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Unbelievably
it’s that time once again. The
2000 safari season has rushed by in
a blur and I find myself in London
preparing for WTM. What a year
it’s been, with exceptional game
viewing and wonderful support from
our suppliers, and I’m wondering
if and how 2001 could go any better.
 The
new honeymoon suite went down a
treat and we saw a lot more
honeymooners visit us this year. The
bathroom is gorgeous as is the tent,
and the overall feel is going to be
somewhat duplicated in the rest of
the tents for 2001. I am actually
pinching the tent off the platform
for myself (seeing I spend so much
time in camp I’ve decided I could
do with the space!) and have ordered
8 even larger tents so all the
wooden decks will have brand new
tents for 2001. The dimensions are
generous with extra ventilation and
sand coloured interiors. These will
be a vast improvement on the current
tents, more than double the amount
of interior space yet sitting on the
same platforms. The pilot/guide tent
will now be of the same quality,
only slightly smaller than the
guests’ tents.
The
bathrooms are to be redone, with new
washbasins and wood finishing –
basically making them a bit more
swish, but not too much more!
Pictures will be available by Indaba
2001.
 Finally,
we have decided to delay moving any
platforms around for another year,
but we have recently moved the
access paths to behind the tents.
The path now runs along the ridge of
mahogany trees behind the tents
allowing greater privacy. So, expect
an even better Chiawa for 2001,
bearing in mind that the simple
rustic feeling will not be lost and
that we most certainly are not
trying to become a lodge.
The
new pontoon boats were a great hit
this year. Safe, stable and
comfortable we have found this to be
the best way to explore and enjoy
the Zambezi, and no one else has
them!
 We
had two wonderful camp mascots this
year. Momba the ground hornbill, who
is now notorious nation-wide, opted
to yet again not join her wild
colleagues. Rather, she (yes she’s
a she and has a dark blue patch on
her bright red wattle to prove it)
continues to terrorise tea trays,
red toenails, muffins, and any
creepy crawly she can find. And then
there was the hippo who never really
got a name, but who had been injured
in a fight and spent a month in Camp
recuperating, or at least trying to.
Much to the surprise of guests and
bush pro’s alike, he had no fear
of man and would happily munch on
the winterthorn seed pods at midday
around the dining area while we took
our meals, sometimes even coming
onto the al fresco veranda. What a
privilege that was, but sadly the
hippo did not recover and died one
night right in front of camp. Rather
than watch our ‘friend’ get
eaten (and smelly) we towed him
downstream where the crocs had a
wonderful feast. Nature seems very
cruel and unfair but when looked at
objectively, every action has a
purpose and fits into the ever
sustainable circle of life. It is
usually human action, based on greed
or sentiment that throws things off.
 We
had brilliant game viewing yet again
this year. The big cats performed
(275 lion and 96 leopard sightings)
exceptionally well, including lots
of tree climbing lions, a number of
lion encounters on foot, and a
single morning drive with 4 leopard
sightings. We also had 9 wild dog
sightings and 2 aardvark! Some of
the more memorable sightings
included:
-
A
lioness diving underwater and coming
up underneath a swimming porcupine
to kill it without injuring itself
-
A
female leopard eating a leopard cub.
We think the cub was scavenged by
her as it had not been freshly
killed – it was eaten in it’s
entirety right in front of us
-
A
slender mongoose chasing a large
grey (Egyptian) mongoose up a tree
and then off into the bush. Bear in
mind that a slender mongoose is less
than a third the size of the large
grey, and both are very rarely seen
in trees
-
A
dramatic fight sequence between
Stumpy the resident male lion and
Blackie, a mature, new contender.
Blackie seemed to have the upper
hand but the females sent him
packing and Stumpy still remains
king of his patch…for now.
-
A
centipede catch and eat a tree frog
much bigger than itself. Zambia’s
top entomologist has never heard of
such an occurrence
-
The
big pride of lions sweeping through
the bush on an early evening hunt,
first killing a porcupine, then an
impala immediately afterwards, then
minutes later finding a leopard up a
tree with an impala. The leopard was
chased off and then one of the lions
got up the tree to the kill and
finished it off
-
A
serval chasing and catching 2 banded
mongooses with deadly speed and
efficiency
-
10
lions killing and eating 3 impala in
one raid
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