“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams”. Ashley Smith   In April Kenya received a huge amount of rain, and in some regions the flooding [...]

Mara Toto camp has a new resident – a Greater Galago (bush baby) is padding around between the tent lining and fly sheet above the dining table catching months. This is the first time that he has come onto the mess while there are lights on inside. His foot prints are making indentations on the [...]

Driving back to camp after a splendid morning tracking a lone Lioness for two hours, eventually finding her plus four two and a half month old cubs. We were just passing an area locally known as Jouberts Island. Here the flood plains are drying up awaiting the seasonal flood to return. It has left pools [...]

If you are asked to sum up Duba Plains in a matter of words then more often than not Lions, Buffalo, exceptional photography, Dereck and Beverley Joubert and National Geographic’s The Last Lions come to mind. The Lion and Buffalo interaction is world famous and we are one of the top places in Africa to [...]

Selinda Explorers Camp – Private Safari by Safari Architects Day 1 My guests and I had been waiting for this trip for the last 6 months! After a lot of banter and excitement, the day had finally arrived when we would be leaving for our Selinda adventure.  Both myself and Brad were leading the trip, [...]

In life there are so many situations that may be defined as the mundane, they happen once, twice, one hundred times.  Even some beautiful sights like a picture by the masters can be viewed over and over.  A discovery is a moment that will never happen again. You are the privileged individuals to see that [...]

27th March 2013 – 6.10am “we hear erratic splashing coming from the water in front of tent 4″. “In the cool of the early morning our guests had been watching the moon set from the main deck.  When there is a full moon you can enjoy its last hanging moments reflecting off the Zibidianja lagoon [...]

March News – Plains of Change – ol Donyo Lodge, Kenya There is a fresh feeling at oL Donyo this month with the start of the rains that have brought welcome change to the Chyulu Hills. The land has awoken from a long, dry slumber and is celebrating with sounds and sights we haven’t seen for [...]

“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in it’s beauty” Albert Einstein Happy Easter to you from the team on the plains of the Masai Mara and Kenya, where the elections and appeals have gone smoothly and peacefully.   [...]

Last year we witnessed some extraordinary sightings involving a rather eccentric Cheetah we called Sehema, this  means silly in Setswana. Two of the highlights came in as many days.  The first involved some of our Selinda Camp guests who came across what seemed to be a Cheetah stalking something.  Cheetah are our rarest cat so [...]

Meet Bokamoso The Leopard, she is using this tree to scan for prey not far from Zarafa Camp The Young Female is almost 3 and half years old so she will have left her mother around two years ago. Bokamoso, meaning future in Setswana, is a very appropriate name for this endangered animal. Protecting these species one [...]

Staying Active While on Safari – oL Donyo Lodge, Kenya                 Concerned about too much leisure and good eating while on safari? You needn’t worry about that at oL Donyo Lodge where we often host friendly volleyball matches with guests and staff. First, the pitch is set up… including tracing [...]

A large python, close to 10 feet, was seen last night by tent 1 at Duba, the housekeepers were “awakened” to it during turndown…Nick, the Duba manager, went to see what he could do to calm the ladies and found the snake  busy hunting  under the deckboards…. All of  a sudden the hunter became the [...]

A new Wild dog pack on the Selinda Reserve has been discovered.  We have named it the “Explorers Pack” which consists of just 4 individuals.  Led by an Alpha female we suspect  that they have split from a pack from the north, possibly the Kwando area. They are incredibly distinct being very dark.  One of [...]

“When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee?” William Blake In the three weeks it has been since our last report when we mentioned the wildlife moving south into this area, the herds have now [...]

There are few perfect places in the world, but Zarafa (for want of a piano in the main area) is certainly one of them. I shouldn’t hanker for music with so much wildlife abounding but it’s such an inspirational place that the dulcet tones of a (non ivory) keyboard would not be misplaced at sunset. [...]

The breeze coming off the spillway in February helped cool the residents of Selinda reserve and the insects were given haven in the long grass, this has lead to some pretty fantastic birdwatching in the area and the lush greenery adds to the feel of really being out in the bush. There is nothing like [...]

This was the month that we completed the first ever Great Plains Conservation aerial survey over Duba Plains.   We have collaborated with Elephant Without Borders’ Mike Chase and Kelly Langden for what will be two annual survey, one in each the wet and dry seasons.  Each May, we will then release a full report [...]

SWEET-TOOTHED GIANTS   Elephant reaching up for marula fruit (Sclerocarya birrea) near oL Donyo Lodge, Kenya.

On the 1st March we re-opened Selinda Explorers Camp for its second season. It was extremely exciting for us to see the spillway flowing with water, over the summer months it does dry up. The waters have come from heavy rainfall, throughout the wet season, coupled with the flood waters from Angola flowing in from [...]

The Undertakers at oL Donyo Lodge, Kenya   Vultures spotted near oL Donyo Lodge, Kenya, hovering over a recent lion kill. Two different species: AFRICAN WHITE BACKED VULTURE & RUPPELL’S GRIFFON VULTURE

We all talk about the “magic hours” of photography.  Those golden soft light periods, just after and before sunrise and sunset. It is often said that the harsher light of midday is just not good enough for great images as it is too bleached and flat.  One tip maybe then to convert to black and [...]

Fred is back at Zarafa, with  an absence of a few months but he has returned! Good ‘ol Fred, the sleeping elephant.  If you can remember Fred from last year?   He was the famous elephant who liked to sleep on the termite mound in front of camp – all the time and made famous [...]

Yesterday morning, after just leaving  Mara Toto, guests immediately bumped into three of Notch’s boys as they licked their chops from finishing up a hippo killed a couple days earlier. These brothers have, since their time as a young coalition on the Masai Mara’s Paradise Plains become specialised in killing hippos. This is quite an [...]

Email from Lizzy at Selinda Camp after asking her about the three little lion cubs we saw near Selinda’s airstrip last week. Hi Dave, The cubs haven’t been sighted as yet however their mother has been spotted and it looks like she is lactating, so we hope there are still alive but just hidden.  We [...]

Yesterday’s HES Zibadianja cruise was rather lovely. Guests enjoed a superb lunch on the boat’s deck, floating alongside a herd of munching eles who were happily snorkeling in the lagoon.  Later, we passed a pod of particularly pink hippos and joked that they looked about as pink as our pink champagne. The sizeable boat is [...]

DON’T YOU WISH THIS WERE YOUR CLASSROOM…. In December 2012, Great Plains Conservation held a week long educational program for the local communities of Seronga and Gudikwa. In order to teach and share ideas, Selinda Explorers Camp’s main area was transformed into a make-shift classroom. Subjects covered were: Okavango Delta and all of Botswana’s ecosystems [...]

KB, our Duba guide who has outstanding birding knowledge, has found a Pel’s fishing Owl only 2 km from Duba Plains. This is one of Africa’s, and the world’s, most sought after birds as it is an incredibly unique owl that predates on fish. This compliments some outstanding birding at Duba, one of the foremost [...]

And here’s how the cheetah vs. leopard sighting at Selinda Reserve transpired. Written by Jamie Hopf, guest and photographer of this extraordinary event. Dicks of Selinda Camp was the guide. Our very first morning drive definitely set the bar high for the rest of our trip! Our guide, Dicks, spotted some cheetah tracks in the [...]

 Boot Camp 2013 Each year, we close our  camps at the end of January for our annual “Boot Camp” – a week of focused intensive training (not military drills!). This was the sixth Selinda Reserve Boot Camp and the second Duba Plains Boot Camp. Each year, there is always the challenge of developing a new [...]