Deception Valley Botswana

Botswana - Deception Valley

By January, 2008, Botswana was in the midst of a very wet rainy season, and the weather provided a sharp contrast to arid Namibia. We were greeted with rain on arrival in the Kalahari and had rain on almost all
subsequent days. The roads were rutted, stream and puddle crossings were deep, many roads were too wet to travel, airstrips were too wet to land on, and the grasses were tall enough to hide lions and
cheetah. But, the abundance of rain also produces an abundance of food and water which enables many animals to successfully give birth to and raise young. We were fortunate to see and observe behavior of
young for most of the mammal species we encountered. On a few excessively rainy mornings we were able to sleep in, until 6:00 am instead of 5:00 am, and the cloud cover kept the air cool enough that animals
were active throughout the day. We took advantage of every opportunity to spend more time in the field!

A typical day began with a 5:00 am wake-up, 5:30 am cold breakfast, and 6:00 am departure. Tea and cookies were served in the field around 10:00. Brunch was available whenever we returned, normally
between 12:30 and 2:00. Afternoon tea, consisting of both sweets and savories, was available in camp between 3:00 and 4:30. A sundowner of a drink and more savories was generally served on the afternoon
game drive around dusk. We would return to the lodge between 7:00 and 8:30, depending on the game viewing, and dinner usually started around 8:30 and ended around 10:00 pm. For those trying to count the
number of meals - six is the answer. And yes our clothes still fit at the end of the trip. Isn't elastic wonderful?

Each of the four areas we visited in Botswana had animals we either didn't see elsewhere or didn't see as well so I will be presenting the phoographs sorted first by location and then by theme within the location.
The four locations were the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the Okavango Delta, the Savuti Channel, and Chobe National Park. We selected this itinerary because of the diversity of the habitats we would visit and
for the opportunity to camp in Deception Valley within the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The outfitter provided all the camping gear and set-up the camp before we arrived. There was a staff of 3 to cook, heat
water for washing, etc... It was a great place to be. If you're going to camp, having someone else bake fresh bread every day is a wonderful way to do it.