Botswana
Namakha Island

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    • Day 16

      Okavango Delta, Botswana

      August 19, 2022 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

      We’ve flown about an hour south of Chobe National Park to Santawani Camp. The camp features a shallow watering hole within easy view of the camp main area. All kinds of creatures wander down here to drink.

      After the warm greetings we’ve come to expect from Wilderness Safaris’ staff, and the tasty and healthy lunch, we went out on our first game drive. We are at the far edge of the Okavango Delta, which at this time of year is extremely dry. The upside is that mosquitoes are nearly non-existent (helped by cooler temperatures here—especially at night, brr!). Because we’re not in a national park, we can also drive anywhere. There is so much brush land, I don’t think we’re being too destructive—certainly not more than the elephants. Our guide, Gully, drives the Land Rover over small fallen logs, mows down sage brush, or whatever it takes to get to the wildlife. He’d gotten word on the radio about a female lion and some juvenile offspring (around 6 years old), so off we went. They were mostly resting, but it was still thrilling to see lions after not seeing them since our first days at the private reserve.

      Soon, we heard that our guide in the other jeep had found a mother lion with three baby cubs in the open. This is very unusual, since the mothers usually hide their babies in a den or deep brush to protect them from predators or a non-parent male. Non-parent males will kill babies to be able to establish their own pride of offspring. The little cubs were around 2 months old, a bit unsteady on their feet, and as playful as kittens—dried elephant dung, or mom’s tail, or a stick makes a great toy.

      After that, we went in search of papa lion. The guides felt that the mom didn’t hide the babies because papa was somewhere nearby. Soon we found him sitting near the hollowed out carcass of an elephant that had been killed a couple of days ago, possibly by him or another male in the pride. Vultures were circling, but they wouldn’t come near while the lion was there.

      A herd of elephants was hovering nearby, wanting to get to their fallen comrade. Elephants hold a type of memorial for their dead, where they gather around and stand completely still for a few minutes — even the babies don’t move an ear or make a twitch. They will do this even if they come upon an elephant skeleton that has been scattered by hyenas. They will push the bones together and hold their moment of silence.

      Another beautiful African sunset finished off the drive. During the night and part of the morning, the sound of a lion was disturbingly close to our tent cabin! But we learned later that the lion was just establishing its territory, and was not in hunting mode.
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    • Day 17

      Lions, a Leopard & One Unlucky Impala

      August 20, 2022 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

      In the morning, we set off with Gully to continue tracking the male lion and to see if it had found its buddy or its brother in the pride. We found the one male pretty easily, but the other one was nowhere to be found. He is an impressive beast, with a full mane. You can hear his call in the video as he’s trying to find his pal—same as what we heard overnight.

      While out in the bush, we saw a black-backed jackal, elephants, giraffes, warthogs, birds and a couple of‘slender mongoose.’ We also ran across the lionesses and their juveniles—no sightings of the mom with the cute cubs.

      The other jeep’s guide, Fahna, spotted drag marks and leopard tracks. He followed the tracks to a spot where where the leopard had stashed a freshly killed impala in a tree and was pacing below. By the time we got there, the leopard was eating away on its dinner in the tree.

      At our sundown happy hour, Darryl spotted a lion slowly making its way toward us. We all gathered near the two jeeps and soon it turned and walked away, whew!
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