Safari pure - the adventure begins

Today we only have a short distance ahead of us. 220 km along the still well-maintained roads further east towards Divundu to the Mahangu Safari Lodge. You might not believe it, but on the way we overtook the bus that brought us our first adventure in Etosha Park...quickly overtake and move on....

Quick stop after just 3 hours of driving in Divundu to refuel and continue to the lodge, where we were welcomed warmly (though it took about ten minutes to find our reservation ;-)). The lodge is located just before the entrance gate of the Mahangu National Park. A light lunch on the terrace right by the Okavango River before heading out in the early afternoon for a booked safari tour. For that, we had to be transported across the Okavango in a small boat. On the other side, our guide was waiting for us...off we go to explore in an open safari bus....

The pictures really speak for themselves....a unique, unforgettable experience! Encounters with elephants (significantly more numerous and closer than in Etosha), hippos peacefully grazing or staying in the river, water buffalo across the vast plains....

Then came the report that two lions had been spotted not far from us...quickly over there...indeed, under a bush lay two male lions...wow, so close and almost unreal to encounter these magnificent creatures in the wild. According to the guide, we were indeed lucky, as no lions had been spotted for 4 weeks! But even better things were yet to come....

We enjoyed the tour, gazing into the vast plains known only from documentaries on TV...now we were right in the middle of it...a deep sense of happiness spread over us.

Suddenly, the bus stopped abruptly and the guide quietly announced that just a few meters from us lay a leopard who had taken down a bushbuck. Fascinated and excited, I grabbed the binoculars and searched...a bit hard to spot, but directly in front of us lay the leopard with its prey...our luck, otherwise, we wouldn’t have seen him. Slowly, he dragged the buck into the bushes. That was the highlight of the day, or rather the last few days. Can it get any better? We shall see..

Happy and exhausted, we then went to bed after a delicious dinner and the obligatory whiskey...