I just returned from a trip to Namibia and Botswana. The water in the Delta was quite high but did not affect the game-viewing – I suspect many camps will have to deal with all kinds of logistical issues when the annual flood arrives and bumps up the water levels even more. At Duba the vehicles spend a lot of time crossing sometimes very deep stretches of water, and if/when the buffalo herds cross a deep channel to the Paradise area they cannot be followed. However this has been the situation for many years, nothing really new about that. If you haven't been to Duba for 10+ years it comes as quite a shock to see so much water there. It used to be that the buffalo herds could be located by plumes of dust. Those days are over. One of the locals mentioned to me that it (period of high floods) is a much welcomed development, a pleasant contrast to all those years of the Okavango Delta shriveling up. I heard the same thing from an environmental expert - he said that the Delta goes through wet and dry cycles of about 7 years' duration; we are right in the midst of a very wet cycle right now. As everybody knows by now, the Savuti Channel is flowing like it last did in the 1970's with water reaching all the way to the once legendary Savuti Marsh. It really looks fantastic from the air; we flew all along the channel coming out of Kings Pool on my last day there.
A selection of my photographs can be seen on Picasa at this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/BertinHouston/AfricaMarch201103?authkey=Gv1sRgCOiP0rad45a8oAE&feat=directlink
In summary:
The 4-night Skeleton Coast Safari in Namibia with Kathleen was amazing; the area is simply otherworldly. Stunning natural beauty, awesome geological formations, plenty of desert-adapted wildlife, a trip into the interior where we visited a small Himba village, and walking in real quicksand - the Skeleton Coast has all of that and much more. I had an interesting time at Doro Nawas in Damaraland with very worthwhile outings to the San rock engraving site & the petrified forest but hardly any game there this time of the year. From there I went on to Desert Rhino Camp where I was extremely lucky with a cheetah and two different lion sightings, and fortunately black rhino on foot, albeit after several hours of tracking them. This is a superb camp which I would recommend for anyone visiting Namibia.
Then it was on to Botswana. At Kalahari Plains Camp I experienced an eye-popping San interpretive walk, and the game-viewing was most impressive with hundreds of oryx & springbok & beautiful black-maned lions. At Tubu Tree we had more than just one leopard hanging from trees, a hyena taking away a kill from a leopard right in front of us and lions wading through deep water. With plenty of other game around, often with four or five species of mammals to be seen at the same time. Selinda was no slouch either with a near perfect cheetah sighting which - after several hours of hanging around - resulted in us witnessing a kill. Patience really paid off! Good general game too, and a large pride of lions on arrival at Lebala airstrip.
I left a couple of the best sightings for the last camp on the trip which was Dumatau, where our guide Ron found a pack of seven wild dogs & mating leopards to boot. I thoroughly enjoyed a mokoro outing and a boat trip with some fishing on a tributary of the Khwai River at Wilderness Safaris' new Banoka camp (game on the quiet side there, mopane quite thick!), and marveled at James’ intimate knowledge of the area and the wildlife at Duba Plains, which should be renamed Duba Marsh as the vehicles were swimming all the time. Lots of lions everywhere, climbing onto all kinds of things including woodpiles and termite hills.
Namibia and Botswana impressions
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Thank you for sharing your photos and the trip report. We are headed out to KP, Banoka and Tubu Tree next month. If I wasn't excited before I sure am now!
Bert, thanks so much for the update. I took a look at your photos, and you visit my favorite camps in the delta and Linyanti areas. Oh, and I absolutely love Skeleton Coast Camp. There is something magical about it.
I see you are in Houston as well. Ping me sometime!
Andy
Thanks for the report and photos, nice collection.
It is amazing to see the Rhino Camp Area so green , when we visited 6 years ago it was dry and yellow ...but we also loved it.
Paco
Fab update, succinct but full of information, love it!
Off to view photos now!
I'll be interested in reading more about the Okavango floods as we move into the season. We'll be there (for our first trip) in August. I've been more and more intrigued by Namibia the more I read about it, so thanks for some info on the Skeleton Coast trip. If we fall in love with Africa, as I think we might (this is our "once in a lifetime trip" but I've heard how those turn out!), that's the next trip...
Loved the photos, thanks for posting the link.
What an amazing trip and some great photos. Thanks for posting.
Bert, Thanks for posting .... glad you had an awesome sighting of the 3 male cheetah!!! They really are great!
Sounds like the Lebala airstrip is a predator magnet this green season - We followed the 3 male cheetah to the airstrip and they eventually took down a big letchwe ram about a half KM from there.
Thanks Bert - really enjoyed your slideshow. I'll be going to Botswana for the first time later this year and staying at Banoka and Dumatau. So looking forward to it.
You got some fantastic shots which immediately sent me looking for potential trips. Thanks for including photos of the lodges.
Thanks a lot for a very insightful trip report. I am going to be in Duba Plains at the start of the grean season and hanging on to every bit of information
Terrific photos, Bert - you had many comments on your slideshow on how you plan to fix the lighting - I'm certainly no photographer, but I loved the light in your shots.
I'd be curious to know if you were you able to spend any time with the meerkats at KPC.
Loved your report and the photos just spectacular! I will be hopefully planning our trip in the near future and really appreciated all your information coupled with the photos. Thanks!
This is great! Thanks so much for sharing. My family and I have just finalized our Namibia and Botswana trip with Wild Safari Africa (www.wildsafariafrica.com). We are going for 16 days in July and August.
Out itinerary looks something like this:
Namibia -Etosha, Damaraland, Swakopmund, Sossusvlei
Botswana - Okavango Delta at Mapula lodge, Chobe at Ngoma safari lodge (this just opened, anyone know anything about it yet?) and a couple days at Victoria Falls.
We are so excited!
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Thanks to all for the compliments on the photos, I am really pleased that a few of them turned out so well. There were no meerkats at Kalahari Plains Camp (at least we did not see any). We did see some in the Kaokoveld, driving from Purros to the Skeleton Coast along the Khumib Riverbed, and also driving from Skeleton Coast to the Himba settlement in the interior. All of the meerkats were pretty skittish though & I couldn't get any useful images.
Great sightings! Esp on the kills... Thanks for sharing.
Sangeeta, if you want to spend time with the meerkats, you must go to Jack's Camp or Camp Kalahari. We stayed at CK last year and hanging with the meerkats was as big as a highlight as seeing the wild dogs!
Thanks BertinHouston & Quimbymoy (that's a tough one to type
for the meerkat info. Good to know about CK. You're right about them being as much of a highlight as the dogs - I feel that way too.
Greetings,
Great pictures! Thanks for posting that and the trip summary.
I have a very naive question: I was surprised to see a plunge pool in one photo and one of the women standing in the ocean in another---what was the swimming availability during your trip?
Diane