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Great Wilderness Journey - June 2010

19 Jun 2010

A Great Wilderness Journey undertaken in June visited the following areas: the Okavango Delta (Jacana and Seba Camps), the Linyanti (Linyanti Tented Camp) and the Livingstone region of Victoria Falls (Toka Leya Camp).

At Jacana Camp, whilst having afternoon tea we watched an elephant walking through the water in front of camp. On the late afternoon mokoro activity we caught up to this same elephant, and it was amazing to view this immense mammal from the low perspective (albeit respectful distance!) of a mokoro! This was followed by sundowners on a remote island in the presence of a majestic baobab and dinner under the stars.

The next morning we went for a drive and, shortly after starting out, we picked up fresh lion tracks which led us to finding a pride of two females, one male and four cubs. We spent two hours watching them, the cubs entertaining us with their playful antics. On the afternoon boat cruise we were hoping to see hippo, but found a herd of 40 elephant instead! Time was just spent watching them feed and crossing the water. This was the largest herd I have seen in the Jacana area for a while. On the birding front, we also saw the sought-after Pel's Fishing-Owl.

Our next stop was Seba Camp with more dryland habitat and plains animals like Burchell's zebra, kudu, giraffe and another wonderful herd of elephant. On one morning we tracked a male lion for at least two hours and never caught up with him, but had fun nonetheless testing our tracking prowess.

Our stay at Seba went all too quickly and next it was off to Linyanti Tented Camp. On our drive to camp just after midday we were called on the radio that there was a young male leopard in the area. We got there in time and enjoyed an incredible sighting of this predator. This male had apparently lost a warthog kill to a relentless spotted hyaena clan in the morning.

The three nights spent at Linyanti were magical with endless wildlife sightings including another female leopard. While watching hippo one morning we saw a lioness coming in our direction, followed by another. We tracked them for a bit and even witnessed them chasing a buffalo, and then being chased by the buffalo in turn - certainly formidable prey. The lionesses were later joined by a male from the DumaTau coalition. Elephants in camp at night were regular and on the last night we had hippo visit us just after dinner.

For our final leg  it was off to Kasane for a Chobe boat cruise. It was paradise - elephant and hippo galore as well as crocodile and Southern Carmine Bee-eaters - these birds an unusual find this time of year. Then it was on to Livingstone and Toka Leya Camp with a special flight over the Victoria Falls.

- Victor Horatius -

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