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To all our valued and loyal friends, a warm hello
from a very hot and dry Tuli Wilderness Trails, I
trust that you are all well and have had a great
year so far. Thanks to all of you for your continued
support, we sincerely appreciate it.
When
I mentioned above that I was writing from a very hot
and dry Tuli Wilderness Trails, I mean it. The last
decent rains we had were in January, so it’s been
nine months without rain and temperatures of up to
40 degrees over the last month or so. You can
imagine what this combination does to the landscape
and vegetation. It is like a moonscape and looks
desperate, but even in this state it is still
stunning, providing better game sightings of often
skittish species like Eland, not easily seen in the
well vegetated seasons.
Although the dam has been repaired, it has
obviously not filled up due to the lack of rain.
Even though it is still extremely dry, some of the
Mopane trees are already budding new leaves, silky
soft, bright green ones. The Apple Leaf trees are in
blossom and when you look down the river from a high
point you see patches of beautiful purple in between
the grey. The Large Fever Berries are also busy
regaining their leaves which adds more spring green
to the riverine area.
Quite a few of the migrant birds have returned
including Black Cuckoo (very early this year), Red
Chested Cuckoo, Broadbilled Roller and European
Bee-eater. The usual suspects like the
yimp-trrrrring Woodland Kingfisher will return with
our first rains.
 Elephant
sightings have not been as good as they usually are
at this time of the year, mainly due to the dam
having no water and so the larger herds have moved
from our area for a while. Those that remained have
changed their whole mini migration route and are
concentrated along the Limpopo River where there are
still a few nice deep pools.
As usual, there have been the odd adrenalin moments
with the Big Feet. The most memorable for me was on
a Wilderness Trail earlier on in the year. While
walking between Musth Camp and Rutt Camp we
encountered a large herd. We retreated and then
skirted around them up onto a ridge. There was one
rather young bull on the ridge which I assumed would
smell us and go back to his herd at the bottom of
the ridge. He was very hesitant to descend and I
couldn’t understand why. We continued our ascent and
eventually the young ducktail descended. Exhausted
from the brisk stiff climb, we reached the top,
gratefully sat down for a rest and watched the herd
below. The young bull was with the herd for a short
while and then started charging at us, but always
stopped at the base of the ridge. We all found it
quite amusing. Then he made another charge and
didn’t stop, he just kept coming at us right up the
ridge. All of a sudden we realized what was going
on. Very close behind us, a deep rumble of an adult
elephant suddenly shook us all into life. I had
assumed that the young bull belonged to the herd
below us, meanwhile he belonged to a herd very close
behind us and that was his frustration. We grabbed
our bags and dashed to the other end of the ridge,
not waiting to see the reunion between the cheeky
youngster and his mother. Just goes to show - don’t
ever assume in the bush.
I think this has been our best winter for lion
sightings, since I have been here. Lots of guests
got to see them on game walks and drives. Two
incidents with lions come to mind when I think back
over t he last six months.
The first one occurred whilst on the third night of
a Trail when we were using Mohave Camp. It was a
stunning crisp winter’s evening, a beautiful Full
Moon with the typical no cloud at all. The Mohave
riverbed looked like a dazzling white beach, the
trees and bush all looked surreal and you didn’t
even need to use a torch, it was almost like early
daylight. We had finished dinner and all the
Trailists had gone to bed. I was having a last
cigarette on the small deck before I went off to hit
the hay, enjoying this beautiful night. I heard
something running to the right of me and by the
sound of it, knew it was something large and
unusual. As I turned to look, a huge lioness
appeared in the riverbed and ran across disappearing
into the thick vegetation on the other side. I
thought that I was seeing the last of her, but
decided to wait for a while on the off chance that
she would reappear.
Ten minutes later she did. I saw her walking
towards me from about 75 metres upstream. She almost
looked like a white lioness. In that moonlight on
that white riverbed, this beautiful creature in
magnificent condition was a sight to behold. I was
awe-struck! She just kept walking towards me and
with each step she took closer, she got larger and
more beautiful. She eventually turned out of the
riverbed about 10 metres from me and disappeared
into the stunning crisp cold night.
Five minutes later, she reappeared just behind
the camp and started to roar, a full bodied roar
that made the whole camp vibrate under the Full
Moon. She was silhouetted as I watched her roar and
each time she roared, vapour blew from her mouth -
awesome, awesome! She eventually turned and walked
away from the camp at a steady pace still breathing
vapour.
That night will remain in my mind for the rest of
my days and rates as one of the most quality
wilderness experiences I have ever had the privilege
of being part of.
The other incident occurred in July. We’d had a
party of guests staying at Mohave and most of the
guests left, but two guys stayed on for two extra
nights. On their last night, they had an experience
that I don’t think they will ever forget.
My son Joshua and a friend of his had been
camping about 3 kms from Mohave, their varsity
holiday was about to end and they still hadn’t, in
almost 3 weeks, managed to see a lion. I was sitting
with them just after dark at their campsite, when
Actor, one of our Guides radioed us and said that he
and the 2 guests had just seen a lioness at the
waterhole close to the camp. Josh and his friend
leapt into their vehicle and took off to find the
lioness. They arrived at the waterhole and, as is
often the case - no lioness and much disappointment.
They decided to drive past the camp on the
off-chance of finding her. As they approached
Mohave, there she was, walking straight down the
track towards the camp. With the spotlight, they
followed her right into the camp where the 2 guests
were enjoying a beer. According to Josh, the guys
heard the vehicle coming and looked to see who it
was. As their eyes moved towards the vehicle, both
pairs of eyes stopped short of the vehicle and froze
on the lioness in the spotlight not 20 metres from
them. The reality of the situation took about 10
seconds to set in, and within another 2 seconds,
both guys were in a hut, door locked and lights on.
The lioness just walked on by, totally unfazed and
gave Josh and his friend another few minutes of
herself before disappearing into the night.
Josh and friend went back to the guests in camp and
told them that the lioness was gone and it was safe
to come out. Apparently the guys emerged from their
hut very sheepishly – and the nervous laughter
started.
Leopard sightings have increased a lot over the past
few months, and we were even lucky enough to see one
while on foot doing a Trail recently.
As usual, Cheetah have been the most commonly
seen of the large cats, mainly around Mohave.
Our best bird sighting of the year so far was a Pels
Fishing Owl at Pels Pool.
 They
have been absent for a few years and it was
wonderful to see one again. We were doing our last
walk of a 4 Day Trail around Pels Pool when we saw
it, alerted to us by some very agitated Meve’s
Starlings. This beautiful tawny-coloured,
seldom-seen owl was openly perched in a Sycamore Fig
and let us view her until it got dark and we had to
go. As is so often the case when you find a Pel’s,
guests you are accompanying aren’t keen birders (if
at all!). This particular group was from the UK, and
the trail was their last stop after visiting places
in the Okavango Delta for 2 weeks. While I was
almost doing flick-flacks in excitement and pointing
it out to them, I got a rather bored: “Oh very nice,
but we saw 3 of them in the Delta.” Well you win
some and lose others.
Folks, these are just some of the goings on at
TWT over the last few months, I could carry on for
longer, but I’m ending off now to try to find some
ele’s than sit in front of this monitor anymore
today. Hopefully we will get rain soon – the skies
are promising most evenings now.
Once again, thanks so much for all your support,
take care and until we meet again soon.
Regards
Craig and the TWT team
(including Gordon – our German Shepherd whom you
might have met)
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