The Selinda Reserve: Two weeks in a rich wildlife territory, on the fringes of one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World

The Dogcatcher was sitting idle, in Kasane on the northern Botswana border with Zimbabwe and Zambia, and it needed to return to roost in Franschhoek, some 2,400 kilometres across the central Kalahari. A very generous extended pink ticket was granted to me, so I asked my nine-fingered friend, Dorian Hoy, who runs Great Plains Conservation in Botswana, if he needed some help. I had two weeks to fill, before the drive.
His answer was surprisingly swift and encouraging “I am sure we can, and I will get back to you next week.” That’s when my mind started racing. I had visited the Selinda Reserve a number of times over the last five years and the area is remote and very, very special. It is the size of the Masai Mara, with two all-year-round camps and one seasonal tented camp, it also operates an incredible canoe safari, and a total of just sixteen tents. In my heightened sense of anticipation I could not think of much else, but being in that environment.
This is the first in a series of dispatches from the region, and some of the memories, of previous visits, are depicted below.