On the 19th of April Francois and Angelique started the German Botswana Wildside 14 day camping tour. This exciting tour starts in Johannesburg and heads off to Kharma Rhino Sanctuary in Botswana, just outside Sherowe, where they spent their first night. Khama Rhino Sanctuary is a community run project with the objective of breeding Rhino in a natural environment so that Rhinos can be re-introduced into the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park. On arrival at Khama, the group headed out on an afternoon game drive to the pans hoping to see the rhinos. In total, the group saw approx. 24 white rhinos and 2 black rhinos.
In the late afternoon while the group was busy putting up camp they had a visitor in the campsite. A black rhino (that frequently visits the campsite) came to join the group for dinner. While the group was enjoying dinner, the Black Rhino was happily feeding on the bushes around the campsite – what a great way to start a tour.
The second day of tour, is a long drive to Maun through the Kalahari. While the days travel may be long, the scenery en-route to Maun is amazing. When travelling one gets the feeling of space that typifies the Kalahari. On arrival in Maun we prepared for our next 2 nights in the Okavango Delta. The group transfer into the delta by open 4WD game viewing vehicle and then transfer into Mokoros which are the traditional mode of travel in the Okavango Delta. They are generally made out of Sausage Trees, but they are slowly being replaced by fibre glass replicas to stop the over utilisation of these trees. 
On the game walks with the local guide the group saw giraffes, elephants, zebras, impalas, spiders and many different bird species .
The game walks in the Delta only served to whet the groups desire and curiosity to see more of Botswana’s abundant wildlife. This desire is met when the travel into the famous National Parks of Botswana. Starting with Moremi, where they spent 2 nights wild camping they group gets a taste of camping wild in the African bush. On their way to North Gate (en-route to Savuti) they were fortunate enough to see a group of spotted hyena enjoying an impala brunch!These scavengers are found throughout Moremi & Chobe, and are often heard calling during the evening while sitting around the campfire.
Arriving in Savuti, the group put up camp and headed off on an afternoon game drive. The highlight of the afternoon drive was when the local Botswana guide spotted a young male lion resting in the shade. No trip to Botswana is truly complete without seeing one of these magnificent creatures. 
The following morning, the group was lucky enough to experienced quite an interesting situation. The spotted a leopard stalking an impala ( a very lucky sighting). Suddenly, an elephant arrived on the scene and upon seeing the leopard, charged the leopard in effect saving the impala that was clearly in the leopards sights. On the afternoon game drive Francois spotted another leopard at a water hole – 2 leopards in 1 day! Along with the lion and leopards, they group also saw, zebras, impalas, warthogs, buffalo, blue wildebeest and many more. They even had two honey badgers in the campsite at night.
Continuing on the sandy road to Chobe, they saw wild dog! These amazing predators are extremely rare, and an excellent sighting in any ones books. Arriving in Chobe, they were astonished to see the Chobe River in flood. The water levels had risen dramatically due to heavy rains in the catchment areas. The Caprivi strip in Namibia which is usually easily seem was only faintly visible on the distant horizon.
The afternoon game drive once again provided some amazing game viewing. They got the amazing opportunity to see a mating pair of lion. The male was posing nicely for plenty of pictures until he decided to mate with the sun going down in the background. A perfect photo opportunity.
After a morning game drive where giraffe and elephant were seen, the set met up with their boat for the fabulous afternoon boat cruise on the Chobe River They came very close to the animals on the banks of the river, and this is a perfect ending to a wonderful wildlife experience in Botswana.
The next day the group crossed the Zambezi by ferry and entered Zambia. From the border they had to travel another 60 kilometers to arrive at their final destination in Livingstone. The group went to experience the Victoria Falls – one of the seven wonders. There they spent quite some time and because of the extremely high level of the river, the spray generated caused everyone in the group to get thoroughly soaked!
The group enjoyed their journey and were amazed how close they got to the animals in the Botswana National Parks.
