I think a good place to start the first Bushmail would be to welcome our two new members of the family. Ian, who is a South African Walking guide, and Heribert, a local Tanzanian who has just recently completed a Diploma in Wildlife Management at Mweka Wildlife College in Arusha.
We would like to wish them both a very warm welcome and looking forward to many exciting adventures together!

We have all, except Onesmo, arrived back to start the new season at Beho Beho. We all managed to take our leave in which we each travelled to our homes for the break.

This time, Salum ventured to South Africa, where he arrived in Durban for the Indada, and then continued down the coast to Cape Town with Maretha. He had incredible adventures on the way, including riding on Camels, Ostrich's, Elephants, visiting the Kango Caves and finally arrived in Cape Town where he climbed Table Mountain twice and visited the beautiful Cape Point, historic Robin Island and the colonies of Penguins. Salum had a fantastic time and is still telling us his many stories!

Onesmo is still away at Mweka College and we hope to have him back with us for a couple of months from the end of June. We look forward to welcoming him back!

For our leave Sacha and I headed home to Zimbabwe for a few weeks and then did a fantastic road trip through South Africa and Namibia, where we saw so many different fascinating landscapes, flora and fauna. It was a very memorable trip and good to be back in the true arid desert!

We are all now back at Beho Beho ready for our 2010 season and are very much looking forward to what lies ahead!

The start of the season went off with a bang. On Salum's first game drive he came across a pack of Wild Dogs on the airstrip. We have seen these same dogs a few more times both at the Battlefields, and again, over the last couple of days, at Little Serengeti. We have watched them sleeping, playing, greeting, hunting, wallowing and calling. The Alpha-female is pregnant so we are hoping that they decide to den close to Beho Beho!

This season the Hyena's seem to be keeping a low profile and have moved away from their Den at the bottom of the airstrip. They may have moved up towards the Matambwe area, perhaps closer to the Seeps?
Having said this there is a definite feel that our Lion prides may be venturing back towards us. After spending a few months on the Rufiji River, the Sands Girls are back in our area and can be heard calling almost every night. They have been seen on several occasions with the Manze Boys.
A few days ago the Lion Pride was seen at Bushcamp and this just happened to be on the same day that Sacha was taking James and Patsy to spend the night there! Needless to say, this caused for a very interesting walk but a little bit of disappointment when the pride was seen moving away towards the Battlefields!
This same Pride has been seen with the Males and we are hoping for new cubs this season!
A brand new baby giraffe was spotted on the plains. With it's mother close by this little creature could barely walk yet!
A few days later, a brand new baby Buffalo was also seen - with all legs and no body!

The rains have been slow over the last few months and at times we have thought that the long rains didn't even start! The few small showers that we did have carried on into June and even now the skies are filled with dark grey storm clouds. However, it is definitely winter now, so maybe this will keep the rains at bay! Over the last couple of weeks, the temperature has been a maximum of 28 degrees and a cooling minimum of 13 degrees in the early hours of the morning. The wind has picked up and is bringing in slight chills in the evenings.
Occasional jerseys are even being pulled out and blankets are a must in the early hours of the mornings.
This is our winter, maybe a bit different to those frosty white winters in Britain but, for us Africans, they are just as cold!

The flora of the Selous is blooming beautifully!
I am happy to announce that my favourite one of all, the beautiful yellow Cassia, has just started blooming and these blossoms are adding joy to the Beho Beho garden around camp!
The florescent red Witchweed plant can still be seen in amongst the undergrowth parasitizing the legumes.

The Caparis have just started, Wild Jasmine's are still in full bloom and the Leonotis or Wild Dagga has just finished blooming.
Other more prominent plants in camp are the Aloes which are blossoming fast and who the Scarlet-chested Sunbirds rejoice with as they hover above to suck at the sweet nectar!

Something very noticeable this year are the extraordinary beautiful East African Sunset Moths, with their mango Yellow, electric blue, green and black colours shimmering as they come fleeting through camp showing off their beauty!
There are still a lot of Butterflies dancing lazily through the woodlands including the common grass yellows and the Colitis species (Smokey Orange Tips) who play daintily amongst the grass.

The birds have also been fantastic including the magnificent Osprey's swooping and diving to catch fish in Lake Tagalala, the beautiful blue-cheeked Beeaters who have arrived back from their trip to Southern Africa and one afternoon we even enjoyed watching an Immature Fish Eagle learning to fly in front of camp. He wasn't very stable on the wing yet and kept calling out to his Mum for reassurance - and, in turn, she would call back to him telling him just how proud she was!

Our local resident friends for 2010 are 'Bond', the very gentle Elephant Bull. As we open our eyes in the mornings, we are often met eyeball to eyeball with Bond as he peers over the balcony!
'Stumpy Tail's herd has been through camp a few times in the last couple of weeks. Stumpy Tail himself is spending most of his time with his family and the a few occasions has been seen alongside bigger Bulls, obviously learning from them as their 'apprentice'.

Animals started arriving at the small pan in front of the main area about 2 weeks ago. This was a clear indication of water drying up in other areas. The first animals we noticed were the Waterbuck, Hippos and Warthogs.

All in all, it has been a great start to the season with fantastic predator sightings, plenty of plains game and great stories to tell!

We look forward to welcoming you to our home … See you soon!!

Read Pearls from The Oyster Bay at http://www.theoysterbayhotel.com/readpearls.htm