Farewell to a Lioness

One of the Chada pride's best hunters has finally succumbed to her wound.  Kicked in the back by a buffalo while hunting in June, Salama has been nursing a gash in her back that stubbornly refused to heal.

We found her body, but we would rather just show you this, her paw, and some pictures of her in life. 

Salama right, arguing with her sister over a choice piece of hippo.

When we posted the above shot on Chada's Facebook page in August, we still had high hopes that Salama would pull through.

Salama (right) nuzzles her sister.  We are not the only ones who will miss her it seems.

 

Farewell to a lovely lady.

The nightly visitor

One little Chada secret got unravelled this week! For some time, Chada camp has a nightly visitor that comes around and tries to access kitchen water supply. Although access to the supply is covered by a pretty massive 15 kgs (30 lb) piece of stone, we ended up finding it totally removed every morning.

Because of the leafy grounds around the water supply no clear footprints are left. Though surely a type of animal, we just couldn’t pin down what it was. Then came help of Peter Clough. As he brought along an infra red camera, it took us 2 minutes to set it up on the nearest tree. That night we were able to see what it is that passes by. And a hyena it is!

As the hyena sneaks into camp you can see how it removes the stone. Please have a look at http://vimeo.com/search/videos/search:chada%20mistery/st/02cc2eff for some really upclose images of the trespasser!

Speed and stealth

As we enjoyed another leisurely drive along the riverbank yesterday afternoon, we were surprised to see a young giraffe walking around by his own. Strolling towards the open river bank, with the tree line a good 50 metres behind it, the animal was unaware of what was going to happen next. As it kept facing the river four lionesses came shooting out of the tree line. At a speed that was next to unbelievable, the lions jumped literally on top of the young giraffe. Two at the back and two biting the young animal in the neck – it was over within the blink of an eye.

Cruel but yet so fascinating. What a scene to observe.

A new sense of space

Lucky enough we had good chances to explore bits of Katavi NP over the past two weeks. A wilderness that is vast and exciting. Though not many features of the park are as striking as the enormous sense of space that is present. Huge wide open plains offer vistas so enormous that you need to change your concept of space altogether.

Exploring these spaces we drove to the very heart of the Katizunga - and the Chada plains last week. To us there is very little in the world that beats the space experience these vast heavens offer!

The Chada plains below

The Katizunga plains below

It's all about camouflage

That leopards are elusive creatures that are hard to spot, most people know. To catch a glimpse of this stunning cat can be very rewarding. Making a great picture however, remains an interesting challenge. Often the leopard blends in so well with its environment. Bushes, grasses and leafs all blend so well with the vivid leopard camouflage.

Nevertheless sightings have been real good at Chada Katavi this week. Mary Beth Wheeler in particular was lucky – she did see the cat and she did shoot that perfect leopard picture as well!

Pictures courtesy of Mary Beth Wheeler

Bad luck

As we so much enjoy exploring this beautiful park, you come across exciting as well as worrying scenes. As we drove off yesterday afternoon we came along these two very tiny warthogs. Not older than two weeks, they really shouldn’t have been out there all alone. Dribbling clumsy over the sandy path without a clear direction in mind, its apparent they lost their normally so caring mother.

Likely to be separated by a predator or some other bad luck, the sad thing is that they won’t stand a chance without their mum.

As we approached them they sat down on the side of the road shivering of rain or fear – or both.  Let’s hope hard for these two wonderful creatures. They might be lucky.

A warm Chada welcome

Ok so where do we start? Well... the lucky two of us travelled to Chada last week to relief Mark and Kristen. After hearing some spectacular stories from guests and colleagues, it seemed like a great experience to temporarily swop the Serengeti for the Chada plains. As we still are very excited, we did come with some pretty high expectations.

But oh my god! What a place this is!

The vast plains of Chada, the barren dryness of the area, the great hills and escarpments on the horizon – this is a place of extreme and raw beauty.

And not to mention the wildlife in and around camp! Elephants that try and help out with the laundry. Young elephants that investigate the quality of canvas of our tents while you are right in it. All the continuous sounds of the bush – this is going to be so exciting!