The bush of Moremi is also full of little flying wonders as bee-eaters, rollers and parrots.

Little bee-eater

Little bee-eater at nest

Sacred ibises

Wattled cranes in breeding display

Spur-winged goose

Swallow-tailed bee-eater

Meyer's parrot

African darter

Black-winged stilt

Carmine bee-eaters with prey

Hammerkop eating a... tadpole

African hoopoe 

White-faced ducks

Bateleur

No cheetahs nor wild dogs for us, but we saw quite a number of lions, including some on an elephant kill. We also saw 3 cubs on their own resting in the shade by the road, wonder where the mum was...

But the highlight of the trip was definitely the leopards!!!
We saw our first one early morning lying on a branch at Paradise pool. It was very relaxed and stayed there monitoring impalas and game around while we sat in the car about 30m away from it. It picked up literally the only branch that didn't get any sun light, making up for nice silhouettes!

And on the very last day and the very last minutes of our stay in Moremi, we bumped into this big (collared) male going for a drink in the middle of the day! This one was huge and also extremely relaxed. We drove up to him while he was drinking and sat there waiting for him to move. When he eventually did, he walked straight toward the car and brushed past my rear bumper!! And then he simply lied down in the shade of a tree a mere 5m from the car, looking completely undisturbed by our presence!! What a nice moment!!

Moremi is literally packed with water, so we saw many hippos but surprisingly very few crocs.
Game is also plentiful with lechwes everywhere, zebras, wildebeests, waterbucks and a few reedbucks. We were not lucky enough to see any sitatungas though... Will have to go back, shame hey!

Waterbuck

Lechwe

Female reedbuck playing hide and seek

Elephants crossing a large pond

If I say Moremi, you'll think "water", and water there is. Many road are dry year road, but as the dry season progresses, large areas become accessible. River crossing can be hazardous at times but the rule is "if you can see the bottom of the water where it's clear then it's fine". Don't go in dark areas as they are deep. Most of time there is just a short depression in the centre on the water crossing and the rest is quite shallow. But it's not uncommon to have water flowing over your bonnet! Because most of the soil is kalahari sand, it stays quite firm and hard under the wheels so you have little risk to get stuck there, appart in the mud, but that's another story.

River crossing at Khwai.
This truck spent the night there as no one could get it out, even with another truck. They left the engine running all night long to keep the water out.

Pool in Khwai area

Hippo pool

Moremi is well known for its four bridges that allow visitors to cross the deep channels. They are all made of wood and all the crossings are dry except for the famous Third bridge where you first get in the water then cross the bridge over a deep area then finish the crossing in the water.

Fourth bridge crossing

Third bridge crossing

Paradise pool
Paradise pool is located very close to Xakanaxa in the North of the delta. It is a very scenic area with lots of dead trees and shallow water. The leopards sightings there are fairly common.

Hippo on the Bodumatau road
The Bodumatau loop is joining Fourth Bridge to the main road almost at South Gate. In my opinion this is by far the most beautiful road of Moremi. First it was in a veery good condition. Second it takes you to absolutely amazing areas from shallow water banks, to dry grasslands with large ponds via reflowing river crossings. Bird live is plentiful as is game.

Sunrise on Paradise pool

Sausage tree fruit and flower

Now comes Savuti!!! This name is so full of legends and promises that I couldn't wait to get there. Unfortunately, I had to wait... Coming down from Chobe, I expected the road to be quite good as it's the main way to get to Savuti. I couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as the tar stops (that is at Kachiko), we reached a deep sand and bumpy road that goes all the way to the Ghoha North Gate of Savuti. Saying the road is bad doesn't quite describes it!!! I even thought we were lost at some stage... Anyway, we eventually got to Savuti and managed to find a free space at the campsite run by SKL (thus very expensive, $50/pers/night!!).

The channel is now running again in Savuti and there are lots of birds on its bank as well as elephants. We also saw several herds of Tsessebes.

Savuti channel

Tsessebes

Pied kingfisher with prey

Little bee-eater

Green-backed heron

 Kori Bustard

Black-shouldered kite

Of predators, we saw very few, but the sightings were great! First we had a visit of a leopard in camp while we were cooking dinner. I was a bit uncomfortable when spotting 2 bright eyes in the light of my head torch. I initially thought "Damn here comes a lion, but then how many are they around us??" then I realized it was "only" a leopard, and a felt relieved  for a second as I surely don't trust these to be friendly!! Any way, this one was actually quite friendly and just stood 20m from us watching, then went on its way without looking back...

And the next day on our way out via the marsh road (that was completely dry), we bumped into 3 male lions resting by the side of the road. They were very relaxed, barely taking note of us and we spent a good hour with them, just enjoying!!