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Pierre with Meerkat

 

PIERRE'S KALAHARI SAFARI - DEC. 2008

My exploratory trip to Africa this year was a solo venture, as Margaret stayed home to take care of William (9 months old at the time of the trip). As always it was a great privilege to visit some of the most beautiful wilderness areas on earth, and the trip itself was also very productive. I set out with several objectives:

a) Explore the Deception Valley region of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

b) Visit new camps in the Okavango Delta, Chobe/Linyanti ecosystem, Namibia's Caprivi Strip, and Victoria Falls.

c) Check on existing camps that have been refurbished recently

d) Meet with old friends and colleagues within southern Africa's safari industry

e) Experience a full "green season" Botswana safari

f) Get my fix of the African bush

The Kalahari is sometimes described as "the greatest mantle of sand on earth". It is vast, stretching from South Africa to Gabon, but Botswana forms the heart of the Kalahari. Strictly speaking, I never left the Kalahari during the course of my travels but, from a safari perspective, I visited four different safari areas, all of which fall within (and demonstrate the incredible diversity of) the 'greater Kalahari':

1) The Central Kalahari (including Makgadikgadi Pans)

2) The Okavango Delta

3) The Chobe/Linyanti ecosystem (including the Caprivi Strip)

4) Victoria Falls

Our 'modus operandi' on educational trips is a little different from a normal safari schedule, although we do often join other guests on regular camp activities. Typically we have a lot of ground to cover, spending less time searching for "high profile" sightings and focusing more on soil and vegetation types, volume and diversity of general game, and other indicators of an area's game-viewing/activity potential. "Siesta time" is spent doing camp inspections, while meal times are typically set aside for business meetings. It's not uncommon to be out for a full day, exploring a concession and doing site inspections of all camps on the concession. In the end, our lack of focus on big game is balanced by the amount of time that we spend in the bush, such that we end up with a "check list" that is very similar to what a regular safari traveler to the same area might expect.

Given the demanding travel schedule, we travel VERY light, and are limited to fairly modest camera equipment to keep weight down. This, coupled with very average photography skills, means that we often don't do the kind of photographic justice to a sighting that many of our clients are able to (just look at some of the client photos in this and previous editions of Classic Africa News for evidence).

With these caveats in mind, herewith some of the highlights of my "Kalahari Safari".

The Central Kalahari

Kalahari Lion
Kalahari Lion
Springbuck in Deception Valley
Springbuck in Deception Valley
Kalahari sunset after the storm
Sunset after the Makgadikgadi storm
Meerkats on sentry duty
Meerkats on sentry duty
Zebra in the Makgadikgadi
Zebra in the Makgadikgadi National Park
Deception Valley Sunset
Beautiful Deception Valley sunset (photo by my guide, Dave Luck)

Camps Visited

Kalahari Plains Camp

Tau Pan Camp (site only)

Jack's Camp

San Camp (site only)

Camp Kalahari


Overview

According to conventional wisdom, the Kalahari is not a true desert because (on average) it receives more than 10" of rain per year. But, by more pragmatic standards (the absence of surface water, and a dramatic moisture deficit), the Kalahari is unquestionably a desert. By any measure, it is a very dry and apparently inhospitable environment. It is only by incredible physiological adaptations that have evolved over millennia, the unique geomorphology of the area, and migration that wildlife is able to thrive in this hostile landscape.

There are, broadly speaking, two elements to a Central Kalahari safari experience - wildlife and the desert ecosystem.

The Deception Valley region of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is the prime location for a Kalahari wildlife experience. Every year, from roughly December through April, large herds of antelope (primary springbuck, oryx, and wildebeest) migrate northwards into this ancient fossilized valley system as rain causes a flush of nutrient rich grass. Lion and cheetah follow close on their heels, setting the scene for an ancient drama that provides visitors with outstanding game-viewing opportunities. Until recently, the only way to really access the Deception Valley area was to take a very long day trip from a lodge located outside the boundaries of the Park. Now, with two exclusive camps being allocated sites within the National Park, this remarkable area is finally accessible to international visitors.

The Makgadikgadi National Park is probably the best area within the Kalahari for a true desert experience. The great Makgadikgadi Pans are reputed to be the largest salt pans on earth, and their genesis is key to understanding just about every other safari destination in Botswana (including the Okavango Delta and Deception Valley). Jack's Camp, and it's sister properties (San Camp and Camp Kalahari) rule the Makgadikgadi - having started operating long before anyone else even considered taking visitors into the desert, these camps occupy the prime location, and have honed their desert guiding skills to near perfection.


Highlights

* The beauty and complexity of the "Great Thirstland". Travelling 300 miles through the Central Kalahari Game Reserve provided a wonderful overview of this area, and highlighted the extent to which wildlife is concentrated along the fossilized valleys and pans (where nutrient rich sedimentary soil overlays the relatively sterile Kalahari sands). Apart from the scale and stark beauty of the Kalahari, I was struck by the extent to which the predominant species in this area (e.g. springbuck, oryx, red hartebeest) are animals that simply don't occur in Botswana's other safari areas. Of the 17 species of mammals that we identified in the Deception Valley area, seven are either entirely absent or very rare in the Okavango Delta and Chobe/Linyanti areas.

* Kalahari Lions. The Kalahari is famous for its large, black-maned lions. In the course of our travels we saw nine different lions, one of which was a splendid male. Although not even fully mature yet, his impressive size and thick black mane give a good indication of what a magnificent specimen he will be in his prime. I didn't see any cheetah during my stay, but this is unusual. The other vehicle in camp did see cheetah. Also, I was in the Kalahari very early in the "green season", and only a small portion of the wildlife that will migrate into Deception Valley had arrived. As the season progresses, grazers concentrate into very large herds and predator sightings become almost boringly predictable.

* A springbuck giving birth. One conspicuous feature of my safari was the plethora of newborn babies in every ecosystem - springbuck and oryx in the Kalahari, and impala, tsessebe, and warthogs elsewhere. Many grazers time their breeding season so that birthing coincides with the onset of the first rains and the regrowth of grass (late November and early December). As I traveled through the Deception Valley area I saw numerous baby springbuck that were no more than a few minutes old. At one point we identified a springbuck ewe that was clearly in the late stages of partus. We had a good vantage point, so stopped to watch the process unfold. Within 10 minutes of being born, the newborn lamb was up on its wobbly feet; 10 minutes later it was bouncing alongside its mother and suckling. There's no time for vulnerability with so many predators close at hand!

* Great raptor viewing. I enjoy bird watching perhaps more than most first time safari travelers, but I am by no means a serious "birder". No matter what one's level of interest in birds though, it's just about impossible not to admire the majesty of a martial eagle, the agility of a lanner falcon, or the effortless grace of a pallid harrier. We identified 22 different raptor species in the Kalahari, each with its own unique combination of elegance and lethality.

* Up close and personal with meerkats. One of the highlights at Jack's Camp is the opportunity to interact with a wild clan of meerkats that has been habituated to human presence by prolonged exposure to researchers. Just as big game species in photographic safari areas have become habituated to the presence of safari vehicles, and are oblivious to a vehicle's presence as they go about their lives, so these highly sociable creatures ignore the close presence of humans as they emerge from their burrows, survey their surroundings, and head off to forage. Following the expert advice of my guide (and by pretending to be a termite mound), I was able to entice a meerkat to clamber up onto my shoulder as he sought the highest lookout point for sentry duty. This level of personal interaction with a wild animal is something very rare and special, and was one of the most memorable experiences of my trip.

* Storm over the Makgadikgadi. Rain typically comes to the Kalahari in the form of short and dramatic thunderstorms, which clear the air and leave in their wake a welcome coolness. Sitting in the remarkable main tent at Jack's Camp (which is one of only five registered museums in Botswana), sipping ice tea and watching wind and rain lash the Ilala palm trees on the fringe of the great Makgadikgadi Pans, I felt a sense of rejuvenation sweeping across the desert. The storm was followed by a sunset as crisp and clean as any I have ever witnessed.

* Wall to wall zebras. Although the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park is not a big game destination in the same sense as the Deception Valley area (or other of Botswana's safari areas), that's not to say that it is devoid of big game. In fact, one of Africa's largest migrations takes place every year during Botswana's "green season" when tens of thousands of Zebras migrate east from the Boteti River to the edge of the Pans in search of fresh grazing. As I drove between camps doing site inspections we were held up at several points waiting for zebra herds to move out of the way.

* Walking with bushmen. Jack Bousfield was, by all accounts, an unforgettable character. We never had the privilege of meeting Jack, but his son Ralph is as much of a legend in the Kalahari as his father (after whom Jack's Camp is named). One of the benefits of the family's prolonged presence in the Kalahari is their unrivaled relationship with the few remaining San ("Bushman") communities that still live there. At any given time, there is always at least one bushman in residence at Jack's Camp. There were five during my visit, and I had the rare pleasure of accompanying all five of them on a desert walk. The whole experience was fascinating, from digging up tubers to playing with scorpions, but the highlight came at the end of the walk when they made a fire with sticks and zebra dung, then sat around smoking pipes and playing a rhythmic game of "duiker versus steenbuck". One dictionary definition of the word "cool" is 'sophisticated or elegant, unruffled'; these five bushmen gave me a new measure of "coolness" by which all supposedly cool behavior I've ever witnessed was positively crass in comparison.


The Okavango Delta

African Painted Wold ("wild dog")
Wild dog on the hunt
Lion cubs
Tsaro cubs
Giraffe about to mate
Giraffe courtship
Male lion
Skimmer male
Lioness on the hunt
Heavily muscled Duba Plains lioness
Dogs on the hunt
Wild dogs, ever vigilant for prey or other predators

Camps Visited

Chitabe and Chitabe Lediba

Stanley's Camp

Baines' Camp

Xudum Camp

Xaranna Camp

Duba Plains Camp


Overview

The Okavango Delta is one of Africa's great wilderness treasures, and probably the single most impressive highlight of Botswana. From a safari perspective, the Delta has it all - incredible natural beauty, excellent wildlife volume and diversity, a wide selection of activities, and the exclusivity of being on private concessions with incredibly strict limitations on the number of guests. If you are unfortunate enough to only have time for one safari camp in Botswana, at any time of the year, that camp should be in the Okavango Delta.

Not all Delta camps are created equal - one can travel just a few miles from one camp to another and enter a completely different habitat zone where the game-viewing and activities are starkly contrasting. It's almost safe to say that there isn't a bad camp in the Okavango Delta, but the differences between them can have a significant impact on the type of experience offered. My visit didn't produce any surprises, but it did drive home the importance of being at the right camp for the right reasons.

Another feature of the Okavango Delta is that it is, from a game-viewing perspective, virtually "non-seasonal" because Delta animals don't migrate. They don't need to, there's always plenty of food and water. Some species may become a little harder to see due to longer grass during the "green season" but, by and large, game-viewing in productive parts of the Delta is pretty much the same year round. All the greenery, coupled with blue skies and dramatic cloud formations, also makes for better photography - it's not coincidental that most brochure shots are taken during the "green season".


Highlights

* Wild dogs on the hunt at Chitabe. Chitabe Camp's logo is the African Painted Wolf (or "wild dog"), and statistically one has a higher chance of seeing wild dogs at Chitabe than just about anywhere else in Botswana. But that is not to say that wild dogs are taken for granted here, and no camp would be foolish enough to suggest that guests are going to see wild dogs during their stay. Wild dogs just move around too much to be predictable - they need to remain mobile because they are too successful as hunters to stay in one area for any length of time. So I felt appropriately privileged to come across a pack of 13 wild dogs on the hunt at Chitabe. It was mid morning and they were in the process of finishing off an impala. The pups were playing and the adults were taking a brief pause in the morning's schedule, characteristically restless as they kept a lookout for other predators or prey. The energy was electric, and no dog was still for more than a few seconds. After about 15 minutes of this uneasy "break" the pack was on the move again, stopping briefly to drink at a channel crossing before disappearing into thicker bush to blaze their deadly trail across the Chitabe concession.

* Mating giraffe. Later than same morning, as if to erase the images of death and remind me of the "circle of life", we came across a pair of mating giraffe (a first for me). Modesty precludes us from publishing images of the actual event (which was remarkably short in duration), but the "courtship" photo above provides strong clues as to the mechanics of the act. For what are perhaps the most graceful creatures on earth, the process was embarrassingly clumsy and inelegant. Within a few minutes I felt a sharp pang of guilt for having intruded (and lingered), quietly begged the pardon of Mr. and Mrs. Giraffe, and asked Andy the guide to continue. If all goes well, Mrs. Giraffe can expect a 220lb bundle of joy in March 2010.

* Catching up with the Duba lions. I'm going to stick my neck out and state that Duba Plains offers the best opportunities for photographing lions in southern Africa (or possibly the whole continent, for that matter). The reason is simple - you have a pride of anywhere from 10 to 15 lions trapped on an island with a very large herd of buffalo (along with generous helpings of other grazers). Mix in the lions' unique preference for daytime hunting, and you have a recipe for excitement, adrenaline, and some incredible daytime sightings. Nothing in the wild can be guaranteed, but it's a very unlucky visitor to Duba who spends three or more nights in camp and doesn't witness some type of lion-buffalo interaction. I was lucky - in just one night I was able to follow the movements of the pride, catch up on the pride dynamics, and watch two unsuccessful (but very exciting) attempts on a bachelor herd of male buffalo. I was also reminded just how physically impressive the lions themselves are - wrestling buffaloes is clearly a vigorous workout, and I don't think I have seen more heavily muscled lionesses anywhere. For the "Duba Junkies" among you, here follows a brief update on recent pride developments.


Duba Dynamics

The year past (2008) was marked by many significant events, not least among them being the end of the mighty "Duba Boys". These incredible lions, who were the stars of a National Geographic documentary ("Relentless Enemies"), maintained their territorial dominance over some of the most prime real estate in Botswana for an incredible 11 years, and reached the ripe old age of 17. To place this in context, the average tenure for a dominant male coalition is estimated to be around two years, with four years being considered exceptional.

The first Duba Boy died in late January - he was severely injured in a fight with the "Skimmer Male", and finally finished off by a buffalo. His brother survived as a skulking outcast for another six months, in the same territory that he had reigned over for 11 years, before succumbing to the effects of an injury sustained while attacking buffalo. Thus have the mighty fallen.

By the time of my visit, the "Skimmer Male" (a very impressive individual in his own right) was firmly established as head of the "Tsaro Pride" (the former dominion of the Duba Boys). The pride comprised the Skimmer Male, 10 females (one being subadult), and two male cubs. The presence of cubs brought some cautious optimism among the guides as the pride suffered extensively from infanticide throughout 2008 - unusually it was the lionesses who were killing each others' cubs.

The pride seemed stable enough, and their success rate on buffalo has been as good as ever. But there are signs that the Skimmer Male's reign might be fairly short-lived, not due to any personal defects but because he is alone. No less an expert than James (007), a long-standing guide at Duba who probably knows more about the Duba lions than anyone else alive, believes that the territory is too large and too desirable to be held by a lone male. Incursions from surrounding areas are just too regular, and a single male can't patrol the boundaries with sufficient regularity to maintain their integrity. Already two separate males from adjacent areas have eluded Skimmer and mated females in the pride. During my stay I witnessed one of them, a maneless son of the Duba Boys named "Junior", carousing with one of the lionesses. In the brutal, cutthroat world of male lions, such laxity is a sure path to ruin, and these infractions don't bode well for Skimmer's tenure. Still, he is a magnificent specimen of Panthera leo, and will not be easily deposed. The year ahead promises high drama for all inhabitants of the Duba Plains.


Chobe/Linyanti


Shy leopard moving off into the bush

Carmine bee eater
African Darter
African darter
Young Kudu Bull
Young kudu bull
Savuti Hide - 07
View from Savuti blind - Oct. 07
Savuti hide 08
View of Savuti blind - Dec. 08
Wild dog on the hunt
Wild dog in the middle of an impala herd
Cheetah with kill
Cheetah with baby impala

Camps Visited

Zarafa Camp

King's Pool Camp

Duma Tau Camp

Savuti Camp

Lianshulu Lodge


Highlights

* Water in the Savuti channel. I knew about this in advance, so it wasn't a surprise, but that didn't diminish the impact of seeing water flowing up the Savuti Channel. It has been at least 25 years since water has flowed any distance along "The Stolen River", and I simply had to make a pilgrimage to see this phenomenon (probably caused by tectonic plate movement) with my own eyes. The water is currently 14 miles up from its source at Zibadianja Lagoon, and pushing further by the day. Speculation is rife that it will break through all the way to the Savuti Marsh by 2010.

An interesting side effect of the flowing channel is the changed activities offered at Savuti Camp. The ground level blind in front of camp was previously a great hit with guests, facilitating incredibly close contact with elephants as they came to drink at the watering hole. The blind is now completely surrounded by water, and will soon be flooded. The contrast is highlighted in the two photos above, taken just 14 months apart. Savuti Camp has now ordered canoes, and fishing from the camp's deck is a new addition to the activities list.

* A time of plenty. The contrast between "dry season" and "green season" in the Chobe/Linyanti ecosystem is hard to appreciate without experiencing it first hand. Most of the grasses in this area are annuals that spring up as if from nowhere after the first rains, covering barren Kalahari sands with a lush green carpet. While driving along the edge of the Savuti Channel our vehicle was escorted by a squadron of carmine bee eaters who flew alongside and swooped down on fleeing insects. To watch these beautiful birds in flight - at eye level and within easy reach - was one of the highlights of my trip. There were also large numbers of antelope, grazers and browsers, feasting on the abundant foliage, and birdlife was as plentiful and diverse as in the Okavango Delta.

* Predator activity. I knew that December was going to be a particularly good time for game-viewing in Deception Valley, and the Okavango Delta is always great. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much big game I saw in the Linyanti area, especially around Zibadianja Lagoon and the Savuti Channel. The abundance of baby impala, and the cool, cloudy weather seem to have stimulated predator activity, providing an unusual number of carnivore sightings. I watched a pack of 18 wild dogs literally bump into a large herd of impala near King's Camp. After a brief period of chaos, the dogs organized themselves, singled out a baby and, despite the young impala's remarkable speed, ran it down within a couple of minutes. It took about that long also for the impala to be reduced to bones. One afternoon we stumbled onto a solitary male cheetah who had very recently killed a baby impala - he was still panting heavily when we came upon the scene, and it was at least five minutes before he was able to start feeding. A hyena passed by about 30 minutes later, within less than a hundred yards of the cheetah and his kill but, being upwind, the hyena missed out on an easy meal. I also watched a pack of hyenas at a giraffe kill - the lions who were responsible for the carnage had only just vacated the scene. Finally, en route from the airstrip, we surprised a young male leopard in a tree, also with the requisite baby impala. The leopard, obviously new to the area and as yet unhabituated, exploded down the tree and mock charged the vehicle before quietly slipping away. He returned later to retrieve the impala carcass and move it to a less public storage site. All of these incidents took place within 100 yards of the dirt roads we were driving along, and required no tracking.


Best Camp of the Trip - Zarafa Camp

Zarafa Bedroom
Zarafa Bedroom (photo by Dana Allen)
Zarafa Bathroom
Zarafa Bathroom with gas fireplace (photo by Dana Allen)

When Jao Camp opened in 1999, it marked a turning point in southern Africa's safari industry. Never before had such an elegant and luxurious "tented camp" been built in a truly remote wilderness setting. Jao conformed with all the stringent requirements of minimal environmental impact, as laid out by the Botswana government, but it introduced a level of sophistication that was simply streets ahead of any other camp at the time. Jao has been refurbished and upgraded over the past 10 years, and remains one of the most beautiful and architecturally impressive camps in Botswana. The past decade has seen more and more camps following the "Jao model", creating a whole new category of what we call "platinum level" safari camps that offer a truly world class standard of accommodation and service.

Zarafa Camp represents, in our opinion, the next paradigm shift in tented safari camps. It is very clearly a "platinum level" camp, with all the comforts and amenities that this entails. But Zarafa also ushers in a new level of sustainability that is completely appropriate for a camp in one of Africa's last great wilderness regions. Zarafa runs almost exclusively on solar energy. Each room has an independent solar unit and battery that caters to all hot water and electricity requirements, while the main camp area operates almost entirely from a "solar farm" comprising 136 solar panels, state of the art battery technology, and an inverter. The camp does have a backup generator, to ensure seamless levels of comfort and service, but its use is rarely necessary.

The sustainability theme is evidenced throughout the camp's construction and operation. All wood is harvested from renewable sources, with the creative use of old railway sleepers throughout the camp being a particularly noticeable feature. Most lighting in rooms and in the common area is provided by super-efficient LED lights. The camp also has a sophisticated water purification system used to filter borehole water into drinking water, thereby reducing the consumption of plastic bottles (not to mention the fuel needed to get bottled water into such a remote area). Bottled water is still available, but guests are issued with their own aluminum water bottles and encouraged to fill these up with purified water from the many elegantly disguised dispensers throughout camp.

Even without the sustainability dimension, Zarafa is an impressive camp. The style is very traditional and 'masculine', with campaign style furniture complemented by heavy fabrics and dark tones, offset by crisp white linens. Attention to detail is exemplified by the beautiful hand-crafted wood carvings that subtly adorn much of the flooring and furniture. The camp comprises just four marquis style tents, each being roughly 1,000 square feet in size, and having its own private plunge pool and viewing deck. The expansive rooms comprise living room, bedroom, and en-suite bathroom, with a strategically located gas fireplace between bedroom and bathroom to deliver warmth and coziness on cool Botswana nights. Bathrooms have all the usual facilities (full plumbing, shower, double vanity, separate flush loo) as well as a large brass bathtub and an outdoor shower.

A principal raison d'être for safari camps in Africa is to conserve some of the continent's most precious and unspoiled wilderness areas. Botswana has always been at the cutting edge of minimizing the impact of tourism on the immediate environment. Zarafa dramatically broadens this concept of low impact eco-tourism, setting a shining example of a camp that offers the utmost in luxury and refinement while requiring almost no external energy inputs and producing virtually zero harmful emissions. It makes perfect sense and, in our opinion, represents the future of Africa's leading safari camps.


Victoria Falls


Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls from the air
Tongabezi Nut House
The Nut House at Tongabezi (photo by Tongabezi)

Camps Visited

Toka Leya

River Club

Tongabezi

Overview

As many times as I have seen the Victoria Falls, I never fail to react to the sight - I'm a real sucker for the majesty of the Falls. As is customary on the Kasane to Livingstone charter flight, my pilot requested permission from air traffic control to fly over the Falls. Cloud cover was just above 6,000 feet (the lowest that fixed wing aircraft are permitted to fly over the Falls), so we set a course along the Zambezi River, heading towards the distant white plume that resembled smoke from a large bush fire. As we got closer my heart beat faster and my hands started shaking ever so slightly. I had to remind myself that this was nothing new, I'd seen and photographed this spectacle dozens of times before. Still, in my excitement, I messed up the exposure on my first few shots and then, having finally got this right, I was unable to get a decent picture without incorporating the aircraft wing into the top of the frame. Oh well, just sit back and enjoy one of the seven natural wonders of the World - no photograph ever did it justice in any case.

The Falls were flowing quite strongly, with a good volume of water across virtually the full face. As always, the flow was heaviest on the Zimbabwe side over the portion known as the Devil's Cataract. One advantage at this time of the year is that the flow is sufficient to be impressive, but not so powerful that everything is shrouded in mist.

I had just one night in the area, and my primary purpose was to check in on some of the top lodges along the Zambezi River.

Highlights

* Reforestation at Toka Leya Camp. Toka Leya opened in 2008, and is a stylish and luxurious camp, on the banks of the Zambezi. It falls within the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, and overlooks the Zambezi National Park on the Zimbabwe side of the River, so there is no man-made structure anywhere within the camp's field of view. The rooms receive all hot water from solar power, and the camp also has a state of the art waste water management system. Perhaps most impressive though is the camp's reforestation effort. When I visited the site in 2007 it was a dry, scrubby stretch of veld that had been overgrazed by cattle from a nearby village. Now, barely fourteen months later, the camp is being engulfed by indigenous trees. The project is guided by a reforestation map based on an in-depth soil analysis of the site. Seeds from local trees are germinated into seedlings, which are nurtured in the camp's green house and nursery until ready for planting. Organic fertilizer is produced by the camp's "worm farm", which converts kitchen scraps into nutrient rich organic compost. The results are impressive. At the time of my visit, over 2,000 indigenous trees had already been planted, with another 2,000 in the nursery, awaiting planting. To say that the trees are thriving would be an understatement, they are exploding! All the new vegetation has not been lost on wildlife, and browsers like elephants and giraffe are frequent visitors to camp. The whole operation - green house, nursery, worm farm, etc. - is neatly (and discreetly) laid out at the back of the camp, and guests are encouraged to visit this area and learn about the project.

* New spa at The River Club. Every time we visit the River Club there are changes and improvements. Owner Peter Jones, who lives on site, regards the River Club as his own home, and the property is consequently an on-going labor of love for him. The latest additions are a pavilion at the western end of the croquet lawn, and a very impressive spa facility overlooking the Zambezi River. The new facility comprises a gym with whirlpool, sauna, and showers, as well as a special purpose-built treatment room. Guest rooms are also being upgraded and refurbished, and Peter already has plans for the next round of improvements. It is this level of owner involvement and attention that makes the River Club the best run property in the Victoria Falls area.

* Nut house at Tongabezi. The prize for the single most impressive room in the Victoria Falls area perhaps belongs to the new Nut House at Tongabezi. This is a very large, fully enclosed house that perches high on a cliff at a bend in the Zambezi, affording a spectacular view down the River. With its vaulted ceiling, arched doorway, stained glass windows, and extensive use of candle light, the house resembles an old missionary chapel with very contemporary renovations. Luxury features include a fireplace, infinity pool, and an outdoor shower surrounded by a beautifully landscaped rock garden. There's no particular rationale for the name (owner Ben Parker says it's "a slightly cheeky and humorous name, and one that our guests can enjoy"), but I think I would happily plead temporary insanity to spend a couple of nights in this Nut House.


Summary

By any measure, I had a very successful and productive trip. I achieved all of my objectives, and had an amazing time in the process. I stayed at or visited 21 properties (including Johannesburg) and had the privilege of meeting with several leading figures in southern Africa's eco-tourism industry. I also had a great safari. It's been a few years since either Margaret or I were in Botswana during the "green season", and I had almost forgotten how great it can be.

Although I was traveling during southern Africa's summer, the weather was mostly very moderate, with an average daily high in the upper 80s and daily lows in the 60s. It can be hot at this time of the year, if there is no cloud cover - I had three days with temperatures at or around 95 degrees - but the average is brought down by the cool, cloudy days. I experienced some form of precipitation on five out of 10 days on safari, which is a little more than typical for this time of the year. Still, I didn't miss a single activity, and the rain did not appear to impact my game-viewing at all. I kept a casual check-list as I went along, and counted 40 different species of mammals, including all five of the major predators and most other 'high profile' savanna species (with the exception of rhinos, which are very rare in Botswana). My bird tally was around 250 species, but this would have been much higher for a more accomplished birder. I don't believe that my mammal check list would have been longer at any other time of the year, and my bird list would definitely have been shorter during the drier months. As we often tell travelers, Botswana is a year round destination, and nobody need have undue concerns about doing a "green season" Botswana safari. Serious photographers in particular should consider this timeframe for the bright, contrasting colors and crisp, clear light.

Deception Valley turned out to be every bit as game-rich and fascinating as I had hoped it would be. Ever since reading Mark and Delia Owens' classic book "Cry of the Kalahari", this has been an area that captured my imagination. I felt privileged to be one of the first guests at the very first safari camp inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. If this area lives up to its full potential in the years ahead, it will provide a compelling reason to visit Botswana during the "green season" in favor of other timeframes. We'll be watching developments very closely, and will keep "Classic Africans" updated.


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