A Volunteer's African Adventure

I have always been fascinated by wildlife and wild places; one of the many reasons I enjoy my weekly volunteering sessions at Gorse Hill! African wildlife in particular has always fascinated me, and I have done several trips there, including working in South Africa for 18 months in the 1980s. During this time, I got to see a great deal of the fantastic wildlife that the southern part of the continent has to offer, the highlight being a month-long safari wild camping round Botswana. I had always promised myself I would return, and did so with an old school mate in September.

Botswana is directly north of South Africa, consisting mostly of the Kalahari Desert in the south and the Okavango Delta and various game reserves and national parks in the north. The Okavango Delta is a spectacular wetland where the Okavango River, originating in the Angolan highlands, drains into the north-west Kalahari. It stretches out like fingers into the desert, dry areas alternating with the wetlands. The Okavango is a fantastic place to see the big cats in particular, and has just featured on BBC’s Big Cats 24/7 (still on iPlayer at the time of writing).

We flew via Johannesburg to Maun, the safari capital of Botswana, and then had a 6-hour drive north to the first bush camp. This was located in the Okavango, in the Khwai Concession (a safari camp run by the local villagers for the community’s benefit), which lies just outside the Moremi National Game Reserve. It consisted of a tented camp (posh tents with all mod cons!) with a central dining tent. The view from the dining tent was spectacular, with many Elephants grazing only two or three hundred yards away. The camp wasn’t fenced and there were no guards, so we had to stay alert! We couldn’t leave our tents after dark due to the proximity of dangerous wild game which could wander through the camp at night – Lion, Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Leopard and Spotted Hyena. Sleep was not always easy, routinely disturbed by a cacophony of hyenas whooping, Lions roaring (about 30 yards from the tent one night!), owls hooting, Hippos grunting, Elephants crashing about nearby, wild dogs calling and zebras whinnying! We also had an Elephant trumpeting loudly in alarm very nearby on one occasion; the guides said they had heard a Lion nearby and the Elephant had run into it in the dark.

We were up at 5am each morning, out on our first game drive by 6am and back by 11am to avoid the baking heat of the day. A second game drive was done from 3-6pm, sometimes finishing well after dark to observe the nightlife with a spotlight (night drives were allowed in Khwai but not in our second camp in Moremi as this was a national park). The vehicles were fully open-topped with a tarpaulin sunshade.

We saw many Lions, the first ones walking right by the dining tent, and hundreds of Elephants, including many massive bulls with imposing tusks. There were myriad bird species, varying depending on the terrain (dry scrub or wetland), including African Fish Eagle, storks, kingfishers and parrots, and many species of antelope including Impala, Steenbok and Red Lechwe (a wetland specialist with splayed hooves that can outrun Lions in shallow water). There were a great variety of other species including wildebeest, Warthog, giraffe, baboon, monkey, mongoose, and monitor lizard. The wetlands were full of Hippos, which are responsible for many human fatalities but also routinely kill each other in fights; we saw Hippo carcases surrounded by massive Nile Crocodiles on two occasions. I had been hoping to see Leopard having never seen them before, and was not disappointed as we saw five in total! The first was a young female relaxing in a tree who jumped down and spray-marked her territory right in front of us; we also saw a large male on a kill. One night drive we did took us past a hyena den, the spotlight revealing many adults and pups milling about and one of the large females bullying a male (the males are smaller). One of the adults started whooping, an incredibly loud noise from close range!

After several days, we moved south to our second camp in Moremi. The camp and terrain were similar but with even more wildlife. We were treated to a large pride of Lions with cubs sleeping under a large bush on our first game drive, the curious cubs peeking out at us. That night I managed to get to sleep in spite of the usual bush symphony, but was rudely awoken at 3am by a loud crashing sound right outside the tent accompanied by a lot of growling! I thought it was a Leopard or hyena trying to get to the water in the bush shower behind the tent, but decided it wiser not to investigate. The next day the camp staff informed us it was a Honey Badger, which is like a much larger version of a stoat; they are also famously ferocious and will attack Lions! A camera trap was set up, and the culprit caught on camera the next night as it raided the camp kitchen. One of the guides said he had even seen one attack an Elephant! We got to see several over the next week, another first for my list.

The next day we had just driven out of camp when the kitchen staff called on the radio, saying a large group of African hunting dogs with pups had just run through the camp! We caught them up and counted 43 adults and pups moving at speed. The guides thought the Lions had discovered the den and that the pups were being moved to a new one, albeit a high-risk strategy, as the Lions would have killed all the pups if they’d caught them in the open. Several adults at the back were constantly looking around nervously for Lions. This was the largest group the guides had ever seen, and it was a real privilege to see such a large group of these rare animals.

In addition to Leopard and Honey Badger, I was also hoping to see Cheetah and was not disappointed. We saw vultures circling and went to investigate the kill, finding the Cheetah mother who had made the kill with four three-month-old kits resting under a tree. Cheetahs have a hard time hunting, as Lion and hyena will drive them off their kill; this Cheetah mum was obviously doing a great job! They can have up to five kits.

On our drive back to Maun for the trip home, we stopped to look at a large male Leopard resting near the roadside. One of the guests at the back stood up to take a photo; the Leopard suddenly looked up directly at him and ran towards our vehicle! We held our breath as it ran just past the back of the vehicle to chase some Impala it had spotted in the bushes just behind us! An exciting end to an incredible trip.

John travelled on our 'Botwana's Desert & Delta (Mammals)' tour in September 2024, of which we offer several departures each year in May, September and October.

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