JULY 2002

It’s the beginning of another exciting safari season at Chiawa. On our very first day of the season, Easter weekend, we were busy putting the finishing touches around camp when we had excellent sightings from our viewing platform and inside camp. We saw three elephant bulls and one buffalo bull inside Camp, and then one male lion chasing two wild dogs up the dry riverbed right next to camp, all before 8.30am! Some other great sights have included a few looks at our nearby leopard with two cubs, and a leopard padding silently passed Lynsey & my tent window at 6:45 pm.

I am sitting in the viewing hide as I write this newsletter and I am surrounded by a breeding herd of over 200 elephants, again in the dry river bed next to camp. It is a spectacular sight and the elephants playing and splashing in the water are constantly distracting me, baby elephants playing with their trunks and chasing off egrets, and bull elephants testing each other’s strength as they play fight. What a wonderful sighting and I feel privileged to have witnessed such a scene of these amazing animals enjoying their natural environment which is still very wild and untouched, as it should be.

The lion situation inside the park is proving to be interesting and changing daily! Our resident male lion, Stumpy, from last season appears to have been pushed out of the park by three young male lions we have named “ the three musketeers”. We were concerned of Stumpy’s whereabouts so it was a huge relief when we heard he had been spotted in the GMA last week. It seems he has definitely been “kicked out” of the pride as Tag (one of our dominant lionesses) was seen mating with one of the new young male lions. We continue to watch and be fascinated by the behaviour of our lion prides; we’ll keep you posted…

Chiawa has had a soft refurbishment this year and is looking great. There have been small changes with lovely improvements in our Sitenje and tents.

We wish to thank everyone who was involved in the refurbishment with special thanks to Judi Helmholz and Arthur Sonnenberg for all their hard work, effort and input into the changes.

Also a special thank you to Reinette our sewing expert for all her efforts (and dozens of cushions!) during our renovations. Everyone has worked extremely hard over the last few months and it has really paid off, as Chiawa is now looking better than ever.

We had a small setback a couple of weeks ago. Just as we were almost finished camp renovations, we were reminded that we are still very much in the hands of nature, and when we thought we had escaped from any late rains, we hadn’t! For three days it rained constantly and we had 160mm of rain, which was almost half of the rains we had in the entire wet season. So we carried on, working in the mud, to ensure we would meet our deadline for camp opening. Luckily for 3 days before we opened the weather improved dramatically and everywhere dried out eventually.

Old Mondoro Bush Camp, our exciting new venture in the eastern side of the Lower Zambezi opens mid July. We are pleased to announce that Kellie Leigh, the Lower Zambezi’s resident Wild Dog researcher will be basing herself at Old Mondoro and will be available to give chats about wild dogs and their challenging conservation issues. By special arrangement, and a small donation to the program, guests will be able to enjoy a day out tracking wild dogs with Kellie. This will add a fascinating dimension to any visit.

Momba (our ex-resident ground horn bill) is doing fine and is currently residing at Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools’ base camp. We receive news on her periodically from Norman Monks, their Chief Ecologist, who keeps an eye on her movements and keeps us informed of her well being. We do miss her and things have been really quiet without her, there has been no smashing of glasses and plates!

So Jaco and Reinette our management couple are back this season and have enjoyed their time off visiting their family and friends. Ian and Alice, our renowned Host and Hostess, are also back behind the bar after their six months at home in England.

Other news is that my girlfriend Lynsey has joined me in Zambia this year and is now part of the Chiawa team. And Kevin’s wife Janet is expecting a baby at the end of July! Our new professional guide has joined us, the multi-talented Andy Dalzell, who we are enjoying working with.

Speaking of guiding, the Zambia Wildlife Authority have at last formally approved the safari guide examinations program which Grant implemented and has been overseeing for the past few years. This now means that no one is permitted to guide in the Lower Zambezi National Park without first having passed a stringent series of written and practical examinations. Although Chiawa Camp have always utilized experienced guides with approved licenses from the Luangwa or other countries, we are proud of Chiawa’s proactive role in this vital step forward for the Lower Zambezi and which reconfirms its position as an important and not-to-be-missed part of any safari itinerary.

We are also very proud to have received in October of last year, a most encouraging accolade. That of being “One of Africa’s TOP TEN safari camps to visit” by Conde Nast’s Best of the Best Series (House & Garden November 2001). However the best accolade is the many happy visitors at Chiawa and the increasing number of repeat guests.

I hope to see you later this year to show you our new and improved, but still the same, Chiawa Camp.