OUR NEW CAMP: ETAMBURA

Etambura Camp high on a hill near the holy plains of Onjuva is nearing completion.  A Conservancy Safaris team recently visited the site, armed with tape measures, sketch pads and a variety of tools needed to tackle the business of interior decorating.

Etambura has been built for the exclusive use of Conservancy Safaris guests.  It is the ideal place to relax.  Marvel at the views from the look-out decks or enjoy a moment of solitude on your own private deck.  Observe the skittish rock hyraxes sunning themselves on the marble rock outcrops. You might even see a klipspringer or, if you are lucky, at dusk, a Jameson’s rock rabbit.  Tiny footprints are evidence that genets and African wildcats call this place home.  The calls of a diversity of birds, the paper-whispery rustle of commiphora trees, bottle trees in bloom and unimpeded 360 degree views make this unique spot an unforgettable highlight. Enjoy a stroll and explore the hill with its many endemic species of plants and trees.

Lie in bed and be dazzled by an incredible sunrise.  Enjoy a sundowner and watch the sun set and, when the last oranges and purples and pinks have faded, watch as one by one distant cooking fires from surrounding villages light up and flicker in the darkness, allowing you to feel that you are indeed in Africa! Let the wind carry up to you, high on the top of this magical hill, the lowing of cattle, the haunting hoot of an owl, the call of someone lingering around a  cooking fire down below. Immerse yourself in the sounds and scents of life out here while above you the heavens ignite the night sky, so close you feel you could reach out and touch the stars!

SOCCER MADNESS

As you chug past villages and through settlements on rutted tracks or gravel roads it is not unusual to see a motley crew of aspiring Messis and Ronaldos kick up clouds of dust in hot pursuit of a soccer ball.  If that checkered ball is not available a modified tin can will also do the job.  What passes as a soccer field in these remote desert areas is not a field of well watered cropped lawn, but rudimentarily cleared boulder pitches, or at best, a tract of sand bookmarked by metal posts – with or without a net (it does not matter here as long as it works!) – posing as goal posts.  When in Africa you make a plan.  It thus came as no surprise that just such a plan was made in Puros when clients of Conservancy Safaris just had to watch a must-see Bayern-Mϋnchen game on television.  The TV was there, the satellite dish too – carefully mounted on the tin roof of a hut – but alas no fuel for the generator!  Soccer fever is contagious and faced with such a pressing dilemma, teamwork proved to be invaluable. Co-operation is the name of the game and when Conservancy Safaris came to the rescue with a jerry can of fuel, cables were rerouted and all life in Puros came to a halt and collectively held its breath until at last that little black screen sprang to life.   Passionate cheers and heart-stopping groans bounced off the Puros Mountains as players from another world danced and shimmied with the ball across that flickering screen, egged on by fans thousands upon thousands of kilometers away, in a remote village somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Vuvuzelas were not available, but then again, a kudu horn does the job too!