Botswana
Moremi, Okavango Delta, Linyanti Concession
From June 27th to July 3rd
Day 1
We had a long day of travel coming in from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. After flying over Victoria Falls on the Cessna and a ~6 hour travel day, we landed in Moremi around 1pm. After a 30-45 minute game/car ride to Mombo Camp we had some lunch right on the ground level of camp where all the animals grazed in front. From lunch, we could see impalas, wart hogs, monkeys, baboons, buffalo and all the birds. It’s hard to imagine that the safari camps in Africa keep getting more and more beautiful, but they do.
We went out for a game drive around 4pm with our guide, ND (a nickname for his longer name). We saw large herds of buffalo, elephants, a leopard, and a beautiful sunset while sipping on bourbon.
Day 2
Full day of game drive at Mombo Camp, starting at 8am.
One of the most exciting scenes from all our safaris was seeing the wild dogs for the first time. About 16 wild dogs total all came together to greet each other after they got separated during a morning hunt. Seeing the wild dogs reunite and squeal with excitement was something we were not expecting and made it all that more special. The alpha female was in her den preparing the den and herself to have her cubs.
Later that evening during our afternoon drive we came across a male lion resting after taking down an adult water buffalo.
Day 3
We went for a morning game drive around 9am at Mombo and then made our way to fly a short 15 minutes to the Okavango Delta. We made our way to Vumbura Camp. Here we had one of our favorite game drivers of all the camps, Andy.
Vumbura ended up being one of our favorite camps overall. It had both game (animals), beautiful and diverse scenery, water, desert, driving though water, swampland, etc.
An exciting viewing happened that evening when we came across two mother lionesses (mother and daughter) resting while their 4 cub children played around. At one point, they all came together to their latest kill of the day and we watched them all devour the remains of an impala for their evening meal. Listening to the lionesses regularly purr while they were all feeding at once was an interesting noise to hear - she was working to ‘regulate’ everyone’s tempers so that no fights broke out during the feeding.
Day 4
At our morning drive we saw lionesses and cubs in a new spot with a fresh new kill. This was unexpected, because it’s not every day that you see the same group of lions eating new kills. Days can go by in between meals.
We took speed boat out on the water and flew through the swampy land with reeds and grasses flying past us as we sped through.
That evening we got back on the water and took a moccoro boat (like a canoe) to watch sunset in the shallow eater. Our moccoro driver, Johanne, made Hailey a lilly-pad water necklace, and made a bracelet for Max.
As we waded slowly through the water, we watched elephants cross the water, heard frogs tick around in a clear high pitched sound, and watched kingfisher birds fly around overhead.
That evening Max’s fever had come back and we decided to pull the trigger and have a medic come to the room to check his fever and growing bug bite he had on his inner calf. Neo, the medic, “diagnosed” Max with tick bite fever and we were prescribed antibiotics and a steroid topical cream. The next day, his fever was gone and we were relieved that his symptoms cleared.
Around 2am in the morning we heard a crack on the deck outside our room. We got up to go to the bathroom, and when we got back to bed we noticed that a massive elephant was actually on our deck, standing on it’s two hind legs, reaching for the leaves in the tree just above our tent. It hung around our tent for the next few hours and we marveled at it’s size, power and tranquility.
Day 5
We woke up and elephants were still out surrounding our room in the morning. One got close to Max and we had to back up a bit to make sure it wouldn’t charge.
We packed up and flew to Linyanti Concession to stay at Duma Tau Camp; the most beautiful and modern camp facility of all. We took game drive on the water, and looked out for crocodiles, elephants, hippos and more.
Day 6
We took a regular car game drive during the day and came back to have lunch on the water. The camp prepared a beautiful lunch for us to have on a boat so we could eat and also look out for animals while traveling on the water. We, of course, saw more elephants crossing and were able to get really close to a few.
That evening we opted to have our final tour to be via boat, to just enjoy the calmness of the water and watch the sun set.
That evening we heard lions roar all night around our room. There must have been at least 5 different lions and they roared from midnight until around 2am. Our guide, Ron, the next morning told us that the lions are part of a group they’ve named “The Army Boys”.
Day 7
Flew to Maun
Ate lunch at The Duck
Flew to Johannesburg