Okavango Delta, Mapula Lodge, Botswana

4 Nights November 2007

Mapula Lodge was the original camp that had drawn my attention to the Footsteps in Africa portfolio of offerings. In July they had big news – Doctor, a well-known guide with Kwando, had changed venues and was guiding and managing at Mapula and he had discovered a wild dog den. This was shortly followed by news of an active hyena den. The concession is enormous (875,000 acres) and shares borders with both Vumbura and Duba Plains. Further research suggested that the viewing would be similar to Vumbura and reports on sightings were consistently excellent. I was also intrigued by the remote location near the panhandle of the Delta, with the added benefit that with no camps to the north there would be no plane traffic as this is pretty much the last stop in the Okavango Delta area.

The flight in from Deception Valley Lodge went smoothly. We landed at Delta Camp on our way and disembarked long enough to view an elephant on foot near the runway before continuing on to the far reaches of Mapula. Friendly greetings and a quick exchange with out going guests and I was confused by a statement about wild dogs at a den. The dogs should have left the den area by early September. We piled into the transport vehicle with Josiah, a guide with a tremendous humor and easy talking manner that is hypnotic. Here we received bad news and the most outstanding news I could ever hope to hear. The bad, our requested guide Doctor had flown to Maun to see the doctor with a back problem. It was in doubt if he would guide us at all. As for the good, I had been tipped in Johannesburg by the Director of Footsteps that a big surprise awaited me somewhere during the trip, but I never would have imagined this! I asked Josiah about dog sightings, knowing the dogs had continued to be seen regularly since denning. His response, “they are at a den a very short drive from camp – yes, you will see dogs.” A den? Was there a litter of pups out of season? “Yes, in a most unusual circumstance the subordinate female has had a litter, we have 5 week old puppies that have just come above ground about 5 days ago!” As wild dogs are my favorite species to observe, and this would be the most interesting circumstances possible for viewing, with 5 month old puppies of the alpha female and 5 week old puppies of the subordinate female I could not have been more excited.

We arrived to Mapula and were greeted by singing. I always have mixed feelings about that as I have been to camps where it seems to be a required show and then the staff are servants with no personal interaction and in other cases it is just a natural extension of the culture and an important part of the atmosphere. Here it turned out to be the introduction to a very welcoming place, featuring a wonderful, warm staff and lots of interaction. This lodge is owned by a Batswana woman and her husband, who is a Swedish doctor, but my understanding is the financial benefits to the community far exceed those of typical concessions. They are receiving a large stake and I was told by a couple of staff members that they really feel like it is their lodge and that they own this venture and thus love working there as compared to other camps where they have been. There are many couples on the staff and the village that most of them come from is just 2 hours away. Both factors that I think are better than typical conditions and lend well to high morale.

Mapula Lodge Bar

I was told when I stand on the main deck for the first time and look out at the lagoon and floodplain I would have goosebumps. I thought sure it will be lovely as many other places that I have been, but as I walked up the steps and looked out that is indeed how I felt. The setting was spectacular! Of course the bar in the corner with the perfect view caught my eye as well. The camp had only been open for a year under new management and much of the staff new in the last 6 months so I expected some wrinkles but found almost none. We sat down in the nice open air lounge for the initial briefing with the camp manager Dudu and assistant manager Lesh and had the wonderful surprise of roosting fruit bats high over head, about 30 are here every day. We then proceeded to our chalets, and mine was at the end of the path concealed wonderfully in the vegetation (#9). As we neared my new home I carefully stepped over an elephant print in the walkway headed into the trees between our chalets. My chalet was extraordinary, much more than I had expected. I come for the wildlife and accommodation is secondary but I was extremely impressed with this offering. The view out to the lagoon is magical, reminiscent of the well-known Kwara camp. I had a comfortable deck with chairs to enjoy the view and bordering my deck was an enormous Jackalberry tree that rose above the chalet. A separate door led to the best shower of my life, outdoors nestled on the other side of the Jackalberry tree from the deck with the same view of the lagoon. I really don’t like calling it a chalet because typically to me that denotes all hard walls and a separation from the outdoors, sometimes muffling the sounds and smells. These chalets are kind of a chalet/permanent tent hybrid forming quite a combo. Where you enter it is hard cement walls and you can see it’s raised on stilts with a cement foundation. Inside is all wood floors like many permanent tents and then ½ of the sides and the entire back is all mesh screening. The combined effect is the sturdiness, tight fit, and privacy of a chalet but the open air connection to nature of a tent. Basically in Botswana I would say without a doubt that my Mapula chalet was the nicest accommodation I have been in except for Mombo which costs almost twice as much.. Yet when I stayed at Mombo the camp overall had a soulless feeling about it once I left my own digs, it was so formal and the staff reserved (this was back in 2003 so its dated info) while Mapula had a tremendous community feel to it that reminded me much more of my stays at Duba Plains and at Lebala. They also do the food quite differently at Mapula. There is an emphasis on traditional cooking, obviously it would be the high end local food. The commitment to local dishes according to the manager is an effort to show tourists a little something different and to enhance the cultural aspect. I am a slightly picky eater but I found the food to be excellent. In comparison to other camps I’d say it fell somewhere in the very respectable middle. I’ve had a few stays like DVL and Duba Plains where the food was incredible and a few places where it was simply solid, this would be in line with the majority as very good but not extraordinary although there were a couple of dishes that were exceptional. In keeping with this local slant the brunch was not the typical English breakfast either but tended more toward lunch with local twists. I have to admit after 4 days I was very excited to get some eggs, bacon and sausage again at my next camp.

Whew, now that accommodation has been covered comes the most important part for me – game viewing and activities, detailing the actual experience. I’ll preview by saying that I saw 34 mammal species here, the most I have ever seen at a single camp. Birding was glorious as well, including one of Botswana’s most prized sightings and a couple of new species for me. The landscape is large with varied scenery and habitat and we covered a huge amount of ground.

Mapula offers walks with an armed guide, mokoro, and game drives. Our first activity was an afternoon walk. The walking guide, Eustice was knowledgeable and had a nice easy manner about him. The focus was discussion of how different plants were used by the River Bushmen as well as examining animal sign. We had one nice sighting of a bull elephant and the wide plains lined with islands of large trees made for a beautiful landscape. We decided to do no mokoro rides here since we would have the opportunity to focus on that at Delta Camp so from here on out it would be game drives.

With Doctor out injured we had Dicks as our guide and Simon as our tracker. First drive out and of course we headed right for the wild dog den. I was tingling with anticipation. We arrived and all was quiet with the 6 adult and 3 5 month old puppies all sleeping in their various groups but within two minutes the subordinate female walked over to the den and 5 little black blobs erupted out with excited twittering sounds waking the other dogs. After a quick lap around with the older pups joining in they settled down to nurse. The older pups harassed the alpha female begging for food by nuzzling under her chin as dogs do throughout life to cement their bonds. Once nursed the younger puppies would play with one another, tug a war vs. small plants, and take rough play beatings from the older puppies. Dicks would occasionally add some meaningful commentary to this very unique situation. It is almost unheard of to have litters 4 months apart like this since typically only the alpha pair breeds and in the rare instances that subordinate breeds she usually has puppies within a month of the alpha’s with the alpha then taking over care for all the puppies. It was the chance of a lifetime to see a pack with multiple litters and all of the interaction made for fascinating viewing. The pack has amazing discipline and all the puppies playing could turn into a tornado of activity until their mother would stand up and just give the little ones a look as she approached and they would all run straight into the den where they would remain out of site and completely quiet until either the mother or alpha male would come and look in the den and they would rocket out again and the whole thing would play out again. Especially interesting was a couple times the male went to fetch them out as if he just wanted to play for a minute and enjoy the excitement and then when he had enough he would break away and leave them to play with the older pups or harass their mother. Also, once sent to the den one of the older pups could look in but the little ones would not come out for him. Through it all, the alpha female is tolerant of the little pups and allows the pack to care for them, which is the key for their survival. Dicks was a great guide to have for this as I could tell he wanted to stay here and observe also and hope for a hunt. A couple times he talked about patience being necessary to see great rewards but after a lengthy stay and no hunting I think he sensed he better move on for the other guests who I think were all first time safari goers and probably didn’t have any notion that this would be amongst the top sightings ever.

As I arrived for tea I was greeted by a familiar face. Doctor had returned from Maun. Unfortunately he was ordered to rest his back and would not be able to guide us but he wanted to come and say hello and give his apology. I assured him that was no worries and to take care of himself. In addition to doing some guiding Doctor is a manager at Mapula so we would get plenty of time to talk over the next few days just not experience drives together.

The afternoon drive was an absolute contrast to our morning experience. Dicks covered an enormous amount of territory spotting species left and right. From one open plain we would cross through a small wooded island and into another plain. It would be the drive of herds and plains game. Starting with a bull elephant just out of camp, mixed herds of zebra, wildebeest, and tssessebee. Impala, steenbok, yellow mongoose, black-backed jackal, African wild cat, 3 ground hornbills, etc. Knowing that a male lion was a priority for my clients he tracked down a buffalo herd of about 100 head (no lions). A bachelor group of kudu – 15 bulls mostly between 8 and 12 years old with large majestic horns, by far the largest group I have seen. Capped off with a nice breeding herd of elephants with about 30 members including a few young ones. The drive was fast paced, quickly moving from one sighting to another with very little down time. The night drive spotlight produced an outstanding view of a genet. When we arrived back at camp Dicks said with a sly smile “tonight we have seen great quantity, tomorrow we focus on quality.” As he looked at me I could tell we were on the same page and I liked his plan. He had flooded the guests with variety and so many sightings that now we could balance it with time with the dogs.

I had another member of the team to connect with though, our tracker Simon. As is often the case with trackers Simon did not speak very much English. At 57 he had worked in the mines in South Africa for 20+ years and when asked about it via Dicks at sundowners he said ‘very strong man’ as he did a little flex. I could tell this was a man I wanted to know and I wanted to bond him with our group rather than have him drift like so many trackers do. As I enjoyed my new sundowner concoction, somehow tonic had not made the drive so we took Dicks up on a suggestion to use ginger ale with our gin, resulting in a new drink we dubbed the ‘Ginger Rodgers’ that was good enough to request on subsequent drives, I waxed on about the honey badger to a new arrival from Spain who was not familiar with this magnificent creature that we had seen so many of. As I told him of its legendary reputation for castration I covered by vulnerables with two hands and fake yelled honey badger in a drawn out voice. To this Simon was belly laughing along with the rest of the crowd. We had now broken the language barrier and the team was bonded.

Post dinner tonight there was singing and dancing as the entire staff participated and soon drew in the guests to the fun. By far the most engaging one of these musical affairs that I have witnessed at a camp. Into bed with the whoop of the hyena and awakened at 4 a.m. to the distant roar of lions – just the way I like it.

Next morning straight out to the dog den but wouldn’t you know it they were already out hunting and the pups were stashed down in the den so there was nothing to see. On to a standard game drive with a good sighting of a marsh owl (new one for me) flying right in front of us and into the high grass. Owls are a family that I have spent good time studying so I am always excited to see them and this particular species is closely related to the short-eared owl that I have observed many times in the USA and the marsh owl was behaving similarly with a daytime hunt coursing low over the grassland. This was followed shortly by one of the crown jewels of the trip, my first ever sable. One magnificent, jet black bull with full arching horns, and ten others of various ages and shades of light brown to dark chocolate. I was surprised that the herd was very easy to approach and allowed for excellent viewing, it seems that many people report spotting sable briefly as they flee but this herd was very relaxed and we would see them two more times on our drives. Add in some giraffes, ostriches, jacana, brown snake eagle and a very nice black-breasted snake eagle and it was another very nice drive.

I had been working on trying to learn animal names in Setswana and that was a great way for Simon and I to connect as both he and Dicks would tell them to me and the entire staff I think enjoyed hearing me struggle with them over meals but also seemed to appreciate that I wanted to learn them. Of course one of the first I learned was honey badger so as I boarded the vehicle for the p.m. drive I stretched my fist out toward Simon and as he returned the gesture I called out Mantswane bringing a nod and a huge grin. Back to the dogs and this time arriving just as the pups burst back onto the scene. Lots more great viewing and this time it was clear that true to Dicks plan we would wait and see what would happen. After another great long period of observation the adults rose up and the alpha female started to head for the nearby water to get a drink. Along the way she marked two spots and each dog stopped and visited these. We headed through the woodland to meet them at the waterhole and I spotted an impala ram just as the dogs entered the area. The impala was frozen and we stopped the vehicle. The dogs continued to the water and as soon as we started the vehicle the impala was off and running through the trees. The alpha must have sensed an opportunity because instead of stopping to drink she took two licks of the water and trotted into the mopane woodlands to hunt. Amazingly each of the 8 dogs to follow (including the 3 5 month olds) stopped just long enough at the water to collect their two sips of water and continue on the hunt. The discipline is amazing, to see it lends immediate understanding of why they are the most successful hunting species. Our plan in full effect we try to follow the hunt but the mopane here is extremely thick and they lose us in just minutes. Nonetheless, another amazing session watching the dogs.

The next morning the mokoro are being readied for the rest of the guests so we will have the vehicle to ourselves. While we are eating breakfast Simon passes through and says something lengthy in Setswana but keeps on walking. Lesh (Asst. Manager who we learn is married to Dicks) translates that Simon has said “He wishes he would have had the opportunity to go to the University and learn English because he wishes he could communicate more with you”. I’m not sure a report can possibly convey this kind of thing but it was a highlight for me that even with the language barrier we had formed a great connection. Dicks focus now was to try and track down lions. A pride of 10 including two large males were seen the day before we arrived but they had since been elusive. Twice in the early morning I heard distant roaring but the area is huge. We headed to an enormous plains area that is near the border with Vumbura. Far across the plain Simon points and shouts to me letotse, indeed there is a cheetah in the classic laying down on a mound with the head up pose under a large tree. As Simon gets off his tracker seat he bypasses the passenger seat next to the guide and joins me in my row, a great pleasure to enjoy this sighting together. The cheetah is very relaxed as we approach and once we get there we can see that he (believed to be known as ‘Patrick’ in Vumbura) has eaten about as much as a cheetah possibly can and all he wants to do is nap. Dicks proclaims with great pleasure “you chose to skip the mokoro so we could search for lions but instead we have been blessed with a cheetah.” This area was like a big cat grocery store teeming with wildies, zebra, tsessebe, and warthogs. Then a good distance out on the plains a little tank is walking through, with binoculars we confirm a honey badger! Kick into high gear across the open plains for a descent view of a running honey badger. We are forced to go around a bush but the badger opts for a hole and our view ends. This would be our 5th sighting for a total of 6 individual honey badgers on this trip, exceptional luck considering this was the species that I most wanted to see as I had never found one before. We found tracks of lions but they were a day or two old. Another very good sighting of sable, one tusked elephant ripping down tree branches and then the flying baboons put on a circus act leaping from one tree to another across our track. Another amazing drive! The other vehicle actually saw a huge male leopard but we were too far a field with our lion tracking to get back to see it as he did not stick around for long. With the area being so huge it is often like that, just not possible to go to every call from the other vehicle and thus we often saw different things. It became a ritual for me to ask Josiah what they saw. The first night he said in his slow drawl “oh not much, just some serval….and a python.” Following our cheetah drive he of course claimed his nkwe (leopard) but then I surprised him with our mantswane (honey badger).

We had one last night and I requested that in addition to the regular drive we have a proper night drive to begin after dinner. Dicks recommended that we have the canopy removed so we could enjoy the stars and have unobstructed viewing. I was excited by that plan as I love being in the completely open vehicle, it really makes a difference to me. We would cover all new ground in the never ending quest to locate the lions. First stop a big bull elephant who mock charged into water kicking it up everywhere. Then onto a beautiful water area packed with pelicans, herons, spur-winged geese, marabou storks and a pair of fish eagles. More plains games until our very long drive ended at Hippo Pool (seems like every camp has one by that name). We watched the hippos with their threats, splashes and almost out of water dances as they displayed for one another and to us. We had our sundowner and then a long drive back in the dark with more genets. As we had traveled so far we actually had close to an extra hour in the dark on our drive back. Having driven such a distance and with everything running a little late I told Dicks for our night drive it was fine if we just went out for an hour and a half or so as I didn’t want to overwork him and Simon, basically I said its up to you to determine how long you want to go for. About four hours later at quarter past 1 a.m. we arrived back from our drive. A couple porcupines, genets, lots of springhares and a giant eagle owl was our tally along with an incredible night sky. I was impressed with Dicks and Simon, they were showing great stamina and desire to deliver everything they could for us.

Sadly just one Mapula drive to go. We went on another enormous distance exploration to the edge of Duba Plains in hopes of finding the elusive lions. Unfortunately the lions appeared to have temporarily moved over to Duba but it was still an awesome drive as we just kept getting to see new areas and ended in a real paradise. We came to a very wet area with a channel of water and enormous old trees ringing a small island. Here we saw our first waterbuck as well as a few red lechwe. This spot was breathtaking and on the other side of the water was the Duba Plains concession. As we pulled in for a stop we were greeted by a leopard tortoise. This had been the site of Old Vumbura hunting camp some years back but the camp was long gone and paradise is left behind. Over tea (really cokes for most of us) Dicks said the Mapula owners have some interest in putting a small camp of maybe 3 to 5 tents here in the future but no plans are currently in place. As we were talking Dicks looked deep into a thicket of large trees and then with surprise said Pel’s fishing owls. I turned and there was a pair of Pel’s, the holy grail for birders in Botswana just roosting next to the water waiting to be found. As this area is so far away from Mapula Lodge, probably about 2 hours by game drive speed, I don’t think it is visited very often and the Pel’s owl pair was a significant find and certainly great news for birders coming to Mapula.

It was sad to have goodbyes with Doctor, Josiah, Lesh, and the rest of the staff. It was particularly difficult to leave Dicks and Simon who had worked so hard and made our days and nights so enjoyable. For my farewell I asked Doctor for an appropriate Setswana term to express my connection and respect to Simon, and thus on this last morning I called him mogolole, meaning my brother. I think we were all pleased with my growing language abilities and I promised to try and know more on my next visit.

To sum it up Mapula Lodge was the best of everything that I want on safari. Outstanding wildlife in both diversity and quality of sightings, immense wilderness area to traverse, areas of scenic beauty including the camp location, knowledgeable/passionate/personable/hard working guides & trackers, community feel with an engaging staff that appears to enjoy their jobs, and an economic set up that delivers great benefit to the local people. The fact that the lodging is stunning, cost is well below comparable camps, and the food excellent were a huge bonus on top of my wildlife viewing priorities. Overall I’d have to say that my Mapula experience moves straight to the top with Duba Plains as my absolute best camps to date.