Africa - Day 2 - 05-02-25

Went down to meet up with the group for Breakfast before our first group flight of the trip. We met up a little early because service had been very slow the day before, but this morning things came out fast, so it was nice to be able to take our time and not have to rush over to the airport.  After breakfast we all packed and checked out and some in the group stored some luggage with the hotel so that they won’t have to take it with them to the different camps.

We headed over to the airport and got checked in quick, made it through security, and slowly made our way to the gate for our flight to Maun.  This was the first of two domestic flights on the trip, and I was little worried about us all getting our bags onto the plane.  It was a little bit of a tight fit, but everyone seemed to manage to get their bags on without issues.  The flight was a short 90 minutes and went by fast.

Once we landed, we had to clear customs and were all handed a customs form that we would see more than a few more times on this trip.  It took a while to get through passport control and then customs, but we finally made it and then were met by a handler that walked us through the airport and helped get us loaded up on our next flight, which was a in a small bush plane.  The pilot of the plane looked like he wasn’t old enough to drive, much less fly us anywhere, but the flight was a very good one. It was cool to fly low enough to see animals at watering holes as we flew over them.

We landed on an old dirt runway after a 45-minute flight, and were met by guides from the lodge that helped load up our luggage and then took us on a short game drive on the way to get us checked in.  We saw several animals along the way and it really helped me realize I was finally in Africa.

The lodge was really nice, and we were all assigned cabins and shown where everything was.  They walked us through the rules, which included not walking to or from the cabin after dark, and then we had a little downtime before meeting back up for Tea and our first official game drive.

Tonight’s game drive was just a small taste of what’s to come and helped me get settled into what it would be like to shoot from the vehicles, what the roads or lack there of were like, and made me realize, animals truly were everywhere.  The only fence I saw was one that was built to keep Elephants out of camp, but anything and everything else around, had free reign.

After the game drive, we all freshened up and then met for dinner.  The dinner was good and was a three-course meal.  This would turn out to be a foreshadowing of how good the food was going to be, and how much we were going to be fed on this trip. 

After dinner and a long day of travel, we all headed to bed early.  It was wild lying in bed and hearing Hippos nearby making noises throughout the night. The bed was so comfortable, I passed out in no time.