Kwando Lagoon Camp, Botswana

August/September, 2015

We entered Botswana on foot after walking across the border from Zimbabwe. The border crossing was very easy. Our Victoria Falls driver dropped us at the Zimbabwe customs building where we were processed out of the country.

We then walked out into the parking lot where our Botswana driver picked us up and drove us to the Botswana customs building. He then led us into the building and up to the window where the official was located. He made a few comments to the official and we provided our passports to the woman behind the glass. After answering a few simple questions, and getting our passports stamped, we were on our way. We don’t know what our driver said to the official, but I’m sure it streamlined the process. Botswana knows that the safari industry is of paramount performance.

After boarding our new guide vehicle for the second time, we were off for the hour long drive to Kasane Airport. That’s where we were to board our bush plane that would take us to Linaynti, and the Kwando Lagoon Camp. It was our first safari camp in Botswana, right alongside the Botswana/Namibia border.

Heading To The Airport

Bush Plane Flight To Kwando Lagoon Camp

A Lovely Safari Camp

Lagoon Camp is aptly named, being situated on a wonderful lagoon beside the gently flowing Kwando River. Although a remote camp, we did have local neighbours that were often seen frolicking in the waters. They were also inconsiderent, as they were very vocal all through the night.

The infrastructure at the camp was well established with eight guest cabins, a dining building, bar and lounge area around a small pool, and a souvenir shop. The camp also has a dock structure because they had several river boats that they use for guiding guests around the river system to see wildlife.

One of the interesting things about a multi-camp safari is just how different and imaginative each camp is in relation to another. Since safari protocol is pretty much the same from one operator to another, it’s easy to assume that the camps would be clones of each other as well. But that certainly isn’t true. Yes, many are similar, but often they are completely different.

The Birds of Linyanti

As with most of Africa, the bird life in the Linyanti area of Botswana doesn’t disappoint. From song birds to raptors to shore birds, we saw a great cross-section of birds.

in search of Wild Dogs

The second animal that we really wanted to see, after the rhinoceros, was the African wild dog. They also are an endangered species, and another species that we failed to see on our first safari in Tanzania in 2013.

The camps we selected in Botswana were known to have wild dogs in their vicinity, so our hopes were high that we would be successful in seeing them at one of the camps, the way we were with the rhinos in Phinda. And just like the rhinos, we saw the wild dogs in spades. Two different packs over two days.

We came upon the pack of dogs in the early morning. Their necks were wet, so we surmised that they had made a kill during the night, and fed, then spent time grooming each other to remove the blood from their fur and faces. Once they got back to the rest of the pack, and all the pups, the adults mostly crashed and went to sleep. The pups, however, having slept through the night were interested only in getting into mischief.

More Than Just Dogs

The Linyanti region of Botswana provided us with far more than just wild dogs and laughing hippos in our camp lagoon. It also showed us many of the same animals we saw in our Tanzania trip, and more exciting for us, a number of species that didn’t exist in east Africa.

We saw a good cross section of prey and non-prey animals. Roan antelope, sable antelope, waterbuck, kudu, warthog, cape buffalo, giraffe and elephant were all present in abundance.

Making Good Use of The Guide Vehicle

The Pride of Linyanti

Although the Linyanti area is large in size, the variety of predators we witnessed were relatively few. Aside from the wild dogs, the only other hunters we came across was a pride of lions on the last day we were there. They were just sitting on a raised mount of ground basking in the sunshine. Most were snoozing.

Scenes With The Sun

Linyanti was heavily affected by smoke from the agricultural burning to the north in Namibia. The consequence of this was richly coloured sunsets and sunrises.