Nxai Pan NP - Day 2

Lion at sunset

Despite our early start, we were the last of the 3 campers to be out the campsite and off on the morning drive. There was no question where anyone was going - straight to the waterhole. And we were not disappointed - the 2 lionesses were still at their kudu kill but they were having it for breakfast. We quickly positioned ourselves and started shooting. The lions gave us plenty to photograph, from gnawing at the carcass to pulling it over to get better access.

Nxai Pan NP - Day 1

Arriving at South Gate

Up at 5am and gone by 6am, it would be a long drive to Nxai Pan from Gaborone; about 11 hours according to Google.

Considering many people would have taken Friday off to make it a 5 day long weekend, the road between Gaborone and Palapye - easily Botswana’s busiest road - was surprisingly quiet.

Elections in Nxai Pan

Ready for Nxai Pan

Botswana announced that their elections would be held on 30 October, which would be a public holiday with the following day also being declared a holiday. These holidays would fall on a Wednesday and Thursday so it was a no-brainer for us to take Friday off to have a 5 day long weekend. 

Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana

Slow moving channel, typical of the Delta 

The Okavango Delta is one of natures wonder where the river runs inland and disappears in to an inland Delta. The 'swamps' as it's known to the locals consists of a massive inland delta consisting of islands and the legendary Moremi Game Reserve, forming one of the last remaining wildlife heavens on earth. 

Moremi GR - Day 8

Baboons grooming is just plain amusing

Multiple lions had roared all night and we decided to change our plans and see if we could catch them. That meant getting up a bit later so that there was light when we started our drive - not a major inconvenience.

Moremi GR - Day 7

African Jacana

A 6am start and we were out before anyone else in the dark in the hopes of catching something on the road but it was not to be. The floodplain was devoid of cats; the only spoor we could fine was hyena but even they were hiding from us.

Moremi GR - Day 6

Best way to end the day is an open fire braai 

With the plan to get into Moremi as early as possible, we were up at 5am to try to get out of Magotho by 5.30am.  A quick stop on the way to the toilet gave us a sighting that we hadn’t seen in 20 years - a springhare! 

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.

Moremi GR - Day 4

Another morning another glorious sunrise

It turned out that only one slop survived unscathed. The hyena had left one of Cheryl’s flip flops, bitten though the thong of the other, but decimated Dru’s.

We had to finish packing the car but were still gone before dawn. We had heard lion in the opposite direction but wanted to get to Xini Lagoon earlier rather than later to see if we could catch the wild dogs.

Moremi GR - Day 3

Sunrise in the bush is always special

Although the park opens at 6am, we knew it would still be dark, but we wanted to be up and ready by that time just in case the lions that we'd heard far away in the night were closer to camp in the morning.