Photographing my travels: Pom Pom in Botswana with Tracks Safari

Ann Marie and I were taken to the airstrip at Lagoon, where we were joined by Kate from Kwando safaris. She had been visiting the camp to see how things were going and if they needed anything. There is only written communication and an emergency phone between the camp and main office. Ann Marie and Kate were off to Tau Pan via Maun and Pom Pom where they dropped me off.

I arrived at Pom Pom at the start of the siesta time. Pom Pom is the sister camp to the Kwando camps. The owners of each are brothers. I was in tent No 1 which was the furthest tent from the main lodge. Tried to sleep but had a baboon family chasing each other over and around the tent. When they had gone, I returned to the main lodge which looked over a large lake with a number of pelicans on it. I met up with Tom and Stephen. They were off to another camp the next day but would be at Tau Pan the same time as me.

Dalton and Sunday were the driver and guides. On the afternoon game drive, I was on the jeep with Anna and Kristoff from Germany, Peter from Netherlands and another new arrival Marguerite Fischer, also from Germany.

Pelicans both pink backed and Great White in the lagoon in front of the main lodge

Yet another posing dragonfly at the lodge

Stopped off at the hippo pool near the camp

Wildebeest with calves

The same vervet monkey in tree

There had been an explosion of impala at Pom Pom.

The smallest antelope in Botswana, the steenbok

The Marula tree with elephant damage

Zebra dust bath

On Wednesday morning I missed the Pelicans flying into the lagoon in the morning light as I had gone back to my bedroom to fetch something. I thought I would see them again in the mornings but they never returned at that time when I was ready for them. We were off to the river to go on the mokoros. Peter’s wife, Honey joined us. She had been unwell the previous day. I was on the boat with Marguerite and Skills was our guide. While we were on the boats, Dalton went off to track the Pom Pom lions. He surprised us after our mokoro trip when we seemed to happen upon the 7 sleep lions. The two male lions were off somewhere else.

Male leopard tracks near the lodge

The baboon on the left and right is the one sitting below in the middle

white faced ducks

Day lily with bee

A blurry photo of Anna, Kristof and Sunday as pilot

Fish eagle

Malachite kingfisher

frog on the mokoro when we stopped for tea

Sausage tree

More day lilies

Sleepy lions

This was the best view I had of cape buffalo, lions main prey

Still no sleep in the afternoon as a mongoose family played around the tent. By the time I realised what the noise was and got the camera, they were leaving. We returned from the game drive to have dinner by the pool.

Banded mongoose tribe at siesta time

Ground squirrel

Stunt pelican

My tent is the one on far right

Kudu

Another giant eagle owl

Wildebeest in dust

Hoping someone will remind me of this one

Pelicans

Zebras in the evening light

View while we had the sundowner

Thursday morning game drive. Only Marguerite and I, as the other guests were leaving and wanted to rest. Marguerite was also leaving but would be taken to the airstrip to meet her luggage. We saw very little that morning and were returning towards the camp when Sunday said “Leopard”. One in the tree. She was very nervous and came down and into the long grass. We followed her to another tree and the others were called out via the radio. They arrived but the leopard left the tree before they could get photos, and disappeared. I joined Anna and Kristoff in the jeep as they were leaving later and the others went off to the airstrip. No sign of the leopard and we returned to the camp. I was the only one left and had brunch by myself.

I only managed to capture these three pelicans in the beautiful light

There were 3 pied kingfishers on the lagoon. The other one was fishing while this was going on

Butterfly on the bar

Ground squirrel

Wildebeest

There had been a large fire at Pom Pom before I arrived

Baobab with elephant damage

The female leopard

In the grass

getting away

Still not sure of the jeeps

The monkeys, baboons and birds were very successful in stealing the food from the table

In the afternoon I was joined by a French Canadian family from Quebec. Elephant, impala and zebra sunset with a spectacular sundowner. Drove back to the hippo pool where a surprise dinner had been set out for us. We dined under the stars. On the way back we saw the leopard from yesterday. She was too quick for photos but it was a lovely end to the evening.

Elephants come into the camp to feed on berries

Baboons

Red Lechwe

Elephant sunset

Impala sunset

Zebra sunset

Sun ray

Friday game drive. I was by myself again as the family were going to do the mokoro trip. Dalton and Sunday had been told the two male lions from the pride were nearby so they tracked them and found them. We were so near, I hardly needed the 100-400 lens I had. Luckily, the family had yet to start their boat trip and they were soon on their way. Just before they arrived, a herd of breeding elephants went passed and passed right by their jeep.

Kudu with oxpeckers

One of the two male lions

Breeding herd

Tsessebe calves

Fiery-necked nightjar I was more excited by seeing this fly down in front of the jeep than the lions

If you look carefully there is a baby suckling

The baby giraffe which had been hidden for awhile while we were looking

A flock of birds

It is only a baby

I was then taken to the airstrip to be taken to Tau Pan. The only passengers in the plane were Tom and Stephen who had been at another Kwando camp after Pom Pom. After about 50 minutes we arrived at Tau Pan.

Pom Pom birds (will finish idents at the weekend)