Stefanie on a recent Zimbabwe Botswana ‘Game Tracker’ tour, had a tour that was almost perfect! These 16 days through magical places were just full of fantastic moments. A tour that I will never forget and wished it would go on for a bit longer …

We had a full truck of 12 enthusiastic guests on this tour and with Shandle being my collegue, I knew that we were in for a culinary highlight almost every day! The 12 people from Germany and Austria seemed to have clicked from the start and the mood throughout these two weeks was wonderful! It sure makes the job easier when everyone is open minded, gets along and appreciates even the smallest things! I do believe that such positivity helps a lot with animal sightings and thus I was not surprised that this group was lucky to have seen the big 5 on the second day in the Kruger Park. We were excpetionally lucky with the leopard sighting. We spent more than 20 minutes with this beauty, watching her smell the air, stalk birds and brush through the long grass. 

As this tour had so many highlights, I will try and reduce myself to talk about a few special moments from my side for which I also have pictures as well as memories. 

How old are you, Mister Big Tusker?

This beast was just a mere 100 metres from the leopard and made it’s way to the waterhole for a drink. I am sure that this male is considered as one of the new emerging big tuskers in Kruger and probably even has a name! It is not common to see such magnificent male elephants these days as they have been heavily poached for their ivory in the past and elephants with such massive tusks are most likely around 60 years old. So this big boy was a wonderful treat and I would have loved to know how old he is.

 The last on my ‘little 5’ list

Almost everyone coming to Africa is keen to see the Big 5, a hunting term from the 20th century that includes the five most dangerous animals to hunt on foot. These include the Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Elephant and the Black Rhino. However there is also the ‘Little 5’ and these animals are much much smaller. These include the Ant Lion, the Leopard Tortoise, Buffalo Weaver bird, the Elephant Shrew and the Rhino Beetle. 

For the longest time since starting to work as a guide, I have seen 4 of the small 5 and this tour would help me complete the list! Albeit as a complete surprise. When visiting Cecil John Rhodes grave in Matobos National Park, I took my camera with because of the wonderfully coloured rock agamas which like to hang around. While I was looking for rock agamas, suddenly, I saw them. There they were, ELEPHANT SHREWS! I was ecstatic, the clients were probably not sure why I was so excited but once they saw what I saw, they were equally enthralled with these little, shy creatures that were running around us and posing for pictures! 

The rare antelopes

Driving through Kruger National Park, I couldn’t believe how lucky this group was with sightings of rare antelopes. We started off with Common Reedbuck and two sightings of Tsessebe. But the most exciting was a herd of around 15 Roan Antelope, an animal that many frequent Kruger visitors have not seen in many years going to the park! This extremly rare big antelope has massive ears and is only found in a distinct area in Kruger, feeding on grass that occurs in the area. The number is probably less than 100 in Kruger and a sighting of these beautiful animals is truly special. There are chances of seeing them elsewhere in Southern Africa but never in huge numbers. In Hwange National Park we were at a waterhole when a big herd of around 20 Sable Antelopes came down for a drink. Another wonderful sighting of spectacular antelope that is not commonly seen!

Sunsets in Africa

I don’t think this title really needs much words, not that there are many anyway to describe such magical moments in the African bush. We took the time to appreciate the end of days a couple of times as it just allows for incredible photographic moments, especially when there are animals in the foreground! In this case the sunsets are from Chobe river, the Okavango Delta and Khama Rhino Sanctuary!

The Zimbabwe Botswana Game Tracker is one of my favorite tours as there is such a great variety of game viewing, landscape and scenery, conservation work and education and historical places that we visit. There is not just one highlight, the whole tour is one!!