Overland Travel With KMcGee

With great reluctance on my part, we left Savuti and headed to the ultimate wildlife destination in Africa – at least in my opinion – the Okavango Delta the Moremi Game Reserve:

I apologize up front for those that are more interested in short soundbites from our trip, but a 6 night visit to the Okavango Delta and Moremi Game Reserve defies brevity. SO, first of all, for those of you that want to really delve further into this part of Africa, I will refer you to my 2023 posts for much more detail on the Delta and the Reserve and lots of cool photos and videos:

Moremi 3rd Bridge 2023

Moremi Xakanaxa 2023

Moremi Khwai River 2023

Second, rather than present a blow-by-blow of our trip through the Delta, I am going to focus on just a few of the most distinguishing and memorable aspects of this year’s visit to the Delta, and then, of course, include a wildlife photo gallery.

Campsites and Sundowners:

We had, as always, some great campsites in the Delta and Moremi, 2 nights each at 3 different locations, and all adjacent to the extensive wetlands:

In addition to the wonderful campsites themselves, we also had our share of fun campsite visitors which served to always keep us alert and ready for anything:

Lastly, we had some great sundowners, which increasingly became a ritual sunset activity for us – thanks to Mark and Kirsten for indoctrinating us to this ritual!

Roads and Flooding:

Perhaps the most exhilirating aspect of this 7 day journey through the Delta was navigating the high water and excessive flooding. In most years, the Delta reaches peak flood stage about the time we were here, in August. Recall that the hydrological dynamic of the Delta is quite unique. Rainfall in the Angola highlands during the long wet season (February-April) provides flood waters to the Okavango River (and others, such as the Chobe), but the gradient is so low that it takes several months for the water to make its way all the way down to the Delta and disperse into the myriad channels, pools and marshes that characterize the Delta. More importantly, the waters arrive and disperse throughout the Delta during the peak dry season in the Kalahari, which creates a haven for water-seeking wildlife. Consequently, in July-September, the Delta becomes a water wonderland and the wildlife concentrate in incredible numbers.

But this year, on top of the normal flood stage waters, there was exceptionally high rainfall in the basin a few months earlier, which caused the water levels to rise several feet above normal. Hence, most of the low-lying tracks in the Delta were flooded and inaccessible, and even the major tracks into the campsites were fraught with water obstacles and major detours. This resulted in some extra driving to circumnavigate impassible sections of track, and created some exciting and nerve-racking water-crossings. However, the Green Dragon had no problems negociating the water holes and crossings, and Frank and Jane, in their rental Toyota Hilux, also managed brilliantly to pass all water challenges. Here’s some photos of the fun wooden bridge crossings, flooded conditions in the floodplains and on the tracks, and a 30 second video of the biggest water hole we had to negociate:

Leopards and Wild Dogs:

In case it wasn’t already obvious from previous posts, in addition to watching elephants, there is nothing more exciting to me than watching the big predators in action. In this regard, we had some very memorable sightings in the Delta.

First, recall the amazing Wild Dog sighting on a Kudu kill at Savuti? Well, on one of our drives along the flooded Khwai River, we watched wild dogs chase down a herd of Red Lechwe (large, wetland antelope, see photo gallery for a photo of Lechwe) and make a kill. Unfortunately, while we had a brief observation of the intense chase through the flooded waters of the floodplain, with Lechwe in full sprint, the actual take-down and kill by the dogs was obscured by vegetation; although we heard the killing sounds from both the Lechwe and the dogs. What an incredible and rare opportunity to see this amazing predactor in action.

Second, recall the many amazing sightings of lions throughout our trip this year, including prides with cubs and mating lions. Well, at our Xakanaxa campsite in Moremi, we took a 2-hour sunset boat cruise into the delta. While the wildlife was surprisingly sparse, perhaps because of the very high water, we did have a truly startling observation – 3 lionesses perched high up in a tree on an island. And while we have seen lions on fallen trees and a short way up a tree stem before, we have never seen lions 10 meters up in a tree haning there on the branches as if they were trying to imitate leopards. Check this out:

Third, recall the amazing sighting and video of a female leopard on the hunt at Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Well, close to our campsite at Xakanaxa in Moremi we watched another female leopard high up in a tree scanning the surrounding area – and what a sight to see her scanning from her high perch!

After a few minutes, she carefully climbed down the trunk and limbs to the ground and slowly made her way towards us and across the track in front of us. She appeared to be on the hunt, although we later heard that she already had an Impala stashed somewhere in another tree. Nevertheless, she is the ultimate hunter and always looking for opportunities to make a kill.

Check out this amazing 12 minute video for some exciting elephant action, including a large adult female in a mock charge of our vehicle, and the female leopard in action:

OK, that’s it for the second leg of this year’s journey and a sad goodbye to great friends Frank and Jane who had their first exposure to the wonders of Africa. We hope they will return again with us in the future. Unfortunately, I also had to say goodbye to Nancy, as she heads home to visit friends and the grandkids. However, I was fortunate enough to have her along for almost 3 months this year, so I should count my blessings. I am off to Zimbabwe and some new Parks and then on to Kruger in South Africa and back to the Cape. See you there!

Wildlife Photo Gallery (some photos courtesy of Frank):

We left the Chobe Riverfront and headed south to the remote interior of Chobe National Park to the region known as Savuti:

Once again, if you want more background information on Chobe National Park and Savuti, I refer you to my 2023 post:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/june-18-20-untrammeled-savuti/

Also, watch this video if you want to witness a huge bull elephant nearly stepping on us at our campsite, not with any ill intent, but rather as it picked up Camelthorn Acacia seedpods on the ground at our feet after shaking the massive tree to fell the seedpods – and watch Nancy and Kirsten’s nerves of steel as this massive elephant came within inches of them.

Briefly, Chobe NP, at 4,570 sq. mi, was established in 1967 as Botswana’s first national park and abutts the Okavango delta. Chobe NP is probably best known for its spectacular elephant population of over 50,000 today, which is considered to be the highest elephant concentration in all of Africa. Savuti is located in the remote interior of the Park, and it requires driving 100 km or so on sand tracks, some soft and some hard, which can be tiring for the less adventurous has an interesting natural history. Savuti is centered around a relic marsh from a large inland lake formed in what is known as the Mababe Depression, whose water supply was cut a long time ago by plate tectonics. Nowadays the “marsh” is fed by the erratic Savuti Channel, which runs for 62 miles from the Chobe River and dries up for long periods, then curiously flows again as a consequence of subtle tectonic activity in the area in addition to years of extremely high precipitation. The channel started flowing again sometime around 2008 and in January 2010 reached Savuti Marsh for the first time since 1982, but stopped flowing again in 2015. Water hasn’t reached the “marsh” since then. Consequently, the so-called “marsh” is currently a dry grassland plain for most of the year. See my previous post for a great birds-eye view of what this unique “marsh” looks like when the channel is flowing and the marsh starts to form on the plain.

We were extremely hopeful that the channel would be flowing with water all the way to the “marsh” this year giving the extreme flooding in the watershed a few months before we arrived. Alas, the water did start flowing down the Savuti Channel but did not make it very far and thus did not make it all the way down to the “marsh”. Indeed, we saw no signs of water in the channel where we crossed it. However, we did find numerous natural pans filled with water throughout the area. This was both positive and negative. On the positive side, the abundance of waterholes meant that wildlife had easy access to abundant water, which bodes well for survival and recruitment. On the negative side, the wildlife was quite dispersed since water was widely available, which made sightings at waterholes much more limited.

The landscape around Savuti is exceptionally diverse, from the extensive grassland of Savuti “marsh”, Acacia and Mopane Woodlands surrounding the “marsh”, waterholes (both natural and artificia) scattered about (both natural and artificial), Baobab groves, and stunning “Kopies” or “inselbergs” (i.e., rocky hills that rise up abruptly from the surrounding plains). Here’s a few photos:

A visit to Savuti would not be complete without a visit to Bushman Hill (Koppie) to see the ancient San Bushman paintings, estimated to be more than 1,000 years old. The rock art is not that spectacular, after seeing the Anaszi rock art in the American Southwest or some of the rock art in other parts of southern Africa, but it was a chance to stretch the legs, climbe rocks (!), and get an elevated view of the surrounding landscape:

We had lots of great wildlife sightings at Savuti, but without question the most exciting was coming on a pack of Wild Dogs just minutes after they took down an adult female Kudu on the edge of a water-filled pan (Harvey’s Pans). We must have missed the actual take-down by less than a minute or two as the dogs were just starting to tear open the carcass when we arrived. This was a gruesome sighting, but also exceptional, as Wild Dogs are the most critically endangered of the large African predators, so any sighting is special. To see the dogs on a kill was a rare sight indeed. This was also a special sighting as we had it to ourselves until we were ready to abandon the site after watching the dogs gorge themselves for 10-15 minutes and another safari vehicle showed up. Watch the video below for 5-6 minutes of gruesome feeding frenzy, but only do so if you have a strong constitution and watch the ordeal for the “circle of life” that it was. Here’s a photo preview of the dynamic action in the video:

We also had a great sighting of a beautiful lion and lioness on the “marsh”, likely either before or after their 2-3 day mating ritual. Watch the 8-minute video below for a composite of the Wild Dog and Lion observations, but here’s a photo preview of the lion lovebirds:

Our campsite was nothing exceptional, just a dirt space centered on a large Camelthorn Acacia tree, but it was also the site of our previous close encounters with bull elephants in camp. This year, however, we arrived after the Acacia seedpods had already ripened and fallen to the ground. Undoubtedly the elephants had already finished cleaning up the site of all edible materials, so we had no elephants in camp.

We had some great sundowners at Savuti; i.e., finding a beatiful setting in the bush to watch the sunset and have a happy hour drink and snack. Here’s a few pictures of those scenes:

Here’s some additional wildlife photos from my Savuti library:

It was sad to leave Savuti, which holds a special place in my heart, because there is a good chance Nancy and I will not make it back to this site again – too many other places to see around the world. We left Savuti and travelled on the long sand marsh track to the Okavango Delta and Moremi Game Reserve for the next 6 nights. See you there!

We left Kasane and headed a short distance up the Chobe River to the Serondela area, better known simply as the Chobe Riverfront located in the extreme northeast of the Park and across the river from Namibia’s Caprivi Strip:

For a more detailed description of the Chobe Riverfront along with some of the great wildlife sightings we had in 2023 when visiting with Mark and Kirsten, see my previous post:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/june-24-25-the-chobe-riverfront/

Briefly, the Chobe River is a major tributary of the great Zambezi River and forms the border between Botswana and Namibia to the North. The River and, more importantly, its floodplain is renowned for the major wildlife concentrations during the dry season (i.e., Winter here, or June-October). Recall that during the dry season, which progresses from May through October, the megafauna increasingly concentrates near the increasingly rare water sources, such as the Chobe River. Consequently, during the time of our visit, the floodplain hosts huge herds of elephant, buffalo, zebra and more. Each afternoon, the herds move down from the adjacent uplands to the floodplains. And of course, that means the large predators are also in abundance.

First, here are a few pictures of the Chobe floodplain and some of the wildlife herds and flocks:

Note, the Chobe Riverfront also includes a wide swath of uplands, which provide abundant browse for the browsing animals, such as elephant, giraffe, sable and kudu. Here’s a few pictures of driving through the uplands:

We camped for 2 nights at the Park Campground Ihaha located right along the edge of the river floodplain, which afford constant entertainment as we watched wildlife move past, and more (see below):

Sundowners are also spectacular on the Chobe Riverfront, and we took advantage.

One of the exciting observations from our campsite was as follows. We found a lioness lying under a shade tree overlooking the floodplain about 200 meters from our site. We heard from the staff that she had 2 cubs stashed in the bush somewhere, and thus we had to be careful moving about. We later confirmed the 2 cubs. Anyways, it was midday and rather hot when we first observed the lioness and we figured she would be resting in the shade until nightfall, so we headed back to our site and stayed alert for any activity. Soon after, much to our surprise and great delight, the lioness rose and walked slowly down to the river – clearly to get a drink during the heat of the day, right? Well, to our surprise she didn’t stop to drink, but rather swam across the river to the Namibian side and then slowly moved through the tall grass towards a dispersed herd of cattle. After getting within, say 100 m, of several of the cows, she went into stealth mode and creeped low through the grass, approaching within meters of the nearest cow. Instead of darting out and ambushing the unsuspecting cow, she waited patiently for the nearest cow to approach her position. She was perfectly concealed in the tall grass and the cow, not the most intelligent of creatures, blindly moved toward her position, head down busily grazing. Then, when the cow was nearly on top of the lioness, the powerful cat sprang forward and attacked the cow. The actual takedown was concealed from our view, but we are pretty sure that the lioness grabbed the cow on the mouth and nose and clamped her jaws tight to suffocate the cow while pulling her to the ground. After a few minutes of struggling, she must have switched her grasp to the throat to strangle the cow. The whole thing took but a few minutes. Unfortunately, the lioness didn’t have time to open the carcass and eat because the Namibian herdsman must have noticed the distress among the rest of the cattle herd and came down to the kill site. The lioness, seeing the threatening human, quickly retreated back to the river and across to safety on the Chobe side. As she made her way back to the edge of the floodplain, her 2 cubs ran out from their hiding place (which we never found) to meet “mom”. They all went several meters uphill and laid down under a shade tree. We all felt great pity for this lioness because she was extremely thin and clearly in need of nourishment, not to mention the poor little cubs that were still nursing and would need a steady supply of mother’s milk in order to survive. We don’t know why she was away from the rest of the pride, but I’m afraid to say that the fate of this lioness and her cubs didn’t look good – which is actually quite common among lions. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get good photos or video of this entire hunt and kill sequence because we had to watch it all through binoculars at a distance. However, here’s a picture of the lioness prior to the hunt, but if you want to see a bit more of her in action, see the video at the end of this post:

The wildlife along the Chobe Riverfront is truly spectacular. Not only are there countless wetland and water birds, but there are lots of large and small mammal as well. Here’s some photos from my wildlife photo gallery:

Here’s a couple of composite videos of some wildlife sightings on the Chobe Riverfront:

Elephants: for those of you, like me, that love elephants, here’s some really fun observations (14 minutes)

Miscellaneous: For the rest of you that want to see a variety of other wildlife observations, including giraffe, baboons, pelicans kettling, and the lioness at the start of her cattle hunt: (5 minutes)

OK, Next stop is the remote section of Chobe National Part known as Savuti, one of my favorite places in Botswana. See you there!

After our quick visit to the stunning Victoria Falls, we made our way back to Botswana and the safari hub town of Kasane in northeastern corner of Botswana en route to the Chobe National Park Riverfront section:

For my long-time blog followers, you may recall that I posted an entry in 2023 on my visit to Kasane with Nancy, Mark and Kirsten. Here’s a link to that post in case you are interested in a brief description of Kasane:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/june-26-27-kasane/

Prior to entering Chobe, we spent a few nights in the border town of Kasane located on the Chobe River in the northeast corner of Botswana and the border with Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe (the only place in the world where 4 countries touch) and, of course, adjacent to Chobe National Park’s Serondela (or Riverfront) area. Kasane is the northern gateway to Chobe NP (and visits to Victoria Falls in neighboring Zimbabwe), and essentially a safari gateway town. We spent 3 relaxing nights at Chobe River Cottages in a 2-bedroom cottage and did some exceptional birding in a local community-owned nature park that closed down during Covid and is now in a state of complete disrepair. This is really unfortunate, as the Park has the very best location on the Kasane area Chobe Riverfront, with a large hill overlooking the extensive Chobe River rapids that create a patchwork of islands and channels that host huge nesting and roosting colonies of Openbills (storks), Storks (yellow-billed), Cormorants, Herons and Egrets. Covid exerted a huge toll on the tourist industry in Africa, and this place was just one of the many victims:

In addition to the birding and resupply operations, we also took the obligatory sunset cruise on the Chobe River. Sitting high up on the upper deck of the passenger catamaran afforded us spectacular views of the river and floodplain marshes and grasslands, which were covered with hundreds of elephants in addition to buffalo, hippos, crocs, and many other creatures, not to mention all the water birds. The Chobe River floodplains are famous for the concentration of animals, especially elephants, that feed on the lush grasses and riparian vegetation during the dry season when water is limited elsewhere. Here are some photos from our sunset cruise:

Ok, we are off to Serondela, or the Chobe Riverfront, for 2 nights and then on to the remote Savuti section of Chobe. You may not hear from me for 11 or 12 days, depending on service availability.

After leaving Hwange National Park, we drove the obstacle course of deep potholes on the National Highway all the way to Victoria Falls, in what should have been a 2 hour drive that turned into a 4 hour drive, and did I mention that it was a toll road and we had to pay $3 to drive this obstacle course? I suppose if it were advertised as challenge drive in a theme Park it would have been lots of fun, but it wasn’t advertised as such! Sorry for the rant:

We spent two nights at a Rest Camp in Vic Falls, which was in stark contrast to the wild and exclusive wilderness campsites of the past couple of weeks, but it was a necessity so that Frank and Jane could see the world famous Victoria Falls. The Falls are designated as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, and for good reason. It isn’t necessarily the largest waterfall, either by height, width, or water volume, but taken in aggregate it is arguably the best in the world. In any event, the Falls are formed by the Zambezi River, one of Africa’s largest river systems, in which the river drops roughly 300 feet over a width of more than a mile into a narrow trough formed along a fault line and then drains through a narrow gorge on its way to the Indian Ocean. It is a truly spectacular natural wonder and one that pictures and descriptions can’t do justice to. Here are several pictures of our visit to the Falls and a very short video.

Here’s a very short 1.5 minute video of the Falls:

Our visit to Vic Falls was, of course, focused on seeing the famous Falls, but you can’t go to Vic Falls without also experiencing the open-air markets that sell every sort of African curio you can imagine, ranging from wood and stone carved figures to colorful printed textiles of all sizes, shape, colors and patterns. Navigating the the marketplaces and fending off persistent sellers can be very overwhelming, and is not for the faint hearted. Nevertheless, it is an interesting, albeit somewhat stressful, cultural experience, and one not to be missed. Plus, you can purchase some really cool memorabilia! I learned that Jane, in particular, is a master at bargaining with sellers to find the lowest, but fair, price for items. All of us managed to come away with several items of interest, and with a few dollars less in our pockets that hopefully helped out the merchants make a meager living. Here’s a picture of Jane surrounded by women in the Women’s Cooperative Craft Market all competing for a sale, a picture of Nancy being wooed by two vendors, and me considering whether this particular mask would be too big to fit in my checked baggage for the flight home.

OK, we are off to Botswana for a little more urban R&R and then back to the bush in Chobe National Park and Moremi Game Reserve. See you there!

After leaving the surprising hidden gem of Kazuma Pan National Park, we headed further into Zimbabwe to one of the flagship parks of the country, Hwange National Park:

Nancy and I spent 6 nights in Hwange National Park, the largest Park in Zimbabwe, in 2023 in the first year of this overlanding blog, and I posted a long description of the Park and our visit, including a detailed description of the natural and cultural history of the Park and some vivid descriptions of our “close encounters” along with lots of great photos and videos, which can be found here:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/july-4-9-ulendo-hwange-national-park/

It’s impossible to adequately summarize what I covered in the 2023 post, so I encourage you to review that post if you are interested in the natural and cultural history and some fun stories of our wildlife encounters. Consequently, I won’t provide a synopsis here, as it wouldn’t do justice to the Park or the description of our visit in 2023. Instead, I am just going to post lots of photos and a composite video for your enjoyment. Similar to some of my previous posts this year, I am going to group photos loosely by some broad categories, with descriptions in the captions.

Landscape: I described the varied landscape in my 2023 post, so review that for a good description. Here are a few photos from this year representing some of the varied terrain and vegetation:

Travel/Roads: Travel in the remote Parks of Zimbabwe can be challenging at time. The roads, or rather tracks, are often corregated with pockets of deep sand and sometimes with water and mud holes to cross, but mostly hard sand or gravel and great for wildlife drives. Here’s a picture of one such challenge. Of course, the Green Dragon had no trouble with this little mud hole:

Campsites: The campsites in Hwange, at least the exclusive ones we stayed in, are absolutely amazing, both in the setting and the facilities that come with a full-time camp tender who cleans the ablutions and builds your campfire:

People: It’s important to remember that overlanding is not just about the beautiful landscapes and amazing wildife sightings, but it’s also about the people you share the experience with:

Wildlife: The wildlife observations in Hwange are excellent, especially around the natural and artificial water holes – some of which are small reservoirs. In particular, the elephant concentration is absolutely incredible. We must have seen over 200-300 hundred or more elephants, including multipe family units of 5-25 individuals with young of all ages, and plenty of bachelors in small groups. Lots of close encounters too!

In addition to the many bird species we saw, dramatically increasing Frank and Jane’s species list, we also heard lots of lions at our campsites, both close and far, and were granted an outstanding sighting of a nursery group of 4 lionesses with their 7 cubs as well as several individual lionesses on the hunt. But the highlight of our wildlife sightings, thanks to Nancy’s detection, was a 20 minute private observation of an adult female leopard on the hunt. You really must watch the video, or the last 5 minutes of it, to see this amazing sighting. Otherwise, I included a handful of other miscellaneous wildife pictures just to show you it isn’t all about elephants and the great cats:

Here’s a 14 minute composite video with some footage of giraffes at a water hole, elephants in a few different scenarios, some lion footage, and, best of all, at the end, 4-5 minutes of a female leopard on the hunt:

OK, that’s it for Hwange. Next stop, one of the designated 7 natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls, for a couple nights and then back to Botswana and the Chobe River front. See you there!

After leaving Nxai Pan National Park in Botswana and a quick one-night stand en route to Zimbabwe, we crossed the border at the remote border post of Pandamatenga and made our way to Kazuma Pan National Park. And to my great surpise, I actually have cell service at our campsite, presumably because we are not too far from the Botswana border where there must be a cell tower:

Kazuma Pan National Park at 121 square miles was first established in 1949 as a reserve, then deproclaimed in 1969, and later proclaimed as a National Park in 1975. The Park is little known and rarely visited, located in the northwest corner of Zimbabwe just south of Victoria Falls. In all my years of overlanding in Africa, I had not heard of this Park until this year when researching the route for this year’s journey. I came across this Park on the map and it fit well with my itinerary, being en route between Nxai Pan in Botswana and Hwange in Zimbabwe. Little did I know that this would be a real hidden gem and quite possibly the sweetest camping site (if I can call it camping; see below) in all of my Africa overlanding.

Kazuma Pan is relatively unspoilt wilderness consisting of extensive grasslands fringed by Mopane and Kalahari sand woodlands. The highlight of the Park is a series of seasonally flooded pans that attract a wide variety of wildlife, especially waterfowl. The open landscape of grassy plains, reminiscent of the great East African plains, is dissimilar to the usual Zimbabwean bush or woodland landscapes, and thus offers a unique experience within Zimbabwe. Within the Park some of the pans are kept continuously filled by water pumped from boreholes during the dry season. This permanent water source causes large concentrations of wildlife to seasonally migrate between Botswana and Zimbabwe, especially towards the end of the dry season from September through to the first rains of November or December, this owing to the fact that there is no border fence, allowing free wildlife movement across the international boundary. Here’s a couple of pictures from our drives across the pans, at least the dry portions, as we got stopped by water/mud on one occasion:

What made this Park so amazing for us was the spectacular campsite. We stayed in an elevated hide overlooking a large water-filled Corner Pan. This was no simple hide, but rather a two-story structure 20 feet high situated about 30 feet from the edge of the pan and the fresh-water supply to a well that overflows to fill the pan. The upper deck was perhaps 20×30 feet with viewing windows, bar stools, table, and beds with mattresses for as many as 6 people. The lower deck included a toilet and shower, wash basin, table and chairs, etc.. Words cannot adequately describe what an incredible setting this was for sleeping, eating, siestas and watching all the wildlife in and around the pan. More on this below, but first here’s a few picture of our accommodation:

What made this place so amazing is that we sat 15 feet above ground directly overlooking the fresh-water input to a small basin and the Pan, which was a magnet for the resident elephants. We were entertained by a steady stream of elephants, including a small family unit and lots of bulls of various ages, all evening long and through many hours of the night. The noises of the “Ellies” communicating with each other and, more importantly, from the loud noises they made as they sucked up the fresh water from the small basin, was deafening at times. This made for a great experience, but much less than normal sleep. We also were entertained by an adult female hippo and her two youngsters. In addition, lions roared from nearby locations all through the night, but we never caught a glimpse of them. Most of our time, however, was spent watching and identifying all the various water birds in the Pan. And did I mention the spectacular sunrises and sunset from our elevated hide? Here’s some pictures:

Ok, my heart breaks to say goodbye to this amazing site, but we must move on to other great sites and adventures. Next stop, Hwange National Park and three different exclusive campsites. See you there!

We left the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and headed to Maun to meet up with great friends Frank and Jane, who will share the next leg of our journey with us.

After a couple of days of R&R in Maun, we headed to Nxai Pan National Park. Although Nancy and I have visited Nxai Pan National Park on at least 3 or 4 previous occasions, I have not been back to this Park since I started this blog in 2023. Hence, I don’t have a previous post to refer you to for more background information, although it is very similar to my previous post on the nearby Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, as described in the following post:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/june-7-8-makgadikgadi-national-park/

Nxai Pan National Park is located in north-eastern Botswana, as the map above shows, and was established in 1992. It encompasses roughly 995 square miles and consists of Nxai Pan (a fossil lake bed), which is one of the aggregation of Makgadikgadi salt pans, as well the intervening thornveld and the famous Baines Baobabs, named after Thomas Baines, who first described and painted the grove of 800-1,000 year old trees in 1862.

Makgadikgadi pans, including Nxai Pan, are all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikgadi, which once covered an area larger than Switzerland, but dried up tens of thousands of years ago. The Park covers only a small portion of ancestral Lake Makgadikgadi and its vast pans (which dwarf the Great Salt Lake in Utah), which are all part of the Kalahari Desert basin. As the ancestral Lake shrank, it left relic shorelines, which are still evident in the southwestern part of the basin, and numerous smaller lakes formed with progressively smaller shorelines. The pans themselves are salty desert whose only plant life is a thin layer of blue-green algae. However, the fringes of the pan are salt marshes and further out these are circled by grassland and then shrubby savanna and thornveld.

The sheets of water that cover the pans during the first few months of wetter years during the “wet” season (November to March) attract a phenomenal marvel of water birds and large herds of mammals. The arrival of this water stimulates the birth of millions of tiny shrimps and other crustaceans otherwise lying dormant below the white salt crust (see photo below). Greater and Lesser flamingos arrive in the tens of thousands, even journeying from as far off as the Great Rift Valley in East Africa to partake in one of Africa’s largest avian feasts.

Our first stop in Nxai Pan was a night at the famous Baines Baobabs, made famous by the description and painting of this Baobab grove by Thomas Baines in 1862. The Baines Baobabs are anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 years old according to various sources. Regardless of their true age, they are giants among the trees of the African Savannah. The grove of baobabs borders an extensive salt pan. Here’s a few pictures of these magnificant trees and the adjacent salt pan:

Our campsite was situated on a small island in the middle of the great salt pan bordering Baines baobabs. Our site was magically located beneath a giant baobab on the edge of the salt pan. The site afforded us a front-row seat to an amazing sunset over the Pan.

Our final destination in Nxai Pan National Park was Nxai Pan itself. Unlike the salt pan bordering Baines baobabs, Nxai Pan is largely expansive grassland with some scattered embedded thornveld (shrubs) and Acacia woodlands. Aside from the beauty of the Pan itself, one of the fantastic things about this Pan was the phenomenal number of Bat-eared foxes we observed. We usually work pretty hard to see bat-eared foxes on our late-afternoon and early-morning safaris and often come up empty. This time, however, we must have seen 50 or more foxes, usually in groups of 2-6 actively foraging for ants and other soil invertebrates.

Our campsite at Nxai Pan was also quite exciting on a number of fronts. Our site was situated on the edge of the Pan, but also adjacent to the Ablutions (toilets, showers and wash basins). The proximity to the Ablutions afforded us front-row seats to a steady stream of bull elephants to and from the bush to the grey water discharge of the ablutions (yuck). We had elephants passing by on both sides of us. At one point, Jane even got trapped at the ablution for a while when a young bull descided to stop and browse a while right outsite the entrance to the facility.

Another visitor to our campsite was a pair of black-backed jackals that kept almost constant vigil in our campsite and became quite a nuisance, as we were unable to encourage them to leave us alone and they were extremely bold. We had to constantly chase them away from our camp tables and keep close guard on all of our non-edibles (e.g., shoes) as well. This was the first time on safari in Africa that I had to worry about jackals stealing food and everything else within 4 feet of the ground in my campsite.

Otherwise, our safaris at Nxai Pan were delightful and included visiting same large baobabs, watching bull elephants at a waterhole before and during sunset, and finding new bird species for Frank and Jane. Here’s a few pics:

Here’s a short 4-minute composite video of a few highlights of our visit to Nxai Pan, including Nancy driving the Green Dragon on the salt pan, the mosts amazing and dazzling mating ritual of a pair of Ostriches (a must see), and some visitors to our campsite:

Ok, that’s all for our 3 -night visit to Nxai Pan National Park. Next, we are off to Zimbabwe and a 7 night journey to Kazuma Pan and Hwange National Parks for some very remote and exclusive camping without cell service or Wifi. So, don’t worry when you don’t hear from us for a week or more. Unless we have been eaten, all is well. See you on the other side!

Nancy and I sadly said goodbye to Mark, Kirsten, John and Annette in Windhoek and head east to Botswana en route to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR):

Some of you long-time followers of my blog may recall that during my 2023 journey from Cape Town to Nairobi, I spent several days in the CKGR prior to picking up Nancy in Maun. It was an epic visit to this most remote of places in southern and eastern Africa. I provided a pretty good overview of the CKGR in my 2023 post so I will refer you to that post for the details:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/june-1-respite/

Briefly, the CKGR was established in 1961 and is absolutely huge (20,368 sq. mi.), and covers a large portion of south-central Botswana. It is purported to be the 2^nd largest reserve in Africa and by far the most remote reserve in southern Africa. The CKGR, of course, occupies the central portion of the Kalahari Desert (or more correctly, semi-desert, as precipitation can exceed 10 inches annually in many parts).

The land is mostly flat and gently undulating between fossilized ancient river drainages. The land is covered with large open grasslands, prevalent in the salt pans and ancient river beds, and semi-arid shrub savannah and scrub covering the sand dunes, as well as scattered areas of acacia and Terminalia trees. See my previous post for a description of “salt pans”. Despite the precipitation received, because the Kalahari is essentially a huge basin of sand, as much as 200 feet deep in most areas, there is essentially no surface water. Hence all the sparse precipitation percolates into the sandy substrate, leaving no surface waters, excepted in isolated pans, and even then, only during the “wet” season.

I could go on and on about the Kalahari, which you might have gathered is one of my favorite places in all of Africa, but I will spare you. I will just say this: the CKGR, in particular, is one of the most remote and less visited places in all of southern Africa. The wildlife diversity is relatively low and the populations small and dispersed compared to other places, so much of the time is spent driving lonely roads through the dunes, around the pans, or along the fossilizied river drainages without seeing much, including other people. Indeed, in our 6 days in the CKGR, we encountered perhaps 10 other vehicles/parties at most. Most importantly, while the wildlife sightings were relatively infrequent, what we did see was spectacular and totally private; i.e., all of our wildlife sightings over the entire 6-day period were private (i.e., no one else around for miles). This is why we absolutely love the Central Kalahari.

I share some of our most exciting wildlife sightings below in the pictures and, better yet, the video, but there is one encounter we were not able to capture on film. On our last night in the CKGR, we were asleep, snug in our sleeping bag atop the Green Dragon, when, at about 10:30 pm, we heard a Steenbok (common dwarf antelop of the Kalahari bush) emitting several piercing alarm calls (sounding like a sharp, loud whistle) from the bush on the edge of our campsite. This stunned us awake and alert. Then, a minute later a Leopard uttered a loud but low growl as it moved through our campsite unseen. They repeated their spine-shivering growl 3 or 4 times as they moved right past our campsite. This was the closet we got a leopard sighting despite our intense efforts to sight them. However, hearing their growl up close was perhaps just as exciting.

OK, enough background. What follows are some highlight photos that I have grouped for convenience. But for those of you that really want to see and virtually experience a little of our visit, you really should watch the composite video below that includes some rather spectacular sightings (at least, in my opinion).

People: Here’s a few “people” shots, including some of our campsites, sundowners, lunch breaks, siestas, etc.:

Driving in the CKGR: Driving the CKGR is really “fun” if you like rolling up and down over short dunes, dodging holes in the sand dug out by elephants, snaking around bushes and fallen trees and pushing through narrow gaps in the thorn bush. But there is also the wide open grasslands and pans that provide a respite. Here’s a few shots:

Landscape: I included several “landscape” pictures in my 2023 post (see above for link), so I am only including a single classic African Savanah picture here, along with a couple of photos of some stunning sunsets:

Wildlife: As I noted previously, the diversity of wildlife is relatively low, by comparison to other places in southern Africa, but what we did se was spectacular. Here’s just a small sampling of the variety species and sightings:

Video: Hopefully the photos above gave you a taste of Africa and the CKGR, but the real action that will transport you to the front seat of the Green Dragon during some very exciting wildlife sightings is in the video below. This video includes the following:

• Elephants at a waterhole (note, in my haste when we arrived at the waterhold and I first saw the herd and started videoing, I assumed it was a large family unit; however, after careful scrutiny of the herd, we concluded that it was simply a large gathering of bulls, some young and some old, that eventually broke up into small bachelor groups as they headed off into the dunes;
• An amazing scene of a male lion mating with two (yes, two) lionesses (we were 20 feet away) from this spectacle;
• A sprinkling of giraffe (because they are really cool), wildebeest (because they are quite rare in the CKGR thanks to the veterinary fences), and gemsbok and springbok (because they are the quintessential large mamals in the Kalahari);
• A mystery animal that surprised us (not too mysterious though);
• A amazing sighting of a Caracal up close (only the second time we have seen one);
• And last, but possibly not least, due to a request from sister Kara, a short campfire scene and flute playing.

Composite video (23 minutes)

Ok, Nancy and I are off to Maun to meet up with great friends Frank and Jane for the next leg of our journey. Probably won’t post anything from Maun – not too exciting – but will after our visit to Nxai Pan National Park. See you there!

We left the Namibian coast and said goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean, and headed inland to the southern portion of Damarland (region dominated by the Damara tribe) and Spitzkoppe National Monument:

Once again, this visit was mostly a repeat of last year’s visit with Steve and Ki, with a few minor variations. Nevertheless, here’s the link to last year’s post in case you are interested in the differences:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/august-2-3-spitzkoppe-mountains/

Briefly, the Spitzkoppe Mountains are a 130 million year old group of bald granite peaks or inselbergs (i.e., isolated mountain of rock rising up from the plains) kown as the “Matterhorn of Namibia” located on the eastern edge of the Namib desert and rising more than 2,000 feet above the plains. Here’s a few photos to help you visualize the spectacular landscape:

We had an awesome campsite nestled up against the rocks in a narrow gap between two rock koppies, and with plenty of space to separate the vehicles that allowed the revervberations of the snoring members of our party to (partially) dissipate before reaching the neighbors.

We had lots of campsite attendants, but by far the most abundant and interesting were the many rock hyrax (or rock dassies) that plastered the rocks and fed in the bushes all around us:

One great feature of this campsite was the fireplace up agains the big rock wall that had a natural chimney formation that funneled the smoke up and away. This afforded us some very pleasant evenings around the campfire, including a little fireside flute music:

Another great feature of this campsite was its location between the rock koppies that allowed us to ascend the granite slopes for a spectacular sundowner:

We had one full day for hiking and made the most of it. We hiked cross-country from our campsite to the “chain”, which ascends a steep rock face with the aid of a chain up to a large cave known as “Bushman’s Paradise“. The cave is famous for its ancient Bushman rock art. Recall that the Bushman (or, more properly, the San people) were the original indigenous people of southern Africa who led a hunter-gatherer life style before being displaced, enslaved, or massacred by the invading Bantu-speaking tribes from the north and then the Dutch and eventually the Germans and Brittish as the Europeans colonized the land. However, the San left behind a remarkable legacy of rock art that is well-distributed throughout southern Africa. Bushman’s Paradise is but one example:

We continued our cross-country hike past Bushman’s Paradise into a hidden nested valley, where we came upon some beautiful desert-adapted plants, and then descended through a canyon that even had us squeezing through a cave at one point, but only after scaring a large hare out of its mid-day resting place

We said goodbye to our last night of camping in Namibia, before Mark, Kirsten, John and Annette all leave to continue with other adventures (John and Annette to Botswana for 10 days, and Mark and Kirsten back to Nairobi and then home to Bend, Oregon). But not before one last bit of overlanding excitement. Leaving Spitzkoppe, John and Annette’s vehicle almost lost a rear wheel when 5 of 6 wheel studs sheared off, leaving the wheel barely attached by one stud and lug nut – yikes, another close call averted. After a few hours of waiting by the side of the road, eventually a mechanic arrived and quickly replaced the studs and sent us on our way with a big sigh of relief:

We made it to our final destination in Namibia, Bella’s tiny house and gypsy wagon (a.k.a. as “Laura’s house“, as I named it last year because I know Laura would love this place and all its creative designs), located near the airport outside of Windhoek.

However, the most important activity at Laura’s house was celebrating Kirsten’s birthday, which we did with a flare by making cinnamon rolls (her favorite) and an egg/potatoe scramble for brunch:

That’s all she wrote for our visit to Namibia this year. Everyone else is on their way and Nancy and I are headed into Botswana for the next exciting leg of our journey. Please NOTE, we will be in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for the next 6 days without any cell or wifi service, so you will not hear from me for a while; that is, assuming we get past the hungry desert lions!