The drive from the Mababe camp in Chobe National Park to the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okovango Delta was long and, as all drives in this region, bumpy and sandy. I didn’t mind so much, though, because even though we weren’t in a national park or any kind of game reserve for most of it, it still felt like we were. There were still animals to see the whole way there.

I also got introduced to a new antelope species I’d never heard of before, let alone seen, the lechwe.

On the way we stopped for lunch at a pretty spot along the Khwai River. There were several elephants and a bunch of impalas hanging out nearby. One elephant got pretty darn close. Close enough for a hefalump selfie.

Moremi Game Reserve

By late afternoon we arrived at the north gate of the Moremi Game Reserve at the eastern end of the Okavango Delta, checked in, and started tracking. The Okavango Delta has plenty of water in it year round. Basically, when the rains come to the mountains way up in Angola, the water flows down into and through Namibia, until it finally settles in this low depression in Botswana creating a beautiful inland delta, with no outlet. It’s a pretty amazing place with wildlife galore.

Our first encounter was these two male lions munching on a lechwe. Turns out, they stole it from the lone lioness that killed it. She fought like hell to keep it, apparently, but against two big males, what could she do? She and her two cubs ended up just watching their dinner get eaten by the thieves from a safe distance.

According to my guide, Jack, this lioness was banished from her pride for some reason. Now she’s making it on her own, raising her two cubs and dealing with overbearing males.

We finished with the lions, for now, and were driving around when suddenly Jack heard on the radio they had spotted a pangolin. Pangolins are basically a heavily armored anteater. Not even lions can bite through that armor. They’re also the most heavily trafficked animal in the world. The keratin in their armor is unfortunately used in Chinese medicine, similar to rhino horns. Jack was super excited because many years can go by between sightings, by anyone. It’s a ridiculously rare thing. My picture sucks because he was hiding in the grass, but there he is.

The next morning we caught up with the lioness, the cubs, and the two thieves. They all seemed to be getting along fine despite mom and the cubs being hungry.

Eventually, mom started moving off and walked right by our vehicle. And the cubs followed right after her. They’re never far behind.

We decided to leave the lions for now since they weren’t doing very much and went off to explore some more. Along the way I was introduced to yet another new antelope species, the tsessebe. We also saw a lot more lechwes and the ever present impalas.

Our camp is right near the Dombo Hippo Pool. We can’t see it from camp, but we hear the hippos all day and all night. Today we actually went to visit. There’s a cool observation deck there, but the million year old wooden stairs to get up to it were a little scary.

And on the way back to camp we came across a small herd of zebras having a drink.

The next morning we had somewhere to be, but that didn’t stop us from trying to track our lion friends along the way.

We did find mom and the cubs. Mom was obviously hunting and the two thieves were nowhere to be found. This could be good, but like I said, we had somewhere to be, so we left them alone for now.

Our place to be was at the mokoro station for a ride on the delta in a mokoro, which is a traditional canoe that’s usually used by local fishermen. It was so fun gliding along the water and through the reeds.

The mokoro is operated by a poler, which is just a guy at the back with a pole. He took us to the smaller local hippo pool. As soon as we arrived all the hippos immediately turned to face us and just stared, ready for action. We kept a distance, but being eye level with the most dangerous animal in Africa was something else!

Mostly though, it was just a really smooth and peaceful way to get around and enjoy the lily pads, the flowers and the views.

After the mokoro ride, Jack said he heard over the radio that the lioness had killed a baby zebra, so we zoomed off to see if we could find her. Sure enough, we found her and the cubs underneath a bush with a freshly killed baby zebra and no thieves in site. You feel bad for the zebra, but at least the cubs won’t go hungry anymore.

For the rest of the afternoon game drive we drove around the marsh and spotted all kinds of different critters.

Towards the end of the drive we found the thieves clear on the other side of the marsh, far from mom and the cubs. They’ll have to catch their own dinner tonight.

That pretty much concluded our time in Moremi. Now it was time for the long drive south to Maun. Maun is a fairly large city and thanks to it’s central location, it’s the safari capital of Botswana. I’ll be staying here for one night just because the next stop is too far away. I can’t wait to get a real shower and wash some of these clothes. We did see lots of elephants along the way though.

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

Wow, that shower hit the spot! Newly clean and after sleeping in an actual bed, we left Maun early and drove southeast ish to Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. When water randomly came back to the Boteti River in 2009, it brought with it a lot of wildlife, especially zebras. I hope you like zebras because you’re about to see zillions of them. More about them later, first, we have to register at the Khamaga Gate.

When we left Maun in the morning the weather seemed to have turned. The warm weather and clear skies were traded for overcast skies and strong winds. I seem to have this curse of making it rain in every country I visit. Seriously, it follows me everywhere. Miraculously, on the way to Makgadikgadi, it rained. Granted, it was only a light sprinkle and it only lasted about twenty minutes, but this still proves my power. I’m the only person on earth who can make it rain… in Africa… during the dry season. Behold!

After checking in at the gate and only a couple of minutes into the drive we saw some elephants walking along the river past some hippos. The good thing about the cooler weather is it brings the hippos out of the water.

Apparently, there are also a lot of vultures in Makgadikgadi because they prefer to make their nests in the camel thorn trees that are all over the place. I saw tons of these guys driving around.

The big draw at Makgadikgadi, though, is the colossal zebra migration that happens every year. During the dry season, zebras from as far away as Savuti migrate here to the Boteti River for the water. When the rains come in November to December, they head back to where they came from. The number of zebras here during the dry season, like right now, is estimated to be around 25,000! They’re everywhere!

I guess the vultures just try to stay out of the way.

It’s a pretty frequent occurrence to find elephant bones around, including skulls. But on the way to camp that first night I saw this really cool skull with the tusks still attached. That’s a first!

The first night at camp was a very very windy one. And the wind continued the next day, all day long, but safari waits for no one, so off we go.

The first thing we spotted was an ostrich. It was a slow morning, so it took awhile, but we finally found something that didn’t have black and white stripes.

Then we turned down a side road to this small watering hole and… zillions of zebras!

After a lot of driving all the way to the northern border of the park, we made a u-turn and started back. It was common to see big herds of zebras in the distance. Often they were too far away for pictures, but it was obvious they were all staring at us through the trees.

Sometimes, though, we would find them right in the middle of the road. I couldn’t tell if the two in the pic below were fighting or playing, but they were sure going at it.

We ended our morning drive with a visit to the hippo pool. There were no hippos in it, however, only crocodiles. I told Jack we should rename it the crocodile pool.

As I said, the morning drive was pretty quiet. I was actually beginning to think that this was going to be a sort of fizzle out ending to my otherwise epic safari. That assessment turned out to be wrong, as we’ll find out later, but first it was back to camp for lunch. Below is a pic of how I’ve been living the last two weeks. That’s my tent with my dining area in front and you can make out my shower in the back. They also dug a small pit toilet opposite the shower. Along with my guide, Jack, I was also traveling with Dishu, the camp manager, and Bongo, the chef. These guys really know how to safari and took good care of me the whole way. It was a really awesome experience!

The wind had been blowing and blowing for two days now. There was so much wind that it actually made dunes. It also makes it difficult to identify animal tracks… for me. Jack still seems to have no trouble reading the ground. I just watch and listen with amazement.

Around 4pm every day, we start the evening game drive. We started this one by making our way down to the river. I’m 100% sure that Jack knew exactly what he was doing, but I had no idea what was in store. We, of course, passed some zebras on the way.

Then I spotted this hippo far from the river sleeping. He had some scratches and minor wounds all over his back and sides. Jack said it looked like he got in a fight with another hippo, probably a fight for dominance of the herd, and lost. When that happens the loser will separate himself from the herd for a bit to heal the wounds and nurse his pride before returning.

Eventually, we made it to the river where we spotted a bunch of zebras in the water having a drink. A short distance behind us there was a line of zebras descending down to the river that extended back into the trees. They just kept coming, one by one by one.

We descended the bank to have a closer look. Everywhere I turned I noticed other zebras coming from different directions.

The parade of zebras just never seemed to end. The river valley was filled with zillions of zebras. They kept coming out of the forest and down the banks for their evening drink while other lines were already making their way up the banks and back to the trees. They were coming and going by the hundreds! You can’t even imagine how many zebras were there! It was just incredible!

For a second I got distracted by some giraffes. They couldn’t believe how many zebras there were either.

This next pic is pretty blurry because I had to super duper zoom in, but there are zillions of zebras extending seemingly to the horizon!

Here’s one of the lines heading back up to the forest.

We were moving slowly along the river taking it all in until we reached the hippo, I mean crocodile pool, to take a break and stretch our legs before heading back to camp. What a sight that was! Pictures can’t quite capture it all, I need a full length documentary. I still can’t believe the spectacle.

Day fifteen of my fifteen day tent camping safari finally arrived. We started the morning game drive like always… with zebras. Haha!

The drive started a little slow, but we saw this giraffe pretending to be a tree (we weren’t fooled) and a mating pair of ostriches.

Next, we saw a pelican. Yes, a pelican. They show up here in large numbers during the rainy season, but this guy showed up way way too early. Apparently, my rain making powers tricked his internal clock or something. Sorry, dude!

Makgadikgadi is situated kinda close to the village of Khamaga. That means there are more encounters between the wildlife and people than at the other parks, especially when said wildlife kills the local livestock and people retaliate. As a result, the animals here are all very very shy. As soon as we show up they turn and either walk or run away. Even the few elephants I saw seemed aggravated and annoyed when they saw us and would move away. Also, the lions keep away and stay well hidden, so I didn’t see any here. The only thing resembling a predator that we saw were the black backed jackals. They howl at each other all through the night and on the last day we found seven or so running around the river bed.

Two of the jackals found a wildebeest carcass and made a breakfast of it while a vulture patiently waited nearby. Jack calls the jackals “the lions of Makgadikgadi.”

And as you can probably guess, my last sight in Makgadikgadi was…

Finally, we stopped at a spot with a great view of the river for coffee and to stretch our legs before making our way out of the park and back to Maun.

Morutsha

Back in Maun I said goodbye to Jack, Bongo, and Dishu and commenced with the cleaning and resting from my two weeks in the bush. But since I have two days in Maun, I decided to take my last opportunity to enjoy a day gliding across the Okovango Delta in another mokoro excursion. First, we have to get stuck in the sand on the way… again.

We got out of the sand relatively easy this time, thanks to the Polish dude with us who knew the safari jeep better than our driver apparently. Then we were quickly back on our way to the village of Morutsha, where the mokoro station is.

There was a quick transit through the local hippo pool.

Then some very pleasant gliding through the reeds until we reached the island with a name I can’t remember no matter how much I rummage through my brain, for a short walking safari.

For an island where beef cattle are grazing, there was quite a bit of wildlife. We startled a herd of impalas, saw some zebras way off in the distance, and found a female reed buck that let us get surprisingly close before running away.

We even saw an elephant from the mokoro on the way back. He was a bit too far for a decent photo, but we did see him.

Back safely at the mokoro station, we were taken back to Maun in the late afternoon. And THAT… will finally conclude my time in Botswana. Whew! This was a long post. Thanks for hanging in there if you made it this far. Botswana has been a truly incredible experience for me.

BUT… I’m not done yet. Tomorrow I will be boarding another airplane to wing my way to another of Africa’s amazing countries for another month or so of adventure. So don’t stray too far…