Botswana - March 2010I know I sound like a broken record when I say we had another amazing trip to Botswana this year... but it's true! This is the reason I keep doing the same trip at the same time every year. We had a great group of 8 participants for this year's safari and as usual started our adventure off in Kwara camp in the Okavango Delta. We spent our days at Kwara with several groups of lions: Old one eye's group of adult females with one exuberant juvenile, the two beautiful male coalition known as the "Splash Boys", and a large coalition of 5 males (this group has 7 males in the entire coalition)accompanying a female lioness nearing estrus. Throughout our time at Kwara, we kept running into these groups of lions and spending a great deal of time watching and photographing them. A standout moment of lion time involved the "Splash Boys" (two male lion coalition)... Let me start by saying these two male lions were some of the most beautiful specimens of male lion that I have ever seen. Both had pristine faces without the usual scars and scrapes that are generally found on male's faces. One also had a dark mane while the other a beautiful light mane. Ok back to the moment... the boys were hanging out underneath some large bushes in a relatively open area near the lodge, while a group of Giraffes slowly made their way across the grasslands and neared their position. Among this group of 5 to 6 Giraffes nearing the lions was one young animal. As we watched from about 100 meters away, the two splash boys sprang from their cover and chased the Giraffes for nearly 200 meters with their sites on the young animal in the group. The young Giraffe was too fast for the eager lions however and the boys ended their impressive sprint hungrier that when they started. One doesn't often get the chance to see big male lions put on a show of speed and agility like the one we witnessed. Kwara was also good to us with other cats... Cheetah and leopard! We spent a morning with the coalition of three male Cheetahs before they lost us in the mopane woodland and we were also treated to three different Leopard sighting... not bad for our first four days on safari. Welcome to Botswana!
Then it was time to leave Kwara and fly north to the Linyanti swamps to our next camp... Lagoon. A specialty for us in this and the following camp has always been the Wild Dogs. Our streak of always seeing/photographing one of the most endangered carnivores in Africa continues as we drive 5 minutes from landing on the Lagoon airstrip to a pack of 17 African Wild Hunting Dogs! This is the resident pack of dogs which we have been lucky to see for the last 7 years of coming to lagoon camp. Along with the dogs, we also spend nearly an entire day following another 3 male Cheetah coalition as they searched and hunted for game. Their day ended with a successful kill of a male Impala as we watched the drama unfold from 100 meters away. After our own lunch, we went back to see how the three boys were doing with their kill and found the entire impala gone and the fattest Cheetahs I have ever seen. Along with all the charismatic predators, we also continue to watch/photograph a huge number of other species from Eagles, Bee-eaters, Cranes, Rollers, and Francolins, to Elephants, Zebra, Giraffe, Eland, Tsesibe, and Hippos! There is always something to watch and photograph in Africa.
On our drive to the next camp (Lebala) we encountered an animal I thought I would never see... a Pangolin. This rare, armored anteater looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Most of the guides I know in Africa have never even seen this animal. With so many great sighting of predators in the other camps, we spent our time at Lebala working on images people still wanted like Red Lechwe running through the marsh, Giraffe silhouettes at sunrise, Hippos with mouth open... some of the iconic African imagery. Our last day in camp we were lucky enough to find a large herd of Cape Buffalo, and following these massive beasts was another coalition of two male lions. We followed the lions and buffalo until dark and left knowing that when daybreak came there would very likely be one less Buffalo and two very full Lions.
Because I just have way too much fun on this trip... David Anderson Safaris and I will again be heading to Botswana next year... want to come?
Regards
Roy Toft
Other Recent TripsClick on the thumbnail image to view a short report of my recent trip.
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