Desert & Delta Safaris: Xugana Island Lodge

Xugana Island Lodge,
Okavango Delta, Botswana
June 18, 2008

Look behind palm tree leaves where weavers’ nests hang like rustic Christmas ornaments, and you’ll discover Xugana Island Lodge. Arriving by boat after crossing a lagoon, guests appear universally delighted to find a lodge tucked into a verdant paradise, a hidden gem dotted by 8 bungalows near water’s edge. They step onto the island and instantly feel their stress fall away and their sense of clock time disappear.

But today in this serene spot in the Okavango Delta, adrenaline surged. Exuberant guests returned from their morning walk on Palm Island to tell the story of a lion kill they had witnessed on foot and with unarmed guides.

“Anything I’d say would just sound like a cliché,” guest Matthew Keep from the UK said. “A once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was a truly memorable experience.”

Lily Gibson of Ireland said, “There was a danger element….This was nature. This was Africa. It wasn’t contrived.”

Matthew said, “It is what you come to Africa for.”

At 7 a.m. two groups of guests traveled in separate boats to do their morning walks on nearby islands. Guides at Xugana say the islands where they walk are small, which necessitates larger mammals moving freely and quickly from one island to another in search of food. A sure bet in this area is birdlife, abundant on any island. Xugana’s guests typically walk for two and a half hours on an island each morning; they see and learn spectacular details about this unique place on the planet – the birds, the warthogs, the red lechwes, the medicinal plants, the baobab tree and, on occasion, elephants – but rarely do they see lions. Today was another story.

Lets has been a guide for 3 years at Xugana and more than once has come upon the remains of a kill. But today was the first time he had seen a kill happen before his eyes. He and guide Body tracked the lions near a herd of Cape buffalo.

Image above: Buffalo before the chase.

There were four lions: three females and a young male of about 2 years. Body spotted the female in the distance, about 100 meters away. Lets and Body moved their guests closer, then edged them toward a lone male buffalo.

The attack was on. The lions succeeded in striking the loner, rendering it helpless as vultures waited ominously in a tree nearby. Body said he had seen films and documentaries relaying such events, but today was “the first time I have seen it through my own eyes.” When you see a chase and a kill in person, he said, “you feel it.”

Lets called it “an amazing day” he will never forget.

Andrew Delicata and his new bride, Veronika, were walking with guide Motaa and guide trainee Daniel when the word came from Lets’ group for them to come see the kill. The Delicatas, newlyweds from the UK, had missed the stalking of the buffalo, but they and Lily and John Gibson were able to move in close to see what was happening as the lions feasted. They took photographs from a termite mound 20 meters away. (The Delicatas’ photos accompany this blog item.)

“As stupid as it might sound, I actually wanted to get closer,” Andrew said. Veronika called the scene “breath-taking. I was scared, but I liked it. I had this rush in my stomach.”

John said, “In other circumstances I would have found it sickening. It is horrible, but in the end you see it is nature.”

All of them came away with a respect for what they had encountered.

It was another day to witness the truth of the adage that in Africa one should always expect the unexpected. Even at tranquil Xugana Island Lodge, best known for its gentle boat trips past papyrus and the nightly grunts of a shy hippo neighbor, guests on such a morning as this might dare to follow the footsteps of a lion through waves of tall green-gold grasses to a scene of brutal reality and a breath-taking reminder of the stark renewal of natural life.