South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius

[CrowMan]

My wife and I left Boxing Day and spent the last three weeks traveling the southern hemisphere. The first few days in Capetown and the wine country around Stellenbosch. Fantastic food and wine, and an awesome New Years celebration in Capetown.

Then a flight to Botswana, where we spent 10 days at two fly-in tented bush camps. One in the Okavango Delta and one in the Central Kalahari. Flights were on a puddle jumper Cessna Caravan...amazing on how short and rough runways these workhorses land and take-off from.

This was our third safari trip to Africa in the last 15 years...and I'm always blown away by the sheer numbers of wildlife. The depth and breadth of the biodiversity in that part of the world never gets old.

After 10 days in the bush, we flew to Mauritius for a few days to chill on the beach and wash off the dust.

I took over 800 photos...the following is a 3 minute condensed overview of the mammals..lots of other shots of birds, reptiles, flowers and insects that remind me it's the little things that are special too..

 

[Terry]

Wow great trip

[akaShag]

Awesome!  Lots of the big cats!

The hunter in me had the crosshairs on quite a few of those critters.  Your camera caught lots of them in perfect poses.

Doug

[CrowMan]

Yeah...every time I hit the shutter button on my camera, I'd imagine it was a trigger. Though with the amount of game in Botswana, I would think the hunting would almost be too easy to be fun and challenging.

The guides do harvest a Kudu (see photo) a couple of times a month...to put on the menu for dinner at camp...and also to make Billtong (like beef jerky) as a snack for the daily "sundowner" cocktail time. Kudu is absolutely by far the best game meat of any kind that I have ever tasted...would love to have a freezer full.

Interestingly, the guides in camp and on the game drives do carry a .375 H&H just in case one of the pussies get too frisky. I talked one of them into letting me fire off a round at a tin can (just to make sure it was sighted in...hehe). Jeez...it felt like a stick of dynamite went off on my shoulder.

Believe it or not, the most dangerous animal in Africa is the Hippo. They kill more humans every year than all other animals combined. If you get between a Hippo and its trail back to the water, it will just blindly charge you and trample you to death.

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by CrowMan

[akaShag]

I have a few buddies who have hunted in Africa (but I forget which country/countries).  They did not remark on the hunts being too easy.  I am guessing that there are slimmer pickings outside the game preserves, but honestly I have no idea.   I think their TAXIDERMY bills were more than the hunt itself!  😲

[CrowMan]

The hunts are crazy expensive...the amount you pay the gov't for a "tag" is astronomical. Though, the guides tell me success is absolutely guaranteed. The concessions we were at do allow some hunting...they are set up like the ZEC system in Quebec. It's a different story in the National Parks.