From my previous blogs you would have probably realised that my primary photography genres is landscape. Landscape photography gives me a great opportunity to travel to exciting places and also be in the nature. Having said that, if I get an opportunity to do wildlife, I will not forgo that. When Nomadic roads announced the driving expedition to Botswana, I took a decision to join the expedition (Blog will be published shortly). I have heard a lot about wildlife in Botswana and hence I decided to do an exclusive wildlife trip before the start of the driving expedition.
Tour Date : 6th July ‘24 to 16th July ‘24
Company : Swampland Safari Trails, Botswana.
Contact Ms. Laetitia Milne - +267 71445266, swampsaf@iafrica.com.
I found Ethiopian Airlines having the best connection to Africa. I flew Ethiopian, Mumbai – Addis Ababa – Maun (Botswana).The actual trip started on the 8th but as usual to take care of contingencies like flight cancellation, connection delays etc. I landed in Maun on 6th.
Itinerary :
The entire planning was done by Swampland and the execution was flawless. The accommodation arranged was of very high standard. I had the advantage of having an exclusive game drive jeep with a Guide cum Driver which made my trip lot more enjoyable.
My companion for the entire trip was an open jeep and Keitumetse Mogale (KT) my Guide cum Driver.
Glimpse of the lodges :
Day 1 - Departed from Maun to Planet Baobab Lodge in Gweta for the Makgadikgadi Pan sleep out. For the pan sleep out I had few other people as well. The lodge team took us to the pan which was about an hour and half drive from the lodge.
The Makgadikgadi Pan, a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikgadi, which once covered an area larger than Switzerland, but dried up tens of thousands of years ago. Enroute to the PAN, one can see many Baobab trees. The group reached the PAN sleeping point by sunset which was amazing. As it became dark, the temperature dropped drastically and the bon fire was the only saviour. There was no tent to sleep. All that we had was just a bed (like a sleeping bag) with warm blankets inside. The sky was infested with stars and the milky way was visible to the naked eyes. It was a great experience.
For the next 6 days the routine used to be to leave the lodge by 630 AM and return by 630 PM searching for game drives or safari in search of wildlife especially the cats. The temperature before sunrise and after sunset was in single digit and hence it was quite cold and with an open jeep it made it worse. It is very important to carry warm clothing.
First 3 days was in Chobe National Park. Chobe National Park is Botswana’s first National Park and has one of the largest concentrations of game in Africa. By size, it is the third largest park in the country, after the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the Gemsbok National Park. Chobe acquired it's national park status in 1968 and borders with Namibia and touches Zimbabwe and Zambia with about 11,700 square km. Chobe National Park with its dazzling, deep blue Chobe River, consists of four areas: Ngwenzumba Pans, Linyanti, Savute and the Chobe Riverfront.
Next 3 days was in Khwai. Khwai which is about 1800 KMS of land. Khwai is nestled between Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve, and Chobe National Park. It offers a wildlife-rich patchwork of lagoons, shallow flooded pans, open grasslands, and woodland forests.
The drive inside the parks was very interesting with sand tracks, variety of flora and of course the wildlife.
I was very lucky to have multiple sightings of Lions and Leopards on various days besides other wildlife. Below video presents the sightings.
Lions :
Leopards :
Other wildlife :
In order to make the viewing of the album easy, I have split the album into multiple albums – Lions, Leopards, Elephants and Others.
To view the album --> https://gvgops6.wixstudio.io/botswana-wildlife-j
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