safari – The Carefree Photographer

We decided to start out annual trip to Botswana with a stay at Ol Donyo Lodge (Great Plains Conservation) in Kenya. So we spent two nights in Nairobi to rest up after the trip from Austin. This provided an opportunity to check out a few things in Nairobi, and we had an enjoyable day with these activities. This blog post will cover the stops we made.

Giraffe Center

The Giraffe Center is the creation of the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (A.F.E.W. Kenya), a non-profit. Its purpose is to primarily educate youth on their country’s wildlife.The Giraffe Center was begun to reverse the sad plight of the Rothschild giraffe, a subspecies found only in the grasslands of East Africa. At the time only about 130 of these were left. A.F.E.W. established several other sites in Kenya, and today there are 300 Rothschild giraffes safe and breeding well in various Kenyan national parks. The center in Nairobi currently has about 17 giraffes.

Kazuri Beads

Our next stop was a bead manufacturing and sales center. We were able to watch dozens of local women fabricating, coloring and polishing jewelry beads, as well as assembling into necklaces in many cases.

Matbronze Wildlife Art

Time for lunch! Our guide Joseph stopped at a bronze art venture complete with a charming restaurant in the gardens. There were numerous pieces of bronze castings posing as elephants and other wildlife arrayed around the property. The owner apparently developed the expertise on using the lost wax casting process to produce very realistic artistic castings of wildlife. In addition the art shop displayed paintings of wildlife as well. The foundry was located on site.

Karen Blixen Museum

For you fans of the movie “Out of Africa” starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, there is a museum featuring the actual farmhouse and some of the property that Karen Blixen referred to when she said “I once had a farm in Africa”. One can wander through her house – with a guide of course – and see much of the art and furniture that she lived among during her days in Nairobi. No pictures allowed. Quite interesting.

Karen and I have just returned from our ninth safari sojourn to Botswana, a “habit” we began back in 2013. We found back then that we both had a yen to go on safari in Africa. I had a taste of this back in 1995 when I spent a weekend at Mala Mala Camp in Kruger National Park. Karen’s aunt and uncle had many mementos from their time in Africa which gave her the bug.

So where should we go, we asked. Karen’s friend Dick had been on Safari six times, visiting Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. He told her to go to Botswana because “that’s where the animals are!”. So we planned our first trip with the help of a young Englishman named Mark Hathaway, who lived in Maun at that time. Maun is the jumping off place for many of the numerous safari camps in Botswana, especially for the world-famous Okavango Delta.

Mark set us up with three night camp visits to Meno a Kwena in the Kalahari, Xakanaka (in Moremi) and Kwara (near Moremi) in the Delta, Lagoon in the Linyanti area and finally a two day stay on a small boat ion the Chobe River. Thia itinerary gave us a taste of the different area and we – over time – fine tuned the agenda with camps that offered a value stay in places that offered comfort but most importantly had excellent wildlife viewing.

So how does one get to Maun? A warning – the trip is long, but well worth the effort. All “roads” lead to Johannesburg (JNB). We have traveled with Delta (AUS to ATL to JNB), on British Air (AUS to LHR to JNB), and Qatar (DFW to Doha to JNB). One can also fly United direct from Newark, and various airlines via Europe. Even Turkish Air via Istanbul! So how do we decide? Simple answer – who has the cheapest business class fare at the time. Personally we like Qatar. Normally leave one day, get to JNB two days later.

Then one has to get to Maun. That is typically on Airlink, who flies larger jets twice per day from JNB to Maun. Returns are from Maun or Kasane.

So now you are actually in Botswana, in fact in Maun. What next? Of course you have one more flight today, to your first safari camp.

Once you arrive on a dirt runway, you are greeted by your safari guide and driven to the first camp. You are likely taken an an afternoon safari that day. Camp routines ar usually up at 6, quick breakfast around a campfire, off in the vehicle by 7, back at 11-12, brunch rest, off again at 4, back by 8, dinner then bed.

So let me show you where we went this year – and will again next June. Our first camp was Four Rivers in the Kwando Reserve adjacent to the north side of Moremi NP. This is a private reserve, allowing off road and night time driving. We love this reserve and have stayed in one of these three camps every year.

Our next stop, after a 30 minute flight, was Lagoon Camp, located in the Linyanti area, situated between the Delta and the Chobe in the Kwando Concession. This camp is a little older, situated on the Kwando River, and has wonderful game viewing.

Our last stop was at Muchenje Lodge, located on the west side of Chobe National Park. We love this lodge and really enjoy a more relaxing time. We rise later, go on a long boat trip on the Chobe River and see a wide variety of game including elephants, hippos, cape buffalo, crocs, lizards and much bird life.

This is just an overview of this year’s trip. Subsequent blog posts will focus on specific wildlife species, with and overview of each and lots of images.