a little bit of this, a little bit of that... : The Safari Series

We have just got back from the biggest and best adventure of our lives so far. I am still speechless and I have no idea where to start!

I was apprehensive about the safari, I was afraid that we wouldn't see anything and would be better off going to Longleat (about an hour from us), I was worried about spiders and most of all, I was petrified of the flights.

I've never been a 'good' passenger on a plane, and this trip we literally did them all. 8 planes in less than 12 days was so daunting for me, and the ones that petrified me the most were the tiny propeller ones that we were going to be getting in the bush. We flew from Heathrow in the A320 (a HUGE double decker plane, the biggest I'd ever been on) and the smallest that we encountered was a 6 seater that I still can't get my head around... it had a windmill on the front, and what seemed like nothing else?! magic.

None of my close friends have done anything similar to our adventure, so I didn't have anyone to bounce questions off of. Andrew's Uncle and Aunt had done a Namibia adventure the previous year, so we did check lots of questions with them and the rest of my research came from google and Katy's Aunt and Uncle who are hooked on safaris!

We went to Botswana, which is the destination to safari in at the moment. I can totally see why! We stayed at three different camps and I just have waaaay too much to say, so I'll do a blog on each of the wonderful camps.

Stop One: Duma Tau
After a night flight from Heathrow we arrived at Maun (Botswana's international airport) which was a little chaotic to say the least, once we'd found our rep we were greeted in the best way, with some wet towels to freshen up and taken to the check in desk for the next leg of our trip. This was our first small plane, so at this point I was pooping myself and Drew was getting quite annoyed with my constant worrying. I was convinced we were going to die! Anyway, we got a small 12 seater plane (and survived) and from here we got to see our first sights of the bush. The plane ride from Maun to Duma Tau took about an hour, we had to make a stop to drop some other passengers off at another camp, and when I saw the airstrip (a clearing in the bush... with no fences or boundaries) my heart and contents of my stomach were in my mouth!

From the plane we saw a huge herd of wilderbeast and some elephants. You don't go too high and our pilot, Malcolm, was great at pointing stuff out too.

The lions we saw on the first day - incredible!

When we finally touched down on the Chobe airstrip we were greeted by several Land Rovers and lots of guides. Each airstrip will serve a number of camps, and it turned out that it was just us heading to Duma Tau. As we got off of the plane we were greeted by Johan who quickly got us in to the jeep before we could be sand blasted by the next plane. Just out side of the airstrip Johan pulled over and introduced himself properly. He wasn't our guide but was actually the general manager of Duma Tau, he loves getting out and about and something that we noticed about all of the Wilderness Safari's staff is just how friendly they are and how much they love the interaction. Johan had brought us bottles of icy water which were very gratefully received. Our flight was late so we were rushing back to camp so that we could join our guide on that evening's game drive. A quick pit stop at camp (mainly because I was desperate to change my smalls after spending over 24 hours in them (yuk) ) and after a quick orientation and tour of our room (WOW) we were being driven out to meet our guide who was desperately tracking some lions.

Wilderbeast

So many pretty birds!

We met Name, our guide, and the other guests where they'd been watching the lions for the last half an hour or so. Already in our time at Duma Tau (less than an hour at this point) we'd seen Ostrich, Giraffe, Elephants, lots of birds and now Lions. We stayed watching the lions for ages, I think there were around 14 of them - all lionesses and cubs (no tiny ones unfortunately). Eventually they moved on and we went for our Sundowner (a tradition in Africa it seems, a drink watching the sunset). I don't think I've ever had a G&T in such a beautiful location.

PUMBA! Cue lots of "When I was a young warthoooooog"

Whilst we were at Duma Tau we saw so much - lots and lots of herds of elephants all moving between the areas, one day I think we must've easily seen 1000 elephants crossing. Elephants crossing the river just outside our room one day which is easily one of my best memories ever! The hippos, who just seem to laugh at the most perfect of moments. We were lucky enough to see one out of the water just outside our room one evening, they bathe during the day as the sun hurts their skin and then come out to graze on an evening. He was just stood right outside our deck grazing, so we stood quietly watching him for a while before he disappeared back in to the river. We saw a male and female leopard in one day, which was really special as Name hadn't seen them for quite some time. I was amazed by how chilled the animals are and how they just aren't bothered by the trucks - apart from one or to elephants who began to charge us!

*Heart eyes*

The camp itself was beyond beautiful and was probably my favourite camp, although it's incredibly hard to choose. There's only 10 tents, but it was one of the larger camps that we stayed in. The camp wasn't full and each guide had 6 guests in their vehicle generally. We met some really lovely people but it's a really high turnover on safari, so you usually only spend a night or maximum two with the same people.

We watched this guy bathe for hours - what a cutie

What amazed me about all of our camps was how the staff get to know you. They call you by name all the time, which is so impressive when people are there for one or two nights - I still can't get my head around it! It's such a nice touch too. The food at Duma Tau was incredible, one night we had the nicest beef fillet and the lamb that we had was one of my favourite meals too!

We were woken at 6 with half an hour to freshen up and get ready, had a light breakfast at 6.30am then it was straight out on the game drive. We'd usually stop between 8 and 9.30 for tea and coffee and some snacks and then it was back to camp for 11 ready for brunch at 11.30. The afternoons are super hot and sunny, so we just took a siesta and enjoyed some time reading. Duma Tau has a gorgeous plunge pool area as well as a fully stocked bar (open all the time) and a floating boma where they light the fire in the morning and evening.