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 Romance,
Sacrifice & A Leopard Pride
First and
foremost we are excited to
announce that Old Mondoro is
now, at last, fully part of
Chiawa. No longer a joint
venture we will be seeking to
make it the very best that it
can be and will be making some
small but vital improvements to
what is the Lower Zambezi's most
intimate camp. So, please do
keep reading these updates on
what is a noteworthy achievement
in this, Chiawa's 20th year.
Anyway,
another month has slipped by &
the newsletter I promised Grant
ages ago is still a non-reality
so I have decided enough is
enough and have dragged my
laptop down to the seat on the
edge of
 camp
so I have no distractions, at
least not of the running-of-camp
variety. Now, although I had
the best of intentions, I have
written the same sentence three
times as I have distractions of
a different kind and they are a
reminder of just how special it
is simply to sit in camp and
enjoy.
Staring
across the Zambezi the fish
eagle’s are calling to each
other, the hippos are basking in
the sun whilst in camp two bush
buck are browsing, three ele’s
are
 scooping
up Winter thorn pods while
keeping a tentative eye on me.
Warthogs are digging for roots,
baboons are foraging for
termites and the impala
are looking as relaxed as one
can when you are at the bottom
of the food chain. This really
is magical!
It has been an
absolutely fabulous couple of
months at Chiawa filled with
excitement and surprise. Lots of
regular repeat guests/friends
who are like family, and some
incredible sightings, both in
and out of camp, from posing
leopards to afternoon teas with
the elephants and sundowners
with the lions.
The seasons are
changing and the bush is drying
out making the game viewing
exciting and sightings frequent.
The current movement of the
lions in the area has changed
the game viewing dramatically
this year, and the lions have
spent plenty of time in and
around camp. We never tire of
listening to the lions roaring
into the night, or more
frequently the sound of lions
mating. The lions however are
not the only cats in the mood
lately and although we haven’t
seen the leopards mating we have
seen two together (Mr Tembo and
a young female) frequently and
are crossing our fingers for
cubs in the near future.
Paul
took this picture of a beautiful
leopard that performed so well
and dutifully climbed down
 the
tree for the
perfect set
of photos.
And then
the "pride" of leopards we have
been blessed to see on a number
of occasions in the past week,
including now as I type, four -
yes 4 - leopards together
playing, hunting, resting,
drinking and feeding - day and
night. Surely nowhere else can
boast having a resident pride of
leopards? Long may they stick
around. Getting photos of them
all together however is proving
tricky but our guests this month
are being blown away by this
phenomenon.
 While
out on a game drive with Rory
recently we came across another
young female leopard who posed
for us for about 20mins, she was
so beautiful and gave us such a
lovely sighting we all felt so
privileged. As we headed on for
our sundowners we stopped at AC
point and watched the sun dip
behind the Zambezi Escarpment.
The sky turned beautiful shades
of oranges and reds and of
course we all couldn’t resist
taking photo after photo, it is
never something you can tire of.
After a delicious Gin and tonic
and a quick toilet break behind
a “safe” tree we had all loaded
back onto the vehicle and just
switched on the spotlight when
out from behind our “safe” tree
a couple of meters away trots
two lioness’s on the hunt. As
you can imagine this caused all
kinds of excitement and we
followed them for a couple of
minutes before leaving them to
continue without interruption.
Heading back towards camp we
found the two male lions in hot
pursuit of the ladies, and we
all considered ourselves very
lucky to have had three
different cat sightings all
within forty minutes of each
other.
Here's some lighthearted
photos of what looks
like ox-peckers sharing
a joke,
or is this impala sticking
its tongue out at us?
The oxpeckers were really
shouting a warning to their
host, a grumpy but cooperative
old kakuli
and the impala was simply
enjoying eating some natural
salts from the soil.
WARNING! For
those of you who had the
pleasure recently of enjoying
the male waterbuck who was
living in camp, you may not want
to read the following. For the
rest of you the below has been
one of the most exciting
experiences that we have
experienced in the bush!
On the night of
the 17th August after
a lovely dinner under the stars
with everyone settled quietly in
their rooms listening to the
hippos mowing the lawns outside,
an incident transpired that we
could not have imagined. The
events unfolded in this order
below.
1.15am Michaela
and Jason (camp managers) are
abruptly woken by the extremely
loud sound of what they
originally believed to be the
fighting of two hippos. Crashing
and grunting so close to their
little house they thought the
hippos would crash through the
wall.
1.17am Silence,
followed by strangling sounds-
Kayla and Jas now have strong
doubts that it is in fact hippos
1.19am Loud
crunching noises - they
determine that it is definitely
not hippos.
 1.20am Jas grabs
his torch and with Kayla very
tightly gripping his arm (very
likely causing circulation
depravation) they inch forward
to the window (the term window
is used lightly as in fact it is
a piece of shade cloth stapled
to some wood) and gingerly shine
out into the night. At first
they see nothing and then below
them they catch the gleam of an
eye, literally 3m away from the
house. There they see a male and
female lion eating a waterbuck
(this is later confirmed as our
friendly waterbuck who had been
seeking refuge in camp, in
hindsight a deadly move!)
3.30am
Loud crunching is still taking
place depriving Kayla and Jas of
sleep
 4.30am Still loud
crunching and growling and no
sleep
4.35am Male and
female lion begin mating
5.am
Contingency plan put into place-
operation Kayla and Jas rescue
(after the guests have all been
saved of course)
6.15am The lions
move away from the house briefly
so Kayla and Jas make a dash for
safety and head to the fire
circle to share the story over
breakfast.
6.30am While
sharing the story a hippo races
out of the water and comes
running for the fire circle and
guests, who all manage to
scramble to safety
6.40am Two bull
Ele’s enter camp and also head
to the fire circle, again all
guests head to the dining room
for safety.
Later that day
(after a moment of silence for
our friend) we carried the water
buck to the dry river bed next
to camp so we could continue
watching the lions mating and
feeding on the carcass all from
the safety of the tent decks (as
you can see from the photo) in
prime position!
 The
Ele’s are in camp daily at the
moment and are providing us with
hours of entertainment. Lumpy
our frequent visitor constantly
seeks out our company and will
spend hours in front of the
Satengi sleeping and feeding on
the winter thorn pods between
the Satengi and the dining room.
Some lucky
guests have even had the
privilege of listening to him
snoring. Unfortunately this can
mean that the staff and guests
are trapped and at times we need
to wait until the Ele’s decide
to move on, not that anyone is
complaining.
As you can
see from the picture below, Jas
is thrilled to be stuck on the
dock as he and National
 Geographic
photographer Marsel Van Oosten
get a lovely up close and
personal experience with Lumpy
As you know we
love all things in the bush from
the biggest to the smallest and
this month we have had some
exciting bird sightings (White
backed night heron, Livingstone
Flycatcher, Red Throated Twin
Spot and BatHawk). The Trumpeter
Hornbills and Green Pigeons are
feeding on the fig tree fruit
and the Lesser Masked and
Southern Masked Weavers are all
busy building their nest again
in the Chinese lantern tree next
to the office.
There are butterflies everywhere
at the moment and they are so
beautiful to watch as they
gently float through the bush.
The guides went for an
exploration up the Chowe river
bed next to camp where they
managed to get a lovely shot of
a butterfly - Precis Artaxia
which is new to our guides.
The tigerfish are
now well and truly on the bite
with this warmer weather so we
have more of our guests wanting
to spend longer days on the
water - and who can blame them
with that breeze, the scenery
and all the action above and
below the surface of the
Zambezi. As usual the ladies
continue to out fish the gents
with all the big fish falling (&
being released of course) to the
fairer sex.
We can’t wait to
see what the bush has in store
for us over the next couple of
months and you can be sure we
will keep you posted. Until next
time…..
Kayla
and the Chiawa Team
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