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Beasts, blondes and brunettes
Goliath Safaris
August 30, 2008

Spring elbowed winter aside in the valley recently and whether you're photographing the pod of the wooden-pear or listening to hippos in a pod as a courting pair, you cannot help but marvel at the wonders of nature at this special time.

There is an arboreal fight going on as the trees try to out pod or out flower each other, and glorious splashes of colour abound from those eager to be the first to bloom. As always the cassias win the race, their bright yellow inflorescences standing out against the stark winter canvas of bare branches and blonde grasses. The acacia nigrescens or knobthorn is another blond showoff, its boughs heavy with creamy white flowers filling the valley air with a subtle and sweet scent. Add to this the delicate perfume of the capparis tomentosa and the shaving brush combretum and the blondes definitely seem to be winning the scent war.

However despite all these blushing blondes, the mopanes are doing themselves proud in the brunette corner with their leafy tresses falling to the ground in a carpet of russet, orange and brown. With such brightly coloured leaves, they have no need for fancy flower displays and they can always rely on their wood-smoke to give off the most delicious scent whether on a campfire or wood stove.

Shortly though, the red heads will enter the fray with the flame combretums and kigelias giving off a show that will send the blondes and brunettes packing. Whilst the dark maroon kigelia flowers have a dreadful odour about them, they are without doubt the biggest and brightest flower around, offering themselves up as a delicious snack for everything from antelopes to elephants. And if it is indeed all about size, then their enormous sausage fruit will win the pod war too. However if it's a quantity fight, the albidas as always have out done themselves. Mana just would not be Mana without it's floodplain of albidas, each one pregnant with pods that keep the animals going long after the last blade of grass or pod of seeds has disappeared. For the animals, from baboons to bull elephants, they are a life saver in the dry months when food is terribly scarce. Waiting under the trees, the ungulates are at a distinct disadvantage as their hooves have never been much use for climbing and so they must rely on the wind or the domestic disputes of the baboons to drop the pods to the ground for them. The veteran bull elephants as always steal the feeding shows as they haul themselves up on their back legs to tear down the branches of pods beyond the reach of their female or younger male counterparts. Without doubt this is Mana's coup de grace when it comes to photoshoots.

The big bulls have arrived back early in Mana this year, if in fact some of them left at all. We however have a bone to pick with our old favourite tusker Mana who was recently spotted in Zambia. Why he swum across is a mystery to us but we're sure he did it sans visa and so we have reported him to immigration officials, which will hopefully result in his deportation soon enough. It just gladdens our hearts to know that he is still alive and well as he had been looking a bit out of sorts at the end of last season.

Talking of elusive old bulls, Stretch's delight was eclipsed only by the new moon recently when he bumped into an old friend of his in the wilderness area. Tuskless is a grumpy old bull that he last spent time with over ten years ago and so it was a wonderful surprise for both of them. No doubt Tuskless has mentioned to his colleagues that he bumped into an elusive grumpy old friend too.

On the cat front, the female leopard who calls the Muchenis home is showing no signs of changing her spots. She is often seen stretched out on a fallen tree trunk close to the road, her two dear little cubs well hidden not far away. When we have been patient enough the curious cubs soon can't resist showing their faces for a few seconds. What a treat for anyone, even Stretch who has seen a fair share of cute faces in his time.

The wilderness lion pride has not been too shabby in it's production of offspring either lately. The adult females seem to have synchronized their pregnancies and between them have seven gorgeous cubs all about five months of age. Stretch is claiming godfather status as always, hence guests can expect to be taken on a few tracking forays to try and capture them having a mid day snooze or afternoon playgroup. It does make our hearts smile to see the pride so content and cohesive.

The only blight on the horizon seems to be the disarray amongst the Nyamepi pride with one of the old females now being fairly solitary and definitely showing signs of ageing. The five subadults of the pride are still together and sometimes join up with her but largely she seems to be wandering around on her own, definitely easy prey for a pack of hyenas should they ever feel the urge. Nature as always knows best in these situations but it's still hard for the human heart to simply be a voyeur at times like this. The two new blonde-maned males in the area, The Beach Boys are still courting the remaining Nyamepi girls and will no doubt be the fathers of any new cubs.

Just recently, Stretch and a group of guests on their way to photograph a kill of the Nyamepi pride were lucky enough to see a cheetah nearby and so we salute the cats this month for some excellent showings.

Whilst on the subject of carnivores, Stretch together with the rest of the Mana human pack is still perplexed as to where or who in the wild dog pack is denning down. Whiteback appears to be very pregnant and the rest of her pack very healthy, their numbers now up to at least nine at any one time. Maybe they have just left their denning late this year or are still waiting for Whiteback to make up her mind over her suburb of choice. Will it be their old favourite haunt, the mopane forest or is it time to reclaim old dens or find new ones? Guests in the meantime have been lucky enough to see them on early morning impala kills, always a spectacularly quick and clinical operation over and done with in less than half an hour.

Back in camp, the feathered side of life has taken on a competitive edge; with guests desperate to out- twitch each other whilst out walking and looking for the bigger attractions. At last count the McDonald family was ahead with a tally of well over a 100, this achieved without any special birding forays. With over 200 species still out there to be ticked off, the challenge is on with Stretch as a totally unbiased umpire! The most spectacular sighting however belongs to the Tullis family, who whilst out canoeing, were lucky enough to witness the early arrival of the African Skimmers flying in low for their first skim of their summer buffet table, the mighty Zambezi River.

While we love sharing with you photographs of our four legged friends in Mana, we thought that we'd also share a few taken of our two legged ones. We fortunately have had no legless ones sent in! We also raise our glasses to our chef Hama who has outdone himself on the pastry side with some spectacular cakes baked to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, national days etc!

Lastly we salute the enthusiasts amongst you who hike with Stretch through our beloved Mana searching for the ultimate moment. We'd especially like to thank one of our real athletes who recently was brave enough to try and teach Stretch the art of tree yoga! Apologies in advance to any yoga purists! Ruth Walkup has advised him not to give up his paid job just yet although his effort and those of other guests were admirable. We are trying to convince Ruth to put together a yoga safari package for us next season. Watch this space for details.

As always, in closing we send you our warmest Zimbabwe Zambezi greetings and should you be reading this whilst tidying your kitchen desk or scrubbing your office floor, we invite you to join us on a Mana safari, either in person or in your minds eye. Both will feed your soul and lift your spirits. In turn we thank you for your news and views which always remind us that there is in fact a 'real' world out there.

We leave you with some more stunning pics from David Fettes, another loyal and frequent guest whose award winning photographs can be viewed on his website at www.davidfettes.com

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