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Published: December 19th 2007
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After our mokoro ride we took another light aircraft to Moremi Game Reserve. This ride was about 35 minutes and again, wasn’t sad when it was over. This area of the Okavango is a national park so there is a curfew at 7PM. We got to camp around 1230 and met Sam, our cook for the rest of the trip and John, our helper, had lunch, siesta and afternoon tea before heading out for our evening drive. More of the same animals and really cool looking birds and no cats. For dinner Sam cooked a wonderful meal…he sat down with us for 10 minutes to chat with us about the food…he is so funny and really seems to add to the experience.
The evening came along with some storms…lots of rain pitter-pattering on the roof of my tent and thunderous roars in the background…they came as quickly as the left but several times over the course of the night.
At Khwai, the wakeup calls are at 500AM, so even earlier in hopes to see cats…by which I am referring to lions, leopards and cheetahs.
Today Gert came out of the bathroom with a roll of toilet paper…this is
the only time he kept the toilet seat down…NEAT
Currently I am reclining in my tent listening to the music of the wild…many different bird calls chiming…I have a beautiful bird bouncing around now outside my tent and I can hear a hippo grunting in the background. I am listening to the sounds of a thunderstorm approaching …rolling and crackling thunder and strong winds rustling the leaves. Also, if we want to get technical - my fingers typing away on this keyboard. It’s fun to just close your eyes and see if you can make out exactly what you are hearing. Ohhhh how I love a good thunder and lightning storm…and let me tell you this one is intense! No rain yet, but absolutely beautiful….oh wait I take that back…here comes the rain and wind and cracking thunder and bolts of lightning so big and bright…how apropos that Africa by Toto just came into play on my itunes….hmmmm - one, one thousand…two, one thousand…three, one thous… Anyway, time to put the laptop away…I don’t know if it should be on when its lightening although maybe that only goes if its plugged in…anyway…no chances and I wanna watch the storm.
After the rain, I started to read my next book…What is the What? so far so good although it did put me to sleep and I had a nice afternoon nap before we had our afternoon tea and headed out for our evening drive. While we were finishing up Morgan started to hear alarm calls from the impala…meaning an intruder was lurking nearby…and nearby our camp! We quickly got our stuff together and headed out…much to my disappointment, when we got to the impala they had stopped calling out and the squirrels deep in the bush were sounding their alarms…a place we cant get to by car. So I thought we missed our intruder! Driving along, maybe another minute, Morgan spots the leopard! At first I thought he was saying there was an elephant in the tree and I couldn’t understand…I saw the broken branch, which is a typical result of an elephant (that is, breaking trees and branches) but saw nothing…then as we drive closer I realize that “lephant” and leopard with the accents can sound very similar and I was thrilled! Mind you, I just learned that Morgan has a bad eye…my eyes are about -1 and
change…his left eye is perfect and his right eye is like -5. How in the world he could drive and spot this leopard is incredible to me (he doesn’t wear glasses or contacts)…I guess he’s been doing this for 8 years but still…especially even when he pointed it out I still couldn’t see it right away… well the leopard didn’t do much, but I was still sooo happy to see it. Just a beautiful creature! He was injured…probably when he tried to attack an impala moments before. Fascinating that the leopard can kill and then carry an animal up to three times its weight into a tree, just by the jaw of its mouth. Anyway, I can appreciate seeing the leopard cuz as of last count 2 years ago there were only 28 leopards in Moremi.
Not shortly after this we spotted a lion! Again, didn’t do much moving around…I guess they can stay resting in one spot for up to 20 hours… but still so beautiful and I was very excited to see him.
Not much else but an entourage of baboons…some trying to mate…the ever present red lechwes and impala. Its funny…when we first arrived and
saw these animals it was incredible…so rare to see them anywhere in America…now we see them all over…they are in such abundance we barely even acknowledge them while driving by…all I care about now are the cats and cool looking birds.
So aside from Bobby who has been with CC Africa (CC = Conservation Corporation) for 5 years, an d Morgan who has been with them 8 years…Sam our chef has a 9 year tenure and John the helper has been with them for like 13 years!! Just reiterating my conversation with Bobby and I’m happy to have chosen this company which aims for the conservation of the wildlife and clearly treats their employees well.
I am told Botswana does not have a national bird but everyone thinks including some books that the Lilac-breasted Roller is. This bird would get Morgan’s vote too.
I now fully understand and appreciate the game hungry hungry hippo. If you see a picture or two you’ll get it too. And a separate thought, while I’m pretty sure they are gophers or something else, that game at all of the fairs where you take a gavel type thing to hit the head
of the gopher when it pops up…I think they should make them hippos instead. All of them here during the safari briefly stick their heads out of the water before heading back underneath to stay cool. Sorry, I’m rambling…
P.S. my Swedish friends do not have a camera. Now THAT amazes me! They are spending all this money and will have no concrete remembrances of it. I guess generational differences maybe? They did bring binoculars… and I am forcing them to smile in pictures so I can email them some!
So my first camera battery died after 3 and a half days. I have been soooo paranoid about the juice running out before my ten days are up since there is no outlet anywhere…I am literally in the middle of nowhere at camping grounds with no electricity. Thankfully Morgan pulls out a cigarette lighter plug with a charger on the other end of that takes North American plugs! Oh, my savior! I was really holding back taking pictures and now that I know I can recharge whenever I am back in action…
So the rain and storms continue for the rest of the evening drive although we
managed to avoid most of it staying at a distance. The driving around and avoiding the storms is very reminiscent of when we were younger and at my parents’ place in Florida doing the exact opposite…Marc would drive around on a cloudy day looking for the spots where the sun was so he could get just a few more minutes to tan! Ok, so maybe my dad and I did it too, but still just a fond memory.
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