November is normally the beginning of the rainy season, but this year the rains started a bit late as we had some serious rains almost three weeks into November. This rainfall amounted to 25mm and before that we only had occasional showers that did not have much significant impact to the environment or vegetation. The grass and other trees are now starting to show some life and there has been some increase in the water level in our channels. This might be an indication that there have been some rains somewhere along the river basin or our catchment area. We expect more rains towards the end of the month and onwards.

Game viewing has been fantastic with a lot of big game like Elephants, Lions, Buffalo, Giraffe and Hippo being sighted regularly this month. The elephants have been seen with young ones and in big herds of up to sixty (60) at times. These elephants move up and down and cover the area around Duba Plains camp in all direction.

Lions have also not disappointed as they have kept their presence felt for the whole of the month, especially the Tsaro Pride, and have been sighted sleeping, hunting or feeding on buffaloes on several occasions. The Skimmer Pride is now back after disappearing for almost ten months without trace. This pride probably crossed to our northern areas and failed to return due the high level of the water in our channel over the last couple of months, but with the water at its lowest level, now before the rains, the pride has re-surfaced. This has brought joy to all our guests as well as everyone in camp as there are now two prides again at Duba Plains. Besides the many buffaloes these lions have killed this month, including the six killed just behind the camp on the same day, they also killed one male tsessebe which was killed by the lone alpha male. There are times when the buffaloes vigorously defend themselves from the lions and at times they let the lions get the better of them and lose some members of the herd easily and in large numbers. At times they number up to about 600 to 900 or more and at times less as they normally split during attacks.

Others species spotted are the bat-eared fox with four pups, serval, civet, martial eagle, African skimmer, ground hornbill (southern), giant eagle owl, monitor lizard, African rock python, side-striped jackal and a lot more including those that have been spotted on a daily basis like the greater kudu, red lechwe, water buck, reed buck, chacma baboon, vervet monkey and over hundred species of birds.

Besides the intense action between the lions and buffaloes at Duba, which does not happen daily, there is a lot to see and enjoy. The boat cruise presents an opportunity to see a lot of birds like the Malachite Kingfisher, crocodiles, hippos and at time elephants crossing the water. There is also a lot of fish and one can use fishing rods provided by the camp and still adhere to our catch and release policy.

Written by Martin Mathumo