In March/April 2024, I was lucky enough to spend a month alone, camping near the Khwai River in northern Botswana. This area, on the edge of the Okavango, is sandwiched between two famous national parks: Chobe to the north and Moremi to the south-west.
It’s green, full of animals, and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.
My campsite was unfenced so the animals came through at their leisure.
By day: Impala, zebra, waterbuck, monkeys, mongooses, squirrels, and lots of ellies.
By night: Lions, hyenas, leopards, genets, hippos, and occasional ellies.
For safety, I slept in a roof-tent (on the vehicle).
I spent the month working hard to finish Total-Mayhem Book 10: Dash Candoo and the Kites of Chaos. It will be published in the next week or two.
The artwork you see on my desk in the clip below is from page 59.
If you get the book, take a look and you’ll see what I mean.
Below: Heading home one evening to find two lions emerging from my campsite.
Below: A leopard in my neighbor’s campsite. She was actually hunting. She spotted some impala a few hundred yards away, and climbed a tree to watch them. After about 20 minutes, the impala moved towards my camp. So the leopard climbed down the tree, and snuck along to road to my camp, eventually using my tent as cover to get closer to the impala. But by then it was dark, and she moved off into the tall grass. I didn’t want to disturb her, so let her be.
Below: A couple of hyenas checking out my desk.
Below: Vervet monkeys making a big mess over a drawing of Dash.
Never leave your bowl of cereal unattended in the bush!
Below: The office I shared with all these amazing creatures.
After all, I was in their home, and grateful that they were prepared to share it with me 🙂
