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.

The trail-cameras have once again brought us a stunning set of candid images from distant parts of the reserve. Towards the end of December one was sited at Mac's Pan and has captured a sequence of shots of elephants visiting the trough to drink, wash and socialise - and at some point give the camera a nudge so that the rest of the shots are at a jaunty angle!

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.

Avid Google Earth viewers will have noticed that large parts of the reserve are now covered by higher resolution satellite imagery than ever before. This has been useful for mapping the reserve but along the way has thrown up some interesting spots.

A kmz file of some of these can now be downloaded from the website, that amongst other things shows elephants leaving a waterhole and one of the cruisers at Mogorosi - could it have been you in that vehicle? Isn't it incredible to think that individual animals can be identified from pictures taken far above the earth!

What else can you spot hiding in the bush?

Limpopo-Lipadi is proud to announce the winner of its inaugural annual photography competition. A substantial number of entries were received from shareholders that showcased some of the best our beautiful reserve has to offer.

The leopard identification project has got off to a great start and we now have identification tips for three of our resident leopards - like those shown in the images in this blog. Shareholders can view the whole guide online and download a copy if desired.

Maya has been so named as this seems to be an easily remembered shortening of "tsamaya tlasa" which is Setawana for "walk under" in reference to her habit of passing extremely close to the viewing hide at Mogorosi including passing right beneath while shareholders are sat inside!

As previously announced in the blog early December saw attempts to locate and dart some of our adult wild dogs to allow us to fit two additional animals with radio collars and replace the old collar on Two Spots, our dominant female. Shareholders and guests were invited to participate in this exciting event on the reserve.

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.

This may not be the greatest video of hippos ever shot - certainly the compact camera used limits the quality - but there aren't many places in the world where you can look up from reading a book on your sofa in a private unit and find a hippo eyeing you from the river only 20 metres away!

Folklore has it that the honey badger (or ratel) is the fiercest creature in the bush and almost mythical stories abound about them disembowelling buffalo and routing lion prides. However a recent event on Limpopo-Lipadi witnessed by some of our shareholders may suggest a re-evaluation is necessary.

Shareholders will be excited to hear that the waterhole regeneration programme continues apace and this month has seen work at Mbusi. The new pool is located a little to the southwest of the old trough but remains within view of the hide (as well as being sited perfectly for potential future hide developments). Feedback from shareholders has been used to create a reasonable size pool with an irregular outline to better mimic a natural waterhole. The low profile and coloured concrete mixture means it blends in very well with the surrounding soil and I'm sure all will agree this represents a major improvement on what went before.

Limpopo-Lipadi is proud to announce that the reserve website has had a complete makeover and is now available online. Guests can register with the new site to obtain access to more content including our trail camera photo galleries featuring candid images from around the reserve. Why not stop by and see us some time? A news blog has also been introduced to showcase all the new stories emerging from the reserve.

Finally got around to writing up some of the stories from our recent trip. It's posted on the SafariTalk forum (well worth joining) for anyone who wants a read.