Travelling in Botswana.

After our successful trip south from Jo'burg we now headed north, up through Gauteng Province, then through Limpopo Province crossing over the famous great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo river of Kipling fame and up to the Botswana border with the team from Wader Quest South Africa which consists of the Sharland and Oertli families who are generously sponsoring this part of the quest.

Wader Quest South Africa team: L to R Megan Sharland, Kim Oertli, Jenny Sharland, Peter Sharland and Sue Oertli.

We stopped off at the crossing over the river Mogalakwena and notched up our first new species for Wader Quest, Three-banded Plover. Also at this spot we came across Wood and Common Sandpipers, Black-winged Stilt and the widespread Blacksmith Lapwing.

Three-banded Plover Charadrius tricollaris.

We stayed the night at a place called Elephant Sands, where the elephants come to drink from a water hole, perilously close to the accommodation it seemed to me.

African Bush Elephant Loxodonta africana.

Our little hut would have been no match for an elephant should it decide to knock it down or even accidentally rub against it.

Our accommodation hut.

Indeed we were informed that one individual had taken a big chunk out of the bathroom roof that very day. Sleep did not come easy with these huge beasts wandering around outside our flimsy hut.

The hole left by an elephant in our bathroom roof!

The next day we headed up to Kisani where we stayed at the Water Lily Lodge along the Chobi River where Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet. The accommodation here was more sturdy and there were no elephants around in any case. After checking-in to the hotel we went for a walk along the river bank at Mowana Lodge, here we came across another Common Sandpiper, more Blacksmith Lapwings and to our utter delight, 5 Rock Pratincoles.

Rock Pratincole Glareola nuchalis.

Blacksmith Lapwing Vanellus armatus.

Sunset over the Chobi River