Looking out of the airplane after take off from Maun showed a lot of water in the Okavango Delta, which is a World Heritage site.

Here is an elephant family in the water.

When we landed at the airstrip serving DumaTau, our driver discovered a leopard and its kill, an aardvark. 

Next morning, Monday, we saw a giraffe in the rising sun.

Then our driver drove us over to a resting lion. There was another in deep shade in a nearby bush.

Not long after, our driver spotted a large crocodile. It went into the water about two seconds after the picture was taken.

Here is a Red Lechwe, a new species for us. It runs in the water channels, both to escape predators and to show off.

Then we caught sight of a vulture.

Next up, we saw elephants wading across a river. Here is one good sized one.

Nearby at the same river, we came across a large family of elephants.

Then we came across several Cape Buffalo. This one had just one eye.

After lunch back at the Camp, we set out again mid–afternoon. Here is a Yellow Hornbill, known also as a Flying Banana, named for its yellow beak. 

Then we got to see a herd of zebra. Here are two of them in a nice pose.

An Spotted Eagle–Owl kept its eye on us from high up in a tree.

We came across a large tree with some of these Vervet Monkeys late in the afternoon. This one cooperated and moved out of the shade.

Returning to Camp and dinner, we came across more elephants. 

We set out again early the next morning and saw a wonderful sunrise.

First up, a male Kudu trotting away from our truck.

This is a good time to explain the schedule of the camps. At 5:30 each morning, a staffperson knocks on our door and at 6:00 returns to walk us to the breakfast area. At 6:30, we’re out in a vehicle.

About 10:30 in the morning, we are back at camp and at 11:00 there is a light lunch. Then things are quiet until 3:15 in the afternoon. At that time, we get a small snack (eg, a slice of cake) and then we will go back out in a vehicle to roam around. It gets dark around 6:00 pm and about then we stop and have a “Sundowner,” which means there is a small table set up by the vehicle with a beer and snacks set up. After, we go back to camp in the dark. About 7:00 pm a staffer collects us for dinner and returns us to our room about 8:00 pm.

Here is the next new species (for this trip), a Common Warthog.

These are Egyptian Geese. 

Here is a Waterbuck.

We saw quite a few hippos, but they were always almost submerged.

Our guide was patient, and after a short time, two hippos put on a show.

About an hour earlier, our driver had spotted a large flock of Southern Carmine Bee–Eater birds. The light wasn’t good for photos, so we drove back around to see them again. This picture captures just about half of the flock. At times, all of the birds would take off and fly in a circle before landing in the same spot.

Here is a close up.

This is a Cattle Egret, which we saw on the backs of both Cape Buffalo and Wildebeest.

Cape Buffalo and Wildebeest were in the neighborhood!

This Lilac–breasted Roller is a colorful bird. We’ve seen them every safari trip!

More elephants, then we headed back to camp for lunch.

Our afternoon drive took us first to an African Fish Eagle and a three minutes later to a Southern Ground–Hornbill.

As the daylight began to fade, we came across a Grey go–away–bird. It makes a noise that sounds like “go away.” We have seen this bird on several different trips but never managed to get a photo before now.

Camp Staff asked where we would like to have our last “Sundowner” at DumaTau, and we said out on the floating deck at the camp. That seemed nicer than outside of our truck in the dark. They were happy to do so and set up a fabulous Sundowner.

Just a minute after the picture above was taken, we took one looking a bit to the left.

This photograph was taken just after the sun set from the same Sundowner deck.

The next morning we packed up and set out in our truck for a morning drive, and then to the airstrip for our early afternoon flight to our next stop at Little Vumbura Camp. 

We came across a dead tree filled with African Openbill Storks.

Next, we came upon a resting female lion.

This is a Squacco Heron.

This herd, when they saw us, immediately shifted the baby to the far side.

We then pulled into the air strip a flight to our second and final camp in Botswana, Little Vumbra. 

A note on the location of DumaTau— the camp is located on the Linyanti River in the vicinity of the Linyanti swamp and near to the Savuti channel. We could see Namibia on the opposite side of the river. The Savuti channel was dry for a couple of decades and started to flow again in 2008, only to dry up again a couple of years back. Our guide said it started flowing again last year, and it feeds the swamp. The flow of waters in this area is quite complicated, and this page gives some explanation of the various waterways and rivers, all of which eventually drain to the Zambezi and go over Victoria Falls.

This map shows the airstrips in Botswana. We used the Chobe airstrip for Duma Tau, and the Vumbura airstrip for Little Vumbura.

On Sunday, we will transfer from Johannesburg to Maun, Botswana, and then transfer to a small plane for the trip north up to DumaTau Camp, where we will spend three nights.