It’s always a nice change to travel to areas outside of your usual stamping ground and so it was with real pleasure that I packed my bags and binoculars and flew south to accompany some guests on a safari to Botswana.
Botswana is a landlocked country just north of South Africa and seventy percent of the landmass lies over the Kalahari Desert. Its three main sources of income are diamonds, beef and tourism which have made Botswana the richest per capita country in Africa for its tiny population of only two million people.
Lilac Breasted Roller.
Our first destination was Zarafa Camp up in the Linyanti region of Northern Botswana on a private concession comprising 300 000 acres of pristine wilderness. The area contains part of the Selinda Channel which connects the Okovango Delta to the Linyanti wetlands and comprises savanna, mopani woodlands, open bush and the wonderful lagoons and floodplains of water, all of which play host to a large population of wild animals.
Our drive from the airstrip gave us cheetah and leopard even before we had time to unpack! The following morning we spent an hour with a mother leopard and her cub while they were playing together.
Male cheetah scanning the plains from a termite mound.
Mother leopard with her cub taking a rest from their play
One of the great features of Zarafa Camp is that they provide a Canon camera with a telephoto zoom lens to each tent during your stay and then burn a CD of your pictures before you leave.
The Okovango Delta from the air as we flew from Zarafa to Mombo.
Our second destination was the legendary Mombo Camp in the heart of the Okovango Delta system. This camp boasts regular sightings of the ‘Big Five’: Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Leopard.
Elephant and her calf at Mombo
Lion pride at Mombo
We did indeed have some great game viewing but perhaps the highlight for me was the female African Wild Dog which had lost the rest of her pack through lion attacks and who had adopted a family of jackals! When she goes hunting they tag along and share in her kills, in fact she will even regurgitate her food for them as if they were her pups!I suppose her social instincts are so strong that in lieu of other wild dogs she prefers the company of jackal than a solitary existence. This is a truly amazing and unique association which, for me, just reinforces my passion for the wonders and mysteries that nature can hold.
The Mombo Wild Dog which adopted a family of Jackals.
Mombo is the only camp in the Okovango Delta system where you can see rhino.They had been poached to extinction during the eighties and so, in a special project in partnership with the Botswana game department Mombo Camp imported both white and black rhino from South Africa and have re-established these two species in the remote area of the Moremi Game Reserve near Mombo.There are now around 30 white rhino which are successfully breeding and we were lucky to find a mother with her calf.
White rhino with her calf in the Moremi Game Reserve
Flying between Mombo and Tubu Tree.
Our final camp in Botswana was also in the Okovango Delta and is called Tubu Tree camp.This is built on an island in the Delta and offers water based activities as well as the game drives.We went exploring with our guides in traditional mokoro dug-out canoes one evening to experience life at a slower and more peaceful pace.
The slower pace of exploring in a mokoro
Finding beauty in some of the smaller animals such as the painted reed frogs with their amazing body art or the splendid water lily flowers like white sunbursts on the surface of the water.
Painted Reed Frog.
Nothing so much fun than being on a boat.
Water lillies
Lecwe bounding through the shallow water of the lagoon.
Along with the smaller stuff we also enjoyed watching the Lechwe antelope as they ran through the shallow water away from us.
Tubu Tree camp in the evening light from a mokoro.
The camp looks out over a large lagoon and we came back in our mokoros with the wonderful evening light for a sundowner to remember.
This time of year in Southern Africa is winter and although the days were bright and sunny, the nights were cold.In the early mornings there was sometimes a ground mist which made some spectacular effects in our photographs.
‘It’s so good to be home again’ whispered Mary as we drove back into our luxury mobile camp. There is nothing like the feeling of having your own private camp, with your own private staff and your own private view across the Mara plains. I could feel everyone was excited about the Mara. Joe, Amanda, Seb and I had all raved about it and now we were there and had to produce the goods! I would love to take the credit for it but actually the Mara itself produced it for us. We had an incredible time with wildlife viewing that can only be described as out of this world.
It was the wildebeest that surprised us most. Not by their social behaviour (because that will never change – they are very intelligent!) but by their movements; unbelievably the migration had arrived. I would not normally expect it until mid to end July but this year it seems to have moved North early. And I am not talking about a couple of thousand, we were in the midst of 300 thousand. I think it really became clear when we did the hot air balloon. The high vantage point allows for a spectacular view across the savannah that was literally teeming with animals. Landing in the middle of several thousand was awesome whilst the champagne breakfast set under a lone tree overlooking some wildebeest crossing the Mara River was a special treat.
So in between the wildebeest we were after some felines and we certainly found them. We saw lions in big prides as well as small, mating as well as sleeping and huge black maned males as well as tiny cubs. For me the most memorable moment was finding a pride of 7 lion atop some rocks 50 feet above ground level. You could almost see them looking over towards the nearing wildebeest licking their lips and saying ‘Christmas has come early!’. Their focus was changed pretty swiftly though as I sunk my trusty landcruiser into a big muddy hole right below them. Begrudgingly, and I say this because you never want to ask another guide for help as you know you will never live it down, I had to call Joe to the rescue! The cubs looked on in curiosity as we (these strange bipedal mammals) waringly scampered around the cars attaching tow ropes and offering advice on how to get out. A quick tug and we were away, my pride only slightly knocked. The lion lifted their heads again and checked on the wildebeest as though we were of no actual interest at all anyway.
As for the spotted cats it was great to see the 3 cheetah brothers. Although they were lazing around under a gardenia tree they rolled about and groomed themselves allowing for some lovely photo opportunities. There was a very quick glimpse of a leopard but the grass was so long it disappeared with the usual stealth. On a sadder note we did see a dead serval cat. On closer inspection it had definitely been killed by another cat with the obvious bite marks to the neck. For what reason we don’t know.
The Mara is never complete without sundowners. With Gin & Tonics in hand we toasted to Kenya, its wildlife and new friends that have been made. I look forward to seeing the Pressman family again soon.
It never happens how you want it to except for Dik Diks galore!
As we landed at Loisaba, the first question I was asked was what animal we were likely to see the most of in the area. Amanda and Seb, who had joined us from Nairobi, smiled wryly as for those of you who know Loisaba, that is not a particularly difficult question to answer, it can only be the Dik Dik. It is tiny, shy, cute and absolutely everywhere. Jake and I decided to call it the ‘scooby snack’ as it can only be classed as peanut size for a predator’s appetite. By the time we had reached the lodge the count was already at 20 and we had only driven for 10 minutes – imagine how many we saw over the next 3 days!
We had worked hard at Amboseli so I was going to try and let everyone relax a little more in the confines of this luxurious accommodation, the Pressman’s were on holiday after all. Well, it never happened. It hardly ever happens how you want it to! Between quad bikes, horses, camels, white water rafting, walking, swimming, bocce and tennis everyone was kept busy having fun. We were non stop from start to finish and there was certainly no time in there for a siesta!
We did do some lovely game drives and saw plenty of elephant, Grevy’s zebra, Grant’s gazelle, Red hartebeest, Beisa oryx and Reticulated giraffe. A visit to Mugie ranch is always a great option also as you might be fortunate enough to see Black rhino so we gave it a go. We met up with Bernard, the local wildlife conservationist, and in between game viewing he gave us a run down on everything about the area. Before going to Mugie I had told everyone that Black rhinos were solitary and White rhinos were gregarious so you can imagine the haranguing I got when we ended up seeing 3 Black rhino together then 2 another Black rhino together and only 1 White rhino, well there were some laughs. As a guide it never happens how you want it to!
After a night at the Star Beds it is off to the Maasai Mara for some serious big cat watching.
