Mombo Breaks Curfew

For thirty-five years, Mombo has had exactly one trick. It is, admittedly, one of the greatest tricks in the business — a floodplain on Chief’s Island so rammed with leopard, lion and wild dog that it named itself the Place of Plenty and the predator capital of Africa, and nobody has bothered to contest it. Unlike me, when I started calling myself Biggus Dickus and was sued on two counts, only one of which was copyright.

But back to Mombo.  All their game drives were performed strictly in daylight, as though the Darkseekers from I Am Legend were coming for anyone still out at dusk. This was all because Moremi Game Reserve said so, and Moremi Game Reserve was not taking questions. Yep, one of the most expensive safari lodges on earth, and you had a curfew usually applied to fourteen-year-olds.  That ended in August. Wilderness announced that Mombo and Little Mombo now offer night drives, boating and mokoro excursions, all three available immediately.

Moremi rules had long prohibited driving after dark on Chief’s Island. Now they don’t, cos they figured the world just needed a bit of cheering up.  Look, I really like night drives, but you need some idea of where something is, otherwise you’re shining torches into darkness in pure hope. It’s the lottery. It’s getting Scarlett Johansson’s number by dialling every number possible. But with patience, or a decent tip-off on where the lions are, it can be one helluva evening. I’ve seen lions jumping on the back of hippos, lions trying to hunt ostrich, leopards running past the car, more lions trying to hunt giraffe, and on it goes. Basically, it will change your opinion of lions being lazy shits.

The night drives are a rule change and rules tend to stay changed. The water is weather. Wilderness says as much: seasonal, entirely dependent on levels, no promises. If 2028 comes in dry, the mokoro goes back in the shed. Book the water as a bonus.  Also: minimum age sixteen for all the water activities. Families with younger children get the camp exactly as it has always been, which is to say, still amongst the best game viewing on the continent, so let’s not stage a vigil.

I’ll have go and find out, at considerable personal expense, sometime.  And they recently opened their new spa too, as if I needed yet another reason.  So finally, one of Africa’s most famous safari camp no longer got any excuses.