Updates from Mdonya Old River Camp - Ruaha NP

 Mdonya still has some tents available for the coming season - June to December is a great time to see game in southern Tanzania.The camp is just about to re-open after a closure for refurbishment during the long rains, and everything is fresh and beautiful - and the animals are waiting for you!

Here are some of the exciting sightings of the last season:

August 2011:

Introducing "Fundi" our newest arrival around the Mdonya area, and what an amazing one he is.

A most beautiful young leopard, estimated at around 8 - 12 months old, with an undying curiosity about everything - from tsetse flags to our staff quarters to Mdonya vehicles and their occupants. He shows an amazing curiosity and teenager-like playfulness, and often comes in very close to eyeball our guests.

One guest said that he had always wanted to see a leopard, assuming, if he was lucky enough to see one at all, it would be at a great distance and he never ever expected to have the experience of looking straight into the eyes of one.

Fundi is regularly to be seen around the Mdonya River bed area, some 10 minutes from camp, sometimes at the outskirts of the camp, and on one fine occasion, up on the bonnet of one of our vehicles (it is all true!)

 Both driver/guide and guests were surprised and amazed as he wandered up alongside our vehicle, climbed up onto the bumper bar, gave it a lick (and a few scratches our driver is now very proud of) and then settled himself upon the bonnet to peruse the inhabitants of the car through the windscreen, leaving only when he happened to put his weight on a part of the bonnet that popped under it and startled him just enough to make him descend again. An event never recorded before at Mdonya, and who knows whenever again

 Feb 2012

You may have read about our now famous friend 'Fundi' the leopard in recent bulletins. He has been spotted out and about near camp, but of most recent times, has given the thumbs up to Mdonya ORC as a fine place to hang out, and has been sighted many times in the early mornings and evenings - killing an impala right alongside Tent No 1, giving one lucky guest up for an early morning game drive a fabulous up close and personal viewing of the kill (thank you Mary Kirby for the great photo!) then making himself comfortable on the unoccupied veranda of Tent No 2 the next night, to relax and lick his paws.

Since then he has been seen in and about camp at regular intervals. He is an awesome and very unusual wild friend to have around, appreciated by us all - ourselves, our guests, our Maasai who love to look out for him and to be the first to spot him, all except I guess for our resident impalas ¬ who stay with us nonetheless and help out in giving advance notice of his arrival with their alarm calls.

 

 

March 2012
As well as many weird and wonderful green-season critters of all shapes and sizes, and so many very tiny, incredibly cute and ungainly elephants that we don't know which way to turn our cameras - our wild dogs are back!  

Spotted running fast, as they are wont to do, first sighted in a large pack of around 28, and then again the next day in a group of some 10 individuals, obligingly moving straight down the road in front of our guests' vehicle, and again the day after, in large numbers, hunting... we are incredibly excited to have these wonderful, rare creatures back in our midst, and thank Andy and Jane Wilson-Lee for lending us their shots of them. May there be many more sightings before 'the boys' move on again

  

We reckon they den in the area between Kwihala and Mdonya but both camps are not lucky with sightings during the dry season while they reappear at the end of it (October) and sometimes later on in the wet season we do get more sightings. But let's see... Maybe they will surprise us this June!

So come and see us soon - if you need availability, info or rates, please contact me any time.

very best,

Flo Montgomery

Adventure Camps Marketing

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