1 independent reviews for Luxury safari in Botswana with Victoria Falls
Reviews for Luxury safari in Botswana with Victoria Falls
Benjamin Katz review 26 Nov 2023
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
1. The most memorable experience will unfortunately be the number of sick and dying elephants we saw in the Okavango Delta, specifically Hyena Pan. We were very distressed to see this including witnessing a sick elephant take its last breaths while down in a water pool. Our guide said he would call for someone to remove it from the pool so the other elephants wouldn’t be contaminated. When we first discussed the number of limping elephants with our guide it was first said to be from fighting but as we continued to drive we saw that one in every 3-4 elephants was unable to walk and acting sick. It wasn’t until a pHD student from South Africa came and confirmed our concerns that there was something seriously wrong with the elephant population as the majority of them were acting sick. We were told we would be going to an elephant hide in the afternoon and when we informed the manager that we saw a dying elephant at the elephant hide pool earlier in the day they told us we would go to a different one. However, the guide took us to the same elephant hide saying we couldn’t go to the other one. Fortunately when we returned, the elephant was no longer suffering and had died but it remained in the pool with other elephants drinking the water. The stench of its rotting carcass will be something that lingers with us for years. We were told by our guide that elephants normally will drink from a pool with a dead elephant in, it but the PHD student later told us they have a different behavior at pools to obtain mostly fresh water. When we asked him why these elephants were acting differently and drinking the water contaminated with the carcass he told us he felt it was because they were already sick. We felt completely helpless and disturbed by what we were witnessing. Our only relief was knowing that this phd student was going to reach out to the elephant and veterinary departments at his university to investigate further. Had he not been there, we doubt any action would have been taken. We left what I’m sure others have found to be an exciting experience very traumatized. When we arrived at Kadizora camp the manager there asked us about Hyena Pan and we informed him of the several dead elephants we had seen. We were out with a guide driver that afternoon and one of the first things he had said was that there are too many elephants in the delta. I’m not sure if he was made aware of what we had seen at the previous camp or not. We saw several cattle grazing near the wildlife and the driver at this camp told us about how there is mixing between them as the small fence that had been built prior was largely destroyed. He also spoke of how years prior the local people had been forced from the land into the nearby village and how life has been difficult since. It felt like our presence there was contributing to the detriment of the community. We were also quite disturbed by their driving behaviors often trying to get too close to the animals that they would become scared and run off. We say this not because of any ability for picture taking, but out of concern for the animals’ well being. We saw elephants, Buffalo, antelope, and lions (with and without trackers) among others repeatedly run away from the vehicles and finally had to speak to the driver to please stop further away out of concern he was scaring the animals. One drive there were two other cars looking at a pair of lions in the bushes. When our car arrived, at no encouragement from us or the other couple in the vehicle, our driver had one of the other drivers drive up closer to flatten a bush to “improve” the view and the lion clearly spooked and ran. After that, we really lost all interest in seeing further animals and were honestly just looking forward to finishing our time in the delta and moving on to the next part of our journey that we had planned ourselves. We left the delta feeling that there was very little concern for wildlife well being or safety or conservation, with more focus on guests’ picture taking abilities. The primary focus seemed to business and luxury, which is not what we came for. We say this not to single out a particular guide, manager or camp. There just appears to be a lack of focus on conservation on a systematic level in Botswana. It could be that on the private concessions there is just a lack of systemic investment and interest in conservation.2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
We would encourage travelers to avoid the Okavango Delta if primarily concerned with conservation. Or to at least be skeptical of the reputation that it has. Having been on safaris in East Africa that are more commonly labeled as crowded, I felt I had never seen less concern for animal well being than in the Okavango Delta. Just because the responsible travel website or other companies or websites label a place as supporting conservation or benefiting the local community does not mean that it is automatically doing this.3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
No, as I had written earlier the last camp seemed to have particular tensions with the local community especially around cattle grazing and burning. The lions had trackers and we were told that was to track them to try and show the local community the benefit of lions regarding tourism, but they still killed cattle. We were also told about elephants destroying crops. We often saw cattle in the fields with the wildlife. It seemed like very high risk for the spread of disease from cattle population to the wildlife, as we had been concerned the elephants we saw at the camp prior had foot and mouth disease which can spread between species. It felt like the second camp was trying to balance between conservation and community building and failing at both. Just because the lodges’ electricity is solar powered does not make it ecologically friendly if the activities of tourists are not beneficial or even harmful to the wildlife, environment and local communities. We had stops on drives for food and drinks and people would drop food on the ground or pour drinks onto the ground, none of which are things we would ever think to do in the parks where we live.4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
Our parts in Victoria Falls and Kasane/Chobe National Park were fine and would rate them as quite good. Our experience in the Okavango was haunting and incredibly disappointing.Read the operator's response here:
Many thanks for taking the time to send your feedback. It was so distressing to read of your experience. This is an unusual situation and a first for us all. Thank you for allowing us time to investigate this issue and then get back to you. We received the following reports from Managers/Guides.
At Hyena Pan Camp the Manager of the Khwai Private Reserve who is also a Conservationist and very involved in the matter reported they have been trying their utmost to figure out what is going on with all the elephant mortalities on the concession and arranged for the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) to draw some blood for tests, and have both the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) vet and DVS to do a post mortem. On Sunday the 26th, they flew the vet out again by helicopter to come and dart the effected elephants, to investigate the issue. They have recorded every single elephant mortality and reported it with GPS co-ordinates, age of carcass, possible cause, male/female and shared it with DWNP and DVS. Currently there seem to be a number of elephant mortalities in the whole northern part of Botswana and Zimbabwe, where a study was conducted, and feedback shared on Sky News in October.
There are no concrete answers yet and the investigation is ongoing. The issue has been reported to vets in Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Namibia as well as South Africa to get as many opinions as possible. Bearing in mind the reserve is not fenced off, animals are free to roam far and wide and they can only report on what we have seen here. It is something that has occurred naturally and is not due to human interference. In instances where humans are involved, such as being caught in a snare, then we would 100% intervene with immediate action to try and assist the animal.
There is a lot of speculation – not one of the vets the information has been shared with, have seen it before.
What the PhD student said is speculation too, and not fact. Please know that we are not taking the situation lightly, and I am sorry if it seemed that way. The day the elephant died in the waterhole, we had the tractor and JCB engaged in another project in the south of the concession, but they went back to the north the very next day and removed the carcass from the waterhole. We will continue to engage with the relevant authorities and every effort will be made to monitor the situation and try to find answers, with we hope, a course of action.
Kadizora would like to extend their apologies if you felt in any way they were chasing animals, this is certainly not the norm and in fact the first time to their knowledge they have received such a complaint. To this end they have already engaged with their guides and re-iterated how to conduct the safari from all aspects to ensure a great experience. The below points raised are well noted and they will continue to address and monitor accordingly.
They are saddened to hear you also feel they are failing at the balance between community and wildlife. The cattle fence erected in the 1950’s is definitely derelict and serves no purpose, this is something the government is addressing and as private individuals are not permitted to touch the fence and the removal of this fence has been a debate for many years that needs to be addressed. They believe that they have done more than “just put solar”, when they built the lodge- they engaged the local community to build the lodge and also employed staff from the local community which has gone a long way to creating opportunities and income for the community where previously there was no opportunity. They are a relatively new lodge in the area (opening a few years before Covid) and have further plans and projects they are working on for the benefit of the area as a whole as they recover from the devastating effects of Covid.
In terms of the burning, this is something that cannot really be controlled as it is not manmade. Due to the high temperatures in Botswana in summer, there is a pattern of “veld fires” that occur – these spread out through the Boteti, Makgadikgadi as well as Okavango Delta regions. All camps/lodges surrounding each respective area have systems in place to control or create barriers that somewhat keep the fire out of their properties and communities are supported by government in the form of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks personnel patrols. There is no easy way to mitigate this occurrence.
Possibly the best known fence is the 'Buffalo Fence' that separates Maun from the Okavango Delta. It literally stretches across the breadth of the country. There was a huge outcry when the fence was erected but it has since been acknowledged by many that the fence may have saved the Okavango Delta. At about the same time as the erection of the fence the Botswana government had embarked on a project to wipe out the Tsetse fly from the delta. The Tsetse fly was the very reason that cattle had not moved into the prime grazing lands of the Okavango floodplains. Sleeping sickness and Nagana were prevalent in Botswana at the time and with the Tsetse fly gone it would be a free for all for cattle in the delta. The fence stopped that before it could happen.
An example of the former is the Makgadikgadi / Boteti fence - one of the most recent to be erected. The issue at hand is that the Boteti River, once a major overflow of the Okavango Delta began to dry up in the early 1990's. Waterholes were sunk in the dry channel to provide for the wildlife and cattle alike. The Boteti was a natural barrier between the wilderness of Makgadikgadi and the cattle farmers on the opposite bank but with the drying up water was at a premium with the herds of zebra and wildebeest competing with cattle for the diminishing resources.
A fence was considered the only option but with that decision a debate arose over the sighting of the fence. Finally it was decided to zigzag the fence in the channel so as to provide some waterholes for wildlife and others for the cattle. The issue rages on. Everyone has an opinion on the veterinary fences and few will seek to see all sides of the debate.
Every camp/lodge that establishes or rather develops and operates within these areas is obliged to sign a memorandum of agreement with the respective Communities in that area.
I trust that the above will shed some light and give a clearer picture as well as diminish any doubts that Government and her stakeholders are not doing anything nor are they not aware of the livelihood of their people.
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