Chobe National Park - Day 5

This guy had huge issues with the Northern pride on his doorstep.

We were up at 5.20 to get going by 6am and don't water valuable first light by fiddling around, just get out. As self drivers, it's critical you pick up as much intel of the night activities to work out where the predators are moving. The lions had roared the whole night and had not moved going by the roars. A Honey Badger had got in and emptied our bin! Just cannot keep these guys out no matter what.

Chobe National Park - Day 4

Always air down on bush tracks to ensure you don't dig up the track.

It took a while to get going but eventually we left Sitatunga around 7am and started the long trek to Savute. It took 3 hours on the sometimes corrugated, sometimes sandy road to finally get to the Mababe gate. The road to Mababe has long stretched of soft sand which is not a problem provided you have you have aired down and engaged 4x4.

Chobe National Park - Day 3

Campsite #5, good stand with a nice tree, we are set to hit the road north to Maun. 

An early start for us to get in a morning game drive before leaving. We did a round through the park but as expected there wasn't too much around. We have seen both Hyena and Leopard tracks at Kharma, but this place is about the Rhinos. There are Giraffe, Zebra and other game about including Impala and Springbok appearing in the same place.

Chobe National Park - Day 2

The Gaborone - Francistown road is always busy, a 5 donkey powered cart taking
it's position on an unexpectedly cloudy start of a long trip north.  

It was a gloomy morning when we finally left around 9am headed for the Rhino Sanctuary in Serowe, but luckily it wasn't too far a drive to our spot for the night.

Chobe National Park - Day 1

Trip planning is critical for these remote locations. 

The last time we'd camped with anyone else was 15 years ago when Cheryl's brother and his wife had joined us in Botswana. And now over a decade and a half later, someone else was joining us. And ironically, it was to the same place - Savute.

Moremi Game Reserve - Day 9

The call of the Fish Eagle is another magical call in the wild. 

Our final morning in the park but it was a quiet one. Even the game drive vehicles were telling us that the area was quiet. We did both the east and western sides of the Khwai gate but there wasnt even spoor to be found. 

Moremi Game Reserve - Day 8

Meandering bush tracks of Moremi. 

The lions were roaring just outside the campsite at around 4.30 am. After picking up our bucket that the hyena had grabbed and walked off with we quickly drove in the direction of the lions just after 6 am, but they were nowhere to be seen. In fact, the whole game drive was quiet, with even the tour guides struggling to find anything. 

Moremi Game Reserve - Day 7

Paradise pools sunrise. 

Our plan in the morning was to head first to Paradise Pools, and if nothing was there, we'd head into the area where we'd seen the leopard and then make our way slowly to Khwai. The good thing about paradise pools is that its only 4km from the entrance gate so we arrived there while it was still dark and were able to catch a few nice shots of the sunrise with dead trees as a focus point. 

Moremi Game Reserve - Day 6

Xakanaxa has beautiful scenes.

We always hope that our early mornings leaving in the dark will pay off, but they usually don't. But for the first time in a long time it paid off and with the biggest prize of all - leopard. We spotted eyes in the headlights and quickly worked out it was a leopard. 

Moremi Game Reserve - Day 5

The iconic Khwai river bridge at North Gate.

The campsite was quiet when we left in the morning after packing up and visiting the ablutions. We arrived at north gate just after opening while it was still dark. We weren't surprised to find the office still closed so we headed in and went straight to where we suspected the lions had been seen the day before. But the lions had long disappeared with not even spoor to give us an idea of where they had gone.