Chongwe Chat, May 2009
As I sat down to start writing this missive in March with thunderous rain soaking the Camp, I now find myself finishing as we begin our cooler nights and can’t believe how much time has passed and how the bush has already changed.
So, welcome to the first of Chongwe River Camps guest newsletters which we hope you will be pleased to receive. If you wish to unsubscribe then direction for this will be given at the end of this communication.
We arrived in March to a very lush Chongwe and for the first time in many years suffered extreme rain for 8 days continuous which made unpacking camp a very interesting time, not least due to the hyena and lion visiting us most nights. The Chongwe River was in full flood with rapids to rival the Victoria Falls I am sure and incredible noise of the rushing water keeping us company along with chunks of riverbank and full grown trees rushing past us on the way to the Zambezi. Despite these set backs, Camp and House opened on time and our guests were unaware of the last minute panic stuffing endless lounge cushions with 20 minutes to first arrivals.
Our first Park game drives were taken via a river transfer to our vehicles which we had sent into the Valley through the Mukamba Gate deep in the park escarpment as we were unable to cross the Chongwe River, a trip which took our drivers 3 days to make and they are still talking about it! Since then, we have been very lucky to have lions on the GMA side of the river on a number of occasions, leopard have been difficult to spot in the undergrowth but have been sighted many times, hyena still visit us most nights and we have the cutest baby hippo keeping close to Mum in our confluence pod.
Now we have the excitement of a 26 strong pack of wild dogs in the park – a first for a number of seasons now and guests are enjoying their sightings. The alpha female is very pregnant and they are obviously looking for a suitable denning site so we hope they remain in the park for this thrilling event.
We are heading into a quieter period for Tiger fishing now but our camp record this season is 11lb – catch and release as always. We will keep you updated as season progresses.
Our new management team is gelling well together and we are all looking forward to a happy, productive season. Caroline Jenkins (CJ) and Russell de Wet have returned to bush life at Chongwe and we welcomed Florence Mulenga Shawa as our General Manager and George Mwanza, who I’m sure many of you will remember, has stepped into the Senior Guide role. Beej, Clem and Bruce complete the team at Chongwe House.
We are still waiting for the arrival of Oliver Twist – our most infamous elephant – we certainly miss him when he’s not around but does make walking out of the office a lot safer and delivery days less exciting when not trying to fend him off our fruit. Douglas and Tag – our most recognisable lion and lioness – are still in the area, though we were saddened to lose Tags sister earlier this season.
We look forward to welcoming a number of old friends to Chongwe again this year and hope we are able to catch up with more of our returning guests in future.
All the best,
Caroline (CJ) and all the Chongwe Team
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