The Final Chapter - Botswana Safari

I’ve been home for 12 days and too much time is slipping by, so I’d better get the final chapter in my blog written!  It’s so strange, yet so familiar, being home.  A really weird feeling, especially since I parachuted right into the Christmas hoopla! 

Kat and I finished up our assignments at Care on December 6, madly bought last minute gifts and got all packed and ready to roll.  I left most of my luggage at my colleague Anisha’s house and would come back to collect it post safari.  Kat was heading to Tanzania and I to Botswana, so we said our farewells!  Sniff!

On Saturday the 7^th, I began a 6 leg journey of pure logistics that would have put the Swiss to shame.  I flew out of Lusaka on Proflight, arrived in Livingstone and was met at the airport by a sign carrying guy (I love that) who put me in a minivan and we were off to the Botswana border.  After some minor passport stamping, we bypassed the 4 mile long queue of transport trucks waiting for the one-truck-capacity ferry and proceeded to a waiting speedboat, which zipped me across the river.  Note that the crossing is at Kazungula, where 4 countries meet.  Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia all intersect in the middle of the river!  On the other side of the river, a safari vehicle was waiting for me.  I got an entry stamp (no visa for Botswana) and he took me to the Kasane airport where I rendezvous-d (sp?) with the safari lodges vehicle, also waiting for just me.  First question: do you want to join the afternoon game drive that started 5 minutes ago?  Of course I said yes and we were off.  After a 20 minute drive, we met up with the safari vehicle and I was loaded in while my bags were shuttled to the lodge.  So, I left Lusaka at noon, had 6 transfers and was on a game drive before 4pm.  Thus began game drive #1 of 20 in total over my eleven days. 

My 11 day safari was taking place during the rainy season and although the rains started late, they had arrived in full force a couple of weeks earlier so the area was “greening” up quickly.  What this means is that the bush becomes thick and it’s harder to see animals and that the watering holes that are great viewing spots in the dry season are no longer populated because there are water sources everywhere.  So you rely a lot more on luck, have longer spells of seeing only birds and impala and need to essentially compensate by taking a longer trip.  That’s why I did 11 days instead of the usual 7-ish.  The advantage of rainy season safari is there are hardly any other travellers and there are way more birds.  In terms of privacy, I could hardly have asked for anything more as on 8 of my 20 game drives, I was the only guest in the vehicle!  The travel company I used, called Expert Africa, was recommended to me by my friend and Africa veteran Howie Clysdale and he didn’t steer me wrong.  Not only did they organize a great itinerary, but all the middle-of-nowhere logistics worked like clockwork without a glitch – truly amazing.  Rather than give you a blow by blow of each camp, I’ll tell you the basics of each and then include some highlight photos.

I started at Muchenje Safari Lodge, which is in Chobe National Park.  Chobe is known for its high density of elephants is this is really a riverfront safari.  Oh ya – the lodge earned its 5^th start but turned it down because they didn’t like the type of clients that brought!  It had a cell signal, air con in the rooms and wifi in the lodge.  The vehicles could drive right into the lodge so you wouldn’t risk getting wet!  

kudu

kudu, giraffe and bear?

drive in lodge

the bar in the bush

12 foot croc!

 

ground hornbills

As you can see, I badgered my vehicle mates into carrying on the Peters/Pipin traditional of silly poses over sundowners. After 2 nights there, my next stop, after a 3 hop trip on a 12 seater Air Van, where I co-piloted one leg…

12 seater AirVan

…was Tau Pan Camp camp for 3 nights, located in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.  So I went from bush to desert.  Tau Pan is one of only 2 permanent camps in the Kalahari but you can self-drive and camp out if you don’t mind the lions.  In fact, one couple I met there, Frances and Daniel, were doing just that but had stopped in for a break from camping at Tau Pan.  Interestingly, they were from the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland, one of my favourite places on the planet and we hit it off immediately.  They were on a 10 week self-drive trip across Namibia and Botswana camping in a rooftop tent aboard their rented Toyota Hilux!  Talk about adventurous!

Tau Pan highlights: 

my room

wildebeest

general frivolity

LBJ

jackal

Scupa, our Bushman tracker, with some gum

a very full lion

black mamba

bat eared fox

stuck in the mud

chameleon

yellow billed hornbill aka Zazu

Oryx, alive

Lions eating an oryx, less alive

mmmmm ribs.

after dinner fooling around

waiting for leftovers

who knew there were ostriches in Botswana?

My few days at Tau Pan had featured more rain than they had received all year, so the game viewing was a little sparse.  On my last morning, the manager Russ was not satisfied that I hadn’t seen a cheetah yet.  As I sipped coffee at 5:40am, he says a bit snarkily “I’m ready to go anytime eh Bruce?” I hopped up and as we left he said “you can have coffee later – let’s go find some game!”.  By 6:05 we had spotted a cheetah – nice job Russ! Snarky and cheetah beats friendly and no cheetah any day!

After lunch, I was game-driven right to the airstrip, where I was picked up by bush plane again and flown directly to my next camp in the Okavango Delta, Little Tubu.

So I was on a game drive in the Kalahari at 2:30pm and another in the Okavango delta at 4pm.  Like I said, impressive logistics!  As usual, solo travel allows you to meet more people and my vehicle mates (and the only other occupants of Little Tubu) were Caroline and Andrew, who were packing the largest photo equipment I had ever seen!  Their fixed 500mm lens must have been 3 feet long and it featured a foam camouflage wrap!  It turns out Caroline is a photographer and the head of marketing for Wilderness Safaris, which runs Tubu, while Andrew races Porches in Europe in his spare time!  Unreal.  After racing across the vast desert at Tau Pan, Little Tubu was a real change of pace as the drives were as very slow, bumpy and meandering through the sandy jungle.  When I arrived at camp and picked up a faint cell signal, I sent an email saying “this is the most beautiful place I have ever stayed in my life”.  The web site photos just can’t capture it.  The highlight was an amazing leopard sighting that even veteran safari-er  Caroline called a 9 out of 10.  Oh and after they left on day 2, I was only guest at the camp for the next 24 hours, with a staff of 10 looking after me.

only good sports allowed!

the outdoor bar

my "tent"  20x30 feet

African fish eagle

Cape Buffalo.  One of the Big 5?

Caroline said "catch them in stride"

My guide Bee, scouting for crocs and hippos on mokoro safari

Dunlop happens everywhere

   

As sad as I was to leave Tubu, things just kept getting better, so I was looking forward to my last stop, Savuti Camp.  Savuti is located in the Linyati private game reserve.  That means, like Tubu, that the vehicles can go off road and follow the animals into the bush, which makes for way better game viewing.  Savuti topped them all, with a gorgeous camp, amazing food and the best game viewing of all 5 of my safaris, featuring the best leopards yet and a pack of wild dogs, the most endangered predator in Africa.

And as far as interesting people went, once some other folks arrived (I had the camp to myself for half a day), they turned out to be a family headed by an IVF doctor from Chicago, who was originally from Israel and he knew my IVF doctor!  Small world indeed.  Savuti highlights:

could I get the sun just...there...thanks.

kingfisher

baby baboon

giant eagle owl

wild dogs

that's my impala hoof!

let's roll

:)

My personal guide, Onkabetse, Onx for short

Kriss Kross make you jump

single file please!

the main lodge at Savuti

6 seater Cessna home, with me in the co-pilot seat

When I finally said goodbye to my safari, I did the reverse trip (plane-truck-boat-truck) from the start but then stayed at the Zambezi Sun in Livingstone, right by Victoria Falls for a few days before returning to Lusaka to collect my stuff and head back to the Great White Freezer.  But I’ll save that chapter for some other time!  

Hope you all enjoyed my blogging! It’s funny, I never intended to do a blog and only figured out how in the Toronto airport on the way over.  But it ended up being a fun way of recording the highlights of this amazing experience and I’m sure I’ll enjoy reading it myself in the months and years to come!

Cheers, or as they say in Botswana, Pula!

Bruce