February 2008

Thank you to everyone who supported us in 2007. We had another fantastic year at Nitani.

After the longest rainy season in 23 years, the environment is still lush and green with every water hole still full of water. Fauna and Flora alike have taken advantage of the situation and have seeded and re-seeded themselves as never before.

Ade and I partied happily into 2008 together with some fun loving friends from Minnesota (who joined us for their 10th visit to Nitani) and another group of our guests. There is nothing quite like being under the magnificent African sky at night, elevated above terra firma on one of Nitani's decks, listening to the calls of hyena, leopard, owls, frogs and crickets whilst exchanging stories with friends. Much fortification and assistance came from the many "Scottish concoctions" offered at "Sir William's Bar". We listened to the call of the first Francolin, while looking to the East to see the beginnings of the painting of the dawn in the night sky on the 1st of January 2008. Slowly, a bit like a 1000 piece orchestra, one bird after the other broke into song to announce the magnificence of the first day of 2008.

Confusion and consternation reigned when guides Cally and Phino arrived at 5:30 am to wake up their guests for their early morning game drive, only to find a jovial group of people already having breakfast!

Now that 2008 is in full swing, we are savoring this happy and beautiful time of the year with baby Impala, Zebra, Wildebeest, Elephant, and birds everywhere. See if you can spot the three Temmincks Courser chicks in some of the accompanying "baby photos". Their natural camouflage makes them practically invisible.

Ade has also inherited 2 baby door mice which she named Stuart and Tim. They are both doing exceptionally well and respond to Ade's soft motherly calls, climbing out of their ski glove nest onto her hand to be fed. Stuart and Tim will be released back into the wild within the next couple of weeks.

We are very excited about receiving our next baby Serval kittens, which we will hand raise, habituate to our environment and release back into the wild within 2 years. We will give you more information about the Serval in our next newsletter.

We wish all of you a blessed and fun filled 2008!

Shane

* Have you seen our video clips? If not - you are missing out! See the Quelia migration, and an ellie dipping right under the water. Click here for more....

* Have you heard about the Hot Air Ballooning at Nitani? Click here for more info...


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