Beho Beho Bushblog – Walter – 15th March

Posted on March 15, 2012 by

We often don’t realise how fine a line it is between life and death. As quickly as life is given, it can be reclaimed. This we found out when we did a trip to Lake Tagalala. We set aside a day to go to Lake Tagalala, to experience a boat trip on the Lake and also to see the hot springs, possibly even enjoy a plunge within them.

On our way to the Lake, nearing its shores, we found a newly born Giraffe calf and mom. The calf had just learnt to stand on all four, still very wobbly at the knees as his mom patiently coaxed him to take his first steps in his brand new life. A small remnant of his umbilical cord still attached to him, and mom still had a little blood on her from giving birth. We watched in awe, as he followed and ambled behind mom, his small horns still flat and hadn’t even taken their upright shape yet.

We left mom and calf, to go and do our boat trip and then take a splash in the hot springs. As we finished up at the hot springs and on our way back, we were informed that two lions were seen close to where the giraffe cow and calf were seen, so we headed off in that direction. The lions had made an impala lamb kill, so they would still be in the area, allowing for us to possibly relocate them, watch them for a while and then head home.

After a fair amount of searching, we eventually spotted one of the males, walking with purpose. He was one of the three musketeers, a coalition of three young males which have formed a pride with two lionesses. We followed, soon finding a second lion. The scene that met us and the proceedings that eventually took place, made us all realise how things can change and how precious life is.

There were actually four of them, two males and two females actively hunting and trying to take down this newly born giraffe calf we had just seen a few hours previously. Mother had positioned herself between the lions, with her calf in front and between her front legs, guiding the calf in the direction of safety. As the lions would approach, she would then rise up like a mustang stallion and lunge with legs kicking and dropping in the direction of the intent hunters. The giraffe cow was also bellowing in a loud booming voice, something which is very rare to hear, as giraffe have no vocal cords, and have been described to make grunts and snorts, but virtually never heard. This would be the second time in ten years that I have ever heard a giraffe make a sound, and in this case, it was appropriate timing.

The lions, biding their time and awaiting the valuable opening, took their places on either side of the two giraffe. The Giraffe mother still leading her new calf between the lurking dangers and almost to safety. However, these lions could not let an opportunity like this go, and as the cow began her movement through the middle and away from the four lions, a mistake was made; the calf lost his footing, falling to the earth. In the same instant as the calf crumbled to the floor, the lioness lurched forward. In a spit-second, the lioness’s powerful paw with her claws encircled around the calf’s throat, engulfed his head with her jaws and delivered a powerful bite as she dragged it down, for the final suffocating bite.

But as the crushing blow was about to be delivered, one of the males stormed in chasing the lioness off the calf, and claimed the baby giraffe as his prize; his mighty jaws finding their mark. The male lion then lifted the giraffe calf, which may weigh 80kg from birth, in his jaws and dragged it under the safety of a bush; finally finishing it off with a powerful bite.

From birth, to death in five hours, just shows us how short life can be in the African wilderness. But even though one witness’s these scenes and it is emotionally taxing, the circle of life needs to continue. The four lions need to eat to sustain themselves, for the giraffe calf would keep them satisfied for several days, before they would need to hunt again. The dead calf will also feed other scavengers and species, like Spotted Hyaena, several different species of vultures, micro-organisms and insect life; which collectively will breakdown the giraffe and completing the circle of life.

Because from life comes death, and from death comes life again.

 

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Beho Beho Bushblog – Walter – 10th March

Posted on March 11, 2012 by

The Selous is full of interesting history, from the battles that ensued in World War 1, to the death of Frederick Courtney Selous at the trigger finger of a German Marksmen. Many a story can be told as one goes out on either a walk or a drive in the area, and some stories are more sinister and mysterious than others.

There is a beautiful Baobab Tree close to Beho Beho, where Christopher Bailey’s ashes were scattered (he was the previous owner of Beho Beho since 1977, with his son Charlie Bailey inheriting Beho Beho in 2002). However this Baobab also marks the position of a mass grave site and one of the many villages which are described on the hills surrounding Beho Beho.

Several months ago, Sean and I lead a walk with some guests, and as we stopped and took our seats at the usual refreshment stop under the Baobab, Sean spotted what would turn out to be the graves of two children. We have subsequently found more graves, but the question remains: how old are the graves, how did they die, what happened, etc.?

Well if we go back in history there was a lot of villages scattered around on hill slopes. The hills offered a safe vantage point to spot any invading tribes which could take over the village; but also due to topographical and relief rainfall, minerals, salts and nutrients are leached from the soils on top and deposited below in the valleys. This makes these soils very fertile and perfect areas to grow crops and other vegetables. So the villagers would be able to keep an eye on their crops from the hill, and they would also be safe from any flash floods.

When looking at areas where there were previous villages, you often find pottery shards, remnants of ash pits, and the area is usually devoid of plant growth, besides trees and shrubs which would form shade, and usually bare edible fruit supplementing the diet of the villagers. It is also believed that some of these fruiting trees were planted, as a food source. The evidence of a previous village is prominent around Christopher’s Baobab, with pottery shards scattered around, graves and very open landscape.

But what could have happened to these children and people in the Beho Beho village?

The honest answer is: we don’t know. We can only speculate and some possibilities are drought, disease, malaria, starvation or even tribal massacre.

There is some evidence in some historical readings which may point more to the sinister side. In 1880 William Beardall, under the orders of the Sultan of Zanzibar, Sayyid Barghash, undertook a mission to explore the Rufiji River, but he also found that the Mahenge tribe had burnt down the Beho Beho village. The Mahenge tribe often hunted and took people by force, to sell to the Arab slave traders. The Mahenge tribe had kidnapped the Beho Beho chief Korogero, and the villages didn’t put up too much of a fight against the Mahenge tribe when they came in to ransack their villages and then burnt them down.

So it is possible that these people and children met their death during these conflicts, and those who were able to hide and escape, came back to bury the dead.

One can look at many possibilities as the baobab in many African cultures is seen as a sacred tree, and it could have been used as a spiritual burial ground. But this is what makes these discoveries so interesting, as you don’t always have the answers.

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Beho Beho Bushblog – Onesmo – 23rd February

Posted on February 23, 2012 by

We finally received a very substantial amount of rain after many long hot days. Last night thunder and lightning took place before and during diner time before the rain started pouring down. It rained for quite some time, and when we got up this morning it was still drizzling. At the airstrip we saw a good number of animals including Giraffe, Impalas, Wildebeest and a pack of twelve hyenas sleeping on the side of the airstrip. They seemed to be well fed from last night but we did not see any sign of a kill around. We continued driving down through the plains and what a lovely drive we had.  At one point we stopped to look at the wildebeest bonding and showing all the courtship behaviour. Suddenly we heard Elephant trumpeting from the distance and followed by a heard of impalas running from something. We drove toward that direction and found a pack of wild dogs hunting. We stayed with them for one hour but no luck of a kill as all the impalas had gone into thick bushes so they found a nice puddle of water to play in. Seems that they will spend a day close to the camp today.

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Beho Beho Foodie Blog – Karin – 20th February

Posted on February 21, 2012 by

The Heart of The Selous

 

There is no love sincerer than the love of food.

~George Bernard Shaw ~

I had been dreaming about this day for weeks, and indeed Valentine’s Day was celebrated here at Beho Beho in a very special way – and with what else but food, glorious food? In pretty little hearted shapes of course.

We started the day off at first light, the sun rising crimson on the horizon, the warm glow radiating out over the hills and valleys, the shadows of night diminishing, and along with the usual rusks and terrific Tanzanian coffee, stained glass butter biscuits accompanied the daybreak wake-up calls.

Guests and guides alike proceeded to venture out on game activities while the kitchen was abuzz with the labour of love that is cooking.

Lunch was marked by a heart-cutout overload – heart shaped breads, homemade red wine & beef fillet pie with heart cutouts in the puff pastry, heart-shaped watermelon for the watermelon, feta & olive salad, heart shaped meringues for dessert etc. etc. Oh, the cuteness!

LOVE: A word properly applied to our delight in particular kinds of food; sometimes metaphorically spoken of the favorite objects of all our appetites.

~ Henry Fielding ~

Teatime had to be the loveliest part of the festivities, with colourfully decorated almond Valentine’s cookies, raspberry & white chocolate cupcakes and hibiscus ice tea.

Game activity snacks didn’t miss the theme of the day, and we had a few heart-shaped meaty bites and cassava chips to accompany the sundowner drinks.

We had a few love-punch cocktails for pre-dinner drinks, and the bar and main area was beautifully decorated with all sorts of heart paraphernalia to emphasize the occasion.

Dinner commenced under the magnificent starlit sky of the Selous, and a sultry summer breeze gave some relief after the hot day’s hustle and bustle. We served some old favorites, comfort food, heart-food, made with love and celebrated with a little bit of bubbly, those we love, near and far on a perfectly happy day.

Ps. Ottavio – hope you enjoyed your virtual Valentine’s Day cookie:).

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Beho Beho Bushblog – Walter – 18th February

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

We decided to do a trip to Lake Manze, because as the Selous starts to dry out again between the short rains and the long rains, we start getting big herds of Nyassa Wildebeest and Plains Zebra heading to the lakes to quench their thirst. Wildebeest in general tend to stay within a distance of 15km from water, as they are water dependent antelope. So heading to Lake Manze, we were spoilt with not only large masses of hooves and legs as hundreds upon hundreds of wildebeest moved to the water, but also impala, zebra and giraffe.

Normally we are also rewarded with the large cats waiting at the Lakes, licking their lips and trying to decide which one to go for first, but we only got lucky at the end of our drive, when a young lioness made her presence known. This time however, the highlight didn’t come from the feline kind, instead, from the ancient dragons, which have ruled the waters from prehistoric times. For as we searched for the lions which frequent Lake Manze, I did a loop around some palms which surround some small channels from the lake itself, and there, feasting upon a wildebeest, were the spiralling bodies of the Nile crocodile. They were ripping chunks of meat and limbs from the now dead wildebeest, there must have been 20 or more, of these emotionless, ancient killing machines.

Nile crocodile feed predominantly on fish, which comprises 52% of their diet, but they are best known for catching the odd mammal that has come to drink, and often scavenge. By scavenging they play a very important role in cleaning up the rivers and streams – communally feeding on unsuspecting victims or carcasses found around the water regularly. They do also display cannibalistic tendencies, and thus assist with controlling their own numbers.

These prehistoric reptiles are built for their aquatic domain, having special gular flaps at the back of the mouth, which they close when catching fish or ambushing and drowning their prey. Their nictating membrane acts as a second eyelid, allowing them to see underwater, nostrils and eyes are also situated on top of the snout and head to allow them to just surface and reveal the smallest part of their body possible. The flattened, oar-like tail and webbed feet allow these creatures to drive themselves through the water with incredible speed, as their powerful downward biting jaws, armed with 62-64 teeth clamp shut onto their unsuspecting meal.

The equipment of the rivers, lakes and streams’ most formidable killing machine.

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Beho Beho Bushblog – Heribert – 17th February

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

Every week presents its surprises and amazing experiences whilst in the Selous. Over the last week we have had so much game gathering around Lake Manze and basically anywhere near water, zebra and wildebeest with their young, lots of giraffe, buffalo and impala. This as we know attracts the predators; our cats are busy with plentiful prey, all it takes is the necessary skills of which they are born with. On the last blog I wrote about the two females with a zebra kill and wondered what might happen in the night, we drove there the next morning and found the three musketeers almost finishing up the entire kill, one of the females had gone or was maybe chased off and later on in the evening we saw one of the three boys mating with the female that was left. Whilst watching these cats devouring the zebra, a side stripped jackal came running from one side of the plain to the other, it made its point very clear that it did not want anything to do with us, he just ran across not even looking at us. It had been a while since I last saw this beautiful canine.

At Lake Manze, with the hundreds of game the prides there are back in business, we saw Umoja from the new Manze boys the other day and later on saw the three females in the pride, one of them is definitely with cubs but she hasn’t reviled her treasures yet.

The carmine bee-eaters are becoming more and more an entertainment as one drives through the plains, vultures in abundance cleaning up whatever is left out there whilst other raptors deal with rodents and smaller members lower in the food chain. It is truly a magical place at the moment, although it is quite warm and humid.

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Beho Beho Bushblog – Onesmo – 16th February

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

New lions are about to come out. One of the Manze pride seems to be lactating but we have not seen the cubs yet. The lactating female seems to hang around the lake and we have seen her disappearing into one of the gullies where it is very dense and difficult to see what is going on. I personally think this is where she has the cubs and it will take her a few weeks to bring the cubs out. Yesterday we went to Tagalala and on the way we saw lots of different game as we drove. Among these were a hyena and lioness who happened to be sleeping very close to each other without noticing. The hyena moved out of the ditch when it heard the car and stopped a few yards from where it was resting, the strange thing is when he turned around and looked back at the bush he had just come from. He looked for a while before he moved away. We got closer and we realized there was a lion resting under the same bush. What a surprise for the hyena because he had no idea that the lion was that close. We then moved on to the lake and had so much wildlife coming down for water. The bird life is so nice and one can see big flocks of Pelicans arriving at the lake. Having dry weather brings lots of game to the lakes. I believe we will get some rain very soon because it is getting very hot, and windy which is the sign of the rain. Lots of fun here as usual.

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