Photography by Matt Covarr

Xakanaxa Camp’s new swimming pool has been set into an elevated wooden deck in a natural area surrounded by shrubs, creepers and trees. The area selected is ideal to relax and listen to bird song and an addition to our smaller plunge pool overlooking the Delta.  Once again the talented specialist carpenter, whom we have employed for many years from Malawi, has carved interesting features and incorporated a large tree in the deck.  Where fencing was necessary he collected fallen tree branches to form a barrier.  These were placed upright and form an interesting natural barrier of old, weathered wood.  In the rural villages, cattle and goats are driven into a large circle surrounded by such wood to protect them from wild animals. In the past year he also rebuilt the fire deck and dining room, enlarging and opening up the dining room area toward the water.

Xakanaxa Camp’s new website allows guests to enter into our new photographic competition and view pictures entered by others.

For Honeymooners, anniversary celebrations or for a couple who would like to spend time alone together, we have lovely dinners for two at the plunge pool overlooking the delta.

All day outings with a picnic lunch or bush breakfast are subject to availability of vehicles and guides at the time and permission from DWNP.

Sightings

We have had many lion sightings this past month, from mating lion at the airstrip to various lion kills. Cheetah have also been sighted on impala kills and hunting. Our usual leopard sightings have once again been very good, giving guests the opportunity to photograph these beautiful cats lying lazily on large tree branches. Southern Ground Hornbill have also been seen by guests, these large birds have become a rare sighting in recent years.

An exciting sighting was that of a large male sitatunga in camp.

Facts about sitatunga

Sitatunga live in papyrus swamps and are very good but slow swimmers, capable of paddling several miles. These cautious creatures may take to the water to evade predators such as leopards or wild dogs, lying submerged in pools with only their nostrils above the surface. They have been known to sleep underwater.

These very shy and rarely seen antelope have a water-proof coat which is dark brown in males and reddish brown in females. Both sexes have white stripes and spots as well as white splotches on their faces. Their hooves are long and thin to deal with their swampy habitat. Males have a mane as well as horns, which are twisted and can reach almost a meter in length.

They use regular, tunnelled pathways through tall reeds and papyrus. As a swamp provides a year-round supply of rich food, they have exceptionally small home ranges. They will often stay and feed extensively in a small area for days or weeks, then suddenly desert it and move on to another area. They eat bulrushes, sedges and the leaves of bushes in the swamps, as well as grass in adjacent riverine forests. They will also eat fallen fruit and chew the bark of some trees and bushes.

They will rest on dry mounds or floating islands in the swamp, turning circles on the spot until the grass is trampled into a springy mat. The young are born on a dry, trampled mat in the swamp. The newborn lies out for as long as a month, with only short visits from its mother for suckling. Although nursed from 4 to 6 months, it is more independent of its mother than are most other antelopes. The ties between mother and young do not last for long, for half-grown sitatunga are often seen foraging on their own. Although essentially solitary animals, pairs associate for short periods of time for mating and small, temporary mixed groups are occasionally formed.

Sitatunga are related to bushbuck and kudu with whom they share spirally twisted horns and body stripes but they have a hunched appearance, a dark shaggy coat and narrow face. Because of the dense nature of ideal habitats, and even with high sitatunga densities, observations are understandably rare and one is extremely lucky to even get a glimpse of this species. They live almost permanently in water and have their characteristic splayed hooves to allow them to move easily in mud. The best chances of seeing this shy animal, other than from the air, is to cruise quietly in a mokoro or walk around island fringes in early morning and at dusk. The permanently flooded areas of the Okavango south of the panhandle are the most rewarding areas.