May has definitely brought about some dramatic changes here at ol Donyo.  Now that the rains have ceased and the dry winter is upon us we are slowly watching the colors of the land change and with those color changes the variety of wildlife changes.  Without question, our resident bull elephant herd has found its [...]

Duba News – May 2013 The Okavango Flood The famous Okavango Delta flood officially reached Duba Plains in May. This is always celebrated in the region, with countless debates around the camp fire, postulating when the flood might arrive. “Is bigger then last year, or 2005 or 1982″ , there is plenty of room for [...]

It has been a sad day for the guides, staff and any past visitors of Duba Plains, the iconic safari camp in the heart of the Okavango Delta. A legend has passed. For over two decades now the ultimate battle has been watged between the herds of buffalo and the considerable prides of lion of [...]

“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 [...]

April is the cruellest month….as the temperatures continue to drop on a daily basis, I was almost tempted to believe TS Eliot but in fact April has been anything but cruel in terms of its safari this month. It all started with African wild dogs who decided to appear at early morning breakfast and kill [...]

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 [...]

While there’s no doubt that being alluded to as the Brangelina’s of the safari industry is quite a compliment, there’s much more substance to the work of Dereck & Beverly than appearances. Tiara Walters of South Africa’s Sunday Times weaves a story which we hope will “turn around a billion Chinese”. But it requires your [...]

Safari Architects’ Brad reviews the wonders of Selinda Explorers Camp on a Private Safari 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Duba Plains’ Executive Chef Pierre was setting up early brunch one morning last week, always with a camera near by, Pierre spotted these two Cattle Egrets bickering away whilst bouncing around on the back of a buffalo. Oblivious to their surroundings, and the fact they are prancing around on a mass of grumpy Cape Buffalo. [...]

January at Zarafa has brought much needed “pula”, also known as rain and also Botswana’s currency. The camp is beautifully green, as the vegetation grows at an incredible rate during the appropriately named “green season”.  It transforms into a birder’s paradise, and the animals at this time of year just seem to glow, enamored with all [...]

Our Duba Plains airstrip is open for new arrivals! After weeks of toil, we have completed a resurfacing of the entire length of the strip, now  providing a smooth runway surface, and steady landing for all guests. The Botswana Air Authority arrived, gave its stamp of approval after the inspection, and we are good to [...]

You don’t have to travel far in Duba Plains Camp before you see something lively.  Whether it is a herd of 1000 Buffalo, or the occasional Lions following them, or the local herd of Kudu pictured, you can immerse yourself very quickly by just stepping out of your tent. Then you can look up and [...]

BREAKING NEWS….Mara Plains & Mara Toto status report from Richard and Lorna: We’ve done it. Mara Toto is now a fully functional seasonal camp running 100% on solar power, with no negative discharge into the environment (thanks to Biorock sewage treatment system), 5000 litres of rainwater catchment off the solar panel bank so far, all [...]

December 2012, Zarafa Camp. Babies! It’s annual “baby-time” again around Zarafa Camp. All the animals are waiting for the first rains in order to deliver their young in times of plenty. With these delightful rains, fresh grasses and leaves emerge everywhere and the mothers agree that this is a safe and bountiful time for birth. [...]

Duba’s December Delights December is an exciting month all around the world and no less so at Duba Plains. We received big rains in the first week of December and within days the bush became alive and green again. Many birds started breeding so the sky is filled with bright and beautiful colours while the [...]

All too often in the world of conservation, we are peppered with tragic stories. De-horned rhino here, speared lion there, but today we bring to you a conservation story which might just give you great hope for 2013 and beyond. Sure, you might say, “but it’s just a set of games, who cares, what’s that [...]

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly” – Richard Bach As some of you may already know this December (especially the second half) has been one of the most incredible months any of us can remember. After a brief reprieve from the early month rains that brought on [...]

“To see ten thousand animals untamed and not branded with the symbols of human commerce is like scaling an unconquered mountain for the first time, or like finding a forest without roads or footpaths, or the blemish of an axe. You know then what you had always been told — that the world once lived [...]

Underneath the Mangosteen… We have this huge Mangosteen tree right in front of Zarafa. And every year in November it gives us very tasteful orange fruits. The birds like them, the squirrels, the warthogs, the elephants and the housekeepers. So the battle of the fruits has started. Since we like our animals in camp it [...]

October heat has carried onto November, temperatures reaching the maximum of 42 degrees flushing away the hopes of rains. This has been an amazingly dry season with the wilderness covered with a brown blanket of dying grass and leafless trees. This was a perfect game-viewing time of the year, also a disheartening time to watch [...]

We still have not received any rainfall save for the showers that we had mid November. It looks like the rainy season is delayed but the sky is always filled with rain-pregnant clouds and anytime we might get a down pour. All our game drive areas are accessible as the area is dry. Game viewing [...]

Dereck and Beverly Joubert have spent more time filming and living among lions in the wild than anyone alive today. The discoveries they’ve made over 30 years of wildlife filmmaking have challenged conventional wisdom about Africa’s big cats.

Lara Logan of CBS 60 Minutes profiles “The Last Lions” filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert on location at their Great Plains Conservation Camps in Botswana Scheduled to air Sunday November 25, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT Lara Logan and a team from CBS 60 Minutes profiled filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert at their Great Plains [...]

Great Plains Conservation is not simply a tourism venture. As our name suggests, we are actually primarily focused on conservation and use tourism as a vector to achieve our conservation goals. Hence we we call ourselves a “Conservation Tourism” company. To this end, Dereck & Beverly Joubert founded Big Cats Initiative in partnership with National [...]

These two lion cubs find themselves in a situation where they have to struggle to find some shade, with the temperature at 41 degrees, buffalo refusing to be intimidated and no big trees to cool down temperatures. Under these bushes, the risk of encountering pythons and mambas is increased and also the risk that comes [...]

A safari is definitely about more than just the big cats but it’s not everyday that one can see the three big cats of Africa in one drive. ‘Cat-trick’ last night with Ping. Cheetah with yearling cub, Notch’s boys (4 mafioso male lions) and Fig the Leopard.. who ended up getting chased up a tree [...]

Recent guests at ol Donyo Lodge were fortunate to witness an extraordinary cultural event:  Maasai warriors testing their sporting abilities. The Big Life Foundation has organized six regional track and field competitions to be held in coming weeks, all building toward the Maasai Olympics, a one-day sports celebration for the warriors of the entire ecosystem to [...]