Xugana Island Lodge - Enlighten Guests With Herero Culture

Xugana Island Lodge
Okavango Delta, Botswana
August 2008

The other night Xugana’s bar took on a more festive air as two Herero women showed up to mix the cocktails.

Angera Vaparuisa, Xugana’s assistant manager, and her cousin, Hannah Tjitunga, on temporary assignment from her studies at Maun Technical College, are typically in their Desert and Delta Safaris uniforms on the job. But they decided to wear their traditional dresses to perform songs with Xugana’s choir and to tend bar on this evening in late August.

Angera, known around camp as Angie, says young people such as herself wear the dresses and hats for funerals, weddings and special occasions. Married Herero women wear the dresses every day, no matter how hot it is outside and no matter how bright the sun shines on the dusty roads of Maun.

“They’re used to it,” Angie says. Young people aren’t as comfortable in the heat.

The dresses are cotton, and women wear petticoats underneath, sometimes as many as six to allow the dresses to flair. The Herero people came from Namibia to Botswana and have maintained their culture and traditions while living among the other tribal peoples of the country. Herero women’s hats resemble the horns of cattle, signifying the great value that the Herero place on cows. In fact, Angie says, Herero people typically eat meat and drink a sour milk; they don’t cultivate vegetables or care too much for their taste.

And another fact about the Herero: they love to sing. At Xugana the other night two DDS women donned their costumes, kicked up their heels with the choir and showed what kind of singers Herero women are. Guests stuck to more mundane cocktails, however, foregoing a Herero specialty. Sour milk shots will have to come on another day.

--Maria Henson, volunteers
Desert and Delta Safaris

Xugana Island Lodge - From Head Hunter to Lion Hunter

Xugana Island Lodge
Okavango Delta, Botswana
August 25, 2008

It is common to be told there’s no hurry in Africa.

So it was “ga gona mathata” (no problem) that Melinda Japs from California was taking her time today to join her daughter, Melanie Corey-Ferrini of Seattle, for a leisurely breakfast at the lodge. But then a crackling radio call came for their guide, Joel Body, at the breakfast table: Xugana’s other guides and guests were on a walking safari, and they had found the lions.

Lions are a reason to hurry.

Melanie rushed off to roust her mother at the bungalow. Joel rushed off to grab tracker John Dikeledi. I rushed off to change flip-flops for hiking boots. In a flash we were all on the boat and speeding across the lagoon toward Palm Island.

We were there yesterday in search of the lions. We found a herd of buffalo as well as a calf a dangerous distance away from the herd, crying for its mother. We stepped gingerly around steaming piles of buffalo poop and through tall yellow grasses to get closer. We searched for lion tracks and lion droppings.

Body waiting to take us to see the lions on Palm Island.

“Whenever I see buffaloes, I have to see lions close behind,” Body said.

But we had no luck. There was no sign of a lion, which left Body feeling “a little bit out of mood.”

Melinda and Melanie had a 10:15 a.m. flight to catch today. Their plan was to relax at the lodge and putter around in the boat until time to go to the airstrip. But this was their chance. Melinda had longed to see lions on her vacation, but she thought it was not to be.

At 8:39 a.m. we pulled our boat behind the other guides’ boats and stepped onto Palm Island. We walked faster than yesterday, and we had guide Lets’ radio cues to guide us. We walked right up to Lets and the Crookenden family of five from England. Lets was standing on the pinnacle of a termite mound. He showed us exactly where to go.

Lets Waiting to show us where the lions are.

“Good luck,” he told us. He gave me a thumbs-up to assure me he had snapped photos.

At 8:52 a.m. we spotted lion ears. We inched closer. Nearby, a hooded vulture atop a sycamore fig tree hunched forward, inspecting us, perhaps sizing up the competition for scraps. (Don’t worry, buddy, no competition here.)

Suddenly it all came into view. Two female lions sat under the shade of fan palms, while another female was drinking from marsh water a few yards away. The buffalo lay between us and the lions. Was it the calf’s mother? We will never know because we couldn’t get close enough to tell.

How close did we get? Probably 20 metres. Melanie wanted to slide forward a few more metres, but her mother didn’t like that idea. Melinda is a recruiter, what’s known as a head hunter in the United States, but now here she was an unarmed lion hunter smartly dressed and wearing red lipstick – brave, but not THAT brave.

With their stomachs bulging, the lions appeared content to laze around, guarding their meal and awaiting their next feeding frenzy. We hoped they were very full indeed, considering how close we stood.

“My first carnivore,” Melinda would announce later, with satisfaction.

As we watched the lions, Body and John told us about how the lions would stick around, munching on the buffalo for several days. They would have to fend off hyaenas, and in the old days they might have had to fend off people.

John grew up in the Delta and remembers being a part of groups that would form a shouting clump and advance toward the lions to scare them away, so that the people could steal the meat for themselves. Body said his parents told stories of how in his grandparents’ time, fathers would take their sons to the lions and do a little training with the help of a stick applied to the children’s backsides.

“Stand still, my boy!” the father would command. And that’s how the children of Botswana learned never, ever, ever, to run from a lion.

As we turned to leave and moved away, Body told us to stop. One of the lions had crouched a bit, flicked her tail from side to side and bellowed a low guttural growl. Uh-oh. A sign of aggression. We stopped and waited for the lion to relax. Then we took a hard left and marched quickly away from the lions, leaving a wide berth between us and them.

“I’ll be sketching that,” Melanie said back at the boat. She’s an architect who teaches a travel sketching class in Seattle. She had managed to capture the scenes with her camera and would soon be adding her own interpretation in black pen in her sketch book. “We were having a leisurely morning, and poof, we were off!” she said with delight.

The mother and daughter made their flight with time to spare.

“Today I am very happy,” Body said. “Unfortunately, the lions have killed a mom of someone, and it is lone-less (alone). But anyway it is nature.”

-- Maria Henson
Desert and Delta Safaris volunteer

Xugana Island Lodge - Elephant Surprise

Xugana Island Lodge
Okavango Delta, Botswana
August 2008

Lizl and Mark Carlsen, the lodge managers at Xugana, couldn’t resist the chance to see the lions on Palm Island. But on this day, the journey was as magical as the destination.

They cruised on a boat through a narrow channel lined with papyrus and reeds. Xugana guides travel these channels every day, showing guests the bounty of the Okavango Delta: African fish eagles soaring overhead, malachite kingfishers darting from reed to reed, the African jacanas walking on lily pads as if walking on water, earning them the affectionate nickname “Jesus birds.”

But on this day, around the corner was a bigger surprise. A bull elephant ambled alongside the channel, and Lizl caught him in all his massive grandeur.

They found the elephant in musth, (ready to mate), and as they boated toward him, it looked as if he move into their pathway in the channel. So they waited for him to pass, but he changed direction.

Mark and Lizl were left marveling at how you can set out to see one thing in Africa and, before you reach your destination, something equally magnificent shows up along the way.

The bull elephant “stood there long enough to pose for the photograph,” Lizl said, adding with a laugh, “the award-winning photograph.”

And, yes, Mark and Lizl got to see the lions as well. As they say in their hometowns of South Africa, it was a “lekker” day. In other words: A fine day.

-- Maria Henson, volunteer
Delta and Desert Safaris

Savute Large Predator Update August 2008

As the hot, dry season in Savute is approaching, the natural waterholes are drying up quite fast. The holes at Disaster Pan, Harveys Pan and Poachers Pan are almost dry, with only a little bit of stagnant water and mud left. The elephants are making full use of these sites, having daily mud baths, but they are moving to the artificial water holes to have a drink.

This drying up of the natural water holes is leading to larger concentrations of prey species, such as Impala, Blue Wildebeest and Kudu concentrating around the artificial water holes. This also results in an increase in the amount of predators that we see in the area. For the period Feb – July 2008 the figures has increased as follows:

Lions
February - 3
March - 19
April - 27
May - 21
June - 15
July - 40


Leopard
February - 10
March - 18
April - 13
May - 12
June - 17
31
Wilddog
7
13
13
6
7
17
Cheetah
0
5
0
10
8
24

Very interresting from these figures, is that most of the sightings have also doubled from the sightings in July. The increase in Cheetah sightings, from 8 in June to 24 in July is especially encouraging, as this means that the 2 cheetah that have moved into the area in June are settling in well, and that the two residents are still showing themselves regularly.

Another interesting occurrence is that two new packs of Wilddog are moving into the area. One group of three and another of four dogs are now regularly seen in the area. The resident pack of seven dogs are still around, although we only see six of them at this stage. We noticed in June that the Alpha Female was very heavily pregnant, and she is propably staying around the den site to look after her pups, therefore the missing dog in this group.

The Lions are also moving closer to the Lodge. Almost every night we fall asleep to a Lion chorus around camp. A new arrival in the Lion population is a huge solitary male in the prime of his life. His tracks are larger than the outstreched hand of a man. He was seen a couple of times in the area around camp. Last night (18/08) a big Lioness with two young cubs came to drink at the waterhole right in front of the lodge to the great delight of everybody in the camp.

As the trees are loosing their leaves, the distance we can see from the road is also increasing. This, combined with the lower water levels will result in even better sightings in Savute. I cannot wait to see what the sightings will be doing as the year progresses!

Submitted by Kobus Lubbe, Savute Safari Lodge Manager

Savute Large Predator Update August 2008

As the hot, dry season in Savute is approaching, the natural waterholes are drying up quite fast. The holes at Disaster Pan, Harveys Pan and Poachers Pan are almost dry, with only a little bit of stagnant water and mud left. The elephants are making full use of these sites, having daily mud baths, but they are moving to the artificial water holes to have a drink.

This drying up of the natural water holes is leading to larger concentrations of prey species, such as Impala, Blue Wildebeest and Kudu concentrating around the artificial water holes. This also results in an increase in the amount of predators that we see in the area. For the period Feb – July 2008 the figures has increased as follows:

Lions
February - 3
March - 19
April - 27
May - 21
June - 15
July - 40

Leopard
February - 10
March - 18
April - 13
May - 12
June - 17
July - 31

Wilddog
February - 7
March - 13
April - 13
May - 6
June - 7
July - 17

Cheetah
February - 0
March - 5
April - 0
May - 10
June - 8
July - 24

Very interresting from these figures, is that most of the sightings have also doubled from the sightings in July. The increase in Cheetah sightings, from 8 in June to 24 in July is especially encouraging, as this means that the 2 cheetah that have moved into the area in June are settling in well, and that the two residents are still showing themselves regularly.

Another interesting occurrence is that two new packs of Wilddog are moving into the area. One group of three and another of four dogs are now regularly seen in the area. The resident pack of seven dogs are still around, although we only see six of them at this stage. We noticed in June that the Alpha Female was very heavily pregnant, and she is propably staying around the den site to look after her pups, therefore the missing dog in this group.

The Lions are also moving closer to the Lodge. Almost every night we fall asleep to a Lion chorus around camp. A new arrival in the Lion population is a huge solitary male in the prime of his life. His tracks are larger than the outstreched hand of a man. He was seen a couple of times in the area around camp. Last night (18/08) a big Lioness with two young cubs came to drink at the waterhole right in front of Savute Safari Lodge to the great delight of everybody in the camp.

As the trees are loosing their leaves, the distance we can see from the road is also increasing. This, combined with the lower water levels will result in even better sightings in Savute. I cannot wait to see what the sightings will be doing as the year progresses!

Submitted by Kobus Lubbe, Savute Safari Lodge Manager

Camp Okavango - An Exciting Walk On Lopis Island

Camp Okavango
Monday July 28th , 2008

This morning we decided to walk on Lopis island. It's a small peaceful island in the Delta with a crown of forest and a round floodplain in the middle. Too many trees for the big herd of buffaloes to visit it for the risk of being ambushed by predators hidden behind thick trees.

So the island is home for a small group of giraffes, a family of kudus, some groups of impalas, a couple of families of warthogs, a big troop of baboons and a family of vervet monkeys. Elephants often pass by to eat the fruits of the jackal berry or the sweet grass in some areas near the channel, then they go. And of course there are great birds of many species: sometimes you can also see the elusive Pel's Fishing owl. All the animals on Lopis are used to the presence of a quiet and very respectful single file of camouflaged humans who come, take pictures and go.

This morning the island appeared completely empty: no antelope, no giraffe. nothing. The birds were screaming on a far side of the island, apparently for no reason.

We proceeded toward the centre of the floodplain finally seeing a tower of 3 giraffes in the distance. The minute we tried to get closer they ran desperately away and when we tried to reach them, they had already crossed the channel to another island. The strangest behaviour ever encountered!

What was happening!!?? We were walking back to the boat slowly and disconsolately when, around a curve on the track, we met 3 marvellous and very active lionesses running in the direction of the giraffes.

Now everything made sense! It was not us the animals were hiding or running away from! We followed the lionesses who were too busy and very annoyed by our presence. They hid in a thick bush for a while, but evidently they didn't have time to loose waiting for us to clear their way. So they ran through the tall grass and we were discretely tailing them walking from termite mound to termite mound in the attempt to get a better look at them and take some pictures. They got annoyed and roared at us. You don't need to study lion language to understand it and the message was clear and loud: - "back off". And this we did. Slowly, regretfully, but also with respect, we obeyed the order and let them go their way.

When we turned back to start the walk to the boat again, it was like having being transported to another island in one second. The lionesses gone, the island was full of life again: kudus, impalas, baboons, monkeys .. all the animals of the island came to greet us in a festival of relief and happiness. They were jumping and looking at us as usual, at safety distance, but evidently not afraid of us. What an experience!!

Sometimes it is more important what you learn than what you see in nature. Seeing predators is always exciting, but understanding animal behaviour from direct experience is a unique lesson that no book can teach you.

Many thanks to the Management and staff of Camp Okavango for this story.