AFRICAN SAFARI CAMP UPDATES
January 2003

This Month:
• Duba Plains Camp update - Saga continues from the best Lion camp in Botswana.
• Duma Tau Camp update - great game viewing to start off the year.
• Mombo Camp update - news from the renowned wildlife haven in Moremi.
• Xigera Camp update - interesting Lioness story.
• Ongava Tented Camp update - Namibia.
• Rocktail Bay Dive Report - incredible underwater sightings from one of the world's best dive locations.

                Jump to Duba Plains Camp

The true rainy season hit us towards the middle of January. We thought we were in for a dry season, but were wrong. A total of 154mm of rain fell during January, revitalizing the entire area. Many people think of the rainy season as a bad time to visit, however, one should remember it does not rain all day and certainly not everyday. Usually it rains heavily, for short bursts, mostly in the afternoons or evenings. January saw only nine days with rain falling, with most of the storms occurring at night. The Duba area is looking in superb condition, with some channels flowing again and all the pans topped up to capacity. The average temperatures experienced were very comfortable at a minimum of 22°C and a maximum was 34°C.

2003 started off extremely well, with the first few minutes of game drive producing a beautiful, relaxed young male leopard and the two Duba Boys near the airstrip. Bird watching was certainly one of the highlights of the month. The "fish traps" on the plains have continued, never failing to impress even those less keen on watching our feathered friends. If one had to select a bird sighting of the month, it would have to be of a juvenile Bat Hawk circling in perfect view above the vehicle at midday. We have been keeping bird-sighting records for the immediate Duba area, reaching a total of 275 different species. No doubt we have many more to record, but a great beginning all the same. January has also revealed several good reptile sightings, including Leopard Tortoise, Water Monitor Lizard, Flap-neck Chameleon, African Rock Python and Nile Crocodile. Some smaller animals encountered were spring hares, honey badgers, genets, civets, wild cats and regular sightings of bat-eared foxes. The fox family of eight has faired well, only loosing one pup. Exciting news is the dominant hyena pack is denning again. They are utilizing the same den as in previous years, meaning perfectly clear viewing for our guests. So far three little, black pups have shown themselves. We will be following their development closely.

The buffalo herd is doing well, however, they have only dropped one or two calves so far. This is as we expected, with last seasons calves dropping in March 2002. Somehow they continue to escape the lions, for the most part. They rarely venture into the Pantry prides territory, spending most of their time within the boundaries of the Skimmer and Tsaro prides. Both of these prides have temporarily split up to deliver new cubs, resulting in them not being quite the hunting force we are used to.

The Duba lions were tracked down on every day of the month, with 73 different pride sightings, averaging 13 lions per day. In total, 49 individual lions were identified. We did not venture to far to the north or east, so did not encounter any new lions on the concession. Kills witnessed in January was well down on previous months and were 4 buffalo, 1 lechwe calf, 1 adult male wildebeest and 2 warthogs.

The Tsaro pride continues to be fragmented, however, on several occasions they were all seen together. More often than not, this was when the buffalo herd was in the immediate locality. The lionesses are moving about a relatively small area, where we suspect one of the lionesses has her cubs safely hidden from sight. So far only one female has given birth, with a couple of others well on their way. It appears none of the young females have conceived, but only time will confirm this. The five young males are still seen regularly, but do tend to wander further in search of the buffalo herd. All the lions are in perfect physical condition, so they must be succeeding in catching sufficient prey in the form of lechwe and warthog. No doubt far easier quarry to subdue than the more formidable buffalo.

The Pantry pride has settled around the camp island. They ventured some way into the Tsaro pride's territory, with no sign of any resistance. December sadly saw the disappearance of a single male cub, while January saw its incredible reappearance after an absence of at least two weeks. He was extremely thin and in desperate need of a meal. The lionesses seemed to oblige him, with two buffalo kills that very night. A couple of days later, the pride managed to successfully pull down a solitary bull wildebeest. This was the first wildebeest kill we have witnessed this pride make, but no doubt not the first.

Once again, the Skimmer pride was not seen as a complete unit. All ten members were accounted for, but never more than four together at any one time. Two of the adult lionesses have moved north of the Paradise water, hopefully having cubs. They gave us one distant sighting of a perfect lechwe hunt. Through binoculars we watched three females chase a large herd of lechwe backwards and forwards, until eventually they managed to isolate a calf and capture it in the mud. It's not too often one gets to witness a successful daytime lechwe hunt, right out in the open. The four male siblings of the pride appear to have banded together, even though there is a three-year difference in age. It's unlikely this will continue for too much longer, especially if any Tsaro females come into season again.

The Duba Boys remain as the dominant males over most of the concession, surprisingly pushing further and further into their old haunts. The challenge from the two new males seems to have fizzled out for the time being. Perhaps they will be back? The Old Vumbura pride showed themselves over a five day period, at times several kilometres outside of their territory. They spent these few days on the trail of the buffalo herd, until they bumped into members of both the Skimmer and Tsaro prides. This minor altercation sent them on their way, and have not been seen since. The missing 28-month-old lioness was again back with the pride.

Sadly we say farewell to one of our Duba family members. Julie Wilson has had to return to her physiotherapy career and will be sorely missed by all. As a result we have the pleasure of welcoming Elmari Cutler into our home and look forward to many wonderful times ahead.
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                Jump to Duma Tau Camp

The Savuti Channel is resplendent in her new bright green coat and the riverine forests are a tangle of croton leaves and thick bush. Once again DumaTau is the jungle home of migratory birds, zinging cicadas and curious herds of kudu and impala intermingling with our resident baboons. The troupe seem to have taken a liking to retail therapy and regularly make forays into our shop..they are not big spenders however and appear to ignore the "you break it you pay for it" policy of most outlets. We are in the process of fortifying structures (again) against the mischievous critters.

The only cause for concern is the gradual recession of water up the Savuti Channel from Zib lagoon..only a trickle now exists in the channel in front of the hide and hippo can hardly submerge themselves there anymore and most have moved into Zib Lagoon.

WILDLIFE
Game viewing has been brilliant!! The rains have sent most of the elephants into the mopane where the pans are brimming with water, birds and hippos. There are still a surprising number of breeding herds around, enjoying the muddy holes in the channel and the long 'elephant spaghetti' that grows there. The odd herd of buffalo can be seen further up the channel..typically surrounded by hundreds of bright white egrets. This makes for a beautiful scene with black, white and green stark against each other and stormy skies. General game is fantastic..lots of zebra with bucking foals, and wildebeest herds turning circles and generally acting in the crazy way they do. Also hundreds of impala, nice herds of lechwe along the river..and on the 31st a large herd (about 20) of roan antelope close to the airstrip! Wild dogs have been regular stars in the repetoire..still at 21, the whole pack is looking healthy and strong. The alpha male, never a beauty anyway, is really beginning to look old and tatty so it will be interesting to see what develops in the hierarchy in the next year or so.

The Savuti Lion Pride, also at 21, is back to weaving between the channel and the mopane although sightings have been very regular..especially considering the one lioness has separated from them while her cubs are still young. Strangely enough one of the older cubs (about ten months) has stuck with them and she is allowing him to suckle to the detriment of her own cubs. They are not getting enough milk and are looking a bit waifish. Cheetah sightings have been great with the three brothers performing at their peak on their hunts. They can be seen causing havoc with the wildebeest and impala in the channel all the way from Zib to Manchwe Pan east of Savuti. A female and sub adult have also been hanging around in the old 'Hunting Sign' area. Leopard has been better than expected for this time of year. Despite the lush bush the guides have surpassed themselves..one lot of guests saw three different leopard on one drive, after having seen the Savuti Pride bring down an impala. Interestingly, the presence of hyena has increased dramatically since last year this time. There appear to be larger clans around, with groups of 5 or more regularly seen in the last hours of daylight.

Once again DumaTau has attracted drama in the form of an elephant calf who was found in a panic in the generator room. Clearly attracted by the low humming coming from the machine, the poor thing was head butting the big green box it felt drawn to...many hours were then spent leading it away from camp with the Land Rover (another machine with a a low throbbing sound) until it ran off into the bush on its own. Despite leaving it far from camp twice, it returned to DumaTau screaming indignantly for its mother. Sad to say a breeding herd did come through the camp, only to reject it into the waiting jaws of a clan of hyena metres from the camp. It was all very sad, but an inevitable outcome for a lost calf in the wild.

Guest occupancies have been fluctuating from full camp to near empty..but lots of English, Europeans and Americans. Barry and Philemona Lowes, regulars with Wilderness, had a wonderful stay and were blown away by their experience here. Lex Hes brought a group here for photography and were heard to say that DumaTau was without doubt the best camp they had been to in Botswana, in terms of game and atmosphere. Well done to a great team here who never fail to make us proud and put smiles on our faces and on those of the guests.

Our annual three week refurbishment and refitting closure is imminent and we look forward to the construction of our new walkways, as well as a general tidy up of the more tired corners of the camp. Very very sadly we say goodbye to Libby this month who is heading back down to South Africa. She is going to be missed and has certainly been fantastic in the smooth running of DumaTau. We wish her the best of luck for 2003.

May this year bring all the successes of the last...DumaTau is a very special camp and we hope it retains the charm and appeal that have really put it up there with the best.
Cheers
Deborah and the DumaTau team
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Mombo Camp                Jump to Mombo Camp
We were starting to get really worried at Mombo as the rains kept on missing the area. We could see the late afternoon thundershowers falling all around us every second or third afternoon or so - but Mombo was dry and our new grasses were looking bleak. However all that changed with one big rain burst. We had 52 mm one night with a total of 148mm for the month of January. The vegetation seems to have changed overnight, and the bush is now lush and green. Mid January was hot, with the average midday temperatures reaching into the high thirties, but the evenings were cool and pleasant.

The two new game viewing hides that have just been completed by Anthony and Nina are a hit and make the midday siesta time options that more varied! One hide is at the "Hippo Pools" and the other to the west of camp. They have already produced wonderful game and bird watching opportunities including 2 sightings of Purple Gallinule (1 spotted by Corle, who is still very excited about it), a pair of Crimson breasted shrikes (on the road to the hide) and much more. Sightings of Painted Snipes have also been regular after the rains. On another trip to the hide, a python was seen eating a baby impala.

Kgosi "the rhino" has been the celeb of the month, allowing us to view him on 7 different occasions, including one sighting with him and one of the new females together. Poster, the head tracker in the rhino monitoring team, came back from a days worth of "hunting", and was very proud to announce that they managed to find 14 of the rhinos that day. In general the new rhinos arrivals seem to have settled down, and are doing very well in their new environment, making it easier to find them and monitor them on a regular basis. One of the "new arrivals" did stray down towards the western side of the Okavango, but has been brought back home to Chief's Island by the Wildlife Department.

The lions have stolen the show, with roughly 60 different sightings this month! The "Maparota pride" and the "Wheatfield boys" seen the most regularly. Other prides seen: The Woody Boys, Phandani Pride, Boro Pride, Mathatha Pride, Piajio Pride, Martina's Pride, as well as a few nomadics travelling through the area. Mombo is going through a lion phase!

Other sightings include: lots of sightings of Cheetah, 2 sightings of Wild Dog, a breeding herd of about 400 buffalo and lots and lots of sightings of smaller buffalo herds and the more solitary "dagga boys", 2 small breeding herds of elephant - but lots of smaller bachelor herds and single males, and 14 different sightings of leopard.

Despite the slightly wetter weather, we have had another month of "Mombo Magic"!
Regards from Pieter and the "Mombo Team"
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Xigera Camp                Jump to Xigera Camp
Who says the Delta isn't at its best in times of when the floods are low. Though the water is at its lowest point in the year at this moment, Xigera has had an excellent month in terms of game and bird sightings. The Pel's Fishing Owls are availing themselves for tremendous viewing and we even had the pleasure of watching a Pel's fishing from the bridge whilst having pre-dinner drinks.

The rainfall has not been as much as expected, with 65ml being the sum total for January. This had not stopped Xigera from exploding into a green paradise. Guests were treated to an uncommonly good game month. Wild dogs and cheetah have been sighted - and we have had great leopard, lion and hyena interactions. We have a heavily pregnant lioness near camp so we are expecting a couple of cubs in the near future. I have detailed an interesting leopard vs lion vs hyena interaction below.

The following is the leopard vs lion vs hyena tale as told by Jurgen Vogt (Xigera's manager):

The Queen of the Jungle?
We were about 1 km from Xigera Camp on a thick sandy section of the road in the middle of the floodplains surrounded by dry savannah grassland and the occasional wild date palm thicket. I slammed on the brakes. "Smells like something's dead" said Cheryl. The unmistakable scent of a decaying carcass was being carried from somewhere upwind. I turned and headed into the strong breeze. The grass was high with some really thick scrub in sections, and I was hoping that I wouldn't ride over 'whatever we were looking for's' tail.

We had traveled about a 100 metres when I looked up into the only tree in the area. Something moved in the gloomy light..... leopard. A large male leopard glared down at us with those big eyes protecting his rotting kill. I wasn't sure how relaxed he was so we cut the engine and sat very still. After staring at us for about 15 seconds he lithely climbed down the tree, moved about 10 metres away from the tree and sat at the edge of a palm thicket and started to groom himself. The kill was a large male Red Lechwe and there wasn't much left. Judging by the stench, he had made the kill about 36 hours before. Just as we were enjoying being in the presence of this magnificent cat, he got up walked 3 paces and vanished into the thicket. Silence. Only the wind and a few raindrops stirred. Then the soft pads of another cat moving through the grass behind us. I looked behind the vehicle. Lioness.

A solitary lioness was honing in on the scent of the leopards kill. She walked right past us toward the palm thicket, stopped at the edge, sniffed, gave a low growl and walked toward the base of the tree. I wondered what she sniffed at as the leopard was on the other side of the thicket. "Hyena" cried Cheryl. As the lioness was judging the difficulty of the climb to the carcass, an old grizzled female hyena with one blind milky gray eye stalked out of the thicket. She had been lying in the heart of the thicket the whole time unable to get at the carcass, waiting for her opportunity. It was about to come.

The lioness was solely focused on the meal in the tree. She bunched her muscles and leaped. In one lightning movement she had the kill in her mouth and jumped out of the tree. The leopard had underestimated the climbing abilities of this lioness. As she settled to begin feeding all hell broke loose. The hyena ran straight at the lioness and met her head on in cacophony of growls and snarls. Then as fast as it started, it stopped. The two carnivores stared at each other and then started to feed side by side on the same carcass. I sat there stunned I had never seen this before. They were feeding more co-operatively than 2 lionesses would have. Every few seconds the lioness would begin her low growl and the hyena would answer her with a high-pitched chatter, and then silence and the feeding would begin again. The male leopard was not seen again.

Any minute, I thought, the lioness's patience must run out. I was wrong; the hyena's patience ran out. Her tail curled up, the hyena's chatter increased to a frenzy and she dived at the main part of the carcass. The lioness responded and she attacked the hyena with her fore paws and her growls grew ferocious. The hyena didn't back down. She absorbed the best the lioness could give and started the tug of war. This is when the hyena's superior strength in her neck and jaws came into play, and she started to win ground. One last bit of resistance from the lioness and then the hyena tore free with the carcass in her jaws. With her head held high and her tail raised in a show of defiance she trotted off a few paces and remarkably stopped, dropped the carcass and began to feed in plain site of the lioness. The lioness's spirit was beaten. Rain began to fall. She started to feed on the scraps that were left on the ground. The hyena remembering that she had a clan to feed picked up the remains of the carcass and ran off into the grass. Today was a good day for her.

With nothing left to eat the lioness moved out into the open and for the first time I could confirm that she was lactating heavily and appeared very pregnant. Was it maternal instinct for self-preservation on the part of the lioness that allowed the hyena to win this confrontation? Or was the hyena simply the queen of the jungle today? Just to remind us who has the title presently, the lioness let off a ground shattering series of roars that burst the silence of the night.

With that we sign off from a great January at Xigera.
Jurgen, Cheryl, Pinky and the Xigera Team.
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                Jump to Ongava Tented Camp

GAME VIEWING ACTIVITIES:
As our usual program drives into Etosha were done in the mornings with Ongava Game Reserve drives in the afternoons. The Elephant sightings were good, breeding herds and lonesome bulls were sighted at the waterholes. Lions sightings were on a regular basis. We had regular Black Rhino sightings too at Ombika waterhole. The waterholes are getting busy again, all the rain water puddles are drying up. More new migratory birds have arrived, makes birding exiting every day. The Cape Fox and its puppies were a regular sighting.

Drives on Ongava Game Reserve were excellent with White Rhino, Black Rhino, Lions, Cheetah, Mountain Zebra and Aardwolf. Lions, Porcupine and Spotted Eagle Owls were spotted on night drives. The camp waterhole was very busy as usual with lions at the waterhole for 8 days in a row, mornings and evenings. Black Rhino came during the nights. The Lion sightings on game drives were very good and they were relaxed during the sighting. Tracking white rhino on foot is still the highlight of the activities on Ongava. White Rhino sightings are excellent with the two cows and their calves in particular. Two Cheetahs' were spotted on a morning walk in the Sonop area. The Aardwolf den with two puppies provided us daily sightings on the late afternoons and on night drives. I did an afternoon walk in the Allendam area with 6 guests. We walked into a lioness, she warned us, and half an hour later a black rhino charged us. Wonderful experience for the guests. Morning walks were very popular too.

Regards
Kobus Pienaar
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On average, January has provided awesome weather and diving conditions. The good old wind has behaved and has not been out of control, but the sun has been fierce, with bright humid days Our average visibility has been 20m and our current water temperature has risen to a stunning 26 degrees C – yippee!!

On 2nd January, whilst diving Solitude, we could hear the clicking of the dolphins very clearly and kept looking around, expecting to see them at any minute. Just when the sounds became almost ear deafening, one appeared, rushing down to the reef and then darting away again. For those that were in tune with what was going on, it was a truly beautiful sight to see.

18th January proved to be an awesome day of shark sightings. We found 10 raggies at Island Rock and became so involved in spending time with them with snorkels that everyone almost forgot about the dive that we were on our way to! All the raggies were jammed inside the cave area, socializing and resting. We spotted 2 with tags, the one’s tag is not easily identifiable and the other has a growth of sorts on the tag area. There were sharks all over the place – just as you watched the cave area from above, some would leave the cave and swim directly below you and others would return into the cave. It’s such an eerie feeling to know that your presence has been noted but that it is not any problem. On this same day we also managed to spend time with two pods of dolphins, at different intervals of our outing.

So on the first trip out to sea we saw dolphins around the boat, snorkelled with sharks, then did the actual dive!!! And on the return trip we again saw a large pod of dolphins around the boat. This last pod actually came right in to the boat including a mother who had a small calf with her. The pod milled around, filled with curiosity and excitement. They just would not leave us alone and kept coming in and out to the boat to investigate us. When Darryl eventually signalled that it was time to leave, I looked down to find the dolphins looking up at everyone in the boat, almost saying “where are you going to?” – for anyone remotely interested in nature, this was a heartwarming vision. That something other than man could be so fascinated by us.

20th provided not 1 but 2 zebra sharks on Yellow Fin Drop. The first was spotted as we descended and the 2nd right at the end of the dive. It was resting lazily just off the reef, totally unaware of our presence and enjoying the cleaning station that it had found.

21st was potato bass day. Homer on Elusive has become quite the celebrity, on good mood days that is, and now rests on the sand and allows everyone to approach to within about a metre of him. Smaller Bart is becoming a touch jealous and tries to chase Homer away from us, but doesn’t seem to have much success. Needless to say, everyone that is privileged to be a part of the encounter forgets about everything else that is seen on the dive and this encounter
becomes the highlight.

22nd we again spent a considerable amount of time with our ladies, the raggies. Snorkellers that have visited the site cannot believe that they are actually snorkelling above around 10 – 15 sharks. This is a big highlight in the memory bank.

23rd was also a special day – we took divers and snorkellers out to visit the ladies once again. We found 7 inside the cave and a further 3 moving around outside the cave area. Darryl did some free diving with the camera and managed to get some superb identification shots.

We also encountered a rather cheeky blacktip reef shark whilst snorkelling who tried to sneak up on everyone for a closer look and then once spotted, sheepishly swam away. On this particular outing, Island Rock produced a green turtle, spotted eagle ray, brown rays and honeycomb rays, in addition to the sharks. One of our snorkellers mentioned that he had seen more life here in 15 minutes than spending hours on the Great Barrier Reef!! He could not believe his shark encounters too. Neptune provided us with stunning conditions and exceptional visibility. Absolutely idyllic.

25th also produced spectacular diving and shark sightings. It’s become a regular event that if conditions allow it, we visit the raggies first before going to the dive site. This way we get to do our research before the tides change and the area becomes too sanded up. Excellent photos were taken again on this day.

From a research angle then, we have visited the raggies now for most of this month. We have seen, in total, around 15 raggies, in larger numbers in the cave area and others were spilling out at other spots. We have managed to identify 4 individual animals from special features that they have. 1 female we have named “Jaws” – I think we’ve told you about her. She is the one with the protruding upper jaw – the Sharks Board is very excited about this one, as this is definitely an unusual feature. We have not sighted her now as regularly as the 2nd one, a female with a torn in half dorsal fin. We have photographed this shark and this is also a fantastic identifying feature for future years to come, as this will not heal. The 3rd and 4th sharks both have tags but they are unreadable, as we cannot get close enough to the shark to read the tag numbers. The 4th shark’s tag appears to have some type of growth on it. What we have also noted is that the shark with the torn in half dorsal fin seems to spend most of her time near the cave area. To date we have still got the sharks here and will need to document their departure dates, which we expect could be late February or early March.

From a personal point, the dive team is progressing and going from strength to strength. For those of you that know the team, Clive has now fully qualified as a skipper, since recently passing his final practical evaluation. Now the hard work and “real learning” comes into play. Darryl is now a familiar face underwater as he has taken to leading dives rather than sitting above the water as a passenger. It’s now become a big “discussion” amongst the team as to who is diving, skippering, on “stay at base” duty etc. Quite a joke actually!! Michelle has enrolled for an upcoming PADI Instructor course due to start on 27th February.

We are truly thrilled at the shark sightings this raggie season. They have provided us with much valuable data and have evoked incredible enthusiasm and delight with our guests this past month. There are not too many places in the world where you can snorkel safely above pregnant sharks, whether you are experienced in the ocean or not, and without having to think about the music to the Jaws movie.

In summary then, a superb month has been experienced by many, not to mention the actual dive team and all the rewards that we have experienced. Thank you Mother Nature for all your splendours and thanks to Jacque Cousteau for trying and testing scuba gear. We are forever in your debt.

Below are some excerpts from the dive centre guest book for January:
John & Paulo Anderson – Brazil
“ 2 great dives and very different from what we have done before. Many thanks for everything”.

Melaney & Richard Wood – Port Elizabeth, South Africa
“ Thanks for wonderful diving and fantastic hospitality. We hope to be back soon”

Jeff McKay – South Africa
“ Congratulate yourselves on a very well run world class dive operation – stand tall amongst the best. Everything of the best in your ventures – a great team – Darryl, Debbie, Clive, Michelle”

Gael Lescornec – France – now temporarily residing in South Africa
“ My best dive by far. Thank you to the whole team for creating such an exciting and comfortable experience”

Charlie Johnson – London
“ 4 beautiful dives – so much to see. 4 great Instructors”

Sam Johnson – London
“ All of the above – best dives to date – will take some beating!”

Phillip Voswinkel – Germany
“ Spectacular dives!”

Frits, Jeroen & Rene Janssen – Netherlands
“ Great diving, lots to see, perfect shark watching. Thanks!!”

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