Kalahari or Bust

Add into the mix that years ago I read a captivating book by two young researchers (Mark and Delia Owen) called Cry of the Kalahari and it was a no-brainer from my point of view… when I was planning one of our small collection of group departures to southern Africa at the beginning of last year, it was going to be to Botswana - Kalahari or bust!

There were two key areas that I wanted to visit, firstly the Kalahari desert, and particularly the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and secondly the Okavango Delta, an area of immense beauty and one which I have visited many times at all different times of the year.

Deception Pan and Passarge Valley were the two key targets in the Kalahari and at this time of year we decided on a mobile camp to give us the very best possible chance of seeing good wildlife. 

There were seven of us in all - we gathered in Johannesburg from our various international flights and headed north on the South African Airways flight to Maun. There we were met by Nkosi with a superbly appointed safari vehicle and attached trailer to store our bags. An 11-seater vehicle (two in the front and three rows of three behind) with pockets to look after cameras and binoculars, masses of leg room and a spare seat between each pair of people in the back so plenty of space to store camera gear, jackets and wildlife reference books. Of all the safari vehicles I have been in over the years, I think I can safely say that this was the best and our guide Nkosi was both charming and immensely knowledgeable, but a keen photographer who was always able to get the best angles and find the best lighting conditions for us.

Our first stop was Meno-a-Kwena, a small lodge on the banks of the Boteti River and close to Makgadikgadi Game Reserve. We arrived late afternoon, settled into our rooms and the following day enjoyed a short walk with a group of San Bushmen before heading south into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. It was a long drive, but interspersed with some interesting sightings the most notable of which was the most incredible swarm of red-billed quelea known to man. We watched and photographed as gigantic wave after gigantic wave of quelea passed over head and turn in an instant like shoals of fish - there must have been millions if not billions of them passing overhead.

Arrival into camp late in the day was welcome, and the camp crew of three (a superb cook and two able assistants) greeted as like old friends as they showed us to our rooms, served us drinks and fed us a superb meal as the lions were calling around us. 

Our five nights in the Kalahari were split between the Passarge Valley and Deception Valley - our mornings and evenings were cold, really cold, but our days were sunny and bright and once we passed about 10am and we got out of the vehicle for a leg-stretch and a morning coffee, it was warm bordering on hot. Its hard to deny that the game-viewing was difficult, it is a harsh and fairly featureless environment, but we had some wonderful views of springbok, gemsbok (oryx), southern giraffe, blue wildebeest, greater kudu, steenbok, black-backed jackal, yellow mongoose and of course the endearing and highly entertaining ground squirrels. Other predators eluded us – the call of the lions got further away, though we saw their tracks with some regularity, and there was no sign of either cheetah or leopard. 

Kalahari birdwatching was fantastic though largely dominated by raptors - pale chanting and dark chanting goshawk, greater kestrel, shikra, secretarybird, black-shouldered kite, gabar goshawk (both pale form and melanistic), lanner falcon, swallow-tailed bee-eater, and the plentiful yellow-billed hornbills.

On then to the Okavango. We bade farewell to our camp crew, and made our way east and then north following the fence line of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and after an arresting and unscheduled stop for a fabulous puff adder we continued north for a more controlled stop and a lovely lunch at the Boteti River where we began to look at the water birds. Green-backed herons, open-billed storks, great white, little and cattle egrets, lesser-striped swallows, brown-throated martins and plenty of vultures circling overhead. An oasis in many ways and a wonderful introduction to Botswana’s watery wilderness. 

We arrived into Maun, which to us seemed like a big city after the wonderful wilderness of the Kalahari, said goodbye to Nkosi and boarded our pair of light aircraft and headed up into the Okavango Delta. Flying at low level over the Delta is a wonderful way to see this watery wilderness and we were heading in a north-westerly direction in late afternoon so the colours were changing and light was superb. We were greeted by our guide and driven the short distance to the river where we boarded a small boat and headed off to camp. Greeted with song and smiles it was nice to arrive in a place with huge rooms a giant campfire and big baths with hot and cold running water on tap! 

Game-viewing in the Delta is very different from game-viewing in the Kalahari - different terrain, more water, waterholes, and of course a completely different range of birds and mammals. Here we were thrilled to see Burchell’s zebra, red lechwe, impala, elephants, hippos, the occasional croc and finally a lioness. Replete and relaxed she gave us plenty of time for photography as she gazed out over one of the many bird-filled waterholes in the cool early morning light.

And from a birding point of view we saw many - including martial and black-chested snake eagle, lilac-breasted and purple roller, little bee-eater, yellow-billed and red-billed oxpecker of course bateleur- the true masters of the sky!

Our final morning came and after a short and tranquil mokoro trip we gathered our belongings and jumped in the boat to pass the hippo pod for the last time before heading back to Maun en route to Johannesburg and London. 

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