Good morning and welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging where we’re known to wander off the garden paths by also including our animals, homes, travels and other interesting topics.
P and I recently spent a month in five African countries. My previous diary covered Zimbabwe and Zambia. This diary will cover a nine-day safari through Botswana. Beware, it is long. Grab a coffee.
We had just crossed the border from Zimbabwe into Botswana, walked with our shoes on through an unknown liquid as required by customs and then met our open air jeep transfer. We immediately came to a halt as this funnel of tractor trailer trucks was trying to squeeze through eastbound customs without any regards to the vehicles traveling westbound. The employees vehicles were parked on the left. After several groups of people gathered around with much arm waving, an opening was finally created. No anger, loud voices or road rage, just part of daily life.
Continuing on our way, the driver pointed out the only international quadripoint in the world where four countries meet — Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. We couldn’t see the ferry crossing over the Zambezi River but we could see the new bridge in the distant being built by the Chinese for $260 million which will be completed in 2020. We were informed several times that the locals were quite unhappy with the wages that the Chinese were paying.
We passed through the town of Kane before arriving at our first safari camp, Chobe Game Lodge, located on the Chobe River and the only lodge located inside the Chobe National Park. This was P’s favorite lodge and safaris.
I have only one request to make. If you wish to get a real feel for these areas and camps, please view the four short incredibly well-done videos as each is very different. There is one for each of the four camps where we stayed.
Video 1
We had a Cape Town travel agency book the safari for us. We had no idea that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton held their second wedding at this lodge in 1975 until we saw these posted in the bar.
Our guide is on the right and the lady on the left was doing her internship. This is the only camp in Africa that has all female guides. Our guide took my breath away with her animal and plant knowledge and I loved watching her every move as she scouted sights, sounds and fresh tracks to determine animal locations. She was our favorite guide during the trip and could turn her electric jeep around on a dime. She also took us out each day on the river in a solar powered boat.
This was taken from one of the lodge’s raised walkways. Hundreds of elephants as far as the eye could see. I wish I had a large panoramic view to show them all at once as the majority of the elephants are much further back on the horizon and out of sight on the right. The largest concentration of elephants in the world are found here in this park.
We watched an elephant family swim across the river
Our guides were extremely excited to see these endangered wild African dogs. The guides only see them about once a year. Beautiful colorings! There were about ten of them in the pack and all were extremely focused on their hunt.
These beautiful guinea type hens eating seeds from elephant dung
This male lion stood up to investigate us but then laid back down. We had to turn around as the lions were not going to move and we didn’t have enough room to get by. Late night hunting I presume.
Below is one of my favorite photographs.
I loved watching the excited young ones running down to the river
water buffalo
We were in an open jeep without any type of protection. I must admit that my heart rate was through the roof during times when we encountered lions. The guide would even turn the jeep’s engine off!! One time, we had lions on each side of us twenty or so feet away including a male. They view us as an object instead of prey as long as we remained still without any sudden movement. I’m thankful I didn’t have hay fever!
Sunrise our last morning at this camp
We were served breakfast each morning at this spot. “Save Jounyney” was spelled out with seeds on our breakfast table the last morning
Our first bush plane as we move on to the next camp. :-(
Welcome to Sauvute. Here’s P going through passport control. (it was a joke as the landing field was grass and there were no buildings or even port-o-lets!)
This was my favorite lodge and safari. The people, food, rooms and animals were all incredible.
Request you to view video 2! (if you view only one, this is it)
This was the welcoming committee on the landing strip
Every time you arrived back to the lodges from the safaris, you were greeted with hot wash clothes and drinks.
This is the swimming pool with lounge chairs overlooking the animals drinking holes.
My shoes propped up on our cabin’s deck railing while viewing the local wildlife.
Looking in the other direction from our deck.
Two nights in a row, the entire lodge (twelve cabins plus the employees dorm) was awaken in the middle of the night by roaring lions around the camp. A few weeks before our arrival, a leopard had come into the indoor dining room at night and couldn't find his way back out as the walls were all glass. A brave soul with a long stick opened a door to help him escape. They also said a python snake had a battle of death recently with an unidentified animal in the dark. We were never allowed to and from our cabin when it was dark without a guide escorting us with a portable spotlight.
This was one of the two cheetah brothers we saw. The guide said there had been a female with them but she disappeared two years ago and the brothers are now the only cheetahs left in the area. He said that the brothers were always seen together.
our guide, Cola, pulled over to upright this turtle.
Spotted hyena with her babies. We also saw many jackals in this area. This photo and the one above are the true colors as it was raining and everything turned to an ashen gray in this dried riverbed.
These rock paintings are thought to be between 3,000 to 4,000 years old and located on Bushman Hill. There were seven of us but only three of us made it to the part of the cliff to view these drawings. You can see three animals with an elephant in the middle, gazelle on bottom. Our guide discouraged us from going further because of concerns. Climbing back down, I lost my footing on the steep incline of boulders, managed to stay upright as I ran down uncontrollably while balancing camera equipment. They screamed for me to watch out as I ended up right next to a large bee hole that the guide had previously warned us about. I sheltered in place for a bit. P couldn’t quit laughing with astonishment and asked me for a repeat performance.
A full grown dik-dik, a type of antelope. I loved these tiny creatures with horns and cartoonish features. We only saw them at this camp.
kudus
Eight giraffes out of many during a stampede.
Our traveling mates at this camp. In the middle is Cola, on the right is a couple from Switzerland who were traveling Africa in a car for six months and on the left is a couple from San Francisco, her family lives in the town next to us in CT! We’ve emailed and plan to have them for dinner when they visit our area.
Out of all the encounters with animals, this was my special moment. Elephants had crossed the road in front of our jeep but apparently our guide did not notice that this one started following us. I knew he wasn’t charging but just curious. I waved hello to him several times as there was just about thirty feet between us. I felt such a connection as we stared into each other’s eyes for a good period until the guide saw him and sped up. I hope the elephant remembers me as I always will him.
There are no words to describe an African sunset
another bush plane to the next camp :-(
Welcome to Okavango
Request to view video 3. None of these camp areas were remotely similar.
The entire lodge, twelve cabins and walkways were built up on stilts.
This tree was next to our room. One afternoon while resting, I finally got up to see what the noise was under the tree to discover an elephant eating vegetation.
Our guide Tusar.
We went out twice a day on small boats or canoes through these small waterways. The very first trip out our boat broke down and we had to be rescued by others.
Our waterway paths were determined by the locations of animals. We kept away from the hippopotamus and turned around several times because of them.
This elephant was getting ready to cross but decided to wait for us to pass first
There were a lot of crocodiles. A lot.
These were our buddies at the lodge! They were from Botswana and because their son was one of the bush pilots they got to stay free at one lodge each year. P has emailed some with them.
Our guide was surprised these type of berries had ripen so early. He said once he took us back to the camp, he was going to return to pick them. P ate some. I passed because this was around the time I decided to stop my malaria pills after taking them for over two weeks as they were not being kind to me.
Everyone who shows up to a camp on the same day are kept together with the same guide during their stay. So it was always Libby (top canoe), P and me together with Tusar at this camp. Libby was from Australia and Qantas had misplaced her luggage so she only had what she was wearing. Everyone contributed t-shirts, underwear and socks until her luggage showed up two days later.
Bottom photo is a NYC mother with her NYC daughter. Her other daughter from Vermont was in a different canoe. The mother took them to India the previous year for Christmas. We stayed at two different lodges with them and shared the plane from Botswana to Cape Town. We had a wonderful time together discussing politics non-stop. Germans loved that we all hated Trump.
Poor Libby wearing a man’s t-shirt and hat. Libby played in the European tennis circuit when younger but now teaches adult tennis and swimming classes in Australia. This is the one part of the trip that I truly hated. We took a boat out quite a ways to then take a walking tour. Tusar led with Libby, P and me following and another guide bringing up the rear.
We hiked close to three miles even out in open fields. What probably concerned me was Tusar showing recent footprints of both lion and leopards. He said that they wouldn't bother us as we were walking upright and not considered prey. We had nothing but found sticks with us. I couldn’t wait to get back to the boat. Repeat, I couldn’t wait to get back to the boat.
Surprised giraffes seeing humans walking instead of sitting in boats
an ant hill
another beautiful sunset as we were very late getting back to camp
Request view of Video 4 — the final camp
Our bush plane pilot on the left and our safari guide on the right. After four years as a bush pilot, we were on his last flight and this was his last night at a lodge as he was leaving the next morning for a new job as a South Africa Airlines pilot. The pilot, the guide, P and I closed the lodge down that night. I found it fascinating hanging out with a Botswana black man, a South African white man, a Chilean hispanic man (½ German/Irish) and me — a former Kentuckian, now a full pledge Nutmegger. It was a very memorable time as we carried a table and chairs from the lodge over to a hill above the river with a bonfire and a few candles for light while a light wind was blowing. No issues with race, sexuality, age — just four guys raised in four different countries on three different continents enjoying Christmas Eve night together with the stars, shadows, sounds of the night, drinks, tales and howling laughter.
I love the way the animals intermixed. The cattle were from a local village and amazingly when called would walk back home. The goats would do the same.
Concern was expressed that many plants were dying because of not having enough time to recover and regenerate from animals’s overgrazing. We saw acre after acre like this. There were talks of relocating some of the elephants.
a special dance for us
why not paint a dead bush white and make art of it
Wildebeest were seen at every camp
One evening from our cabin deck
Sadly, our nine day safari came to an end and we made our way back
to catch another bush plane :-( to the Maun airport. (did you pick up that I hate bush planes!)
An abandoned building painted with the Botswana flag on our way to the airport
a bloom spotted while waiting for the bush plane to arrive
We LOVE the Botswanans, their music, dancing, singing, food and sincere friendly welcome. I don’t think that I have ever ran across happier people in my life. Thank you Botswana and fyi, I have one of your beautiful flag T-shirts in my Amazon cart.
We flew out of the Maun Airport with several faces that we recognized from our journey thus far. This view was along the Botswana/South Africa border.
Almost three hours later as the plane descended into Cape Town, we were filled with anticipation as to what was coming up next.
To be continued ………...