When you stay at unfenced camps in Botswana’s Okavango Delta – that special wilderness sanctuary for wildlife – chances are you’ll meet a wild animal or two on your walks around camp. At Chitabe Lediba we enjoyed a visit from an elephant, a large-spotted genet and a few tree squirrels. If you work there, you might have some hairier stories to tell.
By Roxanne Reid
When you stay at unfenced camps in Botswana’s Okavango Delta – that special wilderness sanctuary for wildlife – chances are you’ll meet a wild animal or two on your walks around camp. At Chitabe Lediba we enjoyed a visit from an elephant, a large-spotted genet and a few tree squirrels. If you work there, you might have some hairier stories to tell.
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By Roxanne Reid Chobe National Park has the highest concentration of elephants in Africa. Because they love water, one of the best ways to see them is on a Chobe River boat cruise. Best of all, if you stay at Chobe Game Lodge you can experience the river and its wildlife on a whisper-quiet electric boat. By Roxanne Reid If you’re really keen on wildlife photography, especially in Botswana, you may have heard of Wilderness Safaris guide and photographer Ona Basimane. His photos have appeared in publications like Peolwane, Discover Botswana and Travel Ideas, and he was a guest speaker at the Wild Shots Wildlife Photography Symposium in South Africa in 2013 and 2015. By Roxanne Reid Flying in to Xigera Camp in a small plane is a chance to get an aerial view of the wonder that is Botswana’s Okavango Delta, its mosaic of islands, water channels, floodplains, swamps and game tracks. You might even see herds of elephant or buffalo spread out like miniatures far below. But once you land, the mokoro is king. By Roxanne Reid If you visit Xigera Camp once the floodwaters have arrived in this part of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, the last section of your journey will be by small boat. Here in a pristine and remote wilderness you’ll find camp staff gathered on the bridge above the jetty to wave and sing their welcome – a delightful custom at Wilderness Safaris camps. By Roxanne Reid The white Makgadikgadi salt pans cover a vast Switzerland-sized patch of Botswana. This was Africa’s largest inland sea a million years ago, before tectonic movement to the west transformed everything. Rivers changed course and water evaporated from the lakes, leaving condensed minerals and salt behind. Today the pans fill only with rain water then dry again to a salty crust. By Roxanne Reid Once you’ve been out on one of Chobe Game Lodge’s electric safari vehicles or boats, you might be inspired to find out more about the eco efforts of this lodge in Botswana. And if you go behind the manicured lawns, stuffed sofas and relaxed guests to the bowels of the lodge, where all the work and environmental activity happens, chances are you’ll get to meet Albert Ndereki. By Roxanne Reid In a previous post I shared highlights of Chobe in northern Botswana. Although it’s one of the four ecosystems of Chobe, I’ve chosen to tackle highlights of the Linyanti separately. Here you’ll find the incomparable Savute Channel, Selinda Spillway and Linyanti River, a remote area of floodplain and woodland that offers memorable predator activity. By Roxanne Reid During our five-week adventure in Botswana we met many interesting people, from knowledgeable guides to chefs, barmen, camp managers and others working in tourism, as well as photographers and independent businessmen with a story. I’m going to share some of these as part of a short series called Voices of Botswana. Here’s the first, about Xigera’s smiling chef. By Roxanne Reid Chobe National Park in northern Botswana is famous for its large elephant population and its beautiful riverfront drive in the Serondela section. Although Chobe encompasses other ecosystems like the Savuti Marsh and Linyanti Swamps, I’ve concentrated here on the section from Ngoma Gate in the west, hugging the Chobe River to the Sedudu Gate near Kasane in the east. |
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AboutI'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel. Categories
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