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Okavango Horse Safaris (Pty) Ltd
MRI sent a helicopter in. They were very fast and professional, strapping me to a spider harness and sped me off to the new medical clinic in Maun. I was extremely lucky no damage done except my neck muscles had been stretched like a bungee cord. So the beginning of the season was hard, learning to ride without looking left or right, it took some months to come right. Matabele was the perfect gentleman seeming to understand my problem and without him I would have been grounded a lot longer. Masai was non-the worst after the incident but he hated being left out afterwards. He watched and bobbed his head for attention every time I went off with Matabele. Then he was so keen I could not manage him so we went in circles. Now he is back on form and going extremely well. PJ went off to Cuba (fishing!) shortly after this. Guy and Neil came into camp to help with the guiding. Then the fires came to the concession. For a week we fought bush fires and ended up having to back burn to save our camp. It was hard and scary work as the fires swept through the dry malapos as a wall of flames. The area was extremely dry, no rain at all in Jan and February and 3 years of thick brown grass was exactly ripe for burning. Our staff beat back the fire for hours but it kept coming round so we were forced to back burn. The wind was relentless not even slacking off at night making the back burning extremely hazardous. The staff were tremendous beating the flames till 3 in the morning, the ladies climbing into men's overalls and filling in for the men - they cut grass for the horses, raked the cut line for back burn and turned their hands to anything to save the horses and the camp. After a week we were exhausted but surrounded by back burn and safe. The landscape looked like the surface of the moon. Everything was black; trees scorched and fine black powder dust. The game managed the fire well; simply doubling back on the fire and standing calmly were the fire had been. The new landscape offered no cover and riders that week had some great game sightings. Luckily the water table is very high and the first green shoots came through after a few days and the area recovered fast. It made a very dramatic entrance for the flood, as there was no tall grass to slow it down. Sheets of silver water covered the new emerald green malapos and the area returned to normal. Poombee (our English Bull Terrier) gave us a terrible scare, becoming very ill. We thought he must have trips as he withdrew into himself and lost consciousness. I flew him to Gaborone where Rob Jackson removed 1,6 meters of plastic wrap from his stomach and intestines. The diagnosis was difficult, the situation confused by the possibility of trips. He had abdominal cloud on his X-rays which could have been fluid and although ultra sound showed abnormalities it was not clear. He is a very lucky dog and owes his life to Rob. Our kitchen staff must have unwrapped a joint for roasting and the little thief somehow got hold of the tasty plastic! I spent a week in Gaborone following him around with his drip and hoping he would pull through. He made a full and rapid recovery - in fact it was hard to keep him from racing around while the 40 odd stitches was holding his stomach together! We bought 8 new horses in 2002. Opportunity really and I suppose I cannot resist a good horse. The original team is well with, thank God, no loses. I have sold my young fillies but somehow we are up to 64 horses now. I am convinced we need every one of them! Luckily our mares gave us 3 colts last year so we have a nice little nursery coming on. The new horses come from Harare, Royal Chieftain, Murungu (White Moon,) Mountain Storm (now Kongola) joined us in March. All mature TB's at around 8 years old they have been a wonderful addition to the team. I also bought a young TB Kelsers Day now Malika (my darling) a three-year-old who did some safari work towards the end of the season. We were all so impressed as he took it all in his stride, enjoying the game with an inquisitive air. Splash a large cross breed and Indian Justice (now Ebo) another young TB with a great temperament joined us in Feb. Later in the year I could not resist the offer of a warm blood. Duba was abandoned in Zimbabwe, a well-bred horse who has been hand reared. He arrived at a stud and was never claimed. It was assumed that he was abandoned by farmers who were forced to leave their land. He came with a lovely chestnut TB White Sword (now Tawana) who is a beautiful ride and again the kindest nature. We had our struggles again with some of the horses. Matabele giving me a huge fright when he could not move out of the barn one morning. His hind leg was enormous, 3 times its normal size. Snake bite I thought but could not find a puncture mark. Again Rob came to the rescue and persuaded me to hold off with anti venom. We treated it systematically and it did reduce. Shadows of Lymphangitis but luckily it has not happened again. Ebo suffered bad necrosis on his hind leg. This must have been from a snake or spider bite. He owes his recovery to Kate's constant attentions although it took some months. Royal Chieftain suffered 6 days of painful and violent colic. Again Rob kept us going, as the pulse was an encouraging indicator. Eventually I did an abdominal tap to find if the gut had punctured. On these results we were encouraged and persevered. He turned the corner later that day. New horses often have a hard time settling in, adjusting to their new circumstances. So it was no surprise when a few weeks later Chief did a runner from base - a breeding herd of elephants surprised the horses while they were grazing. The horses took off and galloped a mad 8 k circle eventually coming back to camp. Chief unfortunately must have galloped over a tree stump and lost the heel of his hoof to the coronet band. A bad injury, which has taken time to grow out but at least did not get infected thanks to the pains taking care Kate and Michelle took with foot poultices and bandages. Kate and Michelle joined us from England in May 02. They have both been extremely competent around the horses and guests. Kate is staying on for 2003. Person is coming back this year - "For Life" he says! He helped us on the TRH 02 and says that life at Nxamaseri got boring! Thomas, Koshanda Tirelo, Tembwe and Rodgers are still with us and doing a very good job. Koshanda was promoted to assistant manageress. She has done a wonderful job-organizing household, catering and supplying fly camps. Tirelo now has a second son working as a groom. Gaolathe is riding well and competing stongely with Rodgers as a top game spotter, Elephant and lion being his specialty. Agnus has eventually got her place at university but will be back to visit and help out on vacations. Gogs is well and now has a new office. We have moved further from the airfield but have more space and air conditioning! Nina has spent most of the year with her partner building camps in the delta. She has guided on a couple of safaris and is writing children's stories and poetry in her spare time. Brad and Andy are both well. Still working for the Jourberts they recently spent a few months at Duba plain's filming Lion and buffalo. We flew in to visit and were treated to camping filming style. No fire, no early morning tea but out in the vehicle and enjoy your first cuppa out of a thermos viewing Hollywood one of the many prime male lions in the Duba area. In 24 hours we met most of the lions. We sat on the tail of a herd of buffalo and watched as 4 young males tried to pick off the buffalo from the back. Then the Duba boys arrived, two mature males who without question dominated - the other males retreated from a distance. Then the pantry pride, about 11 females and cubs approached the buffalo and started the hunt. Eventually they pulled down a young bull. We continued and found 9 big lionesses strolling though the open. This is the Tsaro pride. They seem to sense the excitement and were heading toward the kill. We followed and watched as they came to a river. They sat and thought about it, before one after the other they launched themselves into the river. Watching them swim though the Lilly pads was a real treat. Brad exhibited his art in Johanesburg early this year. He donated 2 paintings to Mokolodi Game reserve for their Rhino project and raised P 30,000.00 for them. He has also been filming the introduction of White Rhino to the Delta. 5 have been introduced into the Mombo area and are settling in well. There are plans to bring a further 30 in. PJ nearly fell off his horse at Macateers when he found Rhino tracks. A female who is restless has been roaming and came into our concession. We did not see her as she returned up north but there will be a possibility of seeing rhino in the future.
The government sprayed our area for Tsetse fly in June. It was a very controlled exercise and by all accounts seems to have been very effective. We have not seen one tsetse since the spraying. At least the horses do not have to be regularly injected with Samorin now. The spray seemed to have been very species specific, as we have not noticed a decline in other insects. Bees are very vulnerable and there is no shortage of these. Unfortunately Rann safaris lost 4 horse to trips earlier in the year before the spraying. They also lost a fifth horse to lion. An elderly female dug under the stable wall and killed a horse. The horse collapsed ontop of the lioness and broke her back. She had to be shot. PJ had an interesting orientation ride at the end of the year. Crossing a sand ridge he noticed a Tsesebe staring intently into a bush. The next thing there was a growl and Lamu put in the most enormous shy, PJ was left on his back in the sand. The rifle had popped out of the scabbard with the momentum and PJs boot was still in the stirrup! PJ saw stars and very little else. From the tracks he thought he had disturbed a cheetah. It was an unnerving start for the guests especially when they bumped into 3 lion half an hour later and PJ was still seeing stars! Unusual sightings this year include Aardwolf who was seen regularly on night drives. A pangolin walking across the burn doing his thing totally undisturbed by the horses. I had an unusual 50 minutes in the Qwaapu area when we walked under a Macuchum tree and flushed a Leopard, followed the Leopard and watched a honey badger scratch around, continued to water the horses and found a cheetah on a fresh Impala kill. Other excitement includes a cobra in the oven, a fire in the kitchen and the usual elephants in the tents! Gerti and Philip from Wait a Little in South Africa are our new Members of AHSA. We visited them in July on their game farm near Hoedspruit. Their camp is charming and their hospitality outstanding. We had spectacular viewing of 2 cheetah on the first afternoon, some good "sporty" riding with Philip and interesting confrontation with some impressive white rhino. We also rode in St Lucia with Benghazi horse safaris. An interesting area especially to see quantities of Hippo thrive in saline water.
We joined Ian Michler at Nxamaseri with a specialized bird group. Ian gave afternoon discussions on Taxonomy and we were lucky enough to see a flock of Blackfaced Babblers. It was a good opportunity to catch up on some of the changes in the ornithologist field - no more Plovers we now have Lapwings, and Dikops are now known as Thick Knees. Other good sightings include Fantailed Flycatcher, Montagu's Harrier, Yellowbreasted Apalis, Black Cuckoo, Rock Kestrel, Capped Wheatear, Collared Sunbird, just to mention a few. The ride home was a great finish to the season. We rode 300 km over 10 days including the rides out of each camp. We used 6 different camps. PJ did two recce flights with AIQ and a vehicle recce. Person, Victory and Thomas were our support team and had everything wonderfully ready for us at each camp. The horses arrived well, without any injury except for a few bruises and scrapes when the picket chain came down on the last night. We were siting down to dinner &suddenly heard a commotion in the darkness. 22 horses tied to the chain were trying to take off in chaos. All hands rushed to help, Nina grabbed two ropes and the chain swung in the darkness and caught her on the back of the head. Highlights were crossing a shallow malapo when a groom spotted a python. Nina &PJ promptly got off their horses and peeled off shoes and socks despite the groom saying that the snake was as thick as his leg. They waded in with sturdy sticks, prodding as they went. After a futile search they gave up, but the groom spotted it again, how no one had stood on it was beyond me. Nina was in again in a flash. This time she dragged up the most enormous coil of a snake - the groom had not exaggerated its size, 3 meters long it was impressively thick. PJ got hold of the head and Nina handled the tail as we all admired him and the horse snorted. We had an exceptional afternoon in the Xene area. A short walk before sunset and watched a Cheetah stroll across an open flood plain. Giraffe cantered to one side and a breeding herd of elephants appeared from the tree line and started a mud wallow. On a night drive a leopard strolled past the sunset drinks. Luckily Alex was having a pee &spotted him, everyone loaded into the truck and watched the leopard bask on an anthill, giving everyone a glorious view. Nina and I had fun and games with a herd of buffalo, call it pheromones or what you will we were like a magnet. Not the first time this has happened. The bird life was exceptional everywhere with loads of ducks, teal and geese all feeding in the drying up pools. We had 3 sightings of Kori Bustard. We ended the Ride Home this year at Guma. The last day was hard and demanding on everyone, as we loaded up 22 horses on 4 vehicles (three lorries and a box) to cover the section between Tubu and Etsha. Then we tacked up and rode the last 15k into Guma. The water had just dropped so there were some wonderful open stretches to spread the horses out and cover the last few kilometers home! The Lagoon at Guma was a wonderful sight especially after the heat and dust. Our guest left the following day, the last leg of their journey being a two hour boat ride to the main Okavango river and on to a village called Seronga, where the airstrip is a short walk from the river bank. It was quite an ending - three little boats speeding away across the big lagoon. I hope this finds you well and best wishes for 2003 Barney and PJ "We can try and put into words what it means to us to be on horseback underneath great leadwoods, with the smell of wild sage and an elephant path in front of us. How do we describe the red sunrise behind the opposite island with the glow reflecting on the still water, as we swim our horses through the dark channel. With the promise of a full days ride and adventure ahead." Grant Bacon
POEM from our Guest Book
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Masai had a bad fall at the
beginning of the year and took me with him. He pecked at canter somersaulted and went in. I was
unconscious as I hit the ground but somehow my reins came over his head and around my foot. The
next thing I knew I was flying across the grass knowing something terrible was coming but unable
to break out of the warm cocoon as I floated. A lucid moment and I saw my foot tangled in the
stirrup and reins and the terrified horse trying to get away from it all. I called for him to
stand, which he did, kicked free and then knew I was in trouble. 
PJ did his annual fishing trip to Mozambique in Jan 2002. He has a new sea going boat called the golden smile. Brad, Andy, Nina, Antony, and Guy joined him camping in Vilanculos. I joined PJ later after he had got some of the fishing out of his system! We spent some wonderful days snorkeling at Benguerra and then traveled on to Zimbabwe crossing the boarder at Mount Selinda. We went to Malilangwe to visit the de la Harpes. Were treated to a couple of nights at Pamushana and spent a day at Ngoro-re-zou where the Periguin Falcons were nesting in the Jolojo cliffs. We continued to Harare, then Vic Falls for a few nights. Canoed down the Zambezi got a taste for rapids, took an elephant ride with Wild Horizons and viewed lion from elephant back. We continued to Zambia and stayed at Impalila Island Lodge a great spot for fishing and game viewing. We continued to Caprivi where we stayed at Susuwe the sister lodge to Impalila. An armed convoy took us through to Bogani where we entered Botswana at Mohembo. 
Wendy Adams from Equus Horse Safaris has moved from Lapalala to her own property. She is still a member of AHSA so we now have two South African members with the properties complimenting each other. At last Tristan and Cindy from Kenya rode with us in October. Kitza was totally unfazed by Tristan's bullwhip and Talqwe did his little devil act to the sound of the hunting horn! We saw some good game and enjoyed showing Tristan & Cindy some of Botswana's bird life, and unique landscape. 
