FANJOVE PRIVATE ISLAND

News from a natural wonder.

December has been a great month, and a great way to end 2017.
We are very excited to announce that after years of operating our popular dolphin excursions, we have sighted a third species of dolphin near Fanjove. In addition to the usual bottlenose and spinner dolphins, a third species, Risso’s (or sometimes known as Grampus) dolphins have been spotted traveling alongside a large group of spinner dolphins.
Risso’s dolphins are identifiable by their characteristic bulbous, beakless heads and peculiar white scarring on the body. It is believed that this scarring is from a combination of the squid on which they almost exclusively feed and by other Risso’s dolphins.

Another exciting landmark of December was that Fanjove hosted an educational visit for the children from SEC-School in Songosongo. This visit included a discussion on why marine protection is important, snorkeling visits to our nearby soft corals, as well as lots of other water-based fun! This trip was the first of its kind for 2017 but we plan to host many more in 2018.

Mid-December we saw the Geminid Meteor shower; where from the beach we saw many meteors and practiced some night time photography. During its peak it was possible to see many meteors in any single minute.

2017 has been an incredible year for Fanjove Private Island, with many positive projects to mention but some highlights were; the rotational closure of the reef, the absence of dynamite blasting, the continuing community projects with Songosongo, the successful turtle nests, glorious dives full of turtle and reef shark, and over 60 whales visiting offshore Fanjove.
It only remains for us to say that we look forward to 2018 and we hope to see you then!

Happy New Year from The Fanjove Team.

LAKE MANZE CAMP

News from Selous Game Reserve

This month is the time of cheer and merriment. Hopefully all our animal friends will celebrate this festive season with all of us. We wish all our guests and newsletter recipients a fantastic and merry Christmas and an awesome traveling 2018.

December has proven to be a bumper month with many sightings of the Lions and Wild Dog packs. Always a bonus. The one hunt was partly witnessed by our guests having breakfast in the dining area in camp. The alpha male chasing down a herd of Impala past the camp into the waiting jaws of the rest of the pack. All guests were able to get to them but unfortunately missed the kill.
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Our elusive Leopards have also made appearances as they ply their trade. A fantastic sighting of a Leopard resting in a hole in a Baobab tree made the spot of the month. Hopefully future guests can experience this new home as we think that it will be the Leopards permanent residence.

After the nice thunderstorms the birdlife seems to have increased as we got some great bird sightings all around. The new grass is like the forty shades of green and is plentiful to feed the array of young ones around.

We hope to see you all and many new guests during the 2018 season.

Safe travels.

By Shaun, Milinda and all Manze Team.

MDONYA OLD RIVER CAMP

News from the wild side

We wish everyone a very joyful Christmas and a safari filled New Year! May 2018 be a year of prosperity, adventures and harmony between humans and wildlife. A heartfelt thank you to all our guests who have stayed with us during 2017, we have enjoyed meeting you all and exchanging views and ideas around the campfire. You have all added to what has been a very special year at Mdonya Old River Camp.

Over the past week the park has completely transformed from being dry and bare to a lush green landscape with puddles and water holes after a few good downpours of rain in the area. The grass is growing quickly and baby impalas are being born all around. With the rains the flying termites have taken wing providing a real feast for the birds. In particular the Steppe eagles and European storks have been seen in large numbers around the Mdonya woodlands as the feed on termites.

The family of five cheetah have continued to make appearances to the delight of our guests this month, lions have been seen in large numbers and near camp we had a lovely sighting of our 2 resident leopard cubs playing together, who have both grown a lot since we last saw them.
We had a very special glimpse of a big pack of around 30 wild dogs on the road to Mdonya. They were fairly shy of the vehicle but as they crossed the road we were able to get some pictures and marvel at the number of dogs in the pack including some sub-adults. We haven’t seen them since but are glad to know that such a big pack is around.

Christmas greetings from,
Rebecca, Andrea and all Mdonya Team.