Top-class accommodations abound in Africa with many of the world’s top hotels and resorts located in South Africa and Botswana, the latter of which is home to arguably one of the best locations in the world for wild-animal viewing – Mombo Camp.
Rated sixth overall in Conde Nast Traveler’s 2004 Reader’s Choice awards and 12th in Travel and Leisure’s 2004 World’s Best, Mombo consists of nine luxury tents set amid the open flood plains of the Okavango Delta. "At Mombo, the aim is to offer guests an African wilderness experience that evokes the magic and mystique of the great African tented safaris of the early part of the last century, while providing modern-day comforts and ensuring the guests’ safety," according to Mombo: Okavango’s Place of Plenty, a new book that allows those who have not personally experienced a true-to-life safari a vicarious opportunity to live the adventure and those who have been there a chance to relive the memory.
Few people know the region and the camp better than one of the book’s authors – Wilderness Safaris’ Mike Myers. No relation to the actor of Austin Powers fame, Mike is an avid photographer and a keen fly fisherman. I had the chance to sit down with him to talk about his book and some of his wildlife experiences.
PHILIPPINE STAR: Tell me about your book. Why did you choose Mombo Camp from all the ones that Wilderness Safaris operates?
MIKE MYERS: The Mombo book has taken three years for us to put together. I say "us" because there are three authors and 26 photographers. The coordinating author is Penny Hoets, Grant Woodrow wrote the Rhino chapter and the scientific stuff and I wrote some of the stories and the Seasons chapter and did the image selection for the pictures. In an operation that now has over 40 camps in five different countries, this is the camp that built the company. More than the camp, it is the area which is important – it is unique and the variety and volume of wildlife is quite astounding. As a young guide I first started going there in the early Eighties when I led mokoro (dugout canoe) safaris to the area before there was any camp there. We have a huge emotional attachment to the area and it has touched many lives, not only of those of us who have been privileged to work there but of the many guests who have stayed there. There are 328 pages and tons of photographs – I have never counted.
What is your most memorable "animal moment"?
A tough question because there are so many of them. Quite a few of those stories are in the book. Perhaps the greatest single moment came during the rescue of a young elephant calf in the Chobe reserve. Filmmaking friends of mine – Dereck and Beverly Joubert – were on the river watching a small breeding herd of elephants in a mud wallow close to the road. A vehicle drove past and spooked the herd and a calf was pushed into the mud and trapped. The policy is always one of non-interference. But because the problem was initiated by man in this case, they decided to try and get it out. The problem was that the distraught mother kept charging back into the wallow to protect her calf and so we were called to come in and help.
The suction of the mud held the calf tight and it took a while to get a winch cable around the calf in between charges from the mother. Our friend Dave tried to hold the mother off with a Land Rover but she kept on getting around and it was tough getting out of the wallow every time she managed to get in. We had to protect the calf’s chest with planks and canvas around which we had the cable, pull gently and release continually. What was amazing was that there came a time when the mother realized we were not trying to hurt the calf but only trying to help and she left us alone. She was with the herd about 40 yards away and after a lot of work – it was now pitch dark – we managed to free the young calf and walk it a short way from the mud. When we finally managed to stop it from following us it stood alone not more than a few yards from us when the mother materialized from the dark and gently touched and smelled the calf all over. She showed no aggression towards us even though we were right there and our last sight was of her gently leading her calf back to the herd. This moment touched our lives in a special way for it was clear she had realized we were only trying to help and her body language when she was reunited with her calf was one of gratitude – certainly one of my most humbling and profoundly moving experiences.
To end up in the business you are in you must really like animals. Where did your love affair start?
My interest in wild areas and the wildlife started when I was growing up in Zimbabwe, aged 11. I went camping at Mana Pools and sitting watch on my own – terrified, I might add – I watched a herd of elephants slowly walk part of the camp to the river in the moonlight. After I moved to South Africa I became a pilot and then started guiding by chance. The normal route for a young pilot is to instruct to gain experience but I chose not to and by chance answered a job advertisement for a trails guide which turned out to be Londolozi. This is a very well-known private reserve today but was just starting then. Botswana was the best place to guide and fly and I moved there in ’79, guiding dugout safaris in the Okavango.
Exactly what does Wilderness Safaris do?
Wilderness Safaris is among the largest operators of safari camps in Africa. Our model involves local communities in the ownership of individual camps and we were honored to be awarded the World Legacy award in the first year by Conservation International and National Geographic Traveller.
If you didn’t live in Africa, where would you live?
I have never thought about living anywhere other than Africa and will not leave. That said, I am always interested in travel to other pristine wild areas in the world.
If I wanted to go on safari, what’s the minimum time I need to allocate?
I think two weeks with 10 days on safari is a good start.