Dumela – welcome.
Few countries anywhere welcome visitors as warmly as they do in Botswana. Shortly after landing in Botswana, the warm smile from the immigration official signaled the beginning of a great safari. It felt good to be back.
Most of Botswana is situated in the bone-dry Kalahari Desert. However the Okavango River that flows from the highlands of Angola empties into Botswana’s desert sands, creating a lush paradise for Africa’s wildlife known as the Okavango Delta.
Crossing the Delta
Soon after we landed at our camp’s remote airstrip, we boarded rugged Land Cruisers to make our way to our accommodations at Sandibe Safari Lodge. But to reach camp, we had to cross several channels of the Delta. First timers could not believe how our vehicles could cross through the clear waters so adeptly without stalling. Those sitting in the lower seats had to pull their feet up to avoid getting soaked.
When preparing our safari guests for their experience, we don’t promise that we’ll see cheetah in Botswana – these cats are much more commonly seen in the open plains of the Serengeti.
Yet one of our first sightings at Sandibe was a coalition of three cheetah
Two of the three brothers
brothers hunting for red lechwe antelope. Even more unusual than seeing cheetah in Botswana, is seeing cheetah go into water. Yet right in front of us, these boys dove into the waters of the delta to catch a young lechwe – a trophy that provided them at least a couple days of eating. A great beginning to any safari.
All in all, the game viewing at Sandibe was superb: two or three leopards (one of them up really close), lots of elephants, lions and great birdlife. All of this in just the first three days — this is what we came for!
