Mashatu

The day started early with a dawn breakfast by the elephant pool. The personnel at Elephant Sands were not too happy about starting work so early but we needed to get on the road for our marathon 600km trek across Botswana. Mostly the road was straight and African scrub whizzed by out the window but occasionally we came across a really impressive Baobab and Stephan would stop so I could jump out and take a photo. I am fascinated by these impressive looking trees. There is evidence of very old Baobab trees that have been carbon dated up to 1010 yo from a 5m diameter specimen and there are estimates of 9m diameter specimens being up to 4000 years old. When something has been around so long, and been part of generations of lives, there are going to be many superstitions that surround such a tree. One of these superstitions is that the evil spirit which inhabits the tree's white flowers will cause a lion to eat anyone who plucks them. Another is a Bushman legend, that in the beginning seeds and plants were distributed by the Gods to the animals of the world to cultivate. The baobab was issued to the hyena, which was the very last in the queue, and he was so upset that he planted it upside down. Even David Livingstone commented on the upside-down-carrot-top of a tree when he first came across one.
I finished my No.1 Ladies Detective Agency book (set in Botswana) and my kobo reader won't allow my to hook into wifi and download anymore in the series...consequently I read a biography of Lenin as we zoomed along the roads, so my head was in Russia but when I looked up it was Africa out the window.
We arrived at the Mashatu airfield at about 3pm. Bellamy our game driver was there waiting for us. The Commuter van can't drive into the Lodge, the track in has to be driven in a 4WD, as the trip involves a few river beds (dry at the moment) and steep banks and generally rocky terrain. One of the first things Bellamy did was take our drink orders for our game drive. Wow, I feel like Princess Elizabeth in "The Crown"...out on safari with my driver called Bellamy and a Gin and Tonic being driven to meet me at sunset on the savannah!
We set off on the game drive...a little wearily. We jokingly told Bellamy we wanted Leopards, Lions and a Honey Badger. We were all starting to feel like this drive was going to consist of Impala at 12 o'clock, Guinean Fowl at 3 o'clock, oh look a large herd of Impala at 11 o'clock, single wildebeest standing at 1 o'clock...more Impala over there in the bushes...yawn 😴 (we're really getting spoilt with our game viewing expectations now). However, that was until we found no.1 on the list: a Leopard. She was lying on a bank and we got quite close to her. She has a couple of almost grown cubs but they were nowhere to be seen. She languidly groomed herself in the evening light and totally ignored us. We watched her for quite a while until she slunk off to stalk some distant Impala. Poor Impala, they are like the KFC or McDonalds of the African landscape: they're everywhere and they're not too hard to catch if you know what you're doing.
The Baboons were all settling into their bedroom trees as we drove through at dusk. Their "stinky bedrooms" as Edward (our spotter) described them - you have to be careful to not be too slow under the stinky bedroom Nyala trees or you will be shat on. We were precariously parked under one because there had been a sighting of something interesting there. Sure enough, Bellamy came good with no. 3 on the list: The Honey Badger. The Honey Badger has reached fame through this you-tube clip: https://youtu.be/4r7wHMg5Yjg
We all know a Honey Badger and now since this YouTube clip has been watched 84 gazillion times it is a term often used to describe people who are Honey Badger-ish. Sure enough, this Honey Badger was doing his/her thing amongst the Baboons with very little regard for anyone other that itself - a supremely confident little black and white thing making its way back to its burrow. Unfortunately it was not fighting a 🐍 cobra...maybe next time.
We were met by two gentlemen from the Lodge with our afternoon tea - yep, I'm either Princess Elizabeth or Karen Blixen in "Out of Africa". They poured our drinks and then produced 2 baskets of afternoon tea. Everything fit for my new HRH status: cucumber sandwiches, onion timbales, orange syrup cake & lemon meringue pie. Of course there were plates and cloth napkins and small princess sized forks. The African sun set as I sipped my G&T and contemplated how I would return to my non-royal-life at Notre Dame College where they had just finished the first day of term 3.
We arrived at the Lodge in the dark and were shown to our rooms - you will be pleased to know they are fit for a queen. 👸👸👸Read more