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Okavango ramblings - of Pula, Stumpy and a Boma


Kitsafari

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Lovely photos, you were so lucky having a Carmine bee eater sit still for you. Yup, it is a European Bee Eater (merops opiaster) and a beautifuly coloured one at that.

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More excellent photos...shame about that poor Sable though, even if she acted fine.
Favourite had to be the two horn-bills hiding in the tree though! :D

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Vumbura Plains North - i stayed at the north side of the VP camp. it now houses 8 lodges, while VP south has 6. i didn't have time to walk over to explore the south side but i hear it's pretty much the same. it seems the camp is a hit with a lot of people, but i had mixed feelings about it.

 

Vumbura Plains is a premier camp and each lodge is huge. A large front deck has a plunge pool and a spacious sitting area but which I didn’t make use of because of the rains. The room is just as spacious, dominated by the bed, and a shower square the size of the king sized bed. There is an internal and external shower. It can get a bit warm which gets cooled by a standing fan. A fridge provides complimentary drinks.because of the rains, I go to bed with the cacophony and symphony of frogs croaking. Takes me a few minutes to get use to the huge noise, but I never notice them after that.

 

 

The bed is too soft for my bad back. I try to sleep on the sofas in the sunken lounge, but as I move the throw pillows, a trail of ants, cobwebs and bits of food and dust sends me off the couch immediately. they haven't been cleaned in a long while. Although the lodge is super luxurious, the lack of good housekeeping does let it down as a premium lodge. I can’t help but compare the quality with the mobile canvas tents I stayed in Asilia’s in Tanzania which were cosy and clean.

 

Each Vumbura North and South camps have a staff of about 60 each – complete with a GM and 2 managers each. The camp is very nicely designed in a modern way, but the housekeeping lets it down – the floor of the room is not cleaned thoroughly and I need slippers to walk (in contrast to Mombo where I walk barefoot in the tent most of the time). My t-shirt comes back from the laundry still damp (that is fine because it is raining) but it is returned with a dirty sock wrapped in it. It’s not even my sock.

 

 

Service during meals is hit and miss but efficient most of the time, but the staff seems a bit distant. I miss the connection and genuine friendliness that the camp staff provided in Tanzania. Dinner is usually in separate groups but we ask for communal dining every night. there is always either a manager or a lead guide who hosts the dinner, perhaps i didn';t have much time to talk to them but the staff was professional without being too familiar. but i guess so many guests go through the camp every week, it is hard for them to develop close ties with the guests.

 

Food though is excellent. I love the canapés and tea, and main meals are amazing, though if you are back late for lunch (as we always are) they may skip certain things unless you specifically ask if they are going to serve it. Cookies during drives are yummy. The guides are fantastic. All in, it is an enjoyable stay, but I won’t be back in a heartbeat especially since there are other camps vying for attention.

 

weather wise - it rained 2 out of the 4 days i was there. temperature was fine at low 20sC in the night and high 20sC in the day.

 

some pix of VP before i leave for mombo.....

 

 

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sunset view from the main area

 

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the bar area

 

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the main lounge

 

 

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the plunge pool and front deck of the room

 

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the sunken lounge with a view to kill for. the doors are made of glass but the side doors have screens that allow the breeze to come through

 

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nice cushy bed for those without a bad back

Edited by Kitsafari
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that's amazing! the bird looks so clear now. thank you so much. pse continue to do what you feel you need to do with my photos! u make it so much more appealing. :) i just get that dazed and blank look when faced with technical stuff.

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@@Kitsafari

 

Great stuff. Great to see those sables at Vumbura. My avatar image is that of a sable bull nicknamed "Stompie" (for his missing tail) from Vumbura. I imagine some of those sables may be his decendents.

 

The kudu calf is adorable.

thanks @@Safaridude. we didn't see any tail-less sable. when did you last see him? the male sables we saw were really healthy.

 

 

I saw "Stompie" in 2008. He was taken by lions a couple of years later.

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there were no tse tse flies the entire time i was at vumbura or mombo. i wonder how Botswana managed to get rid of them. but i got mighty big bites from mosquitoes or gnats or sand flies at mombo, and the scars remain to this day.....

 

The Okavango Delta was sprayed with DDT back in the '70s in order to get rid of tsetses (a very dangerous thing to do in my opinion).

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SafariChick

@@Kitsafari I had some of the same experience at Vumbura Plains of the room I was in looking like it needed better freshening if not cleaning - some of the pillows on those sunken coaches were sun-bleached unevenly, there was a stain on a bedsheet and I think a few holes in the mosquito netting. Of course I wasn't there to admire the room furnishings, so I didn't worry about it! I do remember a few mosquito bites there that were annoyingly itchy and at Chitabe they got really bad. But it didn't seem dirty to me when I was there. And the food was to die for, especially desserts and anything sweet! I loved the big open modern room and I'm trying to remember, did it have switches on the bed for the lights so you could turn them on or off from your bed? I think so - that was somewhere I stayed on that trip anyway - I thought that was pretty cool!

Edited by SafariChick
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@@Kitsafari, the photos at VP are so great and bring back precious memories of our own GreenSeason visit. I also thought VP staff a bit detached, but I kind of pushed them to talk to me and once they did they grinned from ear to ear everytime I came in or out. Perhaps Wilderness trains them not to speak unless spoken to?

 

I thought our room looked like it belong in Las Vegas, with the velvet coverings, pillows etc. I had heard about the sporadic housekeeping and mentioned it to my TA (NOT the first time I've ever mentioned reviews I had read) and she must have passed it on as our room was spotless the entire time.

 

Though they did forget to collect us at our room which was the furtherest (is that a word?) end of the boadwalk for dinner the last night (we ate with a group we bonded with every night and became good pals)

and to add insult to injury, left us at the DR table to find our way back again! How that happened I have no idea.

 

Long walks in total darkness. My protector, GL just said, "Lets Go" and we did. The bar in the room and the bar at dinner gave us courage :rolleyes: OK I own it..I probably stumbled back without a care!

 

Hope they have worked on that though- huge safety issue.

 

I noticed in a few recent photos that the pillows and coverlets had been changed out! For a PREMIER camp they did need to upgrade a bit.

 

Looking forward to Mombo....

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I've watched wildlife from the toilet too! Great shot of the baby kudu, topped only by the baby sable. What a treasure. You had some really good sable viewing. How very strange those benign tumors. She seems to be unaffected by them, though.

 

I don't think I've seen evidence of that insidious fence before. Good to document it.

 

A beautiful time for the delta.

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@@SafariChick @@graceland - it wasn't that bad at VP, just that they need to maintain standards up there as a premier camp. the wildlife viewings were out of the world! a couple who goes there every year was telling me of their disappointment as well, that this year, the management was not as excellent as before. but i still enjoyed my stay there, though i would explore other camps if i do go back to okavango.

 

@@Atravelynn it was indeed a very lovely time. although game viewing may be less than during the dry season, the landscape was beautiful and the animals well fed and less stressed.

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Mombo

 

I hear so much superlatives used for Mombo that my expectations are sky high for both the concession and the camp. Well, one step into the tent, and I immediately feel right at home, any stress from the flight melted away, and i feel totally at ease and relaxed.

 

This time, the flight to Mombo via Jao airstrip goes without a hitch. We are ensconced in a small plane with only six seats, two taken by a beautiful lady pilot trainee with a British accent and a more experienced male and just as good looking pilot. For a fleeting moment, I think of my motion sickness and think of @@Game Warden washing the bits of his beard, and quickly check where the vomit bag is. But i pass the test. It is a very quick flight – 10mins to Jao and 5 mins to mombo, ha, it’s no wonder I am fine.

 

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dragonfly at jao airstrip

 

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solar panels at Mombo camp

 

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my first sighting of red lechwe

 

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one of many baobab trees i will see in Mombo - this is just outside Mombo camp

 

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Tully bridge - the Tully couple, regulars at the Mombo camp, sponsored the bridge so that the vehicles wouldn't get stuck in the floodplains during the high waters getting into the camp.

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That night, during dinner, Nick says the famous Mombo Pell’s fishing owl is at the main Mombo tent. There are now 3 of them resident at the camp – a male, a female and a juvenile owl. I’m keen to go straight away but the Americans have seen it the night before and are in no hurry to dash off. Nick says he’ll wait till dinner is over and will bring us over. The Americans take their time, and I fret that the owl will fly off. Finally Nick appears and we head off with him. Being a camera-idiot like me, I don’t know how to get that flash working until Nick moves a couple of knobs and presto it works. but being a point and shoot kinda gal, the pix are only so-so.

 

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not a great shot of the Pell's owl at night

 

But I get another chance the next day. During the downtime in Mombo, Nick wants to show me the main Mombo camp. On the way on the boardwalk (it’s about 5 mins of a slow walk), Nick stops at tent no 4 (I think) and shows me the tree that the owl often hangs out in the night. “You won’t get to see it now, probably tonight will be better,” he says. But I point up, “isn’t that it?” he is stunned. The juvenile owl is preening in the shady tree. “ahh you won’t get great pix, the light isn’t right.” I try anyway and show him the pix, and am mighty pleased with myself for the first and last time. (professional photographers, please take note: I’m using a very very low standard to judge my shot! Nothing like the photos in all those glorious TRs.)

 

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watch my claws

 

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i'm pretty sure it's the juvenile owl - he looks darn cute

 

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SafariChick

ah, glad to see you getting to Mombo now - and that owl is pretty darn adorable - good job sighting it during the day!

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Very good Pel's spot - that chick is so cute!

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@@Treepol oh dear I've spelt Pel's owl wrongly. Thanks for alerting me!

Edited by Kitsafari
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Beautiful owl, and great shot to me (though I am not pro like the others here..) I live with it; I just like the memories.

 

I've been looking forward to Mombo with you @@Kitsafari. Keep going, we've more snow coming in!

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the Americans have seen it the night before and are in no hurry to dash off. The Americans take their time, and I fret that the owl will fly off.

That second look at a PEL'S! FISHING! OWL! is just too boring. Once is ok, twice is a drag. So why rush?

 

What the hell are they thinking? Spend thousands on a safari, get not one but two chances at a highlight of the continent, and they are uninterested. Even if these people don't care, there are others that do care. Could they think for a moment about them, meaning you. Tell me, were these folks just so dense as to think a Pel's Fishing Owl was just like a big house sparrow (a bird's a bird) or were they a-holes?

 

One or two L's, it's a PEL'S! You saw it, you photographed it. And despite those slow moving Americans and a tricky flash, YOU WIN!

Edited by Atravelynn
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the Americans have seen it the night before and are in no hurry to dash off. The Americans take their time, and I fret that the owl will fly off.

That second look at a PEL'S! FISHING! OWL! is just too boring. Once is ok, twice is a drag. So why rush?

 

What the hell are they thinking? Spend thousands on a safari, get not one but two chances at a highlight of the continent, and they are uninterested. Even if these people don't care, there are others that do care. Could they think for a moment about them, meaning you. Tell me, were these folks just so dense as to think a Pel's Fishing Owl was just like a big house sparrow (a bird's a bird) or were they a-holes?

 

One or two L's, it's a PEL'S! You saw it, you photographed it. And despite those slow moving Americans and a tricky flash, YOU WIN!

 

 

my feeling is that they are on their first safari just to see what it was like. i doubt if they will return to safaris anytime soon. they were really nice folks, two couples who were old friends. they were in their early 70s and retired and i think exhausted after being on holidays for a month and waking up early (i doubt if i will be ever too tired to get up for a game drive if i get into my 70s, assuming i still can walk...). but they didn't seem interested in the wildlife, and were always asking for action (where's the kill, the hunt, the predators) and showed scant interest in lion tracks. they preferred to sleep in for the morning drives, and finally skipped the last morning game drive . which was all fine by me as long as it didn't affect my hours on the roads! which it didn't, i'm pleased to say.

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@@Kitsafari, the spelling is neither here nor there, its the TR thats important - your stories and photos!

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thanks @@Treepol.

 

i've got a feeling i'm dragging this short one-week trip a little too long! i'm reliving the trip as I write, just wishing the trip would never end. :)

 

My campmates in the other 2 tents in LM are two elderly couples from the US, The group of friends are at the last stages of a one-month holiday that included a cruise and a two-week safari that started from Kruger and will end in Livingstone. So by the time they come to Mombo, they have seen all the Big 5 on their checklist. This is their first safari, and their ages – in their early 70s and all retired and very wealthy – means they are exhausted from all the game drives. They are very nice and friendly, although the men are more interested in discussing with me investment opportunities (bonds or stocks?) rather than animals we have seen.

 

 

It also means a bit of challenge for the managers and Tsile. The group wants to wake up later and leave for a game drive at 6.45am, but I want to get up at 5am and out by 6. So Selena decides that I will leave at 6, and the group can be sent to join us wherever we are. That works. At Mombo, I hear lions roar every night. Oddly, unlike in Tanzania where I heard hyaenas every night, I don’t hear them either in vumbura or Mombo, until my very last night, after which I have the best sleep in the bush. I do miss them.

 

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cloudy early morning break

 

My first morning sees Tsile and I searching for lions which have been roaring through the night and whose tracks we had been following the afternoon before. One of the guides find them, and we drive over. There are 5 male lions, all very young, close to breeding age, with one still sub adult. They are from a group of six lions and come from the Moporota pride that has just recently lost its two male pride leaders. Because of that, there is no male lion to kick out the sub adults and they keep hanging around the pride, raising worries that there will be in-breeding in the pride. The maned lioness, which I do not see on the trip, is a result of the inbreeding. The sixth male lion is with the pride of lionesses.

 

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his nose is so scarred

 

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sleepy leos

 

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not being cooperative

 

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tail-less leo

 

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still drowsy

 

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sorry for the lion-fest, but couldn't resist it. and finally, last one for this batch.....

 

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The Americans are very lucky for their first safari. On the evening drive before I arrive, they are at the airstrip when they chance upon a male leopard. He poses for them, sitting a while before sauntering to a tree to scratch a bit and then jumping up a tree. Will I have such luck or will I still suffer from the curse of Kit with no luck for a leopard sighting?

 

 

The radio cackles. A female leopard is seen at the other end of the region. I’m all excited to go but it’s a 45 min drive over, and the Americans need to stretch their legs (well now I know what that means!) I chafe quietly, muttering under my breath let’s go let’s go before the elusive leopard vanishes.

 

I fill the time taking a picture of this tiny flower:

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Not sure what this is called...

 

Finally they get into the vehicle. And tsile drives as fast as he can, which isn’t very fast. Unlike Vumbura, the soil is more loamy in Mombo so the chances are higher we will get stuck in the wet mud. Indeed, Cilas in Vumbura had smiled knowingly when he heard I’m heading to Mombo and is convinced I will get stuck in the area. Miraculously, well actually it is due to Tsile’s skills, we avoid getting stuck. Both the American men are big, and they leveraged that during the ride. Both sitting on either side of the vehicle, and when we nearly get stuck in one area, Bob quickly shifts to the other end in the last row and helps tilt the vehicle!

 

Finally we reach the spot. We spy one vehicle still there, and I am relieved. That means the leopard is still there. She is perched perilously on a thin branch, with her head propped by an uncomfortable short twig. She is so small, like the size of a german shephard, and is smaller than the usual female leopards. She is Pula, the daughter of the famous Legaderma. She is very sleepy and totally ignores us humans below chattering away. But I’m over the moon to finally see a leopard, and Pula at that. sorry for the Pula-fest now....

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The story is rather sad, Legaderma has 10 litters out of which only Pula and Maru survived. Pula herself has had 2 litters but none survived. It’s a tough life out there as the female leopards not only have to battle baboons, lions, snakes but also male leopards who eat the cubs. Legaderma just had a litter of cubs but no signs of her or the cubs have been seen the past 2-3 weeks. Similarly. Pula had a litter as recent as a few weeks ago, but none survived. I really do hope they will find a way to bring up the babies very soon. Tsile and I went to the place Legaderma was last seen a fortnight ago with her cubs but she was gone. no sight of her. i hope they have seen her since.

Edited by Kitsafari
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Peter Connan

I am really enjoying this TR! You were indeed fortunate in seeing some amazing things, and have captured them very well!

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This trip report is very enjoyable reading and viewing. Did Tsile say anything about hyena poop? There was to be a discussion as to why it is white. And, maybe I am jumping ahead but are the three cheetahs (mother and two youngsters) still in the area?

 

Some people go to Africa because it is on their bucket list. They are unprepared and not overly interested in what they see only to check it off the list. I once asked a woman who had gone to Kenya and Tanzania about the trip and the first thing that she mentioned was rose petals in the bath tub! I could not believe it. She did not get it. Lucky us. We love it all...the game drives, the sightings, the people and the surroundings.

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The story is rather sad, Legaderma has 10 litters out of which only Pula and Maru survived. Pula herself has had 2 litters but none survived. It’s a tough life out there as the female leopards not only have to battle baboons, lions, snakes but also male leopards who eat the cubs. Legaderma just had a litter of cubs but no signs of her or the cubs have been seen the past 2-3 weeks. Similarly. Pula had a litter as recent as a few weeks ago, but none survived. I really do hope they will find a way to bring up the babies very soon. Tsile and I went to the place Legaderma was last seen a fortnight ago with her cubs but she was gone. no sight of her. i hope they have seen her since.

Great post with great pics.

Poor Legadema, that's a low success rate even for a leopard. :(

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