PerpetualStudent

Hello! First, thanks again to all of you who helped piece our itinerary together long ago. And to others just on here sharing info in general.
We (my brother, parents, and I) had a blast. I don't think I have enough energy now to write everything up, but as I just finished posting tons of photos to Flickr for our friends/family to see, I thought I'd at least share those here. (Apologies for the “us” shots that aren’t as interesting to strangers )

Our itinerary went like this:
- 5 nights in Livingstone, Zambia (dad had a meeting). Stayed at the Zambezi Sun. Took a day trip (organized through the meeting, so it was large) to Chobe Nat. Park in Botswana.
- 3 nights at Shumba, which is in Kafue Nat. Park in Zambia.
- 3 nights at Savuti, in the Linyati area of Botswana
- 2 nights at Little Vumbura, in the delta, Botswana
- 3 nights at Chitabe Trails (well, one of those nights was at their hide, Chitabe Walking Trails) also in the delta, Botswana

*Pictures*
Livingstone and Chobe:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/94056615@N00/910n89

Shumba (and one hour at Lunga River Lodge)
http://www.flickr.com/gp/94056615@N00/LN3yNB

Savuti:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/94056615@N00/530z52

Little Vumbura:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/94056615@N00/w7Sw92

Chitabe Trails:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/94056615@N00/5eMBch

After I win the lottery, I believe I will be in Africa for at least a month every year...

Will post a report later, but let me know if you have any questions that I might be able to help with!

KayeN

Hi PS

Have to be honest, I rarely look at people or place photos, but the little plane caught my eye, as did you and your brother jumping off something! You got some great photos from the light planes, as you did with the action shots of jumping, although it is beyond me why you guys do it! I was a little surprised to see that it really looked like your brother was pushed!

Also good gameviewing for a day in the Chobe area. I am green with envy over your sighting of the Sable(?) racing through the water. What a sighting! Shall look at another lot of photos tomorrow, but so far so good.

Good luck on the lottery!

Kind regards

Kaye

Dubaboy

Hey Perpetual Student,

Great pics!!!
I am envious I absolutely love Bots, there is no place like it and apart from Duba Plains there are no better camps than Savuti and Litle Vum, ahhh memories of drinking cold beer on the deck and seeing all the activity around the waterhole at Savuti. I was recently in Tanzania and drove the Serengeti from South to North, it was awesome but Bots is just incomparable in my opinion.

PerpetualStudent

Thanks!

KayeN – it does look like my brother was pushed! I’ll have to ask him. If anyone needed pushing, it was me. And yes those were sable antelope going through the water, a male beckoning his ladies. We didn’t see sable much after that day. There really was a lot to see at Chobe.

Dubbaboy – we’ll have to put Duba Plains on the list for the post-lottery trip. Is that in the same concession as the Vumbura camps? And leaving Savuti to go on a game drive was difficult sometimes, because of all the action at the watering hole. Though of course we were glad to go, because we did see so much on those drives. So you’d prefer Bots over Kenya/Tanzania? The parents are talking a bit about maybe going to the latter at some point in the future...

Part one of a too-long trip report coming up...

PerpetualStudent

Trip Report - Part One

FLIGHT AND LIVINGSTONE (June 21 – June 28)

So we flew British Air from California to London, had an ~8 hour layover there so we could get out and stretch our legs, feel some sun in a time zone closer to that of our final destination, etc. Glad we did that. London was sunny and we enjoyed doing a quick stop. I do have to say that I’m not a fan of BA’s new policy of not guaranteeing seating assignments. When you spend 40 hours in the air, and had purchased the tickets almost a year in advance, that is an event in itself and I’d like to have us all sitting together in the spot we picked. That said, it turned out great actually but we’d wished we’d gone Virgin. We sat in the economy plus section and that was money well spent, for the extra leg room, and the window section seats are only 2-wide, as opposed to 3 in regular economy. Good movies too! Nice people.

Then flew on to J’burg. Barely made our connection to Livingstone (2 hrs at J’burg). We made it, but our luggage didn’t. Not a problem though, just had to keep asking people if the bags had shown up. Apparently the LVI airport closes in the afternoon. When we arrived at Livingstone, some people from the conference picked us up. I believe they were with Wilderness Safaris. We stayed at the Zambezi Sun, right next to the falls, so we headed there right away. Walk as far as you can to see the falls. Then when you see it from above, you’ll realize that you only saw about a third of it! It is amazing, of course. The mist from the falls creates a tropical downpour-like situation, so grab a jacket from the little security booth at the Zambezi Sun. People were super friendly down there, everyone just enjoying the falls and giggling because they were completely soaked. We didn’t go to the Zimbabwe side.

The hotel was fun. It had a very relaxed/fun atmosphere. At one point, a baboon popped into the open-air restaurant and grabbed a beer, which he took to the roof to try to open. Everyone around was laughing and there was an audible disappointed “ohhh!” when he dropped it. The food was good, and the staff was awesome. Dennis taught us a little of his language each morning, and quizzed us on what we learned. W did wish there were some non-buffet options for food though. The setting at the Royal Livingstone is gorgeous; we spent some time there. But we aren’t really fancy/formal types so I think the Zambezi Sun was just fine for us; the RL seems more formal. But beautiful. I don’t know why they had so many old trees and the Sun was a little more barren. And the RL is on the river. Get a drink on their deck at sunset!

We did a boat cruise along the Zambezi River, which was a nice small activity to do while in Livingstone. Our boat was smaller than the “booze boat” – maybe about 12 people. Saw our first bits of wildlife so we were excited: eles, hippos, crocs, birds. I’m having trouble remembering...

We spent one day at Chobe National Park – a tour that was organized through the conference, so we went en masse. We almost canceled when a friend said it was a bit touristy/crowded and not great. We were so happy we didn’t. Sure there were a lot of people around but it was a good time. Safari with training wheels, before we did the real deal later. We saw just layers of animals in the scenery. Eles, buffalo, hippo, giraffe, warthogs, monitor lizard, crocs, sable antelope, kudu, impala, African darters, white egrets... We first took a (large) boat tour, and then switched to game vehicles after lunch. The highlight was about 20 elephants coming down to drink some water, including about 3 young guys. They were wrestling in the dirt, piling on top of each other, and one guy kept spinning his trunk around like crazy. We had a hilarious family from Canada with us and we could not stop laughing. One ele was nursing which was of course beautiful to see. We could have stayed there all day.

Oh, getting to Chobe took several hours, but we didn’t mind at all; it was nice to cross borders via land. Otherwise, I would have felt too shuttled around, not how I normally like to travel. Well, we were still shuttled around, but at least we got out and mixed with other people crossing. All of the guides, tour organizers were from WS and were so incredibly friendly. We couldn’t get enough info about what it is like in Zimbabwe now (lots of people from that country) and the people’s take on Mugabe, etc.

Other events at Livingstone: Boma dinner (skip it, I still am having flashbacks that aren’t pretty.). Microlights over the falls – absolutely do this if you can. It was not a bit scary and the experience (and photos) is amazing. My mom was too scared to go and now she wishes she had. You can see hippos, crocs, eles, etc in the water, on top of seeing how huge the falls are. My brother wishes he’d smiled at the camera mounted on the wing more, but I say enjoy the view, that is what you are there for. And the gorge swing!! So fun. I’d done a gorge swing in a canyon in Switzerland, so you’d think I wouldn’t be too scared, but man, I couldn’t jump when he counted down the first time. The second time, I willed myself to jump off a cliff (much scarier than sky diving, trust me). You fall for 50 meters I think, and then the rope catches (this is when you can breathe again) and you swing across this canyon. Then you can lean back and enjoy the amazing view of the river in the next canyon over... So great. We would have liked to have bungeed off of the bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia by the falls, but ran out of time. Plus we’d gotten our rush from the swing. Oh, the guys there were amazing. One of them grabbed the video camera and documented the whole thing; the video turned out fantastic. Highly recommended for a little adrenaline boost!

I think that is it for the Livingstone time... We are happy we did this first before going on safari. I liked ending on a high note, with the safari, and sleeping off a bit of jet lag in a place where you maybe don’t miss as much... The little market next to the hotel was a little much for some visitors; the sellers are aggressive, but friendly. I enjoyed it, though didn’t buy anything. Some other visitors had brought stuff to trade or give away; that would have been fun. One regret is that we didn’t visit a village. My family thought it would be too touristy, but I really wanted to go. Next time!

SHUMBA (June 28 – July 1)
Mom and I cried a little when we left this camp. Just to give you an idea.

So we took a teeny (5-seater) plane from LVI to the airstrip for Kafue Nat Park in Zambia. Then we took a helicopter to camp. The pilot was great, pointing out animals along the way. The staff of Shumba met us at the helicopter (my brother at this point is going “I feel like Donald Trump or something!”). We were booked at Busanga Bush camp and the manager “apologized” for the inconvenience of (being upgraded to) Shumba b/c Busanga was inaccessible at the time because of water. They even gave us a beautiful hardback photo book about the area as an apology. Please! They were so wonderful, and we were lucky to have the camp to ourselves for all but the last half day. Our guide, Solomon, was our favorite from the trip. He had a good mixture of humor, information, friendliness, fun/interesting stories, as well as telling and asking what the plan would/should be. He even got us interested in birds, something we did not expect. By the end, we were ID’ing most of the local species: crested crane (his favorite), African darter, goliath heron, openbill stork, saddle-billed stork, spoonbill, Egyptian goose, African fish eagle, blacksmith plover, lilac breasted roller, etc, etc. He was really good at giving you enough info to make something interesting. This area has a pride of lions famous for climbing trees. We didn’t get to see this in action, but we saw 4 of the lions: 3 females hunting (2 hunted, one pregnant lioness stayed behind), and one male “Little John” sunning himself after an apparent mud bath. Solomon was great. He took us out on an extra game drive in the afternoon, because he’d heard the lioness was close (before we saw any of them). So we drove, boated, and then walked, and finally got a little glimpse of her. We were very excited, first lion.

We did a walking safari one morning with Solomon and a ranger from the park. We learned all about poop and tracks. We walked over to a group of vultures, and found a male puku [or lechwe? I can’t remember. But at the time, I ID’d it by the horns and was proud of myself  Isn’t it great how being on safari is just an amazing learning experience? (although my retention isn’t perfect obviously) And your only entertainment for that time is nature. And these experiences become a common language. Anyway, I have the Africa bug.] carcass, and knew that a lion should be close. Then we saw the lioness in the tall grass a couple hundred yards from us. Solomon then instructed us to make a loop around in a crouch-walk, where we could hide behind a termite mound and maybe get a better look of her. So we did that, but she was a smart one and went further into the grass. Later, my brother was scanning the horizon and saw her, with two other ladies, again in the tall grass. We then noticed a lone lechwe, and watched as the ladies realized he was there all alone. They continued to stalk her, which was great fun and suspenseful. The lechwe’s puku friends alerted him to the danger though, so he took off just as the lionesses were within pouncing range. Good times.

We also saw a pregnant serval two nights in a row, she was pretty relaxed about us. The last night we took the boat (comes from Louisiana, can churn up reeds etc in the river) out into what we called the hippo pool, but is the Lafupa River, to see lots of birds and hippo, a few crocs. I miss the hippo grunting noises we heard on the boat, and pretty much all during the night from camp. The Shumba staff say that 4:30 – 6:30 pm is hippo yawning time. So we oohed and aahed and shutter-clicked over all of their huge pink open mouths. One of the staff, Alan, had a beautiful sundown set-up waiting for us, complete with champagne and peanuts cooked on a shovel over the fire. Whenever Alan came with us, he whipped us some yumminess – pancakes in the middle of nowhere, etc. He used to be the head chef at Shumba, I believe he said.

When we got back from game drives, someone would greet us at camp with a little glass of sherry and a hot towel. When we woke up in the morning, they brought a tray of coffee and cookies to our tent. It was very nice, a little much for me and for my mom, but the dad and brother I think could get used to it. The staff was super friendly. Andrew and Shannon were acting managers while we were there; they were great. The food was wonderful. I’m a vegetarian and ate very well.

The setting of the camp is beautiful, the fields mist over in the morning and are gorgeous, with puku and lechwe grazing. Apparently a week before we were there a lion or two were hunting all through camp (running under the walkways etc) for a few hours and made a kill right there. Wish we had more time there.

Love love love Shumba. Like I said, mom cried a bit when the helicopter lifted us away. Not sure if I was doing a sympathy cry or what, but I think Shumba had something to do with it.

hdaum

Thank you for posting. I scour everyday for word from anyone with a similar itinerary to our upcoming September trip to Bots and S. Africa.

We are also booked at Little Vum and Savuti-looking forward to hearing more! I'm off to look at your photos now!

hdaum

I just had to comment on the last of your 'Savuti' series of photos-the airstrip jogging! I have been a little concerned about going stir crazy being driven around all the time, long siestas and fabulous food everywhere -

I wonder if rope jumping on one's deck would be too disruptive to animals and other guests...

I'm imagining myself trying to do laps(many, many laps) in the teeny plunge pool!

PerpetualStudent

hdaum - We did bring jump rope with us. It was difficult sometimes to find a spot to jump during siesta time, without thumping on the walkways for all to hear... My brother did the most jumping and he found the best spot to be on the concrete by the pools (which were very chilly, so best of luck with that activity!). Concrete is not as good for the legs, of course, but it didn't have people wondering what crazy animal was making the noise. Jump rope was definitely a good way to get the heart rate up, a surprisingly good workout. We also met a lady who had brought resistance bands for exercise and wish we'd done the same... Doing a walking safari every once in a while really helps too.
You will have a great time at LV and Savuti, no doubt! Lots of good sightings at Savuti: cheetah, leopards, wild dogs, lions, thousands of eles, etc. We only spent 2 nights at LV which was not enough. Both camps were recently remodeled, and the staff at both places were great. I'll try to get part 2 of my report up today.

going_2_africa

Great photos...thanks for sharing them.

The photo of the lion track is very cool. Perfect print.

Dubaboy

PerpetualStudent, yeah Duba is quite close to Vumbura (a nice 15 minute heli ride) due West. There is nothing like it, those 2 old Duba Boy Brothers are something special, they are on their last legs though which is a shame, but in their prime along with the Tsaro pride they the "Buffalo killers", now they kick back and let the ladies do all the work.

Derek and Beverly Joubert (my favourite film makers on Southern African Safaris), did a documentary on Duba called Relentless Enemies its absolutely fantastic.

Regarding East Africa, it is fantastic althoughy I do prefer Bots. As with a safari in East africa there are too many companies though that cater for the mass market and so you take your turn in line amongst 30 cars to photograph a leopards tail. So you need to choose the smaller operators with semi-nomadic camps that track the migration in the Serengeti, with these guys you get away from the crowds.

I was also blown away by the Ngorongoro crater, sure there were lots of cars but I filmed a Buffalo taking on 5 male lions then running for his life. The Selous Game Reserve is also great and a nice combination with Rhuaha and then Zanzibar.

Kenya - Walking and fly camping at Sabuk and Loisaba are excellent and the Mara is worth a visit, so is Amboseli.

So I would highly recommend a Safari in East Africa (I have got back from Tanzania and am heading to Kenya for 2 weeks again in October), as it is so different from a safari in the South.

The Masai people are also probably the friendliest people I have ever met!

PerpetualStudent

SAVUTI – July 1 - July 4

Leaving Shumba... The helicopter pilot (Mike, if I remember correctly) flew us to the airstrip in Kafue, circling over a large group of buffalo on the way. Our plane was about an hour late, so the Shumba folks had arranged for us to hang out at the Lunga River Lodge, instead of a deserted air strip. So Maury (adorable) from the lodge greeted us, and drove us back to camp. They were all super nice and treated us as if we were paying guests. Wish we could have stayed longer there. The setting for camp is beautiful, river streaming by under their deck...

Then we met our plane, which first went to Lusaka and then to Livingstone (our destination), so that was about a 2 hour detour (we didn’t mind). Then from Livingstone to Kasane – in order to do customs in Botswana. In Kasane, we just took 2 of our bags to go through an x-ray machine, and had our passports stamped. Then off to the strip by Savuti. Finally! Roger greeted us at camp and had a good laugh, as he’d heard an American couple and their “kids” were coming; he was expecting little ones, and had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches waiting for us. And here are my brother and I, wrinkles and all... The staff whipped out some food for us, as we hadn’t eaten since the morning, with all the flying. But then they heard there was a cheetah sighting, so we quickly left to go see that. I felt bad leaving all the food they’d just prepared for us, but they encouraged us to go, very flexible and nice. So we got to see two male cheetahs snoozing at dusk under a tree, and groom each other a bit. Our only cheetah sighting for the whole trip, so we are glad to have made it.

Our guide at Savuti turned out to be more of a tracker than a guide; it took us a while to figure this out. So he wasn’t as good at teaching us about the wildlife and their behaviors, etc., but he was very good at finding the cats. (He also didn’t communicate to us very well what he was doing, and wouldn’t always get closer to something we were interested in – like a young giraffe in an open area, but he would plow over new trees and bushes in order to get to the cats. It was a little odd.) Our guide did teach us a bit about animal tracks, and once we had a little bit of knowledge, we encouraged him to talk more about what he was looking for, etc.

So with him we saw nine lions sleeping (including 2 males and 2 cubs I think), a leopard female grooming her cub, the cub by his/herself later... As we watched the nine lions sleeping and walking around a bit, a group of guinea fowl approached from one side, unknowingly walking straight into the sleeping lions. Once they figured this out, they all started screaming their alarm calls and waddling faster past the lions. The lions kind of lifted up their heads like “what is all that racket? A couple of birds? Please, I’m not getting up for that.” Meanwhile, the birds are still running and screaming for their lives. One of those little entertaining nature moments. And of course we saw thousands of elephants. The helicopter pilot from Shumba, Mike, had told us that the Savuti area was overrun by elephants, that the environment looked like “the surface of the moon” with the majority of the plant life picked over by the eles. The watering hole in front of camp was pumped daily, and eles were there at all hours drinking and playing. They weren’t very good at sharing, so there would be layers of zebra, impala, and wildebeest waiting for their turn. And of course the little warthogs (love them) would be trotting around the edges, looking for their in. It was fun to sit and root for the warthogs. My brother and I would sit on our tent’s deck and watch “elephant TV” for most of the siesta time. We loved seeing the elephants come running out of the edge of the wooded area in family groups. They were noisy even at night; sounds I miss now. For some reason there were a lot of ele babies in that area; the co-manager of Savuti (I can’t believe I’m forgetting her name! She is from Germany...) said it was an unusually large number of little guys. One adult ele found its way into camp (I think there’s a pic of him in the Flickr set) and the staff had to scare him away...

Savuti was also just remodeled, we heard. The tents were similar to those in Shumba, each with a deck that faced the watering holes, I believe. There was a couple on their honeymoon with us, staying at the honeymoon tent, which they said was far removed from camp, so I guess that’s a plus for any privacy-seekers out there. The main area of camp also looks out to the watering holes. You can see them from the fire area, dining area, bar, etc. We were there on a Monday night, which I guess is the day for the traditional dance and meal. It was fun, but my poor brother just needs to EAT (he’s like Lance Armstrong after a mountain stage of the tour) and I don’t think he was all that into the entertainment. The rest of us I think had a good time. We ate in the boma around a fire, men on one side on chairs, ladies on the other on floor cushions. The male visitor elected “chief” ate first. The food was yummy; we ate with our hands. The next night my brother crashed early, skipping dinner, but the staff insisted on bringing him a plate of food (he was also studying for a certification exam). The staff was obviously very nice.

PerpetualStudent

Duba – thanks for the info re: east Africa. We had heard there was a way of doing that area without being around 100s of people. So if I ever make it out there, I will look into the semi-nomadic camps. Sounds like you spend more time with one group of animals, too? That sounds appealing. I feel like the first safari was a good overview, but I would love to learn more about, and just spend more time observing several of the things we saw on this trip.
I keep hearing about the Jouberts; I need to see their film! I have seen the book; amazing.
Have a great trip in October!

VeeR

Perpetual Student - I loved your photos and your trip reports. Am eagerly waiting your report of Chitabe Ledibe and your night at The Hide.

PerpetualStudent

I forgot to mention the wild dogs in Savuti; I keeping thinking we saw them in Chitabe... So we were fortunate enough to find the pack of wild dogs one day in Savuti. We didn’t get to see them hunt; they were just sleeping, but it was still exciting. Unfortunately, this was with our less-than-informative guide, so I didn’t learn as much as I was hoping too. I will have to crawl these forums for that... There was a (BBC, we were told) film crew (one guy and driver) waiting for us safarists to move along so they could film the dogs. They are prettier in person than in most photos I’ve seen, and super alert to all noises with those huge ears. They started out spread across a little hill, but then were all snuggled together by the time we left them. Since then I’ve seen the Planet Earth segment with the Chitabe dogs (and we met Newman at Chitabe Trails who helped to guide that crew, more on that later...). This is why I would like to spend more time with one group of animals now that I’ve gotten one safari in

LITTLE VUMBURA - July 4 - 6
So we only spent 2 nights at LV, not nearly enough for a camp, IMO, and so not really enough to give you guys a good feel of this place. But we did love it! (Of course, I mean we loved everything really.) We arrived in the afternoon – airplane to vehicle to motor boat to the camp. Every time you go on a drive at LV, you take a boat to the vehicles. I should post some video some time of these boat rides. Absolutely amazing sunsets and sunrises. Anyway, we approached the boat dock, and the staff was out there singing the “demola” (sp?) greeting song that we’d heard at other camps. Then you walk on this long wooden walkway to camp, surrounded by reeds and water lilies. So pretty. That evening we went out on a boat trip instead of a game drive. (Thanks again for all the fodorites’ feedback on mixing up wet with dry camps! The water was so refreshing after the arid Savuti landscape.) We saw hippo, small crocs, birds... Our guide was very knowledgeable about the geography and history of the delta, so when we took a break on a small island, he gave us a quick lecture, drawing in the sand. The water in the delta is so unbelievably clear. The German co-manager (I’m so sorry I can’t remember her name) at Savuti told us about a trip she’d planned, makuroing down the delta, camping in the open, living off of fish and drinking straight from the delta. Now I could see what she meant about the water (though not enough to actually drink from the delta myself).

That day was America’s Independence Day, and the other family staying there was American as well (except the 2 guides they’d brought with them), so the staff had red white and blue tablecloths out for us and the dinner was a little more celebratory that night, by the fire in the boma.

The next day, my brother and I opted for a game drive, while my parents did a makuro trip. So the two of us had our guide to ourselves. Oh, there was a woman from the community who came out on most boat/vehicle excursions with us. She was hired by her community (not WS, she was quick to correct, though WS gives the community $$ to have the camp there; the exact nature of the relationship was still a bit unclear to us.) to make sure that the guides etc aren’t doing anything to disturb the land... I asked if it were possible to visit one of the 3 communities nearby, but she said no. I definitely want to try to meet more people on the next trip out there (lottery winnings assumed, of course). Anyway, so it was our guide, the woman from the community, my brother and I. Not bad. In fact, as a family of 4 we rarely shared a vehicle with others, apart from the large tour at Chobe. Another couple at most, but not often (we had another couple with us for a half day at Shumba, maybe 1.5 days at Savuti). There was a shy leopard we tried to track for a while, but never found. Apparently they have only seen her twice ever. We saw lots of elephants, kudu, baboons, etc. We also saw some new guys, for us: tsessebe and steenbok. We went over to some vulture circling action and saw an impala carcass. Those vultures, and marabou storks, are scary looking. My brother and I could have watched baboons all day, but our guide, not so much. Our guide told us a story that about 2 weeks earlier, he had driven nearly right into a black mamba snake, 10-15 ft long or something, with a third (although he said “half” – most guidebooks say they can lift a third) of its body lifted off of the ground, hissing at them... He threw the car in reverse to get out of its way, guests screaming and all. This is scary because the snake is supposed to be sleeping during the winter, but apparently this guy had gotten hungry and went looking for food. Our guide pointed to the log where he thought the snake was staying, so it was always a little exciting to pass that spot. We didn’t tell our mom until leaving Africa that some of the deadly creatures she felt confident in knowing wouldn’t bother us this time of the year, apparently could have.

The next morning, we all went on game drives; I think we’d heard lions calling during the night (again, something else I miss! Sometimes I couldn’t sleep at night because I was too excited about ID’ing animal noises and determining whether or not they were getting closer. And whether or not it was worth braving the cold to get up to see if I could spot any of them outside our tent.), so we went looking for them. We took a different route by land, driving through a huge pool; water comes up over the hood. This is where the vehicles use the snorkel for air intake of course. Fun. Couldn’t find the lions, but we enjoyed spending some time with a family of warthogs (love them!) digging for food, and entering their burrows butt-first. We also spent about 15 minutes in a staring contest with a group of buffalo, listening to our guide talk about how the buffalo are one of the few mammals that will actually retaliate after one of their own is killed. And of course after seeing the now-famous Kruger video (http://www.noob.us/miscellaneous/bat...in-the-safari/ ) and the Relentless Enemies book (though I still need to see the film, which dubaboy mentions above), these guys deserve a lot of respect. Our guide said hunters would shoot one in the plate above its eyes, and the bullet would bounce off (yay). Again, I’m thinking I’d love to spend more time with them.

LV camp had also just been remodeled. It really is in a beautiful water setting. The tents were similar to Shumba and Savuti. The only negative was that there was no way to enclose the little shower room with canvas or anything, one side was a screen out to the open, so all of the hot air just disappeared, leaving you shivering as soon as you turn the water off. Not a big deal, but even my tougher-than-me brother was cold. Whatever, we were happy to have hot water at all; I’ve definitely traveled without for long periods of time, and it was sooo nice to have hot water everywhere we went in Africa; we definitely weren’t roughing it. One nice/different thing about LV is that for meals other than dinner, you can sit at smaller tables. This is nice for people who have been only sitting at big group tables for every meal on a long trip... I’m an introvert (just meaning I get my energy back when solo), and though I didn’t need the separate tables yet, it would have been nice for a social break near the end of our trip. I also learned that most WS staff will talk to you if you are sitting by yourself, even if you just wanted to sit and listen to the sounds, stare off into the landscape, read some of the materials lying around... They are super friendly, but alone time was normally found on the decks of our tents, not in the common areas. LV was also the first camp we’d visited that broke the white-people-are-the-managers theme, thank god. The division of labor was looking a bit too coupled with one’s race for my comfort level. Again, the staff here was great; the food was great; my mom bonded with a woman who had been through hell and back recently but you never would know it from her positive outlook and personality. So, two days - definitely not enough.

hdaum

I loved reading your accounts-there are little points you make here and there that I so appreciate and sound like things that I might notice or things I've been concerned about like your tracker at Savuti(I'll try to see if our agent can request us an instructive type guide) and the smaller private tables for lunch at LV(which I think I'll look forward to as well for the same reasons).

It didn't sound as if Savuti really wow-ed you. From the way Shumba sounded-and you've totally made me want to see Shumba!-I guess it'd be a tough act to follow. Were there any particular problems you had at Savuti? Were they prohibiting guests from using the woodpile hide there?

Look forward to reading more!

Dana_M

Perpetual Student,
Thaks for the great trip report and fantastic photos. Like Kaye, I am jealous of your Sable sighting. I think the pack of wild dogs you saw at Savuti were those I saw at Duma Tau, which isn't far from Savuti. But, I did also see dogs at Chitabe, and we were there almost at the same time.

DubaBoy mentioned Duba Plains. I just posted the first installment of my trip report on Bots, and it is on Duba Plains, along with photos if you are interested.

Shumba sounds wonderful. I've just added it to my list of places I should check out. Any place that brings tears to one's eyes is surely a place not to be missed. Like you, however, I'm waiting to win the lottery. Both for the $$$ and so I can quit my job and take more frequent and much longer trips to Africa.

PerpetualStudent

Hdaum – I’m glad that some of my ramblings have been helpful! We all did really enjoy Savuti. Maybe I had more energy when writing up the other portions of the report... We didn’t have any problems at Savuti; I would go back in a heartbeat. The one thing that keeps popping in my mind, though, is that it feels a little like cheating, having a watering hole that is pumped with water... I may be crazy, but I had a teeey feeling, it didn’t feel as authentic, maybe less soul than Shumba. I mean it is not like WS ties down antelope so that guests can see lions feed right out in front of camp, but still... I do think the big difference between Shumba and Savuti were our guides. We really enjoyed the guide at Shumba. Since we were there for the animals / game drives, the guide really influences the feel of the stay. We saw so much at Savuti, looking back, but had it been with our Shumba guide, he would have been super excited with us, telling us more stories then, or later at dinner. Plus, Shumba was our first, so it will always be special! Any hesitations I have about Savuti are incredibly minor, and heavily influenced by a less-than-stellar match with our guide.

Where/when are you headed?

Oh, the woodpile hide! We didn’t even ask about it, but that was one reason I’d wanted to go there. I think that if you were able to find your way into the hide, you’d never be able to leave. We felt like we could see a lot from camp, and there were so many animals for most of the day, I doubt anyone goes into the hide. I really loved Savuti for the non-stop ele action. I know I must sound like a bit of a hypocrite! - I loved the camp for one of the reasons it made it feel less authentic. What can I say, the pumped watering hole works. ;-)

PerpetualStudent

Dana M – I loved your trip report; I almost didn’t want to look at your (amazing lion) pictures because I’m so jealous of your lion experience, and they make my Africa travel bug start to chatter more loudly! For the same reason, I hesitate to send your photo link to my family, but I think they will enjoy them immensely. We must have missed you at Chitabe by one day. I’m definitely putting Duma on the radar for the next trip. I’ll check back in on your thread to read more. Thanks for posting!

hdaum

GMTA about the pumped waterhole at Savuti! When I first read about that I got a flash of that Disney ride with the animatronic hippos. But I realize it's not like that and call me a hyupocrite, too-I'm just so excited about seeing hordes of elephants-keep that water pumping!

We leave in just a few short weeks. We'll be at LV and Savuti for a week and then also a few days in the Makgadikgadi pans. We'll end our trip in Cape Town.

Oh-and the big cats may be the flashy ones but my husband is now a warthog fan! I showed him your warthog pics and told them about how they back-up into their holes...so cute! We are going to put that on our Wilderness Safaris must-see wishlist.

If you're still out there-did you travel with fancy cameras and equipment? I've toodled with photography in college but am not an avid photo enthusiast today. I'll be borrowing my brother's DSLR(whatever that stands for) and would like to get a powerful zoom for it soon so that I can practice before I get out there. Anyway, I realize this can be a whole separate topic but I'd like to hear from a like-minded traveler-is all this just going to get in the way of my enjoyment? I don't know if it was your photo of the lilac-breasted roller that I'm thinking of but I think so-was that just taken with the zoom of a normal digital camera? The photo posts aroudn here are starting to make me nervous that I just don't want to bother. My brother insists that I'll need good photo documentation though or else how am I going to brag about the trip?

PerpetualStudent

Hi hdaum,
Yes hypocrites we are re: the watering hole You will love Savuti.

OK I hesitate to admit this, but I fell so in love with the warthogs, that my brother got me a license plate frame soon after our trip that says "I love warthogs." So now I'm driving around San Francisco with that statement on my rear. I almost died laughing. Your husband has great taste! It seemed like every guidebook I read started the entry with something like "they may be ugly as hell, but..." Somebody wrote a book about their behavior in the 1970s that I'm considering tracking down...

Anyway, you will have fun at both camps!

Re: equipment, the pics online are a combination of my dad's digital SLR (DSLR), and 3 different digital point and shoots. The photo of the LBR was taken with the DSLR. His lens is a Canon 75-300 mm f 4/5.6; camera is Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, a few years old... Hope that helps your hubby. So my dad's camera was great for telephoto, not so great for the pics of us etc, and that's what we used the point and shoots for. If you are getting a camera for the trip, I'd just do a digital point and shoot with a good optical zoom, along with your husband's camera. I think my mom's camera was 10x zoom. I asked DanaM about her great photos at Duba Plains - taken with a point and shoot also, 14x I think.

Some people on these forums know a LOT about cameras and I'm sure can help you guys if you are looking for equipment. So don't worry, just snap a few photos and enjoy not looking through a camera too, of course. Even my crappy camera took some decent pics.

(I primarily manned a small video camera which was great fun to edit afterwards.)