Newsletter
January 2005 - Dear Friends
To all of you that I owe many replies
– thank you for keeping in touch.!! My newsletter
of the 3rd June, 2004, brought most of you up to
speed with our latest news. I am paging through
my diary – reading month after month and reliving
our safari travels to wonderful places. Christmas
2004 is beginning to slip quietly back into the
diary, now gathering dust on the office shelf. Time
and tide, they say, waits for no man.!! My new book
lies on my desk and already I have filled most of
the pages for the month of January, 2005!! |
| Today
is my fourteenth wedding anniversary and although
that is personal, I recall it only as that was when
I first started writing to all of you and keeping
regular diaries of my life, here and in Botswana.
Lloyd Wilmot, my brother, has been a huge part of
all those years as we continue to run mobile safaris
together. Grant Truthe, my son, still operates his
mobile safari operation called Okavango Voyages
and I run with him as often as I can. With the knowledge
gained over the years of conducting genuine bush
safaris, mobiling to all the safari destinations
of Botswana, I feel that we all still run one of
the few real value for money operations in Botswana.
Our safaris are personalized and great attention
is paid to your appreciation of the wildlife and
nature around you.
Our rainy season towards the end
of last year was minimal, to say the least. All
our favourite water pans dried up, leaving the edges
barren and crusted. We caught sight of our seven
male lions in October, eight months after the one
was badly wounded on the knee by buffalo, in March,
2004. This wide gaping wound had healed itself and
although it was not completely closed, we reckoned
he had a fair chance of recovering completely. Our
many breeding herds of elephants kept us on our
toes, ever wary of being chased through thick bush
or heavy sand. Every year I reckon that was my narrowest
escape and that gap just keeps closing. But, my
skills in self-preservation improve with each year
too and this makes for a very interesting life.
One incident made a friend grab me and pull me away
from the side of the vehicle, thinking that the
elephant cow was just too close for comfort.! Admittedly,
the elephant’s foreleg was only a few feet
away from the rear wheel and I just happened to
be sitting on the outer edge.! The second charge
from another cow, another day, was also very real
and I had to accelerate around a heavy sand corner
much faster than I normally do. I remember clicking
my tongue at her, thinking she really was a cow.!
She was totally unprovoked and far off enough to
feel quite safe, but she just had to let me know
who was the boss.! Now I know why they are always
chasing me in my dreams.! Lloyd also had a narrow
escape with a young bull elephant in May last year.
His email to me was hair raising to say the least,
but in the back of my mind, I know full well that
he can cope with all situations from the ability
to read and anticipate elephant body language.!
Self-preservation plays a large part I am sure but
I know he believes he still has too much to do on
this earth.!!
He loves his Shakawe property and
enjoys improving the facilities there. His magnificent
forest of mature tall strangling fig trees, African
ebony treasures over hundreds of years old and the
thick undergrowth, bears testimony to the sacredness
of a protected area. The Pel’s fishing owls
above, that fly secretively between the thick cover
of leafy fronds and the delicately silent genet
below lives in harmony on the banks of this valuable
forested area. The shy bushbuck treads warily on
the well-trodden paths between the undergrowth,
placing one hoof quietly in front of the other as
they nibble on the fruits and leaves of certain
trees. Butterflies and moths of so many colours,
hatch out perfectly and symmetrically, on the vegetation
they require to survive each and every year. Their
habitat is safe.
Savuti revisited this year was
a definite high light for me and although only briefly,
it brought back all the happy memories of my wonderful
photo albums filled with pictures of the zebra migration
that takes place every March/April and again in
November. The superb lion photography opportunities
are endless, as the prides concentrate on the abundant
food supply of striped bodies. Early morning sunrise
through the bare branches of the camel thorn skeletons
is like a picture framed. Patience is rewarded as
one surveys the dry grassy marsh for the secretive
hyena dens, with little black pups playing carelessly
on the white sand mounds dug out from the den hole.
Tired ol’ mother lies near by and lifts her
head every now and again, to check for any danger.
I still travel between Johannesburg
and Botswana, working in an area I love and being
home with my husband (when he is not flying around
the world). My darling daughter-in-law, Katie, gave
us another precious little grand daughter (Mia)
in September and our hearts burst with pride. Grant
and Katie now have the sweetest two little girls
in town. Saskia is very proud of her little sister
“Miemi.”
Our web site at last is in the
making and it can be viewed at www.wilmotsafaris.com
- bear with me if you see any blatant errors, either
spelling or verbally; gremlins have a way of getting
into these mean little machines that we spend hours
in front of. It will be updated regularly and any
comments, guest book entries, stories etc, will
be greatly appreciated. Grant’s web site is
www.okavangovoyagers.com
and has been running since last year. |
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