Date: 14th-17th January 2013
Location: Limpopo Lipadi Game and Wilderness Reserve, Tuli Block, Botswana
I left Grasslands Lodge and drove to Planet Baobab (Gweta area) for the night, a half way stop off to Limpopo Lipadi Game and Wilderness Reserve in the Tuli Block, where I am meeting Simon Espley from Africa Geographic and his wife Lizz.
It was a long straight drive, Botswana is very flat and truthfully quite a boring country to drive across. Other than the occasional wild animal and the ever-present donkeys, goats and cows (which have no road sense at all) there is not much else to see. Botswana has a population of almost two million people but they must all hang out in the larger cities because I saw very little roadside life compared to the other African countries – no obvious signs of farming or street-side commerce to speak of.
Limpopo Lipadi lodges, set under huge trees on the banks of the Limpopo River
I arrived at Limpopo Lipadi during a huge thunder storm to find Simon sitting in his open game drive Cruiser under a thorn tree, hunched up but enjoying the driving rain, the first of the year and in fact a welcome break from years of near-drought in the Tuli area. It was so great to see a familiar face, this is the man who has made this whole trip of mine happen after I approached him in August 2012 about seeing more of Africa.
So now I am in Simon’s hands for the next 4 days, in a beautiful piece of the Limpopo River valley, a privately owned game and wilderness reserve called Limpopo Lipadi. This vast 32,000 ha area was once cattle farms until a bunch of like-minded conservationists came together to invest and manage the land back to its natural ways. The reserve already has good populations of wildlife (including a thriving population of wild dogs) and lions are next on the list for re-introduction.
The day I arrived everyone at the reserve (including visiting shareholders) had spent the entire morning convincing an escapee wild dog to come back into the reserve after he crawled under the fence via an aardvark hole and crossed the river into South Africa. The dog managed to avoid the gun-toting farmers and made its way back to the reserve fence, and that’s where the fun started. After a long and exhausting chase up and down the fence he was back in the reserve and re-united with his mates.
The wild dogs patiently waiting for their lost mate to return to the reserve fence
Another good Cape Town friend Greg also turned up to visit me at the reserve for a few days – what a nice surprise! My arrival at the reserve brought the rain and I was christened the ‘Rain Princess’. Rain is great for the reserve but terrible for game drives. We did see plenty of stuff like giraffe, impala, wildebeest, warthog, zebra, kudu, jackals and even a group of bat-eared foxes, but sadly the driving rain forced the more exciting animals into hiding.
Best moment for me was when a huge African bullfrog objected to Simon’s approaches and launched a Ninja-turtle style attack at Simon, screaming wildly with mouth wide open. Simon got a helluva skrik and almost dropped his camera. He tried to look cool afterwards but Lizz and I were laughing too loud to hear him out. The poor frog most probably needs a bit of counselling now.
Another super cool thing was a migration of hundreds of huge black ants across the bush track – they move in a “pack” to forage for food. I have only ever seen ants strolling along in a line, but these guys were moving like a herd of wildebeest on migration. There are some very impressive Baobabs on the reserve too and some attractive rocky hills dotted here and there. We climbed up one to see the vista, which of course was a magnificent sight, and now because of all the rain everything is green and lush. The fun thing about being in a private reserve is that you can do as you please – drive, walk, day or night – its up to you. Simon often goes out after midnight to find animals like aardvark and brown hyena.
One of many giant baobabs at Limpopo Lipadi
Africa Geographic Director Simon Espley and Josie Borain at Limpopo Lipadi
Another fun adventure was when we all bundled into the open Cruiser to look for leopards (the reserve has a very large population and they are fairly easily seen) but we were caught in a huge downpour and got totally drenched.
Caught in a downpour at Limpopo Lipadi
After a warm shower I sat out the rain at the lodge, drinking Zambian coffee and chewing the fat with Lizz and Simon. We also drank lots of red wine and solved all the world’s problems, a nice introduction back into real life and what to expect once I get home. We also made a venison potjie for the last night that amazingly turned out quite well, as none of us have ever made one before.
Our dinner was delayed a while because for about an hour the entire lodge area was invaded by millions of flying termites and all sorts of bats, frogs and geckos came out to eat themselves to a bloated stand-still on the juicy morsels! The next morning I followed Simon and Lizz out of Botswana, and then onwards on my own steam again down to Bela-Bela in Limpopo Province, South Africa, for the next instalment of my adventure. Great to be back on home soil!
Following Simon out of Botswana and onto home soil
Contact:
Limpopo Lipadi, Tuli Block, Botswana
Email: generalmanager@limpopo-lipadi.org / enquiries@limpopo-lipadi.org / bookings@limpopo-lipadi.org
Tel: Vodacom: +27 (0) 76 989 4381 / Mascom: +267 7134 9326 / Orange: +267 7247 9048