It was a blindingly bright afternoon on the edge of the Okavango Delta—warm and sunny on this July winter day. Our Land Rover Defender chugged along the dirt track that paralleled and crisscrossed a reedy canal, occasionally turning muddled and confused among a profusion of game trails trampled through the ocher sea of grass by ever-present herds of impala, lechwe, sable, kudu, and the massive 6-ton African elephants that eyed our Landy like a smaller interloper that might potentially need to be run off. Our attention, however, was focused on the tree line to our left. We stopped every few minutes, and my eagle-eyed wife Dawn scanned the bush with her binoculars.
Taking Wing: Where the Lion Roars
Key Takeaways:
- A pilot and his wife embarked on a self-guided safari through Botswana's Okavango Delta, driven by the author's long-held fantasy of African bush flying and a quest to spot a cheetah.
- They experienced Botswana's unique, well-preserved wilderness and high-end, low-impact tourism model, offering adventurous self-sufficient camping distinct from their prior experiences in South Africa.
- The safari included both an aerial tour of the Delta's spectacular wildlife and thrilling ground encounters with diverse animals, culminating in a close experience with a lion at their campsite, affirming how aviation unexpectedly enriched their global adventures.
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