Linyanti Wildlife Reserve, Botswana Lebala  Lodge     Date:                       05.-07.10.2007   Assessment Criteria  Satisfaction  in % Comments  Pool 50    Tent/ Room 90  3 rooms: bedroom, bath, desk Restaurant atmosphere 80  elephant close by during  dinner  Food 80    Management & Staff 80  Mgmt: Alwin & Blue, Guide: Taboul Camp/ Lodge 90    Originality of reserve  100    Diversity of reserve  90    Vehicle 100  customized jeep for safaris, separate seats  Guide - communication 70    Guide - information 60    Guide - cust. orientation 80    Wildlife - quantity  70  lots of lion Wildlife - diversity 90    Wildlife - extraordinary occurrences 90  kill of wildebeest by lions, lion cubs, aggressive hippo and elephant   The Linyanti Wildlife reserve where the Lebala Lodge is at is a privat concession and as such all  vehicles belong either directly to the Lodge or have a special permission for a game drive. The  later one is usually not seen and as such Linyanti was a big difference to Chobe. The difference between privat concessions and national parks is that in a private concession you  are allowed to leave the roads and go into the bush (to get closer to the animals), you are allowed to stay out for night drives after sun set, and you are allowed to do walking safaris. All three  activities are officially prohibited in national parks. The vehicles used for game drives are customized for Kwando safaris (the operator of Lebala  Lodge, Kwara Camp, little Kwara, and Lagoon Camp). The jeeps had two rows with each three  seats. The seats were really comfortable and one could strap themselve to it with safety belt for  the ride off road.   The Kwando river turns into the Linyanti river so the area around the camp is green and has open  grasslands. It looks a lot different from Chobe and all the camps we visited afterwards. The wide  open scenery and the dry season helped a lot to spot the animals. During the daytime we did not  see that many animals at the river, maybe because it was to close to the camp.   On one of our game drives it took a long time before we saw any animals but the extraordinary  ocurrences we saw later made up for it: In the morning we saw a group of lions with their cubs that were still suckling. The same night the other vehicle watched a kill of a wildebeest and called us via the radio. We arrived in time to see  lions eating the wildebeest and fetching their cubs to share the kill with.   We also experienced an angry Hippo running with an open mouth and a lot of noise towards our  jeep - letting us wonder what would happen if he would acutally ram it. Fortunately, we did not  have to find out because the guide started the jeep and the noise of the engine stopped the  Hippo. The racing of our heart beats did not stop that soon....!   When we were going after a herd of elephants to get a better glimpse of a baby elephant, the  chaperon elephant of the herd demonstrated his dislike of our proximity by coming at us  trompeting with a lifted trunk. That convinced us to back off and make use of the 500mm lens.   On our morning game drive we were a little unfortunate since our tracker Alfred and our guide  Taboul only spotted animals well after we (the tourists) did and had little explanation to offer.  However, after the issue was addressed to the camp manager he obviously had a talk with the  guide and the subsequent game drives were very enjoyable.   The lodge was not fenced at all since the operators believe that animals passing the camp were  of no danger to the tourists in opposite to trapped animals. In all of the camps we were given  whistles to blow in case of emergency. At Lebala we were told that an elephant rubbing against  the tent is NOT an emergency since they are merely using the tents as they are using the trees.  All elephants close to the camp (our tent or the main house) were really peaceful and not at all  interested in us. One night at dinner, an elephant was having his dinner right next to the  restaurant.  During the night Hippos stepped out of the water to eat but amazingly we felt wonderfully asleep  listening to their snorting and mumbling. The tents were very spacious with a bedroom, an entrance with a desk, and a nice bathroom  which had a bath tub inside and a shower outside.   The food was very exquisite: In the evening we either had steak or lamb with extraordinary  starters prepared. The snacks offered chocolate chip cookies during morning game drives and  wraps, cheese & crackers, cake for the afternoon tea were the best on our trip. click here: BACK TO Botswana 2007-START-PAGE