There are few places left in Africa that still feel genuinely undiscovered.
The Mababe Depression is one of them.
This October, I hosted a private photographic safari deep in Botswana’s wild heart, basing ourselves at the brand-new Wilderness Mokete—a camp positioned where marshland fades into open arid plains, where the Okavango breathes its last before surrendering to baked earth. It’s a frontier. Untamed.
Exactly the kind of place I love.
A New Wilderness
Mokete translates to celebration or feast—a fitting name for a place that invites you to devour the wild with every sense. Once a hunting concession, this land has been reclaimed by nature. Today, Mokete is the only camp operating in this region, maintaining its raw authenticity.
The camp has a wonderfully adventurous feel—part luxury, part outpost. The cantilevered canvas roofs slide back, opening directly to the Botswana night sky, where the Milky Way appears so bright you feel as if you could reach up and sweep your hand through it.
Nine tents. Eighteen guests at most. Quiet. Personal. Close to the rhythm of the land. Perfect.
Set between two national parks, just north of the Mababe Marsh, the camp overlooks an ecosystem fuelled by nutrient-rich grasses and constant water flow. The result? Life everywhere.
Huge herbivore concentrations draw lions, hyena and cheetah. Wild dogs move like smoke across the plains; the air hums with birdlife from raptors to falcons to owls. It’s a photographer’s Eden—dramatic, unpredictable and deeply rewarding for those who give it time.
And trust me—time pays.
Below are some of my favourite sightings and moments from this unforgettable journey.
Trip Highlights:
A Mega Herd to Remember
We encountered what must have been 10,000 Cape buffalo—a moving, breathing continent of horns and hooves—drifting across an open plain as the sun sank.
Elephant herds merged with the buffalo mass, while dust boiled behind them, catching the golden light.
The sound—a low thunder—vibrated in the chest.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Lion Country
Mababe might just be paradise for lions.
Over the week, we spent time with multiple prides, coalitions and characters:
- The Mokete lioness and her cubs
- The impressive Golden Boys coalition
- The Southern Pride, mating with a newly arrived black-maned male—future kings in the making
- The Northern Pride, renowned buffalo hunters
Each group brought its own story, its own temperament. It felt like following different chapters of the same grand saga.
Mud, Chaos & Wild Energy
One morning, wild dogs and hyena clashed over a kill in the marsh.
Bodies slicked in black mud, they looked like mythic creatures, snarling and yelping in a ballet of chaos.
Fast, primal, unforgettable.
Buffalo vs. Lions – Northern Pride
We spent extended time with 11 subadult lions of the Northern Pride as they challenged a massive buffalo herd.
The herd fought back—charging, scattering lions in all directions.
This time, the lions lost.
But persistence pays.
Across our stay, they took down five buffalo, including a calf we watched from afar as they worked silently through swamp grasses.
Most kills came at night—storms raging overhead, lightning tearing open the sky.
Wild Africa at its best.
Aerial Wonderland
We took to the sky for an afternoon doors-off helicopter flight—an hour of pure photographic luxury.
From above, we followed the Khwai and Mababe waterways as they feed life into the depression.
Below us:
Dead mopane groves.
Pools alive with hippo and crocs.
Elephant carcasses—life and death intertwined.
Buffalo scattered like ants, dust plumes trailing in their wake.
A pack of six wild dogs chased and killed a tsessebe beneath us—an extraordinary perspective.
We even spotted lions sleeping, bellies full.
After landing, the mega buffalo herd was targeted again—and a lion kill unfolded at sunset.
This flight alone was worth the journey.
Red-Billed Quelea Murmuration’s
Clouds of red-billed quelea twisted in the sky—dancing, folding, erupting to evade harriers and lanner falcons.
Their landings left delicate circular impressions in dry clay—a tapestry of silent footprints.
Bird spectacle at its finest.
A Mid-Morning Rush
Every morning, the northern fingers of the Mababe marsh turned into a conveyor belt of wildlife.
Hundreds of elephants.
Large herds of tsessebe.
Roan.
A group of roughly 50 sable.
Wildebeest, zebra, giraffe—even the secretive eland.
Life pulsed around us.
Skies on Fire
Sunrises and sunsets were extraordinary—fiery, impossibly red, amplified by dust in the air.
Toward the end of our stay, towering storm clouds rolled in.
Lightning cracked.
Thunder echoed across the plains.
The smell of rain on dry earth—was intoxicating.
Marsh Owls at Dusk
Almost every drive home delivered marsh owls gliding silently over amber grass—a perfect conclusion to the day.
Night Creatures
Night drives revealed the unseen world:
African wild cats
Bat-eared foxes
And a first for both me and my guests—
Aardwolf!
A rarely encountered hyena relative, beautifully shy and utterly special.
The Mababe Depression
Where the great Okavango Delta finally exhales, it spills into the Mababe Depression—a vast, open, treeless basin.
In October, heat presses down and water is scarce.
Everything must drink—buffalo, tsessebe, giraffe, impala, wildebeest, zebra and more.
The predators know this.
Lions wait silently in the mud, their bodies smeared black for camouflage and relief.
When buffalo approach, they explode into action.
It’s unlike any other lion behaviour I’ve witnessed.
Raw. Desperate.
Wild Africa distilled.
Until Next Time
Thank you for reliving this journey with me.
I hope these stories inspire you to travel—better yet, to join me in the field and witness these wild moments firsthand.
I’ll be returning to Botswana’s Mababe Depression in October 2027 for a scheduled ORYX tour.
To join, email: info@oryxphoto.com
Prefer a private, tailor-made adventure?
→ private@oryxphoto.com
Or message me directly anytime:
→ daniel@oryxphoto.com
See you in the wild,
Daniel
