News / Camp News

Vumbura Plains - April 2009

19 May 2009

Weather and Water Levels
Now firmly set in the winter months, we are experiencing wonderful days with clear blue skies. Early morning and evening are fairly cool however.

"The biggest flood in the Okavango Delta since 1963." This is the opinion of many which began filtering through to us last month - big news for a camp surrounded by many floodplains and waterways of the most amazing and dynamic wetland system in Africa. We waited in anticipation and prepared ourselves for the influx of water into the Kwedi Concession and a few days later were rewarded with excited guides telling us of roads disappearing underwater and floodplains filling up in areas where no water had been seen in recent history. The 'big flood' was here and it was absolutely amazing.

On the 17th of April the water started rising in the lagoon in front of camp, first by 1cm, then 2 and finally peaking at 4cm a day. It rose 32cm in 10 days - considering how flat the area is and the size of the area, this is a massive amount of water. Water then spilled into the floodplain behind camp, filling a pan and creating the newest lagoon at Vumbura Plains.

Out in the bush, we had to move our mokoro station twice, poling the mekoro several kilometres each time to find dry land to beach them. This provided us with a spectacular mokoro trail, utilising roads and areas that are prime game drive routes in our non-flood months. Aggregations of red lechwe are seen leaping through the shallow water, herds of elephants wade past with calves barely keeping their heads above water, and raptors soar overhead, looking for an easy meal from the many stranded small animals. This has all provided our guests with a varied and exciting mokoro experience.

Wildlife
Our game drives have begun exploring unchartered territory, with the introduction of some new roads to the north-west of the concession. The game appears to have migrated up to this area - the only species left behind in flooded areas are those adapted to living in and close to water. This includes an incredible abundance of red lechwe, elephant and of course the many different fish and water birds inhabiting the Delta.

Predator-wise, we have been proudly watching our lion cubs as they develop and learn from their mothers. The one nursing female has been badly hurt, with a large open wound on her rear quarters and we shall monitor her progress carefully. The pride has provided many great sightings this month.

Other cats spotted during the month included a leopard cub with its mother. We are all hoping it is the territory's female, Selonyana, with her cub but she has yet to be properly identified by her facial spot markings. The cub has not been seen since this one sighting, however, and there are fears that it has been killed.

A new hyaena den has been found providing interesting afternoons watching the activity of the clan, especially the young pups living there. 

Our wild dog pack has been seen regularly throughout the month. The alpha male and female were seen mating, sparking off speculation as to whether they will den in our area this year. They usually move out of this concession during our winter months to den, but we are all hoping that the change in flood levels may cause them to stay.

It has been a great month here in our little piece of paradise and we are all looking forward to next month and any new water and adventures that nature has in store for us!

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