Day 59 Nairobi to Cape Town
It was another early morning start (4am), but with all the excitement of going on safari to the Moremi Game Reserve, on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta in Botswana it really did not matter! The Okavango River Lodge does not provide transport from Maun, it is a 15km drive and costs around 50Pula or $5.
On arrival Gideon, the safari guide gave us a quick ¨do and don'ts¨ on safari, packed our lunch and before we knew it we left the lodge behind for the 90km drive to Moremi Game Reserve. The first 30km on paved roads and the rest of the way was on dirt roads, which turned the drive into 2 and a half hour. At the hour mark on our drive we passed through a fence system which prevents disease being transmitted from Buffalo to Livestock, sadly it prevents the South-East migration of other animal species to the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park however they can still migrate North-East to Chobe National Park.Way before the Moremi reserve gate the safari adventure began with a large herd of elephants heading towards one of the few remaining waterholes, as most had dried up in the long dry season. At the South Gate entrance we had breakfast and coffee with squirrels, horned bills & scarlets trying their best to get a free meal. Please do not feed any wild animals!
Gideon arranged the park permits and after packing up breakfast we entered the Reserve. The first wild life encounters were birds including white backed vulture, tawny eagle, saddle-billed stork & the lilac-breasted roller. It was only 8h30am but already too hot for wildlife to be in the sun. The best way to find most animals during the hot and dry season is at the remaining water holes.As soon as the first water hole was in sight so were the animals, kudu, impala, waterbuck, gazelle, zebra, warthog, baboons, vervet monkeys & more elephants! Just before lunch, at another water hole, there were 4 female giraffes and 1 male attempting to drink, however the females were weary of the crocodile they could see coming towards them, the male was not put off at all and spread his legs and bowed his head to drink, the females then gained enough courage and started drinking alongside the male. The crocodile slowly came closer, within a meter of the Giraffe but mistimed it's lunge and the giraffe jumped back in shock. After watching the excitement at the water hole, we started to move on to look for a nice shady lunch stop when more animals started approaching for a drink, first the baboons, then guinea fowl and zebra. Lunch was set up under an acacia tree which dampened the 37 degree afternoon heat wave. There was pizza, sausage, cheese, rolls, salad, chips and juice which was greatly received by all before jumping back on the 4X4 and slowly making our way back to civilization. On the way we met another safari group who said they had seen something special and we should check it out. Gideon did not tells us what we were looking for, heading off to find the exciting surprise waiting for us a kilometer down the track we spotted a dead gazelle up in a tree, a sure sign of a leopard kill!!
Scanning for the leopard with no result Gideon started up and drove around the thicket to find a way in. He managed to squeeze us through the thick brush which opened up in the centre and parked us under the kill. We looked around for the leopard with no luck and as we were maneuvering to exit the thicket Ingrid yelled "STOP!!" All of us looked around to see what she had seen and there under a bush, just 2 meters in front of us was a paw and an amazing blue eye looking straight at us! She was panting heavily in the dry 40 degree heat continually looking at us, she was beautiful with most amazing leopard eyes we had ever seen. After spending some time with her we had to move on. The trip back to the hotel was still a long 3 and a half hours drive.
As the sun was setting we approached the Okavango River Lodge. It was a fantastic day, with many great sightings, a very knowledgable and friendly ranger. If you would like to contact Gideon for a safari in and around the Okavango Delta his company is called Bush Tale Safaris, his email is gbatsholelwang@yahoo.com and his number is +267 742 29 699.
As the Sedia Riverside Hotel was fully booked for the following 2 nights we found another hotel just 600m down a sand road called Kamanga Safari Hotel. Both hotels were very comfortable and very clean, but the Sedia Riverside Hotel had a better ambiance.