The Edge of Eden. Little Mombo SafaRi Camp in Botswana

From: The Secret Realm by Leigh Kemp

Hidden in a far corner of the island that hosts the legendary Mombo Camp, Little Mombo plays host to a view that goes beyond the aching beauty of the Okavango Delta. I was privileged to call the fantasial reality of Little Mombo my home for over a year.
From the walkways and deck of the camp I experienced a phenomenon, an Africa that I will never know again.

As the main structures of the camp are raised high enough above the ground for animals to pass under, it was easy to think that the moments happened without our interference, that we were mere spectators in the purist wilderness area left in Africa.

'We watched the wilderness happen and got to know individual animals. We felt the emotions of the time as the seasons passed into each other, and we heard the echoes of the ancient song, louder than I’ve ever heard them before'.

The floodplain in front of the camp is a theater of the purist form, a place where the seasons of the Okavango are clearly demonstrated and where each moment is there to be appreciated. There is the famed predator interaction that many who visit here want to experience, but this is only a small part of it.

The floodplain – Little Mombo

A trickle through the dry
creeping
tentative celebrated by sound
rising with the days

then on a day
it was always there

a trickle
barely noticeable
in the lush green
slowing
seeping away
celebrated by an orgy

then the greens
begin to brown

Copyright @ Leigh Kemp 2004