Tag: wildlife

Botswana – Day 9 & 10 – Rest, reflect and Moremi Game Reserve.

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Day 9 

We spent day 9 in the Safari Lodge hotel in Maun. The previous day had been wonderful, but it was a long tiring day. To get maximum enjoyment out of our adventure we knew we needed to put in some “nothing “ relaxation days …this was one of these. We slept in late, prepared the bag to send to 5he laundry and reflected on our previous day….. The Okavango is an extremely expensive adventure, camping makes it slightly cheaper but even that’s probably one of the most expensive camping experiences anyone can have. Mobile camping with a company also reduces the cost slightly but John and I are no campers. It was the same as in the Pans area, unless you are an extremely competent 4×4 driver and know how to get through soft sand tracks which can leave all 4 tyres spinning helplessly, you need to go with a Safari company or hire both a vehicle and a driver……( for those who think they are good enough to self drive don’t forget to let your tyres down ….hard tyres really churn the sand up so always drive this type of road with soft tyres. One of the reasons it’s so expensive here is that with both the two safaris we did in the pans and the two from Maun you have to either be a party of 4 or pay for 4 people…..it seemed the majority of companies were charging US$250 per person and all insisted on a minimum of 4 people…..this is what makes it so expensive when it’s just the 2 of us…most people on normal budgets just find the cost prohibiting……..we had decided that this was a very special occasion so it was worth “splashing the cash”.

We updated our Facebook pages, what’s append home and prepared for the following day. We had agreed with Monametsi that we would have a full day in Moremi Game reserve. He had kindly dropped the price to US$800 for the day.

Day 10

We were stood outside the hotel at 5.00am, ( an hour which doesn’t appear on my clock at home, unless we are jet-lagged !!!), waiting for Monametsi to arrive and for one of his Safari vehicles ……time was passing at 5.50am we were about to give up our wait…besides it’s cold even with fleeces, scarfs and gloves at that time of the morning…..just as we were about to go back to bed! …the Safari vehicle arrived…. It turned out the battery had been stolen during the night so the driver had put his car battery on it but that wouldn’t allow us to stop and start with confidence. So we were to set off and wait at the end of the tar for Monametsi to catch us up with a new battery, our breakfast and lunch…. Which is exactly what happened although the blankets were forgotten and we were very cold…

With new battery fitted off we went again…before we got to the Reserves gate we saw a variety of wildlife both dead and alive……this included the sad sight of an elephant who had got stuck in the mud of a waterhole and died, another elephant was showing its last respects. 

Once inside Moremi Reserve we stopped at the gate again and had breakfast, used the ablution block and watched some squirrels playing and hornbills scrounging bits of dropped food.
Then we were off on our day of sightseeing and wildlife spotting. We saw copious amounts of Lechwe, Tsessebe, ( both of these we rarely see so we were delighted to see such big herds)

We also spotted elephants, zebra, giraffe, warthog, hippos, and lots of birds however our search for lions was in vein.

The reserve was quiet and, other than at the main gate, we saw very few other vehicles all day. Some of the tracks we traversed looked hardly used and were extremely overgrown. This added to the experience as we parted the grasses, it was almost off-roading, and the air of suspense hung around as as we scoured the landscape for exciting wildlife spots.

We pulled up under a tree out of, the now, hot sun for lunch……Days like this need either a strong bladder or nerves of steel if you risk nipping behind the bush !!! We once again passed through the South Gate as we made our exit before the 6.00pm deadline.

It was a lovely day, we returned about 8 pm and had a nice supper in the hotel…..if we were honest the day probably wasn’t worth the money but it was an area we had never explored before and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing different types of landscape and terrain as well as the wonderful wildlife.
We once again ate in the restaurant. We chatted happily to a newly retired Doctor and his wife both of whom were from England. They were on a very interesting ‘Intrepid Traveller’ Overland tour from Cape Town to Victoria Falls. The itinerary was truly adventurous and we might have been interested in something like this in the future if it hadn’t been for the couple saying how exhausting it was….this is often a problem on guided organised tours, they rarely put the much needed rest days in, which I prefer to call laundry and catch-up days…or just sleep-in days…..it’s really worth remembering this, I’d learnt my lesson on a trip to India where we’d gone a straight 7 days of sightseeing and moving on , we’d comeback needing a holiday !!!!!

Botswana -Day 7 & Day 8 -Maun & The Okavango

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Day 7 We said goodbye to Gweta Lodge and continued our trip by driving on to Maun. We spent a short time in town buying a data SIM card to put in our mobile router so we could have WiFi….we were advised to get an orange sim card…ummm!…what a waste ……it worked in Maun but nowhere else. I had booked us into Maun Lodge for 4 nights. It was expensive at around £96per night B&B  but then Maun is the 5th largest town in Botswana and the ‘Gateway to The Okavango Delta’. I hadn’t booked any activities in advance as it was our first time in Maun. When we got there I googled Safari companies because the hotel’s activities desk was very expensive. We hired a company called Moonstroll. They were very professional and Monametsi who owned the company met us in our hotel that evening and talked through our requirements. 

Day 8 We liked the fact that Monametsi turned up at 5.30am and took payment once we were on the Safari vehicle. They only took cash US$ or he would have taken Rands and he appreciated we weren’t going to pay in advance as we didn’t know whether this unknown person would pitch up or just take our money …… it was his idea to do it this way to give us confidence….they provided us with rugs, breakfast and lunch and a snack plus soft drinks and loads of water…We were off to Moremi Game Reserve and on the far side a place called 3rd Bridge which is the only place to get a boat from, at this time of the year, to go out on the Okavango Delta……..it cost US$1000 for the day………was I excited or not!!!! My dream was about to come true…I’d always wanted to do this from the age of 24 when I first visited Africa….but it is so expensive I had never been able to justify spending this sort of money on one of my ‘Must do before I die’ wishes.

Wrapped up warmly we headed off towards Moremi Game reserve. The start  of the road is tar, which we speed along for about 40 minutes and then a further 30 minutes on a gravel road and then an hour and a half on very soft sand road. We saw a variety of wildlife and birds as we got closer to the Southern gate of Moremi.

On arriving at the south gate we used the washrooms and sat and ate our breakfast before embarking on a three hour game viewing drive through the reserve before getting to the boat station at Third Bridge. 

Here we met Captain Moses and boarded his flat bottom, pontoon like boat, along with our Safari guide Kennedy. 

Once all our picnic hampers, drinks, cool boxes, camera bags etc were aboard we set off through the narrow canals of the Okavango Delta. Our first spot was a malachite kingfisher which set the standard for seeing many other fantastic sights such as African Jacana, hippos, wattled cranes, fish Eagan’s, elephants, red letchwe…….to name but a few.

The waterways were littered with floating islands of pampas grasses, papyrus grasses( which they use for basket weaving), massive beds of water lilies and loads more vegetation. 

We watched with fascination as Fish Eagles swooped in and out of the water…..sometimes successful and sometimes not…. their huge wing span moving the air above our heads as they soundlessly went about their usual activities.

Our 3 hour trip went far too quickly. It was nothing short of magnificent, awesome, breath-taking, eye-opening…….it really was the stuff dreams are made of. 

We made our return journey to the gate at high speed arriving a few minutes before closing time at 6.00pm. The rest of the shake, rattle and roll homeward bound trip was in the dark and we finally got back to the hotel around 8.45pm. 

A wonderful long tiring day. Thank you Moonstroll Safaris for turning dreams into reality …….Thank you John for saying it’s ‘A once in a lifetime experience’ so we won’t worry about the cost. I loved every minute of it.

Our Special Celebratory Trip to Botswana 2023 Day 2 to Day 4

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Our trip to Botswana in May 2023 was to celebrate Johns 70th birthday and my 60th which had been two years prior to this during the pandemic lockdown. 

Day2 – We flew into Kasane and hired a non 4×4 but high clearance vehicle( for pot hole avoidance). Although I am a reasonably experienced 4×4 driver, I don’t like driving the sand roads in Botswana……they are deep and very soft in the dry season and like driving on a skid pad which sucks you in, in the wet season…. we rented in advance from Avis a Toyota Urban Cruiser…it was a good price and the customer assistant, Ben was a delightfully helpful young man. 

We had booked into Chobe Safari lodge on line with booking.com We had bed, breakfast and evening meal  with a river view in a Safari Room for £175  or Botswana Pula 2300 per night for two people  ….it’s quite luxurious and there are lots of places cheaper in Chobe their sister hotel Chobe Bush Lodge on the same site is considerably cheaper but no river view….booking.com was cheaper than booking direct it was also the cheapest we’ve paid at that lodge for around 9/10 years…so it’s worth investigating.

You wouldn’t drive yourself in Chobe unless you were an extremely experienced 4×4 driver ( a few years ago I thought I was but had to be dug out, an embarrassing moment) Game drives through the activities desk at the hotel are US$45 / P 360 per person and River cruise is US $42/P350 per person, We  just managed to get from the car hire to the lodge in time for the afternoon Safari drive. It was a full jeep load and a driver who wanted to show us everything…hence a fairly fast bumpy drive but lots of excitment as we saw our first wildlife of our trip. 

Day 3 The next day we drove to Gweta. There are only a few tar roads in Northern Botswana so it’s quite straight forward to find one’s way. From Kasane take the road to Francis Town and turn right at Nata to Maun. It’s extremely straight forward  the road towards Francis Town is in good condition…but then I can remember back to when it was a dirt road before becoming a one strip tarred road and now by Botswana Standards it’s practically a motorway…two lane tar all the way !!! After a 5 hour drive on mostly good tar roads, interspersed with a few areas where it was better to drive in the bush at the side of the road than risk falling into a pothole…I think we emerged with all, 4 tyres intact but we’d know when we woke up the next day….at least you get a spare tyre in Botswana….. we arrived at Gweta Lodge for a 4 night stay…….Gweta lodge can only be described as quirky…it’s neither palatial or primitive…..it had electricity and even weak WiFi in the bar area….the en-suite room has mosquito nets over the beds (which is just as well as the door and it’s frame are miles apart) and air conditioning. They were in the process of building luxury rooms…none of which were available when we booked. Somewhere like Gweta lodge in the Salt pan area is about £65  or P1030 per night for the room for 2  ….The lodge had so much going for it but it just lacked management and the workers lacked direction, which meant the rooms and facilities were not shown in the best light. The cleaners did an adhoc job with no structure or routine and no checklist …so some areas of the room looked as if they had never been cleaned, and you may or may not get towels, soap, loo roll etc without having to go to reception and ask…. That evening we had a braii/ barbecue and met a nice Dutch couple, Cynthia and Jooste.  Cynthia Goedhart owns the Facebook page – “Travelling Namibia & Botswana: ideas ~ advice ~ experiences ~ inspiration! “…….with over 42.9K members it is one of the most popular Facebook African travel sites and well worth taking a look if you are travelling in this area. 

Day 4  We got up early as we were off to Ntwetwe Pans, part of the Makgadikgadi  Pans, ( about the size of Switzerland) for a full day of discovery. We had booked a safari from the lodge into Ntwetwe pans to see the furthest north meerkats. It was great not having to worry about the driving and having the whole Safari vehicle to ourselves. 

We were collected by ‘Chief’ in the Safari jeep. He was a charismatic young man, who originally didn’t take onboard the fact that we had years and years of experience of African Safari  and being in the African bush……he soon learnt the error of his ways when our spotting eyes and knowledge challenged his own less considerable skill, and he realised he was going to have to work for his money, ( US$1000 for the day meant we weren’t going to let him off lightly !!!!), rather than just joy ride!!!! We drove for about 1.15 hrs along what looked like animal tracks through marrula  scrub land….our wildlife viewing consisted of donkeys, horses, cows, we saw absolutely no other vehicle or persons even though we passed several cattle corrals with nothing but some barking dogs guarding them. Finally we got to an area of flat plains behind which was the gleaming white of the salt pans. We turned to drive along the plains and The Chief told us to look out for a man and tell him if we saw one.……we didn’t but he did and soon we were greeted by Como….who was sat on a slightly raised area of the plains. We then sat for a while until a family of meerkats began to pop up…really cute. Evidently there were 14 in the colony although we only saw 6 …delightful, busy, inquisitive little creatures. We had breakfast, if that’s what you call it, while watching the meerkats. Thankfully their antics distracted us from the curled up cheese sandwich, hard boiled egg and bread roll and the metallic tasting coffee. 

After an hour we headed on to the pan where we surprised a pair of jackals.

Our 2 minute drive on the pan was over in a flash and we were soon back on the animal tracks  heading for the famous Chapmans baobab tree. An hour later we pulled up at an area strewn with fibrous tree remains and a heritage national monument sign…the famous huge Chapmans Baobab had collapsed in  2016…yes we had taken an excursion to view a once was but no longer is magnificent tree !!!!!!!! John was polite and descended the vehicle and took a picture of the sign telling us about the tree which isn’t there any more. I am afraid the effort of climbing off and on the vehicle didn’t warrant the ‘nothing left of the tree’ view so I stayed put. 

Sensing our disappointment The Chief told us we were carrying on to see another baobab…I couldn’t contain my delight!!

On the way to our next tree viewing we visited the only 2 pans which still have a small amount of water in. To our surprise both had huge herds of wildebeest which had yet to follow the zebra migration. There was also a large number of vultures spread winged cooling off….it was a magnificent sight and what with the earlier sightings of meerkats it made our day a happy one. 
On the way to our next tree viewing we visited the only 2 pans which still have a small amount of water in. To our surprise both had huge herds of wildebeest which had yet to follow the zebra migration. There was also a large number of vultures spread winged cooling off….it was a magnificent sight and what with the earlier sightings of meerkats it made our day a happy one. 

We continued on to the the next baobab, which was actually still standing.

After a bite of lunch which fared more favourably than the breakfast we were once again subjected to the bone shaking high speed journey back to the lodge. The speed of the return was such that we had no choice but to hang on for dear life and pray. 

A lovely experience with the highlights being the meerkats and the wildebeest.

We enjoyed our evening meal chatting once again to Cynthia and Jooste.

Day 20 – 24th February 2024 – Mirissa to Hikkaduwa via Galle and Turtle Sanctuary.

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We were some what sad to leave the Sea World Botique in Mirissa…we loved our sea view room, the pool, terrace, sea and sand watching. The service was great and we’d found a really wonderful seafood restaurant just up the road. We would definitely stay there again…not just because they had the most comfortable pillows we’d had all trip…but leave we must.. and Suminda collected us at 8.30 am and we proceeded on our day of sightseeing, whilst transitioning to our next and final hotel.

Our first stop was at Wagamama just along the coast. The coast was literally packed with surf schools and in the water were hundreds of Caucasians trying to learn the art of surfing. It’s evidently very popular there due to the waves being medium size and the waters being shallow.

We went a little further along the coast and stopped for some photos of the infamous ‘Stilt Fishermen’. Unfortunately it’s all a bit touristy and false now…you pay them to sit on the stilts while they pretend to fish in this out dated rarely used today method.

Further along the coast we watched people pulling in the fishing nets, a much more realistic sight of more up to date fishing methods.

Our next stop was in Galle. We had asked Suminda to find us a book shop because we wanted to buy a book on Sri Lankan Birds to help us identify the birds in our photos. I’d try to write most the names down as we went along but my efforts failed miserably when we looked at our photos against my list of names. We had also decided to buy Suminda the same book as he had admitted to learning much more about the different birds on this trip and we thought it would help him identify the birds when he was with other customers. We went to the first bookshop but the book they had was ‘Common Sri Lankan Birds’ which had hardly any eagles in and the colour and pictures were not a very true likeness. So Suminda phoned around some other stores and found one which had two copies, in English, of the book we had in mind…they were both duly purchased along with a tube of superglue……John and his sandals are becoming a regular focal point of our recent holidays. Last year he packed one dark brown one and one camel coloured one for our African trip….this year he brought the dark brown ones with him, even though I asked if they were the good or not so good pair….they were the not so good pair and the side fastening has freed itself from the sole along with the inner sole flapping away from the sole…oh dear a super glue job is required to see us through the next 3 days….but be assured they are not coming home with us !!!!
Our next stop was Galle Cricket Ground. It is where the test matches are played. Suminda told the security that John had played in England, but instead of saying ‘in’ he said ‘for’ and we were allowed into the ground to take photos…John was extremely happy as he has bygone memories of David Gower commentating on a Test Match and proving that the old tale of a Sri Lankan cricketer hitting the ball into the sea, was exactly that ‘a tale’ as it was literally impossible.

From here we visited the Fortress. This is in fact what we would call a walled city within the city of Galle. The Portuguese had originally built it, the Dutch then took it over and finally the British added to it. From the walls are some magnificent views. For those of you who watched Xander Armstrongs series on Sri Lanka, you may remember a man diving off the walls into very shallow water near the base of a massive rock…..that was here….in fact the same man offered to jump for us for US $20 just like he had for Xander…we declined and he asked why..to which my reply was “ I don’t wish to pay you to risk your life for my entertainment”. He seemed ok with that.

We continued our journey past our next hotel and up the coast to the  turtle sanctuary  at Ahungalla. On the way we passed the place where the tsunami had hit a train full of people. All 1500 had been killed. There is a memorial to those who lost their lives. This memorial is a Buddha who has been built to the height of the wave. There is also a museum with one of the carriages involved in this tragedy. 

On arriving in Ahungalie there was a giant turtle with its mouth open. You enter the sanctuary by walking through its mouth.

The eggs are brought up from the beach and put in sand in the sanctuary, where they are left to hatch naturally. The sand has sticks all over it saying the type of turtle, the date they were laid and the number which are buried. It takes between 45 and 60 days for the eggs to hatch.

The baby turtles are then placed in a tank until their eyes open prior to being released back into the sea.  It was very interesting. There are also a lot of other tanks with turtles in. These are rescued by fishermen and brought to the sanctuary. Most have had fishing lines/ nets caught tightly around their necks..the blood makes them easy pray for sharks. These are treated by the sanctuaries vet and released back into the sea when they are completely healed. Other turtles have eaten plastic bags and the vet removes these  and again after a period of rehabilitation they are released back to the sea. There are also some life long resident turtles at the sanctuary. These have either had limbs amputated by boats propellors, or they’ve been so damaged by plastic that their shells have domed meaning that they can no longer dive or they are albino. The sanctuary has 2 albino turtles, they occur approx 1 in a million and our guide had only seen these two in the past 14 years. One was a youngster and the other fully grown. They can’t be released back into the sea because they have no protection from the sun. 

We then went through a Sharks mouth into an area with aquariums containing, Black finned Sharks, puffer fish, moray eels, starfish, rainbow fish etc. It was all very interesting and we found that their conservation of these endangered species was both ethical and professional. 

We returned back down the coast to our new hotel Sapphire Seas Hotel. We were met by the manager who informed us he had given us the best room in the hotel with a wrap around balcony and two walls of glass doors which looked at the sea from two different aspects…it was on the second floor…..’oh no’ I thought…but this friendly gentleman said I need not worry as they have a lift….great news… we were shown to our room, which was so large John said he’d probably double his daily step count !!!! It didn’t take us long to don our costumes and head for the Sun loungers and pool. We spent a couple of very pleasant hours watching some pretty big waves chase along the beach with the surf producing a ‘ follow my leader’ type of image. We also had a nice refreshing King Coconut  to drink. Before retiring to our room for a late afternoon siesta.

We ate in the restaurant that evening. The chef came and talked us through what we wanted….he said he would make the seafood Tom yum ( Thai soup) not so spicy. Well! thank goodness for that because his not so spicy made our eyes and noses run. We followed it by having sweet and sour king prawns …very nice indeed. The manager, a nice friendly man, came to chat with us before he finished his days work. It was a lovely meal. Unfortunately the lift was out of order, due to fluctuating electricity strength, so I had to walk up to the second d floor….I am getting better at stairs…let’s face it I’ve had enough practice this holiday.

Time for bed now…to the sound of the waves on the beach ….

Day 14- 18th February 2024 – Full Day Safari Yala Block 4 & 5

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We were picked up at 7.00 am by a different driver today, because we were going to an area of Yala about 1 hour 15 minutes away. The area is known as block 4 & 5 ( incidentally Block 2 & 3 are not accessible to tourist jeeps). Our driver was a scruffy barefooted elderly man who spent the whole day chewing beetle ( it makes you high, evidently) and he had no interaction with us at all. Once again he provided the lunch which came from the same place as the lunch the day before. We took a packed breakfast from the hotel, their cheese and tomato sandwiches were very pleasant as was their fruit platter.
During our morning Safari we saw the peacock perform its mating dance, a splendid sight, lots of Bee-eaters, buffalo’s, grey Langer monkeys, a selection of herons, storks and eagles, some very young white spotted deer and elephants to name but a few.


During the Safari we went alongside the Weheragala Reservoir and viewed the massive sluice gates. A picture of these appear on the back of the Sri Lanka 5000 Rupee note….On the non-reservoir side of the sluice is a small river. We were amazed to see 3 jeep loads of local people bathing in this river in the middle of the national park. Apparently this is a normal activity for a Sunday.

We stopped for our curry lunch by the same waters edge where we had had breakfast. Suminda is becoming an expert on serving curry from the back seat of the jeep…because unless we go to another designated picnic area you are not allowed to alight from the jeep. Our guide reiterated this to us when we asked to stop there for lunch….the 3 of us promised not to get down. On arriving at the area our guide told us he had recently seen leopard there and then promptly descended from the vehicle and went to the waters edge to wash his hands, face and feet !!!!


After lunch things went from rather uncomfortable to an endurance test…fortunately John Suminda and I passed the test ..just….
Having had at least one beetle too many the driver set off on some mission to see how many side roads he could take us down…these were not rock and roll, or even tango side roads more like tsunami wow, wow, wow….. let me tell you holding on for grime life is futile and actually only rips muscles as you are tossed and turned in unexpected directions. It’s better to put your arms out sideways to try and balance and ride the storm on your coccyx, hips and buttocks and just pray that your spine is still attached when you make flat land…ready for the next .. We got badly stuck in the mud twice. The first time Suminda shouted at him where to turn the wheel…the second time we sort of hit a brick wall, crashing our knees into the seat infront and jolting every bone in your body ..we were almost on our left side with the mud over the back wheel and almost into the jeep at the front…he kept going back and forwards in the same place spinning the wheels and showering everything with mud…eventually Suminda instructed him where to turn the wheel and when to accelerate…. At this point John and I decided to call it quits and Suminda told him to take us home… at one point I looked over my shoulder at Suminda and he was holding on with both arms up to the roll bars on the roof and swinging…he looked at me and we both burst out laughing… he shouted over the roar of the engine “I bet I look like a monkey” my reply was “ I Thought you were in the gym doing pull-ups” Even on the dryer roads the ruts were atrocious.

One the way out of the National Park we did see some absolutely amazing Malabar Pied Hornbills, a fantastic sight and some Indian Rollers. Needless to say when we got back to Tringa Villas our driver only got a tiny tip.


During supper that evening the 3 of us couldn’t stop laughing..I think it was the relief of being alive and in one piece as we talked over the days activities and adventures. Our supper was once again not good…if you like dry rice and over fried chicken leg it would be fine, but we don’t. Suminda very kindly took pity on us and offered to drive us to a nearby restaurant the following evening. We all had an early night as our bodies were very sore from the bumping, crashing, bouncing around. I have an extra tip for any ladies who may be stupid enough to do a Safari like this …….put a rolled up pair of socks down the middle of your bra to stop your boobs crashing into each other…… we Safari a lot but this one beats the lot 10x over when it comes to rough roads.