9/9/17 Baobab Lodge Chobe National Park Botswana

Happy Birthday to Dave!  It was not the most exciting day as we spent most of it in the air or on a small bus, but on the other hand, we spent it in Africa!  And to top it off - 3 different countries:  South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana!  We had breakfast at the hotel and met our driver, Adelaide, in the lobby.  We also got to meet the new folks - those who did not go on the pre-trip - Suzann and Dennis from WI, Dan and Carla, also from WI (they did not know each other before this trip), Jan (Dennis’s sister from MO, and Kitty from HI.  When we landed at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, we had to wait an hour plus to get through the visa lines.  Victoria Falls was named by Dr. David Livingstone after his queen, Queen Victoria.  The natives had another name for the falls, which translates to “the smoke that thunders”.  The population of Victoria Falls is 50,000.  We will come back here later in our tour.  

After we picked up our luggage, we got to meet our lovely guide, Vimbai.  She will be with us the rest of the trip.  We loaded up the van and were on the road.  When we got to the border crossing, we could see miles of semi-trailers parked on the side of the road leading up to the crossing.  Apparently, the paperwork process for truckers to cross the borders can be extremely slow.  Some of them wait for up to a week before they can cross.  We passed many trucks loaded with copper (some of it in a fairly raw state).  The copper is from Namibia and is trucked all over.  

The road we traveled on was a dream of John Cecil Rhodes (of diamond mine and Rhodes Scholar fame) and runs from Cape Town at the tip of South Africa to Cairo, Egypt (approximately 4000 km).  Vee (Vimbai’s nickname) gave us a little talk about the people of the area and their relationships with the animals of the region.  Many people keep their wealth in the form of cows and if the lions come close to the village and eat the cows, they lose their savings.  Others are subsistence farmers and elephants would be their main problem as they can very quickly trample and destroy field of crops.  Again, if that happens, the farmer is out of luck and will have a hard time surviving. 

Tidbits from Vimbai: Botswana is known for its diamonds, agriculture and tourism.  Zimbabwe has 90% literacy, but also 90% unemployment. In talking about the long lines at the border crossings, people start standing in line at 7 PM at the ATM so they can be there when it is operational in the morning.  You can only withdraw $50 per day.

The border crossing that we came to is near the Zambezi River and is a major crossing for South Africa, Zimbabwe, DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), and Botswana.  There was a long line of trucks waiting to cross from Zimbabwe into Botswana.  The rule is that the trucks are parked on both sides of the road and the driver is supposed to walk to the border station and process (or begin to process) the paperwork.  Three semis decided to skip this first step and drove right up to the station.  They had been waiting there for hours and were getting a bit fed up and feisty.  We heard one of the drivers say that if they wouldn’t let them through, he would back up and block all of the lanes.  He made good on his threat and everything was stopped.  We walked through the station, got our visas stamped on the Zimbabwe side and then walked a bit through no-man’s land and got our stamps on the Botswana side.  Not a problem as we were on foot.  Our van driver, however, was stuck on the Zimbabwe side behind the semis.  We waiting in the shade of a tree for quite some time and eventually our driver came through.  We then had to walk through a disinfectant bath for our shoes (to prevent hoof and mouth disease from spreading to the cattle in Botswana) before board the van again.  Vimbai found out that the authorities clamped the wheels of the semis and wouldn’t let them go through until they paid a fine for parking in front of the border gate and another fine for causing a blockage.  After about an hours delay, we were on the road again, but this time we were in Botswana.  Vee called ahead to Chobe park to let them know we would be late as they lock the gates in the evening.  We finally pulled into Baobab Lodge about 7 in the evening.  The staff was out from waiting for us and serenaded us with a welcome song - very beautiful!  We had dinner first all wonderful food made by our chef, Oscar.  He jokingly said we were having elephant dung for dessert, but when the time came, he presented Dave with a beautiful chocolate and vanilla bundt cake with four candles on top.  We all sang Happy Birthday and very much enjoyed the cake.  We got to our rooms, which are raised chalets.  We are not allowed out until we get the wake up call at 6 AM (a staff member beats an African drum outside your door).

To digress:  60% of all AIDS victims are located in sub-Saharan Africa.  When the Africans first heard of AIDS they thought it was American propaganda.  In fact, they thought it stood for American Ideas for Discouraging Sex.  When we crossed the border into Botswana, the van pulled into a shopping center and Vee had arrange for Matilda, a prostitute, to come on board to talk about how she got into the business.  She was dressed in a leather fronted skirt and a leopard blouse.  She then told us her story.  Her mother mother died when she was still in school and she was then left in charge of 4 siblings and her grandmother.  She dropped out of school to take care of them.  She started in the prostitution business when she was 19 in order to earn money for her family and is now 27.  She rents a room nearby and plies her trade from a bar with the truck drivers who are waiting to cross the border.  She had her regulars who seem to be good to her, but sometimes they are not so nice.  She has been badly beaten twice by men from Botswana, who seem to be abusive to women in general.  Men from Zambia refuse to wear condoms.  She has two daughters, 3 and 5, as a result of unprotected sex and is HIV positive.  She is getting meds from a nearby clinic that deals with sex workers.  She is very careful not to get arrested as prostitution is a crime here.  There are 20 to 30 ladies working in this area and sometimes, if they are caught, they can bribe the police with money or services to avoid jail time.  She pays a lady in her home village to watch her children and they have no idea what she does for a living.  The truck drivers have to wait in line so long waiting to cross that they sometimes run out of money so when that happens, she goes home to see her family.  She is paid $20-$40 per encounter.  She is given a small stipend by OAT for coming on the bus to talk to us.  I think she is very brave to open up to strangers about her circumstances.  Later, Lana and I talked to Vimbai about taking up a collection for her.  A few of us chipped in and Vimbai was able to get the money to her through another guide.  I hope that she will use the money to take some time off from her usual activities or that she will use it for her children.

9/8/17 last photos from Thornybush

The photos today are of African wild pups at play, a leopard, a Southern white-faced owl at night, a herd of wildebeests crossing the road, a white rhino, a photo of Conright, Monica, and Chewie, and elephants at the waterhole right off our deck.

Friday 9/8/17 Last Thornybush game drive

We got up this morning and went for our last game drive with Chewie and Conright.  We are all going to miss this place as they have made this a wonderful and enriching experience.  Monica has also done a wonderful job in making sure that Lana and Dave had delightful lactose free meals.

The first thing we came upon this morning was a small herd of elephants with a baby.  Chewie could tell that the baby was 3-4 years old because they grow to reach the height of the bottom of their mother's belly when they are just one and this one was taller than that.  Elephants live about 60 years.  You only see about a third of their tusks the rest is internal.  A full grown male eats about 450 kg of food per day.  An elephant can hold 20 liters of water in his stomach in case of drought and then can dispense it to cool off a dehydrated baby for example.  Elephants have 5 toenails on each of the front feet and 4 on the back.  Elephants have 6 sets of teeth and are replace by a sort of conveyor system from the back of the mouth.  They get their last set of teeth when they are about 45 years old and when those wear out they have to relocate near a river to take advantage of the softer reeds that grow there.  Apparently this is where the idea of an elephant bony yard comes from.  The old ones die and fall in the river - their bones are carried along by the water and deposited near a bank further downstream.  So it is not like they died at the site of all the bones, but the bones were carried downstream to a particular place.  We then came upon a huge herd of Cape buffalo (about 500 of them).  Chewie just stopped the truck at one point and we watched as they lumbered past us.  We were lucky as we saw some calves in the herd.  Usually the females and the calves are surrounded by the males, but because they were on the move and didn't perceive us as a threat, they were a bit more spread out.  We did see one old bull with a leg injury (he was limping), but he was not the last one to go by.  If there had been lions around though, he would have been a prime target.  At one point as we were watching them, Juanita dropped her cell phone off the truck.  A few of the bulls at the end of the line looked over at her or it (hard to tell) for some time so we weren't sure what was going to happen.  Luckily, they decided to ignore it and continued across the road.  When they had all passed, Conright graciously jumped down and retrieved it for her and it seemed none the worse for falling to the ground.  I thought that was a wonderful sighting for our last day, but it got even better!  We tracked 2 white rhinos through the bush and got to see them at very close range.  They were a mother and daughter pair and it was wonderful to see them.  It was very easy to distinguish them from the black rhino as they are so much bigger and they have a square and wide mouth.  Just as we got back to the lodge, we saw a nesting pair of the white-backed vultures.

We went back to our "house" named Lion to gather our bags and last minute items.  Dave happened to look out our glass door to the deck and spotted elephants drinking at the waterhole right in front of us!  I had just put my camera away for the flight, but I dragged it out again and got some wonderful shots of them.  One of them was a very sloppy drinker and we started laughing as he was getting it everywhere.  We waited as long as we could and then hightailed it to the main deck to watch with the others who had gathered there.  In all, there were 11 elephants at the waterhole and I think they came, not just to drink, but to say good-bye to us.  When it was time, we gave hugs all around and then hopped into the Toyota one last time.  Conright was our driver and we were given a splendid send-off.  On our way to the main lodge where we were to transfer to a van for our ride to the airport, we saw 5 zebras, some warthogs. a herd of impala, 2 buzzards flying overhead, a mongoose, a number of hornbills (Vicky has nicknamed them corndogs as she misunderstood what I said last night when I spotted them), some kudus, a monkey, and a tight group of wildebeests lying down near a waterhole.  When we got into the van, we ate the breakfast Monica packed for us and just a little way down the road we were greeted by a very tall giraffe just standing in the middle.  He eventually moved and we were on our way.  We had a very short (1 hour) flight back to Johannesburg and were met at the airport by Adelaide, who will help us tomorrow as we go back to the airport to fly to Victoria Falls.   Our rooms weren't ready at the hotel so some of the group had lunch, but I wasn't hungry so I sat and watched bags.  We eventually got in the rooms around 3 and we will meet John and Lana for dinner at 6:30.   Victoria Falls is where we will meet our guide, Vimbai, and she will accompany us for the rest of our time here.  She will help us cross the border into Botswana and then we will travel to our new safari camp.  We will also be joined by the 6 others who did not go on the pre-trip.  I imagine that this is the last time we will have wi-fi for quite a while (maybe the rest of the trip) so I will try to get some pictures up before dinner time.

Friday 9/8/17 Thornybush Part A

Yesterday at breakfast, Chewie had to go to clean up some trees that the elephants had pushed into the road.  There are 900 km. of road in Thornybush, but Chewie is just responsible for the roads closest to Serondella Lodge.  Because he was not going to be there during the meal and Monica was busy with the serving, he asked us to watch out for the monkeys.  We were all eating and chatting with each other when one of the "cheeky monkeys" ran up and grabbed a scone from John's plate and ran back to the tree off the deck to eat it.  Mike, who is rather quiet, jumped up, puffed out his chest and rushed toward the monkey while waving his arms and growling.  It was really quite funny - I wish we had gotten the whole scene on video.  It was effective for quite a while, but eventually Dave had to scare him off again.  I sat and blogged and watched the waterhole as usual after my shower.  Lots of warthogs came for a mud bath, including a baby one.  We also saw the baby nyala - very cute!

On our evening game drive, we saw an African Harrier-Hawk, a lilac crested roller, a yellow billed hornbill and a dead vulture.  Chewie said that the other vultures will eat him.  He was quite ripe so I'm not sure why he was still there.  We then saw a very large elephant, who had lost the end of his trunk in a trapper's snare.  It didn't seem to change his ability to eat or grab branches however so I guess he learned to adapt to his circumstances.  We saw some bats fly over the truck (we also saw some back at the lodge), but Chewie didn't know which species they were as there are so many here.  We saw another Wahberg's eagle perched in a tree.  I have no idea how, but Conright spotted a Southern tree agama (kind of chameleon) on a tree as we were driving by in the twilight.  He has the most amazing eyesight!  It was only about  inches long.  It had a blue head when he first spotted it, but in a very short time, it had changed to the color of the surrounding bark.  We saw a jackal, but then we had the most amazing experience.  We came upon a pack of African wild dogs (different from the ones we saw the other day).  There were 4-5 adults on one side of the track and seven 4 month old puppies on the other.  All of the adults except one took off shortly after we arrived to find food.  They will bring back food for the pups and the guardian adult and regurgitate for them all.  The puppies were amazing.  They had a pelt of some animal and they were playing tug-of-war with it - running and jumping and trying to take it away from whichever one had it at the time.  Then they would chase after the victor and the game would start all over again.  We noticed some of the pups were playing with something that looked like a piece of cloth.  Chewie said that one of the guests from another lodge had lost their hot water bottle, which has a cloth cover, the other day and that is what they were playing with!  I hope they didn't eat the rubber bottle, but they sure were having a great time playing with the cover!  One of the puppies ran under the stopped truck and then came out the other side and started chewing on the tires.  He didn't get very far so he wandered off to join his siblings. There were originally 10 puppies, but a lion got 3 of them when they were very young.  This was a totally amazing discovery because as hard as it is to see this animal, it is almost impossible to see the puppies.  We stayed there quite a while just enjoying their antics.  For our next adventure, we spotted a young male leopard,  We tracked him through the bush, ducking out of the way of the branches and thorns as we plowed through.  At one point, I ducked down to avoid an over head branch and a different one snagged by leg.  It was just a small scratch, but it bled like crazy down into my sock.  I just rolled up my pant's leg and ignored it as we were having such a great time.  At one point the leopard crossed near some impalas and they puffed out their chests and sent up a snorting warning to the rest of the herd.  The birds were also chiming in on the warning alarms to help out the impalas.  The leopard didn't even stop to look,; he just walked on by as he knew the impalas could run away from him and he didn't look as if he wanted to expend the energy for a chase.  Chewie thought this particular leopard was about 3 to 4 years old.   By this time it was very close to dark, but we drove to a waterhole to look for hippos.  We could see 4 snouts at various times and we could certainly hear them as they came up for air - lots of snorting, but they didn't come out while we were waiting and eventually we had to leave to go back to the lodge.  Hippos are herbivores, but they are very territorial so they will attack if you are in "their" territory.  They can be very helpful to animals stuck in the mud, but I guess it depends on their mood.  By this time it is pitch dark, but again we have to thank Conright and his amazing eyesight - he spotted a bushbaby and just around the corner, he pointed out a Giant eagle owl.  Conright shone the spot light on him so that we could see his pink eyelids when he blinked - magnificent!  Before dinner, there was a spotted hyena at the waterhole off the deck and then a large spotted Genet showed up.  This is a crazy creature that looks like a raccoon on the front of his body and a spotted hyena on the back end.  Dave had been talking of finding a push-me-pull-you from Dr. Doolittle and I think this animal is as close as he will come to finding something very odd.  Just before dinner, we stood out on the deck and did a little star watching.  Mike has an app for his phone and he could find out the names of the various constellations with it.  The only one I recognized was Sagitarius (I know that is spelled wrong).  We could see Jupiter and the Milky Way quite clearly.  Most of the other star groupings were different as we are in the Southern Hemisphere.

Thursday 9/7/17 Part C

The first two photos today are of a giraffe, then we have a zebra butt (doesn't he look like he has a French braid on his tail?), a Wahberg's eagle, a termite mound, 3 for the price of 1 in giraffes, a male lion, a zebra (not just the rear view), nyalas at the water hole, a crested Francolin (Monica's stupid chicken), and a vervid monkey.

Thursday 9/7/17 Part B

So on this morning's game drive our first sighting was of some giraffes.  They really are beautiful creatures.  They can look in any direction and never have to lie down or sleep.  Lions have two basic methods of taking down a giraffe,  The herd it towards a rocky place and get it running and wait for it to slip and fall or they surround it.  A lion or two will go in every few minutes to nip at it, the giraffe gets stressed and when it is exhausted, it will eventually fall and then the lions will attack it.  The lions have adapted their hunting for different animals.  We then saw a lilac-breasted roller.  Around the corner, we saw a zebra with a bird on its back - a red-billed oxpecker.  They are found on most of the big animals as they eat the ticks and parasites off of the host.  We saw a pearl-spotted owl - just a tiny one - sleeping on a branch of a brown ivory tree with a very twisted trunk.  Next to it was a weeping Boerbean tree.  We were driving along a grassy area and Conright spotted a small herd of white rhino - super cool!  Chewie said you don't say a herd of rhino, but a crash of rhino.  The other thing I learned is that is a parliament of owls if there is more than one.  We saw a Wahberg's eagle at the top of a tree and then a few wildebeest . We drove by a water hole and spotted the head of a hippo, who was trying to stay cool.  We also saw a Swainson's spurfowl.  There were a bunch of crested Frankolins near by and Chewie said that Monica calls them stupid chickens as they make quite a bit of noise and they are always waking her up in the morning.  We saw a magpie shrike and a red-crested cuckoo.  They make a clicking sound and then try to impress the female by soaring up into the air and diving straight down head first - he turns and flies up just before his head touches the ground.  His nickname is the suicide bird.  We saw more giraffes, including a baby.  Their skin is tight around their ankles - kind of like pressure socks - prevents the blood from pooling around their ankles.  We passed a site with a bunch of scattered bones.  A Cape buffalo died last year due to the awful drought and was eaten by a lion.  We saw a black Burchell's starling, which looks like it has a lovely blue area at the top of his wing, but it was caused by the sun shining on his feathers - quite beautiful.  We stopped to see a huge bunch of helmeted guinea fowl.  They had lovely turquoise heads - they reminded me of a mini cassowary (from Australia).  We stopped at another water hole to watch 5 Cape buffalo come for a drink.  Another one came from a different direction, but obviously he was not welcome to share the water hole by the older five males.  At one point the leader of the group came to chase the interloper away.  At first it was a stand-off, but then they clashed horns and the younger one backed off.  It was quite exciting to watch.  We saw another Cape turtle dove and it was calling.  Chewie said the call is "work harder, work harder", but he prefers to think it is singing, "drink lager, drink lager".  We also saw an emerald spotted wood dove - the song is "my mother died, my father died, everybody's dead, dead, dead".  I guess that is a mournful enough song for a dove.  We spotted another tree squirrel.  The first time we saw one, Juanita misheard what Chewie said and thought she heard cheese curl.  Now every time we spot one, some shouts out - "cheese curl!"  It is quite funny.  We saw another magpie shrike and then a baby and mom giraffe.  The baby was only 7-8 weeks old.  Our last stop this morning was to see the male lion that is the father of the 3 male cubs we saw last night.  He was magnificent - only 7 years old, but in his prime.  The average age is 11 years.  I'm not sure if I told about last night's sighting of 3 18 month old lions - all brothers.  We were watching them in the dark and all of a sudden, we heard the mother call from a distance.  We tracked them for a while and saw the reunion with their mother.  They nuzzled each other and then walked right by the truck to go into the bush.  As they walked by, the mom stopped and looked right at me.  She was 3 to 4 feet away.  I stayed very still and averted my eyes and eventually she walked on.  It was a bit unnerving, but quite exciting at the same time!

Thursday 9/7/17 Thornybush

I don't understand how every game drive can be better than the last, but honestly it is true.  Last night we saw a troop of 5 baboons - this is a small troop as there can be 100 members in some.  The funny thing was that Lana was telling a story about baboons and just as she said the word, we saw them!  Everyone started calling her our good luck charm.  We told her to start thinking of a rhino.  She said she would pray to St. Christopher, St. Anthony, and St. Francis on our behalf.  We stopped to see a nest of community spiders.  These spiders are only 2 mm long, but can make a huge nest depending on the number of spiders (sometimes in the hundreds).  The nest is always started by two females.  We saw a Cape turtle dove - it has a perfect black ring around its neck.  We then stopped by a large termite mound and Chewie gave a mini lecture on the importance of termites to the ecosystem here.  Termites are estimated to have been on the earth for 250 to 300 million years.  They are the decomposers of leaf matter, wood, and animal matter.  They break down everything and return it to the soil.  They process up to 80% of all organic material, which makes for rich soil, which is helpful to plant life, which feeds the herbivores, which are fed upon by the carnivores - a perfect cycle.  So, in actual fact, the termites are the VIP's of the African ecosystem.  The other interesting thing is that the mound that we see is just the excavation - carrying out one grain of soil at a time.  The termites live underground.  Their living quarters can be a maze 50 to 60 feet in diameter with the mound at the center of the circle.  They are master engineers - the mound has a central "chimney" and some smaller ones.  The air in the chimney heats up as the sun rises and pushes hot air into the tunnels, which also pushes oxygen into the home.  At night, the process is reversed and carbon dioxide is pushed out of the nest.  It is an amazing ventilation system and they are able to keep the temperature at a consistent 29 degrees Celcius.  Everything is done for the good of the colony.  They work 24 hours a day and do not sleep.  The queen is the only one who lays eggs and she is kept busy as she can lay as many as 30,000 eggs per day.  She also controls what type of termite is produced from the eggs, depending on what is needed for the colony.  She can make workers, soldiers (only 5%), or reproducers.  The queen lives most of her life underground and most of them are blind.  The queen can live from 20 to 50 years. When she dies or when the rains come, the reproducers take to the air and when she gets to a new home, the wings fall off and a new colony is started.  The queen and the soldiers are the only termites fed by others - the rest have to fend for themselves.  We passed by a wooden stockade - Chewie said it was an abandoned boma - a holding pen used when they are moving animals in or out.  The last time it was used, it housed a black rhino population that they were bringing in to the park.  

Chewie carries a rifle in the front of the truck, which is only used in case of extreme emergency to protect human life.  It is housed in a green case.  Chewie told us that they get 30-35 inches of rainfall a year and most of it in their rainy season which is their summer (our winter).  The trucks sometimes get stuck, but the deal here is that the first ranger to call for help to get out of the mud is issued a pink Hello Kitty rifle cover, which he has to carry for 30 days.  After the first time, the price is a 6-pack of beer to the rescuer.  We saw a black bird with a long tail called a fork-tailed drongo.  They wait in the trees over the impalas.   When the impalas walk through the long grass the insects are disturbed and fly and the drongos swoop down and pick them off.  We stopped by a water hole and saw an Egyptian goose, a great blue heron and a blacksmith lapwing.  We then saw a dwarf mongoose pop his head out of his home - an abandoned termite mound.  Lana was apparently praying hard because we came around a corner and saw a male black RHINO!  It was amazing!  Chewie estimated that it weighed about 1800 pounds, but at that, it is only half the size of a white rhino.  They tend to be very tempermentel so we kept our distance.  They are solitary animals so you usually only see one at a time.  The black rhino is considered to be one of the five most dangerous animals to approach on foot.  We loved watching him as his ears rotate independently - definitely paying attention to us.  About five years ago there were about 15,000 white rhino in South Aftrica and 350 black rhino.  Chewie won't give any newer statistics because poachers are a huge problem and we wouldn't want them to have any details about where to find them.  Apparently, the rhino horns are most coveted in Viet Nam rather than China now.  I will put on some pictures if I have time this afternoon, but I want to do the write up for this morning's drive first.  We will be leaving right after the game drive tomorrow morning so we will have to pack up this afternoon before lunch.