During August and September, lions were often near Splash camp, and on one remarkable afternoon, a lioness decided to visit the camp’s main area. After strolling around to inspect the furniture she caught her own reflection in the glass door of the bar fridge and seemed fascinated by it. Apparently happy to have some company, she then lay down to snooze for the afternoon. High tea was swiftly relocated and even dinner had to be served at Splash Enclave because she decided that she didn’t want to move in a hurry. Guests and staff were thrilled with the very unusual photos that they were able to get of the lioness guarding the bar fridge, somewhat ironic given the alcohol ban that was in place at the time due to Covid19 (since lifted).
Around this time a coalition of 5 male lions were within the camp vicinity, drawn by the allure of a lioness in oestrus. Whilst one brother was busy mating, the other four males were actively patrolling their territory and had a fatal confrontation with a lone nomad who somehow sneaked into their territory. The four boys did not waste time killing the intruder then headed straight to camp to declare their victory. The whole pride then spent some days scattered across camp, roaring night after night and keeping the camp team on their toes. One day we had to change our bush brunch site as the five male lions preferred the cool shade of the sausage tree where we had planned our surprise meal – it might have turned out to be a bit more astonishing than we had bargained for!
Leopards were also roaming the Splash camp area, with tracks of a big male going all the way from Room 8 to Room 1. A tom leopard was admired stalking tsessebe as guests were returning from their boat cruise. Another time, we tracked him and found him enjoying an impala carcass.
After a long time without locating wild dogs, they suddenly started appearing all over the reserve. First, a pack of 5 was seen resting along the southern fire break close to camp, then another pack of nine was located. Later in the month we located a massive pack of 38 wild dogs comprising twenty-three adults and fifteen pups. They were resting having eaten that morning.
Special, the resident male cheetah was mostly located not far from camp, and often actively hunting. We also saw a mother cheetah with two sub-adults and were lucky enough to follow them as they chased reedbuck.
We had lots of elephants around Splash camp on a daily basis, especially late in the afternoons when they came to visit the camp waterhole for a drink. It was wonderful to see the breeding herds interacting. After spending time drinking, they moved into camp to start feeding.
With the annual flood inundating Kwara Reserve, it was wonderful to watch herds of red lechwe, up to thirty strong, splashing through the water as they ran. Buffalo were seen in herds up to 100. Other general game included giraffe, zebra, impala, tsessebe, wildebeest and kudu.
We saw very relaxed honey badgers during the day. Night drives yielded porcupines, serval, bush babies, spotted hyenas and wild cat.
Notable bird sightings included secretary birds, black-chested snake eagles, and tawny eagles. The flood waters meant that we had various species of water birds such as African jacanas, white faced ducks, pygmy geese, black-winged stilt, pied kingfishers, malachite kingfishers and slaty egrets. Intra-African migrants started to appear such as yellow-billed kites, black kites and carmine bee-eaters.
Photo by Moyo Kapinga, Kwando Safaris guide
