Wednesday, December 24, 2014
I woke up this morning at 5:30am to a beautiful sunrise seen from my bed. I was looking out over the lagoon on the eastern side of the property. Words cannot describe the beauty and the peaceful warmth I felt looking out upon it.
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| Sunrise at Abu Camp |
After showering I made my way up to the main lodge and saw a lovely breakfast set up outside with an open fire. I was greeted, by name, by two of the wait staff who offered me a buffet of fresh fruit, yogurt, homemade croissants, banana smoothies and coffee/tea. I had a seat with my pickings and was joined by BT who gave me a run down of how the morning's game drive would work. He also told me that Tops would be accompanying us as well. Tops is a poler for the camp and he would be my own personal poler for my mokoro ride later that morning.
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| The area for early breakfast snacks |
BT, Tops and I set out for our game drive around 6:30am. You need to get out there early before the heat of the day when the animals are most active. Right outside the camp we were greeted by a herd of Impala (a type of Antelope).
Next, we came across a herd of Zebra. You would think with them being black and white they would stick out like a sore thumb in the scenery but they really don't! They can be difficult to spot!
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| Zebra butts :) |
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| Playing |
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| Checking us out |
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| Checking out the termite mound |
We continued our drive and all of a sudden BT stops. He saw a leopard print in the sand on the road. These guides have amazing vision! We decided to track the leopard to see if we could locate it. After a few minutes Tops realized the leopard was tracking a Hippo and it's baby as we saw those tracks as well. Yikes! I didn't want to find a half eaten baby hippo!
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| Leopard track |
We continued to follow the tracks when another safari vehicle from our sister camp Seba radioed BT and told him they had found the leopard. He was given the location so we headed there ASAP. When we arrived there were two safari vehicles from Seba packed to the brim with people, each with one guide. Here I drive up as the sole passenger in a safari vehicle with two guides to myself! You should have seen the looks on the other people's faces! They were so jealous!! The leopard was hiding in a clump of bushes adjacent to the road so no one was able to get a good look at the leopard. To compound the jealousy, BT decides to take the Land Rover seriously off road and around the bushes so I could see the leopard. It was awesome!
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| Female leopard sleeping |
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| Close up |
The leopard was a female that had likely just finished her hunting from the evening. She looked fat and happy. We watched her for quite a while and I noticed how her behavior was so close to that of the domestic cat. Every once in a while she would roll on her back and then over to her other side. She would lick and clean her front legs. She seemed totally uninterested in us which was also cool.
We left her and then went to the mokoro station so I could see the Delta from the water. On the way there I took a safari vehicle selfie and then we saw some elusive Cape Buffalo. They were very shy of the vehicle so I was unable to ever get a good photo of them.
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| Safari Vehicle Selfie :) |
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| View from the safari vehicle |
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| Cape Buffalo |
A mokoro is a type of canoe commonly used in the Okavango Delta. It is propelled through the shallow waters of the delta by standing in the stern and pushing with a pole. It's kind of like a Venetian gondola.
Makoros are traditionally made by digging out the trunk of a large straight tree, such as an ebony tree or Kigelia tree. Modern makoros, however, are increasingly made of fiberglass, one of the advantages of which is the preservation of more of the large endangered trees. Makoro safaris are a popular way for tourists to visit the delta and to move around the swamp.
Tops gave me an excellent guided tour of the Delta. He is a wealth of knowledge! He told me all about the history of the Delta, the different types of plants and what some of them are used for by the indigenous people and how the water levels fluctuate with the seasons. Usually crocodiles and hippos are seen in the water here but at this time of year the water level is low so they don't like it as they can't fully submerge their bodies.
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| Tops and me on the Delta |
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| Day lily |
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| Mokoro selfie with Tops |
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| Day lily |
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| Beautiful Delta |
After the mokoro ride Tops, BT and I had coffee and biscuits (cookies) under a canopy of trees. We talked about religion and how many of the Christian religions in Botswana don't like elephants. Apparently they feel they are unclean, dirty animals because they have no fur/hair/feathers and they don't chew their cud. Interesting....... I told them all about the Pastafarians and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. They couldn't believe it! lol So glad I could enlighten them :)
After coffee we headed back to the camp and saw more animals :)
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| Giraffe |
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| Impala |
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| Warthog |
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| In the mud hole |
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| Momma and baby warthog |
Back at camp I had a delicious lunch with Aaron. I then had an AMAZING massage outside on the deck of my room. After that I took a shower and met BT back at reception so I could ride the elephants. Every evening the elephants are escorted back to the camp by their handlers so they can spend the night protected in their boma. I got to ride Shirini. My guide was Onks. He told me all about Shirini and how she ended up at Abu Camp. She is a kind and compassionate creature. She has had 4 calves and has even adopted one of the camps orphans, Paseka. On the ride, Onks dropped his walking stick. Without saying a word Shirini picked up the stick with her trunk and handed it back to Onks. Incredible!
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| Me on Shirini |
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| The gang following along |
Loving these elephants! The ride took about one hour. Once back at the boma I got to feed the elephants again. My bushbuck friend came over and I fed her too. The camp staff had a drink bar set up at the boma and the other guests came over and we all had drinks. It sprinkled a little rain on us and we saw a rainbow.
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| Posing with Naledi |
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| Feeding Naledi |
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| "Feed Me" - Paseka |
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| Rainbow |
After drinks we walked back to the main camp to have dinner. Again, the food was just divine! I chatted with the other guests for a bit and then went to my room to get some sleep. I needed to be ready for the next day's adventures!
"I feel as if I go to Africa, I may never come back. I'm just going to live with the animals and adopt an elephant, and it's going to be my friend."
