I have been wanting to visit the Okavango Delta in Botswana since I was a child. My wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in July 2022 and this gave us the perfect excuse to finally go.
After a few days in Chobe, we flew into the delta by small plane into a exclusive lodge serving a maximum of 16 guests and before we knew it we were on our first game drive and straight up we saw our first Leopard walking along a faint track in the drying grass.
Before long it jumped up a tree and lay down.
We continued along to the side of the flooded river and several Red Lechwe’s were running across the flooded grass. This antelope is a water specialist.
It seemed likely they were running from something and we were delighted to see two male Lions appear on the far side. Our guide explained that these two Lion’s were brothers and this was their territory.
Before long the Lion’s actually crossed the water towards us and walked right past us so close that I was able to capture an amazing head portrait.
Continuing back to camp we saw a single Elephant and a group of Giraffes, both situations allowed environmental shots with trees playing a supporting role including the typically African baobab tree.
Early the next morning we were out early on our own and delighted to see our only Spotted Hyena of the trip, I was surprised how large it was to be honest, as it walked past the jeep in the low light.
It wasn’t long before we had another Leopard sighting finding one taking the highground from a termite mound.
After we watched it for about 20 minutes it got up and came and sat right by the jeep. When people ask me how close we got to the animals I show them the following picture. You don’t get much closer than that!
Whilst the focus here was mammals we did see lots of birds in the Okavango too and here are a few of the better ones.
We took a makoro canoe out on to the water one day and had great views of so many Angolan Reed Frogs. Tiny some were the size of a finger nail. Along with lots of water lilies.
We also saw numerous Hippos but not too close for comfort and a single buffalo.
But the highlight of the canoe trip was having sustained views of several Malachite Kingfishers some of which gave amazingly close photo opportunities.
We saw so much more on this trip and this post is only long enough to share a few of the absolute highlights. Other animals shown below include Wildebeest, Warthog, Side-Stripped Jackal, and Vervet Monkeys.
And yes we had even more Leopard Sightings too including this sleeping beauty in a tree.
The African Sunsets were amazing too and a good way to end this post. Our next stop would be Moremi Game Reserve.
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Another lovely post, I haven’t seen leopards in the wild, and how magnificent they are!
Fantastic photos! I take it the lions and leopards have become habituated to humans… were you protected in your jeep?
Not really habituated. They are completely wild. Most mammals don’t associate a vehicle with humans but rather see it as a complete whole. We couldn’t get out of the vehicle as they would immediately see us as a human and attack or run. But in the jeep they kind of ignored us.