Arthur had a really exciting trip in Botswana recently on our Botswana Wild Parks BTa14 and had the below to share. We had 4 clients on this tour all of them being first time travellers to Africa and very keen adventurers who always appreciated what Mother Nature provided them at any given moment. The tour starts in Johannesburg and heads to Khama Rhino Sanctuary, we spend a night in this reserve set aside for White and Black Rhino. Khama is a community based wildlife project, established in 1992 to assist in saving the vanishing rhinoceros, restore an area formerly teeming with wildlife to its previous natural state and provide economic benefits to the local Botswana community through tourism and the sustainable use of natural resources. Covering approximately, 8585 hectares of Kalahari Sandveld, the sanctuary provides prime habitat for white and black rhino as well as over 30 other animal species and more than 230 species of birds.

The next day we head to Maun and then in to the Okavango Delta. The delta is the 1000th site to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage Listed in 2014, it is an important wildlife area protected by both the Moremi Game Reserve, on its eastern edge, and the numerous wildlife concessions within Ngamiland.

After 2 nights in the delta the tour heads to the Moremi Game Reserve for 3 nights of game drives and exciting sightings of 4 of the big 5. On one particular day, whilst on a full day Game Drive in Moremi Game Reserve, we had a lunch stop at North Gate, we were busy organising our table when we saw this Big Elephant Bull passing about 60 metres away, as he was going up towards the gate where a lot of vehicles were parked some of the people up there started shouting at it and it made a sudden turn heading towards us. Irritated and making a very loud rumbling sound all our guests left their plates and rushed to the land cruiser in a flash, in less than 5 seconds they were all in their seats!!!! We had the brisk tasks of calming them down and telling them to keep quiet and avoid sudden movements and the elephants simply passed a few metres away and vanished into the thick Mopane forest leaving everyone laughing it off!

On this very same day back at Hyena Pan just after dinner we sat around the fire which is set close to the waterhole enjoying the African bush sounds. As we sat there talking about the day’s game drive, a female elephant around 20 years old came to drink some water and as soon as she was finished she started to walk slowly towards us! Everybody kept their calm, but she kept on coming! Completely unfazed by the huge fire she got really close to us, about 6 metres away. Now the lodge has placed logs in-front of the dinning area and fire which is a demarcation point stopping guests from heading to the waterhole which this elephant got to and stopped. I could see that everyone was very much unsettled!! Suddenly the elephant made a fussy sound like she was telling us I AM BIGGER THAN YOU and it turned back and started walking away!

Later we heard from the owners of the Hyena Pan, Greg and Kelly that this elephant does that frequently and won’t cross the boundary that they have put in place! We experienced the ultimate close experience twice with elephants in a single day! All of the guests described it as a day never to forget!!

At Hyena pan the waterhole that is there has a very high salt content which attracts large number of elephants, buffalo and sometimes if you really lucky large groups of eland come to quench their thirst and gain the valuable minerals from the salty water. Elephants will dig up earth to obtain salt and minerals. The tusks are used to churn the ground. The elephant then places dislodged pieces of soil into its mouth, to obtain nutrients. Frequently these areas result in holes that are several feet deep and vital minerals are made accessible to other animals.