Where did all the water go…?!
Head Light
What did I see on my trip to Muchenje Safari Lodge in Botswana? Well, not much—apart from lions, leopards, bateleurs, a grey-tailed mongoose, a side-striped jackal, a spitting cobra, a swallow-tailed bee-eater and 20 male impalas chasing a single female!
Getting There
It was my birthday on 13 May, and I decided to have my usual party at The Queen Adelaide in Putney on the nearest Saturday, the 11th—which just happened to be the day I was due to fly out to Botswana.
I was so tired (and drunk!) afterwards that I forgot my AirPods case, didn’t change my shoes or shirt and almost missed my flight to Jo’burg! In the end , it was an hour late taking off, but we made up half of that during the journey.
Panos, the cabin steward, let me off the plane early so I could catch my onward flight to Kasane, and I even had time to buy the latest AirPods Pro (with a USB-C cable) at the airport.
One of the guides drove me to the lodge, where I had lunch, moved in to Room 12, had my beanbag filled in five minutes flat, went on a game drive and almost immediately saw a leopard stalking an injured impala…!
Daily Life
The routine was pretty much the same as when I stayed at Muchenje in May and October, 2022. You can read all about it in my previous blog posts (here and here). The main difference was that the place was under new management. Toff and Kiddy had been replaced by a local woman called Evelyn.
She was perfectly nice, but I missed the previous managers. They were the nicest people in the world, and I loved chatting to Toff over a beer or being welcomed back from a game drive by Kiddy.
I also missed a few of the guests. I was lucky to meet some lovely people in 2022, and it’s always hard to go back to a place when so many memories involve people I’ll never see again!
On this trip, the same cycle started all over again. I made new friends, had a great time together and then had to say goodbye! Most guests only stayed two or three nights, but I was there for nearly three weeks, so I met a LOT of people…
The lodge was very busy, and there were enough guests to justify a boat ride almost every day. However, the disadvantage of going on game drives with other guests all the time was that I couldn’t spend as much time with the wildlife. Not many people want to wait 20 minutes for a lilac-breasted roller to take off—and a couple of guests didn’t see the funny side…!
This was my daily routine:
0530 Alarm
0545 Walk to main area for juice
0600-0800 Morning game drive
0800-1000 Upload and rate pictures
1000-1100 Drive to Kasane
1100-1400 Boat ride (including picnic lunch)
1400-1800 Game drive
1800-1930 Upload and rate pictures (over drinks and nibbles at the bar!)
1930-2100 Dinner (well, I skipped dinner most nights, but that’s when it was!)
2100 Walk back to my room to rate pictures
1000 Go to bed
Occasionally, I went on a night drive after dinner, a short trip to have sundowners in front of the lodge or an evening game drive. The light was great at sunset, but I couldn’t do the evening game drive and the boat ride, so I eventually decided to do the full day for the rest of my trip. Quantity over quality…
In addition, one of the owners, Shaun, had given me a long ‘shot list’ of everything he wanted me to photograph:
Breakfast/lunch at Ihaha Pavilion overlooking the jetty.
Boma dinner outdoors
Various activities, including early morning walk, early morning game drive, all day safari with boat from Kasane, afternoon safari, sundowner safari for afternoon latecomers, night time game drive and added Ihaha activities.
Tribal museum visit with Paramount Chief Sinvula III, Muniteenge (king) of the Vekuhane Nation (baSubia tribe).
Local fruit and vegetable farm
Mabele Primary School for pictures of the Head, Deputy Head, Secretary and PTA Chairperson
500-600 pictures and 50 or more videos of animals, birds, lizards, bugs, butterflies, shongololoes (millipedes), dung beetles, grasshoppers, locusts, trees (muchenje tree/African ebony/jackalberry, wooden banana/mountain mahogany, bush willow, mopane, combretum, woolly caper bush, flat-topped acacia/umbrella tree, mangosteen, marula, teak, knobthorn, baobab etc)
New Toyota Land Cruiser game viewer, old Land Rovers
Staff (front office, guides, maintenance staff, laundry ladies, room ladies, bar staff, restaurant staff and waiters, Head Chef Shakes and his chefs, helpers and scullery, security staff)
Gardens and the two gardeners
Main lodge and chalet pics, inside and out.
Sunsets
Pod of over 70 hippos stranded in a pool at Kavimba
Sunset by firepit
Evelyn and Jost helped me cover all the bases, and I managed to get most of it done during my trip. The hardest part was meeting the king. It was the first time I’d ever had to speak to royalty, and I was a bit nervous! There was a lot of protocol involved, and I didn’t want to offend anyone or cause a diplomatic incident!
Jost tried to tell me when to kneel and clap, but I couldn’t quite understand what he was saying when we were in the king’s office, so I didn’t clap when I was supposed to. Fortunately, the king just smiled and indicated what I had to do. Phew!
Paramount Chief Sinvula III
It was the first time I’d met a Paramount Chief, so I had to be told to bow and clap at certain points in the ceremony. I was also the official photographer, so I was pretty busy…!
They’d put up a marquee in the garden, and there were about 30 or 40 guests trying to cope with the heat. Toff, Shaun, the Paramount Chief and one or two other Important People gave speeches while I snapped away, trying to be as discreet as possible…!
There was also some singing and dancing from a choir, some kids from the local school and the local staff. However, it didn’t go on too long, and I still managed to go out on game drives in the morning and in the afternoon.
Wildlife
I visited Muchenje at the same time of year during the Wet Season in 2022, but this time was different. Apparently, it hadn’t rained enough in Angola for the Chobe to flood, so the river was reduced to a trickle in some places rather than a five-mile-wide torrent!
As a result, there were fewer animals and far fewer birds than I’d seen on my previous trip. Game drives were pretty quiet, especially in the morning, and the white-faced whistling ducks had almost disappeared.
Predators
Although you hardly ever see cheetahs in Chobe, I was quite lucky with my other predator sightings, and I saw several lions, leopards and hyenas feeding on carcases.
When I visited Muchenje in May 2022, I didn’t see a single leopard, but on this trip, I saw them almost every day, either lying in trees or patrolling the riverfront.
I also saw quite a few lions and even a couple of young cubs. I saw vividly remember watching a male and female lion crossing the river at dawn in golden light…
Finally, I came across the odd hyena, and I saw a whole clan or ‘cackle’ of hyenas at a zebra kill.
Standing Guard
Prey
There were also plenty of other animals to spot and photograph. The impalas were everywhere, as usual, and it was the rutting season, so there was plenty of action! On one game drive, I saw 20 males chasing after a single female…!
I saw elephants every day. The daily boat ride was a great chance to see them drinking from the river and giving themselves dust or mud baths.
Mud Larks
There were also plenty of young calves, and I could usually rely on them to be cute and funny as they rolled in the mud or struggled to stand up.
Dusty the Elephant
One of the other most common animals was the chacma baboon, and the young ones were almost as sweet as the baby elephants!
The rest of the animals consisted mostly of greater kudus, southern giraffes and Cape buffaloes with the odd mongoose here and there…
Birds
There are usually more birds in the wet season than the dry, but the lack of rain had reduced their numbers considerably. I saw the usual collection of African fish eagles, African darters, reed cormorants and African jacanas on my boat cruises, but there were very few of them, and I didn’t see many lilac-breasted rollers or bee-eaters on the game drives either. Shame…
Verdict
It was good to go back to Muchenje Safari Lodge, and I met some lovely people, including Mike, Kayla, Marilyn, Chris and Gabriela. Crucially, I was also happy with my photographs. I managed to take 12 shots that made it into my all-time Top 100, and I can’t remember making too many howlers!
And that should’ve been it. I should’ve been home by now, playing tennis at my club and sorting out a mountain of Amazon deliveries. However, BA cancelled my flight due to brake failure, and I had to spend the night in Jo’burg at the Birchwood Hotel.
I wasn’t sure what to do, but I realised that Kruger National Park wasn’t far away. I’d been planning to go there in September anyway, so here I was with a great opportunity to spend a couple more weeks on safari.
I spoke to Evans, the Transport Manager, and he agreed to drive me all the way there and also help booking all the lodges. I started off with three nights at Kambaku River Lodge near the Maleplane Gate to Kruger National Park, and then I booked a week at Arathusa Safari Lodge, which is where I am now, sitting by the infinity pool watching the hippos on the island.
I leave tomorrow (10 June) for three nights at Simbavati River Lodge and then move on to Kings Camp for two more nights before flying home on 15 June. If you read my next few blog posts, I’ll tell you all about it…!
Butcher’s Bill
1 x Sony Tough 160 GB Cfexpress Type A memory card
1 x Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses
1 x Emery board
Species List
Animals
African bush elephant
Ant-lion
Banded mongoose
Bat-eared fox
Black-backed jackal
Cape buffalo
Chacma baboon
Chobe bushbuck
Common warthog
Common waterbuck
Greater kudu
Grey-tailed mongoose
Ground squirrel
Hippopotamus
Impala
Leopard
Lion
Nile crocodile
Plains zebra
Red lechwe
Roan antelope
Sable antelope
Scrub hare
Side-striped jackal
Slender mongoose
Southern giraffe
Spitting cobra
Spotted hyena
Steenbok
Tree squirrel
Vervet monkey
Water monitor
Birds
African darter
African fish eagle
African hawk-eagle
African jacana
African openbill
African pied wagtail
African sacred ibis
African scops owl
African spoonbill
African wattled lapwing
Bateleur
Black heron
Black-winged stilt
Blacksmith lapwing
Red-cheeked cordon-bleu/Blue waxbill
Brown snake-eagle
Cape glossy starling
Cape turtle dove/Ring-necked dove
Cattle egret
Coppery-tailed coucal
Crested francolin
Eastern yellow-billed hornbill
Egyptian goose
Fork-tailed drongo
Giant kingfisher
Glossy ibis
Goliath heron
Great egret
Great white cormorant
Greater blue-eared starling
Grey go-away-bird
Grey heron
Grey-headed gull
Hamerkop
Helmeted guineafowl
Honey buzzard
Kori bustard
Lilac-breasted roller
Little bee-eater
Little egret
Little sparrowhawk
Long-toed lapwing
Magpie shrike
Marabou stork
Pale chanting goshawk
Pied kingfisher
Purple heron
Racket-tailed roller
Red-billed oxpecker
Red-billed spurfowl
Red-necked spurfowl
Reed cormorant
Southern ground-hornbill
Southern red-billed hornbill
Spur-winged goose
Squacco heron
Swallow-tailed bee-eater
Tawny eagle
Tropical boubou
Water thick-knee
Wattled lapwing
Whiskered tern
White-backed vulture
White-breasted cormorant
White-crowned lapwing
White-faced whistling-duck
White-headed vulture
White-helmeted shrike
Wire-tailed swallow
Yellow-bellied greenbul
Yellow-billed stork
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