Part 4 of 5: A Mobile Safari – journey log of Johan De Bondt
Continuation of the August 2009 safari of Johan de Bondt and his travel companions. All text and photos copyright Johan de Bondt.
Fourth leg of the trip – Bodumatau (Moremi)
I have a love-hate relationship with the Xakanaka area for various reasons but I’ll tell you more about it later. But right now I reveal what I really find disturbing in this area (especially near some of the permanent camps). The roads are in such bad condition that driving on them is almost an act of sadomachosism. I find it incomprehensible that no one has done something about it. Especially the guides of the lodges suffer, as they use these roads on a daily basis… I would highly appreciate it if some maintenance would be under the way in the not so distant future.
We slowly made our way to fourth bridge and stopped around Jesse’s pools which was taming with game. We saw vervet monkeys, baboons, good numbers of impalas, zebras and kudus and a big herd of common waterbucks. On a dead tree, two African fish-eagles were calling. For me, it’s one of the sounds I mostly associate with a stay in Northern Botswana.
Waterbuck
At fourth bridge, we had the option to take a short cut to Bodumatau or to use the long route passing by third, second and first bridge. We opted for the second option. From third bridge on we took the main route and came across several vehicles that made their way into the park through Maqwee (South gate) and were under their way to the campsite around Third bridge. Just a few kilometres further, we found a family of double-banded sandgrouse on the road. Normally they are always running/flying away but this time they didn’t. Why ??? Well as we were driving closer by, we saw the female was dead and there also were 2 little chicks around. Probably these little ones wouldn’t make it into adulthood.
Sand Grouse chicks
There were still some pans that held water but most of them would dry out by the end of winter. We found some zebra, impala and tssessebe around them.
Slightly after 1, we arrived at camp. The camp was situated next to a big lagoon and up front , we had a nice pan where some wildebeest and zebra were drinking the moment we arrived. I liked the spot for several reasons:
- there were no other campsites around;
- you wouldn’t find other people driving there in the afternoon as it’s too far away from other public facilities. During the middle of the day, you would come across people who took a detour on their way to “South gate/Third bridge”. A number of times, we found self-drive people lost and ending up in our camp asking where to go;
- It’s wide and open.
After organizing myself, writing down my sightings and having a drink at tea time, we were ready for some action again. This afternoon, we had only one plan and that was photographing elephants at Bodumatau lagoon. The drive to the lagoon in the afternoon is a bit tricky as you can only access it from one point so you won’t have much options than driving by several breeding herds of elephants feeding in the mopane slowly making their way to the pub (where drinks are available for free). At some stage, we had clear visibility and saw different herds coming in. So everything went according to plan. On our way out, we unfortunately had to use the same road again and this time, there were even more ellies around. At some stage, we were literally surrounded by them and I was hoping they would behave themselves as I could see the potential danger of the situation. From all mammals, I mostly respect elephants knowing how powerful they are (having experienced it too close for comfort at some stage in my life). Ewan handled the situation very well and we managed to continue our journey without even a mock charge.
fSurrounded! Elephant and babe by Johan de Bondt
After dressing up for a cocktail party, we were sipping our frozen Margaritas while gazing at the display of some hippopotami when a bold hyena came into camp and it started looking if we had put an extra chair around the table. As it wasn’t the desired company (because of its bad table manners) we were looking for, we chased it away.
On every safari, there is always a night that I don’t sleep well … mostly because I have to make use of the en-suite facilities after drinking too much water at night . But on this very night, something else was causing insomnia. The moment we went to bed, some hippo started a serious fight … it continued for ages and we heard a lot of grumbling. At the same time, other ones started mowing the lawn around my tent. I could actually see one standing less than a metre from it. These beasts kept me awake for some time while suddenly I heard a lion roaring quite close to camp followed by roars from the opposite side. Oh not again … At a certain point, they must have settled down as their constant roaring seemed always to be from the same opposite spots. As it was not enough, some hyenas started giggling in camp itself, immediately followed by lion vocalisations. Also some elephants were drinking at the pan in front of camp and had some squabbles between themselves. Some loud trumpeting … and then some low rumbles probably the elderly ones try to calm down the youngsters. This kept going on till half an hour before sunrise. Last year, Jochen was a bit disappointed about the lack of mammal activity during the night … well I would have loved to hear his comments after such a night. It’s especially fun if you have to go to the toilet during the middle of all of this. Think also about some other operators, which haven’t en-suite facilities … According to Ewan, it was one of the noisiest nights he could ever remember.
After an apple or two, we drove on and found a beautiful male lion less than 300 metres from camp … we kept waiting to catch him in golden light as he started make his presence known to all around. His calls were answered in the near vicinity by other lions. We hadn’t seen them but Ewan thought it could be a mating pair. We drove towards them and yep, he was spot on. We found his brother with an elderly female. What we witnessed now was quite entertaining. The male desperately wanted to mate but the female was unwilling to do so and started snarling and growling at the male. This kept going on for more than an hour until she finally allowed them to do his thing. Their was still a lot of aggression between them … in the meantime the other brother kept walking towards them but laid down at some distance and kept a watchful eye at them. After spending 2 hours with them, we decided to leave those lovers as to give them so privacy. Earlier on, we heard a lot of hyenas in the distance. So we drove towards where we thought they had been. At first, I thought there could have been a kill but Ewan told me it was probably a dispute between two different clans. And again, he was spot on as that there hadn’t been any kill around. We found lots of hyena tracks but couldn’t find the animals themselves as they had disappeared into the woodlands.
Lions resolving a dispute
In the afternoon, we double-checked the lions first … there were some giraffes close by and at some stage we thought they would walk into those lions and one of them could be killed by accident. The one male was looking attentively but lost his interest after a while and started dozing off with his four paws in the air. The other ones were sleeping between their courtship. So nothing happened after all…
We drove on towards Xini lagoon, another lovely area in search of other predators we hadn’t seen yet. We had to drive through some extensive mopane woodlands to reach this very place. After 45 minutes, we arrived at our destination. There wasn’t much happening … we saw some red lechwe but unlike the ones at Khwai, these ones couldn’t be approached easily. Birdlife was ok with several African fish-eagles, sandpipers, African jacanas, a little grebe and 2 hottentot teals. Just as we had decided to carry on, a lovely breeding herd of elephant came drinking at Xini and we found them crossing the lagoon just before sunset.
Wood Sandpiper
More Ellies - photos copyright Johan de Bondt
Hottentot Teal
Drink time
Arrived at camp, we talked about this day and how lovely it had been and at the same time I was hoping I would sleep tonight as I was really exhausted. Lions were still noisy at night although a bit further of camp and I managed to sleep through it this time.
The next morning, we drove towards the lions and found them approximately at the same spot were we left them yesterday afternoon. As nothing interesting was going on, we decided to drive towards Bodumatau lagoon and finally ended up at fourth bridge. We didn’t see much: a couple of pied kingfishers, a three-banded plover and some impala. The last stretch towards fourth bridge was one of the bumpier sections in the park. This road isn’t recommended for people who get easily seasick or for people who just don’t like to bounce around all the time.
verslag_Bodumatau Aug_0289
From there on, we took the same road as we had done two days before while driving up to our camping site. Close to second bridge, we found a journey of giraffes accompanied by a dazzle of zebras. A combination of several mammals is always nice to see … The pans in Etosha are probably one of the best places in Southern Africa to see different mammals together.
Zebra and Giraffes together.
We also saw a tawny eagle which was mobbed by blacksmith plovers until he decided he had enough of them.
Crimson-breasted shrikes are among my favourite birds to photograph. If you do it the proper way (not feeding them), they are amongst the most difficult birds to photograph as they are constantly hopping around or they are sitting in thick vegetation. We found two relaxed ones and it took me more than a hour to photograph one in a tree (with uncluttered background). I must have driven Ewan crazy as I asked him to move back and forward constantly.
Crimson Breasted Shrike
Close to camp, we found a nice herd of zebra (+/- 40). We decided to wait at the pan in front of camp as we guessed they would eventually end up there. Our patience was rewarded and we found them quenching their thirst there. 20 minutes later, 2 bull elephants approached the pan and they were surprisingly tolerant towards the zebra. As this happened another vehicle saw us but the guide kept his distance so he wouldn’t disturb our sighting. We spoke to him afterwards and he seems to be a good friend of Ewan. I have seen it too often that guides rush into a sighting regardless if they would spoil the other people’s sighting or not.
Yellow Hornbill
White-Crested Helmet-Shrike
Zebra Herd
More Zebra
In the afternoon, after scanning the plains for cheetah, we drove back to Xini lagoon and to our very surprise we found a female cheetah lying under a bush close to the main road near the HATAB campsite at Xini. We spend 15 minutes with it before the people who camped there, started their game drive and found us watching a cheetah. So they decided to stay … one vehicle standing still is already suspicious, three vehicles … there must be something around so the circus was about to start. As there was still some distance in between the cheetah and the road, she luckily couldn’t be disturbed by the cars as it looked she had recently killed something and was just interested in resting in the shade. We left her and tried to pick up something else. Zebbies were the only ones around …
Cheetah!
I was prepared for some cold but not for a morning like this. When the going gets tough, the tough get going … The wind was blowing madly and it was almost unbearable to drive into its direction. What surprised me, was the amount of game around on the open plains. Normally you would expect them to look for shelter in the woodlands … but on this morning, we saw several herds of zebra, wildebeest and tssessebe. At a certain point, we saw at least 150 impalas grouped together looking for warmth. We found lion tracks heading to the main route (South gate – third bridge) but at a certain point we lost the tracks and couldn’t find the lions. We drove as far as fourth bridge and made a U-turn at the bridge.
As I still wanted to take some “kubu” pictures, Ewan took me to a lagoon where there were at least 40 hippos. We arrived slightly after 10 and I was still shivering. In fact, we had put the windshield up (so I wasn’t that brave after all) half an hour before. The moment we approached the lagoon, there were a herd of zebras, some common waterbucks, plenty of impalas and one bull elephant around. After they all had what they came for … we stepped out of the vehicle to have a cup of coffee (I badly needed it). As the hippopotami weren’t used to the vehicle, they all gathered together and put up a great show.
Hippo in the lagoon
Low angle of a hippo
Hippo action shot
Open wide
Hippo dental inspection
In the afternoon, Sallie arrived once again from Maun with some special orders. I actually wanted to drink some Champaign and she managed to find some in town and brought it herself so we didn’t had to make us of Fedex. That’s what I call service … Honestly, she just came in to refill our normal food supplies and I had ask her the previous time if it was possible to bring some bubblies with.
In the afternoon, the three of us drove once more to Xini lagoon and we found a not so happy hippo, which wasn’t allowed to join the other ones. He showed some serious signs of stress and we decided to leave him to his own interesting personality. Ewan is always proud not to get stuck … in fact, he’s very cautious when it comes to driving through water but this time he was caught by surprise. We actually got stuck in the mud (we didn’t realise at first that it was all that wet). We jacked the vehicle and it took us less than half an hour to get out (after trying twice without success). We drove to our secret “kubu” spot and I took some nice backlight shots of some of the hippopotami.
In the early morning, Vincent and Kosi were shining their torches. I wondered what was going on? A spotted hyena had stolen some of their equipment at night and they were desperately looking for it. They finally found it when they were breaking up camp. It seemed that the hyena dropped it behind my tent.
We took the short cut towards fourth bridge and didn’t see much. In fact, the only thing worth to remember was a greater painted snipe. As we heard that the Xakanaka pride was last seen on Mboma island, we drove towards it in the hope to catch a glimpse of these cats …
