Tanzania Safari Blog with Tanzania Odyssey

OCTOBER 2011

October – known throughout Southern and Eastern Africa as ‘suicide month’ is an intense month. It is a time when heat and her friend humidity sneak in and get comfortable – making themselves at home on your skin and hanging between the furniture like unwanted ghosts. Saying this, it is a fantastic month for game viewing – when animals are usually forced to drying water sources and desperate for the coming rain. Things have been slightly different this year with the early September rains we have experienced – which has bright green shoots of grass popping up everywhere and has filled up some small pools around the camp. Game viewing has not always been easy this month, with new grass coming up in the North of the reserve first attracting a lot of plains game to this inaccessible area. Yet, we have still managed to see our share of interesting and spectacular things! And of course the Beho Beho breeze continues to blow no matter the temperature – a wonderful relief during these months before the big rains.

October can be summarised as a month of change – with new grass coming up and then the bushes coming into bright green leaf followed by impala’s lambing – producing hundreds of young beautiful babies. It is during this stage that the burping calls of the ewe’s can be heard. The only time, besides giving alarm calls that the ewes are vocal, this call being used to communicate and remain in contact with the lambs. Some guests were even treated to finding an impala female who had just given birth. They watched in awe as it struggled out of the placenta and found its way on spindly legs to its mother. Ian has also had his share of finding rare antelope in the Beho Beho forest. This area with its dense forest cover is the perfect place for walking and searching for Suni. Being one of the smallest antelopes, they are difficult to find and spotting them involves a lot of crouching down and peering through thick foliage. But it’s a real treat to find one! They are monogamous and highly territorial little creatures who browse on forest leaves and fruit.

Heribert was chuffed to see some very spectacular sightings and a few rare ones as well! A morning game drive started with a rare sighting of a red duiker – which turned out to be a very short glimpse! Thereafter one of his guests saw some strange spots and they stopped the vehicle to reverse and get a better look. Just then a spotted cat-looking creature raised its head for a second from the long grass and then darted away. Mary-Beth (one of our guests) who was with Heribert managed to get some fantastic shots with her camera. Photographic evidence that they had in fact seen a Serval! Here in the Selous! A serval is the tallest of Africa’s small cats with very long legs, a spotted coat and large prominent ears. It is usually found in long grass where it hunts rodents and birds using it’s excellent sense of hearing. Once it has located its prey it leaps high in the air, out of the grass and pounces on its prey. Heribert and his guests were mighty pleased to have seen such an exceptional sighting here in the Selous. Heribert also spotted a beautiful puff adder on his way back to camp late one evening – adding a second very interesting sighting to his collection for October.

Around the same time Onesmo was up to his normal tricks and was the one who spotted a very relaxed leopard hanging out in a tree one afternoon. He had time to call the other guides and everyone got a good look at this gorgeous spotted cat with limbs hanging casually over either side of the branch. Some decided to wait and once it was almost dark the leopard came down from the tree and disappeared into the thickets. It was Onesmo too – who was even able to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience with one of our guests Angela. It was only Onesmo and Angela out on this particular drive when they turned a corner and there suddenly were two Rhinos coming towards them. Onesmo immediately switched off the engine and with the wind favouring them and blowing in the right direction – they were able to climb to the top of a nearby hill without the rhino’s smelling them. From there they watched them bathe and roll in some muddy pools – Fantastic!Walter bumped into an unlikely visitor on a walk one morning with some of our guests. It was a special lady – but not one anyone would like to meet unexpectedly! A female crocodile was waiting for him along the path down to the rivine overlooking the riverbed below. A 3.5metre croc lay to the side of the path ahead of them. She seemed to look almost dead apart from her deathly stare. After a little prodding with a very long stick she did open her jaws and let out a long hissing sound – showing she was very much alive! Walter skirted around his new acquaintance – leaving them to get to know each other better perhaps another time! Crocodiles will often travel long distances across land to find water and it is possible to meet them in the oddest of places! Even on a walk in the Beho Beho hills!

In terms of our resident Wild Dogs – October has been a very quiet month for us and we have struggled for most of October to find them. In the last week of October, the local pack with pups re-appeared and for a number of days provided excellent sightings. All the guides and guests were treated to an incredible spectacle when out driving one day. After spotting the dogs on a plain and watching them for some time, the vehicle continued on to find a lone baby impala lying hidden in some long grass. A zebra happened to pass nearby and the poor little impala decided to get up and get a better look at the zebra (some thought – the little impala thought the zebra was his mum returning). Unfortunately he gave away his hiding place and the dogs immediately spotted him and began careering towards the little fellow. He froze and stared at his quickly oncoming fate and then sprinted in the opposite direction. He gave up a good fight darting away on spindly little legs – but unfortunately was no match for a pack of hungry dogs. They killed the little impala in some thick brush and by the time everyone got there – the little impala had almost disappeared! It was sad then to see the mother impala returning to all the commotion – unfortunately to find her young missing.

‘Bon voyage Paka….’ We have all said a sad goodbye to a very special member of the Beho Beho family in October…a little courageous ginger tabby cat who arrived here to Beho Beho about five years ago. We are not sure how he arrived here but we think it must have been on an incoming supply truck from Dar es Salaam. As a fully grown kitten, he must have been very surprised to find himself suddenly in the middle of the Selous with lions and elephants as his new friends! He was named ‘Paka’ which is ‘Cat’ in Swahili and has spent the last 5 years or so living around the camp – sleeping in the day underneath and between storage containers and in the night prowling along the paths. One of our night gaurds once saw Paka be chased by lions and he has grown into a brave little fighting cat determined to survive against the toughest elements! He is still very much wild and does not allow anyone to touch him, but if you are lucky you could catch a glimpse of him on a pathway before sunrise. He has a muscular build and a stunning ginger and cream coat with huge green eyes.But correct wildlife management legislation stipulates that we may not keep any pets in the Selous Game Reserve (and rightly so!) and even though he came by accident it was decided that Paka must find a new home. And so ‘Operation relocation of paka’ commenced! A special cat capturing cage came from Dar es Salaam and it was baited with some yummy fried chicken. We managed to catch him on the first night that we put the cage out and then kept him covered until we could arrange a flight for him to Dar es Salaam. In the meantime, Kimberley contacted some friends Geoff and Vicky Fox who own and run Fox Farm in Mufindi. As a working farm (see image) surrounded by beautiful tea plantations this was thought to be the perfect place for Paka- somewhere he could roam free and get fat on tasty mice and rats! It turned out that Geoff Fox had a female farm cat and they were in fact looking for a male mate for her. Perfect match! After flying in the tiny plane to Dar es Salaam with his personal escort (Sean) he was taken to the local vet where he was checked out and inoculated. The vet was very impressed by his healthy size, strength and gleaming coat. In our opinion, clear indicators that a life in the bush is good for your body and soul! (If you can survive!) Furthermore the vet confirmed our hope and suspicions that Paka was indeed a male! Shortly thereafter Paka was flown on the next available flight to Mufindi where he has now settled into his new home very well. We wish Paka well…and hope he grows a thicker coat quick – as it is much colder up in the Mufindi area compared to the dry hot Selous! ‘Good Luck Paka!’

The end of the month saw a special fun celebration in camp with Halloween on the 31st October. The day was packed with yummy mouth-watering surprises -almost entirely the treat kind (rather than the trick kind)! Guests departing in the morning were sent away with a treat box filled with beautifully crafted orange spider web cupcakes. Those who stayed on had the usual delicious lunch but Karin and her team had added a scary face to the pie pastry top and we all could see it was going to be a fun-filled day! Tea time arrived and we were all in awe of the delicately crafted spider web cupcakes – some with marzipan pumpkins on their tops and the web-like dark and white chocolate cookies made by the cooks! As soon as it was dark, it was time for the creepy-crawlies to come out and we ate under the stars on the parade ground. The dinner table was filled with glow-in-the-dark snakes, mice and spiders and orange pumpkin buckets with candles lighted the pathway to dinner. One of our ‘more enthusiastic’ waiters appeared from the darkness dressed in a full skeleton costume – and danced a little jig as he mingled with the guests – providing much amusement and the odd fright as he took away your plate from behind you in the darkness! Dinner was a scrumptious meal especially pudding which was a creative coffin style chocolate mousse even with its own white chocolate RIP sign!

We will be closing for most of November and the beginning of December. This quiet time with no visitors enables us to do some important maintenance and also to complete some of our new projects. As a safari camp – we always strive to evolve and improve the product we provide to our guests. New exciting developments include an extension on the pool area making more space to relax and sunbathe; the demolition of an unused pilot’s room (banda 1) and a refurbishment of the interiors of the kitchen (which Karin is chuffed about!). All of this is keeping our camp manager Ian very busy as he regularly runs around all day with his tape measure in hand! We also have an exciting new look and feel for the camp with some bright new furniture and fittings – but we won’t spoil all the surprises – hopefully more on this next time!We hope this Bush Mail finds you well and you are looking forward to an enjoyable festive period ahead! Christmas plans are already under way here at Beho Beho and we are all brimming with excitement for the glorious food, fun and entertainment of Christmas that we have in-store for the lucky guests who will be here during this period! And if anyone is stuck with nothing exciting planned- then why not escape the cold and come spend Christmas with us in the Selous – we still have space and it’s going to be a bumper one! A very special and memorable Safari Christmas! Oh yes, and did we mention the weather looks to be blue skies and sunshine and HOT HOT HOT!