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Botswana: Safari So Good

Wildlife Worldwide client Kitty Corrigan shares her experiences of a memorable wildlife holiday in Botswana in June, where she joined our small group mobile camping safari to Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta - a birthday celebration to remember!

Ever since my first visit to sub-Saharan Africa in 1990, when I was lucky enough to spend a year based in Zimbabwe and backpacked through six other countries, I had wanted to complete my set of the Big Cats, but had been cheated out of spotting a cheetah. Botswana was my best bet, I reckoned, and as I was spending my birthday there in June, I asked our fabulous guide, Disho – Africa's answer to a young David Attenborough – if he could conjure one up for me on my special day. "It's a week since one was last seen here in Chobe National Park," he said, "but instead I can try to find the Marsh Pride of lions that are famous for killing elephants, as seen on TV".

This seemed exciting enough for a birthday treat. We sped along in the open vehicle at dawn, hurtling over hummocks in the bush, between thorn trees and through shallow channels, until suddenly he braked – and sang  'Happy Birthday' to me. Just a few feet away was a regal cheetah, scanning the horizon from the top of a termite mound, its breakfast no doubt in mind. I stared, fascinated, at the perfectly drawn, black teardrop streaks under its eyes, marvelling at the lithe form of the fastest animal on land. A few glorious minutes later, it was off, a small antelope its likely target.

Such was the skill of our African guide that I saw more wildlife at close quarters, always with a knowledgeable commentary, than I had ever experienced in 30 years of visiting the continent.

Among the islands, lagoons, floodplains and salt pans of the Okavango Delta, Disho seemed to have a sixth sense of where to find a leopard with its cubs, a baby giraffe gingerly straying from its mother, hippos harrumphing at a teenage elephant invading their space, a family of baby hyenas whose cute antics belied their adult ferocity, or a dazzle of zebra coming down to drink at sunset, offering us the perfect photo-opportunity.

I could hardly bear to watch early one morning as a pack of 13 wild dogs located an innocent herd of impala nibbling on the dry winter grass. Also known as painted wolves, they fanned out like a football team to block all escape routes and approached slowly, their large, round, erect ears like radar dishes, able to detect the slightest sound. Then, hungry for blood, they accelerated at top speed and pounced, ripping apart the weakest impala. I was heartened to learn that after a kill the dogs return to their den and regurgitate the meal for the rest of the family.

My first experience of a mobile tented safari was a revelation. I had no idea that camping could be so comfortable – with even a hot water bottle at night – or that wonderful meals could be created on such basic equipment as a Dutch Oven. Every day we had freshly baked bread, salads at lunchtime with quiche, pasta or pilaff, cake with our afternoon tea in between game drives, and three-course dinners with wine in the open dining tent each evening, followed by tales of the day's adventures around the camp fire.

Nor had I appreciated that mobile camping meant dismantling the entire campsite after each three-night stay, leaving no trace on the pristine environment, and re-pitching everything in the next game reserve, ensuring we each had the same bed and accessories throughout the trip. The team of six were indefatigable and always cheery, even at our 5.30a.m. wake-up call.

Botswana is a birdwatcher's paradise. Every day we spotted a different species, from the tiniest pied kingfisher darting out of its burrow in the riverbank to the strutting saddlebill stork; we watched jacanas feeding on butterflies, fish eagles stealing the catch from Goliath herons, vultures circling ominously overhead, the Secretary bird with its crown of quill-like feathers, and my favourite – the lilac breasted roller in its technicolor dreamcoat.

The sounds of Botswana will stay with me – the whooping of hyenas passing through the camp at night, the snorting of hippos as if enjoying an in-joke, the low guttural grunt of a lioness locating  its pride; the swishing of grass at the tip of an elephant's trunk as it shakes off the dust before swallowing, the lightning splash of a crocodile darting back underwater, and the rhythmical munching of a herd of buffalo with their young, as they disturb the wild basil and sage underhoof, suffusing the air with a fragrance redolent of more northerly climes.

Join Disho and his team on our Best of Botswana mobile camping safari which operates from June to October. Contact us for more details.