I didn’t expect Africa to smell so sweet. I am compelled to take one deep breath after another as our jeep weaves between tall grass on a track heading to the heart of the Okavango, the world’s largest inland delta, in Botswana’s northwest. “Can you smell that?” I ask my travelling companions. They don’t respond, leaving me to wonder if one of the guides is wearing too much cologne. But on a later drive, the heady scent returns. This is not the Africa I had read about.

Botswana had been served to me on a cheerful literary platter thanks to Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – a series that has sold more than 20 million copies, and has been translated into 45 languages. The books give a glimpse of what this southern African country might be like. Their pages are filled with endearing characters and quaint locales, and provide a nostalgic view of what is one of Africa’s richest nations, thanks to diamond mining.

Yet it is the landscape that takes me by surprise. The scenery I expected, I never find – instead it’s all tall grass, shrubby trees and still waterways. Because it is near the end of winter the trees are bare and the vegetation dry, which is all the better for game viewing, I’m told. When the grass is tall and the trees filled with leaves it’s harder to see the animals.

In our first moments off the plane, we had seen a red lechwe leap across a waterway, before spotting many more types of antelope. Soon we also tick off giraffes, bateleur eagles and slaty egrets in our field notebooks.

Late that afternoon, we head out with the guides in canoes. We pass crocodiles as we glide through the reeds under the path of an African fish-eagle. This truly is a bird lover’s paradise. At a clearing we watch hippos dipping in and out of the water. I’m reassured to learn they’re vegetarians, although they still hold the dubious distinction of being the number-one (animal) killer of humans in Africa.

After a blissful night’s sleep in a luxury ‘tent’ at Xaranna Okavango Delta Camp – one of the newest properties run by  sustainable tourism group &Beyond – we prepare to head out for more wildlife spotting. Even before we leave we are spoilt with a sighting of a Pel’s fishing-owl. The guides get so excited even they take photos! As soon as we return to our jeep our tracker, Joseph, jumps out again. Metres from the vehicle is a real-life zebra crossing; eight of them making their way across the water at low tide to keep safe from crocodiles. All this before the engine starts.

A short flight away, at &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge, we see elephants, giraffes, baboons, zebras, and even a cheetah. Our guide says tracks are like the daily news. “You can see who, what, when and where.” All the elements of a good story, in other words.  

Photography by Natalie Walton

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