Our safari to Chobe was cancelled at the last minute. In fact, in the parking lot. Due to the heavy rains the track through the Savuti marsh was flooded out.
But they had a backup for us, a track into the Okavango delta to Moremi to see something we wouldn’t see up in Chobe. I took my GPS along.
So here’s a complete safari story. Truck and passengers. Me, Solomon, Desa, Boka and driver
It turned out to be fantastic. Here’s the OSM map of the delta. Much better than the Tracks4Africa map in detail
This was the final 28 miles. The way points were the first sightings of some major animals. I forgot the most important, but you’ll see that further down
And the stats, one way. We averaged 14mph over 62 miles in 4 hours 20 minutes. Back was quicker
The first long stretch took an hour. No animals. warm but not hot. Us up in the wind stream, very chill and nice
Then the corner north towards the south gate. Nicer
Then elephant poop. You can tell because unlike other big game, elephant poop is a bit stinky and massive. Each piece here is bigger than a cantaloupe
And here he is. A beauty. We all explode in applause
Solomon jumps out to take a selfie
Boka jumps out to take a pee (note 1)
The movie
And our first giraffe was a little hard to spot against the tree
Another elephant, how we see stuff from the truck. It’s very cool
A giant elephant. We’re told not to get out of the truck this time
The movie
It gets swampy and even more beautiful
Then the south gate. Everyone has to register here unless they don’t come out. We see why later
Here’s a nice delta map on the wall with our destination shown
And we’re off, now into the delta
About 10 miles of the track was very slow. It started with little pools
Then became slow work
We passed a broken down truck, assistance arrived
And later someone else, lost. No GPS
Past Maribou storks, one of my least favourite birds. You should see them attack a carcus, or a live animal. They’re the zombies of the bird world, way spookier than vultures, which manage to eat carcuses without looking evil
These are red Lechwe. They’re the fastest of the antelope family
A huge grassy plain, trimmed to perfection by the antelope
Carefree, as they can see the predator lions and leopards from a big distance
And in the middle, about 30 hippos. My first ever
Here they are, noisy and stinky
The movie
We park in the shade to watch them and have lunch
Solomon and the driver eating chicken and cold French fries
Then we head home, back the way we came
A good giraffe movie
Then something happened which not many people see, a leopard
And here he is, doesn’t care as we get close with the truck
Then moves off
So, the Okavango seen. Editorial later. What I didn’t see here I’ll see later, close to the Zambia border.
Talking about carcuses, I stopped on my bike the other day when I saw a dozen vultures in the shade of a tree. Here they are, with one in flight. They’re waiting for the cars to pass
note 1: permission from Boka obtained
Comments
Now that is how you Safari!!! Looks like an unreal day on the trail.
Really good. I thought the scenery on the east safari you and I did in Kazaranga was equally great though.