessna, it was just us and the pilot. He gave us the option of flying low (bumpier, but better views) or high (more comfortable, less views), we chose low and greatly enjoyed the delta landscape. Saw a huge herd of buffalo on a large island, it’s the only buffalo we saw in the delta.

After a short flight (25 min) we arrived around 12:30 at the Xakanaxa airstrip, which looked busy, there were 2-3 other planes and several vehicles picking up and dropping off people. There are three camps very close to each other in this area (Xakanaxa, Camp Okuti and Camp Moremi), plus a camping site.

The airstrip is a 10 min drive to Camp Moremi, upon arrival we were greeted by Kirsty (a South African who manages the camp along with her husband, Luance), who explained all the camp rules and activities (game drives & boat rides) and showed us to our tent (#2).

This camp is very well maintained, everything looks brand new even though it is one of the oldest in the delta. The camp is right on the Xakanaxa lagoon, has a viewing deck with very nice views over it. The atmosphere is relaxed, but way more formal than Mapula, and although proper attention is given to game viewing, it is not the only focus of the Camp, which can be described as luxurious.

The tents are smallish but comfortable, the cleanest and tidiest of the camps we visited. The bed was also the most comfortable: adequate size, perfect mattress consistency, we slept so well here. Even though it is a tent, it has a proper door which makes it more practical to get in and out and allows to lock it and avoid baboons or squirrels getting in (there are many around camp). The tent is underneath a higher canvass roof which gives permanent shade to the tent, making the temperature inside pleasant all day, but there’s also a fan inside if it gets warm.

The bathroom is in a separate smaller tent, on the same elevated platform, like 2-3 meters from the main tent. They provide you with a flashlight in case you need to use the bathroom at night, but it is so close it isn’t really necessary. Having the bathroom separated from the main room is not ideal, but it wasn’t a problem either. The bathroom itself is big, great shower, one side is open (has mosquito net). The tents are a bit too close to each other, our neighbors could probably see us in the bathroom from their deck if they wanted to.

So we took a siesta and then went for tea at 3:00 and were introduced to our guide, Mod. He’s our favorite guide for the whole trip: extremely knowledgeable, great guiding skills, good sense of humor, talks just the right amount. I recommend you ask for him if you come here. At 3:30 we started the game drive along with an American couple in their 50s, nice people. The vehicle was a Toyota LandCruiser with 7 passenger seats (2-2-3), all at the same level, and a canvass roof.

This first game drive was very fruitful: we saw impala fighting (Mod said they were “training” for the mating season), a large herd of elephant (30+), a group of dwarf mongoose, plus all the usual suspects. Then towards the end of the drive we saw a leopard. It was a big old male, we followed it as it was walking around marking its territory. The only problem is there were 12 other vehicles also following. Here’s where Mod’s knowledge of Moremi’s roads became invaluable, as he took shortcuts and detours when mini-traffic jams formed as the leopard moved, which allowed us to have a good view of the animal in spite of the congestion.

This is one of the downsides of this area: Moremi Game Reserve is accessible by road from Maun, so there are many private cars in addition to the ones from the 3 camps here. Also, no nightdriving, no walking and no off-roading. The upside is that this area is clearly the one with the largest concentration of animals of the ones we visited, here you are almost constantly seeing something, good sightings are never too far apart. Also animals are very relaxed around vehicles so you can get close.

Right after seeing the leopard we found a big group of lions. Mod said this is a pride of more than 20 including cubs, and it is the only pride they normally have around this area. We saw 11 of them, including 4 small cubs that were suckling, and the 2 big males. There were 8 other cars at this sighting. So between Mapula in the morning and Moremi in the afternoon, we saw 21 lions in a day!

A funny thing happened on the way back to camp: an elephant was browsing in the middle of the main road, blocking it, which created a traffic jam of 8-10 vehicles that were trying to get to the camps before dark. After waiting for a few minutes without the animal moving at all, one of the other Camp Moremi vehicles asked everyone to stand back and then charged!! it was comical to see the elephant running up the road trumpeting with the car chasing behind. After a few seconds, the ellie decided to clear the road and we could all pass. When we got to camp we found that some of the guests in the charging vehicle hadn’t enjoyed the incident so much: one woman was in tears, had a nervous breakdown...

We were back at 6:30, had dinner at 7:30. The food here is very good, and the dining room nicely decorated and, like the whole camp, shiny. The waiters & kitchen staff sing a welcome song every night before dinner, it’s entertaining (great voices) but looks too touristy. We sat with the managers and our American carmates, enjoyed a great conversation. The guests here were a mix of Americans and Europeans, most in their 2nd or 3rd safari, but none too experienced.

Next morning wake up was at 6:00. We walked on our own to breakfast and got lectured by one of the local managers, apparently we should have waited for someone to come escort us because at that time there could still be hippos in the camp grounds, though there was daylight already. Anyway, we had a good breakfast and went out for a game drive at 7:00, with the same people as yesterday.

It was another entertaining game drive: a hippo still out of the water, many elephants, antelope (waterbuck, wildebeest, kudu, lechwe,...), plenty of birds (African skimmer skimming, wattled crane, pelicans, ground hornbills, among others), big group of giraffe. But the highlight was a pair of honey badgers, especially because it was I who spotted them.

Back at 10:45, brunch (watching a female bushbuck grazing on the lawn), siesta, shower. Again, problems with the water: it stopped running in the middle of my wife’s shower, luckily returned after a few minutes.

In the afternoon (3:30) we did the boat ride around the lagoon, liked it very much. This time we went with a different American couple. In addition to great views of the channels and islands around the lagoon, we saw two elephants bathing, many hippo, red lechwe, and immensely enjoyed the visit to the heronry. The place is bustling with birds, there were more than 100 yellow-billed storks (with the pink plumage they have in mating season), dozens of cormorants, several marabu storks, white egrets, grey heron, black capped night heron. There was a lot of noise and activity with birds coming and going, bringing small branches for their nests. We enjoyed a gin & tonic while watching the bird action, and then another spectacular sunset. back to camp 6:15.

That night after dinner there was a hippo grazing in the camp grounds, the managers said this happens frequently, they also explained that a week before they had a leopard walking around at night!

The final morning in Camp Moremi we did a game drive (from 7 to 11), with the same Americans that came in the boat plus two Italian newlyweds on their first safari. Our carmates were interested in seeing lions, so Mod tracked and quickly found the same pride we saw on our first day here, this time there were 8 of them, only one male and no cubs. 9 cars around them after a few minutes. The rest of the drive was good: tsessebe, elephant herd drinking, reedbuck, giant eagle owl, copper tail coucal, other usual species.

Our flight was scheduled at 2pm, so after brunch we hanged around the bar (there are some very comfortable sofas there), talking to other guests and enjoying some beer. Mod drove us to the airstrip, when we arrived there was an elephant on its edge, we had to chase it away with the car so the plane could land safely. Fun.

Last part of this long report: Duma Tau

atravelynn

Helpful Moremi comments on the abundance and relaxed nature of the animals, which had been my experience. Also on the increased traffic.

The value of a knowledgeable guide, with knowledge of the area in addition to the animals, was demonstrated again with your maneuvering for the leopard.

The elephant charge in which the vehicle charged the elephant has me troubled. It seems dangerous and it may affect future ele-vehicle encounters. I would think such treatment will cause eles to be aggressive and hostile. Actually I am appalled but short of the nervous break down of one of the guests. I understand her tears. Tears of terror for herself and maybe in sympathy with the terror the elephant experienced. Wow.

On a more positive note, good spot on the honey badgers!

torrem

Lynn, good point about the vehicles charging the ellies, might be a problem in the future. Actually, the guides there seem to do it frequently: when we got to the airstrip to leave the area we had to clear an elephant that way too. And then last week I saw a documentary about Moremi on the "Deutsche Welle" channel, in which a guide explained that they have to chase elephants out of the runway all the time...

torrem

Aug 21- to Duma Tau

The flight to DT was the shortest (20 min), again in a 6-seater Cessna, again just us and the pilot. This time the company was Sefofane. We saw some elephants and incredible views of the flowing Savuti Channel. Later we were told that the channel is already flowing for 26km and keeps pushing forward, though at a very slow pace now.

The ride from the airstrip to DT is long, 45 min, so we got there at around 3:15. We saw some antelopes and giraffes on the way there, and there was a very big elephant bull welcoming us to the camp.

Duma Tau is our favorite of all the camps/lodges we visited. I mean, I have a sort of crush on Mapula, but if I look at it objectively, I admit DT is a better place overall. It scores very high in all the “key categories”: food, service, accommodation, staff attitude, game viewing focus, guiding skills, etc and we didn’t find any major flaw worth mentioning.

The camp has 9 tents, accessible by elevated wooden walkways, ours was tent #3, the closest to the common areas. The tents are spacious and comfortable, very clean and nicely decorated, and there is a combination safe (in Camp Moremi there also is a safe in the room, but you have to give a $10 deposit to get the key). The bed is huge, king size. The bathroom is en-suite, quite big, has indoor and outdoor shower and very nice toiletries. The tents have a thatched roof and canvass walls; like in Mapula, the front of the tent is open (sliding doors with just a net) so you can see the lagoon from bed and hear the noises of the bush at night. We were awoken by hippos a couple of times in the middle of the night. The tents are a bit too close to each other, but not as close as in Camp Moremi.

After arrival, we had the usual chat with one of the managers to talk about camp rules, activities (here you can do game drive, bush walk and boat rides), etc, then dropped our stuff, had tea at 3:30 and out for a GD at 4. Our guide was Olli, which they told us is the most experienced at DT, the only one that does bush walks. He is really good, like all the guides we’ve had in this trip, and as you will see if you keep reading, we made him work hard!

We were in a group with a newlywed Italian couple and an American father&son. This was probably the best of the groups we were in, we had lots of fun with these people. The Italians were on their first safari and the Americans had some previous experience.

The vehicles at DT are very similar to the ones in Mapula (Land rover, 3 rows of 3 seats, rows at different levels), but they don’t have the tracker seat (no tracker here) and the car has a canvass roof, which was a pain in the first GD, when we sat in the back row and my head was almost bumping into the roof. Later I asked Olli if it was possible to take out the roof for the next day, which he did. Much better with no roof.

The first GD was mostly lion-centered. We drove to the Savuti Channel, the landscape is beautiful here, feels so remote and the channel has an eerie feel about it, like it doesn’t belong there, everything being so dry and dusty around it.

Just as we got to the channel, we saw a pride of 11 lions, with one big old male (called “Silver Eye” because one of his eyes is damaged and looks greyish), several adult females and some young lions, no cubs. Most were sleeping, some were drinking from the channel. Olli said there was one more adult male in the pride which wasn’t there, we saw it later.

We were watching the lions for an hour or so, but then had to leave due to the “3 vehicle per sighting rule”. This is probably the one thing I didn’t like about DT. I mean, there aren’t that many vehicles in this area so there really is no risk that you’ll have to share a good sighting with 10+ other cars, so I think the rule is unnecessary, and making us leave, just as the lions were waking, because there were 2 more vehicles coming is absurd, IMO.

Luckily, shortly after we left the pride, as we were driving upstream along the channel, we saw the remaining adult male. It was napping on the opposite bank. After a few minutes, it woke up and started wading across the channel, which was like half a meter deep in that point, first time we’ve seen a lion in the water, it was spectacular, with the sun starting to set at the same time. We followed the lion into the bush and saw a herd of kudu run away from him, then some impala jumping out of his way. At some point, the lion started calling the pride, with low roars. He did that for a few minutes and then laid down. It was getting dark so we started driving back to DT with the spotlight (saw a wildcat). Arrived at 7:30.

They had prepared BBQ dinner outside, in an enclosure they use for this, it was very pleasant and the meat really good. Then we chatted by the fire with the other guests, similar crowd vs Camp Moremi: mix of European and American, most with some safari experience.

Our final full day in Africa was another action-packed one. Wake up call was at 5:30, then breakfast and out for the GD at 6:30. We drove paralell to the Linyanti swamp to the Zibalianja lagoon, then down the Savuti channel. Didn’t see anything too special in this GD –just plenty of the usual species-, but the landscape is really beautiful so it was an entertaining ride. Full of birds too, saw several swarms of red billed quelea, ground hornbills, fish eagle, plus plenty of acuatiq birds: jacanas, spoonbill, yellow, saddle and open billed storks, black heron, etc

Instead of taking us back to camp they gave us a little surprise and organized brunch (10:30) in the bush, by the lagoon, under the shade of several huge african mangosteens, perfect temperature.

After brunch we went for a 1hr boat ride in the lagoon right in front of DT, which was enjoyable, we saw a few very big crocs and more birds. The views of the camp from the water were nice too.

Then we took a nap, and some coffee/tea at 3:30 to go out again by 4. This was largely a dull GD, nothing worth noting, but after the sundowner drink, when we were nightdriving back to camp, we saw a leopard. It was a female that according to Olli has 2 cubs but we only saw her. Followed her into the bush, lost it for a few seconds and then saw it again eating something, it had captured a Francolin. It was kinda cute to see the leopard carefully plucking out all the feathers. After eating the bird, she went again into thick bush so we decided to go back to camp, it was already late and we wanted to do a night drive after dinner. Got back from the GD at 8:30

After dinner Olli picked us up at 10:00 for a night drive. We started out with some star gazing, there were millions of them because the moon wasn’t out yet. Breathtaking. Olli showed us the major constellations with his spotlight, though my wife and I already knew them from last year in Namibia, but it’s always good to have a refresher.

We then drove around the area where we had seen the leopard, but it wasn’t there, Olli wanted to find the cubs. No luck. We did see many other animals, though, probably our most fruitful night drive: wild cat, selous mongoose, giant-eagle owl, plenty of hares (spring&scrub), impala, zebras, many hippo (could smell them from miles away). Everyone was tired so after an hour or so we told Olli to get us back to DT, and then we saw a group of 5 spotted hyena walking on the road. We followed them and saw them try to attack a baby hippo, one of the hyenas even bit it in the butt, but when the mum came to the rescue the hyenas run away in all directions. We followed them a bit more but we were all so tired that we just left them and went to sleep. Arrived at DT just past midnight.

Our last morning in Botswana we did a short bush walk. Since we had stayed up until late we agreed with the Italians (the Americans were leaving early in the morning) to get up one hour later (6:30) and do a 1.5 hr walk instead of the usual 2.5 to 3 hrs. We all liked the walk a lot, it’s a very different way of enjoying the bush. We came very close to a group of six giraffes, then saw some baboons and a small herd of impala. In between, Olli explained the different tracks, droppings and trees we came across. He was carrying a gun, a big knife, a hand flare and a radio (in a backpack...).

Had brunch at 10, got our stuff and out for the airstrip for a 12:15 takeoff. This time we flew in a 12-seater (Sefofane), it was full. We did a stopover in Xigera, where we enjoyed the last beautiful views of the delta, then flew to Maun airport, arrived 1:15. Took the 3:00 Air Botswana flight to Jo’burg, it left right on time, and we were surprised that they allowed us to check the bags all the way to Madrid even though we were doing the rest of the trip with British Airways under a different reservation. We were even more surprised when our bags arrived in Madrid with us, given that we had lost our connection in Heathrow due to a 4-hour delay out of Joburg, and had to take a different Heathrow-Madrid flight.

And this is it. I hope that you’ve found the information here useful, thanks for reading such a long report, I’ll try to be more brief next time.... Let me know if you have any questions or need more detail about any of the camps.

HariS

Hi Torrem,

Glad you found the Linyanti area to be your favourite. No surprises, it's really the best place to be!

Quick question - it appears that the Selinda pride is still hanging out at Duma Tau/Savuti. You mentioned a pride of 11 Lions including the pride male, Milky Eye ...... do you recall if the pride consisted of 3 adult lionesses and 7 sub-adult cubs? If this is the one, then it certainly is the Selinda pride and all cubs are doing well ...... Would love to see pictures of this pride, when possible.

Thanks
Hari

torrem

HariS,

Unfortunately I didn’t take a detailed note of the lions in that pride, but here’s what I remember: in total, there were 12 animals (11 we saw together by the channel, then we saw the other male walking alone). 2 of them were big males, then there were a few fully-grown adult females (I would say 3 or 4, not sure), and the rest were all young adults, though I wouldn’t call them “cubs” (but I’m not expert, maybe technically they are), they all seemed to be of a similar size. Our guide called the dominant male “Silver Eye”, which could very well be the “Milky Eye” you are referring to, seems plausible that different guides give different nicknames to the lions.

I do have some pictures of these lions, but I have no experience in posting pictures here, what do you suggest is the best way to upload them?

almac

Thanks for a very informative and interesting trip report.

It appears that the Selinda lion pride have shifted into new territory, and it will be interesting to see how the territory vacuum around Selinda will be filled.

HariS

You are correct - guides at different camps refer differently. I picked up the "Milky Eye" reference from Selinda last year. From your description, it sounds like the Selinda pride and good to note that the cubs have made it through the tough times. There were originally 8 cubs in the 2007 litter. 3 of them a couple months younger than the other 8. 5 of them are male cubs and hopefully will form a mighty coalition in the upcoming years.

Photos - most people out here load their pics on the Kodakgallery. They don't charge you for uploading pics on their website.

Another good website with much better clarity is the pbase site. If you wish, you can give that a try.

HariS

PS: Milky Eye is originally from waaaaay north - the Lagoon area.

Lynneb

Is Moremi really so crowded? The thought of 'traffic jams' is horrific. Is it always like this now and, if so, is anything been done to control this? I was there around 10 years ago and it wasn't too bad.