Africa - here we come! After about a year of planning, Angela and I along with Derek and Diane are off to Africa for 2 weeks on an epic Safari. We will be traveling to 3 locations across Botswana - including Savute, Moreimi Game reserve, and a walking Safari and a float trip in the Okavango Delta. This post will include the trip to Africa and the first camp - Savute Safari Lodge. We are very excited for this adventure!
8/1/2024
I had to work during the day on 7/31, but we all headed to the airport in the afternoon for our 5p flight. Derek and Diane picked us up in their Uber and we were off - excitement in the air!
We sprung for business class on Qatar airlines and it was magical. We each had our own little pod with lay-down seats and a closing door. This was my first experience with being on a flight this fancy - fully laying seats are quite something. For some reason the dinner tasted better than many fine dining restaurants I’ve been to, perhaps because it was unexpected? For some reason, I didn’t sleep super well, only about 4 hours. I think it must have been the excitement of the trip. Fortunately, Angela slept much better than I did.
We landed in Doha at 5p and headed to the Qatar airlines lounge for our 9 hour layover.
8/2/2024
We had a 2am departure to Johannesburg and, despite the late hour, we were wide awake. We sent the last 9 hours taking extensive advantage of the airport lounge - including multiple meals/drinks - and walked all over the Doha airport - including getting pedicures and checking out the indoor forest in the north half of the airport.
The airplane was a slightly different layout from the last one and Angela and I shared a retractable wall - which was kinda fun. I ate a quick meal and immediately went to sleep, time-warping all the way to breakfast - a glorious 7 hours of sleep. Angela was not so lucky on this flight, unfortunately and barely got any sleep.
We arrived in Johannesburg (Joberg) at 9a and put on our game faces to stay awake for the day. We puttered around the hotel (which was walking distance from the airport) until noon when we were picked up for our day tour of a neighborhood of Johannesburg called Soweto (South-West Township). The tour involved several hours of driving around to see the different parts of Joberg - including some of the nicer/richer neighborhoods and the makeshift constructed slums. We drove through downtown as well, which used to be a bustling commerce district but is now full of squatters living in abandoned high-rises which are essentially “owned” by the gangs now. Surprisingly, it didn’t look that much different from any other big city we have been to - most of the challenges our guide was telling us about where hidden under the surface.
We visited two museums and a church that all referenced in one way or another Apartheid government and it’s eventual demise. The church was the site of a student protest that was fired upon by police and the two museums were located at Nelson Mandela’s house and the site where a 13 y/o boy was shot during a different protest. It was all very interesting, but very sad at the same time. By the end of the tour, jet-lag was hitting all of us and we were eager to be back at the hotel (at 5p).
We ate in the restaurant that evening and all of us were asleep by 7:30-8p.
8/3/2024
We all slept fairly well overnight - Derek and Diane were up by 4a but Angela and I slept straight through to our alarms at 6a, with only minimal waking during the night. We assembled for breakfast around 7a and were guided to the airport by a ‘minder’ - a privilege we have had during all of the transitions during the trip. This minder took us to a special checkpoint were we skipped all of the lines for both checking bags, security, and passport control. Unfortunately, our flight didn’t board until 11a so we had a couple of hours to kill at the airport. After some window shopping, we all got bracelets that represented our favorite animals - fun!
Our flight to Kasane was relatively short (~2 hrs) and when we arrived we were whisked through customs and out to our next flight - a 35 min bush plane flight from Kasane to our first safari camp - Savute. The camp has 12 tents - but tents in name only. They are very large affairs with a queen size bed, indoor plumbing - including both an indoor and outdoor shower, electricity, and full mosquito netting. The camp is located inside of the Chobe National Park, which includes several such camps as well as a DIY camping situation where you can rent safari trucks and drive around yourself. We didn’t arrive at camp until later in the evening, but here’s a sneak peak.
After landing, our stuff was loaded up into one truck and we offered some light snacks before we were loaded up into another - and we were off on our first game drive. Within 5 min we saw our first leopard, relaxing in the shade. We watched him for a while before he got up and wandered off into the forest to do some hunting (we caught up with him later while he was stalking some Impala).
We drove for another 5 min and we spotted a mongoose, a water buffalo, some impala, a hornbill (Zuzu from Lion King!), and some Steenboks (very small, but fast, antelopes). The water buffalo is another one of the Big 5, so 2 down 3 to go!
We caught back up with the leopard after that - he was stalking some impala, but never actually made a move on them - unfortunately. He was impressive, very smooth movements and the impala were totally unaware of his presence.
We drove for another 5 min and we found some sleeping lions around a several day old elephant carcass (apparently died on his own, lions were scavenging). It was still the heat of the day so the only activity we saw out of these lions was some yawns, stretching, and rolling over. That’s 3 out of the big 5 for those who were counting…
We drove for 5 more minutes and we found a watering hole with a mating pair of lions - which was quite obscene to watch as they mated 3 times in the course of about 15 min (for no more than 3-4 second each time).
There were also a couple of jackals running around the watering hole with what looked like a piece of elephant hide. Clearly they both wanted it - either time one of them picked it up, the other was over and pulling it out of his mouth…
Most impressive, there was a herd of elephants at the watering hole. We ended up getting lots of pictures of elephants over the next couple of days, but these were our first. And this was 4 out of 5 in the first 2 hours on Safari! Only Rhinos left (which don’t live in Savute - so fingers crossed for the next camp).
The park “closes” at 6:30p and we must have gotten back at 6:29p. Looking at the track when I got back to camp, we didn’t go super far today but we saw a lot in the few miles that we did travel. I can only imagine what tomorrow will bring.
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Everyone talks about the big 5 mammals of africa - we saw 4 of the five in the first 2 hours of landing. All we have left is the rhino - which don’t live in this region but we might be able to see at our next camp. We arrived back at camp to discover about 15 elephants hanging out at the watering hole just outside the camp and we watched them frolic about in the water for the next couple of hours as we ate dinner.
What an incredible day! Goodnight elephants!
8/4/2024*
Morning came around too early this morning, but after my first cup of coffee all was well again and excitement returned about all of the amazing things we expected to see today. We left camp at around 7a after a quick breakfast, loading up with our same guide Isaac to take us around. He had a read on some African Dogs (aka painted wolves) and we spent the first 45 min or so on the road to get there. We saw some Kudo on the way (a large antelope that we just happened to have in our stew for dinner the night before), and we stopped off at the watering hole for some very beautiful reflection shots of some Impala and a couple of Jackals.
We also stopped off at the lions again - they were a bit more active this morning playing and continuing to eat the days old elephant carcass. Apparently these lions are able to take down an elephant - a trained behavior that they have picked up in this region - but this one had died of natural causes and the lions were scavenging it.
We also found a pair of Korre Bustard - the national bird of Botswana and apparently the largest flying bird - with a wingspan of up to 2 meters. Apparently their meat was considered sacred and only eaten by chiefs back in the day - which was why they ended up choosing it for the national bird.
We saw another hornbill flying around - I got some pictures of him this time.
Finally, we made it to the dogs. They were so cute! Our guide informed us that there were 12 adult dogs in the pack and they had 9 cubs - quite the handful. This was the third litter of ~10 cubs in the last several years and apparently the cubs mortality rates is quite high with only 2 out of 10 cubs making it to adulthood out of the last few litters. Apparently the lions get them, less out of a desire to eat them but more out of a desire to remove competition as they all eat the same food. The puppies were quite rambunctious - playing up and down the hill and even coming under the car as they ran back and forth.
While the puppies were playing, the adults were on high alert. Several were laying on the top of the hill where they had a view of the valley and others were actively patrolling. They seemed to recognize that they were not the top of the food chain… But they also made some time for fun. :)
Really interesting behavior, we saw the adults “scolding” one of the puppies for bad behavior. The dogs are very social animals and part of growing up is learning how to be a good adult - a member of the pack.
We spent a while with the dogs - the cubs were very active for most of the morning. The were being fed by their parents (regurgitated meals) and there was the very last of the remains of a Steenboks which they must have killed close to camp. There also seemed to be some bones and skin that the adults were continuing to chew on.
Finally, all dogs were well fed and were off for their mid-day nap and we started our long drive back to camp. We quickly ran into a live Steenbok - they are tiny little antelope that use stealth as their main defense against predators. They burry their scat, get all their water from the plants they eat so they don’t have to go to the watering hole, and if they realize they can’t outrun a predator, they will lay down in the thick grass and hope the predator misses them. I guess it doesn’t work all the time given the dogs were eating one, but this one was very much alive!
On the way back we ran into a herd of Wildebeests, which are known for being quite ugly animals, but I found them to be quite majestic. They have a very interesting striped pattern on their shoulders and a very pronounced forehead, like a small version of a bison maybe.
We spotted some Kudo again as we continued along - all females this time, so none of the curled horns that you only see on the males. We were informed that they were pretty common, so hopefully I’ll get some close ups of the male Kudo in the next few days.
{gallery “kudu (1).JPG” “kudu (2).JPG” “kudu (3).JPG” }
We made it back to camp around 11a, a much longer trip than the day before but it was quite the expedition to get to the dogs. Very successful start to the second day.
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We ate lunch and took a swim in the very frigid pool (it’s unheated and it gets down to 40 deg at night). While we were hanging around the pool area after our swim, the Giraffes came down to the watering hole to drink. They are amazing majestic creatures, but they could not look more goofy when they drink… :)
We went out on a shorter afternoon drive departing the lodge at around 4pm, which became our normal routine while in Africa. Right out the gate, we saw a giraffe up close and personal crossing the road right in front of us. Giraffe are very common in the Okavango Delta, but they were still very novel to me.
Our guide took us to a rest area near an old Boboa tree. These trees can live for thousands of years and this one was well over 1000 years old according to our guide. Apparently they soak up water in the rainy season and their trunk can swell increasing its circumference by feet. This year was a drought year, so the tree was fairly skinny - skill huge to me.
There were some rock paintings from 300-400 years ago (apparently they dated it by word of mouth from one of the tribes - his great-great grandfather made them). The paintings were a few hundred feet up a rocky hillside and required us to do a bit of climbing. Our guide, Isaac, was scared of heights and choose to stay on the ground while we climbed up to see them.
Then we followed a male leopard for a few hours until sundowners - which we decided to name the Leopard bar. The leopard was stalking some Impala and he headed up a sandy hill. We followed, but apparently the combination of the slope plus the very dry afternoon sand made it hard for the tires to grab hold and we got stuck. All the other trucks were following the leopard, so none of them would help us get unstuck. Isaac got out with the shovel and after about 15 min we were on our way again.
The vehicles we ride around in are custom Toyota Land Cruisers - They all have the periscope intake for water crossings and the engine is the most basic diesel you can imagine, very easy to fix. The customization includes reinforced shocks (some trucks were better than others), a seating area in the back, and 2 gas tanks - which increases their range and ensures that if one tank is damaged they can still get out. They are all manual transmissions and they have the old school high-speed 2 wheel drive (H2), H4, and L4 that I remember from when I was a kid. I expect that part of this is a rejection of tech that makes the safari feel more wild, but it’s probably also so that they can more easily do all the maintenance in the field instead of having to take them back to a city to fix them up. Being fairly mechanically inclined, I found the setup very interesting.
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We had our gin and tonics on the top of the hill a couple of hundred yards from where the leopard laid down and we got to watch him sleep while we drank. Very successful afternoon drive!
8/5/2024
We were off early this morning in search of cheetahs in a different part of the park called the Savute Marsh. The area was far from marshy, but we were told that the area floods during the rainy summer season and the whole area is under a foot of water. The whole area was covered in dried grasses that must flourish in the rainy season - some of the grasses were chest high, a stark contrast from the rest of Savute. But before we got there, we ran into a big male Kudu - I really like this antelope, they have a very cool pattern on their hide and they have these amazing antlers.
We did a huge loop around the marsh area and, unfortunately, no Cheetahs - but we did find all kinds of different new wildlife that we hadn’t seen before. The first was the Ostriches. They were massive - and easy to spot from far away with their black/brown feathers (male/female). Sounds like speed is their only real defense.
We got another chance to get some pictures of the Lilac-crested Rollers - this time with more success. It takes quite a bit of patience - but we got some amazing shots (I stole a couple from Angela on this one - she is really getting the hang of the camera).
We also got to see some warthogs - They are so ugly they are cute… :)
Next were some Tawny Eagles - they look very scraggly, but apparently they can grab small warthogs and Steenboks. Impressive!
We also ran across a new antelope called the Tsessabe - They have this cool coat that’s almost purple. We watched them run across the meadow and they ran almost like horses.
Finally for the morning, we saw a lone zebra. Really great picture with a couple of giraffe in the background - This was really awesome to see, but turns out zebra are so much cooler when they are in a herd, as we realized later on.
We got back from the morning drive for our cesta - Amazing place!
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Some scenic pictures from the morning drive.
In the afternoon, we headed out to the watering hole for sunset drinks. We stopped by an elephant who was sleeping - they sleep much like whales, they shutdown half their brains and chill for a while. This one let us get really close.
When we arrived at the watering hole, all of the animals were congregating. A mating pair of lions, a herd of giraffe, and a herd of elephants - in addition to impala and other antelope. Quite the african scene.
I got some amazing shots at the watering hole while the sun was setting - the Giraffes could not have posed more perfectly.
We drove back after sunset - another successful drive!
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8/6/2024
This was our last day at Savute and we had the choice of sleeping in and heading straight to the airport or going on one last game drive before our flight at 10:05a. Of course we opted for the game drive, but it was a fairly sleepy morning for the animals and we didn’t see a lot. Still, hard to complain. Any day in Africa…
The trip took us straight to the airport - a solid pre-departure drive.
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When we got to the airport, we had to clear some Giraffe off of the runway for the plane to land. :)
We took off late (Africa time we discovered), at around 10:25a. The trip was short and we landed in Moremi at 11a - bright eyed and bushy tailed!
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