Selinda Reserve

On the newsletter front, Explorers has been somewhat quiet, we’ve been the sleepy sloths of newsletter writers, but really, it’s been quite the contrary here at our beautiful little camp on the Selinda Spillway. So, in essence, this is not so much of an “August Newsletter”, but rather a “Peak Season Newsletter” where I will try, despite my unrelenting urge to ramble on for hours with camp stories, to give a (somewhat) brief account of the wonderful highlights we’ve had so far.

August

Zarafa and its Dhow Suites would like to thank the many American citizens who made the long trip to Africa for their safari!

For our camp, August is traditionally an ‘American month’ with around 60% of our guests coming from overseas and this year was no exception. We wish you all safe travels back home and we hope to see you next winter. Oh! And for those of you who enjoy flexible work arrangements or are retired, please do not be a stranger and visit us even earlier. In November for example, it is a completely different ball game out here!

Excitement is all over Botswana with the official announcement that one of our three Wild Dog packs are denning.

It never ceases to amaze us how time passes in the bush. It feels like just yesterday we were bidding farewell to February, yet we’ve crammed so much excitement and activity into the past few weeks since.

March has been a month of ‘dumelas’ here at Selinda. We recently welcomed new guide OB to the team. We’re delighted he’s chosen to join us and share his impressive guiding experience with our staff and guests alike. Learning our vast network of winding sandy roads is a feat in itself, but when there’s so much to see out there, it will hardly feel like work.

We present some unique and stunning images from Lets, one of our expert photographic guides at the Selinda Reserve.  Lets is well published photographer including Africa Geographic and a finalist in the Botswana Photographer of the Year awards.  Thank you Lets

Thunderstorms and stormy weather dominated the first few days of this month in our gorgeous concession, adding to the lush beauty that summer has created.  The occasional showers did, however, provide an all too welcome reprieve from the heat and as the month has worn on, these have become few and far between.    As we head toward April, one can definitely feel the morning coolness of spring approaching and the days becoming milder, a very pleasant time of year for comfortable evenings.

The guides on the Selinda Reserve have announced the resident female Leopard, Lesego, has been found with a 2 to 3 month old cub.  This is believed to be her second cub that she has reared in the region so we will follow this story closely, the benefit being is her territory is so close to the Selinda Camp itself.

Thank you for the updates Selinda, we will be waiting on a new name for this young one soon.

News from Selinda

What a rollicking good time we’ve had at Selinda this month. It’s a visually stunning time of year, with lush green vegetation and billowing indigo thunderclouds making for some incredible photographic backdrops.

Our birdlife hasn’t failed to disappoint the avid birders who have visited us recently. A single afternoon’s game drive has yielded more than 60 different species in the space of just a couple of hours. And it’s exciting spotting too.

It came over the radio to much disappointment to the team.

“play has been suspended due to irrevocable interference on the field”.

We were on a game drive vehicle over spilling with Selinda Reserve’s 1^st 12, well only 12, finest footballers.  Some had football boots, some one boot one shoe, one with one boot no shoes and the proud goalie Dollar in his no shoes.  It would be the game of champions, sponsored by the local contractors and to feature in the Ngami times that weekend (Northern Botswana’s local rag).

The water monitor looked like it was sitting on a log.  

But we knew of no logs in that lagoon!