Wilderness Mokete: As wild as it gets

Despite being a bit of a stickler for detail, no amount of reading old scientific papers or studying satellite imagery could prepare me for what I was about to experience. My visit coincided with the dry season in Botswana – a time when the landscape is dressed in varying hues of brown. A time when the earth is parched, and the desiccated grasses are almost sandy pale. The large numbers of herbivores trample the Mababe clay soils into a fine powder, kicking up dust as they feed as a collective or flee from any would-be threat. In a semi-desert ecosystem like this, winds also tend to pick up by mid-morning adding a dusty twist to the wildlife drama, only for those winds to die down again in the late afternoon. This is a harsh landscape, yet highly fertile and full of life. 

The Mababe Marsh fills with water from the Khwai River, which, closer to the Depression, is then called the Mababe River. It creates an essentially permanent wetland of some 4,000 hectares, with the water-feeding nutrient-rich grasses able to sustain great wildlife herds. The source of the Marsh, the narrow Khwai-Mababe River started flowing again in 2007 (2018 and 2020 were particularly large inundations for the Marsh) with a fairly strong flow of water into the system in the last few years. This could be seen out on the northern and eastern fringes of the Marsh too, with water levels dynamic and ever-changing, inundating new areas (and recently created game drive tracks) only to recede again elsewhere. What is interesting to note is that the Mababe Depression only very occasionally held water in the last few decades, when either the Ngwezumba River from the Nogatsaa area or the Nqogha and Khwai channels from the Okavango Delta flowed – as is currently the case.

The land on which the new Wilderness camp is situated, the Mokete Private Wilderness Area, comprises 50,330 hectares (503 sq. km) and includes a prime area of the Mababe Marsh and grasslands. Offering exceptional visibility and truly wonderful vistas, it is shielded by a mopane woodland fringe to the west and east, scattered dry acacia thornveld to the north, and floodplains in the south. The mopane woodland is also interspersed with many seasonal pans that fill in the summer season, depending on rainfall. 

Mokete offers the best of the 3,000 km² Mababe Depression, an almost heart-shaped central basin of about 70km by 20km, which forms the eastern terminus of the Okavango Delta with the outflow of the Khwai-Mababe River draining into the Depression. Here, the landscape is very different to the Okavango Delta, in terms of habitats and wildlife experience. The potent mix of grass availability and water supports an amazing and unique ecosystem with great herds, an abundance of predators, and a plethora of birdlife.

Surrounding the Mababe Marsh, particularly to the north, is a mosaic of grassland species, varying in height. This extensive open grassland provides a critical grazing resource for herbivores (such as wildebeest, zebra, roan, tsessebe and buffalo) throughout the year, with accessibility to water. This in turn attracts healthy numbers of predators (such as lion, spotted hyena, jackal, and cheetah). 

There are other wildlife-habitat nuances to this too. The mopane and mixed woodland fringe harbours species such as leopard, impala, sable and African wild dog, while floodplains in the south have species akin to the Okavango Delta (such as red lechwe, reedbuck, waterbuck and hippo). The permanent wetland is mainly covered by sedges and tall grasses that also serve as a nutritious food source for elephants, which congregate in large herds along the marsh edge at the peak of the dry season. Other grassland specialists frequently seen include aardwolf, serval and side-striped jackal, while pangolin is occasionally encountered in the dry season.

Gazing out over the Mababe, now home of Wilderness Mokete, for the first time, I could not contain my excitement. I felt like a kid in a candy store – there were just birds and mammals everywhere, set in a never-ending panorama. An expanse so vast one can actually see the curvature of the Earth on the horizon. My senses had not felt this alive in years. But more about that in the next instalment of Mokete Diaries…