BUSH NEWS

Our summer rains are over and autumn's chill stalks the land ! Days are gloriously sunny and slowly the grass dries out and turns yellow. Lions blend in with the same color of the grass – their backs warmed in the sun. No longer do we look for them against the shade of an anthill, but rather a flick of the black tipped tail chasing flies in the wind. If we are lucky and keen sighted, we may see a peeping head as they lazily lift their heads to focus on the strange engine noise.

As pans dry out, the game heads for the Okavango wetlands which are filled with vast sheets of white water lilies. The breeze catches the edges of the broad leaves, turning the tips to give us a glimpse of the maroon colored reverse.

The combination of high floods (Okavango and Chobe) and a drought year means optimum game viewing conditions. With grass cover down and most animals concentrated near the water ways, game viewing is an endless pleasure. This concentration will increase as winter ends and the hot weather returns towards the end of August.

A few recent highlightsof our safaris in the Okavango included a lion fight of note – three males attacked a fourth who was mating and did not notice their arrival. Somehow after an almighty cat fight only a few meters away from us, the youngster (definitely younger than the three dominant brothers) managed to extricate himself from under their bodies after a sever lambasting. He took off like a long dog, not even daring to glance back as they often do. His one intent was to put as much distance between himself and his surprise attackers. There is a hierarchy in all the animal kingdoms and clearly, he was at the bottom of this one. A rare moment of witnessing a buffalo kill by four young male lions was also an indelible memory of skill and cunning. As if to top the list, we spotted a leopard kill of an impala ram. However, the leopard proved a little shy and hid in the thick bush to return to the kill later.

Flood waters have spread widely and attract buffalo herds that are in turn stalked by lions. New water entering the grass lands has been a magnet for all manner of water fowl. Bird watching and twitching the list is exciting and worth every minute of sitting quietly with a good pair of binocs. The day’s tally is better than the day before and somehow, we set off the next day, feeling even luckier than the previous day. Some birds love the mornings and others, like the night herons fly off from their day time roosts and head out to their favorite shallows or reeded streams for the evening feed. Receding pans are a favorite of the all the storks (Marabou in particular) which strut around and through the shallows, picking up a beak full of catfish fingerlings. Small bream too, keep the black herons in flocks of black mantels. With this sort of gathering, it is always interesting to look for the smaller species of waders, stilts, Hottentot teal etc. The duck life is so varied and as they take off in small groups to circle the pan, it becomes a myriad thermal of color and sound.

El Nino continues to tighten its grip across Botswana. Conditions this year were very hot and very dry with almost no rain. It is a real drought year and with no surface water outside of the Okavango Delta, wildlife is flocking to the wetlands in droves. Angola, further north, has had good rains with the result that the Zambezi/Chobe floodplains are completely inundated, drowning villages and fields. Okavango itself is high with the flood reported to be only 15 kms from Maun - at least 5 weeks early.

Moremi Game Reserve is crawling with game - conditions that one usually sees around Sept/Oct and the Santa area (near Maun) has excellent game-viewing. In short, this is a real vintage year as wildlife from all over crowds the delta in a desperate search for water. Conditions like this you might find once in a decade or longer. If ever there was a year to visit Okavango, this is it.

Drought conditions and no outside surface water coupled with high flood levels from Angola are creating a spectacle of nature seldom seen. Get yourself a group together and get moving. This is not sales talk - it is a genuine alert to see Okavango this year. We look forward to the coming days of pure nature at its best. It’s the old bush dynamics all over again but this a vintage year.

With best wishes and love,

Lloyd, Storm and Daphne.

Wilmot Safaris (Pty) Ltd
P.O. Box 37,
MAUN.
BOTSWANA.
Tel & Fax (267) 6862615
Cell Phone : (267) 71697200
Email : lloydlws@botsnet.bw