Sorry again for the long wait! I have been meaning to post again but the holidays and a cold, and admittedly Bloons Tower Defense 5, made the past few weeks fly by.
The next stage of my trip was the camping safari with Bushways in Botswana. Five of us were picked up at Island Safari Lodge and taken to another camp to meet up with the rest of the group. They had already been travelling for about a week through Botswana and Namibia on the 'elephant safari' route. We were on the 'buffalo safari' which is camping for 3 nights in Moremi Game Reserve, 3 nights in Chobe National Park, and 1 night at a lodge in Livingstone, Zambia:
http://www.bushways.com/buf_safari.html
The majority of the group was German and there were some language barriers but there were also some Canadians and a dutch couple and the majority of the group could speak English. Joe was our guide, Daniel was the translator for the German group, and Gabriel was our cook.
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| The burbs of Maun. |
We stopped just outside of Maun to fill up the truck's water tank which would be for cooking, dishes, and hand-washing and then we were off to Moremi.
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| Entrance to Moremi. |
Botswana has a fence between cattle country and the reserve to prevent the African buffalo from getting in contact with the cattle to avoid the spread of disease. After we passed the fence we started to see game (wild animals) and I could not stop smiling. I was so excited! We saw impala and baboons first. Everyone was very excited with the first impala we saw, though by the end of the day it felt as common as seeing a squirrel here in Canada so we lost the initial excitement for them. Then I saw my first wild elephants and got a bit choked up. It was a dream come true.
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| Elephants sheltering in the shade of a large tree. |
The first day of the safari was absolutely amazing. We saw so much that day. We drove to camp, stopping whenever an animal was spotted, and set up camp and had lunch before heading out again later that afternoon for the evening drive. Each camper or couple was assigned a tent and a mattress so you had to remember the number for each (printed on the canvas) and you were responsible for setting up your own tent.
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| My home for 6 nights, quite roomy, and a comfy mattress. |
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| The camp, the vehicle had a canvas roof that could be rolled up so we could stand up for a better view and the trailer doubled as the kitchen. |
Everyone helped setting up the camp table and chairs. Joe and his team set up the camp toilets and shower. The toilet was a pit dug into the ground with a comfortable toilet seat chair placed over the hole surrounded by a tent wall that you could zip up for privacy. I was very thankful for the seat since I had this vision of squatting all week from what I had heard about bush toilets from other travelers.
The best part of the experience was the food. We would stop for fruit mid-morning - apples, oranges, etc., and then lunch was at noonish. Our first lunch was salad, meat and cheese slices. Our first dinner, after the game drive, was chicken stir fry with dried fruit and cookies for dessert. It was delicious, and I was excited to have such good food out in the middle of the African bush!
The highlight of the day was a sighting of wild dogs chasing an impala. It was amazing! They are very endangered and sightings are rare so Joe and Daniel were both really excited that we had a chance to see them.
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| This is how close we were. They were running FAST! |
