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.