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June to September 2006 Sanctuary Talking

GENERAL NEWS

Green Season Special - excellent value for money!

The lusiuos green season in Botswana is the perfect time to view newborn mammals, colourful summer flowers as well as a migration of rare birds. Predator viewing remains a highlight while days are warm and sunny with cool afternoon thundershowers.  Sanctuary Lodges & Camps are taking bookings for this fantastic Green Season so call now to avoid disappointment.

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

Air Botswana

Air Botswana has introduced additional services on the Johannesburg / Maun / Johannesburg route. These services, operated in the ATR42-500 – 47 seater, will operate until 28 October 2006. 

BP 216 from Johannesburg to Maun:

BP 215 from Maun to Johannesburg:

Staff Update

It is our pleasure to announce that Lindi Douwenga has joined Sanctuary Lodges & Camps as Sales Representative, Southern Africa in September 2006. Lindi will be looking the Southern African region, to ensure that everyone is kept up to speed with Sanctuary Lodges & Camps developments in Botswana. Lindi has been in the lodge industry for the past five years and has a great passion for the outdoors as well as travelling. Her dedication to environmentally sustainable practices in Africa influenced her move to Sanctuary Lodges & Camps and we welcome Lindi to our dynamic sales team in Johannesburg.

Living With Elephants

Sanctuary Lodges & Camps proudly supports Living With Elephants' Elephant Outreach Program which brings hundreds of children to the bush annually to help foster positive relationships between people and elephants. Guests staying at Baines’ Camp or Stanley's Camp are offered the unique and exclusive opportunity to accompany LWE's elephant ambassadors (Jabu, Thembi and Morula) on a morning foraging walk.

Field Notes by Doug Groves

23 June 06

After a sumptuous picnic under the shade of a big jackleberry tree with a wonderful family from New York, the elephant trio and I took off on our own, ravishing a few palm plants on our way to a favourite clump of candle-pod acacia. My companions crunched branches while I did a little stretching and then they decided it was time to drift off for a drink. I hitched a ride on Morula's back as the trio splashed across the shallow flood plain. Back on dry land, I climbed off on Morula's leg and followed the trio as they foraged through the bush. Thembi was starting to lag behind so I gave her a call while keeping one eye on Jabu who was way up ahead. As Thembi trotted over for her treat, I noticed Jabu's head go up and his ears go out while picking up his pace, a sure sign that something big was up. With Thembi's trunk tip in my hand, I led her hastily towards Jabu. As we drew near I saw a smaller wild bull hurriedly side-step my big stepson. Thembi and Morula seemed most interested in what the wild bull had been eating and in cleaning up any leftovers, so I left the girls foraging under a palm tree while Jabu and I ushered the teenage titan a safe distance away.

EAST AFRICA

Gorilla Forest Camp

Gorilla baby left asleep at Gorilla Forest Camp

Gorilla Forest Camp was visited by the Rushegura gorilla family which nested on camp land for three magnificent days. This has been a normal occurrence although this time round, something unique and a first in the history of Gorilla conservation happened. On the afternoon of the 25th June, the group nested and had a comfortable siesta near the staff housing complex for about two hours, rose and left the lodge. What they (gorillas) did not realizs was that they had left a one year old baby still fast asleep in its nest. Lodge staff found the baby asleep and immediately notified the park authorities who secured the area awaiting the silverback and the mothers return for the baby. The baby woke up thirty minutes later looking very confused and waited for another forty five minutes before the silverback and mother came back to got her. Park authorities were puzzled at this new phenomenon and word spread like wildfire as experts tried to figure this out. The best explanation from a lay man in the community was “the ambience at Gorilla Forest Camp exudes such comfort that even gorillas oversleep and forget their own.” Nice theory…

Power breakfast introduced

Gorilla Forest Camp began a new breakfast concept christened the POWER BREAKFAST. The core feature of this breakfast is in its nutritional value according to the daily dietary requirements related to the activities our guests have to do in Bwindi. This included a careful study of how the body ingests the nutrients consumed; therefore ensuring our guests are able to keep up with the physically demanding activities they have to do while at the same time having some energy left to enjoy the hospitality at the lodge on their return. A perfect example that Gorilla Forest Camp care about every minute of your experience in Bwindi.

GFC Manager raises funds for local Catholic church completion

The GFC manager, Leopold King, presided over a local Catholic church’s funds raising function on 16th July. The Buhoma Catholic church construction was started five years ago and was nearing its completion when they ran out of funds to complete the floor and windows, therefore the church committee as well as the 200 believers requested the GFC manager and his team to assist with the completion of their house of worship. Team members from the lodge mobilised support for the function and raised funds from friends in Kanungu district as well as the other lodges. An equivalent of US$2,400.00 was raised that afternoon which was sufficient to complete the job at hand. With the funds raised, GFC management becomes the first in Bwindi and Buhoma to help all three local churches, among other projects in raising funds for their completion. Another mark of GFC’s commitment to community development.

Olonana

The Mara sends greetings! The wildebeest and zebra have been knocking at Kenya’s door after spending many months roaming through the Serengeti. They are welcomed with great enthusiasm. One can feel the excitement in the air; even the crocodiles seem to know that the animals are on the way and are waiting at known crossing points along the Mara River.

We are sure that the resident predators are feeling the same as they have been struggling to hunt for the past months. The long grass has caused the lions to become tree climbing lions so as to find animals to hunt. With the long grass, which is between one and two meters high, the ungulates are very hard to spot. There are a few known “hot spots” where the grass is a lot shorter and these areas have become very popular with the both ungulates and predators. Of course these are the areas that are being frequented during most game drives.

There is always drama with the onset of the wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara. The wildebeest and zebra have arrived in their thousands and have filled up the Mara with their long strung out columns. The air is filled with their characteristic “gnu” sounds while zebra are frisky with a feeding frenzy that has begun – and not only the zebras and wildebeest are feeding – the crocodiles and vultures are so full they cannot even move most of the time! Together with the ungulates – come the predators. Four wildebeest were killed by two lionesses in the same place within an hour. They fed a little on each and then left them leaving the bodies for the hungry vultures.

One of the animals that have taken up temporary residence in the area close to the airstrip is a female cheetah and her five 2 month old cubs (although lately it seems that she only has 4 cubs and has moved closer to the Tanzanian border). They have been providing many guests with numerous hours of delightful viewing with many “Oohs” and “aahs” coming from the vehicles. The cubs are very quickly becoming used to the vehicles, as long as the guests do not make too much noise. They sometimes treat us to games around the vehicle – very cute! We have also been very lucky to witness many successful hunts by this exceptional mother – magnificent!

The elephants are coming together in large herds to take advantage of the long grass, especially in the marsh areas. It is awesome to see so many of these large pachyderms together as well as trying to take advantage of the delicious bounty and refuelling themselves for the drier season.

The two dominant male lions from the “Out of Africa” pride have been honeymooning very close to the areas where the cheetah and her cubs are. We are not sure if anything will come of this but we are holding thumbs. The two females still have 8 month old cubs, so we are not too sure why this is occurring since females normally only enter the estrus period once the cubs are old enough to be on their own. One of the lions from the pride had a fight with the neighbouring lions and was fatally wounded while the other male in the group has joined the two females and their cubs which provides as more cohesive unit.

After being away for a while “Pumba – the warthog” has returned and is lawn-mowing the lodge grass in the entrance. He has been missed and our guests are very pleased to see him again. The rare serval cat was also spotted recently which provided an exceptional sighting to our thrilled guests. These shy cats are found in marsh and wetland areas feeding on vlei rats and small birds and are very difficult to see at this time of the year.

Our Tree Planting project has become very popular again and guests planted many more trees. This is very heartening for us as we are trying very hard to reforest the open areas around the lodge. Our wonderful new certificates have arrived which are handed to our valued guests on completion of the tree planting exercise.

 We have been doing some repairs and maintenance in camp. The two entrance gates have been repaired and proper enclosures have been erected. All the boilers have been enclosed with new partitions and a new partition has been installed in the pool area. With this partition, the pool area has been enlarged but we are awaiting the new pool loungers which have been built with new cushions. New pot plants have also been placed in the pool area giving the area a new look and feel. All our new vanity packs have now been installed as well as new drinking glass and water trays while the table and chair sanding continues. All the leather dinning room chairs have been stretched and repaired with new scatter cushions placed in the lounge and library.

Namunyak’s Wedding

Though recently married in their western tradition in America, Farley Taylor and Stewart Lansing, inspired by their adoration for the strong Maasai cultural values (and Farley’s upbringing in the Mara for much of her life) decided they needed a blessing of their matrimony by the Maasai elders in Kenya. They packed and left the USA accompanied by their parents, other relatives and friends, and chose Olonana as their home for the duration of their stay in the Mara where the blessing was to take place.

The venue of the blessing, a village of the Olorien area of the Mara, a few minutes drive from Olonana was a bee hive of activity on the day of the ceremony. The groom’s first assignment was to kill an ox that would legitimise the matrimony and provide a feast for all the people attending the ceremony. This he did early in the morning while part of his party watched and the Maasai hosts assisted him.

Time for the ceremony then came, and everyone converged at the manyatta from where the ceremony was to start. Guests numbering more than a hundred, and the Maasai hosts in their hundreds, thronged the manyatta in great anticipation. The bride, groom, bride’s sister, groom’s best man and their parents were all dressed up the Maasai way in readiness for the ceremony. In the centre of the manyatta, all the people gathered to witness the two families doing negotiations for the dowry. According to the Maasai, dowry given by the groom to the bride’s family is not bride price, but a small token to thank the family for their collective effort of bringing up the bride from childhood up to adulthood. Stewart rose from his stool to announce his solid decision to live with Farley in marriage for as long as life permits. Farley’s father did not object and they therefore settled at a dowry of 100 cows and gifts of 2 blankets. The two blankets were presented on the spot and so were 12 cows. It was agreed that the rest would be presented later.

Having come to a conclusion of the dowry negotiations, the bride’s father handed her a walking stick which helps her in her physical, long trek to her husband’s home and as a symbol of her readiness for her long march in married life. He presented the stick along with a small bundle of green grass as a sign of new life that brings forth more new life (offspring - kids!). A send off with showers of blessings from the Maasai elders then followed as the bride departed her mother’s hut and out of the manyatta.

Led by two little girls, a symbol of their own children that they envisage to have in their new life, the bride and groom headed for the main blessing site as the elders showered them with more blessings at the manyatta exit. Flanked by the best man, maid of honour, their parents and the rest of the party, the bride and groom headed for the blessing site. The Maasai elders, warriors and women followed filling the air with their incessant singing, humming and ululation.

At the blessing site, the bride fed the two children with milk that she had carried from her mother’s hut, a sign of her commitment to care for her own children responsibly when she gets them. The best man, on behalf of the groom fed the bride with milk that the he was carrying all the way as a sign that the groom will be a responsible husband and father. The bride was given a new name, Namunyak (the blessed one). The elders then blessed the name, the owner of the name, her husband, her parents and the whole party that accompanied them in their long journey to the land of the Maasai.

One elder spoke to the newly weds, advising them that they should honour and respect the people who made them, who they are now, and lead a married life that will honour the efforts of all the people who have participated in helping them make their lives what they are now.

As some singing and dancing went on, the crowd was electrified by the appearance of the Sanctuary Lodges & Camps Managing Director from the crowd with a gift of a goat for the newly weds. He had come all the way from Nairobi that afternoon to present that gift, a surprise for everyone. The guests spent the rest of the day enjoying drinks and enjoying the scenic view of the rolling plains of the Mara from the Oloololo escarpment and drove back to camp as the first stars made their appearance in the clear skies.

Kusini

The rain has stopped and we are now experiencing hot, dry conditions during the day with cool mornings and evenings. Our guests have had numerous experiences, with a female cheetah who has 2 cubs making herself comfortable on the roof of one of the vehicles - makes for great stories at sundowners on the kopje! Our guests also watched a jackal steal a scrub hare kill from 2 eagles while a number of other guests watched as cheetahs killed gazelle. Although the migration has moved off, we have had quite a few predator sightings, especially of lion and cheetah. A total of 22 different cheetah were “spotted” over 4 days of game viewing – exceptional! One morning at breakfast, while guests were in the diningroom, a leopard walk by to say good morning!

The lions are also looking for water so they come into camp at night in search of a thirst quencher. The Southern Serengeti plains are a sea of gazelle and fresh daily meat for the cheetah, hyena and lion. The thompson & grant’s gazelle moved into the plains after the migration and stayed there for the duration of the dry season. There are also a number of giraffe to be seen in the area while the mighty elephants are now moving back in and around Kusini which makes for great sightings. There are also large herds of eland – up to 300 in a herd – in the area which has provided great photographic opportunities. We have also seen a record of 9 cheetah sightings in one afternoon – fantastic!

Guests witnessed a poor hyena being terrorised by 2 jackal recently. The jackal decided they were not happy with the Hyena’s presence and nipped at his rear end, until he moved off. Then further along, the hyena came across a mother cheetah with 3 cubs, who also decided that the hyena was not welcome. They were hissing and when supported by a lioness who also turned on the hyena. The poor Hyena left the scene in search of a support group! Some of our guests also watched a spotted hyena chase and bring down a baby thompson’s gazelle. The mother gazelle tried her level best to get between the baby and the hyena, but was unfortunately not successful. Another wonderful sighting over the past few months was a spotted hyena sharing it’s kill with a striped hyena!

Quirky Story 1
One afternoon we were walking home to our house while watching a giraffe feeding. We then saw one of our colleagues looking rather frightened and wide-eyed while we were walking along the path. We turned to see what he was panicking about, and there, only a few metres from us, was a rather long tusked elephant! Fortunately, the elephant was relaxed and allowed us to back off. It was quite a frightening moment, but now we can have a laugh about it.

Quirky Story 2
We have a small indentation in the rocks near our dining area, which we fill with water, hence many birds come to bath and drink. We have 2 warthogs around the camp that have found it a good place to wallow during the day too. The klipspringers around our camp also enjoy drinking from there and if there is no water they don’t hesitate in shouting at us from a distance to let us know that the water needs to be replenished!

Our staff village has had a bit of a face lift with a new kitchen being built, a new ablution block for staff and new staff accommodation and we are also busy placing gravel on all the pathways.

“Lucas was the best game driver that we had on our entire trip in Africa. He was amazing.”
Rachel and Micah Meisel.

“A wonderful reception on arrival. Very good meals. Excellent service from a friendly charming, polite and attentive staff – marvelous .”
Schafer &  Boardman

 “Overall system & management is excellent. Hospitality of senior team management specially of Nicola was remarkable. One does not feel that he is out of home, I can call it home away from home.”
Inder Singh

 “The Camp, Management/Staff did an excellent job and I will definitely recommend and use Kusini.”
Charles Williams

“Very Much look forward to our next visit”
Dolores La Vigne 

“Kusini made our stay absolutely enjoyable with their hospitality and exceptional service. Kusini will remain a very memorable experience. We would certainly recommend it highly to our friends.”
John and Janet Bloom

Swala

Mornings are cloudy but the beautiful sun peeps out at midday while nights are filled with bright, twinkling stars before the clouds arrive in the morning again. The rainy season has been and gone, and the grass is once again turning a beautiful yellow. The zebras and wildebeest are starting to enter the park in the north in significant numbers and general game is good with regular sightings of greater kudu and eland. A female leopard killed a young male impala a short distance from tent 4, providing excellent sightings of her going to drink at the waterhole for 3 nights in a row. Another exceptional sighting over the past few months was a pack of 6 wild dogs which were seen on the main road out of camp one morning.

We have had several elephant bulls with massive tusks visiting the water-hole of late while the resident lion pride killed a zebra not far from camp and took turns coming into camp for a drink during dinner one evening – great stories at dinner. We also had our first confirmed sighting of a hyena drinking at the water-hole one evening which is very exciting. We hear hyenas quite often but very seldom see them so this was a special treat.

The greater kudu group close to camp have two new bulls, with massive horns, that joined them. The “Swala Pride” has been seen together on several occasions which now consists of 1 male, 3 lionesses and 4 adorable cubs. They walked past camp recently and after a big commotion we realised that they had chased a leopard up a tree on the outskirts of camp!

We are currently installing electrical lights along the pathways to the tents and the school is collating a wish list to establish where the donated money should be spent.

“I have traveled to Africa multiple times – this has been my BEST trip and experience, attention to detail was exquisite”
Erica Mitchelle & May Gisweld

“All round exceptional – we felt welcome and cared for from the moment we arrived”
Belinda, Jo, Alex Pioggi

“The staff here is amazing”
Meagan Ortloff

“Taste of food and presentation excellent”
Chris McCintyre

BOTSWANA

Baines’ Camp

Temperatures range from cold to hot. There have been a number of great sightings including the magnificent elephant, hyena with pups, zebra, giraffe, blue wildebeest, impala and warthog as well as buffalo and leopard sightings. A few superb puffadder specimens have been seen - close to record size! Some excited guests watched as Thomas, the elephant, and one of his henchmen were having it out in the river in front of the deck, causing the hippos to scatter in fear. Two male lions killed a buffalo near the airstrip. After feeding for a few days, they had their work cut out for them trying to salvage the remains of dinner from a marauding clan of scavenging hyenas

A thrilling sighting for our guests was of a few lionesses stealing an impala kill from a female leopard. We were fortunate enough to have viewed a very relaxed female leopard with an impala kill for almost 5 days - amazing. When one of our guides found the leopard, she had just killed the impala and started feeding of the carcass on the ground (leopards usually try and feed as soon as possible to disembowel the carcass, which ensures that the carcass is lighter making it easier for the leopard to hoist the kill up a tree when danger lurks). She eventually hoisted the kill up a tree and and we watched her feeding, resting and sleeping……excellent photographic opportunities. She occasionally came down to stretch her legs and to go quench her thirst at a pond close by.

Court, a guide, and his guests were returning to camp for pre-dinner drinks one evening. Before they got to camp, they decided to go back to where the female leopard had her kill in the tree. To their surprise, it wasn’t a leopard in the tree with the kill, but a lioness! They soon realised what was going on…….the two lionesses were busy stealing the leopard’s kill. The female leopard was watching her enemies with eagle eyes from another tree - the adrenalin was pumping and cameras flashing. 

Once again we have had a variety of VIP guests and a number of honeymooners – proving that Baines’ Camp is indeed magnificent for adding that romantic touch. Guests enjoy a variety of wonderful activities including serene water safaris in mokoros’ (dug-out canoes)* or faster on a motorboat*. Baines’ Camp makes an exceptional honeymoon experience with our skybeds, which are rolled out onto guests private viewing deck to spend a lovely night under the African night sky…..a magnificent experience to interact with nature.* subject to water levels

Quirky Story
It is the end of winter in Botswana and the food out in the bush is starting to become more scarce, attracting certain animals closer the camp. A few weeks ago, we started getting regular visits from a vervet monkey that come into the main area grabbing anything that looks edible to him. As soon as he gets hold of something, even if its only a tissue box or a can of peaceful sleep (mosquito repellant), he disappears to the top of the roof to investigate. If it is something that’s not edible, he’ll just drop it. One day he got hold of a pack of toothpicks while on another, he dished out our pack of playing cards.

"We leave Botswana with enormous sadness, after 10 wonderful days. Baines' has been a great finale. Superb food, immensley friendly staff and great game viewing. Thank You."
Anna Maria Baccanello and Gareth Vickers

"Very peaceful setting with resident hippos. Wonderful experience with elephants capped off with 2 leopard sightings. Nice hosts, thanks."
Al and Carl Bomersback

“We had local baskets and crafts on display, I like the fact that a lot of the pieces were from the staff”
Jack Parks

Chief’s Camp

A mixed bag of weather with some very mild to warm days with cold nights offering magnificent sunrises and sunsets enhanced by the smoke and dust of Africa. Although the atmosphere is very dry and dusty, water is still abundant and appears to be rising. The countryside is still relatively green for this time of the year providing good grazing and browsing for the wildlife while the mighty elephants are doing their best at selective clearing.

 Game viewing has been brilliant over the past few months, especially for viewing cats. A pride of 34 were in the area along with the Mombo Clan, including the three infamous brothers. Our resident leopard has sadly decided to take her cubs and move on but there have been regular night visits to the camp by other leopard. The elephants have been moving into the area with some nice breeding herds in the vicinity. We have an elephant bull that seems to have made the camp its home and is regularly seen in the late afternoon wading through the flood plain in front of the terrace.  There are more wild dog in the area and guests have been able to view a number of serval cats. Giraffe are still plentiful around the airstrip with excellent photographic opportunities. We recently had a giant eagle owl in camp which was a bonus for our bird enthusiasts.

In keeping with the reputation of Chief’s Camp, there have been remarkable lion sightings – there was a large herd of buffalo near camp which provided a fantastic new food source for the languishing lions. Both black and white rhino have been sighted too along with the graceful cheetah. We now seem to have two distinct packs of wild dogs with many youngsters - this is great news for this area and has caused excitement with our guests. A family of serval cats were spotted and remained for a good length of time enabling the guests to enjoy their company. The resident baboon community seem to be holding elections for a new leader and are creating a very noisy early morning wake up for guests. Two big males seem to be interested in the top job and we feel that a “blow up” is immanent. Elephant have been prevalent with some beautiful breeding herds passing through the camp. The evenings have been enhanced with the choruses of hyena and jackal, which typifies an African evening. All in all the sightings have been superb.

We have had the pleasure of providing our valued guests with special bush cocktails and sunset drinks on our afternoon drives close to Pelican Pan. It is a magnificent spot with the water in the background as the sunsets – great photographic opportunities. This has been favourably received and is a huge surprise for our guests. 

“Anthony was a terrific guide. Never disappointed, the entire staff from management, to guides, to service staff all friendly, at tentative and helpful. It was the experience we were dreaming off.”
Mr & Mrs Glick

“Jono was truly outstanding and very knowledgeable on birds.”
Mr & Mrs Last

“This was a wonderful experience in everyway.  My Birthday dinner was a joy."
Mrs Mc Laughlin

Chobe Chilwero

The winter has come and gone with days being much warmer. Game viewing has been good this month with a variety of sightings.  Huge herds of elephant and buffalo are frequenting the floodplains making the front lawns the perfect platform for viewing game.

Gilbert, a guide, and his guests witnessed a strange phenomenon on one of his afternoon game drives. They came across an impala carcass hoisted up a tree, a sure sign of leopard presence. As the guests were busy taking photographs they heard rustling of grass on the opposite side of the road and to their surprise, a leopard came into full view less than ten metres from the vehicle. Seemingly unperturbed by the “intruders” the leopard continued with its journey, clutching a second impala in her jaw.

Leopards have been seen almost on a daily basis especially a female with cubs and a male on the river front. Large herds of elephant are again the order of the day, sable as well as roan antelope have been sighted regularly. Three bull elephants visit the camp regularly at night providing some great nocturnal sounds. Poniso, a guide, was driving a group of guests who were very keen on seeing cats more than anything else. On their last morning game drive, they left very early from the lodge and set out into the park. By the time they returned at 9.30 am they had seen a mother leopard with two cubs, lions feeding on a buffalo carcass and a number of hyenas – needless to say the guests were over the moon!

The past few months saw us forge a relationship with two institutions in the Kasane village. It is a symbiotic alliance since our guests who normally express an interest in interacting with the local community now have an opportunity to do so. The Plateau Primary school are conducting visits for guests from the lodge. Guests participate in a real classroom situation as well as take part in musical and cultural activities at the school. The school will benefit from gifts and funds donated by guests.

A one-way road system was introduced by the Department of Wildlife with certain lodges traveling on the river road in the morning, returning to the gate via the bush route, and in the opposite direction in the afternoons. This alternates everyday. All seems to be working well thus far. A ‘gate’ has also been introduced on the river with gate payments.

“The food was exceptional, nice variety including vegetarian choice. We have never had such exceptional service anywhere. We had a great, great time and would come back here!”
Peter and Gail Pereira

“Exquisite lodge, wonderful staff, I do not want to leave. Food was first class, haute cuisine and lovely selection.”
Barbara Schmidt and Anthony Hume

“We had a truly wonderful trip and wish we could stay longer! The staff were incredible and so helpful. The lodge was beautiful and simply magnificent. We could not fault a single thing our time here and will recommend it to all our friends.”
Brian Whelan and Elaine O’Sullivan

“What a wonderful honeymoon, perfect game in the park, excellent guides and staff, amazing chef and cooks, a magic moment, thank you for the best time ever,”
Faye and Matt Needham

Stanley’s Camp

General game has been improving with the elephants increasing in numbers. There is a wonderful herd of 15 giraffe in the area as well, which, when illuminated by the setting sun, looks stunning. The herd has the tiniest baby giraffe we’ve ever seen, it look more like a toy than a real one! The buffalo are creeping through in comparatively small herds of 50-100 and zebras are plentiful. We are hearing lions almost every night, although the sightings remain relatively scarce. There are a number of mongoose, baboons and warthogs around which can be relied upon to provide entertainment. Leopard sightings continue to be regular and of a high quality, although they seem more skittish on the days that we hear lions roaring! There are plenty of zebra in the area and we expect to see a lot of fuzzy baby zebras popping out over the next few months.

We have had some exceptional sightings over the past few months. One afternoon, Colin and John went out for drive stopping by a small pond in the middle of a floodplain. There was a Burchell’s Coucal by the side of the road and its confident nature meant that it chose not to fly away. This was, initially, why they had stopped but they noticed something moving in the water. It was too small to be a hippo and too fast to be a crocodile. It was such an unusual sight, it took a while for them to believe their eyes. Eventually, as it dove into the water, we realised that it was an otter! The Cape Clawless Otter is a very rarely seen animal and not a commonly thought-of resident of the Delta.

Guests were treated to a magnificent leopard walking along a road during an afternoon drive. The guests followed the leopard in the vehicle hence the guide had to go off road. The leopard then made an impala kill and climbed up a tree to enjoy his snack. Two of the guests had said it was the most amazing experience to watch the leopard feeding on the carcass.

One evening John and some guests were sitting at the fire having a drink before dinner. John heard a bushbuck give an alarm call and asked the guests to move up to the deck. As they moved up, the bushbuck came into sight and moved across the front of the deck. A few minutes later a spotted hyena came out of the grass and walked right up to the fire. The hyena seemed to warm himself up by the fire before following the bushbuck’s trail.

The mokoro excursions* are in full swing again and is very popular with our guests. The light is beautiful and the painted reed frogs always adds colour to these serene water safaris. There have also been regular hippo sightings, adding excitement to this safari experience (*subject to water levels).

One experience of particular interest was when Alan and the escort guide climbed a baobab tree to gather some fruits to show their guests. Apparently, it was a sighting that truly displayed the rivalry between the dominant males of the guide community! The guides have also located a hyena den not far from camp and regular visits in the evening have revealed four pups, of varying ages, displaying wonderful puppy behaviour Chewing sticks and playing with one another, the puppies are definitely proving to be a major attraction on the concession at present.

Quirky Story
One night this month the radio went off in the middle of the night.  A guest voice whispered. Help!

John asked what the problem was and the guest said that there was a lion or a leopard trying to break into the tent. John rushed out to the guests tent, cautiously approached the tent but saw no lion or leopard. John called to the guests and said there is was no animal there but the guests response was “I can still hear the animal”. John then went onto the deck of the tent and listened. He heard a flapping noise and moved to the side of the tent where he found a canvas strap that attaches a hook to hold up the canvas. The wind was blowing it against the canvas of the tent – John had found the lion.

A few months ago, the community elected the members of the Okavango Community Mokoro Trust Board. The board meeting that was held at Stanley’s Camp was a very positive and successful meeting. The most positive message from the meeting was that the Board was very happy with the support Sanctuary Lodges & Camps has given to the staff in respect of health care and the “prevent the spread of HIV” policy.

We are pleased to advise that we have employed the services of local HIV councilors as well as medical treatment to staff. Sanctuary Lodges & Camps also covers the cost of staff flights to and from camp for hospital appointments while pregnant staff members receive free monthly flights for their check ups. All medical kits as well as trauma kits are also provided to staff free of charge.

“The staff, the guide (July) were welcoming and very knowledgeable. This was fabulous and by far a spectacular adventure a cut above the rest! The game was tremendous and above and beyond our expectations. Thank you so much – you made our time a spectacular experience. A dream come true.”
Libby & Arfan Khan

“We enjoyed our stay immensely. Thank you for doing such a great job and being such wonderful hosts!”
Thomas & Rebecca Minogue

“The wildlife was great, but the friendliness and hospitality of the staff is what makes this camp very special. Walking with the elephants was fantastic and unique experience. Doug and his team provided us with one of our most memorable experiences."
Andrew & Dana Ster

“It has been a beautiful and restful stay. The environment is truly calming and it allows one to feel a sense of togetherness with nature. The spirit of creation is remarkable! Thank you for your great hospitality.”
Mavis Matenge 

DISH OF THE MONTH

East-African Peanut Soup
(courtesy of Swala)

Method

• Sauté the onion, ginger, garlic and spices in the vegetable oil.
• Add the carrots and sweet potato and sauté for a further 5 min.
• Add the water and simmer until the carrots and sweet potato are tender.    
• Remove from the stove and puree. Add the peanut butter and tomato juice.
• Milk can be added if the consistency is too thick
• Season to taste.
• Serve hot or chilled.

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