Little Kwara Camp, Botswana

Little Kwara is part of Kwando Safaris and is a lovely camp with wonderful tents built on stilts. The rooms are luxurious with proper doors to loo and shower. The outdoor shower is wonderful especially due to the fact that they have hot and cold running water all day. It was wonderful to come back to after a morning game drive and a lovely bonus as we were used to the 3-minute bucket showers.

The food was of a high standard with 3 courses being served every night.

Our guide, David, and tracker, Kenneth, were both fantastic and without them we would've missed half the sights we saw.

Sat pm
Transferred from Lagoon Camp to Little Kwara with enough time to unpack and rest a little before having some high tea at 4pm and heading out on our first game drive at 4.30pm.

We head to find a cheetah the guys had spotted in the morning but when we got there the trackers were all out of the truck and a little confused as they could see tracks but no cheetah. David started to drive around when I suddenly spotted the cheetah lying in some long grass. We sat for a few minutes and then moved around behind her to try and get her to move. One of the guys in our truck was checking her out through binoculars when he was surprised to see 2 cubs pop up from under the cheetah. It turns out that when they saw her looking fat in the morning, which they thought was due to her eating a kill, was now obvious that she was pregnant and when we found her she had just had her cubs. It was such a wonderful sight to see these cute little cubs with their eyes still closed. We radioed to the other trucks to make sure she was left alone and we left the scene. The guys didn't want any tracks leading right to her for other predators to have easy access.

The sky was amazing that night with clouds that looked like they'd been blown across the sky and as the sun set it looked more and more like it was on fire.

Sun am
Morning drive was uneventful. Watched some giraffe and zebra for a while. Spotted a long tailed bird that looked like a dolphin swimming when it flew. Turned out to be a Paradise Whydah - a gorgeous bird.

Sun pm
Off for an evening boat ride down the Okavango to the hippo pool. Spotted lots of kingfishers along the way and also a very shy little crocodile and otter. We arrived at the hippo pool in time for sunset and moonrise, which was spectacular. David put us in the perfect spot, which made for some wonderful photos. The hippos were very interested in our boat and watched us the entire time we were there. It looked like there were approx 20 hippos. Unfortunately I missed the only hippo yawn of the evening so we will be having a repeat!

The ride back to the jetty was like something out of a James Bond movie as we sped down the channels. It was a sunglasses on and mouth shut tight moment to avoid a dinner of bugs.

Sun night drive
I decided to miss this as I was feeling exhausted but my husband went out and it's a good job as they came across the dead elephant we had spotted from the plane flying in. The government truck had already found the elephant so the head, feet and skin had been removed to stop poachers selling the tusks etc. There were 2 male and 2 female lions at the scene with some vultures and hyenas waiting in the wings.

Apparently it was quite a sight as the lions had stuffed themselves silly and were lying in the grass with big bellies and making all sorts of noise out of both ends!

Mon am
Off to see the elephant in daylight and to check out if the lions are still there. On the way we watched 2 male impala fighting for territory. It was very easy to spot the losing male.

Arriving at the elephant he two males were there with one lounging in the shade and the other munching on the elephant's trunk. It looked like a very tough piece of meat and he kept having to reposition his claws to get the best grip. He finally dragged the trunk over to his brother lying in the shade and then wandered off for a drink. This lion had a very bad injury to the right side of his head. Not sure how this happened and not sure how it will heal as he can't lick the wound to keep it clean. It was now his turn to start snacking on the trunk.

We followed the lion as he waddled to the water. I have never seen a lion so fat. He took a long drink and then walked in our direction. He walked within a foot of the truck and watched us as he walked by. We tried to follow his into the brush but it was just too thick and we had our own battle just to get out and find the road.

The trees and sky was stuffed with vultures and with the lions fed and happy, it didn't take long for them to move in.

Mon pm
Decided to go for another boat ride this evening to try and catch some hippo yawns. The ride was very relaxing as we meandered down the Okavango. Spotted a large fish eagle but he took off before we could even lift our cameras.

Saw green pigeons and pied and malachite kingfishers. The water was like glass.

Arrived at the hippos and this time they played ball and gave us plenty of yawns. The sunset was marvellous but moonrise was late so we headed back in the dark. This time it was a mild James Bond run back to the jetty.

Leaving tomorrow so no game drive tonight.

Tues am
Booked a private vehicle for our last morning as we wanted to head back out to the elephant. We'd heard another pride of lions had shown up so wanted to check them out.

Checked out a waterbuck and some baboons along the way.

Bouncing along the road when Kenneth, our tracker, saw something moving in the brush. We stopped and he point to what looked like a large white boulder. It turned out to be a dead giraffe and as we neared the animal we saw a lioness busy snacking on the head. The giraffe was still kicking but obviously this was final death throes. She stayed at the head for a while, eating the eyeball and chewing off the ear. Our guide told us she does this incase the animal tries to get up and she can easily grab it round the nose and suffocate it. She was one powerful lioness as she had managed to bring down a fully grown giraffe on her own.

When we left and followed her tracks back we worked out she had chased this giraffe for approx 2-300 meters before bringing him down. An amazing feat and not one all lions can do.

We thought this was such a terrific end to our stay until we came across the cheetah that we saw earlier with the 2 cubs. She was on her own this time and out hunting. We followed her for a while but ran out of time as we had to get back to catch our plane to Zambia. We did contemplate staying and David said we could share his tent if there were no free tents!

We had an amazing time at Little Kwara. It will take a lot to beat this Botswana trip.