Deception Valley Lodge Diaries
Week 28 June- 5 July
Beautiful winter weather continues, most afternoons peaking at 30 C and the coldest mornings creating a thin layer of ice on the animals' drinking water. There is a thin cloud cover every morning, rather strange for this time of the year.
Game viewing has remained good this week; our waterholes are the main attraction, herbivores and predators coming from far. The lodge gets visited on a near nightly basis by a pride of lions as our waterhole is in their territory. Another large pride of lions is still active around our second waterhole, with sightings almost every day.
With the lions so active, it has been difficult to find the leopards, but we had three beautiful sightings this week. We saw one relatively young male, later one very large male, and yesterday a large female.
There was also a brief sighting of two cheetahs, on the way to the airstrip to drop a group off.
We'll keep you updated soon.
DVL Guides
January
IN the Kalahari it is now the middle of high summer. At DVL the veld and animals have been blessed with 250mm of rain since Christmas and the veld is in a very good condition, perfect for the animals and the incredible variety of birds to be seen this time of year. Waterbirds such as the Marabou stork and hammer kop pass through the area in the summer months and provide lots of opportunity for bird watchers and photographers to witness their unique behavior patterns.
Some truly amazing sightings were possible in spite of the lush and dense bush that causes guests to imagine themselves in the tropics! A brown hyena was spotted on one of our early morning drives. One of the two prides of lion frequenting the area was spotted and heard regularly over the Christmas period and for two days into the new year. A beautiful young male and his female mate came together within a meter of the veranda of one of the bungalows and continued their mating game for three more days!
With the quantity of rain we had and the natural waterholes filled to the brim our night time orchestra of banded rubber frogs and babbling casinos entertain guests with a roof raising symphony of sounds.
With more than two thirds of the annual rainfall already received the scene is set for the kudu young due to be born in February. We will keep you up to date, hopefully with pics of the new arrivals.
Keep well
DVL Guides
Beginning of Sept.
Hi there.
Our seasons went from winter trough spring into summer in the space of two weeks. Afternoon temp. maxing at 36C, and mornings dropping to 14C. Evenings are sweet scented with Acacia, and Albezia blossoms.
Being in the driest time of the year, the game viewing has been great. We had a pair of mating lions at one of our waterholes all week, offering great opportunities for viewing and photography. Other prides and nomadic individuals were spotted regularly.
With the sparse grass cover at the moment, the trackers can really perform well, and they managed to find a few leopards this week. Mostly one sub adult male, but a very large male was also spotted, and also a large female.
Those who choose to remain on the lodge deck rather than going on game drives were treated with large herds of Kudu, Oryx, Hartebeest, Wildebeest and many others coming to visit our waterhole.
Our resident pair of Verreaux's Eagle Owls, also provided great photo opportunities.
Keep well
DVL Guides
February
"Dear Wanda and Adriaan, and greetings to Thota and Numchi,
I'm just back to Johannesburg, waiting for my flight, and wanted to let you know what a fabulous time we had at your place. You completely spoiled us with the best food we had anywhere and wonderul company and animals and teaching, although you were right about Mapula and we loved it also. I will never forget the bushmen walk, or the leopards.
I'll be in touch when I get back to the states (and get my skype hooked up!), but I'm browsing your website and just wanted to thank you for your kind and warm hospitality.
And if Briata and Martin are still there, tell them hello, and ask how they liked Delta camp....
Love,
Susan Coffin
"
" Dear vanda, nadja, kita, adrien, daggam and all the others i forgot or couldn´t remerber their name, my girlfriend isabella and me stayed in january at your lodge (some day together with a group of denish people). As we enjoyed our stay very much we wanted to thank you once again for everything, even if adrien could´n spot the ardvaark he promised. I am still sure that there are plenty of them around, but they just tried to cheat on us. You managed to let us have some great days in your beatiful place. Just keep it like it is. Maybe we´ll see us again in future
Thanx once more
Isabella & Matthias "
"Hi to everyone there at Deception Valley! And a special hello to Douw and Duma...
Well, we have been home from Africa almost 3 weeks now and miss it very much. We thank you all for the amazing time we enjoyed at your lodge. Africa has found a place in our hearts and your gracious hospitality, the experiences we had observing the animals and birds and the walk with Duma, Spring Hare and Douw all helped to create our
love of Africa and especially Botswana.
Wanda, I finally baked the banana nut bread according to your recipe and it turned out superb. Very delicious, light and moist. Thank you for the recipes you shared. I will soon try a sweet potato cake. You really did inspire me to try more gluten, wheat free baking. Hope everyone is doing well there.
