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Okavango ramblings - of Pula, Stumpy and a Boma


Kitsafari

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@@graceland shots of the camp coming up soon. at LM, the managers did mention that they are planning to do an upgrade to the 3 tents as there is going to be a quiet period coming up soon - i suspect in april - may when the floods start coming in. i hope they do minimal upgrade to retain the restful ambiance.

 

and i would welcome you as my vehicle mate in a heartbeat anytime anywhere!

Your on, let's go!! :)

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We return to the camp. there is so much game viewing just outside Mombo camp, that you can spend time just watching the grazers and browsers in the mornings and evenings. On the football pitch, where the staff had a game the previous evening, the zebras, impalas and lechwes are mingling in a convention of their own. It is such a serene scene – all the grazers together, some lying down, some munching, some touching each other. We stop to admire and enjoy their kinship.

 

 

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finally i get some decent shots of the lechwe

 

 

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I go to sleep, knowing it’s my last night at LM. I hear barking, thinking that the baboons were wide awake making alarm calls. Then the hyaenas whoop and make their ubiquitious calls – I’m so glad I end my last night with the safari sirens - what is the bush without the lion roars and hyaena whoops?

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The last morning drive remains idyllically serene, easing me into a relaxed mood as I face two flights back to Johannesburg in the afternoon. The morning dawns overcast with brooding clouds before bursting into blue and scarlet. I’m contented with a quiet relaxing drive, soaking in Africa’s short-lived rich green beauty, vast plains and mopane forest.

 

first a lori convention on our way out from camp:

 

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we stop by a permanent pond where finally i get to see a pod of hippos. in vumbura and mombo, i've only seen single hippos in small pools of water, but here there is over a dozen of them. they peek out curiously to see what we are.

 

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P1030064.JPGone of them is not happy and raises her head higher to give us a stern look, and then a small head pop out next to her...

 

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Tsile points to a green patch beyond the pond. a small crocodile is making its way back into the pond.

 

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so far, in vumbura and mombo i have noticed that i had not seen a single jackal. i ask about the jackals that Solo had adopted. The unusual wild dog has (i still use the present tense in the hope that she is still alive) adopted several jackal families during her lone existence, but since she has vanished, the jackals have also dispersed. we stop to take a tea break, and there finally, a jackal stop in its track to watch us. Jackals generally move in pairs but we can't see this jackal's partner, and wonder if this jackal is on its way to look for it.

 

 

 

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The Mombo area is very varied in landscape and vegetation but we drive through an area where there are rows and rows of dead trees. this area had been flooded during the high water levels in 2010, and this particular species of trees (i didn't get the name unfortunately) couldn't survive and hence the area is filled with dead branches and trees. i call this the dead tree plains

 

 

 

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Tsile brings me to a herd of buffaloes. there are many calves milling around, staying close to their mothers. we drive right in to the middle of them but solicit no response. except for them to gaze at us inquisitively, wondering why we are staring ta them staring at us. some simply ignore us and are wallowing in shallow pools and mud ponds, just enjoying the coolness of the water or caking themselves against the flies. here's the buffalo convention.

 

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as Tsile drives through the vast area, i am enjoying the smells of wild sage, the swaying of the tall grasses and looking out for rhinos. suddenly Tsile comes to an abrupt stop, and says nothing. i stare ahead of us. something green is on the road. Boomslang. there is deadly silence in the vehicle. the bright green snake slithers rapidly towards us, Tsile reverses quickly, but still the snake slides fast towards us. i can see its tongue flicking to taste the airs. it must have been about 7 feet! Tsile reverses again. The boomslang raises its head to take a better look at us. and i say, err shall we get off the road and go around it in the grass? Tsile remains silent. the boomslang suddenly turns to its right and disappears into a bush. Tsile puts into gear and we race past the bush.

then Tsile shares with me, he has a phobia of snakes. So do I. we are a bit jumpy after that, worrying if it could have jumped into the car. irrational i know, but it's a phobia! from that moment on, we agree to call that creature that shall not be named.

 

 

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next we come across a convention of baboons. we stop to watch their antics, until tsile laughs and says there's one family right next to us. here's a baboon fest. i just can't resist this baby, he is so active and mischievious. i just had to take a few shots and will now bore you to death with them.

 

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Edited by Kitsafari
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Tsile admits bashfully that game viewing has not lived up to the sales pitch that Mombo is marketed as the place that provides the best game viewing in Africa. Well, Tsile, it’s the luck of the draw, and I guess I drew the short stick. The rains, which pour 3 days of my 6 days in the delta, don’t help matters at well. But I still love the vastness of Africa, and my mind is so at ease.

 

 

Tsile gets a call and we are off. Lion tracks are found near camp. Now Tsile believes me about the baboon barks. “It must be the lions they were alarmed about,” he says. As we get close to camp, he goes round the bend and has to brake suddenly. A sleepy lioness lifts up her head, but her eyes can hardly be kept open and her head drifts back to the road. Further ahead is another lioness, fast asleep, tired out from the night sojourns. Tsile says as we rounded the corner he sees a swish of a small tail fleeing into the bushes. There is a cub about.

 

 

We decide to go around to see the lionesses better. As tsile drives off road, we see a male lion and another lioness in the bushes. The third lioness does not move for the entire hour we are there, and I wonder if she is ok. We can’t find the cub and it refuses to emerge when we are there. It’s very young and still unused to vehicles. The male lion is restless, and moves twice to get away from the flies. He’s the 6th male lion of the group of 5 that we had seen a day before. This lion hangs out with the lionesses more often.

 

i think i spent nearly an hour - just tsile and i and the lions. two other cars come for a short while, but since the lions are horizontal and show little signs of hunger or wanting to get a snack, they move on. i have the lions all to myself. :)

Soon, it is time to return to the camp to have my brunch and wait for the flight to Maun. The Okavango adventure starts on a high note and ends on a good note, both with lions. Lions rule in Okavango. It is good to see them doing well in Okavango, relaxed. Perhaps it is the green season, the start of the season of plenty. I dread to think of the dry season, when all the animals struggle for water and compete for food.

 

another Lion-fest.....

 

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Mombo camp

 

LM has only 3 tents, and it is a key reason I choose LM and not the main Mombo camp which has 9 tents. I want something small and intimate where I get more time to know the staff and my campmates better. I take tent no 1, and if you do go, be prepared for a bit of noise as it is pretty close to the main lounge and you can hear vehicles arriving early in the morning and leaving later in the night, and you can hear a bit of chatter and noises at the main lounge. They are minor things and don’t bother me that much since I get up earlier than 5am in any case, though I do hear that the views at tents 2-3 are better.

 

The tents are wonderfully designed. The ambiance, the atmosphere of the tents would have put hemingway at home. I can imagine staying a month there, drawing inspiration in Mombo and refreshing my energy to face the concrete world, to renew my desire for life, to once more breath in and appreciate the beauty and serene bliss that God had created for us and that we have lost in our fast pace of life in the cities. I find it here more so than i do in Vumbura, and even while in tanzania.

 

Dressed for the old safari days, the tents provide the most comfortable facilities. The leather sofa is firm and clean, the floors are beautifully laid out and thoughtfully made of timber, the bed is firm but soft. The pillows are very high and too uncomfortable for me. After hearing that I slept on the first night on a bath towel, Selena magically produces a flat pillow which is a Godsent and a minor miracle considering we are in the middle of nowhere. There is an adaptor for all kinds of power points (also available in vumbura), a hairdryer, a fridge of complimentary drinks stocked with your favourite beverages prepared before you step in.The tents are always so clean, as i mention before i am always walking barefoot around the place. it is a home away from home for me.

 

 

I spend a lot of time on the deck enjoying the plains in front of me, listening to the birds cackling and whistling around me. The tents are all built under a tree. During the floods, that plains become a lake so you will have a wonderful view. But for now, I sit back and watch an endless streak of elephant herds that glide by, stopping ever so often to eat the grasses or drink from shallow waterholes.

 

Buffaloes come in the night to sleep around the camp but they are missing in recent weeks, ever since the Western lion pride made a buffalo kill right under the LM tents and fought off 2 male lions at that spot.

 

LM is very well managed, thanks to Graham who runs a tight ship at both camps, and thanks to the duo of Selena-Nick, who are the best of hosts/hostess and who made me feel most at home. The staff are very warm, and passionate about Mombo, and you can see they enjoy their jobs thoroughly. When I am there, a few of the staff are preparing to go on leave. they work 3 months and then have 28 days off, returning to their homes. LM is going to be updated during the quiet season, and I hope they leave the designs intact, and keep to just changing or updating some of the furniture. Too modernistic a look like VP will make it lose its identity.

 

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my favourite place to sit during the downtime

 

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P1030191.JPGa swimming pool that was used only by a kingfisher while i was there

 

P1030190.JPGthese delightful squirrels were scampering everywhere ont he boardwalk, and this one poses nicely for me.

 

P1030309.JPGawesome sunrise and sunset that will stay with me forever

 

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Bye Mombo, for now.....

Edited by Kitsafari
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Peter Connan

Still loving your TR

 

By the way, did you know that a group of baboons is called a Congress?

 

I have been in the delta twice, but have yet to see a lion there...

Or any other predator except hyena for that matter...

Still love it though!

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Beautiful report. The views from your tent would keep me there for a month as well.

 

Lions were abound on our visit 2012. I guess they know a good place when they find it!

 

Hope they don't spiff up LM too much and ruin the ambiance. I've not been, a little too pricey for

our wallets,(and not on GS prices our dates); but always enjoy everyone else's visits!

 

Thanks for the ride. It brought back memories of Botswana which remains my fav. SO FAR! :)

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Thanks for a beautiful report. Really enjoyed it. Lots of detail on Mombo that will be very useful to folks planning to go there.

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Still loving your TR

 

By the way, did you know that a group of baboons is called a Congress?

 

I have been in the delta twice, but have yet to see a lion there...

Or any other predator except hyena for that matter...

Still love it though!

 

 

Now I do - a congress - makes sense, they are all politicians trying to please the alpha all the time. :)

 

i count myself lucky to manage to see so many lions, and a leopard, and wild dogs during the rainy season. but i can understand why you love the delta - it is quite enchanting.

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I wanted to share a bit of Tsile's background which is very interesting. Tsile has been a guide for nearly 14 years, the last 8 or 10 (i can't recall) just at Mombo. He loves the place. He's from the Bayei tribe, which originally came from Zambia where they are known as the Yei tribe. In the 1500s, they sailed on the Zembezi River on the mokoros to Botswana and introduced that original mokoro to the new area. Since then, the Yei tribe has intermarried with the bushmen of Botswana and have become the Bayei tribe. Tsile is among the most experienced guides and for a short stint was a manager-guide, much like what Alex is now at Vumbura North. But its impossible to be a full time manager and still lead game drives as guide. It puts too much burden on the person and Tsile wisely picked what he loves best – guiding.

 

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SafariChick

@@Kitsafari the baboon photos are gorgeous - not boring at all! The babies are so cute!

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Back in Maun airport, as I stare at the stark white false ceiling squares and idly wonder if they will expand and modernize the airport, inside my heart I question what is the real world?

 

 

The world I'm returning to, where I work to survive to pay off a mortgage and pay to travel to Africa, and a world where I am with my hubby and my dogs? or is it in Africa, where the animals live for the moment, not stressing if they get to live to see another sunrise or if the humans are transgressing into their natural habitat or blissfully unaware that they are dwindling in numbers and that one day they may become extinct as humans encroach and poach, and the climate changes interfere with the land? an alice in wonderland experience when I return to Africa? Or is this a bubble that I live in?

 

I fret for the animals as their world shrinks into them, leaving them with less space to roam free while we humans surround ourselves in four walls that press out against their freedom.

 

I envy the lodge staff who live in Africa, who get to live with what is truly natural and get to experience and help the wildlife. Perhaps we all have different roles to play. Their role is to help with the big and mighty beasts, and mine is to help the smaller beasts back home. I take some comfort in that I still have a role to play in the big part of the natural order.

 

as i end this report, there is a sense of finality and sadness in me. i relived my trip as I write, and ending the report means i'm squarely back in the concrete world. till the next time, Africa.

Edited by Kitsafari
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@@Kitsafari

Excellent report!

I never get bored ith baboons - you have some lovely pictures of babies there

A very clever moving lion picture took me by surprise!

You give a really good view of the area in the green season - it is beautiful - and intersting thoughs and emotions along the way

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Game Warden

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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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@@Kitsafari - now you can add these great photos to this topic... :)

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Peter Connan

I loved this report! Thank you.

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@@Kitsafari. Thank you. A most enjoyable report and some great photos. It looks very beautiful there.

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SafariChick

@@Kitsafari I loved your report too! And is that you with Tsile? Always nice to see the faces of those we've come to consider friends through this little Africa-loving world we call Safaritalk. I loved the report and it really took me back to my wonderful trip about a year ago. I stayed in #1 at LM also! I didn't see elephants walking in front of my little house though so I am jealous of that! It was a really peaceful and beautiful view though. Your thoughts as you sat at the airport in Maun are similar to mine about Africa as well. I always feel so lucky to be in the world of these animals for a couple of weeks, where their life goes on without us whether we are there or not and is how nature intended. The fear and worry over their world shrinking due to humans encroaching rings true also. I am grateful to have had the chance to experience their world and show it to my children, and hope my grandchildren will be able to experience it as well.

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michael-ibk

Thank you for sharing, love this report. Have just returned from Botswana today and reading this makes being back (and not there!) a little bit more bearable. :)

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Kit, you write with so much empathy. Loved reading this report from start to finish. The wildlife is wonderful and the people are memorable, but most of all (for me), I think you capture the feelings of the moment - the wonder, the regret, that feeling of connecting... thanks so much for this, loved every word. Started with your report because my backlog is thick and thought I'd start with yours since it was a short one, but it's left me satiated for the day :)

 

PS - I personally think that the interior of Vumbura Plains looks remarkably ugly :D Don't mean to be rude, but really, what's with that modern look and that in-room shower?

Edited by Sangeeta
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@@Kitsafari

Excellent report!

I never get bored ith baboons - you have some lovely pictures of babies there

A very clever moving lion picture took me by surprise!

You give a really good view of the area in the green season - it is beautiful - and intersting thoughs and emotions along the way

 

i wasn['t sure if the moving lion picture would work when i put it up here, but it did! I have to admit it surprised me as well.

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@@Kitsafari I loved your report too! And is that you with Tsile? Always nice to see the faces of those we've come to consider friends through this little Africa-loving world we call Safaritalk.

 

Thank you!

yes, that's Tsile and me. that was my last night at LM, and i was alone, so Tsile kept me company. in fact, the managers or Tsile would host all dinners at the camp, which is a nice touch as you have a chance to talk about personal things as well and get to know them better.

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