Jan Cochran’s love of journey was evident from a younger age. As a toddler, she was particularly fascinated by Africa, and he or she went on her first journey to Kenya by way of a pupil alternate program at solely 17.
“That just reinforced how much I loved Africa, and I’d always wanted to go back,” Jan says. She and her husband, Dennis Matthews, acquired that probability just a few years in the past, after they went on safari in East Africa.
Jan and Dennis continued their travels, together with a Lindblad Expeditions cruise to the Galapagos Islands in 2018, however they nonetheless felt the pull of Africa. For their subsequent journey, nevertheless, they needed to attempt one thing completely different.
A Safari With a Mission: African Wild Dogs
“We had friends who visited Botswana, and they raved about it,” Dennis says. Most importantly, the nation had an abundance of one thing the couple hadn’t seen in East Africa: African wild canines, an animal on the high of his wildlife bucket listing.
The couple found Natural Habitat Adventures on-line and booked two spots on one of many conservation journey firm’s Botswana safaris in August 2021. Jan says Nat Hab’s small group sizes had been what attracted them to the corporate.
“We really like traveling with small groups rather than the big tour bus trips,” she explains. The couple’s Botswana journey group included simply eight folks, together with their Expedition Leader, Richard Avilino, and a Nat Hab videographer.
As they set out, they crossed their fingers. They knew Botswana can be lovely, however would they get a glimpse of the animals they’d traveled midway all over the world to see?
“The very first thing we really saw was the wild dogs,” Jan says in a brief movie produced throughout the journey. “All these pups, different ages, running around and playing. In my heart I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it! The first day out: wild dogs!’”
The remainder of the journey would carry extra much more wildlife experiences. Their first evening at camp, they watched a bunch of lion cubs—and even some adults—wrestling on the shore. Over the following few days, they’d have up-close encounters with leopards lounging in gnarled timber and elephants and giraffes ambling throughout the savanna.
“We’ve never been as close to the animals as we were in Botswana,” Jan says. “And because they’ve been protected for so long, they didn’t pay any attention to us whatsoever!”
Another spotlight was a trip although the reedy marshes in a mokoro—a conventional poled dugout canoe—the place they had been in a position to spot hippos rising out of the waters of the Okavango Delta.
“That was so different from anything else we’ve ever done,” Jan says.
Making Dream (Trips) Come True
Jan and Dennis would like to return to Africa, however within the meantime, they’ve loads of adventures deliberate nearer to residence. Dennis went Yellowstone National Park this winter on Nat Hab’s Ultimate Wolf & Wildlife Safari (Jan opted for a seashore journey with girlfriends, although it sadly fell by way of as a consequence of COVID-19), and the couple is already booked on an upcoming Lindblad journey to Costa Rica and one other Nat Hab journey to Alaska.
But regardless of the place the couple ventures subsequent, Botswana will at all times maintain a particular place of their hearts.
“I felt a connection to Botswana that I really can’t explain—there’s just something about it,” Jan says. “There’s a certain kind of happiness when you’re in a place that touches you so deeply that you cry. It’s powerful.”
“Every day was new and every day was great,” Dennis provides. “It was our dream trip.”
Watch our video that includes Jan and Dennis: Exploring the Okavango | A Botswana Traveler Story:
All images (besides function) © Dennis Matthews