Private Journey Guide Alex Mazunga enjoyed a productive week of guiding at several of our Botswana Camps…
Vumbura North
I met my guests, a group of American agents, at Maun airport and we popped across the road to the Wilderness Safaris offices to wait as our flight to Vumbura Plains was only taking off at 14h45. North America Sales Manager Cayley Christos was to join us, and as she was already on safari we flew via Mombo to pick her up en route to Vumbura Plains.
On our way from the airstrip to camp we were met with a surprise bush tea. After tea I offered to take our guests straight out on a drive, which they were all happy to do.
The highlight of this drive was seeing a leopard and her young cub with an impala kill.
The next day was hectic but full of fun. We started with a site inspection of Vumbura South after breakfast, followed by a game drive, and ended up at Little Vumbura for a site inspection.
At lunch the ladies split into two groups: “The Swahili Sisters” and “The Motswana/Batswana Mosadis”, as Cayley and I had a competition planned for them.
That afternoon we left early, and had our tea at the mokoro station. While having tea – boom – a wonderful surprise for the ladies materialised as a helicopter came in to land, and they all enjoyed a 20-minute scenic flight.
After that we went out on a mokoro activity; halfway through I found a nice open waterway and the ladies had a one-on-one poling competition, which they all loved, and which the Motswana/Batswana Mosadis won. We closed the day with a Delta presentation which some of Vumbura’s other guests joined us for.
On our last morning we had a short, but very productive drive, as we had found the coalition of four male lions after tracking them for more than an hour; we left them and headed to the airstrip for our onward adventure at Kwetsani Camp.
Kwetsani Camp
Lunch was served on arrival and then everyone had a mini-siesta. As we were on a very tight schedule, we had an early tea and headed to Hunda Island for a site inspection of Tubu Tree and Little Tubu Camps, enjoyed a short drive and had some great sightings, including a lot of general game and a male lion with a buffalo kill.
That evening Cayley did a presentation on the “Why” of Wilderness, which was amazing, and just before dinner I held a quiz with ten questions, which the Swahili Sisters won.
Our flight to Seba was fairly late the next afternoon so we managed to fit in a site inspection of Jacana and Pelo, have brunch and a site inspection of Jao before leaving for Seba at 15h00.
Seba Camp
After tea our game drive took us past Abu Camp for a site inspection, where the guests were thrilled to meet the Abu elephants and their two new herd members, three-month-old Motlotlo and an as-yet unnamed seven-day-old calf. The next morning we did a game drive before flying to Qorokwe; a very productive morning it was too, watching two wild dogs hunting (unsuccessfully) as well as spending time with the hyaena clan at their den.
Qorokwe Camp
Here I gave a brief overview of the history of Botswana at tea before we headed out on a wonderful game drive. We saw a lot of general game and rounded off the early evening with a surprise Champagne drop.
After dinner we went out on an amazing night drive where we saw three different wild cats, as well as civet, serval and a spring hare.
On our last morning we did a short drive and saw a lot of elephant, giraffe and zebra, as well as a female leopard hunting. On our way to the airstrip we also saw a lioness at a waterhole.
After a very productive Botswana safari we headed to Maun Airport where I helped the guests to check in before seeing them off to Cape Town and Johannesburg.
