30th September - Ian We set out for a lovely morning stroll. Myself, Richard and Lucy moved down into the Msine Valley and through the forest along the river and up the Valley to the South of camp. We had some wonderful sightings of Zebra, Giraffe, Eland, Impala, Waterbuck, Wildebeest and Waterhog. Our breakfast in the valley was hosted by Red-tailed Squirrels and a variety of birds including a lovely sighting of some Crested Guineafowl. Moving through the forest on the way back to camp we had to heed to a small breeding herd of Elephant before making our way through the dry river bed and up the hill to a welcome and very refreshing cold towel and soft drink. 28th September - Ian Had a wonderful morning walk today with Colin & Jill observing some amazing birds. It was a beautiful morning and the birds were out in full force. We ambled down into the Msine Valley escorted by White browed Sparrow Weavers, Blue Waxbills, Firefinches, Green winged Pytilia and Green pigeons. Among the forest and river's edge we spotted a Brown-headed Kingfisher, Collared Palm-thrush, Green Wood-hoopoe, Variable Sunbird, Cardinal and Bearded Woodpeckers and Emerald Spotted Wood-dove. We tracked down a pair of Verreaux's Eagle Owl and were entertained to a wonderful sighting of a Wahlberg's Eagle and a glimpse of a Saddle-billed Stork flying out of the valley. To mention but a few birds. A magnificent birding morning and some wonderful memories of giraffe, eland, hippo and elephant sightings on foot. 24th September - Salum What a day! Today I took five guests for the morning drive. Our fantastic morning started with our local Elephant (Mr. Bond... James Bond). He was at the side of the road after the quarry, eating the Palm bush about six metres away from us. Then we saw three old bull buffalo on the way to the Hyena's den. At the den we saw four adults. We were watching the Hyenas when we saw another two male Elephants behind the gully. At the Killi fish crossing we saw another local Elephant called Broken Tusk crossing the road and he went to shake the Palm tree. Then we drove to Lake Manze. On the way we saw a breeding herd of Buffalo, Impala, More Elephants, Wildebeest, Warthog, Zebra, Giraffe, Vultures and many Birds. We had our picnic breakfast at the beginning of the lake, while watching animals drinking we saw two male Giraffe fighting and one female was on the side watching them. After five minutes of fighting three more males came in and they went straight to the female and tested her urine. I think that female was in oestrous which is why the two boys were fighting. We left them there and after half a kilometre we saw two male Impala fighting and this time another third male Impala went there may be to try to stop them but it didn't work. They fought until one of them decided to run away and his opponent chase him to the bushes. Then we saw sub adult Lion and sub adult Lioness with a fresh kill of Wildebeest. I think it had happened half an hour ago because they had opened the stomach and taken the stomach contents out. One of them was trying to drag the kill to the shade and another one was covering the stomach contents with soil. We watched for a long time but they didn't eat. Then we drove a half of the kilometre and we saw another sub adult Lion and two Lionesses eating another Wildebeest. Also it was a fresh kill I think from the same time they killed two Wildebeest. But these Lions were seriously eating; we could hear bone crashing and a bit of pushing each other for the food. We watched them for a long time then we drove back to camp sweet camp. 21th September - Salum This morning I transferred two guests to the Hot springs. We started at the Hippo pool where we saw so many of them and as usual some males were pushing each other and ended up fighting. Then we drove to roller coaster and we saw two big herds of Buffalo, Zebra, Wildebeest and baboon. At Sean's cliff we watched Elephants drinking on the riverbed. After dropping the guest I drove along the lake watching birds and doing a bit of photography. After then I decided to take another road back home. On the way I saw two Hooded Vultures in the tree and I stopped to watch them. As I wanted to move I smelt a dead animal and there, ten metres behind the thick bush was a Lioness and two cubs with a carcass of Wildebeest. I was so excited to see the cubs again because I hadn't see them for a long time. These cubs used to be at Sean's cliffs and are now old enough to move around. I watched them for an hour and I then drove back home. 21st Sep September - Ian We set out this morning, a "small hunting party"….. It's Karl and Rachel's last morning activity and we went down to the hyena den. One of the pups was exploring around the den, mom fast asleep with a big elephant bull feeding behind them on some young Doum palms and impala grazing about seemingly unaware of the presence of the hyena. Karl was in his element…he loves them. We set off to explore a different area and hoping to find some leopard or rhino activity….and we were rewarded. No, no rhino sighting, but a lot of fresh tracks and signs of rhino activity in the area from the past couple of days. The rest of the morning was filled with sightings of Buffalo bulls resting in the shade of the river bed, lots of giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and ground hornbills. Truly a memorable morning and a great way for Karl and Rachel to end their first safari. 20th September - Salum Today I took four guests to Lake Tagalala for boating. We started our drive with a visit to the Hyena's den where we saw one adult and one cub. Then we had a nice drive to Lake Manze and we stopped at the beginning of the lake for some tea and coffee watching animals going and coming from the lake. After tea and coffee we went around the lake and we saw Lions. We started with three and the rest of the pride came. It was interesting to watch because when one young male arrived he greeted the rest of the pride. We left them there and carried on a drive around the lake. On the way back we saw the same pride of Lions just about ten metres from where we saw them earlier walking towards where we were. They came and walked two metres away on the side of the car! Just before Pelican pan we saw Impala shouting looking towards the gully. I drove a bit closer to see what was going on. As I was trying to turn the car two guest saw a Leopard as it disappeared into the bush. We drove to lake Nyamiruba where we saw Hippo eating water Lettuce. It was my third time to see them eating but today it was serious. For all the time when we were at the lake that Hippo was busy eating the lettuce. I wish all Hippos could do the same to reduce the amount of weed. At Lake Tagalala we had a fantastic time because we saw so many Hippos, Crocodiles, Elephant, Giraffe, Buffalo, Impala, Water buck, Zebra, Warthog and so many Birds. Then we went for a swim at the hot springs. We swam in two of the pools, the hottest and the warm one. 19th September - Ian A leisurely afternoon walk……NO…not to be!! We set off, a small posse, Karl, Rachel, Dannie, Angie and myself, down into the Msine Valley. The forest ahead of us seemed at peace with the odd Trumpeter Hornbill calling from within the forest's embrace. We dropped down to the river and stopped to listen for any sounds that would alarm us to any activity in the forest. A branch broke….yes, elephant. A lone bull was feeding somewhere to our right. Then we could hear the hippo to our left at the spring. We moved quietly to the river's edge. Another elephant bull arrived to our left, having just quenched his thirst and was slowly feeding towards us but down in the river. We gave him his space and waited until he moved off into the forest on the opposite side. That was all good and well, but now we had to find an alternative route through the forest. The bull on the right of us had moved off significantly for us to sneak through the crossing and down into a side tributary leading into the forest. Suddenly it was like "rush traffic" in the forest as elephants appeared out of nowhere. We moved passed them quietly and had to skirt a small breeding herd of elephant to get to the plain on the other side of the forest. We were met by a bachelor herd of "dagga boys"…..Nothing like coming face to face with some old buffalo bulls. We moved back into the forest to cut through to the next plain as the small elephant herd was approaching from behind us, only to find that the path ahead of us was already occupied by another herd of elephant….we were surrounded….they moved in! The herd in front of us was moving away slowly as the herd behind us approached steadily, I maneuvered our small posse around a bush, keeping the bush between us and the elephant, they sensed us and with heads up, ears out and stiff tails departed the scene…much to everybody's delight. We cautiously moved through the forest and out onto the plain to be met with a wonderful sight of a big herd of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe and impala on the plain. We caught up with Heri at the Baobab just in time for "sundowners" and were joined by another big herd of buffalo for sunset….just a walk in the park they say!! 19th September - Sacha We have been having a fantastic month and seeing some old friends is always good. In the 2 pictures here you can see this bull hippo from February and a later picture taken while walking the other day in September by François and Beth just below camp. You can defiantly see his scar on the side healing well in the 2nd picture and he is hanging out with a mate these days. Reason for joining up with a mate is that all the seasonal water holes and pans have dried up now and he has had to make his way to the Msine where there is still some water but as soon as the rains come and the water holes fill up he will probably move back to the Selous Grave area where he hangs out during that time of year. 18th September - Salum Today I took two guests for the morning drive. We left camp at seven and we started our drive with a bull Elephant next to the road about five metres from us and a hundred metres from camp. Then we went straight to the Hyena's den. We saw four adult and two cubs of different ages. When we were watching the Hyenas we saw six bulls Elephants walking towards the den. They were Broken Tusk, Bond and another four young Males. Broken tusk and Bond walked very close to us about three metres away. The other Elephants went to the den and chased the Hyenas. All the cubs ran into the den and all the adults dispersed around. It was such an interesting behaviour to watch. When we left the den we saw broken tusk again near with the palm tree. We stopped to watch him and he started shaking the palm tree and quite few fruits fell down. One of the younger Elephants went to join broken tusk but it didn't work because broken tusk bullied him. Then the other Elephants came and started to eat the fruits together and we left all six Elephants together. Then we had a lovely drive to lake Manze where we saw a lot including Giraffe, Buffalo, Zebra, Wildebeest, Warthog, Baboons, Crocodile, Hippos, Impala and many birds. In the afternoon I took two Honeymoon couples to the Hippo pool. On the way we stopped with a big bull Elephant. After the Hippos we went to the roller coaster and on the way we saw some Zebra, Wildebeest, Giraffe, Warthog, Baboons, Impala and Buffalo. The aim was to go and have our sundowners at the Sean's cliff but we didn't make it because we saw so many Giraffe at the Edge of the forest. We were trying to get closer when suddenly we saw a Leopard on the lower branch of a dead Leadwood. He was about fifty metres from where we were. We decided to have the sundowner watching the Leopard and Giraffe. It was one of the most relaxed Leopards because we watched him for half an hour with our G & T's and when we left to come back home, he was still there. What a day! 18th September - Tam What a memorable evening! We had 4 honeymoon couples in camp so thought we would do something special and memorable for them and it turned out so beautifully! The waiters and I spent the afternoon setting up dinner on the pool deck, climbing on tables and chairs to put the fairy lights up and coming up with plans to float candles on the pool while making sure they don't blow out in the cool breeze. We also lit up the aloe garden and placed dainty mirrors in the trees to reflect the light and when we switched it all on - it suddenly sprung to life - setting the romantic theme for the night ahead!! Before dinner Simba prepared some bright red Bloody Mary's to set the 'red theme' and soon we were ready for dinner! We marched everyone down to the pool where Heri, Jerry and Goodluck were waiting with huge proud smiles to welcome everyone and clothe all the ladies with luminous 'disco bangles' and show them to their seats, while our chefs placed the lobsters on the braai, they looked so smart in their silver 'disco hats'! We started off with red beetroot soup, sticking to the red tradition of the evening, and the guys somehow managed to draw hearts in the centre of the bowls adding a certain feeling of romance to the evening! Soon it was Lobster time - we all filled up with char-grilled lobsters.. the best, some said, that anyone has ever tasted! Then.. not forgetting the most important time of the night... dessert....!! Our Chefs had prepared a delicious white chocolate mousse adorned with strawberry wafers and soon our stomachs were all filled up and so we decided, to retire to the lounge area to sip on a soothing Amarula.. just to top off the evenings events! A glorious evening with a definite feeling of romance in the air!! 17th September - Tam We are proud to announce that the Beho Beho "Two Brothers Laundry" is official! After many stories and great praise to our two laundry guys for their fantastic work in the Beho Beho laundry or what they personally call "Two Brothers Laundry", Mrs B and Mrs D decided to make their corporation official and so presented them with their very own plaque. I think the news of this spread to our local residents because soon after "Two Brothers" was visited by Bond, our local resident Bull Elephant, who had obviously heard of the celebrations and wants to be part of it! Bond entered the stage, like any well-mannered Elephants should, through the gate, and proceeded towards the office area to say his hellos. Once he was done there he moved to the washing line where our "two brothers" had proudly hung up their crisp white mosquito nets. Bond moved through and was surprised when something caught his tail. When he turned around he noticed he was wearing a long white bridal trail! Bond was understandably upset with this - the audacity of this strange object attaching itself to him without his permission! He grabbed hold of it, stomped it, gave it a few charges and then lifted it up above his head to have a good look and finally watched as it slowly and daintily floated back down to the ground! Bond soon decided he had given it enough trouble and thought by now it had learnt its lesson - he moved quickly out the way he came in, leaving Rahimu and Abdallahman startled! I am glad to report that Bond made no holes or cuts in the net and, after a couple of washes, it is back to being its old self - crisp, white and smelling like clean mosquito nets should! 16th September - Heribert Lions, more lions, and yet more lions, hold on...., yet more lions. What a month so far, the most amazing sightings every coming day. It was Tagalala day today and it was extraordinary. A wonderful drive with Giraffe, warthog and many more. Crocodiles in the lake were stunning and very welcoming. The best was the hotsprings, got there, had a good, very relaxing swim and the time came to move on. "A cold drink will do" I suggested, and there was full support so, I went round the truck to get a few, we heard a growl and there we saw a lion about 30 meters away with an impala kill. We immediately got in the truck and started observing. It was very thick bush and one could only see just. Away we went to Lake Manze and there the Manze pride awaited with a Wilderbeest kill. How is that for a day? 15th September - Salaum Today I took three guests to lake Tagalala for boating and swimming. It was one of those fantastic mornings because just before Beho Beho International we saw Zebra, Impala and Waterbuck. At the Hyena's den we saw Four adults and two cubs from different litters. One was about two months old and another one was even younger, I think it was about three to four weeks old because it was black with no spots at all. It was so cute to watch them play fighting. Then we saw some Elephants, Giraffes, Buffalos, Wildebeest and warthogs. Just before the lake we saw a Bateleur Eagle eating a Scrub Hare. Just before the boat we saw white-headed Lapwing and Spur winged Lapwing facing each other, it looked like they wanted to fight but they were a bit nervous because of us. As one of them walked away the other one chased him and the one who was chased stopped and faced the other one. It was absolutely interesting to watch that. On the boat as normal we saw so many Hippos, Crocodile and many water birds. Also we saw another fight between a Goliath Heron and a Fish Eagle. We turned the engine off and watched them for a few minutes. The Fish Eagle was attacking the Goliath Heron and the poor Goliath Heron was petrified. He was trying to chase him away from his territory. After the boat we went to refresh in the hot springs and we went to lake Nyamiluba where we saw five Lions. They were sub adults of the Shaggy pride. 15th September - Sacha Had a brilliant and interesting drive the other morning with Mrs Bailey and Mrs De Lisser where we observed some amazing animal behaviour. We all know that the female impalas are about to calf shortly and we will in the next few weeks get to see 100s of baby impala around the plains. Well I always say that on the 15th of September you will see your 1st little bambi. This year the 13th was when the 1st bambi was about and unfortunately the Vultures were around and the poor little thing didn't make it. We had stopped for a cup of tea when we saw lots of Vultures lappets, White backs and Hooded Vultures dropping down not to far away so we decided to investigate and as we drove over we saw this lone female Impala running about and we didn't think anything about it as we thought that there was a lion kill or something happening. But when we saw no lions or hyenas around we then looked at what the Female Impala was doing and that was when we observed this interesting behaviour. She was busy rushing at the Vultures and chasing them away. She would then move around as though she was looking for something and that was when we saw that she had just given birth as she had blood from the afterbirth around her rear. We then started to hope that her little one was okay but by the amount of Vultures around we suspected that wouldn't be the case. We observed her moving around and bleating calling her little one but no reply. She eventually moved off and then we saw a huge Lappet faced Vulture soar down and we then clocked the dead baby impala only hours old been eaten by this huge bird. We drove over and investigated the crime scene and looked at the little carcass, very sad. In the next few days we will start to see a lot more and normally the females that drop early will lose their youngsters. The behaviour of the impala chasing the vultures away was incredible to observe and was a highlight in behaviour. 13th September - Salum What a nice start after being away for a week. I was with four guests on the morning drive to lake Manze. We started our drive with Impala and Giraffe at Beho Beho International. At the Hyena's den we saw one Hyena but only in the distance. At the same plain we saw six old Buffaloes, Wildebeest, Impala and Warthog. At the Little Serengeti we saw five sub adult Lion having just finished eating a Wildebeest. It was sub adults of Shaggy's pride. When we were watching them we saw some Vultures landing where the kill was. We got there late and saw three Hyenas one Marabou stock and three different types of Vultures (white headed, white backed and hooded). One Hyena was eating and other two were observing. There was not much left just the head and neck vertebrates. I always enjoy watching Hyena eating because you can hear the bones breaking and crushing. My highlight of the day was Hyena carrying the left over to the shade. Then we saw some Interesting animals like a family of Elephant, Baboon, Giraffe, Zebra, Wildebeest, Impala , Greater Kudu and Warthog. At the Lake we saw another Lion pride which was the Manze pride. Resting in the shade of the Palm tree. One of them went to drink at the lake and another two were play fighting. 4th September - Heribert If Lions could tell a tale, this is how it would sound after today just before midday. It was about 11:30 along the little Serengeti plains there were five lions; three sub adult males just developing manes with two females. They attempted to make a meal out of a buffalo among approximately 300. It is an experience they will never forget or will take as a very important lesson. The attempt was initiated and became a game of lion chase buffalo, buffalo chase lion until it came to the point where numbers do matter. Three lions were surrounded barely managing to balance on a fallen tree log. The lions grew confidence and they initiated an attack, one lioness had a buffalo by the horn but she managed to escape. For one of them this was sheer luck, but yet another day to live. To me it is an experience I had really wanted to witness, I believe it is one that honeymooners Ed and Ciaran, will never forget. To see the lions itself was good enough, yet the battle between these two natural enemies was just brilliant. 1st September - Tam What a way to spend a night - the experience of Beho Beho Bush Nights surpasses ones expectations every time. Without fail! The adventure began when we set off after tea and cake at 1630. The walk with Sacha and our guests Paul and Sarah took us down the hill towards the hippo wallows below camp. We slowly approached as not to surprise any of the residents, and soon we were all crouching on the ground with Sarah and I clicking away excitedly on our cameras, while Sacha and Paul kept watch! At first the muddy black hippos were uneasy but they soon settled down and slid back into the muddy waters. We continued on our way and closer to the camp we found Bond, our local resident Bull Elephant, who was munching on a bush as he turned his back, completely ignoring us. Suddenly we heard a slow soft rumble to the right of us and then another one on the left only a few metres away, and it was then that we realised we were standing in the middle of a family of Elephants! They continued to communicate to each other in low soft rumbles so we were aware of their positions. We quietly and quickly walked away to leave this happy family in peace. As we moved slowly through the bush, circling Bond who continued to ignore us, we could hear the rumbles of the family disappearing into the background, and finally as we as we walked around a bush, there was Kessy with very much appreciated cool facecloths in one hand and refreshing Sundowners in the other. Neither Paul nor Sarah had any idea what they were letting themselves in for - so everything was a surprise! We had a few laughs as we approached and the Bush Camp unveiled itself underneath the giant Fig tree. Without giving away too much more information in words - I think I will allow a few photos to set the stage - and all I will comment is that we had a magical and entertaining evening with so much banter, a bit of singing, crackling of the camp fire and occasional shouts from the local Baboons (possibly the local Leopard was on the prowl)! After a delicious three course meal and a feeling of being at a best friends dinner party, we climbed into our beds and drifted off to sleep until the following morning when were woken to the beautiful melody of the Mbira, the dawn chorus of the forest birds and the smell of the hot Smokey water being poured into our bucket showers. Tea and Coffee was served on the Persian rug veranda of the tent and soon we met up again with Paul and Sarah, at Sunrise we started on another bush hike. On this hike, we went towards the white Cliffs, through the Jurassic Park forests, onto the open plains and back through the thickets. We came across an area where all the bushes had recently been uprooted and a sickly sweet smell guided us towards a dead Baby Elephant lying in amongst the carnage. Sacha explained the age and the growth and sizes of Elephants teeth, and suddenly as he stood up he noticed a huge Elephant female walking directly towards us - certainly on a mission! We had to move very quickly away as she spotted us and stopped in her tracks with her head held high to get a better view, and we then understood that she must have been the mother of this poor calf and was returning to pay her respects and to morn like Elephants are known to do. This was an incredible story to witness and an emotional puzzle to put together. The early morning walk was fantastic and incredibly memorable. We were amazed by the amount of information taught to us, the variety of landscapes which we walked through and the sheer beauty of the vegetation, history on 1000 or more year old Baobabs, animal behaviour, close encounters with Buffalos, Elephants, Impala and Warthog and a close sighting and fascinating explanation of Elephants Digs in the Msini River where all animals and Birds come to drink - and so, so much more! As another surprise for Paul and Sarah, we stumbled back upon bush camp and once again met by Kessy and his refreshing face towels and showed through to the 'dining area' for a surprise breakfast. Once we had finished our 3-course meal and refreshed ourselves with liquids, we continued on foot back to Beho Beho! On this walk we spotted 2 Leopard kills hanging in trees, watched a large Bull Elephant feeding and learnt about his behaviour and crawled upon a white termite hill to get closer to an unaware herd of Wildebeest and, closer to camp, Sacha even climbed a tree to get a perfect shot of Dove Eggs and capturing Paul and Sarah behind on the pathway through the V of the branches! What an incredible experience and a memorable stay in Bush Camp!