Moremi GR - Day 5

Sometimes campsites are really quiet at night, like there are no night creature around. This was not one of them.  Two honey badgers were fiddling around in our campsite, knocking over our basin of water and then trying to find any scraps in the fire.

Lions were roaring outside camp the whole night, as was the hyena. At about 3.30 am something was being killed or a massive fight was happening. At 5 am the baboons sleeping in the trees above us started alarm calling and just as we were about to get up, we heard a leopard sawing - it was a sound filled night!

Finally the dogs in decent light

But we had a plan - get to the dogs as quickly as possible so it was off and on the way back to Xini lagoon.  There wasn’t much on the way and we got to the dogs by 7.30am to find only 3 dogs around and no sign of the pups.

Mum!

We figured that only the puppy minders were there and the rest were out hunting so we hoped that there may be some kind of greeting when the hunting pack arrived back.

Not soon after we arrived than the first of the hunting dogs came bounding back full of blood. The greeting ceremony wasn’t as excitable as we had expected but they went straight to the pups to vomit food.

Doggies at play, always amusing!

We heard a nearby herd of elephants go berserk at the tree line and figured that the next pack of dogs were on their way - elephants don’t like dogs and tend to get very agitated around them. And sure enough a few dogs emerged from the grass repeating the greeting of the first group.

And the next few times was the same with a few dogs coming running in and a bit of a check for food but not as much enthusiasm as the afternoon greetings.

There was one of the minders that was begging all the adults for food, loud enough that if there was a predator around they’d definitely hear him.  You could see that the adults were tense, probably because not all the hunting adults were back. The dogs were keeping a watch in all directions, alert to returning dogs or predators.

Finally, the remaining dogs returned and everyone relaxed, with the dogs starting to make their way to shade.  The pups never made an appearance where we could see them, and after they all became flat dogs, we decided to leave and head back to South Gate.

We went through Xini Lagoon with its winding network of roads and arrived back at South Gate about 10.30 am.  Instead of hanging around for lunch there we decided to continue driving in the heat of the day to Khwai North Gate through the 30km service road.

Kwai River bridge, North Gate

It took us just over an hour of boring mopane shrub and we arrived at Khwai North Gate. We checked to see if they had any free campsites but they were fully booked for the night so we started the hour long drive out of the park to Magotho where we had been booked in.

The area that sits between Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park is owned by the Khwai Community Trust. There is the sleepy little village of Khwai but essentially it’s a big private concession with lodges dotted around and where the animals move freely between the parks.

Kwai River meanders under the Kwai bridge

The Magotho area has plenty to drive around and we passed through a dead tree island on the way to the Khwai river and the office.  We were 3 days late thanks to us getting bookings in the park but they were still able to get us a spot by the river and sell us some really good firewood.

Amos the manager led the way driving to show us the campsite, but on the way we spotted some alert looking waterbuck.  With good reason it turned out as there was a lioness drinking on the opposite bank in the middle of the day!

And our campsite was right there, so we could actually see the lioness from our spot for the night, that’s a pretty cool welcome to Magotho.

Waterfront campsites at Magotho are special

By the time we had set up our camp, the lioness had disappeared into the bush, so we settled down for lunch while watching a couple of elephants drinking in front of us at the river.

Ele keeping a close eye on the unpacking. 

It was as if a silent call had been made to all the elephants in the area that it was time to drink, because suddenly herds of elephants emerged from the bush all around us to head to the water.

We didn’t have the best position for shooting so quickly got into the car and drove up the road to get better light and it paid off nicely with plenty of elephants and even giraffe coming to drink.

Ellies chilling in front of our campsite

After the show was over, it was time to drive around the reserve. There is a great road network so we were able to drive both along the river for quite a way as well as inland where we spotted some lion tracks.

No cats to be seen but plenty of plains game and a couple of black backed jackals before we headed back for the night, spotting a honey badger on the opposite side of the bank just outside our camp.

The lions started roaring not long after we had started the fire and sat down after camp chores. There was roaring both from the Magotho side as well from the Moremi side across the river.  Throw in a few hyenas whooping and a close by owl hooting and it made for a loud evening in Magotho, which was awesome.