In May I was lucky enough to go back to Botswana. Having last been there in the heat of December at the end of the dry season it was fantastic to go in the cool of the end of the rains and see the Delta begin to fill up with the annual flood waters from Angola - it is filling up by the week.









This time I got to feel the essence of what makes Botswana different and that is game viewing from a mokoro (dug out canoe). The mokoro is the most peaceful way to enjoy your surroundings with no noise to disturb the red lechwe hopping through the swamp and elephants moving slowly through the lilies and fantastic birding.







At Kunana Camp in the Delta I saw a couple of young male guests (I think about eight to ten years old) receiving their certificates for the "Young Explorers" course that they had just competed. They were beaming with pride and had clearly had an amazing time and had been kept very busy while their parents were able to enjoy a game drive on their own!









At Stanley's Camp I was lucky enough to quickly meet Doug who you can spend a whole morning walking with, along with his three elephants. There are no elephant back safaris here, but having been with these elephants for 18 years he knows all there is to know about ellies and you can interact with them and then walk through the bush with them at your side which in my book is an even more awesome experience. I felt extremely safe with them at my side as well as feeling extraordinarily small!









In the Linyanti region I stayed at Kwando Lagoon where I was lucky to have a fantastic guide, Russ (imagine a guide with the voice of Louis Armstrong) and a phenomenal tracker seated on the bonnet. The tracker stopped Russ at one point as he had seen a reflection off something on the side of the track...it turned out it was a spider! What eyesight! It was the most entertaining night drive I have been on for a very long time and we saw a huge variety of nocturnal animals.








A quick lunch in Namibia in the Caprivi Strip felt was too short a time to spend at the gorgeous Ntwala Island Lodge before heading on to Zambia and Vic Falls. Having done a season working in South Luangwa in Zambia it was almost a crime not to have visited the Falls so I was delighted when we were taken up in a helicopter to fly over the Falls - quite incredible especially as it was the end of the rains in Zambia and the Zambezi was bursting to the seams.







What a fantastic trip and quite an experience to be in three African countries all in one day and only one plane journey - it is such an incredible area and a myriad of planes, boats, cars and choppers to get between! I am still recovering and my drive to work is a little less exciting, although still very beautiful!