Part 5 of 5: The Conclusion of “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.
Fifth leg of the trip – Xakanaka (Moremi)
There are only a few roads on Mboma island – at first we were driving towards the boat station but we couldn’t find any recent nari (buffalo) or tau (lion) tracks so we decided to head back towards the junction that takes you to the other side of the island. Vegetation was quite dense at this side and we saw some vervet monkeys and baboons but I couldn’t take any decent pictures as these troops weren’t so relaxed. We also saw some elephants and a few impala but for the rest game was sparse … I actually don’t remember to have seen a lot of animals on this island and as we hadn’t find any tracks of “our relentless enemies” we decided to drive towards HATAB campsite 7, our last home for the next 4 days.
Just an anecdote: On one of my previous safaris (at that time I stayed at a well-known camp in the delta), our vehicle was knocked over by an elephant and as we arrived back in camp very late (almost midnight), the next day other guests were asking me why I didn’t show up for dinner last night and I told them I was working on a documentary with the following title “unbelievable enemies”. The Jouberts had made three movies “eternal enemies (lion vs hyena), ultimate enemies (lion vs elephant) and relentless enemies (lion vs buffalo) and now I was trying to capture the interaction between a pack of wild dogs and some “daggah” boys. And as this mostly took place at night, I had to make long hours and believe it or not but some people actually thought I was telling the truth. But I wouldn’t scare the other guests in camp and that’s why I didn’t tell them what really had happened.
What is it about Xakanaka???
- too much traffic (one of the most popular spots in Moremi with a lot of camp facilities (Third bridge/Xakanaka) and permanent camps doesn’t offer you a good experience as everyone is rushing around in search of “the big cats” and unlike in Chobe it’s difficult to escape from the crowd;
- some of the roads are in terrible condition (mentioned in the previous chapter);
- normally there is always something interesting to see and there is normally a lot of game around in winter time;
- one of the better places to photograph primates in Moremi.
Before heading out for the afternoon game drive, I was to refresh myself and just as I was about to enter the marble bathroom, Vincent told me there was an African barred owlet sitting in the tree above my outdoor shower. I would have loved to take a photo of him but right now I had other priorities. But funny, the owl didn’t care about me and after 15 minutes and looking brand new again I was still able to photograph him on the exact same spot.
African barred Owlet
That reminds me of another story I forgot to tell while I was staying at Bodumatau. My tent was next to a big termite mound and on one of those hot afternoons, I was sitting on my bed as I suddenly heard/saw a water monitor creeping in front of my tent and it climbed up on the mound. Two minutes later, I saw another one joining the first one and they started copulating. Unluckily, my cameras were lying in the landrover, so no chance this time to show this sighting to you all.
From today on, clouds were building in the afternoons and normally that means that rain isn’t far away … so I already expected some showers somewhere in September and today it seems like I got it right.
We drove up to Jesse’s pools and saw some breeding herds crossing water. Unfortunately they were walking away from us … There were vehicles everywhere and we came across another friend of Ewan who told us lions were seen close to third bridge. So we now knew where we didn’t had to go … Instead we drove towards “dead tree island bridge” and saw there was no chance to reach the island itself. It’s a real pity as to me it’s one of the most scenic areas of the park.
Vervet Monkey
We carried on and found some very relaxed vervet monkeys. As I was taking pictures of them, two lodge vehicles were running wild and one of the guides shouted “nkwe”. So it meant there was a leopard somewhere and probably a shitload of vehicles around it. We took our time with the monkeys as the light was quite good and after that we continued our journey. Another guide, who returned from the leopard sighting (and was now on his way to the lions around third bridge) told us that there were two leopards, both of them lying in a tree and they were only separated from each by a hundred metres.
We decided to have a quick look to assess the situation. It seemed that they were both lying in a sausage tree, which a lot of leaf cover. So we just passed by and decided to come back very early next morning as most other people would still be eating/sleeping. In the meantime, we came across Ewan’s father in law, who’s also guiding and he told us that he had seen some wild dogs. He had lost them but he pointed out in which direction we had to look for them. And yes, we found them not that far away where Veronica Roodt used to stay. And as everyone was with those leopards/lions we had the dogs for ourselves. They were four and just woke up and started trotting towards water. As they stayed on the road, it was relatively easy to follow them and I took some pictures while they were drinking. Then they started running wild and we lost them after a couple of kilometres but we finally had found them and I had been able to spend some time with my favourite predators. As there were some clouds, the sunset was not to be missed. We drove towards Nkwe island and as we were enjoying a sundowner several breeding herds of elephants popped up out of nowhere and crossed the water in front and behind us. We were surrounded and had to wait till the ellies allowed us to pass by. What a great afternoon this had been !!!
Sunset on a great afternoon
I had hoped for some good night rest but this campsite seemed to be quite popular with breeding herds and every night they came into camp and started feeding for several hours. As a matter of precaution, the second day I started to drink less at night, so I hadn’t to make use of the en-suite facilities that much as I wasn’t really looking forward to come eye to eye with an elephant at night. They kept me awake a lot and the last two nights I didn’t sleep at all. Later on, I’ll tell you more about the last night … On one of the nights, Ewan also had heard the calls of 5 different owls.
The next day, we drove straight to the place where we had seen the 2 leopards but there wasn’t any sign of them anymore. Some bones/skull of an impala were still to be seen in one of the trees and we had hoped one of those cats would be still around but like so many times when you plan your game drives carefully, it doesn’t work out like the way you thought. Tracking was difficult and after scanning the area carefully, we left and drove towards Jesse’s pools again and found +/- 20 common waterbucks. From there on, we carried on towards fourth bridge, took a very bumpy loop towards third bridge. On the way, we found lion tracks from last night but we couldn’t locate them. We saw a lot of giraffes, at one point I counted 30 of these gentle creatures. Around third bridge, we came across hyena and dog tracks. It seemed that they had a bit of a squabble in the early morning over a kill. But right now, they weren’t to be seen anymore.
We saw a lot of giraffes, at one point I counted 30 of these gentle creatures.
On our way to Jesse’s pools I took some lovely bird pictures: an African fish-eagle in flight, wattled cranes taking off, an African darter drying its wings (classic stuff). At Jesse’s we found some vervets and spend almost two hours with them and just as we were about to leave, we had a fantastic sighting. We had to drive through a small ditch and next to it were some trees. In one of them, there were 7 young vervets playing in it. They were as close as 30 centimetres from the vehicle and weren’t scared of us at all. They kept doing their monkey business as if we weren’t there … just amazing. I enjoyed it so much more than most of the “predator” sightings. Believe it or not but every vehicle we came across (more than I need and probably a 100 + in four days), asked us if we knew where the lions were. Not one time, did they stop. So although Xakanaka was very busy, we had our sightings for ourselves as we were only watching zebras/baboons/birds … .
Fish Eagle
young vervets at play
Young vervet monkeys
Playful Vervets
After a nap in the afternoon (because of partying ellies at night time), we took it slowly and found +/- 200 elephants crossing over to dead tree island. On our way back to camp, we saw several vehicles together close to Jesse’s pools again and wondered what they were looking at. It happened to be some southern ground-hornbills. So we weren’t right after all … it’s not only lions people are looking at. Just before sunset, we found a zebra foal suckling in perfect light (probably my best picture of the trip).
Who is watching who?
Next day was quite uneventful, we saw our first reedbucks of the trip in the morning. Found a leopard in a tree (again no photo opportunities) near Nkwe crossing and watched some ellies crossing water and rushing towards us. We stayed our ground and they just ignored us as they saw we didn’t mean harm to them.
In the afternoon, nothing really happened (we followed dog tracks near Xakanaka airstrip but it seemed that the dogs had been heading back to the den (which couldn’t be reached as there were no roads around) until we reached camp and saw it was surrounded by +/- 150 elephants. So more fiesta tonight!!!
Photo by Johan de Bondt
Recently Hari told me it was highly unlikely that lightning would strike twice in the same place. He meant that he didn’t expect the same quality of sightings at Kwara as the last time. For me, it meant something else and unluckily it did strike twice. Just a little bit of patience and I explain …
We decided to rough it one last time … we drove towards fourth bridge, up to Bodumatau lagoon + our hippo spot, back to first bridge, second bridge and third bridge and finally back home again. We didn’t focus on anything in particular but were determined to give our very best. Near our old campsite, we saw two honey badgers. They were foraging and like most of them, they were a bit camera shy. Our “kubu’s” gave one last magical performance. We saw a lot of plains game and just before third bridge, we spotted some vultures. As we didn’t see any other vehicles, we quickly drove to it and found +/- 100 vultures (3 different species, only the white-headed vulture wasn’t around) feeding on an impala. It didn’t look like it was killed by a predator. Probably it died in a fight with another impala or it was just sick. There was one brave black-backed jackal around who managed to get his share. He didn’t liked the vultures at all and I managed to capture some interaction between the two scavengers.
Black-Backed Jackel
incoming vulture
Vultures on a dead Impala
Lucky number 7 - where elephanst roam freely
In camp, Kosi told us that 15 minutes after we left camp, wild dogs were in camp and almost managed to kill an impala but two bull elephants came to its rescue and chased the dogs away. Also 4 puppies (two to three months old) were seen. So again, like last year, we had wild dogs in camp at HATAB site (lucky) number seven. So what was it about lightning again?
In the afternoon, I told Ewan that we were going to focus on baboons … we quickly found a relaxed troop and we spend some quality time with them. At one point, a vehicle came rushing at high speed to us as they thought we were watching a leopard … As they found out that we didn’t, they immediately took off again in search of leopards (I suppose).
Baby Baboon
more Baboon fun
We watched a glorious sunset and saw some grey ghosts crossing the water for the last time on this wonderful safari.
We went to bed quickly as I wasn’t feeling very well. It seemed that I finally got the flu (probably it started after that very cold and windy morning). Night was sheer horror, I couldn’t sleep because of the elephants, had to make use of some of the facilities at night (luckily the ellies didn’t realise) and I was in pain (also couldn’t hear anything on my left-hand side as my nose was completely blocked).
In the morning, I looked like a zombie. Someone should have taken a picture but didn’t (I was too vain I guess). We decided to drive up to South gate passing by the different bridges and Xini lagoon. 5 minutes out of camp, we found a couple of Southern ground-hornbills in a tree and they were calling each other. What a lovely sound! At third bridge, we found a very relaxed red-necked falcon. Surprisingly he allowed us to drive up close.
I thought I wasn’t going to see the Xakanaka pride on this trip but Ewan decided to make one last detour because you never know … And as one doesn’t hope anymore, it happens. We saw one lioness lying on the road and she was watching some zebras and impalas in the distance. Suddenly she stood up and walked in a stalking mood towards the zebra. Hell broke loose and now we saw several lions running towards the zebbies. They managed to escape and all the lions came together and laid close to each other (there wasn’t much bonding going on). We counted 9 lions. Right time, right place this time. Or was it just a teaser of Ewan to convince me to go with him on safari once more?
We stopped at Xini lagoon for a coffee and made our way slowly to South gate. From there on, we drove up to Motsensela tree lodge, were the people didn’t recognise me at first (I hadn’t shaved myself for almost three weeks and I looked like a very sick dog). They really pampered me there and by next day, I was ready to go back to a place called Belgium.
Once again a safari to remember and a big thank you to Ewan, Sallie, Vicent and Kosi.
The call of the African fish-eagle
Some last notes:
In eleven days in Moremi I didn’t see any buffalo which never happened in the past. It seemed that a lot of their favourite feeding grounds couldn’t be reached by vehicle. Other people saw some buffalo …
We came across some collared animals. Like a lot of the guides, I am not in favour of it for various reasons. I am not going to discuss this in depth here. One thing: what I really find awful is that some animals are still wearing collars after the researchers have left.
I met several guides who worked for Kwando, WS, Sanctuary lodges and are now doing mobiles. I am always amazed that a lot of them still recognize me.
