Linyanti Wildlife Reserve, Botswana
Lebala Lodge
Date: 05.-07.10.2007
Assessment Criteria
Satisfaction in %
Comments
Pool
50
Tent/ Room
90
3 rooms: bedroom, bath, desk
Restaurant atmosphere
80
elephant close by during
dinner
Food
80
Management & Staff
80
Mgmt: Alwin & Blue,
Guide: Taboul
Camp/ Lodge
90
Originality of reserve
100
Diversity of reserve
90
Vehicle
100
customized jeep for safaris,
separate seats
Guide - communication
70
Guide - information
60
Guide - cust. orientation
80
Wildlife - quantity
70
lots of lion
Wildlife - diversity
90
Wildlife - extraordinary occurrences 90
kill of wildebeest by lions, lion
cubs, aggressive hippo and
elephant
The Linyanti Wildlife reserve where the Lebala Lodge is at is a privat concession and as such all
vehicles belong either directly to the Lodge or have a special permission for a game drive. The
later one is usually not seen and as such Linyanti was a big difference to Chobe.
The difference between privat concessions and national parks is that in a private concession you
are allowed to leave the roads and go into the bush (to get closer to the animals), you are allowed
to stay out for night drives after sun set, and you are allowed to do walking safaris. All three
activities are officially prohibited in national parks.
The vehicles used for game drives are customized for Kwando safaris (the operator of Lebala
Lodge, Kwara Camp, little Kwara, and Lagoon Camp). The jeeps had two rows with each three
seats. The seats were really comfortable and one could strap themselve to it with safety belt for
the ride off road.
The Kwando river turns into the Linyanti river so the area around the camp is green and has open
grasslands. It looks a lot different from Chobe and all the camps we visited afterwards. The wide
open scenery and the dry season helped a lot to spot the animals. During the daytime we did not
see that many animals at the river, maybe because it was to close to the camp.
On one of our game drives it took a long time before we saw any animals but the extraordinary
ocurrences we saw later made up for it:
In the morning we saw a group of lions with their cubs that were still suckling. The same night the
other vehicle watched a kill of a wildebeest and called us via the radio. We arrived in time to see
lions eating the wildebeest and fetching their cubs to share the kill with.
We also experienced an angry Hippo running with an open mouth and a lot of noise towards our
jeep - letting us wonder what would happen if he would acutally ram it. Fortunately, we did not
have to find out because the guide started the jeep and the noise of the engine stopped the
Hippo. The racing of our heart beats did not stop that soon....!
When we were going after a herd of elephants to get a better glimpse of a baby elephant, the
chaperon elephant of the herd demonstrated his dislike of our proximity by coming at us
trompeting with a lifted trunk. That convinced us to back off and make use of the 500mm lens.
On our morning game drive we were a little unfortunate since our tracker Alfred and our guide
Taboul only spotted animals well after we (the tourists) did and had little explanation to offer.
However, after the issue was addressed to the camp manager he obviously had a talk with the
guide and the subsequent game drives were very enjoyable.
The lodge was not fenced at all since the operators believe that animals passing the camp were
of no danger to the tourists in opposite to trapped animals. In all of the camps we were given
whistles to blow in case of emergency. At Lebala we were told that an elephant rubbing against
the tent is NOT an emergency since they are merely using the tents as they are using the trees.
All elephants close to the camp (our tent or the main house) were really peaceful and not at all
interested in us. One night at dinner, an elephant was having his dinner right next to the
restaurant.
During the night Hippos stepped out of the water to eat but amazingly we felt wonderfully asleep
listening to their snorting and mumbling.
The tents were very spacious with a bedroom, an entrance with a desk, and a nice bathroom
which had a bath tub inside and a shower outside.
The food was very exquisite: In the evening we either had steak or lamb with extraordinary
starters prepared. The snacks offered chocolate chip cookies during morning game drives and
wraps, cheese & crackers, cake for the afternoon tea were the best on our trip.
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