Selinda camp is in the Selinda Wildlife Reserve, a 135,000-hectare (300,000-acre) private wildlife reserve in northern Botswana. The Selinda Reserve is one of the largest reserves in all of Botswana. The camp is situated on the banks of the eastern Selinda Spillway - a waterway linking the Okavango Delta to the Linyanti Swamps to the east.

We landed and Mots, our guide, was waiting with two other gentlemen who were leaving to go back to New York. We stowed our bags, settled into the truck and watched them take off.

Diana and Roger had warned us that the drive to camp would take about 45 minutes – it actually took longer because we kept stopping for animals: ostriches, some tawny eagles and a battaleur snacking on something on the ground, a big herd of zebra and wildebeest, three jackals running off with the remains of something, a herd of zebra and impala and a bull hippo sitting grumpily in the middle of the river.

We finally did arrive at camp and what a great place! The whole staff was out front singing to greet us and we were given cold towels and an iced drink while our bags were whisked off to our room. We met Zane, the manager, Kea, Brian and Julia. We got the run down on the logistics: up at 6:00, breakfast by the fire at 6:30, then off on a drive, brunch at 10:30, tea at 4:00, another drive, and dinner at 8:00.

The newly constructed public areas are magnificent, with a huge lobby with seating areas, the dining room, bar, a couple of lower decks with lounge chairs and the fire pit. The building that used to house the dining room and the bar now has a little gift shop downstairs and it looks like the upstairs is used for screening movies or some other functions. There is a pretty plunge pool, but we never found the time to use it.

We have room #3, just down the path past the fire pit. Oh my – just beautiful, with sliding screen doors off the covered veranda, hardwood floors, lovely furniture, bed, armoire, full electric with outlets for charging batteries. The bathroom is in an adjoining tent, with an open shower in one corner, a toilet area and a massive stone bathtub in the middle of the room. It’s wonderful. Gary said if we can find places like this, we can come every year.

We settled in and went for an early brunch as they have some guests who are leaving shortly – Antonio and Blanche. He’s Italian, she’s Belgian, they were married a week ago and are on a three week honeymoon. They’ll live in Switzerland near Lucerne after they get back. We met two of the other guides, OB and Bibi, who I believe was the guide for Mom/Dad/Ron/Jim when they were here. We also met Graham who works at HQ for the concession and was heading back later in the day.

Brunch was a buffet: bobuti, coleslaw, chickpea salad, green salad, cheese and crackers and fruit, with breads and fruit smoothies. Very nice.

We went back and tried to nap for a while, then came back to the main lodge. We sat with Julia and met Julian, another guest. He is a half-Chinese Neuro-opthamologist originally from San Francisco, now working at Oxford as a professor/clinician with an African safari tour business on the side. He’s been all over, loves Botswana, having just come from Motswiri Camp, another small camp within the Selinda Reserve. He’s a very friendly, interesting guy.

We sat and watched several groups of elephants come to the water hole to drink, watched the birds, enjoyed the cooling breeze. After a while, Zane came to say farewell – he was supposed to leave early tomorrow morning, but a change of plans meant that he had to go now. We met Ishmael, who I believe will be the permanent camp manager at Selinda going forward.

Around 4:00, another group of eight guests arrived – they are from Belgium. We went back to the tent to change and get ready for our drive. We came back at 4:15 for tea – mini pizzas and cake with three different types of iced or hot teas and coffee. Precious, one of the staff, came to ask us for our entrée selection for dinner, a choice of beef casserole or pork chops. I chose the casserole and Gary selected the pork chops.

Gary and I and Julian went for a drive with Mots, while OB took the Belgians all in one truck. The trucks at Selinda are different from the ones at Muchenje or Shinde in that they do not have a canvas roof, or at least the ones that we are using do not. We were a little concerned about getting too much sun and being too hot, but once on the road, I never thought about it again.

We saw tons of ellies, almost giving Muchenje a run for number of pachyderms. We came across two bulls coming down to the water to drink. The first fellow was completely unimpressed by us but his younger companion was more than a little aggitated. After much stomping and sniffing and flapping of ears, he finally got his drink.

We saw hippos, warthogs, zebra, wildebeest, owls, jackals, giraffes, and birds of all types. We stopped for our sundowner near a hippo pond. While we couldn't entice the hippos to come any further out of the water while we were there, we did have a nice photo op with a lone bull elephant on the other side of the pond.

It was dark when we began heading back to camp and suddenly Mots stopped the truck - there were two lionesses with their five cubs, just off the side of the road!

One lioness was sitting apart from the other one who had all the cubs. Mots said there were three boys and two girls from two litters, and they were all within two weeks or so in age, about two to three months old. It is common for the lionesses to take turns watching and feeding all the cubs. Since there are five of them and only four nipples, there was much growling and complaining among the cubs as they scrambled up and over mom. We took quite a few pictures, but hope to find them again tomorrow in daylight.

We got back fairly late and had about ten minutes to shower and change before dinner. We have to be walked to and from our tents any time after dark, not just post dinner. Precious announced the menu: Hot butternut squash soup, beef casserole or pork chops, mixed veggies and rice, with a custard tart for dessert.

We followed them for a long time, puncturing a tire in the process, but kept going. We had some wonderful opportunities to see the cubs and listen to them complain to their mothers that they were tired and wanted to rest. They stopped briefly, and the cubs fed for a few minutes – then they were off again. Before we left them, Mots drove ahead and stopped right in front of their path and turned off the motor. They came within three or four feet of the truck – the nice wide-open truck with no doors or windows. The lead lioness came towards us, staring directly up at us in the truck – that got the old adrenaline going! My last shot of her as she passed was of her ear, since she was too close for my lens to capture any more of her.

We drove for a while and found three bachelor warthogs – one of the smaller ones decided to challenge the larger one for a minute, then thought better of it.

We found wildebeest, zebra, three black-backed jackals, giraffe, hippos, and loads of birds, but no elephants this morning. We watched a zebra mare take her morning dust bath while her foal looked on. We stopped for coffee and nibbles while Mots fixed the flat tire.

Mots spotted a chameleon crossing the road and we got out and photographed it – very cute. He was quite interesting to watch as he moved (very slowly) across the road, pausing and swaying as he went. And we officially have a “kill” – a snake eagle with a small vine snake in his talons.

When we came back, Brian had cold towels and iced tea waiting for us. We got in just as brunch was being served; a curried rice, several salads, fresh bread, fruit and cheese. Afterwards, we stopped in the gift shop and lounged around the lobby and read. I am sad we are leaving tomorrow.

We stayed in the lobby the entire afternoon, since it was so pleasant, alternating between reading and staring out over the beautiful view. Brian watched over us, quick to come over and offer a cold drink. Kea came by and showed me the April edition of Air Botswana’s in-flight magazine where she is featured!

One of the Belgian guests came over and told us that there was a mother and baby hippo out of the water to the west of camp – we got our binoculars out and watched them for a while. Tea was spinach quiche (delicious!) and cake with iced or hot teas and coffee.

We didn’t have a chance to see the baby hippo by the time we got on the road, and the lions were not in sight – probably exhausted after their morning’s trek. We saw several elephants near the water again, and decided that if push comes to shove, an elephant has the right-of-way on the road.

We found an elephant just before sunset and took some photos, then had our sundowner nearby. The sky was particularly beautiful that night.

After we returned and had our showers and changed, the entire staff came out before dinner and sang and danced for us. Dinner was a choice of leg of lamb or mustard/rosemary chicken (Precious was nice enough to let me have some of each), mixed veggies and apple pie with whipped cream.

Julian shared his photos of the rooms at Mambo Camp and the two Sabi Sands lodges (Boulders and Ebony). They looked really nice! At the campfire we tried a new treat – hot chocolate with Amarula – yum.

Sunday, April 29, 2007
We got up really (really!) early and finished packing. It was barely light when we got down to the fire, and COLD! Poor Precious was there already with coffee, tea, muffins, pancakes, fruit and cereal. It was pretty windy and Precious said she was not looking forward to June which is the dead of winter for them. The female staff wear dresses and are not allowed to wear trousers, so she gets very cold. Julian joined us as did Kea and Mots.

Kea asked Gary to sign the guest book, but they found that I had done so the afternoon before. I told Kea that I found Mom and Dad’s entry from 2004 – she said she thought my last name was familiar and asked if I was a repeat guest when they sent her the booking. We got the bags loaded – I pulled out my scarf and put it on and everyone had flannel-lined ponchos on their laps. We waved goodbye to Kea and off we went.

Mots began tracking the male lions shortly after we left camp. We saw several alert impala and some tsessebes, and then followed the lion tracks off into a wooded area. We came back around and Mots found the female lion and cub tracks in the road and we began looking when all of a sudden, there they were: all seven sitting on a termite mound.

I shot 300 photos of them in twenty minutes.

The cubs peered out at us from all sides of the termite mound. Once they saw that their mothers were not worried or interested in us, they began playing, chasing each other up and down some small saplings.

The lionesses seemed much more relaxed than the day before, and were quite tolerant of their youngsters as they played and nursed. They were also very close to one another, with one often rubbing her head against the other.

Mots finally dragged us away as we had a plane to catch at 8:05, but on the way he stopped for some additional hippo shots and a whole flock of ostriches. Our “usual” Northern Air Cessna arrived, with Paul and Hugh, a new pilot trainee who looks like he’s about fourteen – there seemed to be quite a bit of cross wind on the landing. We took some photos at the airstrip with the assistance of Paul, said goodbyes to Julian and Mots and left Selinda airstrip.

It was a 50 minute flight to Maun, very smooth. We stared out over the bush, spotted some game, a few camps and landed at Maun a little before 9:00. We were met by two K&D reps who gave us exit forms to fill out and took our tickets, passports and luggage to the check-in desk and got us sorted. While we waited, Gary was asked to complete a survey for first-time travelers to Botswana. I vaguely remember doing something similar on my first visit – hopefully Botswana will continue to do what they are doing with the eco-tourism.

We got our boarding passes and baggage claim tickets and were shown to security. We had to wait a bit before passport control showed up and were stamped through. We both spent some time pre-flight reviewing photos from that morning’s drive.

We boarded shortly before 10:00 – an Air Botswana ATR Turbo-prop. The plane was barely 20% full. Two hours to Joburg, and they served refreshments: drinks, packs of peanuts with raisins and biltong, a kind of beef jerky. This one was chili-spiced, very tasty and came with its own toothpick.