I feel like you can’t say the word “safari” without having Africa in the same sentence.  Many of you have probably read children’s books from the day you were born with pictures or words mentioning animals from Africa or from a safari.  Lions, elephants, rhinos, and hippos were popular in many of the books I remember.  They seemed so far away in reality.  I grew up in the woods where there were black bears, white-tailed deer, coyotes, and lots of birds.  But, that doesn’t compare to seeing a lion in the wild on the hunt or seeing a hippo pop out of the water next to your boat.  We had heard online and from conversations with other travelers that Botswana was among the best places to visit to experience the best Africa has to offer.  Almost 40% of the country of Botswana is national parks or nature reserves; their focus on conservation is impeccable.  We had to go and it was everything we could have expected and more.

Setting up the Safari

As you can probably imagine, there are lots of options for safaris in Africa regardless of the country to go to.  It can be quite overwhelming to know where to go and see African animals in the wild from a safe distance and with the accommodations that make you the most comfortable.  For instance, a lot of Botswana is wide open with lots of space between parks or communities.  Some of the national parks or nature reserves you can self-drive through or, alternatively, hire a guide to drive you.

On top of figuring out how to experience the parks and reserves, the logistics of how to get there and where to stay creates a bunch of different decisions requiring heavy research.  Some accommodations can be as simple as camping in a tent or tent vehicle; it can also be as nice as staying in a resort-like environment with air conditioning, etc.  Transportation to these areas requires small aircraft to take you to little landing strips regardless of the accommodation you have.  The alternative is driving yourself for many hours on dirt or sand roads to reach your destination.
This is all to say that we decided to go through a travel agency to help us through the process.  It was worth every penny and gave us control over the cost and what we really wanted to do.  We ended up working with Anja at Go2Africa and she did a fabulous job getting us set up to get the most out of our short time (8 days) in Botswana.  We decided to go with middle-of-the-road accommodations and put more value into where we would go based on the suggestions provided by Anja.  She set up all our flights, guide bookings, and accommodations including food and beverages.  It made for a very enjoyable time and a trip that was unforgettable.

Maun out to Safari

There are two main areas in Botswana to start your safari: Maun or Kasane.  We flew into Maun and pretty much immediately got on a small plane to our first camp.  As our guide at Camp Moremi, Baba, explained it, after Botswana became independent in 1966, the Okavango Delta tribes moved out of the delta and many of them settled in Maun.  This is now where most of the guides and tourism professionals go to school and begin their multi-year journey to earning their guide license.  They have a school that helps teach students about tourism and how to do things like bartend, cook, interact with tourists, and guide.  

Botswana has a very large tourism industry.  It is only the second largest to that of diamond mining and just above the beef industry.  Botswana’s focus on conservation has allowed the ability to create a whole industry around sharing their country and culture with the world in a way that is enjoyable for those that visit.  

And, enjoy it, we did.  After landing in Maun, we were taken back to the airstrip from the airport to hop on our small-engine airplane to the first camp in the Okavango Delta – Camp Moremi.

Camp Moremi

Talk about first impressions: Camp Moremi was instantly impressive.  The camps we went to all through Botswana were managed by Desert & Delta Safaris.  The basic idea is that they pick you up at the airstrip and take you on safari to your camp. Fun fact – they don’t call it a safari in Africa. Instead, it’s referred to as a game drive.   For these game drives, a guide will drive you in a Toyota truck that is converted to have about six or seven seats with open sides and a canopy over top.  It is perfect for long drives and seeing everything along the way.The camps are mostly in nature reserves or national parks which make it easy to start your exploring of the area right out of the camp in the morning and easily get back by dark.  The transit to and from is just part of your larger safari activities.

Pro Tip: There are many variations of these game-drive vehicles that different safari companies use.  Some are enclosed completely like a normal truck where you just look out the windows.  Others have lots of seating where passengers are packed in tight.  We found it very important to be able to see and take pictures of everything you see.  Since many times it was either unsafe or not possible to get out of the vehicle, having comfortable seating and a way to move around in the vehicle is paramount.  When booking with Anja at Go2Africa, we made this clear based on our research and it was a game changer.  During our game drives at each camp, we were in that truck for around eight hours a day. 

With the time of the year and the impending heat of the middle of the day, game drives at Moremi started at 6 in the morning with us coming back around 11:30 as the animals all started to gather under the shade of the trees, bushes, and other plants in the park.  We then went out from around 3:30 PM until around 6:30 PM as the sun went down.  These are the best times to see the wildlife as the temperatures are more bearable.  We saw A TON of different animals and landscapes.  So, here are the highlights.

Lions and More Lions

Anyone that goes to Africa probably wants to see a lion at a minimum.  One morning we left as the sun was coming up at 6 AM and drove for about an hour or so out to a distant part of the park.  As we drove along we went past a termite mound (these mounds are everywhere and a dime a dozen) and there stood a young, large-maned male lion!  We drove right up next to him and saw his breeding partner laying next to him in the shade of the mound.  It was quite the sight.  The day before we had seen two lionesses hunting in the tall grass keeping a close eye on the herd of zebras in the near distance.  But, seeing the size difference between those lionesses and this male lion was staggering.  They are HUGE!  His paws were massive and even his tail was big.

Lions are together in groups called prides, so usually if you see one you see more.  On the same day we saw the male lion for the first time, we drove a bit off the main path and came across a group of six lion cubs and three mother lionesses feeding on a water buffalo.  Five of the cubs were male and the littlest one was a little lioness.  For a while, we followed them and watched them; it was a fascinating sight.

First Leopard Sighting

We later learned that seeing leopards on safari is actually pretty rare.  They are very territorial and are really good at blending into their surroundings.  Within the whole Moremi Reserve, there are believed to only be about 3-4 leopards in total.  Some game drives we went on were focused on trying to spot them.  Some would call us lucky, and I think we were because we saw a mom and male cub on the drive from the airstrip to the lodge when arriving for the first time.  It wasn’t even an official game drive; Baba (our guide) was just picking us up to get us settled in. But, we got to watch these two leopards for a while and my jaw was wide open the whole time. These are amazing animals.

Hippo Drama

Hippos can be seen all over Moremi Reserve because of the close proximity to large areas of the Okavango Delta of water.  They are large animals that seem to disappear under the water whenever you spot them.  They don’t swim, but walk along the bottom until they bounce up to poke their eyes, ears, and nostrils out to sense what is going on.  Hippos are pretty fun to watch because they are curious in nature.  It is pretty rare to see them out of the water during the day; they do most of their wandering from water source to water source during the the cooler parts of the morning or nighttime.

We had a really interesting experience watching hippos one day in Moremi.  There is this one area where we saw around TWENTY hippos hanging out.  A majority of them were stacked on the water’s shallow area just relaxing and chomping on the water vegetation.  But, the really intriguing part was the group of males milling about the center of the water.  A couple of the male hippos seemed to face off with the top of their heads poking out of the water facing each other.  Then, things got a little…heated.

Baba was telling us that the larger male was most likely the father of the other or an intruding younger male.  The younger male was trying to fight for an area or potentially a group of females in the pond.  The larger male used the large teeth in the middle of his mouth (when opened wide) to fight off the youngster.  We watched this behavior for a while between these two and the other males in the pond.  Earlier in our time at Camp Moremi, we had seen the skull of a hippo at another water source.  That hippo had died on the shore due to wounds from a fight with another hippo.  So, it made sense that the fight we saw in the pond on this day could potentially turn deadly.  Fortunately, the youngster at this pond was able to walk away without any major wounds from what we could see.

Camp Xugana

We had been told by other travelers at Camp Moremi that each camp you go to is a little different.  The second camp we went to is the most unique of the camps we visited in Botswana.  It is a true “water camp”.  Technically the name of the camp is Xugana Island Lodge; it is basically on an island and is surrounded by the water of the Okavango Delta.  Even when we flew in on our small aircraft from Moremi to Xugana, we landed and immediately took a boat through narrow channels and to a lagoon to the lodge.  You pull up on the boat only steps from the lodge itself and your room.  This camp was smaller and more intimate.  The activities were either on water or walking on the islands around the delta.  And the views are breathtaking without even leaving the lodge.

Elephants from a New Angle

We saw a lot of elephants on this safari which was more than welcome.  They are such amazing beings, and they have a way about them that makes you adore them.  The gentle giants can be seen all over Botswana.  Since the most common activity from Camp Xugana was boat safaris, seeing animals from the water is the name of the game.  Elephants are fascinating to observe from the water when they arrive for a bath, a drink, or to cross the channel.

These elephants simply pushed through the current to the opposite side of the channel, which was a spectacular sight to watch.  The trunks of the little ones are high in the air to keep breathing as their taller parents push through the water.  It is difficult to put into words how unique it was to observe elephants in this setting.  They are already fun to watch when they are making their mud baths or twisting the grass out of the ground with their trunks.  They are very social and even use touch as a form of communication in addition to trumpeting and other sounds.  Here are some of the photos we took of elephants throughout all of the camps we went to in Botswana.

A Mokoro Ride

Traditionally, the local tribes in the Okavango Delta made canoe-like vessels out of trees to be used for transportation and fishing.  They call them mokoros.  As you can see below, mokoros look a lot like a canoe or even a kayak.  However, they are much lower to the water and have a bottom that is flatter than that of a canoe.  So, when sitting in one you are actually really close to the water below.  The one you see below is also made of fiberglass which is what they are made with today to conserve the trees in the area.

The mokoros are powered by a long stick that is pushed down into the channel bottom and pushed off.  As you probably guessed, these are really meant only for the shallow waters of the more narrow channels.  We got to spend some time traveling in a mokoro as the sun started to set.  It is such a peaceful experience because you don’t have the sounds of a motor or even oars in the water.  The water in these channels is pristine with the help of the papyrus trees growing up on the channel’s edge.  So, when being that close to the water in the mokoro, you can see fish swim and lily pads shoot up from the bottom.

The Night Sky

We had heard from others before coming to Botswana that the night sky was extra spectacular there.  The lack of light pollution and the big sky due to the mostly flat terrain make it a great place to lie on your back and see the stars.  We got to experience this in a unique way at Camp Xugana.

During the first night at Camp Xugana we were two of only six guests.  Every camp has dinner anywhere between 7 and 8 PM.  The sun has usually gone down or is mostly down by this time.  Dinner is a celebration of sorts each day; the people who make the food or wait on the visitors are introduced along with the menu for the evening.  This particular night we were led onto a small pontoon boat set with dishes for dinner and the vessels for keeping the dinner hot.  As soon as we sat down, someone unhitched us from shore and pushed us off.  We had dinner in the middle of the lagoon (yes, with hippos and crocodiles underneath) under only candlelight, the stars, and the moon.  It was a wonderful time that we will never forget.

Camp Savute

Our last camp in Botswana was a fantastic way to wrap up our safari.  Just like in Moremi, the camp activities consisted of game drives.  To say this area is action-packed is an understatement.  Savute is more arid than the other camps and the watering holes attract a lot of the wildlife.  With so many different animals, both predator and prey, staying close to the few water sources in the reserve, lots of interactions occur.

Wild Dogs & The Kill Cycle

One animal that I knew very little about before coming to Africa was the Wild Dog (a.k.a. Painted Dog).  They are such an interesting animal that seems to be very different from many of the other wildlife in Africa.  They have a very beautiful, interesting appearance with splotches of different colors and patterns.

We met this wonderful couple, Margaret and Hein, in Camp Moremi who had been to Savute and a couple of other camps and hadn’t yet seen wild dogs.  They were so hoping to experience them on safari but, unfortunately, didn’t get to see them on their trip.  So, Margaret and Hein, if you are reading: we finally saw them!  Not only were they viewable to us, but we also got to witness them in action.

One morning we saw a pack of wild dogs drinking at a local watering hole.  There were even little pups which were really fun to see!  Wild dogs are pack animals and do pretty much everything together: hunt, drink, eat, and sleep.  We followed this pack around for a while.  They eventually honed in on one impala antelope and went into pack hunt mode.  What we learned is that wild dogs are like “military precision” hunters.  They work together to take down their prey systematically and use their high endurance to outlast their prey in the chase.  In this case, the wild dogs are almost certain to eventually catch the impala because they can run and run until the impala gets worn out and its back legs start to seize up.  The hunt started and the cute young pups were pretty far behind; it almost ended in disaster because the young pups ran right past a leopard who was getting ready to hunt for his breakfast!

The leopard decided to leave them be this time or maybe he decided he was more in the mood for impala as he spent the next while slowly stalking a few impalas about 50 yards out in the grass.  The adult wild dogs were also eventually able to take down the impala they were running down.  We got to see them feed on the impala as the vultures and hawks swept in to take the scraps.  A pair of Black-Backed Jackals also lingered and circled the area, waiting for their chance at the carcass.  There were a couple of times when the wild dogs ran the jackals off.  

The wild dogs were always paranoid as they ate.  We learned that they actually try to eat as quickly as they can to keep from the possibility of a larger predator coming to take the food.  Since wild dogs need a pack to take any prey down, lone predators like lions or leopards are much more equipped to fight off wild dogs.  We even learned from our guide, KT, that this pack used to have a couple more pups but they were taken by lions and leopards.  Apparently, many times the pups aren’t close enough to the kill to eat themselves so the adult wild dogs will eat quickly and then leave the carcass taking scraps for their pups.

Botswana Independence Day

We were lucky and fortunate enough to be in Botswana on their Independence Day.  The nine major tribes of the land which is current day Botswana got together in the early 1960s.  The land had been under a British protectorate (not a colony) for many years and the tribes wanted to declare independence as one nation.  On September 30th, 1966 the nation of Botswana became independent and it was founded on the values of peace and tranquility.

The Savute Camp made the day a celebration for not just the residents of Botswana that worked there, but for the guests that came.  We got to learn more about Botswana and partake in some of their traditions of games and food.  Britta and I even got a chance to try our luck at some of the games they set up for the staff and patrons.  But, coolest of all was hearing the staff sing their traditional music.

The cake they made for Independence Day was beautiful!  Every camp we went to was aware that Britta is gluten-free and they were so accommodating.  But, on this day, Kenna, a staff member at Camp Savute made a special gluten-free cake for Britta!  It was decorated the same as the larger cake.  This was so kind that it almost brought us to tears.  Kenna is such a kind soul and made the day so special for Britta and me.

Overall

Botswana blew us away.  The people, the culture, the food, and the commitment to conservation make it a special place on the planet.  We fell in love with their commitment to community which includes the wildlife and nature around them. We were so blessed to have this experience.  We couldn’t have wished for a better company to guide us through Africa than Desert & Delta Safaris; they do such an excellent job.

And, of course, the highlight of the trip to Botswana was seeing the wildlife.  So, we kept a list of all the animals we saw along the way.  Have fun looking through and we encourage you to Google the animals that don’t have pictures next to them so you can get an idea of the variety of unique animals there are in Botswana.

Animals We Saw

Recap

Next Up!

• Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

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Read About Where Else We’ve Been

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• Vietnam: North to South
• Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia: New Year’s 2023
• Thailand: Temples, Food, and So Much More
• Australia: The East Coast of Natural Wonders