FANJOVE PRIVATE ISLAND

News from a natural wonder.

As the Fanjove Staff traveled to the island to prepare for the June Opening, they were met with a surprise: they were not in fact the first to step foot on the island, but second to Green Turtles who choose Fanjove as a safe location to lay their eggs.
Watch green turtle mom – video I and video II.
Over the last 7 years, the Fanjove team have recorded, watched and cared for the Green turtle nests. With special training from Sea-Sense, the staff know how to mark the nest without disrupting the eggs, and even carefully move the nest if the eggs are laid at an unfavourable site, such as tidal areas where there is a large transportation of sand.
This season on Fanjove we have 3 confirmed nests plus a suspected forth and so with 3 hatching dates expected in July, we have some exciting weeks ahead of us!

June has also seen the continuation of community outreach projects; on SongoSongo we celebrate the opening of our new toilet blocks for the school, a testimony of the achievements that are made possible by eco-tourism.

Following the May rainfall the island has quenched its thirst and as a result, it is now fantastically green and many corners are speckled with exquisite flowers. Birds like the Madagascar Bee-eaters are gratefully celebrating the recent rainfall. In the evenings the Kuzi winds continue to blow in from the South and wrap the island in a shroud of comfortable coolness.

The season is off to a promising start with lots to look forward to!

Laura, Johan, Hakim and the Fanjove Private Island team.

LAKE MANZE CAMP

News from Selous Game Reserve

The new season is in full swing. Preparations and maintenance was slightly delayed as the rains had carried on longer into May than what was anticipated. We were lucky to employ one of the Elephant bulls to direct proceedings in getting all areas up and running.

Many of our guests enjoy their photography, snapping away at everything that moves, collecting thousands of memories of their trip into the Selous. Watch video I and video II of great elephant sightings on game drive and video of lion sighting close to the camp.

The obvious trick to this is being at the right time at the right place. Our guide Zacharia Mligo seems to have mastered this trait as he comes up with these amazing once in a lifetime shots for him and our guests. It seemed as if these Lions were inviting you and showing you the way to Lake Manze Camp. Their employment contract took a bit more negotiation but they surely produced the goods.

A large herd of Elephant with their many new young have been through the camp a couple of times and seem to frequent Lake Manze regularly. Nice to see the population growth is on the rise.

The lake is brimming with water and the bird life as usual is prolific. The grass and surrounding areas are luscious and green and is providing the much needed food for all our friends

We can’t wait to meet all our new guests this season and hopefully some of our previous guests will emerge.

Safe travels,

By Shaun, Milinda and all Manze Team.

MDONYA OLD RIVER CAMP

News from the wild side

The rains have passed and the seasons have changed here in Ruaha, the grass drying out, the sand rivers have ceased to flow and a cool wind blows reminding us that winter is just around the corner.

We have had an exceptional start to the season with wildlife sightings in abundance as well as a couple of rare wildlife encounters that our guests were treated to. This included several sightings of a serval, a baby impala that had just been born, a leopard enjoying a free meal of a baboon that had accidentally hung himself in a fork of a tree and to top it all off a sighting of a pangolin. The pangolin is a magnificent nocturnal creature that is sadly threatened due to the illegal trade in its scales for supposed medicinal purposes. The Swahili name for a pangolin is Kakakuona which directly translated means ‘brother who sees’, due to the local believe that pangolin can see the future… isn’t that a wonderful name!

Around camp the elephants have been gradually gathering in the woodland and we are now seeing bull elephants in and around camp daily. We are very pleased to see the return of many of our resident bull elephants that we know and recognise such as Sikio Mbovu, Ol’jale, Charlie and Louise. Watch a video of a baby elephant and his mom.

Impala, monkeys, baboons and a couple of warthog can be found around camp seemingly not disturbed by our presence as we go about camp life. Jasiri, our resident female bushbuck and her now nearly fully-grown offspring are around camp. Other wildlife activity near camp included a male leopard (supposedly Fundi) with an impala kill just past tent number 11, the Mdonya pride have passed through camp a few times during the night and were seen feeding on a big male kudu, and a big herd of buffalo that have been frequenting the Mdonya river to drink.

A big thank you to Julia and Lawrence Murphy who have shared with us their pictures of the serval and pangolin, and to Susy and Pasi Aithea for pictures from their safari.

Safe Travel,

By Rebecca, Andrea and all Mdonya Team.