Botswana - March 2009Botswana......... ahhhhh Botswana. I love this country. I’ve been getting so spoiled coming here for the last four years. The combination of small, quaint lodges, friendly people, non-restricted game drives, and wonderful wildlife has made this safari my all time favorite of African trips. Let me explain a bit about "non-restricted" game drives. Since all of our camps we visit are in private concession land, we do not have any rules and restrictions that you normally find in National Parks. This means we go out in the morning well before sunrise to find that perfect subject for sunrise silhouettes. We stay out as long as we want before coming back to camp for our "big" breakfast. While we are out on game drives, we can go wherever we want off the main roads to best position ourselves for the wildlife and light. With each camp only having 3 or 4 vehicles, the vegetation does not suffer at all from our off-road excursions. One elephant causes more damage to the trees and shrubs than anything our vehicles could do!
This year we had a wonderful group of 8 people. The majority of the group had been on trips with me before, so it was nice to see everyone again. We arrived at our first camp (Kwara) without a hitch and promptly went out for our first afternoon game drive. I had been hearing about this Cheetah mom with 5 cubs for several weeks and was overjoyed to find her and the clan of cubs our first afternoon. We watched her for over an hour at a safe distance, as to not disturb her possibilities for a successful hunt. Unfortunately some noisy Franklins (chicken-like bird) gave out their alarm calls and ruined her attempt on getting a juicy impala for her hungry band of cheetah cubs. We went on to see five other cheetahs at Kwara including our old friends the coalition of three cheetah brothers which we watched make an amazing impala kill next to our vehicle in 2007. Lions also were a highlight of Kwara this year. Two different groups of Lions plus cubs were seen every day while at Kwara. We even got a glimpse of a pack of Wild Dogs, which was a first for me at Kwara. All of my past Wild Dog sighting have been at the other two camps Lebala and Lagoon. Another highlight of Kwara was the Hippos. We spent several sundowner (evening cocktail) sessions with Hippos.... which turned out being some of my favorite images from the entire trip.
Our second camp (Lebala) was a bit different than usual because the entire camp was rebuilt from when I was there in March of 2008. The new chalet style cabins were beautiful and huge! Although predators were a bit scarce at Lebala this year, we spent a great deal of time photographing the huge variety of birds, as well as spending a lot of time with large family groups of elephants. This is the beauty of going to several different camps.... the variety of subjects. Our last camp, Lagoon, is always a favorite of mine. The classic African tents situated along the waterfront are hard to beat. We were very lucky and found the Wild Dogs during our transfer from Lebala camp to Lagoon. It was mid day when we found them so as usual they were just laying down for a siesta. We went back and found the dogs after our own siesta and were treated to a nice ritualized greeting as they awoke and began their hunt. Although we didn’t witness the actual kill, our entire group was on the scene right after one of the dogs was able to kill an impala and we watched as all the dogs ate their fill that would keep them going for another day. Watching the endangered Wild Dogs is a privilege we have been blessed with on every one of our last four safaris at the Kwando camps.
All in all.... another wonderful safari in Botswana. I would like to thank David Anderson Safari consultants for setting up this safari for us again, and all the staff at the three Kwando camps we visited. Especially our wonderful driver guides and trackers! I look forward to another wonderful trip next year.
Roy Toft Other Recent TripsClick on the thumbnail image to view a short report of my recent trip.
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