AFRICAN SAFARI NEWS

As the song says, the grass is "as high as an elephant's eye" and this spectacular growth has lent a whole new aspect to Mombo. It really does look as though the flood is already in ? and yet it hasn't even begun to reach us yet. Mombo and Little Mombo are all but surrounded by water now, and every night we are lulled to sleep by the delighted peeping of thousands of frogs, and the gentle splashing of buffalo as they amble contentedly through the shallows. Further off, the air shakes as hippo chuckle in the darkness.

The ubiquitous tall grass makes life interesting for some of our smaller neighbours, not least the warthogs who can now only keep track of each other by following the tips of their "radio antenna" tails, held proudly upright as they trot along.

The sun-baked dove-grey expanse of Suzi's Duckpond has become the most incredible natural amphitheatre, with a cast of thousands of zebra and impala, all sleek and healthy with so much sweet grass to graze on. The russet and honey flanks of the impalas glow like burnished bronze in the sunlight, but it is the multitudes of zebra that are the most striking sight with the myriad swirls of their stripes delighting and deceiving the eye all at once. There have probably never been this many zebra in the area before ? and the lions certainly aren't complaining.

February has also been a month of real contrasts: days of intense action, with the predators enjoying a glut of kills and the cover that the long grasses provide when stalking unsuspecting prey, and days of divine tranquillity with the rhythms of life coursing gently through the verdant scenery and the whispers in the grass sometimes the only sounds.

Many days have been cool and overcast, with the lower temperatures prompting even more animal activity. These are the days when we enjoy the most intense sunsets, with the last rays of the sinking sun picking out the billowing clouds in shades of orange and pink, and truly giving each cloud a silver lining. Other days have been much hotter, with the sun blazing down from clear blue skies ? skies so blue in fact that you can lose yourself in their intense hue. The clear skies at night provide a black velvet backdrop for the most breathtaking display of stars with familiar constellations such as the Southern Cross and Orion almost lost amongst countless millions of other points of light.

Climate
The amounts of rain we are receiving in northern Botswana this year continue to surprise us, and they are certain to make a significant contribution to this year's flood. In February we recorded 215mm (8½ inches) of rainfall at Mombo. Much of this has been at night or, if during the day, in the form of short, sharp showers. After the rain, the clarity of the light is stunning ? perfect for capturing the drops of water sent flying when a male lion indignantly shakes the rain out of his mane. At least some rain fell on 12 days out of 28 this month.

Temperatures have been rather variable with daytime temperatures reaching up to 33°C (96°F) and an average of 29.5°C (89°F). Night time temperatures ranged from 20°C (70°F) down to 5°C (40°F) and with an average of 17¼°C (64.5°F).

Lions
February has seen a curious new trick being tried out by Mombo's lions: climbing trees. We are not entirely sure why they are doing this ? possibly to avoid flies, or perhaps simply to keep their feet dry amidst all this water? At least one female of the Moporota pride seems to be seeking to avoid her maternal responsibilities. She has a litter of month-old cubs, and their persistent, mewing demands for milk seem to have rather exasperated her. However, and like all the other arboreal lions we have been seeing, she seems to be somewhat lacking in grace and poise once up in the branches. The fact that the lions are often choosing acacia trees means that the thorns add to their evident discomfort, and it is a strange experience to see lions, usually the monarchs of all they survey, forced into making tentative, uncertain movements.

Down on the ground, however, the lions are more than capable of reminding us of their hunting prowess. Guests on one drive witnessed the electrifying stalk and killing of a young wildebeest, a hunt which was carried out with such finesse that the hapless antelope probably never knew what hit him until it was too late.

Leopards
February has been a great month for leopard sightings, too. Mombo must be one of the very best places to see these fascinating felines, and to encounter leopards which are completely unconcerned by the presence of the game drive vehicles and go about their business undistracted, is an intense pleasure.

An evening sighting of one of our resident leopards, the Tortilis female, has prompted speculation that she may be pregnant, so we hope to catch up with her again over the next few days to see if we can confirm this in better light. In the meantime this is an intriguing and potentially joyful mystery for us to think on.

Rhino
Mombo's reintroduced rhino have been making their presence felt during February, to the delight of the many guests who have encountered them on game drives. A group of five is currently spending a lot of time in the superb habitat afforded them by the open acacia woodlands to the east of Mombo Camp. This group includes a one-year-old calf, Valentine, so named because he was seen for the first time in mid-February last year. He is now a very impressive chap, in superb condition and just starting to resemble Serondela, his father.

The "rhino soap opera" has a new twist now as we have also been seeing a lone sub-adult male rhino to the north of Mombo, and he is just reaching the age at which he will start to try and establish his territory. Indeed we have seen him starting to make territorial markings. So far he has kept out of Serondela's way, but the rainfall has prematurely flooded many areas and when the flood itself arrives, these two rhinos may well find themselves pushed much closer together and this could result in a true clash of the titans ? watch this space!

Rhino, it seems, enjoy gentle rain, but not heavier downpours ? on one occasion we were watching a group of them graze in the open, seemingly oblivious to the drizzle (as we were ? the sighting was far too absorbing to notice a little rain). Suddenly however the rain increased in intensity and as one, the four rhinos curled up their tails and trotted towards the nearest trees. Appropriately enough, they were umbrella thorns.

Reptiles
A lot of our guests ask us if we have snakes here, and of course we do ? only we very rarely see them. They are generally so shy that they flee as soon as they feel the vibrations of approaching feet or vehicle wheels. The only snake we see often is the beautiful spotted bush snake, an entirely harmless species which seems to enjoy sunbathing on the wooden walkways in the Camp. It's a beautiful snake, with a metallic green head with black spots, fading to silver.

This month we have had some other interesting sightings: African rock pythons swimming; and a rhombic egg-eater near the laundry in Camp. This is a fascinating species which can crush an egg in its jaws, swallow the contents and spit out the flattened shell in one piece. This snake though would do well to avoid the ever-growing clan of banded mongooses which live under our store rooms. They don't like snakes at the best of times, and now that they are raising yet another litter of tiny (and impossibly cute!) youngsters are likely to be even less welcoming. Their last litter was eaten by a honey badger which tracked their scent back to their burrows, so we are all hoping that they are more successful this time round.

Camp and Guest Experience
February is of course the month of love, and we weren't going to let any minor rain shower dampen our ardour for Valentine's Day. Mombo and Little Mombo must be among the most romantic places on earth, and this year we really pushed the (love) boat out, by completely redesigning the dining room to feature a succession of tables for two ? candle-lit of course - to create the perfect ambience for an intimate tête-à-tête. Each table was decorated with a long-stemmed red rose in a green glass bottle (evoking the romance of being a castaway on a desert island beach) and the flickering candlelight was reflected in the gleaming metal of the ice buckets and refracted in the ice cubes and streams of bubbles as the popping of corks heralded the start of a wonderful evening.

Meanwhile we had composed a suitably corny poem to (hopefully) raise a smile when the guests returned to their tents. Strangely enough, everyone went to bed early that night!

For the remaining half of the month, with guests back in camp, expectations of good game sightings were high. Xigera did not disappoint! We had excellent sightings of the mother leopard and cub very close the vehicle, hunting and a lot of the time just sleeping in a Sausage tree. The afternoon guests were treated to an awesome sighting of the mother leopard being chased across the floodplain by three hyaena; she later returned to a tree where her cub was safely high up in its limbs and there she continued to feed on a young impala that had been killed in the night.

A nomadic pride of lions were often heard calling from around the airstrip but unfortunately managed to elude our efforts to find them and have since moved out of the area. Guests on an afternoon activity were treated to a huge male leopard sunning himself right above a channel where the mokoro travel and got virtually right under the leopard with out him even batting an eyelid!

Birding at Xigera is always excellent and flocks of Wattled Cranes doing mating dances, flocks of seven or eight Slaty Egrets in the shallows of pools in a feeding frenzy catching tadpoles and frogs, as well as curious Pel's Fishing Owls eyeballing passing mokoros were all seen. An elusive migrant, the Eurasian Honey Buzzard was seen for the first time in camp. At the time he was raiding a potter wasps' nest and failed to see a member of staff walking past. The result of the confrontation was a close-up view of the Buzzard as he took off, frightening the daylights out of the member of staff in question. A pair of Long-crested Eagles has been calling from high above the lodge and to watch them dive-bombing each other and bobbing and weaving inches past each other was spectacular to watch.

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Back at our camp in the Delta we still received good rains in February although much less than January. There are hundreds of colourful butterflies at this time of year pollinating all the beautiful wildflowers.

The highlights for us this month were some very good leopard sightings. There are two females with cubs which provided the majority of those sightings. One female (Mopane Ridge female) has two medium-sized cubs of about seven months old, of which one is much bolder and is already used to the presence of the vehicle. The second one is more skittish and will take some careful approaching from the guides before it relaxes, although this will come with time. The mother is a beautiful young female in top condition.

The second female (Boat Station female) was seen with only one cub but it is still very young, estimated to be about eight weeks old. Obviously the cub is still very nervous of the vehicle and the guides will view from a much greater distance so as not to unnerve the cub. This female's territory ranges from around our boat jetty in the east up along the water channel into the north.

A lioness was found near camp with a very small cub, less than three weeks old. The odd thing is that she was seen mating with a male three days later. At first it was thought that it was a different female but whisker patterns accurately identified her as the same female. This is strange behaviour which we have not seen before. The mating went on for several days which seems to indicate that the cub is indeed dead as she would not leave the cub for several days without going back to suckle it. So if the cub is dead it seems a very short time for the female to be mating again. We shall be interested to note further sightings of this female.

Eurasian Golden Oriole, Black Cuckoo, Black Coucal, Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, White-headed Vulture, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Grey-hooded Kingfisher, African Harrier Hawk and Fawn Coloured Lark were some of the bird species seen recently. A Martial Eagle was seen perched in a tree next to the road, clutching a freshly killed Rock Monitor. The Rock and Nile/Water Monitors are a favourite prey of the martial eagle. There is a new addition to the Ground Hornbill family that frequent the floodplains and islands around camp. The new chick has been seen feeding with the parents, which is great news as it means they have a successful fledgling.

There have been many snake sightings this month. From the resident 2-ft spotted bush snake in camp (harmless) to the 7-ft snouted cobra out in the bush (not so harmless) to an 8-ft python sunning itself on the airstrip. One very large python was seen swimming effortlessly in the shallow water of the floodplains (estimated at 12-ft). They will often target water birds like Egyptian Goose which they ambush and then constrict before swallowing head first. These large snakes are of great ecological significance as they control populations of rats, squirrels, hares, monkeys, juveniles crocodiles, water monitors and catfish.

Tubu Tree greetings
Anton, Carrie, Moa, Moyo, Salani and the team

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In this paradise our guests were met by several interesting people (like Fred and Marianne assisted by Chris and Tara as the hosting managers) and were lulled into a deeper wellbeing when massaged by our resident therapist Kgabiso. They were also thoroughly entertained by our very charming executive chef Simon, known to his friends as Tank.

Guests were taken around the area by our very well informed guides: Maipaa is the gentle giant (even being referred to as that actor that played in the Green Mile), David Mopadise as attentive and polite as ever, has eyes like a hawk, Marks has recently returned to us after a stint in mobile safaris, and Victor our head guide for the month did a sterling job with training and field team management. Baby Jost our comedian has been a great help as well taking care of our staff kitchen making sure the staff diets were followed between maintenance and game drives.

Game sightings were reduced this month as we were closed for maintenance: varnishing, spitting and polishing the main lodge area for our busy season coming up. During this period we found that it helped a huge amount for the team spirit amongst all staff at Jao as we had to work as a unit - otherwise we would not have gotten it all done.

The game viewing has been great and we had great predator sightings. The lions were very active close to camp and were seen every three or four days on the floodplains with a fresh red lechwe kill. Our resident leopard "Beauty" and her cub were seen a lot in the beginning of the month when we were actively out searching for them and the plains game has been plentiful except for the zebra and the giraffe that decided that we had too much rain and left the area.

The birding at Jao has seen another level this month, not just great but extraordinary, seeing pelicans which were on a migration route. Slaty Egrets that we believe are around 70 in total - when driving a certain route we found that we might have a breeding site on the concession. The Wattled Cranes have been seen a fair amount on the concession. The endangered Lappet-faced Vultures have been seen on lion kills very often as well. Just mentioning the abundance of these specific species is already a sign that the ecosystem that we are operating in is very healthy and a good pat on the back for the conservation efforts that David and Cathy Kays have made in NG25 - it's hard to believe that this was a hunting concession 7 years ago! An important fact that we tell our guests is that David and Cathy forgo over $500 000 worth of hunting revenue every year so we can operate as a photographic concession and not allow any hunting. It is these efforts that make Wilderness Safaris such a great company as well, in looking after the ecosystems in which they operate.

Looking forward to another great month. We have prepared the camp and the staff have had their quiet time to mentally prepare themselves for the busy season to come. Welcoming everyone to Jao we hope to see you soon!

Freddy Combrinck
Jao Camp

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February has come and gone, we have started with our maintenance period, just a few short days to get the lodge sparkling again. No thanks to the baboons who visit us daily to see if they can undo what we have spend hours doing!

There is a male and female lion mating just in front of the swimming pool that has caused great amusement to the staff as no one can believe that he could have so much stamina to keep going for 4 straight days. So if all goes well we will have winter babies.

One of the best sightings this month was a 3-4 metre python swimming up the road in front of the vehicle, very relaxed and willing to pose for a picture or two.

The youngster born to one of our resident female leopards is doing well. Climbing trees and jumping all over mom are the ways she spends her days. We have all been very fortunate to get fantastic views of both mom and cub.

With all the rain we had during January and February the Fish Eagles are everywhere. The highest count is 19 individuals in a stretch of water of 100m. Some very confused catfish got caught in a shallow pond and the Fish Eagles were having a banquet - a wonderful photo opportunity.

The lechwe are making their way back onto the Kwetsani floodplains, and bringing with them many young as well.

On the permanent water close to camp Great White Pelicans and Woolly-necked Storks as well as Wattled Cranes have been seen in good numbers, and as soon as the floods reach us we will be able to mokoro from that side.

Valentine's Day crept up on us, but we had a lovely dinner with red chocolates and gold hearts, the weather was very accommodating and only rained after everyone had made it to bed.

For those who were with us over that period, you will be happy to know that all the squirrel babies are growing and starting to run with the adults, causing havoc as usual.

March is looking busy and we can?t wait to reopen the lodge and invite all the new faces to see what we have to offer.

Come and enjoy the Kwetsani magic with us,

Conrad & Kerrie

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We have seen so much rain in the last while that it looks like we are in flood. All the crossings to camp have filled with water, making the drive here both slippery and mind-boggling. Who would have thought that Land Rovers could drive bonnet-depth through water? Wet feet for drivers have become a common affair along with the occasional wet rear end from the water flooding over the front seat!

The water around the camp has risen steadily and is threatening to encroach on the parking area. If it continues at this rate, we will have to start getting boats into the water.

A big plus with the rains is the amount of new growth everywhere. The bush is extremely lush and very green with lots and lots of wild flowers everywhere. The camp has recovered remarkably well after the elephants did their pruning and landscaping a few months ago.

The camp underwent some maintenance at the beginning of the month and has re-opened sporting a brand-new floor and wide deck in the front of the lodge. A jetty has been added to make the docking of boats much easier. A walkway has also been added to access the pool from the front of the lodge. It all looks really spiffy.

Visitors to Jacana were few, but great game viewing was experienced by all. Lots of lion, leopard and cubs, as well as an unusual greater cane rat.

Wattled Cranes are plentiful and can be heard regularly from camp. Big flocks of Open-billed Storks have been spotted resting at the Jao hippo pool during the lazy afternoons, not to mention the Pel's Fishing Owl out on the islands. A couple of guests were very lucky to spot sitatunga antelope while out on mokoro. This is a good sign as we normally start spotting them later when the floods come in.

With the water levels still rising at the end of the month, we have started clearing boat channels and preparing to do transfers to camp on water, rather than on land. We will be monitoring the levels as they might drop again and then we will start driving into camp again.

Cheerio
The Jacana Management Team

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"We have enjoyed a splendid three days with you. The variety you have to offer makes Little Vumbura a special place, with the contrast between the peace of mokoro with lilies and the drama of driving with big cats. The excitement of game watching has been admirable, complimented by the warm friendliness of the staff and the excellence of the food. No one could have done more to make this experience more pleasurable. Emang's guiding has been first rate and we have enjoyed his company. We thank Rohan, Dardley, Molly and all the team for giving us such a marvellous time." - P&JG, United Kingdom

Although we have had a lot of rain in the Delta this did not affect our game viewing at all. February has been one of the months with spectacular wildlife highlights. Temperatures ranged from highs of 30 to 33°C to minimum temperatures of around 20 to 22°C. Good rains were received and bode well for a healthy ecosystem over the coming dry months.

During February our resident herd of buffalo was seen on several occasions. The herd's numbers approximately 200. Interestingly the presence of the herd attracted a different pride of lions to the area. Aside from the prides that we normally see around the Little Vumbura area of game drive, we encountered two new prides, thought by the guides to have followed the buffalo into the area from some distance away. Their efforts have partly been in vain as although one of the new prides succeeded in killing a buffalo they did not have time to feed on it before the resident pride chased them away. The Little Vumbura Pride won this fight because they had the biggest male of the area with them and the lionesses from the intruder pride gave way.

The predators have taken full advantage of the abundance of prey this month. The Kubu Pride has been located almost every single day of the month while leopard sightings too have been incredibly high. On one occasion, our resident male leopard, "Big Boy" killed a female warthog, too heavy to take up a tree. However, even after such a meal, he killed one of the warthog?s orphaned babies the following day. Cheetah sightings have also been above average for this time of year with the tall grass. Most of the cheetah sightings were around the airstrip; this could be that the cheetah were taking advantage of the open ground.

Elephants, impala, kudu and giraffe - just to mention a few - were also seen on just about every day. Since there is a lot of food for both grazers and browsers they were not moving very far to find food. Jack's Pan is one of the areas in which we conduct our drives and this area has been attracting a lot of game. On one of the drives, we saw about six species of animals all together in one place, including zebra, impala, warthog, tsessebe, elephant and baboons - all within a very confined area.

On the birding side the mokoros had great views of the Pel's Fishing Owl. Most of the guests who went on the mokoros had chances of seeing this rare bird.

Bush regards from all at Little Vumbura.

It is suspected that the pregnant lioness from the Kubu Pride has possibly given birth to her cubs in a well-hidden part of the concession. Generally there is a high mortality rate in a lion's first few weeks up to a year of age, especially areas of high predator densities. We suspect that she has hidden her cubs about five kilometres north-west of Vumbura Plains, an area that holds a large hyaena population. Hyaenas will kill and eat lions of all ages, even adults when their numbers are right, especially when the enemy is injured.

Good news, "Big Red," our formerly dominant male lion, was seen this month, far north close to the veterinary cordon fence. It's good to see that he is still alive after many months of absence.

A large herd of buffalo graced us with their presence this month, frequenting the eco-tone between Jacky's pans and the Mopane woodland. Worth mentioning is the number of cheetah sightings we have had this month. Last month I mentioned that we had seven known individuals that frequent the area. While exploring the northern sector of our concession, however, we sighted a further two males that have not been seen before. Both males were large and were seen moving west along our northern boundary.

Another point for the month to remember for all those birders out there was a sighting of 14 Slaty Egrets, this being the largest flock I have ever seen. I have seen some large congregations of Black Egrets (herons) at some fish traps in the delta but this was a first for me. Pel's Fishing Owl sightings have been more complicated with changing water levels but we have managed to get reasonably good sightings.

Tiger fish have also been caught on a catch-and-release policy this month and we have had fun exploring the deeper channels in search of this sought-after species.

Until next time,
Matthew Copham

Sightings have interesting and varied, with one of the comic highlights of the month being witness to the entire Savuti Pride of four lionesses and four cubs desperately attempting to escape the biting flies that are proliferating in the wet weather. In a pseudo-yoga-turned-game-of-twister act of intricate balance and questionable cooperation, we found all eight cats perched delicately in a single, small, flimsy-looking fever-berry! Out of range of most of the flies, admittedly, but looking decidedly uncomfortable with their chosen resting positions. Each time one of them moved - another fell out!

On a smaller - but equally entertaining - note the camp's resident troop of banded mongooses have been denning under the laundry, and eight tiny pups emerged midway through the month to explore their surroundings. Turning up everywhere from the kitchen to the workshop, they have made themselves comfortable with every aspect of camp life and have habituated themselves totally to human presence.

In terms of personnel, we have been sad this month to say goodbye to Ian and Petro, who have left after a very successful year managing at DumaTau. However, we are delighted to welcome Fungi and Sue to the team from Zimbabwe. Their initiation to camp life in Botswana included the unenviable task of attempting to coordinate the re-thatching of the kitchen roof in between storms, but they rose to the challenge and are settled in for the season. Our guides this month have been Oaitse, Cilas and Dennis - together they have provided our guests with phenomenal sightings of the Linyanti's wildlife.

The building team is on site at Selinda and we will be operating at minimum capacity for the month of March. If the weather doesn't create any more delays and problems we hope to be at 80% capacity in April and going full guns by May.

At Zibalianja we are anticipating a very busy March as bookings held at Selinda have been transferred there. Not that we mind - we welcome the prospect of being able to get out into the bush as much as possible.

The finishing touches are being done to Mokoba and Tshwene, and we can't wait to see the look on our first guests' faces when they see where they will be accommodated.

At Motswiri we have been astounded by the floodwater. Four months ahead of schedule there is water in front of the camp again and it continues to push up the channel. Is it possible that we'll witness the Selinda Spillway as a continuous waterway in 2006?

It is with deep regret that we announce the passing away of Chris Mabure. Chris guided at Selinda Camp for the 2005 season and was an instant hit with his guests and colleagues alike. Our sincerest condolences go out to his family - he will be sorely missed.

What we're seeing
The new male lions (now called the Four Beers - Castle, Hansa, Windhoek and. . .Black Label) continue to pop up out of the long grass; the Selinda Pride has been a bit scarce as they are wont to be at this time of year, but a new pride of lionesses and cubs has been seen sporting the scars of battle.

Cheetah: The "Two Boys" are still frequently encountered, and thankfully mostly stick to the short grass or sit on top of termite mounds.

After the brief visit by the Selinda wild dog pack in January, they have once again gone walkabout; a small pack was seen in the vicinity of Motswiri, but due to the length of the grass we couldn't follow them.

Leopard have been very scarce as expected with the height of the vegetation; elephant are once again prevalent with herds still making use of the spillway's headwaters; zebra seem to be everywhere, many with foals in tow; birding is phenomenal with every pan and puddle yielding up another "tick" for the enthusiasts.

Overall we have had a slow season for ragged tooth sharks; seven arrived early in the season and promptly disappeared about a week later. Sodwana didn't fare much better and we have had reports that those at Sodwana have left on their long migration back to the Eastern Cape where they will pup. Hopefully next year will be a better one. We have had one very large and very expectant female raggy this month. She made a surprise appearance on 'Elusive', proving yet again that this is definitely the reef for seeing "big stuff." Blacktail reef shark continue to be a regular feature, with the one at 'Pineapple' particularly interested in divers, and each time we see it, it tends to come in and pass us a few times for closer inspection. Sightings of the raggy and blacktail proved to Glenda that she doesn't actually have a built-in natural shark repellent device as she previously believed!

Our summer friends, the rays, can be seen resting on the sand or "flying" gracefully overhead. Those seen this month include some very large honeycombs, electric rays, sandshark, sharpnose stingrays, eagle rays, blue spotted rays and round ribbontail rays.

There have been a huge number of moray eels on the dives, and on our last dive at 'Coachmans Ledge' we spotted 4 starry morays as well as honeycomb, geometric and blackcheek morays.

The turtle hatchlings continue to make their way down to the ocean each evening and it is incredible to imagine the potential in each tiny hatchling. The season for mothers laying their eggs on the beach is almost over but there are always a few that will continue to lay eggs later than the others and we occasionally still have Leatherback tracks in the morning on our drive out to the launch site. We are still seeing the Green and Loggerhead turtles on our dives, but Hawksbills have not been a regular feature this month.

The small fish are a constant delight. There have been an unusual amount of ghost pipefish seen gently swaying in amongst the seaweed to which they cleverly adapt their body colouration. Ghost pipefish are of the same order as seahorses - one species of fish that we have not found on our reefs, but are constantly on the lookout for. The pineapplefish at 'Aerial' and 'Hang 10' are still with us; amazingly these tiny critters may one day grow to 17cm and eventually move off to deeper darker waters of up to 100m deep.

A number of cobia or prodigal son have been spotted; each time we see these fish the reflex reaction is a quick backward jerk of the head to look upwards for whaleshark that they usually enjoy hitching a lift with. Unfortunately none of the gentle giants have visited this month, but we continue to look upwards in hope that the season is not yet over. March and April should still produce the odd sighting - and last year in March an 8m wonder arrived to delight the divers.

We are looking forward to March and April. Water temperatures should remain a wonderful 26-27°, and viz. average between 15 and 25 metres. Juveniles will be out in force as a result of the summer season of love.
Till then, take care
Darryl, Clive, Michelle, Jen
The Rocktail Bay Dive Team

On of those special nights was on the 26th, where eight of our lucky guests experienced a nest of over 100 Loggerhead Turtles hatching. This group had already done the entire drive down to Mabibi with not one turtle sighting and were almost back at camp when, rounding the corner of Rocktail's Bay, Mbongeni spotted the tiny tracks of one baby Loggerhead going down to the water. Excitement stirred in the vehicle, and before long, our eight guests were witnessing one of the most amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, right there on Rocktail's beach. They watched and waited until each and every mini-turtle had made it safely down into the ocean. Completely satisfied, they arrived back in camp after 23h00, to drift off into happy turtle-filled dreams.

In February, the season is drawing to a close, with less and less sightings of mother turtles coming up to nest. In comparison to last February where we tagged two new mothers, this year we only managed to tag one new mother during the month, but we saw three previously tagged mothers once again.

We have already seen her twice this season, once in December and once in January, and it is now getting to the stage, because we have seen this Leatherback mother so frequently, that all the staff here at Rocktail know her by name. She is none other than "Bibi" with the tag number BB242. She came up to nest, close to Lala Nek beach at 22H15 on the evening of the 17th of February. The Leech family and Mr and Mrs Tolond, who were on the drive that night, did not even drive fifteen minutes before coming across this gentle giant - what a special experience.

The 3rd of February saw "Mama Ulwandla" return to our beach once again. We saw and tagged this Loggerhead for the first time on the 11th of January, and that is when she was adopted by Craig, Linda, Jess and Ryan O' Flaherty from Cape Town. On her recent return she nested close to Mabibi Point at 23h00, and four lucky guests got to see her successfully lay her eggs.

The last returnee we saw this month has unfortunately not been given a name yet, and is waiting to be adopted. We tagged and micro chipped this Loggerhead for the first time on the 31st of December 2005, making her one of the last turtles that we saw in the year 2005. She came up to nest again on the 9th of February at three o'clock in the morning. The Colucci family braved the 02h00 departure and were justly rewarded with an exclusive sighting of this Loggerhead mother, whose tag number is PP454.

The new mother that graced us with her presence this month was christened "Ngqiba" by the Williams family. She is officially the last mother turtle that we have seen for the season, and she nested on the 20th of February. Mbongeni tagged this beautiful Leatherback on Mabibi beach at midnight, whilst her adopted family looked on. She measured an astounding 1.6m long by 1.25m wide. Congratulations to the Williams family, who definitely chose the right night to go on drive, and witness the last turtle of the season come up and nest.

On the whole, it has been a fantastic turtle season, and we have made many great memories. To date we have seen an incredible 275 Loggerhead Turtle nests, compared to last year's 171 - a total of 104 more nests than last year - well done Loggerheads! We have also seen 78 Leatherback nests, which is phenomenal for the most endangered sea turtle in the world. Out of the 353 nests that we have documented since October, 42 of those were made by previously tagged turtles, which means that 311 nests were made by new mothers, or mothers that we have tagged and micro chipped for the first time this season.

Our turtle adoption programme is still going strong, and we have had fourteen more adoptions for the month of February.

Heather the Loggerhead was adopted by Jean Swart - tag no. PP475.
Simon and Iona Malone adopted Iona the Loggerhead with tag no. NN398.
Lisa Margareta, the Loggerhead NN371 was adopted by Norman and Nell Hardy.
Duncan Macdonald and Pieter Wessels adopted two turtles: one Leatherback turtle who they named Atuin (tag no. NN393) and a Loggerhead turtle who they named Dame Doreen - tag no. is NN394.
Hugh Macdonald adopted Anna the Loggerhead, whose tag no. is PP457.
Gerhard and Evey Koenig adopted Mathilda a Leatherback with tag no. PP184.
Flounder the Loggerhead was adopted by Matt Leech, and her tag no. is PP463.
Ansty the Loggerhead was adopted by Kitty Leech, tag no. PP474.
Alan, Lesley, Lucy, Jack, Evie and Samuel Williams adopted Ngqiba the Leatherback, tag no. NN368.
Mr and Mrs Crosby adopted Jamie the Loggerhead, who bears the tag PP613.
Darryl Bristow and Sue De Groot also adopted two turtles, both Loggerheads, one with the tag no. PP469, who they christened Sea Biscuit and the second they named Leon, tag no. NN602.
And last but not least, Alexandra McCullam adopted Gugu the Loggerhead turtle who bears the tag LL301. When Alexandra adopted Dory the Loggerhead in February 2005 she was the youngest adoptive parent since the start of the project. Well, her title still stands, and she is now the proud mother of not just Dory, but Gugu too - congratulations Alex.
Lastly Nancy Heitel and Brian Malk have retrospectively adopted a total of 30 turtles from the 2003-2004 season as well as the current season! A sincere thank you to both Nancy and Brian.

This makes a total of 61 turtles that have been adopted from the 2005?2006 turtle season. WOW! We would once again like to thank all our adoptive parents who have supported our project over the last four and a half months; it has really been an incredible season.

We are starting to feel a little sad that the season is slowly drawing to a close. Looking on the bright side, the season is not over just yet, and we still have fifteen days of research left, not to mention an entirely new season starting in October this year. We look forward to reporting back to you all on the last days of this season, and summing up all the highlights, facts and figures.

Wishing you all a fantastic first month of a southern hemisphere autumn,
Rocktail Bay staff and turtles

4 February: Immature Martial Eagle raiding an Egyptian Goose nest and taking a chick.
10 February: Lizard Buzzard repeatedly attacked a squirrel, but no success for the buzzard.
12 February. Swarms of armoured crickets feasting on each other.
13 February: At 5pm a female leopard seen near Mangala along the Luvuvhu. Guests viewed her grooming herself as she posed in a Jackalberry tree for nearly two hours.
13 February: 17 lions seen at the junction of Pafuri Main Road and Sandpad. The pride consisted of adult male and females, sub-adults and young cubs.
15 February: 2 honey badgers seen at Makwadzi pan.

All in all this month we have had 8 separate sightings of leopard and 13 of lion.

Other highlights included a huge herd of about 76 eland. We are still encountering large herds of buffalo throughout the concession (we estimate 7 separate herds) and, while the majority of elephants have moved into neighbouring Zimbabwe, we still managed a handful of sightings of a group of four that roamed over much of the concession. To add to our honey badger sighting we had three separate black-backed jackal sightings in February. Kudu, nyala, bushbuck, waterbuck, warthog, impala, wildebeest, and zebra were sighted regularly throughout the concession.

There have been no fewer than 220 birds recorded this month. We had a new tick with a sighting of a Long-crested Eagle. Other birds seen, to name just a few, were: Lesser Honey Guide, Common (European) Cuckoo, African Finfoot, Three-banded Courser, Eurasian Hobby, Peregrine Falcon, African Darter, African Spoonbill, Great Reed Warbler, Groundscraper Thrush, (Eastern) Bearded Scrub Robin.

The weather was warm, averaging a minimum of 22.9ºC and a maximum of 36.1ºC. Rain fell to the tune of 68mm.

Thanks from Pafuri,
Geoff Mullen

Let us see what one of our guides, Lourens Gaseb, had to say about the wonders that the desert is providing this season. . .

"The desert is green; there is water in the pan overlooking the Kulala Wilderness Camp. This made one of my guests ask where our Tourism Office was, because, he said, "This is too green to be a desert!" It was really funny explaining to him and other guys and trying to convince them that this truly is the Namib Desert, while been surrounded by green grasses and pretty flowers. I know it is everybody's perception that the desert is a very hot and dry place with little vegetation and often covered in sand dunes. I have found out this is not always the case. I got stuck in the desert mud on the 10 February this year, and I told my guests not to lose the pictures if they are going to tell the story.

All this and more made me think what the desert really is and this is what I found out. The two principal things used to describe a place to be a desert are firstly, the average rainfall or lack of it and secondly, the average evaporation rate of an area. This place therefore must be a paradise! I have been guiding here for nine months and it's also my first time to see the desert so green with so many animals. This is also the time for most animals to plan the arrivals of the newborn to coincide with the rains, then there's plenty to eat and drink.

The desert is quiet, peaceful and green. I can truly say I found peace of mind here."