You're Canadian? So am I!

We arrived in Maun, Botswana after a long 9 hour drive from Windhoek Namibia.  We hadn't pre-arranged any accommodation, and all of the camps and lodges we checked out were either full or way too expensive.  As a result, we landed on the Okavango River Lodge - not our first choice, but it turned out to be the best by far.

The lodge bar is frequented by a number of colourful locals, as well as many expats who are doing research in Botswana and are in Maun when not out in the bush.  We decided a few drinks were in order that night, and ended up meeting Sara, a lovely girl who, as it happens, is from Canada.

After the typical "You're Canadian, so am I!  Where are you from?" conversation, we ended up having a great conversation and meeting her fiancé - Sven.  We had been planning on doing an overland trip through the Moremi Game Reserve - a national park - at quite steep costs.  Sven (with a little nudge from Sara I think!) kindly suggested that instead of paying to do that, we go and stay with him and Sara at the research camp he runs - the Dibatana Research & Monitoring Camp.

We jumped at the opportunity, and the following day drove out to the Camp with Sara.  It was quite the drive - once inside the "Buffalo Fence" we had two flat tires, with only one spare!  Sven, who was driving out in his truck later, came along a few hours later as darkness was setting in - and after a number of attempts we finally managed to get the much smaller tires from his truck onto ours by removing the brake callipers so the rim would fit!

As we arrived at camp, late at night and tired, we were greeted to a pride of lions walking away from the tents!

The following few days were fantastic - we were able to relax with Sven & Sara and enjoy a bit of a break from travelling.  The camp accommodation was some of the classiest we've seen in all of Africa - a wonderful break from our roof-top camping in Namibia!

Each morning we went on drives through NG34 - the plot of land which the camp operates on adjacent to the Moremi Game Reserve.  We were lucky enough to see a leopard the first morning - we would have missed it except an entire herd of impala ignored us completely as they were so focused on not being eaten!

We sat shotgun on top of the land cruiser - which was quite chilly first thing in the morning!  While we saw much other game, the only other 'new' one was seeing a little Honey Badger waddling along.

In the afternoons, Mike helped out with some camp maintenance (fixing tents, fixing the punctures in the tires, etc.) while Megan was able to relax and enjoy watching the camp watering hole for hours on end.

The following day, Sven took us up for a flight over the Delta in the camp's small Cessna.

The flight was fantastic - we were able to see hippos, elephants and all kinds of other game in the delta and surrounding shores.  The view was phenomenal, and the radio chatter between the other bush pilots in the area was hilarious!

 

We also did a fly-by of the camp - you can see the watering hole below - the tents are fairly well camouflaged but are along the tree line looking out.

Our last night with Sven & Sara we took a drive down to the river to watch the sunset - which was really quite lovely.  A couple of sundowners with some new friends is a perfect way to end a day!  (The first pic at the start of this post is us having a laugh with the self-timer!)

 

The best was yet to come however.  That last night, we made a large campfire out in front of the mess tent and enjoyed some drinks while checking the watering hole for activity with the spotlight.

At about 10:30, Sara casually checked the watering hole again, then swung the spotlight down the tree-line only to spot a pride of lions walking towards us!  They were about 25m away when we spotted them - so we quickly headed back up the deck and into the mess tent!

The lions proceeded to come up to the swimming pool next to the tent and drink from there for almost an hour!  (Note the collar on the lion - this is part of the research & monitoring going on at Dibatana - check out the linked website)

All in all - we had a wonderful time and were really happy to have met some great new friends and been able to take a break from travelling.  Up next was a Mokoro trip into the delta to see it from the water!