Limpopo-Lipadi Trip report: 10 – 17 September 2016

Leopard close to Tholo Dam

This is a short trip report from our week at Limpopo-Lipadi Private Game Reserve, in the Tuli Block of Botswana.  We visited LL with some awesome friends, and this trip included 3 pre-toddlers, between 12-18 months of age, which surely made our stay more interesting!

Good friend Felix Reinders also joined us – check out his work at www.felixreinders.com

Please click on a photo to view better quality (especially on a smartphone where the quality looks really bad...)

African Wild Dog on our 1st game drive

African Wild Dog on our 1st game drive

I will focus on 4 highlights of the week, and let the photos speak for itself!

The first highlight happened on game drive 1.  We had a quick 2 hour game drive to the Zanzibar dam area, where we spent some time with a pack of 14 African Wild Dogs.  Upon our return we entered the River Camp area at the shareholder gate, when Cilliers (a friend visiting LL for the first time) asked if he can switch off the spotlight now.  I replied a definite NO, as we have seen Aardvark on this short road before.  When we reached the Limpopo River, he spotted 4 eyes in the bush on an island in the river!  It was a mother leopard and a small cub!  Only 2 minutes form camp! Unfortunately they were quite skittish, so could not manage great photos – but still amazing to see them so close to camp! We actually saw them again early on our last morning at the same place, but they were skittish as before.

 

A magnificent Kudu bull on Southern Plains

Elephant on Swarsloot

The 2^nd highlight is actually quite funny.  We saw a leopard with a kill the one morning close to Tholo dam, and decided to return the afternoon.  She was still there with her kill – but as we approached our one wheel collapsed into an aardvark hole! Yes, we got stuck in an aardvark hole, close to a leopard… It was quite an experience trying to do vehicle recovery with the high-lift jack, with the women keeping an eye on the leopard, and the men recovering the vehicle.  Luckily all went smooth, and we enjoyed the afternoon with the leopard!

The leopard while we were doing some vehicle recovery...

The 3^rd highlight was a night drive between 19h30 and 22h30.  We were on a mission to find an Aardwolf, so we decided to go and search for it on the middle plains, where the habitat is suitable for them.  We got so much more….

The drive started with an African Wild Cat, the we had a nice elephant sighting close to Cabbage Dam.  Next stop – Middle Plains.  There we criss-crossed the plains, and stumbled upon 2 very relaxed male cheetahs! We tried not to bother them too much, as it was night already.  A few minutes later we got our Aardwolf, and it stood watching at us for a few seconds, before retreating into his den.  Mission accomplished!

We returned via Mbusi waterhole, where we found a leopard drinking at the waterhole! 

We closed out the game drive with another African Wild Cat sighting! Awesome 3 hour drive!

African Wild Dog close to Shareholder gate

Leopard (named Olebile) close to Southern Plains

 The 4^th highlight was when we had our morning coffee on Swartsloot.  We were relaxing with our coffee and rusks when a lion suddenly started roaring!  It was very close – but unfortunately we couldn’t get visuals this time, but it was a seriously nice surprise!

Lion close to Oppikoppi

Aardwolf on Middle Plains

Lion close to Oppikoppi

Elephant on Swartsloot

Special sightings for the week included Spotted Hyena, Brown Hyena, Lion, Leopard, African Wild Dog, Elephants, Gemsbok, Cheetah, Aardwolf to name a few….

Marabou Stork

Crimson-breasted Shrike

Fiery-necked Nightjar

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

Violet-eared Waxbill

Acacia Pied Barbet

Birding was a bit quiet, but we had good sightings of Marabou Stork, White-backed Vultures, and an African Cuckoo Hawk made a fly-by.  The normal bushveld birds were plentiful as usual!

Barred  Wren-Warbler 

Yellow-bellied Greenbul

Golden-breasted Bunting

Meves's Starling

We can’t wait to visit again in November!

I you would like to become part of the Limpopo-Lipadi family, feel free to visit the website www.limpopo-lipadi.org

Blessings

Anton and Renate Kruger

For more updates follow my account on Instagram @antongkruger

Limpopo-Lipadi Trip report 7 - 14 November 2015

This blog post is a trip report on our visit to the 22 000ha Limpopo-Lipadi private Game Reserve in the Tuli block of Botswana.  We really love this place :-)

River Camp.  We sat hours at this pool photographing birds

This trip will be remembered for for 3 things.
1.  The hot and dry conditions (luckily there is a swimming pool, and air conditioners in the room)
2.  9 leopard sightings!
3.  logging 29 mammal species on 1 day (excluding mice and bats)

Giraffe at Mbusi Waterhole

Eland on the lovely Swarsloot 

Helmeted Guineafowl at Magerman's

Zebra at Old Man's

The week we spent at the reserve was really hot... The average daytime temperatures we experienced ranged between 42 - 45 degrees celsius. And it was bone dry, the driest I have seen the reserve.  The dry conditions had it advantages, as wildlife frequented the waterholes - with the predators never far behind.

Gemsbok close to Cabbage Dam

Elephant bull 3 minutes from River Camp!

Brown Hyena close to Southern Plains

Spotted Hyena at Zanzibar Dam

I remember a blog post by Walt Tingle a few years back, when they had 9 leopard sightings in their 30 days at the reserve. (hope I remember correctly).  That was amazing I thought, as leopards are so elusive.  Having leopard sightings everyday at famous reserves such as the Sabi Sands is not unusual - but, there is one big difference:  there are a lot of lodges, a lot of vehicles, and everybody is in radio contact with each other.  At Limpopo-Lipadi the policy is different.  There are only 4 vehicles traversing the whole >20 000ha!  You have to find the leopards (and everything else) yourself, and that is awesome, the thrill is in the unexpected and the chase!

Motsamai, a beast of a leopard with a kill south of Phofu Dam

Odirile, a 3 year old male close to Tholo dam

Olebile, an 18 month old female seen at shareholder gate waterhole 

Thabo, Olebile's brother, also at shareholder gate

Thabo at shareholder gate

Thabo drinking at shareholder gate waterhole

Thabo, on Southern Plains where we found him chasing after scrub hare!

We had 9 leopard sightings this week, and 8 of the sightings we found ourself!  And no it was not the same leopard 9 times...we saw 5 different individuals!

We keep a daily count of mammals seen (excluding mice and bats), and usually we end around 23 species per day at Limpopo-Lipadi.  This time saw us breaking our record!  We saw 29 species in one day.  Ironically, that was the only day we didn't see a leopard, and we also did't see lion or cheetah that day! Haha!  So, 30 is the target!

Brown Hyena 

African Wild Dog seen at the springs in Langope river

Pearl-spotted owlet

African Paradise Flycatcher

Namaqua Dove

The list was as follow:  Brown Hyena, African wild dog, Grey duiker, Impala, Baboon, Kudu, Plains Zebra, Blue wildebeest, Giraffe, Warthog, Steenbok, Tree squirrel, Banded mongoose, Gemsbok/Oryx, Waterbuck, Hippo, Vervet monkey, Bushbuck, Slender mongoose,Spotted hyena, Spring hare, Scrub hare, Elephant, Porcupine, Bat-eared fox, Eland, Lesser-spotted Genet, Black-backed jackal, Lesser bushbaby!

African Fish Eagle

Red-billed Firefinch

Pied Kingfisher

Retz's Helmetshrike! First time for me on the reserve

Our last morning saw us driving up the Mogorosi River to Mogorosi waterhole, where we came across 3 lions, where they were feeding on an eland kill.

Lions at Mogorosi waterhole

Due to the hot and dry conditions, there were only a few pools of water left in front of the lodge in the Limpopo River.  All kinds of animals came for a drink, but the stars of the show were the birds.  We had the following birds coming in for a drink, while we spent hours alongside the pool of water:  Greater honeyguide, African Hawk Eagle, Little Sparrowhawk, Shikra, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Ashy Flycatcher, Grey Tit-flycatcher, Black-headed Oriole, Pearl-spotted Owlet etc etc....  Other good birds in the reserve included Kori Bustard and Retz's Helmetshrike!

Pearl-spotted Owlet 

Rufous-cheeked Nightjar

Verraux's Eagle Owl

Little Sparrowhawk

Green Wood-hoopoe

We absolutely love this place...and can't wait for our next visit!

If you would like to become part of the Limpopo-Lipadi family, feel free to visit their website at www.lipopo-lipadi.org

Blessings
Anton and Renate