Selinda, a ten years' love story

[Bush dog]

2004/May 2005

 

Continued

 

Talking about superb sightings of the three brothers, here is one at Twin Pools.

 

 

Like I already said previously, Kanawe knew his wildlife very well. I remember that he told me, when we were there, that we should find them, the day after, in the afternoon, at a certain place that he located and described me. The next afternoon, we went there and found them, waiting for us.

 

I add this warthog’s picture because it’s linked to the three brothers. Another day, we were again with them, when we noticed the presence of the warthog, sitting calmly at the entrance of its burrow. The cheetahs were resting at about fifteen meters, not at all affected by it. As warthogs always enter their burrow backwards, it was in a good position to enter into it quickly, if necessary.

 

 

To be continued

[michael-ibk]

Tons of great stuff, a pleasure to return to this fabulous report. Like Kit, I especially love the Bat-Eared Foxes.

[Bush dog]

2004/May 2005

 

Continued

 

By popular demand, here are some more pictures of bat-eared foxes.

 

 

Some thirsty lions.

 

 

 

To be continued

 

 

 

[Bush dog]

2004/May 2005

 

Continued

 

The elephant picked up our scent and decided to come closer – elephants have a poor vision – to discover what it was. It came quite close to the vehicle and obviously did not like what it found. This resulted in trumpeting and many movements of its head and trunk. Eventually it stopped showing off and moved away. As a matter of fact, a quite common behaviour of elephants.

 

 

When we spotted the elephants’ herd, we stopped at a decent distance. Busy to eat, they approached the vehicle without realizing it, so without seeing it, until one of them was against it. Kanawe had to start the engine and that caused a panic that scattered the herd in all directions. Moving away, I managed to take some pictures at trial.

 

 

A thirsty hyena.

 

 

A lioness that did not want to share some bones with its like.

 

 

 

To be continued

[Sangeeta]

@@Bush dog - the eyelashes on that sunset ele silhouette make that photo truly breathtaking. Fantastic stuff.

[Bush dog]

@@Sangeeta

 

Thanks a lot. Elephants, indeed, have superb eyelashes, but because they are so big and their eyes so small, those are not advantaged and even not perceived. Only a close-up picture can show them to perfection. In this case, I was very lucky, it was not intentional, to emphasize them.

[Bush dog]

2004/May 2005

 

Continued

 

When we arrived, the cheetah had just killed the male impala, and was busy, dragging it in a bush. Then it went in the shade to recover from its efforts and run. Suddenly, a hyena came, from nowhere, at high speed, grab the impala and disappeared as fast.

 

 

To close this chapter, some last lions’ pictures.

 

[Marks]

I see I missed some great predator posts over the past few days. Love the foxes; what a treat to see up close.

[Bush dog]

November 2005

 

This trip was not too good. Apart from the first game drive, I did not see a lot. It rained and drizzled during the seven days and the wind was, from time to time, blowing hard, all intersped with short bright intervals : everything came together to scare away the wildlife in the mopane and thick vegetation, where they found shelter against the inclemencies. Nevertheless, there were a few interesting things. Despite the weather, the atmosphere in the camp was relaxed and cheerful, thanks to the presence of a group of seven women from Italy. Though, it was their first safari, they did not complain and kept this fantasy of their own. As their number was uneven, one women was alone in a tent. One night, a lion stopped close to the entrance of her tent and began to roar. She did not sleep at all the rest of the night and decided to move for the remaining nights in one of her friends’ tent.

 

On my first game drive, in the end of the afternoon, the sky was overcast and the light not too good. BB spotted a pack, composed of about 25 dogs, including 14 sub-adults of more or less 5 months old, just at the moment where they located a female impala. The adults immediately start the chase which was very short anyway. Just when the dogs caught up with their prey, I was very surprised by its resignation in front of its imminent death, as if it was the normal outcome of its life. All of this happened when the female impala are about to give birth, as soon as the first rains arrive. As soon as their prey was death, the adults make way for the sub-adults to feed first. A little further, we found two dogs, from the same pack, that had killed another female impala. I, intentionally, did not shoot, for the pictures showing the dogs eating, at a too high speed, 1/125 for the sub-adults and 1/200 for the adults, to emphasize the frenzy that seized the dogs when they devour their prey.

 

 

 

To be continued

[Bush dog]

November 2005

 

Continued

 

The pictures of the wild dogs are digital. In fact, I did both digital and argentic until the end of 2006, when I sold my EOS 1V. I was at Main Camp and they were still using the old tents. I was there when the first heavy rains occur. The water was close to the camp. One evening, we saw pythons coming out of the reeds, in great number.

 

 

I had the privilege to witness one of the most astonishing nature’s spectacle. Termites caused, because of the building of their mounds, the islands and land blocks which contributed to the formation of the Okavango delta. Just after the first significant rains and during only one night/year, the young termites fly away, thanks to their ephemeral wings, from their mound, to create new colonies. When they find their mate, they loose their wings and the couple will build their own new mound. The air is filled with the flying insects. They are of course attracted by the light. This event occurs always around 8 p.m. As a consequence, unless you decide to have dinner in the dark, your plate and table, and also the ground, will be entirely overlaid with a cloud of termites and thin wings. Without this freak, the Delta would not exist. Even if it can be considered by some people as an inconvenience, let’s praise the termites for this wonder of nature. It rained a lot during the night. In the morning, dead termites and wings were strewed on the ground or floated on the ponds’ surface. It was a feast for birds, reptiles, batrachians and even mammals, like this black-backed jackal, fully focused on its termites and wings’ harvest.

 

 

Python coiled in a heap of death wood.

 

 

Painted snipe.

 

 

Couple of ground hornbills.

 

 

Warthog in the mud.

 

 

 

To be continued

[madaboutcheetah]

Hi Mike,

 

Interesting - I was next door at Kwando very same month - November 2005 ...... From memory, I had the same big pack of dog at Lebala. At Lagoon, I saw cheetah (female with two sub-adults) that same trip. Also, night before I got to Lagoon - Jonah kept the guests in camp all night at a sighting of the then Lagoon pride take down Hippo about a few minutes out of camp. When I got there - just sleeping Lions and then ......... Woosh - they disappeared without a trace in very heavy rains.

 

Loving this report

Regards

Hari

[Bush dog]

Thanks Hari.

 

I was there 6 to 14 November. Obviously, you were lucky than I was in terms of sightings.

 

Concerning Jonah, I'm sure I met him, but I do not remember exactly when. I think he was managing Little Kwara in November 2006? I also think that I met him before, in May 2003, in Lebala or Lagoon? Is it possible?

 

Cheers

Mike

[madaboutcheetah]

Yes, jonah was a guide at lebala for many years and then manager at lagoon too .....

 

Indeed he did manage little kwara possibly 2006-2007. He now runs his own business in chobe along with his brother Philimone.

Cheers

Hari

[Treepol]

@@Bush dog just catching up on your wonderful post. Its great to have a 10 year retrospective view of Selinda and its rich wildlife.

 

So sad to see the cubs that didn't make it after the fire, however I was very interested to read about the lone lion - do you know what happened to him? Lovely story of Henry the lone hippo, and the cheetah and jackal shots.

 

I enjoyed your photos of the small life - the chameleon, hornbills, the python, how interesting to see so many pythons moving out of the water at one time.

[Geoff]

@@Bush dog

 

Excellent and graphic wild dog kill images.

 

I like the python pic too. I've also seen an amazing the number of pythons at Selinda.

[Bush dog]

@@Treepol

 

Thanks for your kind words.

 

I do not know what happened to the lone lion. During my stay at that time, I only saw it once and only once. Like I said, its territory was on the borderline between Selinda and Kwando, west of the Twin Pools area, where game drives were not often going because it was quieter. When we saw it, it was probably looking for food around Twin Pools, where, in those days, there were large concentrations of zebras and wildebeests. Because of its solitude, I think that it was more or less semi-nomadic and looking for vacant territories that it was leaving after more or less short periods, according to movements of other male lions.

 

Small life always caught my attention because it's often as, if not more, interesting than big life!

[Bush dog]

November 2005

 

Continued

 

Some last pictures of this trip.

 

 

Lions.

 

 

Elephants’ family with a few days’ newborn.

 

 

Buffaloes, hippo, greater kudu.

 

 

[Geoff]

@@Bush dog

 

I was very interested to read about the lone lion - do you know what happened to him?

 

@@Treepol @@Bush dog

 

Linyanti Explorations used to do a game count during the full moon of each month. i enjoyed this activity, which required 3 drives over the same route during the day. The late night drive started at 10:00 PM and finished around 1:00 - 2:00 AM.

In Sept' 2002 I was doing the game count with Zane, Vaughn & Shirley's son. In the late afternoon the lions had killed a zebra stallion just outside Selinda camp. When we left camp at 10:00 PM we drove past the lions, many were still feeding and we continued on doing the count, when we finished just after 1:00 AM we decided to check on the lions again and were very surprised to see a big male lion sitting about 30 metres from the feeding pride. This was at the time when the pride males had deserted the Selinda pride and moved into the Kwando. Zane did not know who this lion was, nor did the other staff member in the vehicle with us.

 

The next morning with Barberton we tracked the lion until we lost his spoor in thick scrub west of Twin Pools. None of the guides at both Selinda & Zib knew who this lion was & Kanawe was away at the time so I could not ask him.

My suspicion is that he was the lone male that Mike mentioned.

[Treepol]

@@Geoff and @@Bush dog thank you both for the thoughtful responses.

[Bush dog]

May 2007

 

For my last visit to the Selinda, I stayed at Zib because it was still a bush camp. The new five stars tented hotel, I’m talking about Zarafa of course, was not yet existing. The last managing couple of Zib, that will also be the first to manage Zarafa, was, I don’t recall their surname, Stuart and Tess.

Concerning the weather, the temperature was lower than it should have been at that time of the year and the wind, bitter cold during a few days. It was the first time that I saw water in the channel, up to one to two kilometres downstream from the bridge.

 

I had the opportunity to visit the new main camp. The new main building was, architecturally speaking, a success. The tables, particularly, were superb. The ancient building had been partly demolished and reduced to a photo gallery, with photographs of Mrs Joubert of course, a shop and a wine cellar with a splendid ancient door from Zanzibar. The tents, with sliding doors, were tastefully decorated. Good work of architect and decorator, but without genius and originality and mainly without any authenticity and charm. The deep soul of those two camps was for ever vanished!

 

My guide was, I don’t remember his name, one of the multiple children of Robson, the old extraordinay tracker of the Walking Trails. In those days, they had a very good reputation, almost as good as the Walking Safaris of Robin Pope, yet another great african guide and ornithologist.

 

It was again a trip wthout great sightings : nevertheless, many elephants and girafes, a few buffaloes’ herds (one of them of about 500 heads), 16 roans, one honeybadger and its prey (a fat frog), some bat-eared foxes, one african wild cat, some jackals, one lone hippo grazing and some lions.

 

 

 

Continued

[Bush dog]

May 2007

 

Continued

 

The bush dinners at Selinda were great. Those were real ones, not tables dressed at a very short distance of the camp, but far away in the wild. My last dinner at Selinda was a bit hectic. Indeed, we were about to begin to eat, when we heard the sound of hundreds of hooves hammering the ground mixed with trumpetings. The site of the dinner was well lighted, but in the beginning, we couldn’t see anything in the dark. Then, the first zebras appeared at the edge of the illuminated zone and we all rapidly climbed on the vehicles for safety. Then we saw more and more zebras coming out of the dark, together with some elephants. Luckily, they held aloof from the big table and calm returned quickly. We never knew the cause of this stampede, perhaps predators or only spooks.

Wattled Crane, squirrels, pied kingfisher, crocodile and slender (or is it a yellow ?) mongoose.

 

 

Eleven wild dogs were seen twice. The second time, they killed two impalas in the mopane.

 

 

 

To be continued

[Big_Dog]

Don't know how a wild dog kill can not be seen as not an outstanding sighting! Great stuff all around though.
Incredible images of it. Also love the orange Selinda sunset and description of the termite exodus.
No pics of the kill-stealing hyaena?

[Geoff]

@@Bush dog

 

Bush dinners must be a new treat since change of ownership. I hope the stampede didn't send dust all through your meal.

 

Never seen a wattled crane at Selinda.

 

It's a Slender mongoose, the tip of the nose is red.

[madaboutcheetah]

His name is Rain Robson ..... Stuart and Tessa Bell - my only visit to Selinda and luckily still the old zib was right around end of May 2007.

 

I do think I saw those Lion cubs too - Mike did you see Milky eye the male lon that trip?

[graceland]

@@Bush dog,

 

This trip report should be made into a book and be sitting in Selinda's gift shop. It is such a glorious homage to your stays at Selinda and the people, animals, events, and adventures you encountered in ten years. It is a love story..so wait..lets make it a MOVIE. and call it "Out of Africa, part 2, The Real Deal."

 

And, those termites, omg....we were at Chitabe 2012; somehow the manager took a liking to us and decided to surprise us with a romantic dinner by the pool, our own butler, alone - moon, wine," served", no standing at a buffet line. Candles ablaze, and all of a sudden as we sit down the termites EXPLODE. Lightening, Fireworks. the pool surrounded with lights and mites..(as well our table)

 

I just asked for the bottle of champagne and sat there staring. I had lost my appetite, but had a great time watching the 'mites flliting about, here, there and everywhere. I am sure the staff enjoyed my meal later that night. I think there was a nice moon too.

...very romantic night, LOL

 

So back to task at hand......LOVE your retrospective; we rarely repeat a camp, but now...I may change my mind. We need more memories as this.

.

I can't wait to find out if you are going back!