Botswana 2012

Our time in Botswana would be dominated by visiting two of the primary destinations this country is famous for... first the Okavango River and then later, Chobe National Park.

The Okavango River is the fourth longest river in southern Africa, starting in Angola and travelling 1,600 kms before emptying into the famous and land locked Okavango Delta.  

We would be spending our time in a houseboat on the Okavango River, this time taking wildlife safaris by boat and particularly focussed on the abundant birdlife the river supports.

Enjoying the houseboat on the Okavango River

Some locals cruise past

With so much water around supporting an abundant supply of fish and insects, there were huge numbers of very beautiful birds to watch and photograph... something we had not experienced before.

Here is a small but very colourful sample.

Very elegant Fish Eagle 

Pied Kingfishers at rest

Pied Kingfisher with its catch

Very diminutive Malachite Kingfisher with a catch

Bee-eater with bug

Egret coming into land on the dense reeds

Goliath Heron taking off in search of food

The river is also home to lots of crocodiles...

...sharing the river with locals also trying to find food

Also in Botswana lies the famous Chobe National Park, renowned especially for seeing elephants, and after settling into some very comfortable and large hotel type accomodation, we were soon off looking for wildlife, this time within the hotel grounds itself.

Rob found a few warthogs enjoying munching away on the lawns and decided to get quite close to them.

Up close and personal to a warthog

They didn't take too kindly to her being so close and very soon made her aware of it, those tusks being a great motivator to move back and quickly.

On the other hand, I found some vervet monkeys of which there were plenty, one very curious little one watching us unpack our gear when we first settled in...

Young curious Vervet monkey

Now they look really cute don't they, but while walking around the grounds during our visit, 4-5 of the parents took a dislike to me and threatened to repeatedly attack, until one of the staff came to intervene.  

The monkeys know the staff because they have to scare them away from the dining areas, and this includes the baboons who also move through the grounds.

We went on a few wildlife drives and a couple by boat.  The land based drives early in the morning delivered a few memorable opportunities.

First were some lions, in particular a large male frequently engaged in mating with a lioness and by frequently, that's exactly what is meant.

During rest periods it was time for food, in this case a baby elephant killed during the night before.

The male rests whilst guarding his current partner

Not far away from the 'happy' couple were two young male lions, full of energy and also eyeing off what was left of the elephant.

The large male seemed asleep most of the time and it was during this we learned a big lesson.  One of the young lions felt like testing his luck and whilst the large male looked asleep, moved in a little too close to the food on offer.

Almost explosively, the large male roared into action covering a 10m gap to reach the young male and clip him over its head.  The speed with which all this happened was a shock and simply taught us we would have no chance.

Also during this drive we had a few other magnificent sightings.

Giant Sable

Our first Cape Buffalo

Cape Buffalos are regarded as one of the more dangerous animals in Africa because they are large, unpredictable, cranky and do not give out any warnings before they attack.

Beautiful leopard staring down on us from its tree sanctuary

The boat safaris certainly brought us within close range of lots and lots of elephants and hippos.  Before even leaving the dock, a hippo decided to say "hello", well not really, but certainly did show us why they kill more humans each year than any other animal in Africa.

yep... they have big teeth

Now to the elephants and it was really good being able to watch LOTS of them doing whatever elephants like to do like rolling in mud, feeding and swimming/walking across the rivers.

Large elephants crossing a river

We did get to see something which looked a little comical and it came when the matriarch of a group of elephants lead them across a nearby river... there were little ones in amongst them.

So they followed her into the water...

...and the comical event happened when the trunks of the young elephants were used as snorkels during the crossing.

Our last boat tour in Chobe provided yet another opportunity whilst standing on the top deck of the boat.  Mike, our guide and avid photographer of birds especially, was chatting away with us, went silent, turned a little and then suddenly started clicking away on his camera.

With only a few moments to spare, managed to swing around, spot what he was shooting and also had a go.  It was a sole skimmer doing what they do best near sunset, hunting for food.

Hunting skimmer

We had all had a wonderful time visiting Botswana and with a setting sun sinking into the shoreline, a herd of Cape Buffalo bid us farewell with our departure in the morning awaiting.

Goodbye Botswana and thank you!