Wessie one of our guides recently did a Namibia Botswana Southern Circle NBa21 tour and has the following to share… We started our trip in Zambia with a visit to the beautiful Victoria Falls which now is even more breath taking with the amount of water it has. After our days in Livingstone we headed off to Namibia to start our adventures in the Caprivi.

We went on a boat cruise on the Kwando River, our guide was very knowledgeable and taught us a lot about his culture and how marriage works. He showed us how to make a lovely traditional necklace with the water lilies that the bride and groom wear on the wedding.

We then went off to Etosha National Park for 3 days which is always an exciting place to visit. Our first game drive was quiet, but on the way out back to the lodge we came across some lions, it was a group of about 4 females with some young cubs and there was also 2 males further in the bushes still feeding on what looked like a wildebeest. The young cubs were very playful while the mothers were brushing and cleaning them off. They then strolled over the road to disappear in the bush.  A quiet day turned into an exciting day - you never know what the bush has to offer.

On our second day we left camp early and went to the waterhole first thing. We were lucky enough to find the same pride of lions there….probably relaxing there through the night as the park is very dry so water is scarce. While watching the lions just relaxing some other animals joined which included: jackal, giraffe, impala, wildebeest and zebra. All of them coming for a drink, but due to the presence of the lions all of them kept a very safe distance from the water. Eventually when the lions moved off they decided it was safe enough to come quench their thirst.

Our third day in the park started very slow with very few sightings. Just before we went for a break to have lunch we pulled in to a waterhole which was also fairly empty, but it still had some pools of water around. So a young bull elephant was enjoying a bath in one of these pools spraying himself multiple times with the water to cool himself down, when a spotted hyena also joined him in a pool next door getting in to the water and submerging its whole body for a few minutes, this was quite an amazing sighting.

The whole trip was very good. But if I have to choose a highlight for myself personally it would be the day we left from Sossusvlei to go to Windhoek. We have been driving only an hour or so, the sun still low and the light was perfect. When all of a sudden very close next to the road 4 cheetahs appeared. Cheetahs are very rarely seen in National Parks not to mention wild cheetah’s right next to the road! Cheetahs are usually solitary especially the females so these were probably 4 brothers or related males who has formed a coalition and would probably stick together for their lives helping each other hunt and for protection. It was also a very special sighting only because of the endangered status of cheetahs too. Poising and farmers killing cheetahs on their property and also competition from all larger predators adds to these fast running cats to be on the endangered list.

All in all was a very amazing trip along with great guests who left here as friends!