Carina returned last week from a Namibia Botswana Southern Circle NBa21 and had something interesting to share about the tour.. Everyone always wants to see the Big 5 on their African Safari. But sometimes it is not the big animals that make up for the best sightings but rather the smaller unexpected visitors that you meet on your safaris.

We started our safari in Livingstone Zambia and then traveled into the Caprivi strip of Namibia. We had seen a lot of different animals but the unexpected visitor in Inkwazi Camp near Rundu made a memorable moment. While having dinner at our lodge dining room that night we had someone special joining us as well.

Right behind our table we saw this little face appearing behind one of the logs and the next moment a lightning fast strike came out behind the log as a Genet made its appearance to grab a chicken bone and then disappeared again.  In the next hour while we were eating he came back several times to see if there was anything else for him and we spent our time trying to get a photo of him.
The Genet wasn’t our only surprise visitor for the trip, a couple of days later in Etosha National Park we had another animal coming to visit one of the waterholes while we were waiting to see if anyone was thirsty. This animal’s reputation is more known that the chance of seeing him are, especially during the day, this guy likes to be more active during the night time not in midday like we saw him.  As we were watching the waterhole one of our guests saw a movement behind one of the rocks and there he pops out, a Honey Badger, he arrived had a drink and then started wondering of into the distance as if he was never there.

Another visitor was in Desert Quiver Camp in Sesriem near Sossusvlei. Again while having dinner a Cape fox wondered through camp after smelling the neighbours nice BBQ . He was so quick no-one managed to get a photo but the memories of him in camp will stay with us all for a long time.
Last but not least the most unexpected visitor was in Magadigadi Pans near Nata.  We went to watch the sunset over the pans, it was a beautiful African Sunset with the most amazing golden colours, after watching the sunset we started heading back to the lodge keeping our eyes peeled for any nocturnal animals that might start moving around after sunset. There he was the biggest surprise of them all, the aardwolf appeared out of the long grass and moved a bit closer to the vehicle so that everyone could see him and then disappeared back into the long grass. What a sighting.

One can always have the Big 5 in mind when you come on a safari, but it is the small things that will stay with you after you have gone back home.  It is always the unexpected visitors that give you the biggest surprise on your African trips.