Game April to May

April to May

May guarantees the arrival of the Okavango's flood waters into the Mombo concession and although they may not peak until June , this time of year is the most dramatic seasonal change and it is actually possible to see the flood waters encroach and cover the surrounding floodplains until there is nothing left but water and palm fringed islands.

Yet again, the animals spring to life, taking full advantage of the arrival of the new water as it flushes out rodents from their hibernation, making easy meals for all kinds of predators from stalks to cats!

The waters also rejuvenate the parched floodplains. Nutritious water dwelling plants emerge from underneath the Delta providing an alternative to the dry grasslands and woodlands. The plains game, especially lechwe, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest wade into the water, seeking out these new shoots. This is also the time of year that thousands of water lilies emerge for the first time, covering the water in blankets of stunning blue and white flowers.

As the flood levels arrive they also bring an array of underwater life; bream and other fish swim up the new channels awaking the attention of the fish-eating birds, especially the kingfishers, the cormorants and the African Fish Eagle. Bird life is prolific throughout the period as the water is packed with nutrients, providing a welcome source of food. Jacanas also spring to life, walking over the waterlillies as if walking on water.

One of the most interesting things about this time of year is the start of the rutting season of many species of antelope. Fights ensue, as the rams battle for control of the best grasses that will therefore invite the highest number of females in time for breeding.


Newsletter - April

Dumela! Here's all the latest news from Mombo and Little Mombo for April. Well the weather is turning, but summer hasn't quite given up the ghost just yet. Daytime temperatures can still be hot - perhaps unusually so for autumn. Autumn in Botswana though never lasts long and we are sure that winter is just around the corner - you can all but smell it in the fresh early morning air and the cool dawn breezes. Evenings are very pleasantly warm, and the lower morning temperatures are invigorating rather than intimidating! The major change this month has been that we've had no rainfall whatsoever, although a couple of hot, cloudy afternoons made us wonder.

After all the rain in March, it seems we have now had our lot for this year, which, along with the slight drop in daytime temperatures (which have been between 27°C (84°F) and 33°C (96°F), with an average of 30.61°C) is another sure sign of the changing of the seasons. Overnight temperatures were noticeably cooler this month, from a low of 15°C (60°F) to 20°C (70°F), with an average of 17°C. Not one drop of rain fell in our trusty rain gauge all month.

The weather has not however been the most important factor in life here this month; we have been mesmerised by the early onset of the annual Okavango flood. In a matter of days, waters which began their journey many months ago in Angola, stole up on Mombo, and soon the view from Camp was a vista of azure blue water and vivid green grasses, with the sun sparkling off the water like a million diamonds, and a never-ending pageant of animals feeding on the new shoots: zebra, wildebeest, and especially buffalo and red lechwe. It is a real carnival of animals, a constantly changing scene as the water creeps ever closer to Camp, and the animals move in closer too, feeding on the very sweetest grasses at the edge of the water.

Often at night we can hear the lullaby sounds of animals splashing through the water, a gentle rustle competing with the frantic mating calls of the reed frogs, clamouring for the attention of females. Even in a few hours, it is possible to see that the water has advanced, and there are myriad waterbirds - cranes, egrets, herons, dikkops - taking advantage of the rising flood. After all the rain we had last month, the water table here is high, so even the modest amount of floodwater we have received so far has seen this area yet again transformed.

Already Jiga-Jiga Channel to the north of Mombo has burst its banks and the water there is spilling out across the floodplain, following the dusty, time-honoured paths of previous floods. One evening we heard a huge herd of buffalo move past Camp, walking through the shallow water just after darkness. It took over half an hour for the herd to pass us, so we estimate that there must have been upwards of 2 000 animals! The noise of their hoofs in the water kept us spellbound; it sounded exactly like a waterfall.

In more tranquil moments, baboons have been coming down to the water's edge to lap up the precious liquid, and, one evening, a thirsty leopard, utterly serene and calm and seemingly oblivious to the agitation her appearance caused to the monkeys looking down from the jackalberry trees.

As yet it is too early to say whether this will be a big flood. Predictions indicate that it may be an average flood, on a par with those of 2002 or 2003.

However there has been a lot of late rain within the Delta, and more importantly, in the Angolan highlands, so we may yet see what we call the second spike - an upsurge on the graph of floodwater entering Botswana from the Caprivi Strip. And besides, there is no such thing as "average" in such a magical place as the Okavango.

In perfect synchronisation with the rains, the floodwaters this year have reached us just two weeks after the last of the rain fell. The Okavango is surely one of the most perfectly balanced and co-ordinated ecosystems on Earth. Everything ticks along in time with everything else, with a precision and a finesse that watchmakers can only dream of.

The countless thousands of litres of life-giving water which flow into the Okavango, filtered through hundreds of kilometres of papyrus beds in the Panhandle and the upper reaches of the Delta, seem to spark off all sorts of new activities among the animals and birds here, whether it be birds building nests, or the impalas beginning their annual rut.

The breeding cycle of impalas in particular is closely tied to the changing of the seasons. They typically give birth en masse in late November / early December, as the first rains of summer fall, and as the area comes alive with new shoots and leaves for the young impalas to feed on. With a six-month gestation period, this means that they mate in May. Before this can happen, however, the impala males rut - that is, compete for mating rights. The bush echoes to the curious growling roar produced by male impalas as they chase each other around in ever-decreasing circles, each male trying to achieve dominance over his rivals. They are often watched impassively by the females, who wait to see who will be the lord of the harem.

Due to their surging testosterone levels, male impalas often don't pay any attention to their surroundings, concentrating only on defeating other males. This means that at this time of the year, males make up a disproportionately high number of the impalas killed by predators. Recently we saw a female leopard who had killed an adult male impala perhaps twice her weight, decide against hoisting it into a leadwood tree - the kill was simply too heavy - and so instead she hid the impala and herself in an impenetrable candle pod acacia bush, to keep the kill safe from the prying eyes of vultures, and the ever-curious noses of the hyaenas.

Throughout this month, it is Mombo's leopards who have provided us with some of the most incredible game drive moments, particularly when they get entangled with other species. Over the last few years we have noticed a definite increase in baboon populations in this area - and baboons of course can provide many hours of fascination and amusement, not least because of the mirror they can hold up to our own "sophisticated" human behaviour! There is however no love lost between baboons and leopards, and any encounter between these two species can be fraught with danger for both.

On two occasions during April we have seen baboons carry the fight to a leopard - one young male was mobbed by so many baboons that he was invisible beneath an angry fur ball, and it was some seconds before he could wriggle his way out of that one. Meanwhile, the porcupine he had been stalking used this very welcome diversion to make good its escape! The older male leopards here are generally more wily, but even one of our big toms was almost caught by baboons, after he seized one, and was pursued by the rest of the troop. He made it into a tsaro palm island and no baboon was going to follow him in there and risk those slashing claws in a confined space.

It's possible that with so many baboons around, Mombo's leopards may become more nocturnal, but we think that this is unlikely as the night at Mombo belongs to the hyaenas. So we are confident that we will continue to enjoy the superb daylight close encounters with the spotted cats which are such a memorable feature of a stay at Mombo for so many of our guests.

Leopards are often coy when mating, so it was a real bonus to find two mating right out in the open in one of the newly green floodplains. A chance to witness rarely seen behaviour, and to appreciate the extreme size difference between male and female leopards. The continuing saga of the leopards of Mombo is never less than enthralling, and we now look forward to the next generation continuing the tale.

Perhaps the most unforgettable sighting of the month also involved a leopard, but purely by accident. We have regularly been seeing three wild dogs around Mombo, and the fact that they have stuck it out here - despite competition from lions and hyaenas - is a good sign for the future of the species in the immediate area. We have seen the alpha pair of this little group mate, so we are very hopeful that they may den and raise puppies.

Late one afternoon in the middle of the month, we found the three of them stretching in the soft light, and their lean bellies showed that they would soon be setting off on a hunt. The previous day they had made a kill, but had lost it to hyaenas so they were very hungry by now. We watched their first attempt, as they streaked through the long grass, cotton-bud tails streaming out behind them - but the impalas lost the dogs by running through a herd of zebra.

After a brief rest, the indefatigable dogs were in action again, but they suddenly stopped and began leaping up at a small acacia tree. It took us a moment to realise what was going on: in the tree was a male leopard, with a freshly killed impala in its jaws. It seems that the wild dogs had inadvertently chased the impala into him.

The leopard was none too pleased to see the dogs, but in snarling his displeasure, he dropped the impala - which was instantly seized by the dogs, yipping in excitement - they couldn't believe their luck! They immediately began feeding and were making short work of the impala, but this was just too much for the leopard, who bounded down from the tree to reclaim his meal. After a brief, furious fight, he retreated back up the tree, and the second time he descended, it was to flee.

The wild dogs very quickly devoured the impala, pausing only to drive off a hyaena which came along to investigate. As we watched this incredible sequence of events, darkness began to fall, and we headed back to Camp, speechless at the drama we had seen unfolding right before us.

Meanwhile, back in Camp, we have been delighting guests with special candlelit "honeymoon" dinners, transforming secluded corners of the Camp into magical (and romantic!) private dining rooms. The perfect prelude (along with the cooler temperatures) to snuggling up together and falling asleep to the sounds of hippos chortling their happiness at the new grass and water suddenly available to them.

Very soon we will be starting our winter menus, which means hot porridge for early-morning breakfast. Perfect! And another great antidote to the slight chill of winter mornings will be the Mombo cookbook, which should be hot off the press in the next couple of months.


Newsletter - May

It really is impossible to say when this incredible area looks its best, but it is almost impossible to describe its beauty now that significant amounts of water from the annual flood have flowed as far as Mombo. Water that fell as rain in Angola's Benguela highlands during the hot, wet summer snaked its way through rivers and channels, across Namibia's Caprivi Strip, and down the Panhandle, to enter the Okavango Delta and be filtered through countless miles of papyrus reed beds, and be diverted along channels created by hippos, until it finally ¡V imperceptibly at first, and then ever faster, spills onto the floodplains which surround us here at Mombo.

The view from the front of Camp is stunning: silver sheets of water with an explosion of bright green grass, and contented buffalo and lechwe grazing in the shallows. The water is now creeping around behind Camp too, and we may soon be a real island, surrounded on all sides by the waters of the Delta, glittering and sparkling in the sunlight. And what a place to be marooned!

There is a magical quality to African sunsets, and nowhere more so than here. The glowing red ball of the sun drops like a stone below the horizon, lighting the sky a fantastic array of burnt oranges and roseate shades. You can almost hear the hiss as the fiery red sun slips into the water!

We are very much into the southern hemisphere winter now, and in northern Botswana at least, that means an end to the rains ¡V not one drop fell on Mombo during May. Temperatures have continued to drop steadily, with evenings being very pleasantly mild and a wonderfully invigorating freshness in the early morning area. However, some unusually warm days have held up overall average temperatures, with daytime temperatures of between 26"aC (82"aF) and 33"aC (96"aF). Overnight temperatures were very similar to last month, and we recorded temperatures ranging from 13"aC (56"aF) and 19"aC (68"aF). It actually seemed cooler than this on many occasions, due to the contrast with the much warmer days.

One of the joys of Mombo, and one of the main reasons that it is such an ecological paradise, is that we have water (and hence food) year round, whether from the rains in summer, or the inrush of floodwater in the winter. This assures us of phenomenal year-round game viewing, and makes the question, when is the best time to visit Mombo and Little Mombo impossible to answer. Every day is the best time to be here!

Sometimes it is hard not to feel spoilt. Especially now, with the vivid green of the floodplains contrasting wonderfully with the golden grasses on the islands switching in the breeze like a lion's tail, the Mombo area provides an incredible backdrop for moments of high drama, humour, and pure, unsullied contentment.

Mombo at this time of year is a place of contrasts, between wet and dry, green and golden, and something of this contrast has been reflected in the varying fortunes of some of our best-loved animals here.

The Mathatha Pride of lions ¡V one of our most successful ¡V has been having runaway success with raising cubs. Until a few days ago, we thought they were doing very well with fifteen cubs, but we have now discovered another four, taking the total to nineteen and assuring the future of our alpha predator for generations to come.

With so many cubs in one pride, the opportunities to watch lions' fascinating social behaviour and the playful antics of the cubs are almost unlimited. The cubs range in age from the youngest, who we have just seen for the first time, aged around two months, to much larger cubs of approximately seven months old. All are incredibly curious about the wonderful world they have been born into, and their play conceals a deadly purpose, as it helps them develop the skills they will need to stalk and kill prey in the years ahead.

And these are skills that need honing ¡V we recently watched a breakaway group of four sub-adult males, and two sub-adult females, attempt to ambush a giraffe and its baby. A very clumsy attempt, and the giraffes easily got away when the lions in their eagerness broke cover too soon. But with every botched attempt, they become better and better hunters, and the next giraffe may not be so lucky!

One of our resident female leopards, the Far Eastern female, has had a much tougher time of it this month. She returned to where she had hidden her new cub one evening, but the tiny youngster failed to respond to her soft calls. She became agitated, calling more and more loudly as she approached the hollow under a fallen tree where she had left the cub so that she could hunt.

Eventually she went into the hollow and emerged with the cub in her jaws. Excitement soon turned to dismay on the part of the guests who were watching this, spellbound, when they realised that the cub was dead¡K We will never know the cause of its death ¡V snakebite perhaps? ¡V but the poignancy of the moment was almost unbearable.

What happened next may seem callous or brutal, but in the harsh, red-clawed world of the African bush, no meal can be wasted, whatever it may be, and the mother proceeded to eat her own cub. This sort of behaviour has been recorded in leopards before, but it is very rare to see it.

Some of the other leopards in this area have also been puzzling us recently with their behaviour. Just last night we had the unique sight of our territorial male leopard, the huge and grizzled Burnt Ebony Male, walking along a road and calling, in company with his son, the now fully-grown Far Eastern Pan Male, who he would normally chase off as a rival for dominance in this area.

And then this morning, another sighting of the younger male, this time in a tree with Logadima, his half-sister (both were sired by the Burnt Ebony Male) ¡V also an extremely unusual sighting, as adult leopards are not usually so tolerant of each other.

This month the trees have echoed the grunting, roaring challenges of male impalas as they challenge each other for breeding rights in the harems of females, and on many occasions we have seen the impala rams lock horns in earnest, each trying to prove himself worthy of being lord of one of the ever-growing breeding herds, some of which number up to 200 strong now. Impalas which are conceived now will be born in six months' time, in late November and early December ¡V perfectly synchronised with the onset of the summer rains and a profusion of new vegetation.

Meanwhile the tranquillity of Little Mombo in particular has been shattered by the roaring of lions, often right in the Camp. Little Mombo sits exactly on the boundaries of several lion territories, and so this spot is frequently patrolled by male lions, calling out their reverberating warning to other males: whose land is this? Mine ¡V mine ¡V mine! A warning that it is as well to heed!

Breakfast at Little Mombo has also several times had the drama of buffalo and lion interaction happening right in the front of Camp. As the serpentine channel which makes its way past the Camp has overflowed its banks, it has created a water meadow which seems irresistible to the herds of buffaloes which pass by, and wherever there are buffaloes, it's a fair bet that there will be lions not far behind¡

But then it is not hard to feel magnetically drawn to Mombo, and this month we were very happy to welcome back some of our many repeat guests, who have become more like family over the years, and it is always a pleasure to see them back in a place that they can call home. So Chris, this newsletter is for you, and hoping you will be back soon to get a picture of the elusive genet, and the never-sits-still long enough crested barbet! Next time¡

Mombo and Little Mombo have been open on this site for almost five years now, and it is fascinating to hear tales of Old Mombo and see how this area has evolved and changed over the years, as the cycles of Nature slowly revolve and the seasons come and go¡K Well-known animals live out their lives unaware of their "celebrity" status, and new stars are born and stake out their own places in our hearts.

We were able to celebrate another anniversary this month, with the first birthday of the first of our white rhino calves to be born. Maitibolo, which appropriately enough means "first-born" became the first wild rhino to be born in the wild in Botswana in perhaps fifteen years, when she appeared last May. We don't know her exact birthday, but she is certainly a year old now, and much larger than when we first saw her.

Since she was born, we have had another four rhino calves born: Dimpho, Lebogang, Valentine (guess when he was born!) and Lesego. The ultimate seal of approval from the re-introduced rhinos on the project we have been working on with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks here at Mombo for some three and a half years.

So there is always something to celebrate at Mombo, and we certainly do it in style, from romantic candle-lit dinners to al fresco dining at bush picnics, under the shade of the spreading branches of umbrella thorn trees. You are all invited to join us!

We're now able to offer game flights and inter-Camp transfers by helicopter, for the ultimate aerial experience over the Delta. The structure and workings of the Delta really come alive when seen from above, and in a helicopter you can really get up close and personal, as you skim over flooded plains and hover over tiny wooded islands ¡V not to mention great opportunities to photograph hippos, giant crocodiles, and occasionally, the rare sitatunga antelope.