Roxanne Reid's Blog, page 15

Wildlife wonders of Chitabe in the Okavango, Botswana

By Roxanne Reid
We were relaxed. The pressure was off. The day before we’d had the best sighting of our livesso now we had no expectations. Whatever our game drive brought us, we’d already experienced the wildlife wonders of Botswana’s Okavango Delta here on the Chitabe concession south-east of Chief’s Island. ‘Let’s just see what nature has to show us,’ guide Phinley Mwampole suggested. We cheerfully agreed.

We were staying at Chitabe Lediba Camp where there’s a diversity of habitats over...

15 things to do in the Cederberg

By Roxanne Reid
Just 200km from Cape Town, the Cederberg Wilderness Area is a destination to please everyone. Whether you love hiking and mountain biking or you’re a culture vulture, even if you simply like to chill with a glass of wine and watch the play of light on the mountains as the clouds whizz by, there’s something here to make your day. 1. Hiking Photo: CapeNature Choose from 1-8 hour day trails, or overnight hikes, depending on your mood or level of fitness. Walk to the water...

Makgadikgadi, Botswana: like being on the moon

By Roxanne Reid
Crunch, crunch, the dry salt ridges of the vast Ntwetwe Pan cracked to dust underfoot. Stop. Now only the sound of the wind as it brushed past my ears. Not a bird or insect stirred, not a tree or shrub broke the horizon. I was in the Makgadikgadi, Botswana, so vast and empty it was like being on the moon. Just before sunset, a dark red band lay above the western horizon. To the east the sky turned blue-grey under ribbons of pink and lilac. We had fanned out some 100m from e...

Voices of Botswana: the guide who likes to learn

By Roxanne Reid
Spending a morning poling through the Okavango Delta in a mokoro with guide Spongy Makgetho was one of the best moments of our Botswana safari. From our perch just above the water level we floated among water lilies and watched fish eagles, African jacanas, malachite kingfishers and a long reed frog. We also found out more about the guide who likes to learn. Although Spongy has only been at Xigera Camp since February 2016, his journey with Wilderness Safaris started long be...

Ngoma Safari Lodge, Botswana: a view to lust after

By Roxanne Reid
Ngoma Safari Lodge lies in the Chobe Forest Reserve, outside Ngoma Gate in the west of Chobe National Park, Botswana. We visited to see Chobe’s wildlife, but discovered something equally special: a view to lust after. If you can stay here without falling madly-wildly in love with the view, then you’re either near-sighted and should be wearing specs, or you simply have no soul that can be stirred. Ngoma Safari Lodge has an elevated position on a rock koppie and a sweeping ou...

‘Vandalism’ in the Richtersveld: get the facts straight

By Roxanne Reid
There are lots of things I like. Africa, travel, wildlife, food – hey, even some people. Then there are things I dislike, such as when people take half-baked ideas to the media without first checking their facts.

Let me give you an example.
A letter to the editor of go! magazine (July 2016, page 14) alleged that ‘many of the halfmens succulents’ in the Richtersveld Transfrontier Park have been damaged and that ‘it’s definitely vandalism’ [my emphasis].

Vandalism? Shock, horro...

Lions and their cubs at Selinda in Botswana

By Roxanne Reid
The Selinda Spillway in the Linyanti gets water from both the Okavango in the south and the Linyanti wetlands in the west. Here you’ll find large herds of elephant and buffalo, as well as a healthy population of wild dogs. But our first day at Selinda Camp in this wilderness in northern Botswana was all about lions and their cubs. Selinda Camp is the creation of Great Plains Conservation wildlife film-makers, photographers and conservationists Dereck and Beverly Joubert. A...

Voices of Botswana: the masterful chef

By Roxanne Reid
Okavango Delta, Botswana. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a mass of water channels, floodplains and islands teeming with wildlife. It’s also a wilderness far from civilisation, so everything you need to run a camp there – from soap to fresh food ingredients – has to be flown in on a small plane. Imagine, then, the creativity it takes to create delectable meals for your guests, no matter what day of the week it is.

It’s something that Chef Herman Breedt at Duba Expedition...

Tutored photo safari on the Chobe River, Botswana

By Roxanne Reid
‘Incoming on the right! Here it comes.’ Six people swivelled on their chairs and pointed their cameras in the same direction, trying to find the bird in flight. A seventh peered through his binoculars. We were on atutored photo safari on the Chobe River, something a little different from the usual game drive or sunset cruise. Guide-photographer-tutor Guts Swanepoel of Pangolin Photo Safaris had suggested getting our cameras’ shutter speed above 2000 so we could freeze the p...

CapeNature’s new cottages at Algeria, Cederberg

By Roxanne Reid
Untamed and craggy, the Cederberg Wilderness Area is just 200km north of Cape Town – a perfect short break that feels a million miles from city life. Here mountains dominate the horizons and you can let your imagination run riot among the jagged sandstone formations. We visited to explore and to stay in CapeNature’s new cottages at Algeria. By the time we arrived the sky was overcast and brooding. I cringed, thinking rain was going to put a kink in any plans for a weekend o...