Reigning cats and dogs! Hellish heat, battling bugs, balky boats: A Botswana safari in early December

[AKR1]

Just stunning photography, Janet! Thank you for sharing. 

[mtanenbaum]

Your photos are such a treat! Looking forward to the next installment!

 

[KaliCA]

Brilliant photography! Such clarity and great composition. Thank you! 
More cats are always welcome…

[janzin]

Thanks @AKR1@mtanenbaumand @KaliCA!  More cats will be coming, hopefully later today

 

[janzin]

The goal after lunch was to find the cheetah brothers.  On our way out, OF COURSE the first critter we saw was--guess it--Bat-eared Fox!

 

 

Getting to be a "junk" mammal for this trip! (Not really, never!)

 

A pause for a couple of running warthogs.  I rarely bother to take photos of them but the young ones are rather cute.

 

 

The weather had started to turn and it was getting a bit drizzly, so we donned our rain ponchos.

 

We expected to find the cheetahs close to where they had been in the morning. And of course, Thabo was in touch with Spencer and Hari and they had tabs on the brothers. Sure enough, we arrived just in time---to miss the impala take-down! (you can see some images of that on @madaboutcheetah;s report.)

 

By the time we arrived, the scene was already a bit gory.

 

 

But within a few minutes it got much, much gorier.

 

@madaboutcheetahof course was there, with his huge camera and lens  (hah, he was taking a video here with his phone.)

 

 

 

 

Anyway, within 10 minutes. I had 100's of photos of the poor impala with its guts hanging out. But who really want to see that?   I will spare you the worst of it.

 

 

 

So after deleting at least 800 EXTREMELY stomach-churning photos, I did my best to crop out the yucky bits and focus mostly on portraits. You can thank me

 

Bloody portraits!

 

 

 

 

 

The boys started cleaning up. What messy eaters!

 

 

 

It was starting to rain harder and we didn't hang around too much longer. A jackal was hanging around for the leftovers...

 

 

And some folks who stayed through the rain said that hyenas eventually showed up. But we headed back.

 

Once it got dark and during a break in the rain we got a great look at this Fiery-necked Nightjar.

 

 

But believe it or not, there was still some excitement left for the evening. Not exactly the type of excitement we wanted, however. Stay tuned.

[janzin]

So some may wonder about the "battling bugs" in my trip report title.

 

Battling bugs incident #1 (yes there will be a #2. And a #3!)

 

We returned to the camp for dinner and Thabo walked with us to our room. Uh-oh, I know when they do that something is up. It usually means they are giving you a private dinner in your tent. Now I know that the camps think this is a special treat but actually, we really dislike this.  We eat dinner alone together pretty much 365 days a year and we really enjoy the group dinners at the camps, talking to the other guests and camp managers, discussing our sightings etc. We don't need any more "together time" LOL.

 

So generally we really are disappointed when they do this, but they never warn you, or ask you, so there is little choice. (Memo to self--tell them when we arrive that we don't want it!) Anyway, tonight this idea was especially bad because---probably due to the rain--it was the night of the GIANT MOTH hatch-out. Well, okay, the moths were normal size  but they were EVERYWHERE. And because they had of course left the door to our tent open--to set up the table and bring food in etc.--our tent was FILLED with moths. I am not talking dozens, but HUNDREDS. Hundreds and hundreds of moths about 3 inches wide, flitting around. These were not tiny moths.

 

The offenders:

 

 

The dining table was set up in front of the sleeping area and moths were falling into our food, in my hair, into our wine glasses (they seem to prefer red ).  We turned out all the lights and left the light on in the bathroom area to draw them in there, which worked, to some extent; enough so that we could eat dinner.  But I skipped the pre-bedtime washing up as the bathroom area was just swarming. It looked like a carpet of moths on the ceiling! 

 

Getting into bed we left the bathroom light on to hopefully keep them in there, and I put the covers over my head (and it was still pretty hot.) But moths were literally falling on my head and I was jumping every minute. In my delirious mind I'm thinking "I'll go sleep in the car" when I realized, wait, there is no car!  I resigned myself to being up all night.

 

But then I had a light-bulb moment!--and here's where, if you were paying attention, I mentioned earlier that door to the 2nd bedroom would come into play!  I got up and RAN into the other room, which had been closed off--and dark--since we'd arrived. Shut the door behind me as fast as I could. The ceiling was still open to the rest of the tent but because there had never been a light on in there were no moths!! OMG hallelujah.  It wasn't long before Alan came running in to take cover as well.

 

How in the world they got the moths out of the room the next day I have no idea, but fortunately we were leaving early the next morning.

 

(and actually I LIKE moths...but not in my hair and falling on my head in the middle of the night!!!)

 

[John M.]

On 1/6/2024 at 12:59 AM, janzin said:

I don't know what was more exciting, seeing the cheetahs or meeting@madaboutcheetah. Actually meeting Hari was more exciting, for sure

 

    I regret I never had the excitement of meeting Hari on safari. But Yvonne and I had the great pleasure of having coffee with him in Adelaide one morning when he came to watch India v. Australia at cricket.

    Is a private unrequested dinner in your tent a relatively new development?  It's something I never experienced in 8 safaris, including one stay at Lagoon. Maybe they didn't think we deserved it .   I can agree it could be annoying because group meals in the dining area are very enjoyable.  But I recall we once moved to the far end of the dinner table to separate ourselves from other guests who we thought were unpleasant. Camp manager sympathised with us.  

[madaboutcheetah]

Oddly I think that might have been the same night I had the blister beetle incident at some point .... although down lebala way 😏

 

We got caught in a massive storm on the way home prior .... 

[madaboutcheetah]

1 minute ago, John M. said:

    I regret I never had the excitement of meeting Hari on safari. But Yvonne and I had the great pleasure of having coffee with him in Adelaide one morning when he came to watch India v. Australia at cricket.

    Is a private unrequested dinner in your tent a relatively new development?  It's something I never experienced in 8 safaris, including one stay at Lagoon. Maybe they didn't think we deserved it .   I can agree it could be annoying because group meals in the dining area are very enjoyable.  But I recall we once moved to the far end of the dinner table to separate ourselves from other guests who we thought were unpleasant. Camp manager sympathised with us.  

 
it was India vs Pakistan and I had the pleasure to meet you both and @twafflein Adelaide 

[janzin]

33 minutes ago, John M. said:

  

    Is a private unrequested dinner in your tent a relatively new development?  It's something I never experienced in 8 safaris, including one stay at Lagoon. Maybe they didn't think we deserved it .   I can agree it could be annoying because group meals in the dining area are very enjoyable.  But I recall we once moved to the far end of the dinner table to separate ourselves from other guests who we thought were unpleasant. Camp manager sympathised with us.  

We’ve had it a few times…once again on this trip, at Splash! And at Serian in the Mara (perhaps because it was my birthday), and once before in Botswana at I believe at Duma Tau or Xigera.  Makes me crazy, it’s always awkward in one way or another.  In Serian they did it out on our deck and it poured rain! That’s in one of my trip reports 🤣

[TonyQ]

Amazing how your comparatively dull drive looks anything but that from a UK winter

 

Great photos, I love Bat-eared Foxes, can never have too many.

I like moths, but suspect I would not enjoy hundreds!

[Atravelynn]

I have seen the proverb, if a moth crosses your path, get ready for change.  Not sure what happens when they swarm your hair.  We will stay tuned and find out.

[janzin]

2 hours ago, Atravelynn said:

I have seen the proverb, if a moth crosses your path, get ready for change.  Not sure what happens when they swarm your hair.  We will stay tuned and find out.

ha, well there was a change...a change of camps! And the next day was a very fruitful one!

 

Indeed the next morning we were to move to our next camp, Splash. Our bush flight was pretty early, about 9:30 but that still left us time for a short game drive in the a.m.

 

We stopped at a hyena den, in fact we'd stopped there on a prior day but at that time no one was out and about. This morning we were luckier  (or earlier) and a couple of the pups made an appearance.

 

 

 

 

 

This one was very young, almost hairless!

 

 

 

We couldn't stay too long as we did have the plane to catch, but along the way we found the lionesses with the four cubs so we watched them for a short while.

 

Grooming and nursing.

 

 

 

Bye-bye cubbie, hope you grow up strong!

 

 

At the airstrip who did we run into but, you guessed it, @madaboutcheetahand his sister...they were on their way to Four Rivers camp and turns out they were on our plane. We'll see them again...

 

Now onto Splash camp...and the most action of the trip (Dogs! Cheetah cubs! more insect invasions! More dogs!! A most-wanted life mammal!! And the balky boat!)  But there will be another hiatus while I get to culling and processing...I have an awful lot of photos from those last four days to get through!

Edited January 22 by janzin

[madaboutcheetah]

Actually I think you picked up our entire entourage at lebala airstrip @janzin;) 

[Thornburyswan]

On 1/21/2024 at 12:32 AM, janzin said:

So some may wonder about the "battling bugs" in my trip report title.

 

Battling bugs incident #1 (yes there will be a #2. And a #3!)

 

We returned to the camp for dinner and Thabo walked with us to our room. Uh-oh, I know when they do that something is up. It usually means they are giving you a private dinner in your tent. Now I know that the camps think this is a special treat but actually, we really dislike this.  We eat dinner alone together pretty much 365 days a year and we really enjoy the group dinners at the camps, talking to the other guests and camp managers, discussing our sightings etc. We don't need any more "together time" LOL.

 

So generally we really are disappointed when they do this, but they never warn you, or ask you, so there is little choice. (Memo to self--tell them when we arrive that we don't want it!) Anyway, tonight this idea was especially bad because---probably due to the rain--it was the night of the GIANT MOTH hatch-out. Well, okay, the moths were normal size  but they were EVERYWHERE. And because they had of course left the door to our tent open--to set up the table and bring food in etc.--our tent was FILLED with moths. I am not talking dozens, but HUNDREDS. Hundreds and hundreds of moths about 3 inches wide, flitting around. These were not tiny moths.

 

The offenders:

 

 

The dining table was set up in front of the sleeping area and moths were falling into our food, in my hair, into our wine glasses (they seem to prefer red ).  We turned out all the lights and left the light on in the bathroom area to draw them in there, which worked, to some extent; enough so that we could eat dinner.  But I skipped the pre-bedtime washing up as the bathroom area was just swarming. It looked like a carpet of moths on the ceiling! 

 

Getting into bed we left the bathroom light on to hopefully keep them in there, and I put the covers over my head (and it was still pretty hot.) But moths were literally falling on my head and I was jumping every minute. In my delirious mind I'm thinking "I'll go sleep in the car" when I realized, wait, there is no car!  I resigned myself to being up all night.

 

But then I had a light-bulb moment!--and here's where, if you were paying attention, I mentioned earlier that door to the 2nd bedroom would come into play!  I got up and RAN into the other room, which had been closed off--and dark--since we'd arrived. Shut the door behind me as fast as I could. The ceiling was still open to the rest of the tent but because there had never been a light on in there were no moths!! OMG hallelujah.  It wasn't long before Alan came running in to take cover as well.

 

How in the world they got the moths out of the room the next day I have no idea, but fortunately we were leaving early the next morning.

 

(and actually I LIKE moths...but not in my hair and falling on my head in the middle of the night!!!)

 

 Exciting experience at least for a few minutes before the distractions would become difficult to ignore & relax - we had a similar experience up in Samburu in Kenya after 2 days of solid rain the Saruni camp had an evening/night insect & beetle invasion which made eating at the communal dinner table a challenge until they switch to small table candles (so we could just see our food) & brighter lights further away from the table.

 

It also proved that the villa doors were not a snug fit as if they’d left a light on your room attracted them too - thankfully a well fitted mosquito net around the bed helped. How the cleaners removed them all on the next day I’ll never know.

 

PS you phots are fab & looking forward to your Splash updates.

[janzin]

8 hours ago, madaboutcheetah said:

Actually I think you picked up our entire entourage at lebala airstrip @janzin

Indeed…Spencer and the whole gang! 😆

[janzin]

3 hours ago, Thornburyswan said:

It also proved that the villa doors were not a snug fit as if they’d left a light on your room attracted them too - thankfully a well fitted mosquito net around the bed helped. How the cleaners removed them all on the next day I’ll never know.

 

PS you phots are fab & looking forward to your Splash updates.

Indeed, one of our complaints about Lebala and Lagoon is the lack of mosquito nets. If there had been one in our Lagoon tent, the marauding moths would not have been an issue.  Not only that, but not having a net makes it impossible to read at night (or try to do your bird list!) as of course all the bugs are drawn to either your reading light or your e-reader/iPad.  I commented on this to the Kwando management when I returned home but never heard back.

 

Thankfully the Splash tent did have a mosquito net--and it was needed (wait for the next invading insect incident!)

[janzin]

Camp #3 Splash

 

We arrived at the Kwara/Splash airstrip and were met by our new guide, Moz, and new tracker--whose name I unfortunately didn't write down and don't recall--he didn't speak much English it seemed, but was a very good tracker and nice guy.  Moz turned out to be another excellent guide, although a bit more serious in nature than Thabo.

 

It's controversial I know, but we loved Splash camp! We almost didn't want to stay there because we had heard some feel that it's too "modern" and not rustic enough. Honestly that's fine with us. I like modern   The tent was super comfortable with this really fabulous netting system. It wasn't just a net that hangs over the bed--it was a complete curtain on tracks so it was never in your face and it was really tightly sealed against the bugs. Plus, the ceiling fan was inside it! So much more effective than way up on a high ceiling.  And there was an additional floor fan. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the tent or of Splash in general, just forgot. But it was our favorite of the three camps.

 

Once again we were given a tent close to the main dining area--tent #2 I believe. There was a view onto a dry pan but again, not much out there during the day in the heat.

 

Enough preamble. This was a very productive afternoon

 

Immediately after lunch we went looking for the dogs.  This would be the large pack of 22 dogs that ranges around Kwara and Splash.  Moz knew where they were as--guess what-- @madaboutcheetahand Spencer & Co. were already there. Wait, what? How could they be there when I just saw Hari head off to 4 Rivers--a helicopter ride away--just a few hours ago?? It's a mystery that remains!

 

But before we got to the dogs we made a brief stop to visit this lone male cheetah--who I believe is Mr. Special. Hari correct me if I'm wrong!

 

He was just resting by a tree.

 

 

And going to sleep.

 

 

So we didn't stick with him and headed straight for the dogs.

 

When we arrived they were in the usual dog pile, lazing around.

 

 

 

But we knew it wouldn't be long before they got up and started moving. Time to hunt as the afternoon started to cool down.  Indeed, they started to get up but at first were just doing the usual dog-play, yipping and nipping, always fun to watch.

 

 

 

Time for a bit of a scratch!

 

 

 

Look at those teeth!! Not so cuddly after all.

 

 

This member of the pack has a particularly light coat, (in a domestic dog or cat they'd call this "diluted"); he really stands out.

 

 

It was about this point that we got a bit of a surprise; Moz asked us if we'd mind if another couple (an older British couple) from the camp got in our vehicle, because of the three vehicle limit, one of us would have to pull back unless we consolidated. Obviously I said fine--as long as they sat in the back--and didn't mind going on the ride of their lives   They got in and just about then the dogs took off....

 

....to be continued in the next post...

[janzin]

The dogs headed off and we all took off at top speed following them. Shortly they came upon a sandy spot with some large puddles and a few of them took the opportunity to cool off and have a drink. I can't say I blame them, I could have used a swim too. I just love dogs in the water--the contrast of the blue with their coats is awesome!

 

 

 

 

Thirsty!

 

 

Let me get down and cool off...

 

 

In all the way!

 

 

 

 

Soon they were up and running again (actually some of the pack never stopped running--we stopped for a few moments to shoot the ones in the water.)

 

...to be continued...

Edited January 25 by janzin

[KaliCA]

What a treat to see dogs in great light and in the water. Just beautiful! Thank you!

[madaboutcheetah]

Wherever the large pack is , @janzin.... we are there... as you know, they disappeared into Khwai for a couple of days so one can never miss a chance with them 🤪

 

yes, that looks like special ... we opted to give him a miss that afternoon, but, we saw him a couple days later ... again, sleeping of course ... he’s the laziest cheetah known to man 😀

[janzin]

12 minutes ago, madaboutcheetah said:

Wherever the large pack is , @janzin.... we are there... as you know, they disappeared into Khwai for a couple of days so one can never miss a chance with them 🤪

 

yes, that looks like special ... we opted to give him a miss that afternoon, but, we saw him a couple days later ... again, sleeping of course ... he’s the laziest cheetah known to man 😀

hah I just couldn't figure out how you got there so quickly, since I thought one couldn't really drive from Four Rivers to Kwara! But obviously one can  

[janzin]

Now the pack started to really get the move on...and so did we...

 

 

they were on the run...

 

 

It's not easy trying to shoot running dogs when your jeep is also bouncing along trying to follow!

 

 

Neck and neck, nose to nose, who will win the race?

 

 

Every once in a while one would stop, affording the change for a portrait.

 

 

 

We got ahead of them at one point...shooting into the fading sun there was a lot of glare, but I wanted to post this to show those little flecks in the air...not dust, not pollen, but termites! They will figure in later!

 

 

The pack startled a heard of zebra. I don't think they were really after the zebra at this point....just running ahead, as the leaders up ahead had something else in mind.

 

 

 

We soon caught up to the commotion up ahead--the head group of the pack had gotten an impala.

 

 

Boy these doggos eat fast, there was already just skin and bones by the time we got there. Not sure if @madaboutcheetahwas there for the take-down. Honestly the aftermath is enough for me--its so brutal to watch these dogs make a kill

 

 

 

Settling in with his bone.

 

 

A final portrait in the golden light.

 

 

Whew, what a ride! 

 

And yet...the night still held something else for us...in fact perhaps the best sighting of the entire trip--to come!

 

Edited January 25 by janzin

[madaboutcheetah]

51 minutes ago, janzin said:

hah I just couldn't figure out how you got there so quickly, since I thought one couldn't really drive from Four Rivers to Kwara! But obviously one can  

 

 

Not at all that far ..... I mean it's just that things are different now in Botswana with more camps and more luxury !! in the old days, we were doing drives to Tsum Tsum / 4 Rivers all the time to find the 3 cheetah brothers. 

 

Lovely series there ...... From what i remember, they were all impala lambs that they took down - nope !! We just got to the feeding also. 

Edited January 25 by madaboutcheetah

[TonyQ]

Beautiful photos of the Dogs, stunning!