Southern Africa

I know, not a word, but appropriate none the less! I'm sitting here, having afternoon 'tea' (with delicious lemon glazed cookies!), watching an elephant and listening to grunting hippos from the dining area of our lodge. It is quiet and peaceful and I couldn't be more content!
We woke at 6am to the delivery of coffee, tea and crackers. Breakfast was at the lodge though Ken and I were late because we thought we had an extra 1/2 hour. Ah well. A quick bite later, we left with Sello for a game drive. We saw an adorable giraffe mom and baby and then joined many other safarians (I know, not a word again...) to hunt for a pack of wild dogs which we found! Very exciting since there are only 500 wild dogs in Botswana. They are skilled hunters with a nearly 100% kill rate when they are tracking prey. And they are ugly!
We stopped for coffee and biscuits in the bush, aside our safari van, tablecloth and glassware included. Afterwards, we noticed another safari van had fallen into an 'elephant hole' - front left tire in the water and front right tire not even touching the ground! Luckily no one was hurt! Our guide, and another helped use their trucks to pull the other truck out.
Then we headed back to the lodge for an afternoon 'siesta.' We each had a 30 minute massage included in our stay, which dad opted not to use, but mom, Ken and I each had ours during that time. We all chose a simple head, neck and hand massage. It was awesome! We had a nice buffet lunch of vegetable chili over jasmine rice. Then we relaxed at our tent after lunch and got our own safari viewing from our porch. We saw elephants, hippos and lechwe along with some very pretty birds. Tea time was at 3.
We left for our 2nd safari of the day at 3:30. Our luck continued! We saw a 2 hour old lechwe who could barely stand, elephants that walked right next to us (and I mean - heart racing close!), African ground hornbills (that apparently don't usually like to be watched), a beautiful saddle-billed stork, a troop of baboons with a tiny baby in tow, a male and female kudu and those tenacious African dogs again.
We stopped in the bush for a sunset drink and snack and then drove to, what's called the 'Boma'. The Boma is a dinner held twice a week on the Kwhai River lodge property where guests eat outside around a fire and have a buffet meal. Food was decent but not great. The staff sang traditional Botswana songs after dinner. As we were walked back to our rooms (guests must be accompanied by a staff member to walk around at night) we found 2 hippos right behind mom and dad's cabin. Luckily they weren't in the slightest bit interested in us as I understand they are incredibly dangerous if at all provoked.
Tomorrow, we get to do it all again! 😊Read more