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On Safari in Botswana

Still the Old Africa

by Judith Babcock  Wylie

Safari guide Buxton Masasa downshifted  the Land Cruiser,  leaned over the side and studied the prints in the fine sand. “Lion,” he said, “And baby lion.” He raised his head to listen to  what I thought was just the sighing of the  wind.  “Those cries, they are impala, warning of  lions.” As we drove off in the direction of the  sounds, we rumbled past termite mounds eight feet high, a saddlebilled stork fishing in  the river, a tiny baboon clinging to its mother overhead in a tree.  The scream of a long-tailed shrike split the air as  we turned off the track and into the bush, and suddenly, there were two adorable  lion cubs perched on a collection of fallen branches, only 20 feet away. They seemed as curious about us as we were about them. They leaned forward to smell the air, and peered at us with unabashed interest. “Their mother has gone off to hunt for the night” said Buxton. She  may be gone for 24 hours. The cubs know they must not leave this place.”

We gasped, pointed and clicked shutters until  Buxton  asked if we’d seen enough, then slowly backed the Land Cruiser away through the bush, heading towards new game sightings. As we rode, the radio crackled with  the voices of other guides in their vehicles reporting  in Setswana, the local language, where they had  also sighted  game.  

The lion cubs were  our first game sighting on this Gametrackers safari in Botswana, and we were all stunned at how close we got to them.  They seemed to think  our growling, sand- crunching  vehicle was just another wild thing, a natural  part of the landscape in the Moremi Game Reserve in northern Botswana..

Botswana  is one of the best safari sites in Africa,  because 20 percent of its land is set aside for national parks and reserves.  Located just north of South Africa,  it’s roughly the size of Texas,  and two-thirds  of it is covered by the Kalahari Desert.

Every March, rains in Angola  cause  the Okavango River to flood in  Botswana,  creating the seasonal Okavango Delta, the only inland delta of its size in the world with no outlet to the sea. The waters move  further into the desert each week,  which  means that in one short visit   you  can experience  desert, savanna and  flooded areas, with different animal populations.. The area is so large that most travelers get around from camp to camp by  light  plane,  departing  from the  “safari- central” airport at Maun.  

 Soon after landing at the dusty Khwai River landing strip,  staff  loaded our gear onto an open  Land Cruiser and we pulled onto a dirt road leading  through a stand of trees. Suddenly, I felt a slight breeze from above and looked up to see a five-ton male elephant looming in the brush  causing the draft with the slow flapping of his huge ears.    

 Khwai River Camp .

After settling into  white brick, thatched- roof cottages on the river’s bank, complete with showers and porches, we gathered  under a knob thorn acacia tree  in comfortable teak and mahogany chairs, sipped  gin and tonics and watched as just 100 yards away on the other bank elephants waded and  blew showers of water on themselves,  impala  drank,  and a row of hippos slept on their sides in  the shade,    displaying rosy pink sun- burned  bellies. “They have to come here, because this is the only water right now,” said Debbie. Small,  a staff member for Gametrackers camps. “Elephants particularly  need a lot of water. They can drink 160 kilos (approx. 350 lbs)  of water a day.”  

In late afternoon . we boarded the open-air  Land Cruisers and set off for our first  real game drive, where we encountered the lion cubs. On the way back to camp we saw wildcats, a nasty-looking hyena with fresh blood on its fur, and just as the light was failing, a leopard, with a flash of brilliant eyes, starting out for its evening hunt..

The air filled with laughing, chanting and singing as the camp staff, from  cooks to  guides,  sang and danced a welcome in Setswana, a few of the women wearing ankle rattles.   Candles flickered on the dinner tables outdoors and by the light of a full  moon, just a stone’s throw across the river, we could still make out  reed buck, red lechwe and impala  grazing as we ate dinner. The first course was a thick corn soup. Then each person was brought a small three- legged iron pot called at “potjie” (pronounced poi-kee) which  held  a chicken stew,  an exotic elixir full of  African spices. We sipped South African wines,  and later nibbled at  chocolates shaped like  lions.

“I lived in the bush most of my life. I hunted with my father…” Buxton began  when I asked him at dinner if he had ever been attacked by a wild animal.    As he told the  gripping story of a time he was 14 and  his father saved him from a lion,  we. got our first lesson in game safety. “My father say, 'If he run at you, be still, and he not bite you. Stare at him and shout. Do not turn around, or he come after you'.”   When asked how many times the animal would take a run at you he said “The last time, he charge me three times.”

We were all wondering if we had the right nerves for this when we got more advice. “After dark, do not leave your room for any purpose. The animals take over the camp.”

Safely escorted to my cabin,  once I climbed in bed my hand touched something  warm and furry: a hot water bottle in a fuzzy cover.  Botswana is  cold on winter nights, between May and August,  when the temperature can drop below zero.

Savute Elephant Camp

This is elephant country.  One  night at  Savute  camp  we went to sleep in our tent cabin under spreading trees. In the middle of the night, a loud bang  followed by a sucking sound woke me and my room mate.. Peeping out of the  net side window  of the tent we could only see gray leathery material  like the back of  a Naugahide  lounge chair. Outside an elephant was shaking the trunk of the tree overhead, trying to  rattle  loose some  camel-thorn acacia pods, which are so tasty they are called “elephant chocolates.”  After they fell, the elephant sucked them up off the tent roof  with a sound like a megawatt vacuum cleaner. Then  it chewed noisily, dropping  the unwanted bits on the tent top..    

At each Gametrackers camp there are two or three drives  each day, usually in early morning  and late afternoon.   At  Savute, we were never out of sight of elephants. We often saw groups  of 20 to 30 elephants in families, mothers with their babies, or individual male elephants, who all came to drink at  bore holes  kept up by the government. .   

“There’s the matriarch,” said our guide Sello, pointing at one group of elephants.. “If the family  gets too large, she will break it into two groups, and send an elder daughter to lead the new band. But first she will go along to see the new group gets settled..”  

At Savute National Park  on the afternoon game drive we  pulled up and stopped near two adult female lions asleep in a glade, faces to the setting sun, their fur the exact color of the tawny grass they lay  in. Neither opened an eye. Later we  saw fawn-colored steenbok, the smallest antelope in Botswana, with delicate bones, and eland, which is the biggest..  At sunset we spotted two cheetahs slinking toward a distant herd of impala, waiting for the sun to go down .

Eagle Island Camp

A complete change from the parched land around Savute,   Eagle Island camp was entirely surrounded by water. In the open channels we could see pairs of fuzzy ears just sticking up above the waterline. Hippos.  In  every direction the glassy, still waters of the Okavango Delta reached  to the horizon, harboring  not only hippos but cranes, fish eagles, steenbok, alligator, and acres of  high swamp grasses.

Off for our first game  experience,  we sat  low in   mekoro,  the modern version of dugout canoes, and were guided   slowly through curtains of high swamp grasses, our native polers standing  in the back, moving  us expertly through patches of papyrus into open water. At one point, all  mekoro in our group stopped and we waited in silence. We had entered the territory of  a family of hippos, and they were in no mood to be messed with,   bellowing and wheezing their outrage.. “Are we in danger, Phillip?” someone asked of the head guide. “Yes,” he said simply. Hippos are Botswana’s  most dangerous animal in the water, with teeth that each weigh ten pounds, and the ability (and inclination) to bite a man in half if their territory  is threatened. We sat in tense silence for  twenty minutes,  until the  hippo family moved on.

The tents at Eagle Island  camp, located on the water’s edge,  were of the upscale Ralph Laurren/ Out of Africa style, with a  large main room, a big bath and dressing area, and safari prints over the beds. A large deck hung close over the water. A thatched structure over the roof of each tent made them more like deluxe  cabins.

Each morning  a staff member would bring  tea to the  tents between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. to wake us  for the early game drive. One morning at Eagle River Camp, tea didn’t  appear as usual. Later we learned  the server was chased by  an angry Cape buffalo until she had to take refuge under the deck of the nearest tent cabin.

The food at all the camps was delicious and hearty, with many beef dishes such as siswa pie, a boiled meat pie,  braai, or mixed barbecue,  root vegetables, and salads. My favorite  meal  started with butternut and orange soup, and included  venison stew with rice and curried peaches, with  grilled ginger and lime pie.  Most meals were served buffet style, outdoors, and in the evening  we had a drink first by the campfire..

Our last night in camp I lay in bed and listened to  a  wild symphony. Hippos grunted and wheezed in the nearby lagoon, Chacma baboons screamed in the night, (frightened by a lion stalking through the  camp, we learned the next day). Other  shrill  cries  were punctuated by a low hooting.  Something  banged into our tent,  whuffing and scratching. It was thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Listening,  I  remembered  how I had been afraid Africa wouldn’t be wild enough,  that it might have become too civilized.  I reached down and turned on my  tape recorder to catch it all.  That tape has since  become one of my favorite travel mementos.  Sometimes I play it in the car  as I go about my day,  just to remind myself where the wild things really are.

The Westcliff hotel in Johannesburg

This safari trip to Botswana involves an overnight stay in Johannesburg on the days you arrive and depart Africa. Although it's not part of the package above, for an additional fee you can stay at one of the most spectacular hotels in the world, The Westcliff, which crowns a ridge outside the city and defines the word splendor. Built like a Mediterranean hill town, it climbs up the ridge with winding streets, its multi-villa design offering balconies, elaborate ironwork balustrades, a scalloped, cliff-side pool and huge opulent rooms, each in a different decor. You are taken to your room by jitney. My favorite room had cafe au lait walls, cocoa wing chairs and a big fireplace. The Polo Lounge is a Rudyard Kipling fantasy of a posh men's club in colonial Africa, complete with hunting prints on the wall and smartly uniformed waiters wearing white gloves. Le Belle Terrace restaurant overlooks the city and serves a perfect South African Spring lamb and local crayfish the size of lobsters.

Insider Information

Our 11-day Botswana safari included  seven nights in  deluxe Gametrackers safari camps, all meals while on safari, light aircraft transfers between camps, and two nights in Johannesburg, on entering and leaving Africa. The price is $3595 per person, double, land only, from January to June, and $3,995 in high season, from July to December. Airfare is on South Africa Air and departs New York, to Johannesburg, costing $1,795 round trip.

For information  on the safari tour call
African Travel, Inc.
800/252-0493.

For  information on Gametrackers camps
Abercrombie and Kent 
800/490-4989
http://www.abercrombiekent.com

For information on the Westcliff  
African Travel
800/252-0494  

Orient Express Hotels
800/524-2420
http://www.orient-expresshotels.com/

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