Botswana Marshland Animals and Birds

After breakfast, we set off with our guide, Ban, into Chobe National Park. We were going to meander along the river to see what we could see, but Ban heard on the radio that there were some lions out, which is pretty rare. So we zoomed along the bumpy, sandy road to the sighting. Two young males and three females were lounging in the shade in a protected brushy area, away from prying eyes (they thought!). Ban thought they may have had an early morning meal, as their bellies looked full and they were quite content to sleep or quietly watch us as we quietly watched them.

After that, the other animals didn’t want to feel left out—with zebras, waterbucks, giraffes, elephants and baboons making an appearance. We saw a sable antelope for the first time, grazing among impala and zebras, until it decided they were infringing on its territory and chased them away. We also found a number of birds while out today, including a vibrant turquoise bird called a Greater blue-eared glossy starling, yellow-billed storks and a tawny eagle. We ended the day with some giraffes feeding at the water’s edge, splaying their legs to reach the ground, and a pride of lions thinking about hunting some Cape Buffalo.

Earlier in the afternoon, a couple of village women came over to our camp to show us how they do basket weaving. It was interesting to hear how they dye the palm strands nowadays. Blue comes from carbon paper they get from the shops that use it for receipts; pink come from Kool-Ade; brown comes from rusty cans and bark. The women are part of a crafts collective, consisting of 11 women and 2 men. A simple plate-type basket takes 4-8 hours to make. Some larger baskets might take a month to finish.

Each safari camp we’ve been to has its own guides, and they have all been so amazing—full of details about plants, animals and birds, as well as tidbits of knowledge from their time growing up in the village. The camps have all been run by a company called Wilderness Safaris, which sounds like a very responsible company. They hire most of their staff from the nearby community/villages, and during the COVID tourism shutdown, they supported not only their employees, but whole villages with food supplies. They also require guides to take refresher courses each year for three weeks to keep their knowledge up-to-date. Wilderness Safaris sends out auditors to ensure the camps are recycling waste properly and running the camps in a sustainable fashion.Read more