Botswana. Central Kalahari, Moremi and Khwai. August - September 2021.
4. Khwai Development Trust.
Magotho Camp
This a great area but don't expect to stay at the site that you have booked! There are 4 sites (I think) that overlook the river which are always full but people will set up camp in non-designated sites as well. We were booked in to an 'extra' site but there was no-one around when we arrived so set up camp at a large empty site a couple of hundred metres from the river. The guy in charge arrived later and said that we could stop there. The following day a vehicle arrived and said they'd booked that site but were happy to go to another site once they'd checked with the guy in charge.
We couldn't see the river from our site but had good animals sightings at the campsite, mostly impala and kudu but on the first evening a family of 10 elephants walked through our site. Once they had passed us they stopped to browse so we were able to watch them for some time.
Our large shady campsite.
Kudu passing by.
We watched as an elephant family approached us.
They passed on either side of our van!
Kevin sat and watched as they passed.
This youngster enjoyed scratching his back on a tree.
When collecting wood you should always wear gloves. This little guy was alive and is highly poisonous - small pincers and a thick tail.
Sunrise.
Drives around Khwai.
We did quite a bit of driving early morning and mid afternoon, mostly along the river channel where we had plenty of animal sighting. There's a track which follows the northern bank of the river, some of it is through bush but there are plenty of places with good views of the river. There was one place where, at that time, it was possible to cross the river and we watched as one guy drove across but after seeing that he got nearly got stuck and ended up getting completely soaked with water going in through the windows we decided not to bother!
The Khwai River channel which had plenty of water.
Hippo were always in the river channel. During the day they were mostly submerged due to the heat but in the early morning we had some good sightings.
We saw lots of impala while we were driving around and small groups of zebra, waterbuck, kudu and wildebeest.
We saw lots of elephant, especially in the afternoon when they would go down to the river for a drink and to cool down.
Crossing the river after a drink.
Just checking us out!
Cooling off,
Enjoying the water.
One morning we saw a group of 6 lionesses which were on the other side of the river and only about half a kilometre from the campsite so we sat and watched them for over an hour. They had a kill under a bush but had obviously gorged themselves overnight and spent the time relaxing, occasionally moving around and going down for a drink. In the afteroon we returned and they were still close by. We spent another hour or so watching them as they moved between the shade and lying next to the water.
5 of the lionesses lying around a bush where their kill was stashed which is where the 6th one is.
Full bellies.
By the water in the afternoon.
Time for a drink.
While all the lionesses were lying in the shade a family group of elephants passed close by. I don't think the elephants saw the lions as they just walked right by them. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the lions had still been by the water when the ellies arrived.
Last updated: December 2021