Shenton Safaris - Newsletter archive
August 2001
Greetings from the bush!
After a busy camp building and road grading session (all the way from Mfuwe plus loops) we opened our camps on 23 May. Due to the long rains there was plenty of surface water around and the vegetation was dense and green - a nice time of year in terms of colours.
June was a busy month with good bookings based around the solar eclipse. On the actual day many guests flew to the line of totality in the lower Zambezi and reported perfect conditions.
Kaingo
With Deb, Patrick, Adrienne and Ed firmly in control of things we have had a brilliant season so far. The game-viewing has been excellent - three lion kills in the last ten days. Goldie, the female leopard I have been following for the last ten years is still showing herself. She is approx 13 years old and is concentrating her efforts on smaller prey such as monitor lizards, impala and porcupine.
Two weeks ago at night a hippo went down the steps into the hippo hide/blind and went out through the window leaving behind some broken chairs and grass walls. It's all been repaired since and we hope he learned his lesson - it's for us to sit in, not him !
Mwamba
The walks from this beautiful camp are getting better and better as Wellis (our scout) and I explore the woodlands and plains around. Our guests have witnessed some unusual sightings such as little bee-eaters at arms length away, honey badgers up a tree, along with regular sightings of Cooksons Wildebeest and eland. Leopard and lion have all been through camp and we have regular elephant and hippo visitors. It seems one of the local lionesses has cubs hidden in a thicket up the Mwamba which she will no doubt start parading soon. Poaching activity around Mwamba is down from last year - we seem to have got the message through.
The main excitement so far this year is the sudden reappearence of wild dog which are basing themselves somewhere behind Kaingo but do range up to Mwamba. Seven individuals mostly males have been seen. Jackal has also been sighted recently which makes me think they are also on the increase.
Until next month - Salani bwino.
Derek Shenton
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