Last night was very noisy. I heard a lion in the distance. I was just falling asleep when I was awakened by a huge noise. It was the sound of an elephant tramping right by our cabin. He thrashed around through the brush and left a “present” in our side “yard”. This morning, we were awake before the alarm because we could hear the baboons howling their wake-up call.
We left by van from camp and traveled to the airport to go to our next camp in the Okavanga Delta. Along the road, we had a mini good-bye committee: 2 honey badgers, impalas, elephants, and verdid monkeys. On our way into the terminal, I spotted a construction van parked on the side of the driveway. The sign on the side said “The best erections in Botswana”. When I told Vicky about it, she said there is an electrician’s van in her area whose sign says “We look into your shorts”. We loaded onto 3 small bush planes and winged our way to our new camp in the delta. Because we flew so low, we had great views of the game trails and waterholes. I saw several groups of elephants loading up on water for the day. I’m sure there were also smaller animals at the waterholes, but the elephants were the only things I could see clearly from that height. We flew over part of the Kalahari desert and then landed on a small air strip. There was another OAT group who were leaving on the same planes. They were are group of 14 friends from CA who put this trip together through OAT. They are 3 days ahead of us so would be on their way to Zambia. After getting good reports from them, we loaded ourselves and our duffle bags onto 2 land rovers and along with our drivers, Taps and Jacks, were on our way to camp. We stopped first at a nearby waterhole and for an outdoor bathroom break (a loo with a view). We spotted a new bird: hammerlock. It is easy to see how he gets his name as his head is shaped like a hammer. There was a hippo in the water - he came up every once in a while for air. I am hoping we see some out of the water so we can view more than the heads, but I may be disappointed as they are nocturnal. Just as we were getting ready to leave, a herd (parade) of elephants came to the waterhole to drink and get wet. I counted 46. There were some babies. They were so much fun to watch. They didn’t stay long, but took their drinks and then marched back into the brush as a group. We spotted the same herd again as we got onto the road. They were munching on the mopane trees (the locals call it the butterfly bush). There aren’t too many tall ones as the elephants keep them trimmed - apparently they are quite tasty to elephants. There is a gland located on the side of an elephant’s face which weeps when the elephant is stressed. The secretion looks wet and black against the gray of the elephant so some people think the elephant is crying, but the wetness is not coming from the eye, but this gland. We drove by a bush with fluffy white flowers named the knobby combreton (I may have to look this one up when we get home - not sure of the spelling). At any rate, from a distance it looks like a marshmallow bush and is well liked by giraffes and kudus. At one point, Taps said we were 7 minutes and 2 seconds from camp so I can tell right away that he has a good sense of humor.
Our accommodations here are canvas tents on platforms. There is a boardwalk that goes in both directions from the lounge with tents on both sides. Each tent has a smaller wooden boardwalk off the main one that leads to that individual tent’s front railed porch complete with two canvas director’s chairs. When you unzip the screen, you are in the bedroom - two twin beds side by side with an end table at each side. On the other side of the tall headboard are cupboards and a small closet. Once you are behind the beds, there are two smaller rooms. One is the shower room and the other has the toilet and sink. It is quite an efficient set up.
Back at the lounge and dining area, we discovered there is a resident bat. He sleeps clinging to the thatching over the chairs and sofas. We had the guides look it up and discovered it is a long-eared fruit bat. There is a public bathroom called the guest zoo near the lounge. It really is a loo with a view as when you sit on the pot, you are looking out of a “window” (no glass or other covering) right onto a grassy field. The best plan of action is to take your camera with you to the bathroom as you never know what you will see.
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