10 September 2025
It is an amazing day of wildlife viewing today as we explore Bwabwata National Park on game drives, both in the Mahango Core Area and further afield in the afternoon.
First thing in the morning our guides meet us with the 4WD open safari vehicles. We end up with all the ‘girls’ together (the name Safari Girls stays with us for the rest of the trip) and our guide is Theo. We start in the Mahango Core Area. Mahango means ‘meeting place’; it is a small park but has diverse landscapes and a very high number of species including 460 species of birds.
We were so lucky with our animal sightings. Mahango has a large wet area that we were driving around and it seemed that there was a different group of animals around every corner. Most of the groups today had young with them and we were able get very close. Theo was a font of knowledge with (correct if sometimes lesser known) collective nouns for the various animals, but this sparked some creativity from others.
- Wobble of ostrich: we see a male and 2 females with 11 chicks
- Tower (when standing) & Journey (when moving) of Giraffe: their tongue is 65cm long
- Dazzle of zebra
- Herd of Red Lechwe antelope
- Ubiquity of impala: have an M on their butts (MacDonalds for the lions)
- Sounder of warthog
- Blot of hippos
- Paddling of white-faced whistling ducks
- Memory of elephants
- Scimitar of Giant Angolan sable antelope
- Troop, flange, band and tribe of Baboons
- Herd of Kudu
Theo is fearless in trying to get us the best photos and at one point gets stuck in the sand. He eventually gets out and then unconcerned takes off across the very pugged river bed to get us closer to the sable antelope.
We are very lucky also in that our tour goes on for an hour longer than expected because we are seeing so much. Seven of us have booked to go on another game drive this afternoon (with Theo again) to a different area of the park in hope of seeing the elusive leopard, perhaps a lion with cubs and buffalo. There are other species of antelope in this area too.
Bwabwata means “the sound of bubbling water,” reflecting the park’s numerous rivers and swamps but can also refer to a local storyteller. Theo tells us that it is named after a man who talked too much (a hero who came with the people down from Tanzania). It is Namibia’s second largest park stretching 200km between gates. It also used to be the site of a military base 301 Battalion (Buffalo) and many of the old buildings can still be seen.
It is beautiful scenery with the river and with apple leaf trees and crocodile trees in flower, their pink and yellow colours filling the horizon.
There are lots of elephant including one that seemed to be racing or stalking us. We came across one group where a large female with a baby got quite agitated and came right up to us as if she was going to charge – we moved along quickly.
There is a mother hippo and her baby snoozing on the river bank. The mother is completely unconcerned by the vehicle coming close but the baby stands up to investigate.
Another vehicle sends us in the direction of a couple of lions sleeping under a tree over the other side of the river. Not content with a distant view, Theo looks for a route across the semi dried up river bed and takes us much closer (10m). It is a young male and young female who are stretched out languorously in the shade. The male lies on its back legs akimbo. When they show no interest in our presence whatsoever, Theo takes us to within a couple of metres of them. It is surreal to be so close to wild lions and to feel (relatively) safe.
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