Africa 2024 3.0 Botswana

Africa 2024 3.0 Botswana

When:  20 to 25 April 2024

Where:  Okavango Delta in Northern Botswana

Weather:  Sunny and hot during the day with highs of up to 37C.  Quite cool at night with the temperature dropping to 13C.  Even in the early evening as the sun is going down, as Shane said:  the temperature drops like a stone.

What:  Safaris!  Jeep safari, helicopter safari, walking safari, water (mokoro) safari. All fabulous.

Who:  The fab four.  Also our guide Sinka and our hostess Mz Tee

Workout: Not a chance.  I think I'll remove this category.

Walking: Walking safari with our armed guide.  I had some ethical concerns about going on a walking safari.  I thought the idea of the guide being armed and having to potentially kill an animal for my selfish viewing pleasure was unethical. However, Sinka assured us that in the past 6 years, there have been no incidents.  He's also very aware of the behaviour of the animals and will do everything to avoid a bad situation.  The walk was very interesting and completely uneventful.

Wine:  Mostly Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa and Cabernet Sauvignon as well from South Africa.  Also Shane's bubbles.

Whine:  Bumpy roads!  They could use a few graders on these roads.

Wtf: 

Fitbit stated that we were getting record high steps. And we were sitting on our butts all day in a jeep!

Stephanie got mooned by a baboon on our deck. Sorry, no picture available.  This baboon regularly tries to raid food from the dining room.  

This was Shane using the outdoor toilet at our ‘bush dinner:

Wild: There was an angry, horny elephant blocking our path while on the Mokoro safari.  We had to alter our route.  

Water: The River Khwai.  There were many hippos and elephants in this river, and right in front of our camp!

Bridge over the River Khwai;

Wonderful: Sinka our amazing guide.  He was our personal guide for the full five days.  He was an absolute wealth of knowledge and could identify every single mammal, reptile, and bird that we saw.  

We went to a local village that the camp supports.  While Steph and Shane were inside purchasing, I had an impromptu ball game with three of the local kids.  They were just the sweetest kids and we had five minutes of throwing a little rubber ball.

Wildlife: This is a very small selection of the photos I took.  I have many more and I plan to organize them into slide shows.  This will take a while for me to finish. If you want to see them all it will take hours!

We saw many many elephants.  Literally around every corner we could expect to see one or a herd.  Botswana has one of the healthiest populations of elephants of any country in Africa.

Video:  https://youtube.com/shorts/Z5ARwhg6Fsc?si=hIFbHGxeN_rWZ5Ow

Many zebras as well.  They were often very skittish when we drive by.

We were literally right next to the lions.  As long as we stay seated in the jeep, they paid no attention.  Apparently if we had got out of the jeep, or even stood up, we would be seen as a threat.  We listened very carefully to our guide!

Video:  https://youtu.be/VNUmB-waYjA?si=BnmAlQG9zDKrq80Q

She is eating a water buck:

This lion was an ‘intruder’.  He was in a coalition of three males that were trying to invade the territory.  We heard later that one of them tried to kill a cub. However I don't know if he was successful.  This is a brutal part of the jungle.  

He got away the first time but we don't know his ultimate fate.  But wow he's cute!

We saw a few hyenas.  This is an alpha female that was very pregnant:

This is a young leopard.  She was just beautiful.

Video:  14 seconds in.  I don't know how to edit videos on my phone ;( 

https://youtu.be/B8efNqbO39M?si=L8d8FHqD0MdNZscj

Hippos were plentiful as well.  One of the most dangerous animals in the world.

African Wild Dogs are very rare.  We were fortunate to be able to see two different packs.  They are skilled hunters and favour impala.  Sadly, we didn't see a hunt, but we did see them tracking in the evening.  

To end this off, here are a few birds: