Our Leopard audience watches our every move on Safari with &Beyond!

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A week ago it would have been “Hello from Botswana” … if there had been email access that is! I was extremely privileged to go to one of the places on my “Travel Bucket List” list – the Okavango Delta – and I can certainly recommend that you add it to your list too. It was not just amazing, it was super duper amazing!

And who would be believe that I would be able to cope, yet alone enjoy not having cellphone and email access!!!!!

I spent some time at two lodges – the first one was totally surrounded by water and after the CT-Jo’burg flight, the Jo’burg-Maun flight and the Maun- Pom Pom airstrip flight, we took a 45 minute boat ride to get there. The location and the level of water means that  you don’t have large populations of bigger animals – the variety is more limited and more widely spread. But having said that, although you can’t always find him/her, the elusive leopard is in the area . We saw buffalo, giraffe, hippo, monkeys (cheeky devils are everywhere – including playing on the jumping castle, also known as one’s tent!!), impala, warthogs (a finalist in Africa’s Ugliest 5 competition!) and squirrels. I am sure there are others too … that’s just what we saw. The birdlife is prolific – I’m not a bird watcher but you can’t help but be amazed by the variety (I think there are over 400 species in the area) and their beauty, even the starlings are drop dead gorgeous with a shining blue colouring. It’s very difficult to choose the thing that left the biggest impression but for me I think it would be the vastness, the remoteness and the water. I can’t explain it in words other than to say it was phenomenal – the reflections on the water were mind blowing.

At the second lodge that I went to there was also a lot of water but it wasn’t surrounded by water so if you wanted to go on a boat ride (which we did) then you drive about 40 minutes to get to the permanent water channels which are then deep enough. The water levels are currently at their highest in a very long time and are expected to rise even
In this area there is a lot more of the bigger game species but given the vastness of the area, which is beautiful in itself, your ranger and tracker have to be pretty good at tracking them. The one morning we decided to look for the female lions – you can’t ride around the whole area just keeping an eye out because for one thing you can’t cover the whole area (it’s too big!) and as big as they are they camouflage and hide out so very well. They can be within 50 metres of your vehicle and you may not see them. I promise I am not making this up! But back to the original train of thought on this one … what I wanted to say was that it was amazing to see how Lesh (”my” ranger) tracked where they were via paw print tracks and yes, a bit of luck as well. Why luck – well they don’t keep to a straight line or in one direction – they criss-cross and change direction,  they don’t stick to the “road”, natures covers their tracks very effectively. Tracking certainly is a real skill a talent even – sometimes there aren’t tracks and sometimes even if they are they may not lead you to an animal sighting.

My favourite animal sighting was tha leopard because they are incredibly elusive and I hadn’t seen one before. We were on our way back to the lodge, having unsuccessfully tried to track a leopard, when two were sighted so we headed off in that direction and yippee yay we saw them. I would never have picked them up in the long grass because they camouflage very well and were moving quite quickly – later on we heard the crunching of bones and understood the mom was taking her cub (not so tiny anymore!) to an earlier kill. It was an amazing experience but the fun wasn’t over yet – our vehicle got stuck within 100m of the leopard! The vehicles and rangers skills are phenomenal so you rarely get truly stuck where they are unable to get you out after to’ing and fro’ing, using the lifter etc etc but because of all the water it was very wet and swampy and we were truly stuck. There was another vehicle in the area so he went to drop off his guests at the lodge and then came back to tow us out.

But life has loads of obstacles and because of the swamp conditions he couldn’t come straight behind and the two tow ropes kept slipping – remember with two leopards watching you, you can’t get out and move freely! To cut what could be an a long story short, they brought the second vehicle parallel to our vehicle but between us and the leopards and we had to dash from our vehicle to the “rescue” vehicle. The two rangers were very professional and knew what they are doing so we were never in any real danger and they were very watchful of the leopards location and our safety – you can’t outrun a leopard and although the leopards aren’t even slightly perturbed by the vehicles noise …when you put your feet on the grass and take a few steps you could see how they picked up the difference and perked up. I followed the rangers’ instructions without hesitation because they know the environment far better than I do – but I will admit that when covering those few metres my heart was pounding

That was a true day in Africa for our lodge – we got stuck with the leopards, elephants had come through the camp and trampled some of the pipes so there wasn’t water for a few hours, one of the groups going back to the airstrip were delayed and almost missed some flights because there was a lion blocking the bridge (and no way around!) and some of the other vehicles had problems starting, two punctures etc. But in true African Spirit, that’s just another day in the office and by sunset it was all dealt with and resolved. All in time to enjoy a drink whilst watching one of the many beautiful African sunsets that spoil one daily.

The hospitality, accommodation and food were incredible – absolutely spoilt.

I love being out in the bush–there are so many other stories and experiences I could tell you about. But maybe I should end off now by saying it was truly amazing and as &beyond statement promises, a safari experience with them; “awakens the soul!

Remember, add the Okavango Delta to you Travel Bucket List because you definitely won’t be disappointed.