Mabebe Camp

​Things are swampy in the Okavango Delta region. Many of the trails that the game drivers normally use are flooded.

We’ve seen lots of interesting birds — several different species of eagles, geese, storks, kites, and others.

One of the most beautiful is a turquoise-breasted roller.

Otherwise, we’ve seen few new animals. One can only take so many photos of giraffes, zebra, and elephants. The same with warthogs, wildebeests, and Cape buffalo. And of course, the impalas are everywhere.

Two exceptions: Yesterday we saw a hyena coming from a kill, carrying the leg of a buffalo in its mouth! We were hoping to get wherever he came from in case there were still lions around the kill, but we couldn’t find it.

The second exception was a pack of 19 African Painted Dogs. These are NOT vizslas or any other pets! They are fierce hunters.

The pack was oblivious to our vehicles, even when the word of their location got out on the radio and 4 or 5 other vehicles arrived on the scene.

We later ran into them in the bush as they were in a hunt.

And still later, on our way back to camp, we came upon them after dark. Quite the show!

The Longest Day

​This was a travel day, beginning with an hour-long bus ride to Kasane, the nearest city.

Kasane was a study in contrasts. A beautiful modern shopping center with large supermarket was across the street from a row of shacks where poor folks were selling handcrafts and produce.

The airport was not large, but also beautiful and brand new. We flew again in 12-passenger Cessna Caravans, but these were more like scheduled flights. We had people other than members of our group on board, and we stopped at another gravel airstrip in the bush to let them off and pick up another passenger.

We are in the Okavango Delta region which is very swampy. The airstrip we were supposed to use was flooded, so we had to land at another and be driven overland.

We had a stop for lunch beside one stream of the river and were taken on a “dugout canoe” (though it was fiberglass) through the reeds to look at some hippos.

But after that it was just a very long, hot slog over unimproved roads. We arrived at our new camp exhausted, but had a nice meal before showers and bed.

Monkey Attack

​This was another early morning wake up call, followed by breakfast and loading up for another game drive in the national park. This would be a long one — we didn’t return to camp for brunch, but stayed out for nearly 8 hours.

The drive covered a great deal of distance, going much farther into the park than we have been previously. The pace was also faster. Mary and I drew the back seat in the truck, and got bounced around a bit with the higher speeds on the unimproved roads. They call it, “The African massage,” but it doesn’t do much for one’s back.

The goal was to find one or more big cats — cheeta, leopard, or lion. So ignoring all but the most interesting of animals, we charged on. Our driver/game guide stopped nearly every oncoming driver to exchange information about what was to be seen ahead.

Thanks to one such exchange, we raced to a spot where at least 5 other trucks were already clustered. Here we got a glimpse of a leopard, just before she pounced on the guinnie hen she was stalking. She missed, and that was the end of the show.

This was a long game drive, so we didn’t return to camp for lunch. Instead, we parked at one of the national park’s very few and somewhat primitive picnic areas. The meal was challenging because half of us had to chase away hungry monkeys while the other half ate. 

The monkeys know this is a spot where people have food, and they are very aggressive. One jumped onto the serving table and ran off with half a loaf of good, homemade bread. Another snatched a muffin right out of someone’s hand.

The monkeys were rewarded at the end of the meal when one member of our group began feeding them. They’ll be hanging around for the next group of travelers after that!

We continued into the afternoon seeing lots of elephants, giraffes and warthogs. But nothing new.

Back at camp we watched elephants parade right through the camp property. Animals have boundary issues.

Dinner was a traditional African menu, which was actually quite good (although we still think that polenta, which is a staple of the diet here, tastes like paste).

The meal was followed by a cultural program by the camp staff. Their performance was a big step above those at the previous camps, with lots of harmony in the singing and dancing to very complex rhythms.

Namibia (sort of)

​“ Star,” our tour leader, had us up early at 5:30 a.m. Fortunately, we’re pretty much over jet lag. After breakfast we set out on a morning game ride, this time entering the national park. We had an escort of baboons leading us out of the camp.

At the park entry gate we were greeted by a hord of mongosses (mongeese?) who had discovered a littered plastic bag in the road, presumably with something edible inside. There must have been 30 of them swarming over it. But when our truck approached they scattered into the grass near the roadway.

The rest of the morning drive was a bit of a disappointment after our expectations had been raised by the previous evening. We saw plenty of animals, but repeats of the same we had seen before.

Still, the weather was gorgeous and we got some excellent photos of various species of mammals and many, many birds.

In the afternoon Star arranged a walk for the half dozen or so of us who were feeling a lack of exercise from sitting in vehicles so much. Rules insist that we be accompanied by one of the certified game guides, although the chances of encountering a dangerous animal in the heat of the afternoon are almost nil. “D,” our game guide, kept a slower pace than we would have liked, but we walked along the paved highway toward the river.

At the Botswana border post, which is perhaps a kilometer up the hill from the actual border, “D” managed to persuade the border guards to continue walking down the hill, despite the fact that we didn’t have our passports with us, nor had we obtained the required visas to enter Namibia.

We walked across the bridge, so we can say that we’be been to Namibia. But since the Namibian border post is similarly up the hill from the river on their side, we didn’t go near it before turning back. No official entry, no passport stamp.

The evening game drive was similar to that of the morning, with lots and lots of animals but few new sights. Dinner was very good, but we are all in withdrawal due to the breakdown of the internet.

Although we slept quite well, we could hear an elephant grazing on the grass and small branches just outside our cabin. And since we’be learned that elephants graze for roughly 18 hours of every day, he or she kept it up most of the night and continued in the early morning.

Boabob #2

​Our Thursday ended with a demonstration of making African peanut butter — a long and labor-intensive process. 

The women received the gift of a “chitenga” which is a multi-purpose cloth used as a skirt, a head covering, and/or a baby carrier.

In the evening we had a “cultural exchange” which consisted of the staff singing a few African songs, and all of our group singing some American songs as arranged by music teacher Mary

Yesterday was a travel day We left the camp in Zambia, flying in the same Cessna Caravan aircraft in which we came. No security checks!

A mini bus picked us up at the airport and drove us to a market where the poorest of the poor do their shopping. It was one of the worst markets we’ve encountered in a 3rd world country — even worse than India.

The piles of garbage next to the raw fish for sale were equally covered with flies. However, the people were exceptionally friendly, and aside from one man standing outside our bus as we departed, no one tried giving us a hard sell or hassled us in any way.

At the Botswana border we had to go through some gymnastics of stepping in disinfectant to be sure we weren’t carrying any diseases on our shoes, and getting our temperature taken to be sure we didn’t have fevers. Otherwise, the process was fairly painless. The border facility was new and spotlessly clean, and our new mini-bus (we had to change to a Botswanan one) was also new. Unlike Zimbabwe and Zambia, the highways here really are highways, and the bus traveled at highway speed withou having to slow to go around potholes or missing pavement. It was like we suddenly landed on a different continent.

Baobob Camp #2, our home for the next few days, is much like the others in which we’be stayed, except that we are in thatched-roofed cabins rather than in tents. Everything is built on the side of a hill, and everywhere has stunning views of the Chobe River that separates Botswana from Namibia. Even though the river is swollen with the summer rains, we clearly see Namibia on the other side.

We also clearly see elephants and impala coming down the hill to the river to drink. Even the toilet next to the main lodge features a “loo with a view.” There is no window and no screen, so when seated on the throne one has a spectacular view!

After “high tea” (an obvious carryover from British colonial times) we went out for an evening game drive. Unlike the last two lodges, this camp is not actually inside the national park. Botswana does not permit this. Instead, we are just outside the park, and our drive was, as well.

Nevertheless, on our trek over unimproved roads along the river we saw more different species of animals in a couple of hours than we’be seen in the past week. In addition to elephants and impala, we encountered giraffes, zebra, spring bock, buffalo, and many birds.

At the river’s edge (just far enough away from the water to be safe from hippos and crocodiles) we enjoyed our “sundowner” drinks and watched the sun set over Namibia, across the water. The sunset was nice, but after it was below the horizon we were treated to rare “blue rays” which are the precursor to a brief “green flash” in the twilight sky. We were not familiar with these phenomena or what causes them, but they were certainly pretty!

At dinner, we were surprised to discover that the food here is a cut above what we’ve been having, even though this camp is owned and operated by the exact same contractor. Mosquito netting surrounds our bed here, as it did at the last camp. But with a flooded river just down the hill, the mosquitoes are abundant. And just like at home, they find me no matter what.

Leopard!

​Last evening’s game drive was pretty lame. We saw a few of the same animals we had seen before, and in pretty much the same locations.

One comical thing is the herd of impalas, that greeted us on arrival and has been hanging out in the field adjacent to the air strip, had moved over to graze virtually under the wings of the parked aircraft. It looked like a highly congested security line at the airport!

The group enjoyed a “sundowner” drink served from the tailgate, But the sun had pretty much set already by the time we stopped in a clearing in the bush, and the view of the horizon was obscured by trees.

So on the way back we were chatting away, not paying much attention to what was going on outside the truck, when our tour leader “shushed” us and whispered, “there’s a leopard in the road!”

Sure enough, a young male leopard was trotting along the road, moving in the same direction as our vehicles. He appeared to be on a mission — like he had somewhere to go.

Totally unphased by the truck headlights and the driver’s searchlight, the leopard kept trotting along. Occasionally he would glance over his shoulder at us, but he continued on for perhaps as much as 500 meters.

Eventually he turned and walked into the bush, but not like he was running away from us. Just like, “OK, this is my turn.”

Only about 15 to 20% of tourists actually get to see a leopard on one of these trips, so we felt very fortunate.

In the evening, one of these African staff of this camp offered a “dark sky” experience and most of the group went out to get a lesson on the southern sky and some of the constellations we can’t see in the northern hemisphere. He’s just a hobbyist, but he was quite knowledgeable.

This morning’s game drive took a different route than the last two. We saw buffalo, as well as our first elephant in this location (but he looked just like the elephants in Zimbabwe, surprisingly enough). There were some rare birds, and there was some zebra scat, but no zebra was seen.

Without a doubt, the leopard sighting was the most exciting thing of the last 24 hours.

Lufupa Camp

​Yesterday was a travel day. We drove (not terribly quickly due to the condition of the roads) for nearly 4 hours from Hwange National Park to the bustling metropolis of Victoria Falls.

Along the way, we made a stop at a primary school. School is out for the Easter holiday, so this was not one of the schools that OAT supports and typically visits. But somehow our tour leader, Star, found a school where the 7th grade teacher was holding special sessions to help his students prepare for their national exams. So we were able to visit one classroom — all the others were vacant.

Instruction is in English, but most of the students were shy and reluctant to speak to us. But they were eager to see photos of our families on our phones and to hear about our pre-retirement professions. Star indicated that for many of these students in a rural community, it may have been the first time in their lives that they had had interaction with a white person, and certainly the first interaction with Americans.

Many of our fellow travelers had brought school supplies, so at the end we got to pass out pencils to everyone and deliver some other gifts for the whole school. The students appeared to be thrilled.

Our next task was crossing the border from Zimbabwe into Zambia. We had to unload everything from our bus, stand in line through passport control, drag our bags through a gate, and then reload everything onto a nearly identical bus with a different driver on the other side.

Our new bus drove us only about 10 miles from Victoria Falls to Livingstone, Zambia (named for “Dr. Livingstone, I presume” David Livingstone). Again, because of road conditions, the trip took more than half an hour. We, and our luggage, were dropped at the Livingston Airport. Although the airport is very small (it makes the Waterloo, Iowa airport look big!), we had to pass through security, 

Our flight was on a pair of Cessna Caravans. These are single-engine turboprop planes that carry about 10 passengers. Each plane had a single pilot, and despite the captain’s stripes on their shoulders, each looked to be early 20s, right out of college.

I got to sit directly behind the pilot and watch all the action. I could read all the instruments and look out through the front windshield, as well as through my side window. Each seat is both an aisle seat AND a window seat. The flight was about a hour and a half long at roughly 8,000 feet above ground. I thought it was a great ride! Most of the rest of our group was less excited about it.

We landed at Lufupa Camp, a grass strip near the Kafue River, where trucks nearly identical to those we had at our last camp picked us up and took us on a 15 minute drive to our home for the next few days. The roads were just as bad here as in the previous camp, except that they have had more rain here and there were many more places we drove through muddy water.

After getting settled, we set out in the same trucks for our first evening game drive. It was somewhat disappointing because we saw few animals other than the same herd of antelope that had greeted us on arrival, in a field next to the runway.

Our tents are very similar to those at the previous camp, except that now we have mosquito netting over the beds. Our tent is only feet from the river bank, and the bugs are abundant. We’re very glad that we are taking anti-malaria pills!

After breakfast this morning our game drive was not in the trucks, but on the river in pontoon boats — a much smoother ride. We saw many birds, including an African Fishing Eagle, only one crocodile, and along the river bank, a few more antelope.

But the highlight was a group of about a half-dozen hippos, submerged in the river with only their heads occasionally above the water. Our drivers landed our pontoons on the river bank and we had coffee and tea. We watched the hippos, and the hippos intently watched us.