O Bona Moremi Lodge Khwai, Botswana

Saturday 7 August to Monday 9 August

Lockdown Day 499 to 501

On our arrival at O Bona the staff are waiting for us in the carpark to welcome us back with singing and dancing.

After settling into our tent and a bit of high tea we set off on our first game drive. This time our game guide and driver is B-Man. 

The wild dogs have left the nearby den but we enjoy our afternoon drive with lots of game and elephant sightings.

We stop for sunset drinks next to the Khwai River with a huge hippo in the water a few metres from us. He moans and dives and bears his teeth and flicks his dung around with his tail to show us he is not happy with us in his territory.

On the return drive we spot three different sightings of African Cat. Gigi, Silvester and Chef Agnes look after us very well in the camp.

Coffee is brought to our tent at 6am, breakfast is at 6.30 and we are out on the game drive by 7am. 

Quite late in the morning we are treated to the most amazing leopard sighting; a female out hunting. We are able to follow her for over half an hour. 

In between all the animal excitement we also see lots of birds and another awesome sunset.

I can't resist taking photos of the sunset but when I look for my phone I realise I have left it on the bonnet of the truck at the sundowner break. Miraculously it's still there bouncing around and hasn't dropped off into the bush while we have been driving!! 

Using spotlights we see spotted Genet and cerval too. 

Our sleep is disturbed with the night sounds of owls, elephant, hippo and hyena. Just before sunrise we hear lions roaring pretty close to our camp. After breakfast we head off to try and find them without any luck so we head back into Moremi NP; our original plan for the day.

After about 30 minutes enjoying all the plains game, we come upon two big male lions asleep next to the road. Lions anyway!

Our afternoon drive is also in Moremi NP. Being the only guests we get such special attention at O Bona Moremi. It is truly a privilege to be in Botswana now but we do hope tourism picks up here and in Southern Africa very soon.