Wild Adventures: Days 2 - 5: Third Bridge Campsite, Moremi Game Reserve

A couple of hours later after leaving the South Gate area we arrived at our next destination, Third Bridge campsite. The tracks along the way once again consisting of deep sand. We passed through the reserve, with vast tracks of land unhindered by human settlement, passing just two vehicles in the journey. Many pans had long ago lost their water and signs of elephant damage continued to dominate the vegatation.

Third Bridge campsite is positioned on the edge of the Okavango Delta, its setting in a beautiful area. On one side a passage way of water lined with lucious reeds and pampas grass and the gateway to the Okavango Delta. On the other dry desert liked pans and in contrast beautiful lagoons and teeming with amazing bird life.

Our campsite was lovely, a huge shaded area with a Sausage tree in the middle, together with a braai and fire pit. Again we had only a short walk to hot and cold showers which was a welcomed facility. We were now much deeper in the bush, and again our campsite fully open with no fences, just how we like it! I am not sure what excited us more, the game drives or what may visit us in camp at night! Our pitch was number 7 and each pitch (total of 11) was really spacious and so a great location for three nights (although on the third night another group of four were also booked on our pitch which was a slight suprise!)

We didn't have to wait until nightfall for our wild visitors, not long after we arrived a curious young male elephant strolled into camp and decided to make himself comfortable in and around our camp for several hours. He wandered quite happily in and around many pitches, displaying an air of curiosity as well as enjoying a browse along the way!

The first afternoon we had a quiet drive around some of the waterholes and trying to gain a sense of direction, the area is stunningly beautiful a mixture of stunning lagoons, several seasonal pans, as well as a plentiful supply of Savannah and Mopane woodland.

Arriving back to camp we had a slight road block! We had wait a little time until we could actually drive into our pitch given that the elephant was still there in camp! Not wanting to block its exit route we waited until he moved off. That night we cooked up a tasty feast over the fire and listened to the night time sounds. Once again Spotted Hyena came right into camp. Strolling in bold as brass, followed by a Hippo who also paid us a visit once we had retreated to our roof tent. He very obligingly walked past our night camera we had set up as did a Jackal. Later that night a male Lion on its territorial rounds roared loudly just a few hundred metres away from our camp. We lay awake listening to him bellow as he moved away. Our plan for the morning was sorted, we wanted to find this fella!

Leaving at first light we found his tracks as expected in the area the roars had originated from and tracked them for some time, but sadly soon lost sight of them into an area with no road tracks, Nevertheless anticipating where he may be headed we continued our search but given the vegetation and the lack of any alarm calls it was now becoming unlikely we would find him given many hours had now passed. Not too long after we lost his tracks we them came across really fresh tracks from two Lioness and what looked to be two different aged cubs. We surmised the tracks could not have been any more than two hours old and felt as if we were hot on their heels although in two hours they could have still moved a considerable distance. Our optimism started to fade again though as we also lost these tracks, where they tracked off the road and into the dry but thick vegetation. We continued to search as much as we could around where they tracked off the road, knowing they could be visible still, until we came across a large breeding herd of Elephants very nearby. At this point we knew continuing the search around this area was entering a fruitless task. With several young calves in the herd it was highly unlikely that they would have tolerated the presence of the Lions, at the same time it was also unlikely that the Lionesses would wish to expose their young cubs to these mighty pachyderms. We made the decision to head off and continued on a pleasant drive seeing herbivores such as Zebra, Impala and Wildebeest along the way.

Later that afternoon we decided to head to a nearby waterhole, the variety of bird species was incredible and although a quiet afternoon drive it was nevertheless a pleasant one.

Our second evening in camp failed to disappoint on the wildlife front, The first visit coming from several different Spotted Hyena, with one particular female getting rather close for comfort behind me (just 6 feet away!) and needless to say we gave her a stern telling off and shoed her away rather rapidly! Mmm, never let your guard down!

The next visit came from the same male Hippo as the prior evening who grazed around the outskirts of the camp and seemed totally unperturbed by us clanging pans and making noise as we cooked Boerwoers on the fire. A troop of baboons had taken their night time refuge in a nearby tree and it was not long until they started barking in alarm, followed by the rasp of a Leopard less than 50 metres away.

At around 5am, just 30 mins or so before we would get up we heard the sound of two male Lions, not particularly close by, perhaps 2 or 3km away. Despite it being pitch black still we could not lay in bed any longer and got up to break camp etc and to sit and listen to the morning chorus as they continued to roar while tracking East. As we made drinks we heard the Leopard rasping again nearby, he could likely see us but remained out of sight despite scanning with the torch in the hope of seeing it.

We headed off on the search to track the two male Lions, we stopped every now and again to listen to them roaring intermittently, with no tracks in sight we had to rely on them vocalising. We knew we were getting closer and closer until around the corner we found them, around 3km from camp and approaching us along the road. Two stunning boys in a hazy morning light. They were around 7-8 years of age, certainly brothers and right in their prime, with quite interesting looking manes. We tracked them for some 30 minutes as they proceeded on a mission somewhere, panting heavily as they strolled near our vehicle with their eyes fixed on only their journey ahead. We soon lost them as their route took them into dense pampas grasses and right into the waters edge of the delta channels.

Our time in Moremi continued with a couple more lovely drives around the lagoons and soaking up this beautiful area of the reserve. We had enjoyed the game viewing and stunning scenery. However, as with anything all good things have to come to an end and so the next day it would be onto somewhere new and exciting again. The Xakanana area of Moremi Game Reserve.

En route from South Gate to Third Bridge