9 Mavunje nr Kongola 3/5/15

Slept reasonably well.

Took a 15km drive to Mudumu Game Reserve. On the tar road which cuts through the reserve, we had a lovely roan sighting.

Decided to go into the reserve. Road in some areas was thick sand ... really felt like we were off the beaten track. Saw some hippo and nothing else!
Stopped off at Kwando Camp to try our luck for breakfast. No such luck ... too late! Place is nice but very commercial compared to Dan's.
Proceeded to Kongola and had fried chicken and chips from a roadside Chicken Hut.

Went out on boat with Dan at 15:30. No ellies but plenty of birds and hippos. Dan's tilt and trim function (on his boat motor!) has packed in. Compounded with water level being down ... Luis and Dan had to get off the boat and push or pull it through the narrower channels. I've heard of horsepower but we had 2 manpower.

I was desperately trying to obtain a pic of a little bee eater in flight. We went to a place where they hang out in big numbers, I called it Bee Eater Avenue. I must have had over 100 attempts. This was my "best" result. They're contrary little blighters.

The Pied Kingfisher was a little easier

Magnificent sunset as always. Later, the full moon was up and Dan remembered that last year our boat ride was also during full moon.

Had a run in with some hippos ... Very exhilarating. Remember the tilt and trim problem ... It involved manual adjustment locking the adjusted position into place. The motor was tilted quite high to clear some shallow water. End result is when we needed to reverse due to angry hippos, the prop cavatated so .... no reverse. Much pounding on the water with paddles and the hippos fled. Adrenalin pumped! No pics, happened so quickly.

Safely back at camp around 7ish. Dan joined us for late supper. Great day!

8 Mavunje nr Kongola 2/5/15

Luis caught a small tiger last night ... scratched his legs to hell and gone getting it out of the water.
Nothing quiet about Namwi at night, that's for sure. Hippos, owls, bats, frogs: all contribute to a cacophony that can be quite painful on the ears. Add fruit bats eating the yellow soft nut type fruit on the tree above us, dislodging nuts that boing on the roof of Brutus and you're looking at a restless night but ... all good! Said bats poop yellow all over the place, even had in my hair this morning.
Got to Dan at 10:30 - he's on his way out for day trip on boat and then a .... wait for it .... night on the town ... in Kongola!!?? Boxing is on!
Spent a (nother) relaxing day. Can't do too much in this heat.

Our lounge, dining room and bedroom.

Baby yellow belied bulbul

7 Namwi Island, nr Katima 1/5/15

Early to bed .... Early to rise ...

Woke at 5 to the melodic duet of African Wood Owls, intermingled with a sporadic huhuhoooo of a Southern White Faced

Forgot to load pic of buff yesterday. Now using different app. This one posts from photo library but images are larger, so I'll slot the buff in here.

I would love a garden setting like Namwi. Beautiful trees, flowers and bird life. Birds have the knack of putting a bough between ones camera and themselves.

Retz's Helmeted Shrike and Schalow's Turaco are 2 of the more colourful birds we've seen today.

6 Namwi Island, nr Katima 30/4/15

No sign of what caused the huge furore last night.
Pleasant ride along the Chobe highway with decent sightings of sable, buffalo and hyena. Elephant and ground hornbill,as well but wrong angle for photographs.
Stocked up on provisions in Katima and organized data/sim for mifi. That took at least an hour!
Our oasis still looks the same and there appears to be only one other camper here. Nice!
No luck with fishing for Luis.
More people pulled in, still reasonably quiet.

5 Senyati nr Kasane 29/4/15

Quiet night with jackal and hyena. A couple of herds of elephant came down to drink. Some with youngsters.
The grey heron was going to great lengths yesterday to rid the waterhole of one great egret. This morning there must have been at least 10. Heron's neighborhood has gone to pot! He'll have his work cut out today. Also present besides the usual suspects were sacred ibises and squaco heron.
Great consternation among all of the above whenever an eagle flies by. Juvenile fish eagle roosting in one of the umbrella thorns over the waterhole. Last year there was a mature fish eagle... Wonder if it's her offspring?
Impala, zebra and giraffe on the plains. No Ellie activity thus far today.
Senyati has become a bit of a rip off with rules and regulations and exchange rates. Service levels seem to have dropped off quite a bit.

Our last night at Senyati, and all hell let loose. Lion/s roaring and snarling, elephant trumpeting ... (sounded very angry and anxious), Hyenas whooping and jackals yipping ... stampeding feet ...All very close. Lasted for about a minute then deathly silence. Even the insects and frogs were quiet. Normal night sounds resumed after 10 minutes.






Yellow-billed Kite assuming pose.

Sacred Ibis (juvie or female?) With catch of the day, French style... frogs legs

4 Senyati, nr Kasane 28/4/15

Slept well accompanied by sporadic hyena chorus.

Blasted microlight gang are a nuisance. Constantly flying over us chasing game and birds away.
Spent most of the day in the shade of the deck under thatch. Cool and fly free. Not much mammal action. Lovely sighting of grey heron guarding his territory against a white heron. Was successful. Later, after waiting patiently for hours (him and I), he successfully caught a relatively large catfish and scoffed it down.

Another extremely hot day!

Having a torrid time uploading photos. Old BlogPress app no longer works. Suspect it's to do with my old style iPad and iOS 8!!! Much pain and time later, managed to get some pics up on yesterday's post on 29/4 and today, 30/4, attempting to sort this post out. 3G is non existent ... battling with 2G.

3 Senyati, nr Kasane. 27/4/15

Bade a fond farewell to all our newfound friends.
Saw a couple of ellies en route as well as ground hornbills and sadly, a dead civet. (Knocked over).
Bought some basic provisions in Kasane and arrived at Senyati at 11:30.
Very hot!
Coolest place is the deck. Spent most of the afternoon there.
No Ellie's but some photo opportunities with other, smaller stuff.
Problem with the blog app. Will not link to photo library! Will investigate with wifi tomorrow.
Managed to get a couple of pics down ... Took hours!

Huge herd of buffalo appeared and hung around through the night ... Could hear them grunting and see many eyes by the light of a torch. Also springhare and lots of cute mice. Impala were gambolling about.

Grey heron drying his wings then assuming ballerina in tutu pose