DAY 11

I am up at 3AM writing this journal and we plan to head out around 4:30 AM. We will pack and stay out in the brush until we meet our small puddle jumper to take us on to our last camp. I awake to find a spider eating a frog on my veranda. I have no idea what kind of spider it was but this was one nasty looking big spider. We board our vehicle and head out into the bush. For whatever reason most of the animals are hiding. We drink beers before 8 AM and soon find a group of zebras.

7:30 AM and we need to get our creative juices flowing so we crack the beers. I believe Jeff was on #2

I have tried to make a photograph of zebras that is a conglomerate of all the diagonal lines. I have tried for days and simply haven’t had a large enough grouping of zebras to make my picture. Jeff volunteers to be a zebra herder and jumps out of the vehicle and starts to practice zebra herding. He definitely finds a calling in life and is talented at the art form of zebra herding. He roams the plains with black mambas and other deadly creatures and begins to herd the zebra into formation. The only problem is that while different groups of zebras will be in an area, each group has it’s own dominant male and they don’t like to get too close. Jeff has definitely become a qualified and certified Botswana zebra herder but he can’t quite herd all of them together.

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Jeff herds zebras

Nice job Jeff. Now please turn them around

Thanks Jeff. Now get the group together

We make some pictures and eventually head to the wonderful airport. The airport is quite amazing. The baggage area is the place on the runway that the bags are placed. The waiting area is a portable step for the airplane and best of all moments before a plane touches down the actual runway needs to be cleared of baboons, elephants and a leopard . We get on our puddle jumper say our goodbyes and take a 10 minute fight to Mombo.

Baggage loading area at the International airstrip in Vumbra Plains

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Mombo is another luxury camp, Folks like David Rockefeller and a gagle of celebs all come to Mombo to see Africa. The place is amazing. Mombo Camp is situated on Mombo Island, adjoining the northern tip of Chief’s Island, and is within the Moremi Game Reserve in northern Botswana. The camp offers abundant wonderful wildlife viewing, arguably, year round the best wildlife viewing in Botswana. The highlight here is the concentrations of plains animals and all the predators – including the big cats! Lion sightings are particularly good. Mombo is built under the shade of some large shady trees and overlooks a wonderful floodplain that teems with wildlife. The camp has 9 comfortably furnished, luxurious tents, raised off the ground. The guest’s rooms and the walkways that connect the rooms to the living area are up to 2m off the ground, allowing animals to wander freely through and under the camp. The canvas rooms are spacious and well appointed and have en-suite facilities under canvas and an additional outdoor shower for those who enjoy a shower under the stars. The dining room, pub and living area overlook the open plain in front of the camp and there is a plunge pool. The wildlife viewing in the area is excellent and guests can see lion, leopard, large herds of buffalo, wild dog, elephant, rhino, hyena, giraffe, wildebeest and zebra.

Mombo... A little more than your average tent...

Every detail was addressed at Mombo and the staff was FANTASTIC

We arrive drop off our bags and head out with our new guide Moss. We find a large pride of lions and an array of other animals and soon it is sunset and we see one of the most breathtaking sunsets. The sky is yellow and red and anything and everything in front of it is magnificent. After sunset we head back to camp and have dinner and call it a night.

This wild dog has attained celebrity status. He has been adopted by a family of Jackals at Mombo

Impala's block the road

A large pride of lions and yes we are very very very close

Yup very close indeed

but they are just so cute

Just look at that face

And they really love to cuddle

On the way back to camp we find giraffes at sunset

I get out of the vehicle and try to photograph the giraffe from the ground to get the sun in the right spot. He won't see me. YEA RIGHT. They bolted just as soon as I started to shoot

Do we really have to have another insane sunset YESSSSSS

Just more sunset

Moss our guide scans the horizon

Back at camp an elephant crosses with the last rays of light

DAY 8

On Sunday for our last day in Savuti we wake up at 3 and pack and head out into the bush.

Another amazing sunrise

We encounter the cheetah from the day before lounging on the runway at sunrise.

Cheetah on runway ready for takeoff

I believe this runway is currently being used

After spending about an hour we head into the bush and come across some elephants that we evidently disturbed. A large male showed his dominance. In plain English he charged us and Michelle let out scream. We wondered if the seat was dry?

A little too close

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We drove past the elephants and on this dirt or rather barely dirt road we came across our first sign in all of Botswana. The sign read “Transit Route”. We looked at each other and laughed. Lazi explains that it really is a transit route for trucks and vehicles headed towards Maun. We appropriately nicknamed the road the Trans Botswana Highway.

A hornbill alongside the Trans Botswana Highway

The sign says it all.....

About 200 feet down the road a tree was blocking the superhighway and we had to head into the grasslands and swamp to get around it. We got back on the road and went to the airstrip where we met the puddle jumper to take us to our next destination Vumbra Plains.

When I was growing up as a kid I went to camp and it was genuinely rustic. I assumed that most of the camps in Africa would remind me of summer camp, log cabins and minimum comforts. Vumbura Plains is no regular camp. Vumbura Plains south is beyond luxury. My room was about 1600 square feet. Each tented room has a large, very comfortable bedroom, a sunken lounge, a “sala” and ensuite facilities with a shower, bath, a flush toilet and an outdoor shower under the stars. Each room also has its own plunge pool where you can watch elephants from in the flooded plain in front. The main dining, lounge and pub area are also raised off the ground and are tucked beneath a canopy of cool, shady, indigenous trees with a wonderful vista across the flood plains.  There are 7 bedded camps linked by raised boardwalks and each has its own dining, lounge and bar area although all 14 beds or parts thereof can be utilized for larger parties. All 7 of the luxury tented rooms are raised off the ground on wooden platforms with walkways connecting them to the main living areas. Access into this area is only by aircraft and then by vehicle to camp. The camp is situated to the north of Mombo, in a private concession bordering the Moremi Game Reserve in the extreme north of the Okavango Delta. The Vumbura Reserve offers both land and water activities in a park that has a wonderful variety of habitats and a great diversity of wildlife. The reserve offers an enormous traversing area of close on 130,000 acres. The main activity at Vumbura Plains is game viewing in diverse and scenic countryside. Open 4×4 Range Rovers and walks enable game viewing in the savannah and woodland areas. While the camp is luxurious it also has a spectacular staff that was not at all pretentious. The staff was totally accommodating with a smile for every single request.

As I check into my room I look at the plunge pool and there is a beautiful painted reed frog on the side of my pool. I waste no time grabbing the macro and shooting and then we meet our driver Ollie and head out into the bush. It is about 5:30 PM by the time we head out and we encounter wildebeest, warthogs and elephants and catch a really pretty sunset. We have a fantastic dinner and then I shoot some star trails at night, do a little editing and then pass out.

Nothing like a little tent in Africa

We had to really rough it in Vumbra Plains

More to come…..

DAY 5

For our last day in Duba Plains we headed out around 4 AM and found the herd of sleeping buffalo. We photographed them and moved on and had an incredible experience with a herd of elephants.

5:54 AM in the bush with a setting moon

Cape buffalo up close

Elephants….. Moms, babies and big bulls put on a great show allowing us exceptionally close as they devoured grasses and small trees.

Mom and baby

A large male waving his trunk

Close enough to photograph the eye of an elephant

Around noon we saw one of the lion cubs perched in the sun on a mound of dirt.

Young lion climbs on a mound to see vast plains

Two females were eyeing each other and jostling for position in the pride. A mom and her cubs put on a show of a lifetime. They were licking each other and playing and we were again within three feet.

A female eyes another female. Lions in a pride are known to kill the cubs of other females in the same pride

They look so cute and harmless

C'mon they just can't be dangerous......

We had a puddle jumper to catch but before we headed back we found the male and made amazing shots in gorgeous light. At one point he was walking toward the vehicle and he turned away at the last second. Our hearts raced as he waked in front of the Range Rover instead of through it.

A large dominant male walks through the tall grass and then.....

The male makes eye contact and walks towards me...

OK maybe it is time to back off a bit

One of the cubs who is soaked from the rain shakes off all the water

The sky clears and we start to head back to camp. Everything was great up until now....

We headed back to camp and we wanted to photograph the cape buffalo going across the water. Things did not go quite as planned and we ended up going over a downed tree that had a bees’ nest of African bees otherwise known as killer bees. Spike was driving and was instantly attacked and covered with bees along with Humphrey. I had an allergic reaction to a bee sting as a kid and was terrified – Didn’t know if I would live or die if I was stung. I got stung twice but covered myself with a poncho and crouched on the floor. Let it be known that since I wanted the lowest seat I sat in the 2^nd row of the Range Rover. They called it the bug blocker seat. Jeff and Michelle didn’t get bitten at all since they where in rows 3 and 4. Spike was also a bit of a wreck and thought he was in reverse but was in forward when he floored the gas and we plowed into a tree. At that point the vehicle stalled and Spike bolted from the vehicle and dove into crocodile infested waters. The bees hover above and form a circle overhead, waiting for his head to surface so they can sting again. I heard him dive in and thought that they had all left me in the Range Rover. I was totally freaked out huddled under a poncho thinking I was all alone and then the Spike and Humphrey jumped back in and we got the hell out of there. (For the record, Michelle and Jeff didn’t abandon me and never left the vehicle.) In the end I was ok but Humphrey was stung about 20 or 30 times and his head and lips were severely swollen and Spike was also stung more than 25 times. We were all ok but it was a good reminder of just how dangerous it can be in the African Plains. Oh, by the way I did not get pictures and neither did anyone else. The bees made for exciting dinner conversation as we were the first folks to ever get attacked at camp.

Around 1PM we headed to the airstrip to fly to our second destination Savuti. We have to clear the airstrip of an elephant, warthog and a few baboons. This is typical airport policy in Botswana. Thursday, January 20, we arrive in Savuti after a thirty minute flight. Savuti Camp is situated in the Linyanti Concession along the Savute Channel in northern Botswana. The site of the camp is about 17 kilometres ‘downstream’ from the Zibadianja Lagoon – the source of the Channel. Between 1980 and 2008 the Channel stopped flowing and became an unusual and productive ribbon of grassland that served as a corridor and feeding ground in the surrounding woodland for a wide variety of herbivores. In 2008, the Channel once more became a deep, clear waterway harboring hippo and aquatic life with myriad varieties of waterbirds. Scientists believe that the tektonic plates shifted causing water to flood the area.

More to come….

DAY 1

On January 16, 2011 I flew from Miami to Atlanta where I met my friend Jeff and his girlfriend Michelle. We boarded a Delta flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Three movies, three meals, lots of bonding conversation and quite of bit of sleep and we landed 17 hours later.

Atlanta Airport awaiting flight to Johannesburgh, South Africa

DAY 2

We went out for dinner and had our first sampling of genuine African food. Although I had only met Michelle 20 hours earlier, we were all well aquatinted and clearly this was going to be a great trip with fun friends. Grilled Calamari tubes and an impala steak and two beers and ready for bed. One final goodbye to email and cell service.

DAY 3

In the morning we flew about 2 1/2 hours to Maun Airport in Botswana. From Maun we boarded a puddle jumper and finally arrived in our first camp, Duba Plains.

Weapons check point in Johannesburg

Duba Plains is perhaps the Okavango Delta’s most remote camp. The camp is located in a private 30,000 hectare reserve in the furthermost reaches of the Delta on an island, surrounded by expansive seasonally flooded plains and shaded by tall ebony, fig and garcinia trees. This pristine area is home to lion, lechwe, elephant and huge herds of buffalo, as well as a large variety of Okavango Delta bird life. The camp is small and intimate, with accommodation limited to 6 comfortable tented rooms. Each of the tents has an en-suite bathroom, with hot and cold running water and a verandah overlooking the floodplain. The dining room and bar area is raised on decks and there is a great pool with a view. The camp focuses on the incredible wildlife in the area through game drives, which are conducted day and night in open 4 x 4 vehicles.

Duba Plains Okavango Delta

Storms are common this time of year on the Okavango Delta

We checked in and met our guides Humphrey and Spike and headed out into the bush. Personally I much prefer lions and elephants to birds and Michelle and Jeff are also in that camp so we wasted no time letting Spike know that bird watching is not exactly our cup of tea. The rainy season had begun and you haven’t seen four wheeling until you have been to Botswana. We drove through connecting waterways that were filled with crocodiles and hippos. The vehicles are outfitted with special intake vents allowing them to drive through deep water. Did I say deep? Your first off road drive is one you won’t forget because one minute after leaving camp we were in water that came over the top of the hood and into the vehicle but that is entirely normal.

Crossing our first bridge across some very deep water

Some seriously deep water.

We immediately saw Red Lechwe jumping across the water with ease.

Red Lechwe jumping across a very wet road

We came upon Waterbuck and soon our first encounters with African Elephants. They allowed us to approach to within feet but when they had babies with them they would swing their trunks and wave their heads and wail away.

A herd of elephants with many babies

We passed a herd of almost 1000 cape buffalo and then encountered some hippos. Normally it is tough and dangerous to get close to hippos. More people are killed in Africa by hippos than by any other animal. One young male put on an incredible show for us opening his mouth and showing large canine teeth as a warning. It made for incredible pictures… Jeff talks to the hippos and besides being rather hysterical it really did get them going. He would stand up in the vehicle and say come on hippo show me what you have. Is that all you can do? I would then stand up in the vehicle and it was choreographed, hippos mouths wide open swaying their heads out of the water.

Some seriously angry hippos

Hippos calm down

It was about 6:30 on our first night and as we started to head back we encountered a lion pride hunting buffalo. We were able to get within feet of three large females.

Lion hunting Cape Buffalo

The pride staks the cape buffalo from behind

After an incredible day we went back to camp again enduring deep water.

Encountering deep water on the "Trans Botswana Expressway" going back to camp

Sunset on Duba Plains

Tomorrow Part 2……