What an exciting 3 days. We left the Victoria Falls Safari Club after breakfast for an hour bus ride to the Botswana border where we cleared immigration. No visa fees here after paying $75 US each to enter Zimbabwe. An open air jeep picked us up for the 30 minute ride to Kasane International Airport which must be a figment in someone's imagination. After clearing security we climbed on a 10 sear airplane for the 35 minute ride to Savute airport which has a dirt runway and landed at Terminal 5, gate 3. The only building we saw was a small shack. There we were picked up by Baba who is to be our guide for our stay at Savute Safari Lodge. After lunch and a sort siesta, high tea was served and we headed out for our afternoon safari. We saw a variety of animals but the highlight was a Leopard. We followed her for quite a while and got some pictures but she's camouflaged by the grasses so it's tough to pick her out. We stopped for a sundowner - drinks and snacks as the sun went down. Then it was back to the lodge for cocktails and a delicious dinner.
March 31st - a 5:30 am wakeup greeting by one of the staff, continental breakfast, and then off on a 4 hour game drive at 6:30. Caught a glimpse of a hyena before he disappeared into his den. We saw 4 of the big 5 on this game drive. There were numerous impalas, elephants, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, hippos, and Cape buffalo. We also saw 4 lions but the best lion viewing was in the afternoon when we saw a mother and 3 cubs. When we returned a bit later the father had replaced the mother so she could go hunting for their dinner. While we were stopped for our sundowner we saw a male wildebeest chasing a female one as she was trying to leave his harem. He was not successful in stopping her and in the end she was joined by another 3 females and a baby in escaping.
Botswana has some of the most beautifully colored birds we have ever seen. They are pretty as we spot them in the trees but become very impressive in flight. There are several varieties of geese - some as big or bigger than the Canada goose - and, of course, the ever prevalent vultures.
April 1st - we left a bit later this morning - 7 am. Our first sighting was wild dogs which are endangered here. They were on the hunt for breakfast and we followed them for a sort time but didn't see them take an animal down although they did send a herd of impalas fleeing. We came across more lions and we think we've now seen the whole 12 member resident pride. There were more impalas and wildebeests and then we came upon a male kudu which resembles a moose. We also came across a flock of ostriches.
On the afternoon drive we encountered several elephants having a bath and annoying the hippos who were sharing the pool. We saw many impalas, giraffes, wildebeests, zebras and a variety of exotic birds.
As we pulled up to our sundowner stop we were greeted by a couple of staff members with a barbecue set up for our snacks. Once again we saw a beautiful sunset and as we turned a corner on our way to the lodge there was a huge elephant right at the roadside.
April 2nd - morning - 4 of us did an early morning game drive on our way to the Savute airport. We finally saw the hyenas -1 adult and 2 pups and then we came across part of the pride. 1 pup was lounging on a dead tree branch. The big guy was there with his magnificent mane. He was joined by the mother and 4 cubs. We stayed with them a long while and got some wonderful closeups. When the lions tired of entertaining us we moved on to see more zebras, wildebeests, impalas, elephants and giraffes. As we approached the airport Baba found a leopard tortoise for us - 1 of the small five.
Pictures 1 - some of our crew in the open air dining room with elephants at the watering hole
2 - impalas
3 - wildebeests
4 - the staff entertaining us before dinner
5 - giraffe
6 - the big guy and a cub
That's awesome. What a great trip!
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