Message Stick > September 2011 - Destinations Africa Pty Ltd

JMA’s Musings!

We are looking at this month being a month with more clients in Africa at one time than we have ever had! It seems that word is getting around about September being the best time to be in Africa – the Masai Mara has the migration in full swing and Southern Africa has seen the end of winter and it is dry with wild life concentrated around water holes so game viewing is fabulous.

With the global financial position being what it is obviously tourism has been hit hard with a huge drop in travellers from Europe and America to Africa. We are still very happy with our progress and there are some great deals being offered to us from some lodges – usually a “pay for three and stay for four nights” arrangement.

The drought in north east Africa has not impacted on the game reserves in Kenya and Tanzania as they have experienced good rains this year. There is plenty of grazing and no shortage of water. Anyone visiting northern Kenya would see the effect of this drought.

An interesting development has emerged from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The bookings to this destination have superseded anything from the past. The hotels are enjoying very high occupancy levels and we have even had difficulty getting some bookings at our favourites hotels due to no availability. This is fantastic news as it means that the infrastructure in the area is being maintained at a high level and we know how well everything works here. A super place to take a break from the bush and nearly every one of our clients now select to stay a few days here. In spite of this we have a great Victoria Falls special offer using the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge that includes three nights at the Lodge, airport transfers, a dinner at the Boma, a sundowner cruise, and a guided walk of the Falls – all for A $500 per person sharing. What a deal.

We have received very positive feedback on our electronic virtual itineraries. Only a couple of very technically challenged clients have been unable to cope with it and we have had to send PDF itineraries. By next week we will have a new version that will offer even greater information and detail for our clients and we look forward to using it. The visual impact is amazing and gives you a really good idea as to what to expect and a map view including Google Earth views of the lodges etc.

We invite you to have a look at our Facebook page www.facebook.com/destinationsafrica

and add you comments to our wall and other sections. We look forward to hearing from you. You can also get on to John Mitchell-Adams Facebook page if you would like to. I invite you to join as a “Friend”

News from Savanna.

With acknowledgement and thanks to Paddy Hagelthorn and the Savanna Team, Neil Whyte, David Wilson and Greg Coates for amazing photos.

There has been a slight delay with the latest blog, so we have therefore compiled a two-week blog. We have had some good elephant viewing over the past two weeks, with many herds coming down to drink at the permanent waterholes, as the water in the bush diminishes.

This large tusker made a brief appearance and is certainly a very relaxed old bull. A young bull elephant was showing signs of a stomach ailment and attempted to alleviate the pain by walking backwards constantly, and lying down on numerous occasions! A few days later, the bull was seen again and this time appeared to be in good health.

There has been plenty of mating activity with the leopards. Kashane and the Savanna female have been seen mating twice in the past two weeks, firstly in the vicinity of Tasselberry Dam, and then in Patty Pans Road. The Mobeni female from the east was also in the sighting on one occasion.

The Balabas male leopard has recently moved into the south western region, and his name has been changed to a more appropriate one. He is now known as the Day One male.

Shinzele and Mashiabanj have been seen north of the Sand River.

On one occasion Shinzele was feeding on an impala carcass which Shangwa’s offspring had killed. The young female begged for the carcass, with which Shinzele refused to part

Hlabankunzi has been seen towards the eastern side of the reserve. On one occasion she was seen stalking impala on the firebreak on Newington Road, but unfortunately her efforts were unsuccessful.

Tlangisa has been settling down on the western boundary, half-way up our concession, and has been spending a lot of time in the firebreak. One day, she attempted to steal Metsi’s male cub’s carcass from a marula tree, but having climbed up the tree to the carcass, she was promptly rebuffed by the young male. She descended the tree and just watched the male from a distance as he reclaimed the carcass.

Herds of zebra have frequently been seen drinking at Georgie’s Dam.

The large herd of buffalo has been in the western sector for the past week. Numerous old bulls have been seen, enjoying a wallow in the pans around the camp, especially now that the days are starting to warm up.

The Mapogo males are covering a vast amount of ground at the moment. The brothers are also going further east, probably to defend their territory from the new coalition in the east.

The males killed a buffalo bull at Nkombe Pan, and then the three males were joined by a Ximungwe lioness and her two eleven-month old male cubs..

A couple of days later, the whole Ximungwe pride and offspring were visible at the carcass. The pride is doing well and the cubs are growing quickly.

We had a fantastic sighting of three lionesses and their cubs crossing the Sand River. It turned out to be a harrowing affair for the small cubs who struggled valiantly in the water and eventually completed the crossing. It was amazing to see how the lionesses coaxed the cubs across with constant vocal communication.

The rhino viewing has also been good. A very relaxed and playful rhino calf showed quite a bit of interest in us, while its mother took no notice and just continued to graze.

It is wonderful to see the hippos rolling in the water, especially one particular bull which continually showed off at Treehouse Mackenzie.

Wild dog sightings are always special. The pack has been moving a great deal throughout the reserve and the five remaining puppies are doing well.

Hyaena sightings are on the increase. Recently, we have found that early in the morning seems to be the best time to see these successful carnivores.

General game sightings have been equally good.

A water monitor lizard was spotted lying on a rock at the Mabrak Crossing and a community spider web was seen as the early morning light shone through a torchwood tree.

(JMA Note: I have often espoused the view that Savanna has arguably the best Leopard viewing in the world and unparalleled Big 5 viewing! Look at the photos and then tell me that I am wrong!!!!)

News from Robin Pope – Zambia

Hello again – so then what have we all been up to? This side it has been all go in the animal kingdom of the South Luangwa as well as the operations side of Robin Pope Safaris for that matter. No time to sit, kick back and have a cup of tea it seems the minute ones bottom hits the chair it is straight back up again and scooting around camp. Harriet, who is our hostess at Nkwali, came up with a very good idea to get hold of a pedometer to see just how much exercise we are doing with out realizing. Just think exercise that isn’t a chore!!

A little bit from behind the scenes just to keep you all in the loop – yesterday was a particularly hectic day with our weekly supply truck arriving. Try to imagine the amount of food needed for 8 camps and with all that at the same time we were packing up the Samil 50 ready for the mobiles team to leave. They are now up in the bushes for the next 6 weeks so last phone calls home were made as well as catch up time with all the guys at Nkwali. It was mayhem!!! All of that said it was all done and dusted by 10.30 so plenty of time to re-group. Webby, the driver of the Samil, is particularly happy as the new truck has arrived and it has a horn – so he sits high up in his cab with an enormous grin on his face and just before he leaves gives everyone a farewell toot.

Enough of that though, let’s give you some of the news from the wilder side of life….

Rob and I were fortunate enough to have a day off, and took full advantage of the fact by packing a cooler box and heading out into the park, armed with cameras, and ready to go. Some drives you can see just about everything but on other drives it would appear that there is just one animal that stands out, and on this day it was giraffes – they were everywhere…. Maybe there was some kind of convention which no one had told us about but, jeepers, there was no holding them back. Youngsters with their heads just peeking up above the bushes, mums taking 40 winks under some sausage trees (you want to be careful with that spot as you may be woken up with a bit of a bump if you are not), then there were the lads showing off for the girls and having a sparing session. It is not the speediest of bust ups and does take some time but when they make contact it certainly packs a punch and you can hear the thud very clearly from some distance.

Back at Nkwali the leopards have really been showing off, strutting their stuff at afternoon tea on the opposite river bank to camp. Showing off their hunting skills to the guests and then enjoying their rewards. Kiki has been busy guiding this last week and came back after his morning drive completely dumb founded by three separate leopard sightings and then a sighting of three lions on his way up to the river crossing. And that doesn’t include everything else that was seen in-between. In fact during the in-between he saw probably the biggest croc that he has seen in years which is always a great if not slightly chilling sighting and a definite reminder that the monsters are still lurking!

The river has also dropped significantly, which is both good and bad, but it does mean that we now have more and more frequent sightings of the elephants crossing which is always a great sight. We are very fortunate in that we have a few great spots where we regularly see this happen – down by the pontoon where the guests had the luck of seeing over 30 making their way across the river and of course just in front of Nsefu, which is an almost daily event.

The End!

Well that is it for this month. Get your bookings in now!

Happy Safaris!

John

61 (0)2 4984 9747

61 (0)411 749 627

jma@destinationsafrica.com.au