Reigning cats and dogs! Hellish heat, battling bugs, balky boats: A Botswana safari in early December

[janzin]

As I go through the 18,000 photos I took on this trip, I am realizing that if I wait to start the trip report before I cull and process them, it will be 2025 before I start  So I am going to post by sections--three camps, three sections.

 

Now before you say wow, 18,000 photos, must have been so many incredible sightings! Not the case! Oh we did have some great sightings but not 18K worth in 10 days. This is a hazard of the new mirrorless cameras that shoot 15 or 20 (or more) frames per second. I had mine set to 15 and have realized this is really overkill. 10 is plenty for most subjects and next trip I will only switch to 15 if presented with something that merits it. Lesson learned as I am developing carpal tunnel syndrome from going through them all!

 

Enough preamble, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. The primary thinking behind this return to Botswana--first time since 2014--was the hope of seeing African Wild Dogs, the one predator lacking in our recent safaris to the Mara. A short trip in the early green season should accomplish this. Hence our itinerary, taking advantage of Kwando's Green season special:

 

1 night Jo'burg at the City Lodge at the airport
3 nights Lebala
3 nights Lagoon
4 nights Splash

 

An added bonus, we discovered that ST's  @madaboutcheetah would be in the area at the same time--a rendezvous was arranged!

 

Flying 15 non-stop hours to JNB from New York/Newark went smoothly and we were met upon arrival by the representative provided by our agent, The Wild Source, who somehow whisked us to the front of the immigration line and got us through super fast--somewhat negated by the inevitable wait for our luggage which seemed to come out last, despite being marked "Priority." Oh well. Our stay at the City Lodge was comfortable but in the morning as we were heading to catch our plane to Maun came the first hitch....

 

As I usually do, I ran through the things my spouse was likely to leave behind: Do you have your phone? your glasses? your money belt? WAIT--where is the money belt???  Panic ensues-- the money belt is nowhere to be found! Definitely not in the room--we tore it apart. Was it left at home? Could it have fallen off in the plane lavatory?? Seemed unlikely, but there was no way we could call our cat sitter to check as it was the middle of the night at home. And we knew we'd have no wifi after this morning--Kwando camps have no wifi   So we quickly dashed off a text to the catsitter and asked him to relay a message to us via the Kwando office. We could only hope for the best--and hope we had enough cash for the tips (thankfully we always split the cash, so I had half of it. In my money belt

 

So off we went to Maun on Safarilink, and then on Mack Air to our first camp, Lebala. Minus half our cash.

 

No suspense, we did see dogs...lots of dogs...eventually!

 

 

 

[Treepol]

Looking forward to reading about your Botswana adventure Janet.

[Atravelynn]

Lovely intro shot. 17,999 more to go.  Lots of processing.  Thanks for the hint on 10 vs 15 shots per second.

 

Edited January 2 by Atravelynn

[janzin]

Camp 1: Lebala

 

On arrival at the Lebala airstrip, we were met by our guide Thabo and tracker Peach.  We had booked private vehicles for all three camps as we've learned we really don't want to be democratic on safari...we want to be able to keep our own schedule and stop (or go) when we want to. Thabo turned out to be an excellent guide--very experienced, he'd been with Kwando for around 13 years. Pleasant to be with too. It was pretty quick from the airstrip to camp and I don't think we stopped for much, we were eager to get to camp, get settled and then get out on our first safari drive.

 

Not going to say much about Lebala camp as honestly there wasn't much memorable about it. As we knew it would likely be quite hot (more on that later) we'd requested to get tents as close to the main area as possible. Carrying heavy camera gear in heat = no fun. Thankfully this request was accommodated at all camps and here we were in tent #2, 2nd from the common areas. No real view to speak of from the rooms here, a very dry pan with not much visiting it during our stay. This was one accommodation that only had outdoor showers--I know these are popular with many of you but I don't like them (bugs!) so for three nights I didn't really shower, except to put my head under the cold water when it was oppressively hot.  The room itself was spacious and comfortable, with charging points in the room and very comfortable beds.

 

 

But oppressively hot it was indeed. For the first time on safari I actually used the "Kalahari cooler"--every day after lunch it was all I could do to lie under the drenched kikoi with the fan blowing on me. (Temps in the room were close to 100F midday.) Also due to the heat, we never availed of full day drives, which we normally might have with a private vehicle. It was just too hot!  Thankfully on our last evening at Lebala there was a monumental thunderstorm which broke the heat somewhat, although that meant some cloudy days following.

 

Enough rambling. Here's some photos from our first evening drive.

 

It started out with some birds...

 

 

 

 

 

 

....and progressed to a lioness and her cub feasting on a baby warthog. I believe @madaboutcheetah saw this same cub, which seemed to have a problem with it's left eye, although that wasn't affecting his appetite!

 

 

 

Having a bit of trouble with that warthog foot in my teeth! Crunch!

 

 

 

 

Don't hog it Ma! (uh, no pun intended...)

 

 

A little further along we found some others of the pride, including this handsome young male.  But they were just laying around, as lions do.

 

 

Soon it was dusk.

 

 

We continued with a spotlit night drive, but didn't see much, until at the end of the evening we found a pair of Bat-eared foxes.  I will have LOTS of better photos of Bat-eared Fox--we joked at one point that this was the Bat-eared Fox safari. So I won't include those poor photos here.

Edited January 3 by janzin

[janzin]

We were up and out early the next morning. We had made it clear to Thabo that we didn't want to waste time with breakfast--just a quick coffee and muffin were good enough for us. More important was to get out when the light was good (although, sadly most mornings there just wasn't any golden light or interesting sunrise.) Anyway, the schedule was wake-up call at 5, coffee at 5:20 and hopefully on the road by 5:30ish.  Sunrise was about 5:40.

 

A bit past sunrise gave us this eerie sky.

 

 

 

I should add here that we'd asked (of course) about the dogs, and were told they hadn't been seen around the area for several days.    Still, we were hopeful...they do wander.

 

Meantime, Thabo asked us did we want to search for leopard (one direction) or look for the lions we saw last night (the other direction.) We unanimously said "leopard!"

 

First, the morning started out with some Red Lechwe's having fun. Just love these guys.

 

 

More birds. Thabo and Peach were pretty good with birds, but mostly the large ones. We didn't really urge them to stop for the LBJ's at this stage of the trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crested Francolins were one of the most common birds we saw, always running around in the tracks.

 

 

 

 

 

We came upon a couple of hyenas investigating an old elephant carcass.

 

 

It was quite humorous when this fellow decided to try it on for size! (We didn't see many hyenas at all on this trip, oddly.)

 

 

A Black-backed Jackal seemed to find us funny.

 

But sure enough, as promised, the highlight of the morning was this young male leopard.  Leopard overload coming up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite African cat and we were super happy to start the trip off with this lovely sighting.

 

Edited January 3 by janzin

[madaboutcheetah]

What a lovely young male ......

 

Thabo is hilarious - I'm pretty sure i first met him in 2006 @janzinso he's been around for over 13 years although he spent probably 4-5 years in Pom Pom before coming back to Lebala. 

Edited January 3 by madaboutcheetah

[michael-ibk]

Gorgeous Leopard photos especially! Glad to you start Janet, looking forward to this very much. Sorry to hear about the heat, we will probably suffer the same next year since we´re also doing Kwando in November.

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful photos, as always from you!

[Bush dog]

 

I have always appreciated your photographic skills, in particular the framing which is for me the first principle of a good photo.  I really like your “bit past sunrise”.  I'm not really an expert but I think your Burchell's sandgrouse, in the same post as the sunrise, is a crested francolin?

[Kitsafari]

super shots! what a beautiful male - his face looks very clean - so he hasn't got into any scrapes yet. 

[janzin]

 

7 hours ago, madaboutcheetah said:

What a lovely young male ......

 

Thabo is hilarious - I'm pretty sure i first met him in 2006 @janzinso he's been around for over 13 years although he spent probably 4-5 years in Pom Pom before coming back to Lebala. Oh that's possible, he may have said that he's been 13 years guiding at Lebala/Lagoon.  Anyway he's been around a long time and yes, he could be quite funny at times! Very enjoyable to be with.

 

6 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

Gorgeous Leopard photos especially! Glad to you start Janet, looking forward to this very much. Sorry to hear about the heat, we will probably suffer the same next year since we´re also doing Kwando in November. Everyone has different heat tolerance--mine, not so much especially as I get older Thankfully the heat did break a bit when it clouded up the next few days and the remainder of the trip we had some on and off rain showers which kept the temps down. I'll talk more about the weather overall later.

 

3 hours ago, Bush dog said:

 

I have always appreciated your photographic skills, in particular the framing which is for me the first principle of a good photo.  I really like your “bit past sunrise”.  I'm not really an expert but I think your Burchell's sandgrouse, in the same post as the sunrise, is a crested francolin? OMG, yes you are correct, that's what I get for doing this report in the middle of the night. I'll fix it, thank you!

and thanks to all for your comments!

[Africalover]

Super tripreport and National Geographic quality images. How do you frame the images like that ?if I may ask?

[janzin]

3 hours ago, Africalover said:

Super tripreport and National Geographic quality images. How do you frame the images like that ?if I may ask?

Thank you!  It's funny but people always ask about those frames. It's so easy with the program I use, Picture Window Pro (FREE!).  But I'm sure it could be done in any editing program.

I created what they call a "workflow" but it's like a macro or "action" in Photoshop.  A 2 pixel black border, then a 2 pixel grey border, then a 26 pixel black border, then (in the same workflow) I can add the signature. Only the caption is added somewhat manually by stopping the macro and adding it in. It all takes only a few seconds each and I can batch as many together as I want, so doing 40-50 takes but a few minutes.

[janzin]

We headed back to the camp for what is called "brunch" at around 11 or 11:30 most days, depending on whether we were seeing much or not. As I mentioned, we were free to stay out all day but with the heat, we really weren't tempted. Although I'm not sure if it was actually cooler sitting in the stifling tent. The Kalahari cooler trick really works, and I also had brought a small hand-held fan which I could position on the nightstand and have it blow right on my head. The tents did all have ceiling fans but other than in Splash, they were way up high and didn't have too much impact (but certainly better than nothing!)

 

Brunch was extensive and always consisted of a hot casserole-type dish (lasagna, bobotie (which I loved!) or similar, with lots of salads and veggie dishes too, and always an option to get eggs to order.  It seemed like a lot to eat in the heat, but it was always good, if not gourmet--and we were always hungry after the morning drive.  There were always sodas and beers in the fridges for the taking (and oh joy, an ample supply of Coke Zero! Thank you, thank you! )

 

On this first day I was foolish enough to wander around the camp a bit with my camera in the heat, and found a few critters to photograph.

 

There were Brown-throated Weavers behind the rooms feasting on termites on the ground.

 

 

This White-browed Robin Chat had just bathed--somewhere, I'm not sure where--and was wet and preening.

 

 

 

Not the best photo, but it turns out this was one of our few life birds on the trip: Hartlaub's Babbler.

 

 

Village Weavers were nesting right by the dining area.

 

 

Playful squirrels

 

 

And a lizard I am not attempting to identify (if anyone can, feel free!)

 

 

After lunch and a sweaty rest, came 4 p.m. "tea time" (ice tea, lemonade, cake and usually a savory item like small quiches or pizza.) Then off again for the afternoon drive.

 

We came upon a group of Red Lechwe in the marsh.

 

A posing group! Did I mention I just love these guys--so sweet--reminds me of the Puku in Zambia which are my favorites, but these come close.

 

 

 I wanted to try my hand at catching them leaping across the waters. It was a fun challenge!

 

Leaping Lechwe...

 

 

(Note the Collared Pratincole in the background!)

 

 

Keeping up with momma!

 

 

Most of the rest of that day was "for the birds."

 

There's always a Lilac-breasted Roller, and one can never resist a photo, especially if they are posed in good light.

 

 

This one was perched nicely and sallying back and forth so I decided to try the pre-capture function on my Nikon (you can actually capture an image BEFORE you hit the shutter button.) 30 frames per second and I only got one that seemed in focus, but it was fun. (It's not as easy as it seems to figure out the focal plane for these!)

 

 

 

We stopped at another marshy spot which was full of birds. And a hippo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, at the end of the day I spotted this Dwarf Mongoose peeking out of a log. Thabo was impressed that I saw it before he did--he'd driven right past it and I called out, stop, there's something in that log!

 

 

 

Springhares on the after-dark portion of the drive, but no good photos this night.

 

 

Edited January 3 by janzin

[janzin]

The next day our intended goal was to find the two cheetah brothers who have territory in this area. I know that @madaboutcheetah is well acquainted with all the various cheetahs in the Kwando concessions, their territories, the names of the areas where they are known to hang out, etc. Sadly I don't know any of that   so all I can tell you is that we went...somewhere...somewhere towards Lagoon camp to search for them.

 

But meantime, on the way, we found a few other critters of note, including these Bat-eared Foxes. Normally Bat-eared Foxes are thought of as nocturnal, but we actually saw many during the day and it actually got to be a running joke with Thabo that we were on the "Bat-eared Fox Safari."

 

 

 

 

Of course, we stopped for a few birds.

 

 

 

 

And this Wildebeest which had just moments before given birth. The newborn calf was just getting it's legs!

 

 

 

 

Kudu were around but not really posing in the open for photos.

 

 

We eventually got to the area where the cheetahs had recently been seen.  It was already late morning and the heat was building quickly.  The guys found the tracks and they left us, as best they could, in a shady spot--but really there was no shade to be had, not  many trees and the trees there were, were pretty barren. So it was HOT.  We spent awhile moving from spot to spot, Thabo and Peach getting out to track, but after about 45 minutes the heat just got too much for me, I started feeling a little light-headed, and I told them I really wanted to go back (it was quite a ways back to the camp.)  I think this was the hottest day we had--as it was that night that the tremendous storm arrived.

 

So yeah, I bagged out, call me a quitter! Later we found out that the brothers had made a kill in the area    But all was not lost...we'd see them soon enough...

 

[Peter Connan]

More magnificent photos! That roller landing was worth the effort.

[janzin]

10 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

More magnificent photos! That roller landing was worth the effort.

Thanks Peter, that pre-capture function is fun (I think Olympus has it too.) JPGS only at 30 or even 60 FPS!! But I should have stopped down for more depth of field, I focused on the branch but the bird kept approaching from behind. I never got around to trying it again on this trip.

[TonyQ]

Wonderful photos throughout. A good point about not using the highest frame rate all the time!

The leopard are beautiful, and I really like Bat-eared fox -special animals. Always good to see the birds as well.

[Atdahl]

As always Janet, your photos are marvelous.  From the beautiful leopard to the bat-eared foxes they are all just outstanding.  Even your "not the best photo" of the Hartlaub's Babbler has lots of great detail and would be a top picture for me. 

 

Thanks for including the border tip.  I was able to do it in Photoshop Elements a few years back but I have already forgotten how I did it.  So, a free solution might be in order.

 

Really looking forward to more.

 

Alan

[marg]

It is so much fun to read a trip report of places where we have been and not that long ago.   And, one more comment about the photos.  They are beautiful!

[janzin]

Thanks @TonyQ@Atdahland @margfor your kind comments!

 

The afternoon drive was rather uneventful...well except for one brief interlude...

 

Starting out, we again ran into a couple of Bat-eared Foxes! I thought they are supposed to be uncommon in daytime?

 

 

 

We pulled up to another marshy, muddy area where we spotted quite a few Yellow-billed Storks.

 

 

And some Pelicans. You don't really think of Pelicans in a dry country like Botswana!

 

 

But as we turned around to leave this spot, this happened!

 

 

Uh-oh. Thabo and Peach got out to look at the situation but realized there was no way we were getting out of it on our own. The rear wheels were completely sunk in the muck.

 

Fortunately we were not far from camp, so a quick radio call and before you knew it, help arrived.

 

 

Well it wouldn't be a safari without at least one stuck in the mud or flat tire incident (and luckily this was the only such that we had, although there was the boat incident...well, that comes much later!

 

While waiting for the tow I took a nice photo of the papyrus.

 

 

It didn't take long to get us out, once the rope was hooked up. But the rest of the afternoon really didn't yield much.

 

An elephant.

 

 

Best sighting came after dark when we had a very cooperative porcupine.

 

 

And a Scrub Hare.

 

 

Just one more morning at Lebala, but we were looking forward to the switch over to Lagoon--a safari drive away--especially because it was during this switch over that we'd arranged to meet @madaboutcheetah, who would be traveling from Lagoon to Lebala as we traveled from Lebala to Lagoon.

 

 

[mtanenbaum]

Thanks for sharing your adventure! Your  photos are stunning as always. You have so many that are framed in interesting ways--like the hyena in the elephant hide! 

[Peter Connan]

10 hours ago, janzin said:

Thanks Peter, that pre-capture function is fun (I think Olympus has it too.) JPGS only at 30 or even 60 FPS!! But I should have stopped down for more depth of field, I focused on the branch but the bird kept approaching from behind. I never got around to trying it again on this trip.

Another photographer I admire (Ernest Porter) has a technique where he focuses on the branch and then either moves his head and camera a little bit or tweaks the focus ring just a little.

 

I have not had much success with it but just closing the aperture also doesn't really work.

[AKR1]

Just superb pictures ( as usual) Janet. Is it just me but the mirrorless picture IQ almost seems better than DSLRs. Obviously dependent on lenses so maybe the newer mirrorless lenses have improved as well?

[janzin]

1 hour ago, AKR1 said:

Just superb pictures ( as usual) Janet. Is it just me but the mirrorless picture IQ almost seems better than DSLRs. Obviously dependent on lenses so maybe the newer mirrorless lenses have improved as well?

Thanks! Actually neither of the lenses I was using were mirrorless lenses!  Both my 500 F4 and 70-200 2.8 are my original DSLR versions. Not so sure it is dependent on lenses, the newer sensors have a lot to do with it. Still, I’m not convinced that IQ is better than my D850 generally speaking. But that could be a long discussion 😆