Trip Report - Botswana/Zambia Mobile Safari - May 2007
 

I got back home late last night from my three week trip to southern Africa.

Three friends and I did Wilderness Safari's Untamed Lands Mobile Safari. It was a blast and I can see why y'all catch that African bug and want to return time and again. It was all so amazing; meerkats, overnight on the salt pans, hippos grazeing outside our tent, an almost cheetah hunt right in front of our vehicle, Victoria Falls at full flow, and one pissed off charging elephant mum.

I want to thank the Fodors folk here for so many valuable comments and suggestions. It is amazing how useful the small roll of duct tape and the bookmark with the kilometers/ miles conversion came in handy. :-)

I hope to write up a trip report, but with jet lag and work, it wont happen till this weekend. Plus, there are over 3,000 photos (and some videos) that I hope to get posted and share with y'all in the near future.

So, is it to early to plan a June 2009 safari back to Botswana?

It's never too early!!!

Welcome home and glad it was a blast. 2009 will be here before you know it.

I would have to agree that it's never too early - even if only to make myself feel better. I haven't even taken my first trip yet (Jan 08) and I'm already researching for my 2nd, which will also be in 2009 - probably August or September.

I emailed my agent about 2009 just a couple of days before your post!

buzzlchie - welcome back! really looking forward to your trip report. sounds like a fantastic trip! 3000 photos! Yee Ha!

Remeber to post the Untamed Lands Itinerary at the front of your post!

Cheers and witing with baited breath.
Jude

So here goes....

The Wilderness Safari Untamed Lands Mobile Safari had the following itinerary:

2 Days at Camp Kalahari
2 Days at Nxai Pan
2 Days at Xijera Mokoro Trails
2 Days at Lechwe Island Camp (Selinda Concession)
1 Day at Chobe NP (Savute)
2 Days at Linyanti Adventure Camp (1 hour north of Kings Pool)
1 Day at Victoria Falls

Travel agent was Ultimate Africa based in Seattle, WA.

GETTING THERE
Started out on May 3rd from Seattle with a flight to NYC. To get myself in the African mood, read the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency book on the flight. I already love Botswana and I haven't even gotten there yet.

Overnighted in NYC thanks to lots and lots of Marriott Reward points. May 4th, I took the EOS flight from NYC to Stansted, UK. Phenominal flight! 48 seats in a 757... that is the way to travel.

Took the National Express bus from Stansted to Heathrow and eventually managed to get checked in with SAA. What a mess that was. Totally unorganized.

Crap...hit the wrong button before I was finished.

GETTING THERE (CONT)
SAA first class was nice, but not quite as nice as the EOS flight. Got to Joberg on the morning of the 6th and was picked up by our friends Tom & Zara. They took me to their house (Dainfern??) where I meet up with my 3 other traveling companions who all arrived prior to me.

After a brief nap, we had lunch which consisted of a game skewer of Ostrich, Kudu, Impala, and Warthog at some outside mall restraunt and later,BBQ and drinks at their house (I have no idea where we were in Joberg, but it was near a rather nice gated community where they lived). This was so much better than a hotel neat the airport.

The next morning, we loaded into the car and Tom dropped us off at Tambo for our Bostwana Air flight to Maun. We were off.....

MAY 7th
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At the Maun airport, we meet our guide Richard A. and our two other traveling companions for the tour. Joining the four of us girls was Paul, and Aussie from Cairns, and Jim, another Aussie from Melbourne.

We climbed into the large Toyota Landcruiser with open sides and back and headed off for Camp Kalahari in the Magahdigahdi Pans. This was a very long drive. We saw our first Zebra and learned quickly that jokes and subsequent laughing scare off wildlife. At one point, Richard indicated there was a leopard under a tree along side the road. We all quickly got out the cameras and were waiting in anticipation as we approached the spot Richard had indicated.... only to discover the leopard was on a road sign. HA HA!

Box lunches were had in a nice shaded spot along the road, as were the first of many many many bush loo breaks.

We got to Planet Baobob as sunset was nearing and picked up our camp guide, O'Yapo, for the next two days. We followed him through the dusty roads, stopping a few times to get photos of the amazing sunset.

We arrived at Camp Kalahari after dark with the camp lit up with laterns. We were escorted to our tents. I have camped quite a bit in my life, and this was certainly way nicer than what I was used to. Cots with large comfortable duvets. Mats on the floor with baggage racks and a night table with cans of Doom & Peaceful Sleep.

We had our first showers which was a bit surreal... warm water bucket showers surrounded by a open-roofed tent looking up at the night sky filled with so many stars. It was the only timed we showered at night and I am glad we had the opportunity.

The bush loo was also an experience. A toilet seat connected to a wooden box over a hole in the ground surrounded by a smaller open-roofed tent. Our first experience would have been fine except that the hole was dug at the same width at the box. I made the mistake of moving slightly and the whole box tilted. My friends got a laugh out of it as I screamed "I'm going in" when it happened. That camp staff was great and re-dug the hole for a better fit and that was the only drama.

Our campfire was called the bush TV. Loved that. We meet the rest of the great staff, had our first incredible meal, more bush TV and drinks, and eventually headed off to our tents for our first night on safari.

MAY 8th
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We started off early with a quick breakfast of fruits and cereals. This would be the standard breakfast for the entire safari tour. We had a busy day in front of us.

We started with a safari drive looking for the meerkats. It seemed that we drove around forever with LOTS of stops to view ground squirrels. This probably sounds bad, but squirrels just don't excite me and we kept stopping to look at them. The multitude of *bleeping* ground squirrels quickly became a running joke for us.

Finally, we spotted the guy in the red stocking cap which marked the den the meerkats were staying at. And OMG, they were just adorable. We quickly climed out of the vehicle and carefully walked closer to their den. This is apparently a newer group so they are not habituated to humans so we kept our distance.

There were 6 of them (apparently there had been 8 but two had been taken by snakes very recently) and we watched as they came out of their dens, warmed themselves in the morning sun, dug around for food, and generally were as cute as could be. They are a lot smaller in size than they appear on TV (Meerkat Manor). I was just so happy to see them in the wild. I just clicked away with photos.

One by one, the meerkats headed off for the morning hunt. It was cute that one little guy just didn't seem to want to leave the den and join the others. All the rest had moved on and we could see them in the distance as they kept stopping to look back at this one meerkat still at the den. We were all silently encouraging him as well to move along and join the safety of the rest of the group. Finally, after some intrepidation, he quickly ran to join the others.

We also followed as they didn't go far... to another set of holes nearby. We watched for just a short while before leaving them to their day and heading back to the truck. We were told later that this was a new group.. the old group had disappeared.

We continued on with the drive, seeing zebras and ostriches until we got to Chapman's Baobob. You could see it in the distance as we approached and it didn't look that big... that is until you got up to it. It is freckin' HUGE! I really loved the baobob trees... nothing like them in the US.

We drove back to camp along a large grassy plain. The roof was opened up by this time and we all stood on our seats to enjoy the fantastic view out the roof (and to escape the endless dust). Next thing we know, we are suddenly back at camp and ready for lunch.

After lunch, we had a wonderful walk with some San Bushmen. It was a young boy (around 16 years of age) and his uncle. They were amazing. When they spoke in their language with all the clicks and sounds, you didn't really care what they were saying, you just wanted to listen to them speaking in their wonderfully strange language.

They dug up a scorpion in its hole and held in in their hand. Why did they dig up the scorpions we asked? For food? No, they responded.... the kids usually dug them up to play with the critters. Yikes...digging up scorpions for the fun of it! I would never make it as a bushman.

They also started a fire the old fashioned way... twisting the stick and dumping the smoldering embers in some dried zebra dung (since it is mostly just dried grass). Then they yelled at the pile of dried grass and lo an behold... five minutes later, they had a nice little fire going. Somehow I don't think that yelling part will help me any the next time I am working on a fire on my next camping trip.

Finally, the bushmen showed up this game they played. It is hard to even describe it other than it is a form of Paper, Rock Scissors, but with lots of had movements and lots of sounds, clicks, and yelling. Trying to get the other person to make a certain had movement when you make a counter hand movement to win the game. The kid bushman won both rounds at which point his uncle exclaimed that he doesn't play as much now as the kids do. Hee. Seems excuses like that are universal.

We got back to camp, had our 3:30 showers and were told were would be heading out to the pans for our ATV ride. We were told to dress warm and bring any necessary medicines with us. That should have been our first clue....

We drove to the edge of the pans, put on our colorful kikoys, got our instructions, and off we went. I was paired with my tent-mate and friend Diane and she started off driving. I just hung on the back trying to take photos of the vehicles in front of us and the pans with the setting sun. There is no amount of wide-angle lens that can adequately capture the vast expanse of those salt pans.

We stopped in the middle of nowhere for our sundowner. Amarula in the middle of the pans as the sun sets... is nothing better? As it got dark, we were told to walk 500 feet in varying directions from each other and to take in the stars and the pans alone. I set off to find my patch of solitude and laid down to watch as the stars appeared in the darkening sky. Someone here had mentioned once that out here, it seemed as if the stars had stars. What an apt description. The stars were as endless as the pans themselves.

After enjoying some time by ourselves, we got back on the ATVs, thinking we were headed home. Our second clue should have been that we didn't turn around, just kept heading future into the pans with only the lights of the vehicle lighting the way. We could see some lights way ahead of us, which I initially thought was maybe some lights from Jacks or San Camp. We got closer and eventually saw a campfire in the middle of the pans along with our dinner table. We were to eat dinner out in the middle of the pans. Awesome!!! They even brought out a bush loo tent.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner under the stars and to warm us up, they put hot coals from the fire under our camp chairs. What a wonderful luxury. Warm bums while dining. Hee. After dinner, as we were all seated around the fire, we suddenly heard singing off in the distance. What was up?

We followed the singing past the bush loo out into the darkness. Suddenly a flashlight lit up a cot... just a single cot out with bed coverings out on the pans. One by one, more cots were discovered. YAY... we were sleeping out on the pans overnight. I had heard about this, but was not sure if we would get to do it or not. I was beyond excited.

However, one of our group (Aussie Jim) was not pleased. He was actually upset about this and after talking with the guides and staff, they agreed to take him back to the regular camp. They later told us that in all they years they have been doing this, this was the first time anyone ever refused to sleep out on the pans.

We enjoyed some more campfire before heading to our solitary cots with the stars and clouds as our view. I couldn't get to sleep right away as this whole experience was just amazing. I just laid there in my cot soaking up the entire night trying to embed every little detail of the pans, the stars, the moonlight, and the lack of any noise in my brain.

What an awesome day!

(NOTE: I am neither the best speller nor typer, so please excuse any mis-spellings or typos)

Hello Buzztechie,

Great trip report! When were you out on the Pans? I spent two nights at Jack's on my trip (May 5 and 6) and I'm wondering if we might have overlapped.

I also saw the Bushmen playing the Rock/Paper/Scissors game (in teams) while staying at the Bushman community in the western Kalahari. It's called 'Springbok and Lightning'. Very cool. I think I got some photos of it but I'm not sure.

Cheers,
Julian

Julian... we really JUST missed each other. We were at Camp Kalahari the nights of May 7th and 8th.

I think either I or someone in our foursome got some great video of this bushman game and of them starting the fire. Once I start getting the photos/videos organized and uploaded, I will post them to share with y'all.

Great report and your experience on the Pans sounds wonderful!

MAY 9th
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Woke in the middle of the night with the moonlight so bright, no torch was needed to make my way to the loo. It was also just so deathly quiet. Absolutely no noise.

As morning approached, I woke again, but wasnt ready to get out of our comfy cots. Got the wide-angle lens out and took some photos, but again, just not enough width to capture the pans.

We packed up and got back on the ATVs and headed back to camp. O'Yapo showed us some of the stone tools they had found on the pans throughout the years and we had one of the ATVs breakdown on the way back (or run out of gas...not sure which), so we had to stop again and they towed that ATV back behind another one.

Back at camp, we packed up our duffels and had a delicious hot breakfast before saying our goodbyes to the wonderful staff. Although, we had our guide Richard throughout the trip, at each camp, we had a different set of camp staff.

n our way out, we passed through the village of Gweta. Interesting contract of the old Botswana round mud huts interspersed with small concrete houses with air conditioning unit and satellite dishes attached.

On the road to Nxai Pan, Richard was able to spot some tracks in the dusty road, including a set of black mamba tracks. Of course he spotted the mamba tracks right after we had all just climbed back in the truck after crawling all over the brush for our bush loo breaks. Richard also spotted lion and wild dog prints, but those prints are as close as we would ever get to seeing the wild dogs.

We saw several of those tiny little steenbock on the way into Nxai Pan, but they were quite elusive to photograph (we eventually got them on film later in the trip).

We made a side trip to Baines Baobob and had a box lunch under these fascinating trees. We saw our first Oryx (Gemsbock) and Wildebeast and the first of many springbock.

Once we entered through the Nxai Pan park entrance, we saw springbock and impala everywhere. We even got to see the springbock do their pronking jump. Richard saw an elephant in the distance heading to the watering hole, but it was pretty far away. So in the meantime, we spotted three lions resting in the shade under a bush. This was the only time throughout our entire 2 week trip that we had to share a animal sighting with another vehicle. In fact, it was one of the only times we even saw other vehicles or people. The lions weren't interested in doing much but relaxing, so we wen't back to see the elephant.

It was timed so perfectly as the elephant, heading to the watering hole, crossed between us and the amazing African sunset. What a great location for a sundowner. The whole scene seemed so perfectly Africa.

We meet out new camp staff... AB, OB, Khumo. They were one of our favorite groups and the food was simply delicious. We had a breaded porkchop that was fantastic and I am not a porkchop fan.

MAY 10th
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We had two game drives today... morning and later afternoon. In the morning, we saw an amazing amount of game, including the cheetah. Nxai Pan has three young cheetah brothers that like to hang out around a certain island of trees. Richard found them right away and we followed them for a while.

We also saw bat-eared foxes (cute) and several jackels along with plenty of zebra, giraffe, springbock, & impala. We also saw lots of birds... too many to write down all the names. I know there were various kinds of vultures, starlings, kestrals, and some large bird that I think was called a secretary bird.

At the local watering hole, we watched a male impala defend his turf and his female impala harem from another male impala. Also surprised to discover just how skittish the zebra were. A small bird at the watering hole had the zebra constantly jumping in alert. I guess to survive, you have to be somewhat skittish.

For our afternoon game drive, we again found the cheetah and we just stopped the truck and waited. One of the cheetah was low in the grass intently watching a nearby herd of springbock. To our amazement, the springbock slowly got closer and closer to us and the hidden cheetah. We really thought that we would get to see a cheetah hunt/kill right in front of us. We could barely see the cheetah in the tall grass slowly creeping forward as the springbock got even closer to our truck. We were frozen in anticipation and excitement.

But it wasn't to be. The cheetah lifted his head at the wrong moment and a springbock sent out a loud warning call before they all ran and vanished. We joined the sprinbock heard for our sundowner and then headed back to camp for dinner and bush TV.

MAY 11th
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The next morning, it was moving day again, so we packed up the bags and had a game drive on our way out of Nxai Pan. More bat-eared foxes and then the amazing giraffe sighting. Once we were done counting, we had spotted 36 giraffe in the one group. From little baby giraffe (well, little is relative) to older darker spotted giraffe. Amazing!

It was fun to watch them watch us. Out of all the animals we saw, the giraffe were by far the most interested in us. They almost always stopped and stared at us as we had stopped to take photos of them.

On the way out of Nxai Pan, we spotted more jackels and Oryx and then came the large bull elephant in musth. He was lumbering down the right side of the road and Richard could tell he was in musth from the droplets around his footprints. Once spotted, Richard drove quickly and careful around him so we would be positioned in front of of the elle (he told us later you don't want to be in position of having to back up from a charging elle... always in front of it so you can drive away from it). We then slowed down, but never stopped, enough to take some photos. We saw so many elles later that it is kinda funny now looking back at all the clamoring we did to get some photos of this one guy.

We drove back to Maun and stopped off at the WS HQ there. We had some time before our flight into the delta, so we got to take showers and eat lunch in there beautiful facility there. If you ever have a chance to spend some time in their lounge, do so. We also met Christo, one of the WS managers who asked us how things were going so far.

All clean and refreshed, we headed to the airport and climbed into our Cessna Caravan for the flight to Xijera. I love the flights, not only cause I work in aviation, but also because you get a great and different perspective of the landscape and the delta from the air.

The flood had not reached Maun yet, but soon after getting airborn, we could see the first portions of the flood approaching. By the time we approached the Xijera landing strip, we were surrounded by beautiful blue water and wonderful green foliage. We also noted that the edge of the Xijera landing strip was underwater and sandbags and berms were being built to try and save the runway. Definately a good flood year.

We departed and hopped into a new truck and drove a short distance to the mokoros. All our luggage was loaded into one mokoro which Richard poled. Our guide/poler was Cedric, who manages the Mokoro Trails camp. He was so nice and funny. We set off in the mokoros and what an amazing experience... floating along the lily pads and through the reeds. Looking down into water so smooth and clear. It was late afternoon and everything had this wonderful golden glow to it.

Cedric pointed out the tiny tiny reed frog (they also call them bell frogs) which we later understand is responsible for the wonderful chime sounds at night. Cedric also lost his pole twice during the trip. Good thing we had other boats behind us to retrieve the pole. He explained that sometimes the forked end of the pole gets stuck in the reeds and grass below the water and that polers are not supposed to try and yank the pole out cause it could tip the mokoro. So we let another mokoro's poler do the yanking of the pole out of the grass for us. :-) Very smart that Cedric.

We soon spotted our tents nestled on the banks of an island and were greeted by the staff on our arrival. The bush loos and showers here were a little different. Instead of the loo or shower bucket being surrounded by a open-roofed tent, they were only separated by a wall of tall reeds; the toilet paper roll on the branch outside the only signifier as to the occupancy of the loo.

Another great day in Africa!

(Thats it for today. I'm off to start working on photos for a while. Will try and post back more trip report tomorrow.)

great report! thanks for sharing!

Buzztechie,

You have a wonderful account of your safari so far. I had the same experience with the bushmen digging out scorpions for sheer entertainmnet.

Glad you saw some meerkats. Was there any mention of more than one habituated colony in the area?

I also had a quad bike breakdown. My guide hopped on my bike and let me drive us, which was nice.

The Nxai Pans produced some good wildlife vieiwng.

Sorry for the delay, but the holiday weekend, catching up with things at home, and a new job when I came back had me distracted.

I finally have some photos posted. Just the first two days worth.... I'm in no way a professional photographer and I tend to focus on the journey of the trip...not just animals but people & places as well.
http://scwphotography.smugmug.com/So...-%20May%202007

Two things of note: You will see photos of the tents at Camp Kalahari. We were told they would be building a more permanent common/dinning area for the camp but would be keeping the sleeping tents.

Our guide Richard also told us Maun Airport is considering expanding to allow direct international flights from Europe. An interesting debate on infrstructure expansion versus wildlife tourism ensued. Not sure how acurate this info is, but if true, could be an interesting development.

Atravelyyn - I am not sure how many meerkat colonies they have, but based on Julian's account of meerkats standing on his head, I suspect there are at least two. The guides indicated ours was a newer colony and not habituated to humans yet.

I will continue to work on the trip report and photos in the coming weeks.

Lovely report, thank you!!!

very, very interesting - Thanks so much! It sounds like you had fun in the pans - I CANNOT wait to go there, I think that is the part I am looking forward to the most.

Beautiful shots! Love your meerkats and sunsets especially!

Momliz - I LOVED the pans and wouldn't hesitate to return if and when I go back. Not much in the way of animal sightings out there, but I loved the vastness of it all. And the stars. And the meerkats. After Lion King and Meerkat Manor, to see those cute little guys in the wild was fantastic!

moremiles - thanks for the kind words on my photos. The sunset on the pans was probably the best we had the entire trip as the clouds disappeared once we hit the Delta.