The next leg of our journey began after an overnight in Johannesburg at our home away from home the Southern Sun OR Tambo. I think they will soon know us by name there. I think I have now spent more time in that hotel than any other single hotel in my life.
The next morning we boarded our Air Botswana flight for Maun, for our connection to Kwara Camp in the Kwando Concession of the Okavango Delta. We ran into Sue Smart in the terminal on her way out for an air lift rescue in the Delta. How fantastic is that!! I met Sue at Indaba and am extremely impressed with her. She is a Brit that was in the states working during 9/11. She lost many friends in the twin towers and felt she just had to do something in her life that would make a difference. She moved to Botswana and starting volunteering for an AIDS charity. After awhile she decided she must get a job before running out of money. From there she has had many jobs and is now the CEO of Kwando Properties as well as Moremi Air. How great to run two such fantastic companies and have such a passion for both. Kwando owns several private concessions all over Botswana and Moremi Air is a small bush plane airline.
Maun is just a little spit of a town compared to what you would expect, since it is the base of most all Botswana safaris. It is full of strapping twenty-something year old young men all anxious to out do each other and impress, aka safari guides and bush pilots. If I had to do it over again I would move to Maun immediately after graduating college for about 10 years of a fantastic adventure and maybe if I was lucky, finding the love of my life and living it out in Africa!!! 
We were quickly met and transferred to our four seater Moremi Air plane headed for the Delta. This is quite a flight. You fly low over the Delta and it is just amazing to see all that water. It is hard to imagine there actually being roads at all. You wonder how anyone gets around without a 4 wheel drive. Water is everywhere. We came down, and while I was sure we weren’t supposed to land in the water, and I somewhat trusted my twenty something scruffy pilot, I really was looking around hard for a landing strip in the middle of what appeared to be Lake Sinclair.
Low and behold he put us down very smoothly on the landing strip and we were met by Hobbs, who would be our ranger for the next two days. He took us to camp where we got our usual yummy fruit juice and genuine smile from the precious Janet. She had worked her way up from the bottom and was now the assistant manager of camp. She was delightful. She showed us around and then to the tent. We had a raised tent on a stilt platform with twin beds and nice linens. “Welcome to Kwara Camp” was spelled out on the bed with match sticks. It was very homey and comfortable. We had an outside shower, but as always, there was extreme privacy. You don’t have to worry about showing anyone your business while out there bathing. (except for maybe a warthog).
After freshening up we were off for our first game drive in the Delta. I feel like we fjorded rivers in our land cruiser, but I know there were just flooded out roads. They put st
akes at the water level in front of camp and we were able to see how much it rose in the two days we were there. That was quite eye-opening considering there were still a couple of more 
months of rising water left. I felt like it would be in the dining area in one month!! I couldn’t imagine two. We saw lots of game including a Tsetsebee, which was new to me. This is an aquatic antelope only found in the delta as I recall, and looks a lot like a topi. It didn’t take long to find the coalition of seven male lions that is basically unstoppable. These boys have now reached their prime, and other males don’t stand a chance against these seven boys. They do as the want all over the delta. They were, as usual, sleeping. We took a few pictures and sat with them for awhile just enjoying their majesty. Hobbs felt like they would get active after the sun went down, so we went to have sundowners a short distance away. Just as we were packing up, the boys starting calling to each other in low roars. There is no sound in the world like a lion’s roar. I can’t in any way describe it and do it justice. Just know that the sound can carry three miles (think about that for a minute) and will actually vibrate the ground when you are near it. It will also send chills down your spine. There simply is nothing I have ever heard that compares. We jumped in our vehicle and off we went. We were hoping to see a hunt. We went with them for a long time after it got pitch black dark, as they walked single file grunting and roaring into the night. They came to a flooded out road and took a long time deciding what to do. Apparently they were apprehensive because of crocodiles. Finally, they all went in together and swam across. It was too deep for us to drive, so we left them to carry on alone.
We spent two nights and the food was good and the beds were very comfortable and we got to see these lions several times over the next couple of days. We tried to find a mother cheetah with five babies that I had read about, but she was hiding somewhere out there. I was also hoping to see wild dogs as there are quite a few in this area, but to no avail. W
e did however see lots of animals and really enjoyed it. We just didn’t get lucky with the dogs or baby cheetahs on this trip, which just gives me a reason to return.
We flew back to Maun where we changed planes to head out to the Kalahari Desert. We boarded our other small plane and off we went again. As we approached our dirt landing strip I noticed a man in camouflage with an AK47 running across the runway in front of us when we were about 200 feet from landing. I was thinking in my mind that I knew we were still in Botswana and it is a stable country, so what on earth was going on. I don’t think this would have surprised me in Zimbabwe, but I wasn’t expecting it in the middle of the Kalahari Desert. We taxied to the end of the runway where we saw two camouflage helicopters and many more men in camo with guns. I asked the pilot what on earth was going on and he said that the President or Vice President must be around. That was the only time he saw this kind of security detail. As we got into our land cruiser, our ranger confirmed that the President was to land in about 10 minutes. I took some pictures with his secret service and off we went to the lodge. 
Tau Pan is the first and only lodge inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. It is completely solar and quite a feat of engineering. I was surprised that the rooms were cool even without air conditioning. They are adobe with what appeared to be grass cloth over the window openings. They captured a good breeze during the day and were never uncomfortable. At night the desert gets very cold, but the rooms stayed nice and cozy.
Carl and his wife were very gracious hosts, and we were the only guests in camp at the time, so we had run of the place. The next day we did an all-day game drive down to deception valley. We were very fortunate to run into the world famous Kalahari Lions on the way. We watched them for as long as we could. We also saw lots of Springbok and Oryx (gemsbok). The markings on both of these animals are some of my favorite of all of the antelope. They are just b
eautiful. We went to look for meerkats in their normal hangout – but they were off somewhere else that day. Deception Valley is amazing. It really is a large pan (empty open area) that is a mirage. It appeared to be a large lake instead of just dirt. Really messes with your brain a little bit. You know logically what it is, but it is still very confusing. Pictures really don’t do it justice.
We also saw the President and his entourage camping. The helicopter in the middle of the desert with a tent nearby was kind of a dead give away. What was interesting though was that we just drove right up to them and waved and said hey. The secret service just looked at us and no one seemed concerned or alarmed. We came back to the lodge for sundowners and just enjoyed the scenery as the sun set over the desert. 
Our tracker was a San Bushman named KC. The San Bushmen are the ancient people of the Kalahari. They have the “clicking” language. We went out into the desert and KC showed us how his people made traps and snares to catch the animals for food. They are quite amazing and can make something fantastic from a piece of string and some twigs. My favorite story about them was told by Sue Smart. She flew into camp on our last morning because the President had asked to see it. The bushmen trackers at Tau Pan have the same vacation rules as everyone else. For their two week vacation th
ey are flown by the company up to Maun (about and hour) and then put on a bus to their village (a few hours). The village is about 60 miles from camp. The bushmen asked if they could just be allowed to run home. Yes – RUN 60 miles through the middle of the Kalahari Desert in 100 plus degree heat to their village, instead of taking a plane. That is what I call “in shape.”
On the last day of our stay the President (Ian Khama) and his entourage came to see camp. Because we were guests and the only ones in camp, we had free access. We did actually shake his hand. He is extremely popular in Botswana and the son of the first President.
Too soon our time came to an end and we were flown out of the desert back to civilization. The next day it was back to the US for us…..but we will be back soon….. November 2009…..