Adopt or Die!

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I bid farewell to my colleague Wendy at the airstrip and boarded my light aircraft to Mombo!  It was with mixed emotions that I watched my friend wave me goodbye as my plane took off.  Although by nature a loner, I don’t like to travel alone – I love sharing all the wonderful places I get to visit.  On the other hand, I was so excited to be finally visiting Mombo.  Getting a reservation there is NOT easy – the camp has been fully booked every time I have tried to visit in the past!  So this was a highlight of my trip and one I was really looking forward to, albeit alone.

We had spent the night before at Zarafa Lodge.  OMG(!!)  is the only way to describe what we experienced there.  This camp only consists of 4 luxury tents and no expense has been spared.  Zarafa Camp sits on an island in the floodplains of southern shores of the Zibadianja Lagoon, which is the source of the Savute Channel in the Selinda Concession.  However, it was the little details that were outstanding!  Managers, Alex and One are superb.  We were escorted to our tent (more like a house) where we had complimentary estate wine waiting for us on ice, personalised stationery and, for me, the highlight was a Swarovski spotter scope and professional camera equipment, including a 100-400mm lens for guests to use!  They run on solar energy and are really committed to running a green camp.  Wendy and I, safari hardened agents, were so in love with the camp, that we skipped our game drive just to sit on the deck and look at the awesome view.

But I digress – let’sgo back to Mombo.  I have seen many beautiful and luxurious lodges in my travels and this one ranked up there amongst the top with all the bells and whistles (it should do at almost $2000 per person per night), although tents are not as luxurious as Zarafa.

However, the one thing that Mombo has that is outstanding it its game viewing due to its prime location on Chief’s Island.   I wanted to see if it would live up to its reputation.

On my first game drive out, I was not disappointed – the sheer numbers of general game was outstanding and we found lion within an hour of being out.   However, the thing that took my breath away unfolded before my eyes that afternoon.  My ranger had spotted some jackal and had positioned me perfectly to watch them interacting with each other.  Suddenly a lone female wild dog came trotting out of the bush.  I could not believe what I was seeing – she was quite relaxed and heading straight towards the jackal as if this was something quite normal.   What was this?

My ranger explained to me that this wild dog has lost her whole pack.  No one is quite sure of the exact reasons.  It could have been lions that killed some of them, illness etc, but she has been left totally alone.  This is not a great situation for a wild dog that is a pack animal and it made her very vulnerable to other predators.  So, she made a plan…..she adapted to her situation and adopted a pack of jackal.  They have accepted her as she regularly makes kills which she shares with them, either by calling them in to the kill or by bringing back meat and regurgitating it.  Often these jackal follow her on hunts, but cannot always keep up.   For me this was remarkable – one just never knows what you will encounter in nature and we cannot always put a label on relationships in the wild.  I have heard of odd relationships before – a lioness and Oryx calves in Kenya, leopard and baby baboon in Botswana, but these always generally end in tragedy with the oryx or baboon dying.  However, this odd partnership was working….

Mombo certainly lived up to its reputation – I saw a lot of wildlife during my short stay of one night (two game drives).  However, I did find it remarkable that although the game viewing is really, really good, lodges such as &Beyond Sandibe Safari Lodge were not far behind in what we saw there too.  So for anyone on a slightly tighter budget, Sandibe will not disappoint and it is a lodge that I rate highly for game viewing.  However, if you can afford Mombo, then it is well worth including in any Botswana itinerary (if you can get in!).

Next morning on the way to the airstrip, we found a beautiful lion….

And then at the airstrip – our wild dog again on her own……what a great way to say goodbye.