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

[Ginny]

I agree with  @wilddog.

I experienced a session of "battling moths" in Uganda.

We returned to our "tent" (which wasn't a tent but I'm not sure what to call the building)

having left 1 light on while going to dinner.  When we opened the door about a million

inch long moths were everywhere! Not pleasant, but not scary. The staff helped us

deal with them.

[KaliCA]

@janzinWhat a gorgeous evening shot of this amazing nocturnal creature. I have never seen an Aardwolf, neither have I seen an Aardvark. All the more reasons to go back to Africa. 
But- I have seen a Caracal in the Serengeti. We were sort of lost around Namiri Plains and this was our consolation prize. 
Never seen tiny leopard cubs either…

But - also never seen an actual termite, much less a flying one or a swarm. I can understand your frustration with moths and termites in your room. We love animals, but please not in our bedroom, except for Charlie, my dog. He is allowed. 
Looking forward to insect story #3, please  let us in on it. Inquiring minds like to know and now that you made the reference, you gotta tell the tale. 

[Atravelynn]

The aardwolf probably disturbed a nest of termites that took refuge in your tent.  Good thing you had the Kwando brochure at the ready!  Beautiful shot of the aardwolf.

[Alexander33]

Well, that is simply a fabulous shot of the aardwolf. Very envious of that.  Well done!

 

And who can argue with a wild dog ride?  Always exciting. Really like the photos of them in the water. 

 

Oh, my, we experienced one of those flying termite Invasions (at Meru after heavy rains). We returned from dinner one night and had left some lights on in our cabin, and the place was just covered with termites — and with geckos popping out from behind the bathroom mirrors to partake in a feast.  Fortunately, we smartened up and found a way to do everything in the dark, but we still didn’t get any sleep. Somehow, a pair of genets found their way in (I think through a space in the ceiling), and caused quite a commotion — I guess they were going for the geckos which were going for the termites?  And getting those genets out took quite a bit of ingenuity, but we finally managed it!
 

Anyway, it proved to be one of the most memorable safari nights we’ve had — so please don’t leave out episode #3.  

[janzin]

ha, @KaliCA@Atravelynn@Alexander33 now I think I've raised expectations for #3...it wasn't nearly as dramatic (or traumatic) as 1 and 2--more like a comedy of errors   But okay I will recount it when the time comes!

[janzin]

Meantime...day 2 in Splash camp would prove to be the "day of the cheetahs." We had heard that after we left them the evening before, the dogs had moved into the neighboring concession, where we could not traverse So we decided to go elsewhere today which turned out to be a very good decision (no one saw the dogs that day.)

 

Moz had heard there was a leopard in a tree so we headed that way.  On the way we saw the usual characters, but some in nicer light.

 

 

Tsessebe, who I can't help but call Topi in my mind, but they are indeed different, but closely related species. (Some consider them subspecies, but I won't delve into that taxonomic problem here.) Suffice to say Topi is found in East Aftica, and Tsessebe in Southern Africa. They even have the same habit of standing on mounds to look around.

 

 

We found the leopard, but it was being extremely uncooperative for photos. She wasn't sleeping but refused to move out of the obstructing branches.

 

 

This can't possibly be comfortable.

 

 

We waited quite awhile for her to get into a nice clear spot, but no joy.  Meantime, as we were sitting there by her tree, Moz noticed several starlings dive-bombing a nearby bush.  He thought there must be something in the bush--an owl? A snake perhaps? So we headed over to take a look.

 

At first I could not see anything at all but Moz insisted there's a snake in there.  We circled the bush a few times and then finally--OH!

 

 

A Black Mamba!

 

It was slithering around the top of the bush. We watched for a few minutes and then decided to go back to the leopard, but we could see from there she was still obscured.

 

 

Now this really can't be comfortable!

 

After a little while longer we moved on, as she was clearly settled in, there were no good photo angles, and there were cheetahs to find!

 

Edited January 28 by janzin

[KaliCA]

The pose in the last photo is absolutely hilarious!

Maybe you can enter it in a "funny things animals do" contest. I, for one, laughed out loud!

[janzin]

1 hour ago, KaliCA said:

The pose in the last photo is absolutely hilarious!

Maybe you can enter it in a "funny things animals do" contest. I, for one, laughed out loud!

And she stayed like that for a really long time! My only thought is that she was trying to cool off--it was very hot--keeping her tummy exposed like that.

[Kitsafari]

unbelievable pose! I burst out laughing looking at that shot but she looked perfectly satisfied in that sitting position in your photo.

[madaboutcheetah]

@janzin- I remember connecting with Moss on the radio that day asking about the dogs which had left for khwai ........ He did chuckle saying, leoapard not good view - so, we went to look for cheetah !! 

[janzin]

So yes, we went looking for cheetah and we found cheetah! Be prepared now for cuteness overload.

 

Cheetah mom with young cub.

 

 

But wait, not one, but two cubs!

 

 

 

We spent the entire rest of the morning with these cheetahs so...lots of cub shots. Bear with me if you can!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's one of just mom.

 

 

Cub against the green. So much fluff!

 

 

Eventually they found a nice shady spot to have a lie-down.

 

Getting sleepy. I just love those tiny teeth.

 

 

 

Proud mom. She really is a beauty.

 

 

Mom getting sleepy too.

 

 

 

Meantime it was time for brunch and they were just going to sleep for awhile, so we headed back to camp.  But on the way we found a couple of sleepy lion brothers.

 

 

The most undignified King of Beasts! Really, don't you know how silly you look? (He could care less.)

 

 

We didn't stay too long with the lions as they were very obviously not interested in moving in the midday heat, and they were in a shady, un-photogenic spot.

 

Did you have enough cheetah cubs yet? Hope not, because we came back to them in the afternoon, so there will be more in the next post!

Edited January 29 by janzin

[jeffb]

Looking forward to the next post! Beautiful pictures, and I have never seen cheetah cubs that young.

[Atdahl]

Wow!  Love those cheetah cub photos.  Cuteness overload isn't possible in my book...

[John M.]

On 1/28/2024 at 7:48 AM, KaliCA said:

@janzinWhat a gorgeous evening shot of this amazing nocturnal creature. I have never seen an Aardwolf, neither have I seen an Aardvark. All the more reasons to go back to Africa.

 

   I've just discovered in my 1997 Kenya journal that we saw an Aardwolf in Samburu. But no photos!!!😥  I don't remember why not.

[KaliCA]

Have we had enough cub shots yet?  Hmm... let me think about that for one sec... Answer? No! Never. No possible way... bring them on, please!

You have captured such wonderful poses and faces . Thank you!

[KaliCA]

@John M.Maybe you didn't know back then how special a sighting this truly was?

[John M.]

10 minutes ago, KaliCA said:

@John M.Maybe you didn't know back then how special a sighting this truly was?

   I photographed everything that moved, or tried to 😄 Maybe it was much too fleeting.

[janzin]

So...you asked for it...more cheetah cubs! After lunch we returned to where we'd left the cheetahs. They were still in more or less the same spot...but Mom had brought back lunch!  Mmmm, impala.

 

 

Seems they had enough for the moment, and were more interested in resting than eating.  Bellies look pretty full!

 

 

 

OMG tongue-out cute!

 

 

After a bit the siblings started to tussle and play, as kittens will. (No idea if they were male or female, too young to tell from a distance

 

 

 

 

Pretty soon they were tuckered out and cuddling up with mom.

 

 

Finally we left them sleeping. 

 

 

On our way back to camp, we came upon these Side-striped Jackals hunting termites. 

 

 

 

I believe this is actually a young one--the young ones don't have the side-stripe yet. There was a den nearby and we'd gone by earlier but didn't see them.

 

 

These are much less common than the Black-backed Jackals in this area.

 

 

No further drama this night; dinner was buggy of course and there were still plenty of termites--and moths--but nothing like the night before. Not time yet for "battling bugs #3" LOL.

[madaboutcheetah]

Sadly she's left with only one cub now .......  Maybe a week or so after our trip, She lost one to Hyena !  Sad, but, such is life for cheetah cubs!! 

[janzin]

49 minutes ago, madaboutcheetah said:

Sadly she's left with only one cub now .......  Maybe a week or so after our trip, She lost one to Hyena !  Sad, but, such is life for cheetah cubs!! 

Oh no, so sad. I hope the other one survives. ☹️

[TonyQ]

The Cheetah cubs are so beautiful. At this age they are so cute!

[JimS]

@janzinyour photos are fantastic. There is one characteristic of your photography that consistently stands out for me - there is something about the white balance that makes the pictures seem a degree more natural. I'd love to know if you've perfected a specific approach to achieving this, or is this just a happy accident?

 

Edit: just to add... those cheetah cubs might just be the cutest thing I've ever seen

Edited January 31 by JimS

[janzin]

3 hours ago, JimS said:

@janzinyour photos are fantastic. There is one characteristic of your photography that consistently stands out for me - there is something about the white balance that makes the pictures seem a degree more natural. I'd love to know if you've perfected a specific approach to achieving this, or is this just a happy accident?

 

Edit: just to add... those cheetah cubs might just be the cutest thing I've ever seen

Thank you Jim! The cheetah cubs are super cute, I was heartbroken to find from Hari (above) that only one remains.

 

RE: white balance--I do tweak it to my liking most of the time. I almost always shoot nature/wildlife with Daylight (not auto--no matter what the weather, Nikon's auto is too cool for my taste.) Nikon's Daylight is 5200K; I have it shifted in camera to 5210K and I sometimes warm that up even further in Nikon Studio if it needs it.  Nikon cameras now have a setting "Natural Light Auto" and sometimes I switch; for instance these last cheetah cubs (from the late afternoon) were taken with Natural Light Auto. Basically I like things a bit warmer than any of the pre-set settings. I I do play around in RAW until I like what I see...it's never a happy accident!

 

Night shots however I always switch to one of the Auto settings, or of course anything indoors (if I remember!)

[mtanenbaum]

Thanks so much for sharing--I love your stories about the bugs--last time on safari in Chobe in March I had a flying dung beetle hit me square in the mouth in the safari jeep. Luckily my mouth was closed. I literally screamed out loud so you can tell I don't have a high bug tolerance. Probably no November or December safaris for me. Your cheetah photos are extra special...so lucky to see such small cheetah cubs. 

[mvecht]

@janzin Just caught up with your excellent trip report. Stunning photos as to be expected from you

I had expected more bird photos. Can you please comment on the quality of the birding?

I have several times considered a green season trip to Botswana, but I am afraid that it will be too hot for my wife and I.

Any comments on the food and wine?