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Selinda, a ten years' love story


Bush dog

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Don't know how a wild dog kill can not be seen as not an outstanding sighting! Great stuff all around though.

No pics of the kill-stealing hyaena?

I said that it was a trip without great sightings because on the 9 days' stay (Motswiri included), apart from the wild dogs' kill, and even, there was nothing out of the ordinary. The kill was done in the mopane where the conditions of vision were second-rate (only two pictures), due to the surrounding vegetation.

 

I did not find, in my archives, any pictures of the stealing hyena. Perhaps, was I busy changing a film roll ?

 

Thanks a lot for your comments!

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@@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.

Geoff, do you really think that, actually, they are still organizing bush dinners, like it was in those days, far away from the camp ?

 

It was my only sighting of wattled cranes (it was a couple) in the Selinda. At all, they are not common and before that, the area was too dry to receive those magnificent and endangered birds.

 

In fact, slender mongoose was my first impression. Thanks for the precision.

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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?

Thanks, Hari, for those precisions, I left Zib to go to Motswiri on the 23rd, shortly before you arrived.

 

I remember I saw two male lions of which one was one-eyed, probably Milky eye? I think I must have seen it in October 2006 around Lebala ?

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@@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."

 

Why not, I should associate Geoff to it, he has beautiful pictures and his memories seem clearer and more accurate than mine, and ask you a little help for the writing, obviously you are much more better than me, with words and your sense of humour is sharper. :)

 

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.

 

Thanks a lot for your comments! I repeat the Selinda, not only because I loved the type of camp, but also because this area of northern Botswana is my favorite part of wild Africa. I also went several times to Kwando and Savute.

 

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

 

I don't think I will ever go back to Selinda for the simple reason that, even if it's not worse or better than a lot of places in Botswana, it's far from like it was and as a consequence, I'm sure that I will be deeply disappointed.

 

 

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@@Bush dog

 

I know what you mean; things change...and sometimes you don't want to see and be disappointed especially after all the fabulous years you spent at Selinda.

 

My own DH hesitates to repeat any trip fearing changes bring disappointment. I've never been, should have on our Botswana 2012 trip but time was dear.

 

However, I have deeply enjoyed your experiences, pics and the retrospective. Thank you for pulling together all the work involved to share with us :) -Outstanding.

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madaboutcheetah

 

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?

 

Thanks, Hari, for those precisions, I left Zib to go to Motswiri on the 23rd, shortly before you arrived.

 

I remember I saw two male lions of which one was one-eyed, probably Milky eye? I think I must have seen it in October 2006 around Lebala ?

 

Hi mike,

 

Indeed .... Memories!!!! Your timeline seems about right re May 2007

 

Milky eye - correct ..... I first saw them both at lebala August 2006. I think they took over the Selinda pride eventually and then spent a lot of time between lebala and Selinda until early 2008. Subsequently they left to Duma tau/savuti and never came back (at least to Kwando)

 

Cheers

Hari

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May 2007

 

Continued and terminated

 

The transfer of about sixty kilometers to Motswiri took us about four hours. We had got a puncture and had no spare wheel. Luckily, another car was, twenty minutes behind us, on its way to Motswiri. Though we did not see a lot, it was a nice ride in a beautiful pristine environment. At about ten kilometers from our destination, we began to see the first water, flowing slowly to flood the delta.

 

 

Motswiri camp, the former hunting camp, consisting of only three tents, was located in a splendid site along the spillway. It was, similar to Zib and to main camp before 2000, comfortable but basic.

 

 

As it, recently, was a hunting concession, the animals were few and extremely shy. I saw two male lions sleeping and thereafter roaring. The next day, trying to find those lions again, we found the remains of a warthog and two subadults finishing its head. We also found a dead elephant with a bullet hole in its head and the tusks still on the carcass. Gordon, manager of the camp and guide, called the anti-poaching unit. They came, in the afternoon of the same day, to collect the ivory. Obviously, it had not been killed by ivory traffickers, perhaps by a nostalgic hunter ? The day after the next, we found three young lions of less than one year, probably left there while the pride was hunting.

 

post-48450-0-99595900-1428596346_thumb.jpgpost-48450-0-53345600-1428596366_thumb.jpg

 

We tracked the pride without finding it. In the afternoon, the three young lions were still at the same place.

 

post-48450-0-99971700-1428596453_thumb.jpg

 

We also saw three shy sables and four elephants stampeding in the water.

 

post-48450-0-87949000-1428596465_thumb.jpg

 

The last day, no traces of lions, just thirteen sables and along the spillway, a herd of elephants in a great hurry.

 

post-48450-0-63854600-1428596473_thumb.jpg

 

Some last pictures : elephant, namaqua dove and what I think is a lesser striped swallow collecting mud to build its nest.

 

post-48450-0-86020400-1428596483_thumb.jpgpost-48450-0-70796700-1428596490_thumb.jpgpost-48450-0-27585300-1428596497_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

END OF THE STORY

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michael-ibk

Encore! Encore! Can´t be the end!

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Peter Connan

Thank you very much for an EXCELLENT story!

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Excellent Mike. Thoroughly enjoyed this 10 year perspective on what was my favourite area of Botswana.

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Superb...wish there was more. :) But thank you for that extremely difficult (I'd think) retrospective, going through all the photos..and memories.

 

We all thoroughly loved it. I doubt I could afford the new Selinda so going there through your report was exceptional.

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already done? that seems too short! but thank you so much @@Bush dog for taking the time and effort to put all these together. I can imagine sieving through thousands of prints and having to choose only certain ones for this thread to such a hungry audience!

 

I always enjoy such walks through the past, seeing through other people's eyes what they saw and experienced. and there is always a tinge of sadness and regret of what was, what could have been, and what is. I'm just grateful that I'm around now to still be able to admire what is left. I just hope mankind will wake up and learn to treasure and keep before all is too late and lost for the next generation.

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Thank you for such an enthralling report. Shows what the wife and I missed by going to other places instead of going on safari. I am glad to say that the bug is back with us.

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Simply superb.
Shame it ended on a quiet noted for you, but still excellent none the less!

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Encore! Encore! Can´t be the end!

Oui, encore! Your generous comments, and those from all the others, encourage me to continue digging in my archives, to start new topics from a close past but also from the nineties and the first years of this century.

 

Once more, thanks a lot, Michael!

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Excellent Mike. Thoroughly enjoyed this 10 year perspective on what was my favourite area of Botswana.

Thanks, Geoff, perhaps, if you have some time of course, you should start a new topic "Selinda, a ten years' love story 2".

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I doubt I could afford the new Selinda so going there through your report was exceptional.

 

Thanks a lot for your kind words. Anyway, knowing now what it was, you might also be disappointed?

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michael-ibk

So ... How about a Kwando love story? :)

Edited by michael-ibk
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So ... How about a Kwando love story? :)

Yes, why not a TR concerning my four visits, it would be, indeed, a logical continuation.

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What a ride...thanks for taking us along.

Spectacular photos and interesting memories across the board.

 

 

So ... How about a Kwando love story? :)

Yes, why not a TR concerning my four visits, it would be, indeed, a logical continuation.

 

Yes, please do!

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  • 1 month later...
Tom Kellie

post-49296-0-06560000-1431885125_thumb.jpg post-49296-0-28679900-1431885139_thumb.jpg post-49296-0-64828600-1431885151_thumb.jpg

~ @@Bush dog

 

Outstanding images throughout.

Your talent for wildlife photography is matched by your ability to be at the right place and the right time for highest quality images.

Thank you for sharing your love for Selinda.

Tom K.

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  • 8 years later...

   At least two of Bush dog's fine and memorable photos have been put to good use on the other side of the world. Mike, I had stretched canvas prints made for our living room and study walls of two of the photos you took of us and our lion escort on the last day of our 2000 safari at Selinda. Here's the one in the study:

LionMike.jpg.263128b11e7a6e480969bb1e503859f8.jpg

 

   A remarkable thing is that we never met, but ST brought us together and you mailed prints of the photos to us.  I recall that we actually saw you only once, when your vehicle came to our aid in a bushy, off-road area after our guide, Mompati, radioed for help. His vehicle had run out of spare tyres while searching in rough country, at Yvonne's urging, for the Selinda pride. At the time, we were operating from Zibalianja camp in the last few days of our safari. We didn't speak, but because of your big camera lens I knew you were "the Belgian man" who the camp managers had told us about :D

 

 

 

Edited by John M.
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