Essential Africa Guided Safaris

19/06/2025

We recently spent time with this pride, after finding the mother early in the morning drive we left her as she headed through some very long grass and we decided to catch up with her later. That afternoon we managed to find her three cubs stashed in a thicket, after waiting for only about 15 minutes the cubs "erupted' out of the bush and bolted towards the mother who had given a low contact call that they had heard. She had obviously killed something and was back to fetch the cubs. We followed as she turned and headed back towards a channel she intended to cross. Knowing what lives in these waters, she reluctantly entered and swam across safely. The cubs however were not as decisive, thankfully, as we watched several crocs react, approach and wait just ahead of where the cubs would have crossed. The cubs would start to enter the water and then decided against it, trotting up and down the opposite bank to where their mother was waiting. We left them at dusk still with the channel between them and their mother calling them across. Early the next morning we picked the tracks up on the other side of the channel and after a short tracking session found them all together and with full bellies. This is just a small incident in their daily routine of hunting, staying away from other predators and surviving. Whenever you see an adult lion or any adult animal for that matter you must know they have been through some close calls to make it to that stage of life!

16/06/2025

Here's wishing one of our groups traveling home now a safe journey after a spectacular safari that covered Cape Town, Botswana's Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, Zambia's lower Zambezi and ending in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve here in South Africa. Thanks for your support and we look forward to many more together!

11/06/2025

We were sad to fly out of the Okavango yesterday but had an amazing time at each stop, it’s a big flood this year which is wonderful and has revived some areas that have been a little dry in past years. Here’s wishing our groups traveling safe journeys in destinations between Zambia and South Africa. Next stop for me, Tanzania’s great migration!

08/06/2025

A special ending to our morning game drive,as it warms up and the cats slow down, the grey giants emerge from the woodlands and head to water. The very special Xigera Lodge.

05/06/2025

We've had a great run of lions over the last couple of days. This morning we spent the second half of the drive with this large pride of 17 lions. Initially we found the cubs, shortly afterwards the lionesses returned, full of blood from a recent kill, but with two large males present we guessed they lost it to them. A little later they stalked, tackled and actually rolled a zebra mare but she somehow managed to escape, much excitement all round. Chitabe Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana.

30/05/2025

Here's wishing our groups currently traveling in Botswana's Okavango Delta a fantastic time. The annual flood is nicely "in" creating those beautiful floodplain scenes that have made this part of Africa so sought after. Eva and I also leave today heading up into the delta to see some of our groups and to check out upgrades and changes to some of our favorite camps in these areas. We look forward to sharing some of the adventures with you. Have a great weekend!

16/05/2025

If you feel like a quick trip to Africa but can't quite make it yet, then we hope that this video of a recent privately guided safari will take you there. We started in the drier southern reaches of Botswana and then headed north into the beautiful Okavango Delta. Each area and camp were completely different, but the real luxury of this trip lay in being able to experience these encounters, very often all by ourselves. This is one of the true values of making use of these massive private concessions with low vehicle densities. For the most part we were in a vehicle, but a session in an underground photographic hide as well as out on the water by boat, proved rewarding and mixed things up nicely. Enjoy the video and have a great weekend!

This is "Southern and northern Botswana" by Essential Africa Guided Safaris on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

14/05/2025

Whenever the water levels allow, we always try to get out on the water by boat. Viewing the wildlife and area from a lower angle gives a very different perspective and the smooth easy travel by boat is always welcome. Red Lechwe, Okavango Delta,Botswana.

08/05/2025

A couple of days ago we flew out of the beautiful Xigera Camp in Botswana's Okavango Delta and ended our time on safari for this round. At this time of the year the grass is typically quite long and as a result not ideal for cheetah so we were very fortunate to spend time on two occasions with this female cheetah pictured here as she scouted the floodplains for potential prey and given that she was quite heavily pregnant, I suspected she was also looking for potential places to have her cubs. The baboon and the hyena were from our time at Sandibe Lodge and as always the young hyena, of which there were 11 in total stole the show as they surrounded our vehicle and investigated all of the smells on our tires that must have been a sensory overload for them.

03/05/2025

Over the last few days of this safari we have left the beautiful Sandibe Lodge and headed across the Okavango Delta to an area and lodge that 20 years ago used to be a destination during a safari that we would look forward to focusing on time out on the water by boat and the occasional game drive on a limited amount of dry land. Xigera Safari Lodge has been transformed into one of the most beautifully appointed lodges I have ever been to, with all the “bells and whistles” but more importantly the game viewing has been phenomenal. “Abundance” would be the best word to describe this area from a wildlife perspective. On arrival a pride of lions was resting on the island, elephants moved across the channels and into the fringes of the island, bushbuck quietly and carefully made their way under the lodge deck and in the early mornings the combination of fish eagle calls and robins chats was almost constant at times. To add to that, our fist afternoon kicked off with a pack of wild-dogs hunting on the floodplains just in front of camp, (a pride lions have just started to call as I write this, probably 400 yards from camp)We’ve seen leopard, scattered groups of buffalo and elephant, huge herds of red lechwe on the gradually filling floodplains. This morning we headed off from camp by boat to explore the waterways and papyrus lined channels that surround the island we are on. Each turn reveals something and it’s never long before we encounter a spectacular scene or grouping of animals all set against a truly beautiful landscape. The annual flood is just starting to flow into the area and spill onto the floodplains flushing them into a bright and vibrant shade of green. This afternoon we spent time with male cheetah that was only about 200 yards from the camp on a beautiful floodplain. It’s our last day of a 16 day safari that has produced some incredible quality sighting across a huge variety of landscapes from southern Botswana all the way up into the delta. Here are a few moments from the past few days.

29/04/2025

The stars of today's show was this family of leopards we spent time with shortly after leaving camp this morning. We joined a sighting of this mother and her two 5 month old cubs high up in the trees safely away from hyena that are ever present in this part of the world. We waited with her as she eventually came down, the cubs followed and then they headed off into a dense island where we were unable to follow. This afternoon we once again were fortunate to spend time with the mother as she hunted at dusk, again several hyena showed up and she trotted off in an attempt to shake them. Let's see what tomorrow holds. Sandibe Camp, Okavango Delta,Botswana.

26/04/2025

What an incredible day we have had up here in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The sequence of events leading to the sightings and experiences we had all set against some of the most stunning scenery, in perfect lighting was really a day I will remember for a long time. At each sighting we were alone with the exception of this afternoon when 1 other vehicle from our camp briefly joined us, apart from that we had 40 000 odd hectares to ourselves to explore and enjoy. Our cat sightings alone today included a male leopard, a serval, 4 separate lion sightings of various sizes of prides and individuals and these were just the cats. The late season rain has produced some really high grass, this in turn has meant that the cats have been up on vantage points looking out across the grasslands and giving us spectacular scenes that are really hard to do justice to in photos. Here are just a few images from today and I look forward to sharing some more as the trip goes on.