Botswana's Pans, Moremi & Chobe

Hi Gelle, I hope you had a nice Easter. How long were you at Timbavati for? You have some really good photos. I can't believe the ones with the guide and he is out of the truck right by the leopard! Was it nice to come back and see Solo? What kind o f camera do you have? I have a Nikon 5100. I used a 200mm lens for most of my photos although my boyfriend has a teleconvertor that I used but I find the photos are sharper without the teleconvertor and using just 200mm. Botswana was so awesome. It's got to be up there with one of the best holidays of all time. We just loved it. Have you been to any of the camps we stayed at? What is your favourite? Camp Moremi was really nice. It's so nice that it holds only 22 people. I love the lounge areas with big comfy couches you can fall asleep in. And no internet or mobile reception is pretty good too - it really is in the middle of nowhere! It's the extra touches the camps give that we really appreciated - like when you arrive they give you a cold flannel and all the staff are there to greet you. After each game drive they are there waiting to greet you with cold towels asking you how it was. They all remember you name too! And they are so friendly - the service couldn't be better. They always run around after you getting you drinks, taking your luggage, bringing you food. The accomodation is really nice. Just outside Camp Moremi we saw 2 lion brothers - they were sleeping in the long grass but then got up so we could get some good photos. The afternoon boat ride on the delta was lovely. Very nice sunsets too. Saw lots of birds - and 2 day old chicks. Hippos too. Every night they give a speech welcoming the new guests and farewelling the old ones. Buffet dinner with freshly cooked bread - that was always so nice. We had a hippo outside our tent the 1st night too. Each day we met different people. Most people we met were staying at the same camps as us as they are owned by Desert and Delta Safaris. They must train their staff well. I like it how they send their staff to their different camps so they know what product they are selling. So we had people from different camps. We wondered if our next camp would be as good as this one. Our next camp was Leroo La Tau. We couldn't believe the view when we got there. The lodge overlooked a river and all huts had a view of the river. So we saw elephants washing themselves in the river and zebras and wilderbeast coming to drink out of the river right from our balcony. There were lots of zebra and wilderbeast due to the migration. The food was really nice. Each camp had a high tea at 3.30pm each day. We went on a boat cruise that night and saw 5 lions from the boat. The next day we followed leopard prints for a few hours, weaving in and out of the trees to find the leopard. He had us driving round in circles too and we were so close cause the birds were making warning calls but we had to give up cause it got dark. That was exciting. We also saw a lionness and her 3 cubs. We drove right up to them. One of her cubs was very badly injured in a fight our guide saw 2 days earlier. There are 2 males in the area and 1 male attacked and tried to kill her cubs. Mum stepped in and fought for her cubs. The poor cub has a really bad leg and is limping so badly - it looked like his leg was just hanging on by a thread. Can't believe how close you can get to them and they don't care. We saw all these vultures flying around and went to check out why and we saw a dead zebra. There must've been nearly 100 of them all their necks red from blood. They start eating the zebra from the inside and I have photos of them with their head inside the zebra's nose. Poor thing died from a wounded leg. The last night at Leroo La Tau we had a lovely dinner outside. They lit candles around the grounds and brought the buffet outside. They sang to us as they have a choir! The camps have a competition going for the best choir. Then after dessert you all sit around the camp fire in these comfy chairs while they bring you drinks and we were falling asleep from early starts. Our guide was the best ever - he was so determined to find the leopard. We thought there was no way Savute Safari Lodge can possibly be better than Leroo La Tau. Our lodge was massive. Huge room with a lounge inside and massive balcony outside. The lodge overlooks a watering hole so the animals come down to drink water. So we had different elephants coming down. We had this old buffalo outside the camp - poor thing is old and by himself so he stays by the camp cause it's safe for him knowing the predators prefer to stay away from people. We were eating dinner on our final night and saw a hyena walk into camp! I wanted to come face to face with him on the way back to our tent. On our morning game drive we found 2 leopard cubs - 18 months old. The female let us get really close and posed for photos on the ant hill. Her and her brother were playing but the brother was scared of us so didn't let