My Amazing Safari to Botswana

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OK I DECIDED TO START THIS AGAIN TO MAKE IT A LITTLE BETTER THAN IT WAS:

Hey everybody,
Last month the fiance and I took an awesome trip to Botswana. It had absolutely nothing do with motorcycles. In fact, I think I saw one bike the entire time I was there; a BMW GS.

Anyways, this here is going to be my trip report. I hope you enjoy it.

A little background information. We decided to go to Botswana as they are pretty much the best country in Africa in regards to their management of wildlife and tourism. We went with an awesome company called Letaka Safaris on what's called a mobile safari http://www.letakasafaris.com/. Ten days of living in a safari-style tent with a bucket shower and a hole to shit in. But we had a dedicated guide, a chef, and two camp staff to set up tents, heat water, clean up, etc. It's a pretty awesome way to experience and full-service safari without spending billions.

Prior to the trip I decided that my broken iPhone wasn't an appropriate camera so I purchased a Nikon D3300 with a 28-55 and 55-300 mm lens kit. I am not a photographer. These photographs show you how fucking amazing it is there. I took a total of about 1800 photos. Not that many were horrible. Most were decent. Some are awesome; these are the ones I hope to share.

We flew forever. A flight from SFO to Istanbul, then straight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where we sat in the airport all night. I was too amped to sleep so we walked in circles around the small terminal, then drank a beer at the one bar open, then walked some more. We then flew to Johannesburg and spent the night there.


In the morning we got up and got on a plan to Maun, Botswana:

In Maun, we met the other three people in our group and got on a smaller plane:

It was a little sketchy at times, but absolutely beautiful:

 

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In the air we saw herds of buffalo and elephants. As we came in to land, a pair of elephants were grazing next to the runway.

We landed on a dirt strip in Moremi National Park and are met with our awesome guide Gee. A local that grew up in the delta and has tracked animals his entire life, we hit it off.

I tell Gee that I a a biologist and interested in tracks and whatnot and he points to the ground and says "That's a lion. I'll show you some very good tracks", raising pitch during the "very good" part in a comical manner.

And off we went....

Moremi was cool, we saw lots of neat birds:

But we were tracking cats. Gee was good; real good. And he had followed these big male lion tracks for a while. We came around a corner and I nearly shit my pants.

Gee hit the accelerator and we moved past the big male lion sitting about five feet to my left staring at me like the piece of meat that I am.


This was about the point I knew this trip was going to be good...

 

[Loki1000R]

join Imgur. host and resize your photos there...there site is uber simple. so easy in fact, that I can post photos now:laughing

the sizing that works best is: 1024x681. once you type in 1024, uncheck the box below and it automatically sets the other dimension, save and post using the bb code second from the bottom, the one for forums boards or something...I think. :thumbup

bring on the awesome! opcorn

 

[tgrrdr]

Does anyone know how to make these fit? I have some really good photos.

i use irfanview - it can batch resize pictures with just few clicks. or, like loki suggested you can use a hosting service that resizes automatically (I use photobucket).

nice pics btw. :thumbup

 

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ok ,will do when not druke.

 

[MikeyRocks]

So awesome, I've always wanted to go on a safari and see animals in their natural habitat. Looking forward to seeing more of your pictures. :thumbup

 

[poach]

Magnificent!

Thx for sharing...

 

[oobus]

Damn Kitta!

 

[1sicv8]

looking forward to more pics!

 

[planegray]

Mike, keep posting.... I don't care what size the pics are

 

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Ok, maybe this will work. I have a photobucket account.

So annnnywaaayyyyyyy..... There we were sitting next to a big male lion. Another big male lion and a female were lounging a little bit away. Here are a couple of photos:

 

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We then moved on towards our camp, stopping for various wildlife along the way:

A baby Burchell's zebra

A vervet monkey that kept trying to jump on our vehicle

 

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And our campsite

 

[JesasaurusRex]

very cool!!!

 

[Hoho]

Holy shit! That looks like so much fun!!! :hail

 

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It was Hoho. Life changing. If anyone is interested, we are planning on doing another safari in the same general area in Jan or Feb 2017. That should be enough lead time to save money and get time off work. I can give you the details but we will be hitting up the Kalahari desert during the big migration, then a week up in Okavanago delta (where these photos are from).

 

[Lunch Box]

Great stuff so far. Subscribed! :thumbup

 

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So the next day we take off to find more stuff. And stuff we found:

 

[KWeezyXB12]

opcorn MOARRRRRRR!

 

[EastBayDave]

Great shots; thanks for sharing!!! :teeth