9/12/17 Okavanga Delta Botswana

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. 

9/11/17 Baobab Lodge Botswana

On our way to the park this morning, we came across a troop of baboons.  They were walking and running with some of the babies on their backs and others holding on underneath.  One little guy was asleep on his mother’s back.  We then saw the elephants in the same place we saw them yesterday - they must love hanging out on this particular corner.  As we were driving through the park, we stopped to take pictures of sable antelope.  They are very rare to spot and our guide today, Emax, told us that this animal’s hide was where sable coats came from when they were making them.  We saw another huge nest in a tree and I asked Emax what bird would make that big a nest.  He said that it is a communal nest shared by many red-billed buffalo weavers.  We also saw some very small nests made of grass and they are built by the white-browed weaver.  We saw a huge flock of very small birds all flying in a coordinated manner.  They were the red-billed quelea.  We came across two young male lions and their sister lying down in the shade of a tree.  Not too far away, the large male, their dad, was also resting.  The mom may have been off feeding at a kill as she was not there.  The cubs and the dad looked very full and sleepy.  Female lions usually make the kill - sometimes with help from the others if it is a larger animal - but the males and younger females eat first.  As a side note, Emax said that lions have a 40% kill rate, whereas wild dogs have an 80% chance of a successful kill.  We drove off a bit and Emax spotted a black-backed jackal resting under a bush.  He said he had seen this particular jackal before and there are five pups in a den very near by.  

We then drove down by the river and spotted a number of white-backed pelicans, some spoonbills, and a reed cormorant.  On the surrounding land we saw a large herd of prairie zebras grazing and a very large herd of Cape buffalo (about 500+).  Emax said a group of zebras is called a dazzle and a group of buffalo is called a bellow or an obstinance.  We saw another group of sable antelope (how lucky are we?!).  They have the most magnificent horns.  It was interesting to note the color difference between the males and females.  The males are very dark - almost black - and the females were a much lighter brown.  We saw two groups of elephants (groups of them are called a parade) in the water - drinking and cooling off - together there were probably about 40 animals.  It was great to watch them drinking and cooling themselves off.  One small elephant was using his truck to splash around the water in front of him.  There was a tourist boat in the water near the elephants and when the boat got too close, a very large male walked toward the boat flapping his ears.  Very wisely, the boat backed off.  We looked to the side and saw three hippos in the water.  We could only see the top of the body and their heads, but it was great to see what we did - they obviously were enjoying being mostly submerged in the cool water.  Because we are in Botswana, the river is named the Chobe River.  It is the same as the Zambezi - just the name changes when a border is crossed.

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area for African peanut butter and jelly - ha!  We had chicken drumsticks, quiche, homemade bread and coleslaw.  There actually was pb and j for those who preferred it.  We were all sitting around enjoying our lunch and Dave got up to get a napkin the he had forgotten to pick up from the serving table.  He was only away from the table for a minute, but in that time, a very cheeky monkey ran down and swiped his sandwich!  He sat up in the tree and had a great time eating the sandwich in front of us.  Some of the other monkeys were getting close to the table so Dave and Mike ran at them to shoo them away.  Mike made a great roaring noise, but poor Dave had his mouth full of peanut butter so could not help with the acoustics.  On of the larger monkeys charged back at Dave, but he didn’t flinch so the monkey retreated.  We had a great time taking photos of the monkeys, especially the baby ones - they are so cute!  Just as we were getting ready to leave, another private van pulled up and a monkey reached through the window and stole a whole bag of rolls.  He raced back to the tree and sat up on a high branch enjoying his stolen baked goods.  As we were heading back to camp, we saw a flock of baby birds on the ground.  I’m not sure of their name, but they looked like they were in the quail family.  We also came across the carcass of a young elephant.  Emax thought it was about 4 years old and was probably killed by a lion.  He was pretty well picked over.  I know I talked about this before, but Emax also talked about the 6 sets of molars allotted to an elephant in his lifetime.  He said they get a new set about every 10 years.  We stopped to see some giraffes - some alone, some in couples, and others in groups.  There are different words for giraffes depending on what they are doing.  If they are standing, it is called a tower, if walking, a journey, and if running, a stride. Our last sighting before reaching the camp, Baobab Lodge, was of a group (maybe 20) of mongooses or is it mongeese?  Apparently they can travel in groups of more than 50.  Before this we were seeing them one or two at a time.  We got back around 3 and are having siesta now. I showered again as the ride was very dusty today.  I am again sitting on the deck looking down at the river.  From here I can see zebras and elephants as well as many different kinds of waterfowl.  The buffalo carcass near the river that we spotted yesterday is still being worked over by the vultures, but they look like they have made quite a bit of progress since yesterday.  There is a very thick vine near the lounge area.  It goes up into the trees, loops down and then goes back up again in a twisting pattern.  Apparently it is called a python vine.  We will all meet up again tonight at 6:15 for dinner.  Tonight will be a traditional African cook-out.  We are also going to have a talent show.  The staff has something planned and it will put our weak effort to shame.  I hope it is more singing as they all have beautiful voices. 

There was singing and it was beautiful!  Dave and I read a couple of haikus I had come up with.  Dave did a much better job of reading his than I did, but, oh well, the thought was there.  

Rise in Botswana

Impalas, zebras, baboons

Red African sun.

Mabele women

Weave, dance, embrace family

Powerful forces.

9/10/17 Baobab Lodge

9/10/17

I heard a lot of noise during the night.  It sounded like something was trying to get into the chalet.  Eventually I heard branches being broken so I figured out that it was an elephant passing by.  Later on I heard a hyena.  Others reported that at their end of the camp, they heard a lion.

Our wake-up call was at 6 this morning.  One of the staff comes around and beats a drum outside your cabin.  Breakfast was at 6:30 and at 7 we divided into two groups to go on our first game drive here in Chobe Park.  The game trucks are a bit higher than the ones in Thornybush and have a different suspension system.  Some of the roads are a bit rough and some of them are in deep sand.  The motion is quite jarring at times and our guide, Genius, called it an African massage.  We stopped near a large baobab tree and learned that there is an important fruit that grows on the tree.  The fruit is ground to a powder and mixed with milk to make a very nutritious yogurt, while the seeds can be used to make African coffee.  The Chobe River is the boundary between Botswana and Namibia.  In fact, I can see Namibia from the deck of the lodge.  This side of the river is considered part of the park, while the Namibian people use it as their backyard.  We can even see a few houses from here.  Apparently the men from Namibia are great fishermen and use gill nets to catch tilapia in the river and use the banks as places to graze their cows.  During the rainy season, the river floods and fills up the valley to the tree line.  Down by the river, we saw some blacksmith plovers, a huge herd of zebras (the guides estimated over a 1000).  We also saw a wooly Cape bush sparrow, some Egyptian geese, some ibis, several Maribou storks, egrets, white-faced whistling ducks, and an African jacana.  We drove a little further along the river and saw some large gray herons and a water monitor (type of lizard).  We stopped near a tree that was full of the most beautiful, colorful birds.  They are called Carmine Southern Bee Eaters.  I hope I got a good picture.   We continued our drive and saw an African fish eagle, some giraffes, impalas (McDonalds of the bush because they have what looks like the letter M on their hind quarters), a slender mongoose, a baby zebra, three male kudus with lovely twisted horns, a tropical bou bou, and a herd of water bucks.  We kept seeing bushes full of white flowers.  Our guide called them Mexican poppies.  We came across some more of the beautiful common bee-eaters.  I could stay and watch them all day - they are so colorful.  We saw a lot of soaring vultures and then spotted a tree full of them.  They must have known of something dead nearby and were just waiting their turn.  We saw a Maribou stork and then spotted a Cape glossy starling.  His wings catch the sun and become iridescent blue - very pretty.  

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.