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January 2007 Sanctuary Talking

GENERAL NEWS

2007
We welcome you to 2007 and hope that this year is filled with success and joy! We look forward to enhancing our existing relationships with our supporters as well as building new ones.

The green Season Special is still available with Sanctuary Lodges & Camps Botswana. The luscious green season in Botswana is the perfect time to view newborn mammals, colourful summer flowers as well as a migration of rare birds while predator viewing remains a highlight. There are only limited units available, so book now to avoid disappointment.

Rates are valid for reservations travelling between 01 December 2006 and 31 March 2007 with a minimum stay of four nights. Normal reservation and cancellation terms and conditions apply.

Olonana

The staff and management of Olonana would like to wish everyone a blessed and wondrous 2007. We have had a very wet start to the year, but for now there seems to be a small break in the rains. Since the grass is quite high, we are conducting grass cutting, road mending and river bank stabilising.

Two very auspicious occasions have occurred this month. The first was our New Year celebrations with the entire Waddell family from the UK. What a special family – coming together from all over the world to celebrate New Year at Olonana!

The family, pictured right, took it upon themselves to entertain the lodge. We had so much fun and saw in the New Year together – not with a bang but with much happiness, fun and joy. What a blessed time with them - even with all the rain.

The next occasion was the speedy arrival of books sponsored by one of our guests for one of our local schools in Mara Rianda.

For children at Mara Rianda Primary School, it was a pleasant surprise as an Olonana vehicle pulled up at their school’s gate. We had gone to present dozens of notebooks, pens, pencils, chalk, soccer balls and a foot pump, thanks to the generosity of Paul and Gina Boutin of Canada. They had stayed with us and had the opportunity to visit the school while it was still closed for the Christmas holidays.

They found one teacher, who was also at hand to receive the Olonana team when we went to present the school supplies. The children could not hide their joy as we pulled one item after another from the vehicle. Gratitude was written all over their faces as they assisted us off load the items from the vehicle. In a few minutes, the boys were off playing soccer!

Paul and Gina also donated some supplies for a nursery school as well as money to hire a teacher for the nursery school apart from sponsoring Tom and Benson of Olonana to attend the Landmark Forum which took place in Nairobi.

On behalf of Olonana and the Mara Rianda School we would love to thank Paul and Gina Boutin for their extreme generosity toward Olonana and the local community. They will always be in our hearts as well as the hearts of the school children. 

All the animals are doing very well considering they have not seen so much rain for 45 years. The cheetah family, mom and three cubs, is back in front of Kitchwa Thembo where they were born. She is being very brave and has had to do a lot of hunting to feed her hungry offspring. She has attempted taking down a young eland and successfully taken a large impala as well as a baby Topi. These are much bigger than the normal Thomson’s Gazelles, so well done!

The “Out of Africa” pride has been spotted less frequently but there has been a pride of lions close to the escarpment - the only place where it is dry. There have also been two sub-adult males in the area of the airstrip while two large males sometimes come through the same area as well.

Mary the rhino and her three year old calf have been seen as well which causes much excitement with our guests. This month has been special as we have seen some unusual animals such as bat eared fox during the day, some really large chameleons and a beautiful Kori Bustard.

Kusini

The rain has subsided considerably with only 60mm of rain for this month which makes for better road conditions. Evenings have been chilly while some afternoon rain. With the migration quite close to Kusini, there has been a number of predator activity in the area. Many lion prides have been spotted daily and there have been a number of fantastic cheetah sightings. Leopards have been less frequent, but when seen guests are absolutely thrilled. A herd of about 200 elephants were seen on a few occasions which provided fantastic photo opportunities for our guests.

Some of our guests were fortunate enough to witness a cheetah mother killing a Thompsons Gazelle. They had a great view of this event, watching the saga from the stalking stage until there was merely a carcass left of Gazelle – fantastic!

Quirky Story:
Monkeys are always a source of amusement in some way or the other. A vehicle was parked in the staff camp. This vehicle had covers on the spare tyres, which had a lions head on it as the logo. We heard the monkeys alarm calling from the office and of course were extremely excited at the prospect of having a leopard or another predator in camp. Once we reached staff camp to investigate, we soon realised that the distressed monkey was in actual fact staring straight at the back of this vehicle – much to our disappointment!

Many guests have been enjoying full day drives with picnic lunches. Most travel of course to where the migration is at that particular time and guests have commented on the abundance of predators, small and large, as well as different vulture species.

 ‘Thank you for a beautiful safari experience. Everyone was so gracious and we loved the isolation and beauty of the area, Asante Sana’
Lynn Scott

 ‘Amazing experience. Great staff, food and accommodation, spectacular scenery. A magical place we will never forget. Asante Sana’
Kaiser

Swala

Rain, rain and more rain - over 650mm for the season thus far. We have been fortunate to have some excellent elephant and giraffe sightings with frequent sightings of general game such as impala, dik-dik and Kongoni. A few warthogs have also been sighted but the grass is quite high so cats have been seen on the rare occasion. Birding is excellent as Gursi swamp is full of water while the croaking frogs add to the evening chorus.

We have been kept busy this month as we are digging and repairing drainage furrows throughout the camp to channel the water away from the tents and pathways.

“Super, great, excellent – the best place we’ve ever been!”
Hendrik and Madre Marx

“Please keep on going managing this camp in such a family and small size atmosphere. It gives travelers the opportunity to ‘escape’ from daily life in an unforgettable way”
Tanja Groiss & Eric Robert

 BOTSWANA

Baines’ Camp

As expected the rain arrived for Christmas but did not last too long. We have our resident hippo pod in front of camp almost every evening with such sweet little babies who provide us with endless hours of entertainment while they frolic in the water. Our resident hyena has decided to do some “cleaning” in camp by taking apart the staff toilet and carrying away our dustbins.

It seems that the airstrip is the place to be to for general game viewing as guests have been lucky to see many animals upon arrival. Some guests enjoyed a “leisurely” viewing of some wild dogs that had a kill – they were so full after chewing at their kill that they lay about for ages, much to the delight of our guests. The leopard Court, guide, named Anita has been around camp from the 15th to the 18th and provided us with a lot of entertainment. Guests spent an entire day with her - she had one successful hunt but missed two impala’s. 

There is continued maintenance in camp since which includes fixing the deck and general cleaning up.

Chief’s Camp

We received quite a bit of rain from Christmas through to New Year but the first few weeks of January have been dry with hot days. The game viewing has been excellent this month with most of the activity happening in the Boro and Simbira area. The Mathatas and Boro prides have provided very good viewing, especially the Mathatas pride of 24 individuals. Leopard and rhino have been sighted and wild dog sightings have been frequent. Cheetah sightings have been excellent with many guests watching these cats in awe. Large herds of buffalo and elephants have been seen this month with great general game in Boro area.

The Golf course pride killed a giraffe at Boro pit which gave us some wonderful lion and hyena viewing – magnificent photographic opportunities!

Chobe Chilwero

We saw some rain in mid-January with strong wind and afternoon thunderstorms while temperatures fluctuated. A number of sable antelope, kudu and buffalo have been sighted along the river and the Nantanga pans. Due to the rains most animals have moved inland with a number of hippo and crocodile sightings on boat activities. Lions have often been spotted in different parts of the park with a number of wild dog, leopard, hyena and other general game also being seen. In the last two weeks leopard on a kill were spotted at Sedudu pan and other locations within the park which caused much excitement with our guests. A pack of seven wild dogs hunting along roads on the east end of hippo pool was also an amazing sighting for guests. All our guides on game drives saw the hunt before the dogs moved into thick forest while another group of guests saw 9 wild dogs as well as a herd of buffalo – fantastic!

Every fourth day of the week, we entertain our guests with our local traditional dancer. Guests really enjoy this group and also praise them with great feedback.

Stanley’s Camp

Animal sightings have increased after rains over the last few weeks ranging from generally sighted species to less common sightings of breeding herds of elephants, lions, wild dogs, honey badger, spring hare and porcupine. Leopard sightings have been regular and small buffalo herds have been spotted quite regularly too.                                                                                                              

A lot of cleaning and tidying up has been in progress - the back of house particularly having a lot of high grass slashing, pathway clearance and reconstruction of clothing lines, staff gathering areas etc. Similarly, pathways to guest rooms and guest welcome areas have also been renovated and tidied while maintenance of all facilities both front and back of house is ongoing.

QUIRKY STORY:
KILL OF THE MONTH:  A Story from Down Under – it’s a Tall Tail but True!
Four Australian guests who had been on an evening game drive, came back obviously suppressing laughter. I asked their guide what they had seen, and he explained that they had seen their first kill.  I asked further, thinking they had seen a lion bring down an impala or some other game, but he replied that no, a giraffe had killed an oxpecker, to which the guests burst into uncontrollable laughter.

It seems these guests had spotted a giraffe with a little oxpecker sitting on its back, and the giraffe had proceeded to lift its tail and relieve itself.  The oxpecker spotted something appetising in the dung, flew down underneath the tail for a closer look, and seeing the dark orifice poked his head in for further examination. This bird has a sharp little beak, so the giraffe on feeling the probing of the bird’s head within, tightened himself and the bird disappeared entirely! The ensuing internal sensation had the giraffe extremely puzzled for a few seconds; he kept turning his head from one side to the other trying to see what was going on behind him. Eventually he ejected the bird at speed, but just as quickly and with precise timing, swiped his tail with such force that the poor bird was knocked for a six! Several sightings have been made of oxpeckers flying under a giraffe’s tail but those were wise enough to keep their beaks to themselves!!

DISH OF THE MONTH

Lemon, Almond Polenta Loaf
(courtesy of Chobe Chilwero)

Ingredients:

250g castor sugar
4 eggs, beaten
50g cake flour
100g ground almonds
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
(This is a lemony, grainy and gorgeous loaf)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. 
• Cream butter and sugar.
• Stir in the eggs a little at a time until fully incorporated.
• Add flour, almonds and polenta, beat until smooth.
• Stir in the lemon juice and zest, beat well.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, or until skewer comes out clean.
• Leave to cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
• Store in an airtight container.

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