Midterm break, pt. 2

Tuesday morning of midterm break we woke up and started the long drive into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).  We spent most of the day driving on a paved road, followed by a dirt road, followed by a bush road.  We set up camp, ate, and listened to the lions roar in the distance before heading to bed.  Because the Kalahari is so hot, our schedule for the next few days would mimic the schedule of the animals: active in the early morning and evening, hanging out in the shade during the day. 

A view of the park.

A much cooler picture and one I didn't take. 

Gemsbok.

Springbok and gemsbok. We saw hundreds of them. 

Ground squirrels.

Look at that tree!

Papa was tired.

The whole gang.

A little perspective.  The cubs got adventurous. 

There were 7 lions in this pride: papa, two mommas, and four cubs.

With my new friends.

Play time.

Posing.

Looking regal.

At this point the sun was setting quickly so we had to say a temporary goodbye to the pride and head back to our camp for the night.  Around 4:30 or 5 in the morning I woke up to the sound of a huge rustling sound just outside my tent.  I initially thought it was someone trying to go the background, but the noise lasted too long so my next guess was that there was a warthog outside.  My question was answered a few minutes later when one of our guides announced, "Stay in your tents, there are lions in the camp."  The guides ran over to the other side of the camp and pulled one of the safari vehicles around, which illuminated the pride of lions sitting mischievously with a tarp from our camp.  Naturally I did not stay in my tent and threw on some clothes to pile into back of the safari vehicle.  The lions only see vehicles (and tents, for that matter) as very strange, enormous, and inedible blobs and so it is possible to slowly drive a vehicle at them to spook them off, which is exactly what we did.  Fifteen minutes of slow chasing behind them managed to drive them a few hundred yards from our camp, which is where they spent the remainder of their day.  We heard the full story of the night once we got back to the camp.  Apparently the pride had been unsuccessful in its hunting that night so they had been returning along the road when they smelled the remnants of our kitchen and decided to investigate.  They wandered into the kitchen area and then walked along a line of tents, with momma and a couple of cubs stopping to sit and roll around right beside the last tent--also known as my tent. 

There are a few paw prints circled in the picture.  The scuffed dust to the right is where they were laying down.  My tent is in the not-very-distant background.  Lions now easily top the list of Cool Things That Have Been Ten Feet Away From Me As I Slept. 

 

We found the lions again later (and by "found" I mean "drove behind our campsite") and this time they were gracious enough to provide excellent material for the upcoming Butswana commemorative wall calendar, available wherever fine books are sold.  

Another busy day.

Another departing sunrise.

The four days we were in the CKGR were fantastic.  The setting was beautiful and being able to be that close to lions was definitely not what I had anticipated.  The past two weeks I have spent taking care of various schoolwork but this weekend I am off to Victoria Falls.  I'm taking my rain jacket. 

Midterm break, pt. 1

This past week was the mid-semester break at UB, so ACM flew the herd of us up north to Maun for the week.  We gathered to leave at 5:30 AM and had a little bit of adventure leaving the University.  Friday was pay day for all the local students, so they were all flush with their monthly allowance.  The week we were gone was also the week of Inter-Varsity Games, a regular athletic event between Botswana, Swaziland, and Lesotho and this year it happened to be in Gabs.  Thus the perfect party storm was created and many of the local students had such a good time Friday night that they were still going strong Saturday morning when we were trying to leave.  Our whole group was accosted by many very intoxicated Batswana students, who were all too curious and far too friendly for that hour in the monring.  We managed to make it the airport eventually and were at the Maun International Airport (which handles six commercial flights every day!) within a few hours.  We spent Saturday hanging around our "base camp" in Maun before waking up Sunday morning to board a vehicle that looked like it was last used in Desert Storm for the drive into the Okavango Delta, where we would meet our guides who would take us on mokoros (dug out canoes) for the next two days.

Our drive into the delta required us to ford several bodies of water.

These are the mokoros that we took furhter into the delta. The water is so shallow that they can't paddle and have to use poles.

Hippos!

Once we made it to our campsite, we spent a few hours setting up tents and settling in.  Although we were technically camping, it was definitely the nicest camping experience I have ever had.  They haul in an immense amount of gear and supplies on those little canoes--folding chairs for every person, huge coolers, food for 30 people, folding tables, pots and pans.

There are lions and other predators in the delta, but they are very skittish and afraid of people due to their history of clashing with local farmers so it is perfectly safe to walk around some of the islands on foot. 

Zebras!

Giraffe!

Water Buffalo!

Water Buffalo running away from us.

Up in time for sunrise.

Zebras!  This time running away. 

Elephants!

Everyone has to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we got back from the evening game walk we participated in some traditional camping activities--eating and swatting mosquitoes.  Every night we were out in the bush the stars were incredible.  With no light pollution of any kind around and hardly any moon, it was incredible how many stars you could see.

Lots of Hippos

A relaxing canoe ride out of the delta.

The two days we spent in the delta were fantastic.  This was the first (and probably only) time we had been able to see the animals from the ground (as opposed to a car) and that really gives you a very different sense of how big and powerful some of them are.  We spent one night in Maun before heading out to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) for the next 4 days and 3 nights.  I will update about that later in the week.  Sneak preview: it stars lions.

Khama Rhino Sanctuary

 Technically speaking, the University of Botswana has an internet use policy that forbids the use of personal websites and blogs such as this one.  Fortunately this policy is rarely enforced.  Except, of course, when I was trying to post this on 25 Feb., just before leaving for a week.  Thus I am posting this now.  The weekend it refers to is the 19-20 of February. 

This post is coming a little late because this has been a pretty hectic week: mildly sick for the first few days and then frantically working on research applications before the mid semester break next week.  Last weekend I went with three friends to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, just outside Serowe or 4 hours away by bus.  Serowe is the village where most of the presidents are from, so of course they have a very nice and brand new hospital and very well maintained streets.  We hitched onto another bus from there and made it the next 30 miles to the Rhino Sanctuary.  After a minor mishap with our food for the night (leaving half of it on the bus), we were settled into our campsite with our flamboyant tent set up by mid afternoon. 

Not having a car inside a game park really limits what you can do: you can’t walk places (for obvious reasons) so there isn’t too much to do but hang around the campsite.  We heard some loud music coming from a neighboring campsite and assumed it was some older American couple based on their decision to play “Where have all the flowers gone,” so we thought we would wander over and say hi.  It turned out instead to be two younger Batswana couples hanging out and taking part in Botswana’s national pastime: day drinking.  They were incredibly happy to see us and promptly decided to dedicate their next ten hours to entertaining us, whether we liked it or not.  We spent a few hours hanging out at their camp before they took us on a driving adventure to a liquor store, a wedding, the side of the road for a while, a few gas station parking lots, and a couple of bars.  By the time we made it back to Khama we were incredibly famished and they graciously started grilling some of their own meat.  Batswana like their meat very well done so the whole cooking process was much longer than anticipated.  Rarely has food been so exciting.  And rarely have people randomly approached been so willing to act as hosts and guides. 

We didn’t make it to bed until late so our 6 am game drive came around pretty early.  Despite the difficulties that come with getting up that early, the game drive was incredible.  Khama has a lot more animals and a much higher density than any other place I have been and it really showed.  Within a few minutes we stumbled on a giraffe hanging out and having breakfast right by the side of the road.  Initially the rest of our drive was frustrating as we kept seeing things off in the distance, but we came to an open field at one point that was fantastic.  We parked the truck for half an hour and just watched as rhinos chowed down, a herd of zebras ran around yelping, a herd of springbok chased each other and jousted, and some red hartebeest pranced through everyone else.  At one point a rhino and her baby came from behind us and walked right in front of the truck as they went to join their friends just 30 yards or so away.  We moved on after a while and went on to see several more giraffes, many various sorts of gazelle and antelope, warthogs, impala, and a herd of wildebeest (the ones responsible for Mufasa’s death).  It was really an incredible experience.  After the game drive we packed up and hitched our way to the bus stop and were back in Gabs by late afternoon.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the mid-term break here.  It wouldn’t be called spring break since this is technically fall (winter is approaching) but fall isn’t really accurate either as its just after the rainy season and all the trees are in bloom.  My program is taking all of us on a weeklong safari.  We are flying tomorrow morning to Maun and then driving into the Okavango Delta where we will travel in mokoros—little dug out canoes.  After a few days we will head into the northern part of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the second largest game reserve in the world, for a few days of driving around in 4x4s before coming back to Gabs late next Saturday.  I will be completely out of contact during this time but will update in full once I get back.