I wasn't prepared for the mind boggling facts that make Botswana and the Okavango Delta such an amazing geographical phenomenon let alone for the reality of flying over this incredible land.

Botswana is a landlocked, flat country, the same size as France; a vast sand-filled basin characterised by scrub-covered desert and savannah. Except in the north-west where the Okavango River flows in from Angola and Namibia and sinks into the sand forming some 15,000 square kilometres of channels and islands that makes up the Okavango Delta. It was only from the sky - my flight into the Okavango - that I could fully appreciate the uniqueness of the scenery below me: miles and miles of flat floodplains, papyrus swamps and islands with palm trees, acacias and sausage trees sprouting out of them.




On closer inspection (as we flew lower), I realised that this pristine wilderness was teeming with wildlife. Sadly, as it was the end of the dry season, the water level wasn't quite high enough in the delta to go out on mokoros (dugout boats), but we had plenty to keep us occupied with some fantastic game drives, walks in the bush and my very first elephant back safari.








Abu Camp and the neighbouring Seba Camp are all about elephants - elephants that have been rescued from circuses around the world. In spite of their background, I was all goose bumps as I touched these huge pachyderms. Their serenity was infectious and I felt completely safe as we set off on a stroll through the bush on top of the largest bull elephant I have ever seen. It was certainly a very different way to travel and I will never forget the sound as we waded through the water on his back.





Next I moved on to Tubu Trees where I was made to feel extraordinarily welcome. Not just by the staff but from the wildlife - my enthusiastic host was brimming with excitement as I got back from a game drive on my first evening to tell me that a leopard had just walked past my tent and up to the bar for a drink of water. In hindsight, nothing would surprise me there: I saw the most amazing variety of game including some scarily close eye-to-eye contact with a lioness who decided to use our vehicle as a decoy for a bit of stalking of some zebra during our sundowners!




It was at Tubu that I saw my first 'wild' wild dog, having previously only seen them at a rehabilitation clinic in Namibia (despite the fact that I have worked in Luangwa in Zambia for a whole season). I know they are increasingly rare but until seeing one in the wild I had never quite understood the attraction of wild dog. At Tubu I became an immediate convert fascinated by their strikingly beautiful markings. Not only that but they were hugely entertaining to watch as the five of them played with each other, until a very large male baboon up a tree decided to bait them. I sat absorbed watching them for at least an hour.






Vumbura Plains was my next stop. Vumbura is quite simply unlike any safari lodge I have ever seen let alone been to! No canvas and teak in sight, just very long planks of sandblasted pine and reed blinds with funky décor and high ceilings. The huge airy rooms really gave me a feeling of privacy and intimacy, so much so that I was quite happy to skip all game drives and hang around my own plunge pool and watch the animals come to drink at the natural pool in front of my room!







King's Pool, my final stop, was on the Linyanti River. The food here was the most amazing food I have ever come across in Africa, and frankly almost anywhere. But it's not the food that you travel half way across the world for; would you believe it but I saw wild dog here, again! And also some six-month old lion cubs with their mother.





All in all, my whole trip was a huge sensory overload culminating with having to clear ostrich and warthog from the airstrip before it was safe to fly!

I haven't even mentioned all of the other wildlife I saw along the way - cheetah, warthogs and their "wiglets", lechwe, an incredible array of birds of all sizes, hyena pups, hippos, crocs, new born impala and giraffe.

I was so well looked after by the charming and knowledgeable staff at each of the camps I stayed in. Next time I will have to make it down towards the south east for a bit of quad-biking and sleeping under the stars in the Makgadikgadi Pans and also on a true San Bushman walk in the Kalahari Desert.

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