Karonqwe Reserve

At Chisomo camp here in Karowange preserve, the day begins with a wake-up call at 5:30am to make a 6am getaway to find animals on the reserve. There’s only time for a quick coffee or tea and to say ‘hi’ to some of the other (non-OAT) travelers staying before we go. So far we’ve met an extended family group from Cape Town, an interpreter for a group of Italians and a solo traveler from Zurich.

Our OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) group has decided to rotate through the tiered jeep seating, so this morning we sit at the back with the highest vantage point. Ludwick, as our tracker, sits on a kind of jump seat out over the front of the jeep.

It was mostly dark when we left the lodge, but very soon the sky glowed a vivid orange. First up, a group of male Burchell’s Zebras, also called Plains Zebras. Their stripe pattern includes a shadowy stripe between the black stripes on their rump. Followed by: three cheetah brothers sunning on a rock, giraffes, rhinoceros, birds (owls, ibis, vultures and more) — and warthogs in our camp. And there are countless impala, along with the occasional nyala and kudu—different types of antelope. We encountered the cheetahs later in the day after a good feed, because they were quite docile and were licking each other after the meal. They have a cute meowing voice, quite like a pet cat—check out our video.

After lunch, we had a talk by a conservation and enforcement ranger. Precious is 26 years old and studied conservation in college. Her main job is to protect the animals at Karowange private preserve from poachers. She trains dogs to track humans and when she catches a poacher she will turn them over to government law enforcement. Sadly, there is a lot of corruption and she may catch that poacher again the next week due to lax enforcement. She knows full well that she is as much a target as the animals she is protecting—she is standing in the way of a lucrative, well-organized (think mafia) business. We were quite taken aback when she said she is ready to lay down her life to protect the wildlife here.

We were very happy with our first full day on safari, having had two game drives, and then came dinner time. A herd of elephants broke through the electric fence around the camp and wandered around the camp, right past our cabin. We were already in the open-air dining tent, but watched them all through dinner as they crashed around in the trees to feed on tree branches and leaves.Read more