Okavango - Maun

A strange noise wakes me up in the middle of the night. It sounds like we have a mouse or a squirrel in the room and that he is going through some things we have in a plastic carrier bag. I wake David to check it out. Nothing. The noise is still there, however, so David opens the ‘curtains’ (in reality a flap over the netting ‘window’ in the tent), and with a “Whoah” and wide open eyes he takes a step back. “Come and look” he quietly urges. Now it is my time to make exclamations of amazement: there is an elephant grazing on the tree right outside out tent. He is literally only a couple of feet away from us, with just a thin sheet of canvas separating us from the huge animal. It is totally surreal, a little bit scary, and extremely exciting. We watch him through the netting until he moves on.

This shows you the tree he was eating from

Trail Cam

We are leaving the Okavango today, travelling back to Maun ready for the long journey home, so we are not making a pre-dawn start. As soon as it is light enough to do so safely, David collects the Trail Cam we set up when we arrived here.

This is where the trail has been for the last few days.

Initially, all we can see on the memory card is a couple of antelopes.

Then the elephant comes into view, ang gets very close to the camera.

His trunk is so close that the trailcam can't focus on it - it looks like he is actually checking out the camera!

He is walking around to the side of the tent here, which is where we saw him in the night.

In the distance we can hear lions and hyenas – I so love staying in the bush, surrounded by wild animals.

Today we are making our way back to Maun to start our long journey home. I don't want to get to the hotel too early, so I request that we do a game drive on our way, which we do.

Our vehicle awaits

We follow the river north towards the border with Chobe National Park.

Red Lechwe

Blacksmith Plover

Egyptian Geese

Saddle Billed Stork

Long Toed Lapwing

Yellow Billed Stork

African Spoonbill

South African Giraffe

The spot where we saw all the hyena action at their den yesterday, is disturbingly empty today. Nothing. No sign of any of the gorgeous cubs we saw here yesterday, nor their mothers.

Later we see a single male hyena. Moscow explains that their bite is equivalent to a pressure of four tons per square inch. Wow! No wonder they are so feared – I wouldn’t like to argue with those teeth, for sure.

Burchell's Zebra

Double Banded Sandgrouse

Elephants

A couple of elephants graze alongside the track. The first one checks us out and decides we are not a threat.

The second one, however, is not at all happy and starts to charge the car. Moscow revs the engine, which is thankfully enough to scare him off.

Striped Swallows

The swallows are still hanging around on the bridge, and we stop for a while to watch their antics.

Mr & Mrs Burchell's Sandgrouse

The pair of them refuse to get out of the road, so we have to negotiate the car around them

Warthogs

African Fish Eagle

Rufous Bellied Heron

African Darter

Kudu

Saddle Billed Stork with Snake

We watch the whole process, from him catching his breakfast to swallowing the snake.

Tea Stop

Moscow chooses a lovely spot overlooking the river for us to stretch our legs, have a cup of tea, and try to warm up.

David feeling the cold

Moscow making the tea

We are joined by a few hippos

The whole area here is full of camp sites used by those tourists on self-drive trips.

Goliath Heron

African darter

It seems it’s not just the Saddle Billed Stork (and us humans) having breakfast, an African Darter swims up and down the river trying to locate an unsuspecting fish.

African Fish Eagle

Wildebeest

Impala

Nile Crocodile

Hippos

Everywhere we look there are hippos: in the water, out of the water, without or without an oxpecker or five hitching a ride while pecking at ticks.

As we slowly approach them in our vehicles, the hippos on land make a dash for the water, creating a huge splash in the process.

Vervet Monkeys

Chobe National Park

We briefly enter the park until the road takes us back out again.

Burchell's Zebra

Flooding

This area is liable to frequent flooding, which over the decades has slowly killed the vegetation.

The soil around here is well fertilised, however, with all the various animals who graze here.

Spur Winged Goose

Egyptian Goose

Squacco Heron

Coppery Tailed Coucal

Pied Kingfisher

Another one eating breakfast, this time it's a frog.

Elephants

It’s the first time I have seen an elephant digging for roots and tubers.

Warthogs

Lunch

We stop at the same place we were on the way to Okavango to eat our packed lunch. We have chicken, coleslaw, potatoes, and of course, a Savanna Cider!

More Elephants

Southern Ground Hornbill

Red Crested Korhaan

South African Giraffe

As we hit the main road, I snooze for a while in the car, and wake up at the health stop, where we are supposed to get out of the car and walk across a disinfection mat. Moscow, however, makes it easy for us by taking our shoes and boots across to be disinfected so we don’t have to leave the vehicle.

Sedia Riverside Hotel

From here it is all smooth sailing until we reach our last hotel in Africa on this trip, Sedia Riverside Hotel. We stayed here a few nights ago, on our way from Deception Valley to Okavango, so it is all very familiar to us. We are even given the same room.

After a quick shower, we pop down to the restaurant and order the same food as last time: Mexican Pizza and Chocolate Mousse.

Thank you to Undiscovered Destinations and their local teams for arranging this incredible Great Africa Trip 2024