Curious what animals you will see on a safari in Africa? Here is a report from clients on a trip in South Africa, Botswana, Rwanda and Tanzania.
11 July:
We are now at Xaranna camp in Botswana, our third camp. We are having just an amazing time, and have seen more animals than we expected. Kirkman's Camp at Sabi Sands was great as that is where we saw all the animals for the first time. We had seen all of the Big Five by the end of our second day. We had a terrific young guide there with an experienced tracker, and they taught us a lot. Two outings a day with a wake-up call at 6.00 a.m. Botswana in the Okavango Delta is quite different as you told us it would be. The tents at Nxabega and here are very comfortable, luxurious really. The elephants in Botswana are much larger than in South Africa, and the cats we have seen are more active. At Kirkman's we saw a pride of lions sleeping on the day we arrived there, but in Botswana we have seen lions, leopards, and cheetahs several times on the move. This morning we watched two 18-month lions who had been kicked out of their pride by the dominant male try to hunt a couple of warthogs, but they didn't really know what to do so the hunt never really got started. Later in the morning we were looking at three cheetahs lying on a termite mound to our right when our tracker spotted 4 lions coming in our direction from the left. In between the lions and us we also spotted a jackal trying to keep out of sight of all of the cats. Very exciting to see. There are no fences around the camps in Botswana, so animals roam freely through them, especially at night. We had two hippos right outside our tent our first night at Nxabega, and last night an elephant scratched an itch against a post at the corner of the tent. We are loving every minute of it.
19JUL
Botswana was wonderful. The Okavango Delta was very interesting. We saw elephants swimming, and had a big bull walk right through the lodge area at Xaranna during dinner where we were sitting. All of the other guests were eating up on the veranda, so we had to quickly leave the area on the ground where we were eating as the staff grabbed our table and carried it to the deck. Exciting evening.
Linyanti was absolutely terrific. We saw hundreds of elephants and hippos, and nearly 100 buffalo. Lots of very interesting birds and, although we are not birders, we found them quite fascinating. We saw a lion attempt to take down a giraffe, but she just missed. We caught it on tape so that is something the people at home will enjoy seeing. The guides were all good. Linyanti Ebony Camp was somewhat rustic compared to the two other camps, but still very nice and comfortable. We are halfway through our trip and it is going better than we expected, and our expectations were very high. The people looking after us are doing a great job, and our guides have all been very good, especially the one at Kirkman's Camp and Linyanti. Thank you for arranging such a great trip for us.
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