“I’ve got something special to show you,” said our guide Issac. I couldn’t imagine what it could be. We had already spent the last few hours exploring the western region of Botswana’s Chobe National Park—a hotbed of local wildlife—where we’d seen a pride of lions wandering along the park’s dirt roads, and discovered a pack of African painted wolves (aka wild dogs) lounging quietly in the sun. How could anything be more remarkable than that? But when our safari vehicle rounded a wall of mopane trees, my jaw dropped. Right in front of us sat a spotted hyena and her cubs—at least five tiny carnivores with black, scruffy fur and full sets of teeth—all rolling playfully in the dirt. I was over the moon.
There’s nothing quite like an African safari—that incredible opportunity to observe some of the planet’s most legendary wildlife in its natural habitat, often from just a few feet away. Yet I’ve learned during my many trips to Africa that every safari is different. Whether you’re spotting red-bellied lemurs in Madagascar’s Ranomafana National Park or visiting Botswana’s Linyanti Private Reserve—traversed by one of the largest elephant herds on Earth—your sightings depend on where you are, when you travel, and a bit of luck. While nothing is guaranteed, everything is worth the while.
I’d been on game drives in Kenya, South Africa, Malawi and Ghana, but Botswana’s Chobe National Park was the first place I’d witnessed such a wide range of predators in such a short span of time. The closest I’d come to lions before was spotting them from a bush plane above Kenya’s Maasai Mara, or hearing a heart-pounding roar outside my camp at South Africa’s Madikwe Safari Lodge. Fellow travelers joked that I was some sort of lion repellant, and I was beginning to believe them—until I visited Botswana.
In the Wilds of Botswana
Botswana is home to a healthy lion population, though it’s best known for its water-based safari experiences. With its seasonal marshes, floodplains and deep blue river, Chobe National Park is no exception. Our adventure began on the park’s northern edge at Chobe Game Lodge—the only safari lodge within the park itself—perched along the Chobe River.
Our first safari outing took place in a solar-powered boat. As we meandered along the river—Namibia on one side, Botswana on the other—we caught sight of dozens of elephants barreling out of the riverine forest. They swung their trunks as they headed to the water, replenishing their thirst after a full day in the sun. A troop of baboons scattered along the adjacent sands in their wake, while crocodiles lay unperturbed in the marshy channels and muddy banks of the Chobe River.
In Botswana, water shaped our daily routine. After exploring northern Chobe, we boarded a Cessna to the country’s Okavango Delta, Earth’s largest inland water system. When rains cause floodwaters to rise, the Delta becomes a vast network of waterways and islands, brimming with lush vegetation. We glided along peaceful channels in mokoros—traditional dugout canoes steered by expert guides, each standing at the stern and propelling us with a pole—surrounded by rice, hippo and pampas grasses. Bright green bee-eaters fluttered overhead, while orange-and-blue malachite kingfishers perched on slender reeds. At night, we tucked into bed with a hot water bottle slipped beneath the sheets (one of life’s great pleasures), circled ourselves with mosquito netting, and drifted off to the grunting of hippos that sounded impossibly close.
Planning Ahead
Though safari sightings can be serendipitous, there are ways to heighten your chances of seeing certain species. Chobe National Park is famous for its vast herds of elephants, which can number upwards of 80,000 in the dry season, though rhinos are among its rarest large animals. Poaching decimated their numbers, and the remaining rhinos were relocated to sanctuaries. To spot these odd-toed ungulates, a better destination might be South Africa’s Madikwe Game Reserve—just south of Botswana’s border—a stop on Nat Hab’s Secluded South Africa safari. Madikwe boasts Africa’s highest concentration of rhinos, and on my 2014 visit there, we even tracked a white rhino on foot.
Botswana also hosts a seasonal zebra migration twice a year, in early to mid-December and again in late February or early March. In fact, it’s the second-largest mammal migration after the Serengeti’s Great Migration, the annual trek of millions of wildebeest, zebras, and other animals between the Maasai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
The Serendipity of It All
Still, much of a safari’s magic lies in never knowing what you might see—and every sighting is its own reward. During the same trip to Madikwe Game Reserve, we spent a morning following the prints of painted wolves that had been roaming our camp earlier, then stumbled upon three cheetahs. We snapped photo after photo as they wrestled, stretched, and frolicked. In Kenya’s Aberdare National Park, I experienced a showdown between a leopard and a mother warthog—when the leopard lunged at a piglet, mama warthog charged head-on, sending the cat running. “Don’t mess with a mother,” whispered a woman nearby, as we all stood there in awe.
It wasn’t until our visit to western Chobe National Park, however, that I truly felt we’d hit the wildlife jackpot. Along with lions, hyenas and painted wolves, we saw giraffes, elephants and impalas galore, plus occasional wildebeest, warthogs and a variety of birds—yellow-billed hornbills (aka “flying bananas”) and enormous kori bustards, both Botswana’s national bird and the continent’s largest flying bird. “I think we saw all the animals,” I kept saying, grinning from ear to ear.
“We did see a lot of wildlife,” Issac agreed, “though I’m sorry we couldn’t find a leopard for you.”
“That’s quite all right,” I told him, still beaming. “We need to save something for next time.”
Experience the heart of wildest Africa on Nat Hab’s Secluded Botswana Safari, which includes visits to both Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta.
