Welcome to Jao Camp!

Welcome to Jao Camp!

We had a 15 minute flight from Mombo Camp to Jao Camp.  Our new fabulous guide, Alberto, met us at the Jao airstrip.  We liked him instantly!  One would probably think...”Oh, more of the same thing....” WRONG!  Jao is a water/land camp.  The luxurious tents are Balinese in style with many pieces of furniture and accessories from the island of Bali.  The tents of located high up in the trees.  Everything is accessed by a high boardwalk.  Our view is of a marshy area....much like southern Louisiana...with slightly different animals and birds. I love seeing the abundance of red lechwe, elephants and hippos that frequent our front yard.  One of the managers (Neuman Vasco) that greeted us was an old friend that we made at Jao previously.  It was fun to see old faces and new ones.  After settling in and having a beautiful lunch, we departed on a boat ride through the tall papyrus on very narrow  waterways.  The waterways are almost like narrow paths.  Sometimes the water is very shallow and sometimes pretty deep.  One never knows what is going to lie around each of the many corners. We were surprised by exotic birds, crocs, hippos, elephants, and red lechwe.  We arrived back in camp a little early so that we could watch the nightly “Bat Show”.  In one of the large columns that leads into the boma, many bats depart their bat cave and spend the night flying around and eating insects.  The spectacle is a little like river crossings in the Mara and the Serengeti by the wildebeest. The gnu (wildebeest) all stare at the river...sometimes for days...until ONE decides to brave the crocodile infested waters...they all follow!  All it takes is a single bat to fly out for the evening meal and they all follow...and not in an orderly way!  Besides hearing the little mammals crawling up the column, one can feel how warm it is from all the bats roosting inside.  Later that night, we all enjoyed a delicious meal in the boma and wonderful entertainment by the Jao staff.