Safari in Review - June 17, 2013

Let the safari - and good deeds - begin!

Our safari group enjoyed a nice breakfast at the lodge in Maun, Botswana before heading out to quickly purchase a few provisions in town. Then we proceeded onto the true safari part of our journey! 

Our first stop along the way was at Shorobe Primary School, about half an hour outside of Maun. As it was a Monday, classes were in session and we were able to meet the school’s principal and were able to meet some of the wonderful students as well. 

One of the goals of WorldwideXplorer is to help people at the destinations that we visit. With this in mind, we asked our travelers to bring along useful items to donate to the two schools and one village that we would visit.

We had collected many school supplies to donate to the school: Pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, crayons, art supplies, and even a laptop computer. They were very appreciative of the gifts. What better feeling than to actually be able to meet some of the people that you are helping?

About an hour outside of Shorobe, we started seeing our first animals, well before we arrived at the entrance of the Moremi Game Reserve. Our very first sighting was…. Zebras! They were enjoying grazing along some of the open grasslands.

Shortly thereafter, we came across some impala, a gorgeous giraffe, and then a family of three elephants that were eating nuts that they would shake out of the tree. What a treat (for them and for us)!

Once we entered Moremi Game Reserve itself, we stopped at the first entrance gate and wandered around for a quick pit stop before going into the park.

We continued to be treated to some amazing animal sites! Among others, we witnessed, herds of tsessebes (the fasted antelopes), ostriches, giraffes – including two parents and a nursing baby, more zebras, running ostriches, and more! We came across a watering hole that could best be described as a smorgasbord for predators, should there have been many predators waiting. We saw hippos, more tsessebes, impalas, red lechwe, giraffes, various birds, crocodiles, and more.

En route to our camp site for the night, we stopped along the way to enjoy sandwiches for lunch, before proceeding deeper into Moremi.

By sunset, we reached the edge of the world-famous Okavango Delta and took a lovely 1 hour boat ride across many miles of reeds, to end up at our home for the night: A very secluded little island in the middle of the delta, miles and miles away from civilization! If you’ve ever wanted to go completely off the grid, this is a great place to accomplish just that! 

While we took some time to settle in, the chef prepared a lovely meal over a camp fire and we relaxed with hot tea, coffee, and cookies. We could see so many stars in the sky and we looked for the constellations that are present in the Southern Hemisphere.

After dinner, we settled in for the night, looking forward to seeing the island by day, and learning what adventures would await tomorrow!