Wild animals, bad roads, wilderness camping and waking days from sunrise to sunset and defined the next days of our trip. Before we could fully embark on one of the key parts of our 4x4 safari adventure, we had to make some last minute preparations though. First: Fuel up and lower tire pressure to 2 bar on all wheels. Second: Negotiate with the campsite guys to change our bookings last minute. Third: Stock up on plenty of food and water.
Our first day was meant to be a dry run, with only a daytrip to the Chobe waterfront and another night outside the park. It ended up being an amzing afternoon with animals literally left, right and center of us. Probably a dozen herds of elephants, a pride of nine (lazy) lions, a huge herd of sable antilopes and tons of other animals crossed our path - in less than 6 hours. We didn't even have to make an effort to see anything, it all came to us as we drove through the most Northeastern corner of the park. For long times we just parked the car next to the river front and watched as the animal kingdom unfolded itself around us. We still like zoos, but after seeing this it is very difficult to not be somewhat underwhelmed by what can be shown in the confines of even the nicest man-made enclosures. Properly impressed and thoroughly exhausted we returned in the evening to our campsite outside the park, equipped with a tremendous respect for the park and its wildlife. We also brought back some valuable experience with the famous Botswana sand tracks. Besides the animals, driving in full 4x4 mode in seriously sandy conditions was the second big thing of the afternoon and should be a defining part of the next few days.
The morning of the next day saw us refueling one last time before we got on our way through central Botswana to the town of Maun, five days away on sandy tracks. We quickly learned that our 4x4 experience had its limits still, as we got stuck in deep sand about 10km from the park gate. To be very clear, it was not the fault or inability of the car to handle the conditions, it was stupid driving on my side. Luckily, a local drove by with 8 or 10 guys in the back of his truck and after 3 minutes work with our spade and a quick push from the guys we were free again. No harm done, luckily, but the road conditions stayed challenging and concentration was needed. There was less wildlife around than the day before, so we pushed on fairly quickly, knowing that we had a really long drive ahead of us for the day. We met some Swedes on the way who we had seen previously and wished each other luck for spotting something spectacular. A short tar section gave some respite from the sand, but Yeya quickly hit some hard and heavy conditions afterwards, bringing us and the car to its offroading limits. We made good progress though and by 2pm we had reached our last designated break, where we had lunch and gave notice to the rangers of our existence and plans. Then we were off to our final destination for the day, the remote camp site of Linyanti.
We had been warned about this last stretch of road, but except for 6 nasty kilometer of sand the road was much better than expected and as a result, we reached our camp early. Inexplicable, we managed to end up doing most things pretty late though, as darkness fell quickly. Botswana national park camp sites are not fenced, and Linyanti is home to anything from lions to hyenas and elephants, so we didn't like the idea too much to hang around outside after dark. When an elephant "dropped by" (as in coming up to about 20m from our car) while we were barbequeing our steaks, we decided that dinner would have to happen inside the car, rather than at our carefuly laid out camping table. In the end it became a bit improvised, but it was still an enormously tasty dinner and we very much felt as being part of nature (despite being a potential dinner to other, more adapted species).
Getting up at 6 and being last at the bathroom facilities was interesting to say the least. Animals are most active in the mornings and afternoons and we were determined to make the most of it, but apparently others were even more eager! With us there were two Swiss couples at the camp site who had the same route as we did, so we chatted a bit before heading out back into the park at around 7.30am. The first two hours were quiet though, until we hit some open plains with wildebeest, elephants and other grazers. This is where the physical map we had failed us. Two diverging roads of decent conditions were indicated - we chose the left. We obviously don't know what the other road looked like, but ours essentially disintegrated into a barely visible track across the grassland, rigged with waterholes, deep potholes and overgrown with grass for most of the way. If we hadn't had a trusty Google map with enabled GPS to let us know we were still on a road at all, we would have turned around. As a consolation, we did see quite a few animals on the way and got to drive through a thoroughly deserted part of the park, giving us a true explorer feeling. And finally, trust in technology and our gut feeling turned out well and we reunited with the other road. Conditions still weren't good though and we also knew that parts of the road ahead had been flooded and we would be forced to take a 100km detour as a result. Not something we were looking forward to when the average speed of driving was 30km/h. Nonetheless, we made it and pitched our tent at the North Gate of the Moremi Reserve before 5pm. What was more, the sightings book at the gate showed plenty of sightings over the previous days, so we went to our rolling bed hopeful.
Over the next three days we explored the Moremi reserve in all its glory (and from sunrise to sunset). A few key takeaways upfront. Rains were heavy this year, which means that the Okavango delta (which Moremi is a part of) had high levels of water - which in turn meant that roads had high levels of water. Result: Some roads were closed and for all others we learned to drive through water. Also, once you figure out how to drive on sandy tracks, it becomes pretty straightforward and you can look out for animals at the same time. Lastly, Moremi is fantastic for game viewing and we added a ton of animals that we hadn't seen before, either in Chobe or in Kruger. Over the course of the three days we saw honey badgers, cheetahs, wild dogs, black-backed jackals and a red lechwe, most of which we managed to get photos of. The cheetahs had just killed an impala when we saw them first, so they didn't move much for the next 24 hours and we ran into them a few times. We also got stuck in a big herd of about 25 elephants on our last morning, with one of them coming to within 5m of our car. Let me tell you, it is a pretty terrifying feeling sitting in a 3 ton car knowing that the 6 ton animal in front of you can easily demolish your only safety mechanism if it is in a bad mood. There was no sign of hostility from the herd though and after about 15 minutes we all went our separate ways again.
Other notable events included yet another encounter with the monkey world, and predators in camp. Our monkey encounter happened on our first morning and went along similar lines as the first two ones in Kruger and Livingstone, only that this time the monkey was a fully grown male baboon and he wasn't scared. We were guarding our breakfast closely, but when we took our eyes of the table for a moment he sprinted towards us, grabbed our (only) loaf of bread and made into the nearest tree before we were able to react. Slightly shaken and with the baboon 25m above the ground, we concluded that cereals was to be our breakfast of choice from now. The next morning, we saw some tracks next to our car and on inquiring, we learned that a hyena had checked us out in the night. The next night, a group of lions tramped through the campsite, maybe 50m away from our tent. Luckily - or unfortunately, depending on your view - we were fast asleep for both events. We also had frequent run-ins with our friends from Sweden and Switzerland, with who we continued to share tips and sightings as we all made our way through the reserve.
All good things had to come to an end at some time, so after a last morning game drive we left Moremi three days after we had arrived on our way to the town of Maun, where we arrived in the afternoon.
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