Limpopo-Lipadi Blog

This month Limpopo-Lipadi has published a new electronic brochure online. The thirty or so pages contain a wealth of information about the reserve and shareholding and are designed to showcase some of the fantastic wildlife opportunities, memorable bush experiences and stunning accommodation options we have available. The brochure itself can be downloaded from our website now.

Please note that the brochure is provided solely as a source of supplementary information about Limpopo-Lipadi and does not, in itself, constitute an invitation to invest. To find out more about becoming a shareholder in this inspiring project in Botswana simply email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This month sees a special feature on Limpopo-Lipadi's leopards published in International Lifestyle Magazine. ILM focuses on positive lifestyle choices from around the globe and features inspirational people alongside great design and photography.

Our feature spans four whole pages and looks amazing, whether viewed in their online publication, in the print issue, or just a standalone PDF (download from our website now)!

Share the link with friends around the world!

Here for March is our brand new public newsletter containing recent highlights and updates from the reserve. You can download a copy from the website now. Keep your eye out for the next bi-monthly issue in late May - why not subscribe to the blog or follow us on Facebook to keep updated.

Happy reading!

Inspired by dinner-table conversations at Limpopo-Lipadi this blog is a collated reading list of some of our shareholders' recommendations for books about, or featuring, Africa and especially Botswana. The list, which is in no particular order, features travelogues, investigative reporting, memoirs, adventure novels and short stories. Perhaps your favourite is missing? Why not add to the list?

"Twenty chickens for a saddle: the story of an African childhood" - Robyn Scott (based on a farm just a few kilometres west of the reserve!)

"The lost world of the Kalahari" - Laurens van der Post

The number 1 ladies detective agency series - Alexander McCall-Smith

"Botswana time" - Will Randall

"Cry of the Kalahari" - Mark and Delia Owens

"Tropic of Capricorn: a remarkable journey to the forgotten corners of the world" - Simon Reeve

"Don't look behind you!: true tales of a safari guide" - Peter Allison

"The eye of the elephant: an epic adventure in the African wilderness" - Delia and Mark Owens

"A game ranger remembers" - Bruce Bryden

"Baking cakes in Kigali" - Claire Perkings

"Don't run whatever you do: my adventures as a safari guide" - Peter Allison

"Wild honey: more stories from an African wildlife sanctuary" - Bookey Peek

"Chasing the devil: on foot through Africa's killing fields" - Tim Butcher

"Dark star safari: overland from Cairo to Cape Town" - Paul Theroux

"The weekenders: travels in the heart of Africa" - various authors

"Secrets of the savannah" - Mark and Delia Owens

"The elephant's secret sense: the hidden life of the wild herds of Africa" - Caitlin O'Connell

"The poisonwood bible" - Barbara Kingsolver

"The Africa house" - Christina Lamb

"I dreamed of Africa" - Kuki Gallman

"West With The Night" - Beryl Markham

"A Voyager out: The Life Of Mary Kingsley" - Katherine Frank

"The Tree Where Man Was Born", "African Silences", "Sand Rivers" - Peter Matthiesson

"King Leopolds Ghost" - Adam Hothschild

"Babylon's ark" - Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence

"Sahara" - Michael Palin

"We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families" - Philip Gourevitch

"Blood river: a journey to Africa's broken heart" - Tim Butcher

Plus many of the adventurous novels by Wilbur Smith and any books on the Courtneys and the Ballantynes.

Following the receipt of our tourism license earlier in the year Limpopo-Lipadi has had a number of guest parties stay at the reserve and we've received our first, very helpful, feed back. Our guests also kindly sent us a number of the lovely photographs they took during their stay and some are reproduced in this blog.

The first questionnaire filled in marked us Excellent on 8 of 11 areas and Good on the remaining 3. These areas cover everything from staff friendliness to check-out procedures. Specific feedback included the following responses:

• The unit was no 4 and the unit was really great and so was the housekeeper
• Actor was our guide and he was fantastic! He was not in a hurry and drove very well
• The nice part about the whole experience was that everything was looked after. The fences, the gates, and even the chains and hooks at the hide were all there. Fantastic housekeeping!

Perhaps the best compliment of all though was in response to our question "Would you recommend our reserve to friends and family?" which was answered "Yes, absolutely". We will continue to maintain these high standards and strive to improve further.

Many thanks to our guests for their kind and helpful feed back - we hope to see you at the reserve again soon. Also to the reserve team who work every day to deliver memorable stays to all who visit Limpopo-Lipadi - you are doing a great job!

This month sees the first publishing of the new Limpopo-Lipadi print advert in Africa Geographic. The full page design, shown above, is complemented by online advertising through their websites and blogs.

Accompanying the wild dogs feature article we publicised last week this advert is already delivering with several enquiries made in the past week, since the latest issue was published on the 20th January.

You can download a PDF of the advert from our site and feel free to circulate it or pass it on to any interested friends and acquaintances.

Limpopo-Lipadi's ground-breaking wild dog reintroduction project is, this month, the subject of a special feature article in Africa Geographic. You can download a copy of the article on our site and read more about the fascinating history of our wild dog pack.

Limpopo-Lipadi is thrilled to announce that the finalised version of the 2012 calendar is now available to download from the website. Featuring a dozen photographs, taken by management staff and shareholders on the reserve, each month is beautifully illustrated. Get your copy now and tell all your friends!

Thanks to all of those that have generously provided their images for use and to Panayota for doing the painstaking production work that has brought them together so well.

Shareholders and other visitors to Limpopo-Lipadi will know what a great place it is becoming for fantastic sightings of leopards. Some short-stay guests have averaged more than one a day and shareholders staying at the reserve for a month recently had a dozen sightings of thirteen animals! The regularity of encounters now makes it possible for us to begin an ambitious project to try and identify each individual leopard and learn more about it, such as where it holds territory. To help us achieve this are welcoming the active involvement of shareholders! Read on to find out more from Anton Kruger, who has suggested this project, about why we are doing this and how you can get involved.

July has brought more news of the wild dog pups, born to Two Spots at the end of April this year. For such an endangered species (estimated at only 3-4000 left in the wild) it is great news that a new pack has been created that are genetically diverse and well established enough to breed. Photos taken in the last week or so reveal a total of seven pups, who look very well nourished!  

Wow, time for more celebration!

Jacquie has confirmed that during the week of April 20th Two Spots had her first litter. The five males, especially the alpha male are very protective over the den site. Warning growls can be heard whenever you are in the vicinity. The pups will not come out of the den until approximately three weeks of age, and even then the adults will not allow them to be out of the den if there is a threat in the area.

Two Spots looks very proud as she lays close to the opening of the den. When she goes hunting with the pack one of the subdominant males will stay to guard the den during her absence. On return from the hunt, the other dogs will regurgitate food for this subdominant male and once the pups start to eat solids, all dogs will regurgitate for them as well as the adult guarding the den.

Our Alpha female, Two Spots, is now heavily pregnant and will be looking for a den within the next week to have her litter. We are all excited about this second wild dog litter soon to arrive at Limpopo-Lipadi!!

As previously announced on the blog on May 1 2010, our wild dog family was released into the reserve. The females came out quickly, but the males were not so trusting. Almost an hour later, Lekona and Mathebole took a running dash through the main gate of the enclosure and were gone - all five wild dogs disappeared into the bush. Freedom for our wild dog family at last! This was what it was all about, for the wild dogs to run free in the wild where they naturally should be. All of us had a great feeling of success and accomplishment. We were extremely proud to have been able to contribute, even to such a small degree, to wild dog conservation.

Our wild dog puppies were growing quickly and becoming closer to maturity. Our main priority now was finding genetically different wild dogs to exchange for some of ours in order to create an effective wild dog breeding program. Being related, our siblings could not be a viable breeding pack, and so we needed to exchange all of our females or males with unrelated wild dogs. We thought that we had a chance for this in September 2009, when male wild dogs, leaving their pack at maturity, of the same age as our dogs, were available from Mashatu, Botswana. Unfortunately before capture, this wild dog family went over into Zimbabwe and were not seen again. Our hearts sank because it is not every day that wild dogs become available for exchange. We are aware of only about 3000 registered African wild dogs in the whole of Africa, which underlines how endangered this species really is.

Limpopo-Lipadi’s wild dog breeding program was launched during mid-July 2008. Cheetah Conservation Botswana contacted Limpopo-Lipadi to see if we could accept into our care nine orphans, each one an adorable wild dog puppy. They were estimated to have been between 9 and 11 weeks old at the time. Apparently, the wild dog pups were dug out of their den on a cattle farm in the Ghanzi area of Botswana. They were temporarily placed in the care of Cheetah Conservation Botswana on 15 July who were tasked with trying to find a suitable home for each wild dog puppy, preferably someone who would engage in a wild dog breeding program. If a suitable home could not be found, the wild dog pups were likely to be put down. We literally had only hours to decide if we would be willing to take them. Needless to say...