Lagoon Camp, Botswana

Lagoon Camp

Guide: George
Tracker: AT

Wed pm
Unpacked and all gear stowed. The camp has hot and cold running showers which is a blessing compared to the usual 3 minute bucket showers of a lot of Mara camps.

First thing we do is meet up with the wild dog pack. Followed 9 dogs on the hunt. They chased 3 impala over the course of 2 hours without success. We left them to it an headed for our sun downer drinks.

Standing around chatting when one of the other guests said she could hear something coming. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes we were surrounded by dogs. Not sure what attracted them to our vehicle but it was very exciting and unnerving at the same time. Unfortunately I'd left my camera in the truck so no pics for me!

Drive back to camp spotted a giant eagle owl in a tree. This owl is the apparently the largest owl in the world and has pink eyelids.

Thurs am
After a good breakfast of porridge and muffins we set off at 6.30am. Caught up with a couple of hyenas but after that it turned into a bird morning.

Thurs pm
During afternoon tea we spotted a herd of elephants walking towards the river so we quickly hot footed it to the boat and dashed around the channels to try and catch up with them before they hit the water. We got there just in time to see approx 20 elephants swimming across the Chobe River from Botswana to Namibia. After the main herd had crossed we watched as a family of 3 appeared, a mother with 2 calves. The mother was helping the smallest calf keep afloat with her trunk but at one point stopped and gave us a glare with one of those 'don't come any closer' looks. It was a fantastic sight.

We moved off to find a nice spot for our sun downer and came across a few hippos but they were very shy and didn't surface for long. The sunset was gorgeous on the water and we motored back to the jetty checking out the kingfishers and storks settling down for the night.

Back at the truck we got word that the other truck had found a cheetah with a cub and a kill so George put his foot down and raced to the scene. The mother was resting and keeping an eye on her inquisitive cub. The cub looked around 2 weeks old. We left them to feed and drove back to camp.

Fri am
Off to check out if the cheetah was where we left her last night only to find the wild dogs. We followed them for about 1.5hrs until it was clear they were not going to hunt. We then decided to go and see if we could find some giraffe and zebra. We stopped by a watering hold for morning break where a large herd of wildebeest had gathered but they wouldn't drink until we have moved on. Very skitish.

Almost back at camp and we spot a baboon sitting like a buddah on top of a termite mound as though he was surveying his territory. At one point he stuck his legs straight out, it was a funny sight.

Fri pm
Woke up after our siesta to find baboons all around the tent. One had a peak as I showered and he is now scarred for life!

Well this afternoon we definitely found out what Lagoon Camp is famous for. We found the wild dogs and followed them on the hunt. It was hard to keep track of them all as they split up so we kept with the alpha male for a while. So, we're trucking along is some heavy brush when our guide hears an impala snort which is a dead giveaway for something wrong. We rush over in the direction of the noise to see an impala with one dog on the back leg and as we got there another rushed in and grabbed the throat. It was a very sad sight to see this poor animal about to be eaten alive.

Within seconds another dog came in at the belly and before long it was a complete feeding frenzy. The alpha male and female were very late to the scene and there was a lot of yelping when they turned up.

12mins later the whole thing was over. It was very intense and we were all completely speechless for a long time afterwards. We managed to capture most of the event on video.

Needless to say our sun downer was very subdued.

On the way back to camp we followed a honey badger, spotted an Africa wild cat and a pearl-spotted owl.

Sat am
Our our game drive this morning we came across a large herd of buffalo and then sat by a watering hole waiting for a giraffe to come down for a drink. Took about 20mins for him to be ok with us being there and we got some great shots of him drinking.

Tried to capture a lilac-breasted roller in flight but harder than we thought - lots of blurred photos. Did, however, manage to shoot a purple roller which we hadn't seen before.

Next stop Little Kwara...