Bushtops Camps: A-roving we will go (again)! News & Updates from Roving Bushtops

A-ROVING WE WILL GO, AGAIN!

It's been a fantastic year for Roving Bushtops, after our early January move to Kusini in the southern Serengeti, then our return to the central Serengeti and our Seronera base, in June. Now we are preparing our own migration again, with our entire camp of 8 mobile tents, having added 2 Rovers this year, returning to Kusini to ensure we are always in the most advantageous place from which to view the best of the migratory cycle.

Our assessment is that a November trek is the optimum time to shift camp this year, so we will be leaving Seronera on the 23rd, before reopening in the south on 14 December. This means spending Christmas and New Year at Kusini among the wildebeest!

Roving Bushtops Schedule:

Seronera Region, Central Serengeti

1st June - 23rd November 2019 & 2020

Kusini Region, Southern Serengeti

14th December 2019 - 15th April 2020 & 2021

DOWNLOAD UPDATED FACT SHEET HERE

DOWNLOAD UPDATED 2020 RACK RATES HERE

DOWNLOAD NEW 8 TENT SITE PLAN HERE

Of course you may prefer to spend time on the African plains in the early months of 2020, or even later, so here are some Kusini highlights and recollections from the past year to whet your appetite.

MIGRATION HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE KUSINI REGION

In November 2018, most of the herds had returned to the Serengeti, after crossing into (then back from) the Masai Mara. Most massed around our base in the Seronera Valley, or around adjacent grasslands in the Lobo or Mbuze Mawe areas. At this time of year the herds tend to split into family pods, grazing across the open plains of the Central Serengeti.

In December, the herds made their way south in search for better grass and water resources. By January 2019, the entire army of wildebeest and zebra was on the move - and when the rains came, they triggered an acceleration towards the newly verdant southern plains. Our camp had moved to Kusini, with the Simiyu River adjacent, where a reliable source of water attracted huge herds.

By February, the calving season had begun in earnest in Ndutu and Kusini, with literally thousands of newborn wildebeest, zebra and other migratory animals staggering unsteadily into the world every day.

Understandably, calving leads to stasis, with maternal herds gathering around the Simiyu woodlands (where our Roving Bushtops camp is located). That's wonderful for our guests, watching expectant herbivores turn into protective mothers, but each of the newborns is also lunch or dinner for a host of carnivores.

With lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas and leopards preying on vulnerable calves, nature really does become red in tooth and claw at this time of year. It is also utterly magical, since the big cats time their own new generations around this feast of plenty. As if this were not spectacular enough, we even had a pride of lions near Roving which decided to climb trees (a rare event), in order to scan the woodlands for prey.

In March, the wildebeest herds began to spread out between Ndutu and Kusini, but they moved slowly, remaining within easy reach of our game drives. Then, with their offspring older and stronger, they began to head north west, past the Simba Kopjes: as the name implies ('simba' means lion) this is a danger point, with lots of pride attacks.

We were also able to follow the herds into Moru, a black rhino sanctuary, adding pachyderm sightings to predators. As they moved away and out of range of our game drives, we were able to reflect on a wonderfully intimate, ringside view of birth, death and life at its most dramatic.

With these memories seared into our hearts and minds, we are looking forward to a similarly wondrous sojourn when Roving Bushtops returns to Kusini.