From the Itinerary: July 27, 2024
Wake up at 6:30
leave at 7:30 for walking safari
11:30 lunch
Rest until Tea at 3
Afternoon game drive at 3:30
Dinner at 7:30
Weather : 31C and sunny
Today I got two wake up calls and I was definitely awake in time.
Walking Safari
Walking safaris need to occur when it is light, so I was able to sleep in and had a lovely quiet breakfast.
For this walking safari I had two guides - Banda and OB. Even though guns are not allowed in Botswana, I guess guns are allowed for walking safaris. Banda had 15 rounds - 5 in the chamber and 10 on his hip.
Banda from Kwai and still has house there, but wife/son live in Maun. OB is from the delta and is a poler there - more on that later.
This was a gentle 2.3 mile walk right out the front of the lounge. It was nice not be be bounced around in a jeep. Here's the route
Immediately we saw some small cat tracks
and a bit further lion tracks mixed with hyena tracks - lion going one way, hyena the other
We also saw rabbit tracks!
I finally got the answer as to why the termite mounds have tall conical tops. It appears these allow a place for the termites to escape any flooding. In case of flood they go to the highest place in the mound
Antlions are ant-like creatures with large pincers. They are part of the "small 5" (antlion, redbilled buffalo weaver, rhino beetle, leopard tortoise and the elephant shrew.). They leave tracks on the top of the sand, but they actually move under the sand. They are so big the top of the sand caves in, making a track. They make a trap - a sort of a crater with high sides. If something falls into it, the steep sides make exit difficult and the antlion uses its big mandibles to kill them.
We came upon a hippo skull which had been there for some time - the bones were picked clean. The unusual thing was there was an extra tooth and neither Banda, nor OB, seemed to know where it belonged.
A pregnant Impala came towards us and it was interesting to see at what point they "saw" us. She knew something was nearby, but didn't know it was us until we started talking.
We came upon a herd of reed bucks - one male and his harem. The bizarre thing was one of the females had a deformity where a) she had horns and b) they grew horizontally. Everyone thought that was a male until they saw it mating. The horns must make it very difficult to go through dense growth.
As we walked towards a construction site, Banda made the hand signal to freeze, turn around and walk away. He saw two buffalo standing up just to the left of our path. They can charge for no reason, so we wanted to be away from them.
We walked through a dry river area and found many snail shells. The snails are eaten by the African open bill stork.
There were many different kinds of poop, but my favorite was from a giraffe
Leadwood trees are common in the area. When there are fires, the leadwood burns very hot and only fine ash is left. This is used by the local women to relax their hair. From the air you can see the shadows of the burned trees on the ground. Nearby was a weaver bird nest that fell to the ground
Banda demonstrated how termites will remove obstacles in their homes when he put a stick in the opening.
Banda told a story. Here is a hole into a termite mound made by an aardvark. Never stand infront of such a hole, always to the side. The reason is that if something is in the hole, it will run out the front, not the side. Banda's story had to do with his teacher who told him that, then proceeded to stand in front of the hole. The warthog ran right out of the hole and chased him until he fell over. Thankfully the warthog continued running.
One of the big moments was seeing a Meyers Parrot in a tree. These are difficult to see.
I was finally able to ask about a type of tree I had seen many places around the area. It's called a raintree because the sticky sap can rain down on anyone underneath it.
On the way back to the Lodge Banda saw a stripped belly sand snake go under a bush. They are not poisonous, but it was strange since most of the snakes were still hybernating.
I got back earlier than the rest, so had an opportunity to watch the animals near the camp until lunch. When Lisa and Rob returned, they told me they saw an adult hippo right outside their tent in the middle of the night - quite exciting!
Lunch was a buffet and was quiet since the group of 10 left early that morning. A group of 9 arrived, made up of several families from the North of England. Also two sisters, 27 and 18 arrived. They lived in San Francisco and had been traveling for several weeks. Their parents paid for a 7 week trip for them through Africa - exciting for the elder, but the younger had been ready to go home for the last 2 weeks and they had a couple weeks left to go. She was also quite sick which didn't help.
Mokoro Safari
OB is a "poler" - he is in control of pushing our mokoro boat down the river with a wood pole. A mokoro boat was originally made of wood, but they are now fiberglass and hold 2 guests plus the person with the pole. Here is a photo of Lisa and Rob with their poler and my boat with OB.
We drove over to the mokoro area - here is our route. Along the way we surprised several elephants that trumpeted and ran out of the way
As you can imagine, being in/near water at twilight means the bugs were awful - thankfully I brought bug spray which everyone used. I was happy because I don’t want to bring it home. It wasn't quite enough as I left the evening with some bad bites - glad I'm taking the malaria meds.
There were some very pretty water lilies, but we didn’t stop long enough for me to get a good shot. The lilies bloom at different times of the day or night to reduce insect competition. There is even one that holds water in its stem and if you squeeze the stem the water will spurt out, like something a clown would wear in his lapel.
We meandered down the waterway and heard trumpeting elephants. Elephants can be very distructive, as can be seen from this tree. Also, here's a pretty tree photo with its reflection.
and saw a large baboon troop with several small babies.
We continued on to watch two elephants drink - this is typically the highlight of the activity. It was interesting for about 5 minutes and then the bugs and my butt started getting quite uncomfortable.
About 6 canoes got stuck on the other side of the elephants and couldn’t get back - they are probably still there.
Thankfully the way back was faster and we got back just before the sun set for our last sundowner.
Here's our route on the mokoro river area.
We watched a family of elephants on the river bank as we drank.
While we were drinking to forget being eaten alive by bugs, Rob's sharp eyes caught a wildcat walking on the other bank. I wasn't able to get a good photo.
Dinner was another buffet all together. Thankfully there was no musical entertainment. Lisa and I actually left until dinner was served because we didn't want to be subjected to it a second time. We had dinner with the sisters which was rather dismal. Frankly, I'll be glad to be leaving tomorrow.
I had a surprise when I came back to the room. There was an iced bottle of champagne and 2 cocktail glasses with a red drink with something floating on top. First I thought I had entered the wrong room, so actually looked around to confirm it was mine. Once that was confirmed I tried one of the drinks and immediately realized my mistake when the liquid was oil and the floating thing was a tea candle. Lisa, Rob and I had a good laugh:)
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