Jump to content

Meeting friends and other strange sightings


Wild Dogger

Recommended Posts

On that last evening in Lagoon we had a nice chat with Spencer about all those guys we met on our several visits to Kwando Camps.

Besides all the guides there were 2 people which came to our mind:

the first was Paul, who used to be a waiter at Lebala Camp. Spencer said, that he suffers badly from Malaria and his sister , I think her name is Lucy (we should meet her at Little Kwara, as she´s the manager of that little camp), has sent him to their parents in Gaborone. Obviously he´s getting bad, fingers crossed. We always liked this thin, young man. Hopefully we gonna meet him again some day.

The second who came to mind was Cassie (I don´t know, if the spelling is correct), a young warmhearted lady who was a waitress at Lebala in 2010. She brought sunshine, whenever she appeared.

Spencer says, that we may be lucky to meet her at Little Kwara, she´s stationed there, together with her boyfriend, who´s guiding there. And I should take care, because these guys defend their girls using Rifles ;)

Hopefully she´s not on leave when we come tomorrow to Little Kwara.

 

14.11.2012

 

Our last day at the fabulous Lagoon Camp.

 

We ask Carlos, where he´s going, because we would just follow him ;), he´s the go-to-guy this week in Lagoon.

Unfortunately he´s going on a walk with his guests.

 

All vehicles,, besides Carlos, are on the wild dog mission.

 

But first, we see a nice herd of Buffalos.

 

gallery_5715_750_249265.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_109237.jpg

 

 

We go north, as the dogs have last been seen there.

 

Spencer finds a skittish male leopard, but we are on a different direction.

He tells us, where he left the cat and we will try our luck later.

 

We search and search, but don´t find nothing but tracks.

Bali´s also joining us. We are busy tracking.

Spencer finds remainings of a killed Buffalo calf. We should not have stopped tracking the dogs yesterday evening! :(

 

The tracks (or the guides) „say“, that the 5 lost ones are still seperated from the pack.

All tracks lead west into the Mopane, we can´t follow them. A pity!

 

We leave it as it is and have our coffee break. Last call for fabulous biscuits :)

 

We go to the place, where Spencer left the Leopard.

We catch a short climpse of him jumping from the tree and disappearing in the long grasses. We can´t see him anymore.

But it´s still 2 leopards in Lagoon, we didn´t expect to see any.

 

On our way back to camp it starts to rain a little bit. The first rains of our trip and it´s just a few drops.

 

Nevertheless this was our least productive game drive of the whole trip. But we knew, it´s not always sunshine. This is why we decided to stay 4 nights at Lagoon, to improve chances in finding dogs. And we´ve been lucky so far, without a doubt.

 

That was Lagoon:

 

1 pack of African Wild Dogs consisting of 16 adults and 8 puppies on 3 drives,

Wild Dogs chasing Sable,

pride of Lions on a Buffalo and a Wildebeest kill,

amazing Elephant sightings,

an Aardwolf and an African Wildcat at night

a huge herd of Eland on a walk

prime time with a female Leopard

all these animals, you likely oversee, but still make the day

birding with Steve

the best biscuits

lovely people at camp, great guides and tracker (thanx Matt and Aaron)

SPENCER

 

What did we miss:

I know, it may sound arrogant, esp. with this dog/sable action, but we missed to hunt wuth the dogs. The chase with the Sable was half-hearted. We miss the bumpy rides offroad with the URI following the dogs at high speed. It´s dangerous, I am aware of that, but that is Kwando. Would also have liked more time at better light with the dogs.

But it was still good.

 

The Cheetahs, no we didn´t really miss them (sorry Hari), our days were so full with action and sightings, that we didn´t even think of tracking them. BTW, they were supposed to have moved further north because of all these lions in the area.

Maybe we´ll get to see Cheetah at Little Kwara and Kwara.

Edited by Wild Dogger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

WD, In my musings on LK I mentioned ONE very personable, enthusiastic young lady who came in the mornings and greeted us with a huge smile - that was CASSIE - and yes she is with Dutch, one of the guides who unfortunately was on leave.

 

The manager, who regretably was in and out - I believe doing some training, was Lizzie.

 

Hobbs told me it was ALLOWED to fly over the land to chase the dogs ONLY, but at an acceptable 40.

No reason to go speeding for anything else, especially "lunch" and/ or chasing Kwara vehicles. We missed just about everything but cheetah at those speeds, but hope you made up for it with spectacular sightings

 

Looking forward to your continuing report!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WD, In my musings on LK I mentioned ONE very personable, enthusiastic young lady who came in the mornings and greeted us with a huge smile - that was CASSIE - and yes she is with Dutch, one of the guides who unfortunately was on leave.

 

The manager, who regretably was in and out - I believe doing some training, was Lizzie.

 

Hobbs told me it was ALLOWED to fly over the land to chase the dogs ONLY, but at an acceptable 40.

No reason to go speeding for anything else, especially "lunch" and/ or chasing Kwara vehicles. We missed just about everything but cheetah at those speeds, but hope you made up for it with spectacular sightings

 

Looking forward to your continuing report!

 

Graceland,

I just had an eye on the speedo once when we were "racing" and it said 50kmh. This is not really fast in my eyes, but it feels fast sitting high in the jeep.

I am sure we at least had missed the leopard walking, when Matt would have been driving like he normally did, and we would not have seen the one very special sighting, which will occur later.

And I never ever made the experience that they drove fast just to get back to lunch. And I´ve visited the Kwando camps for now 8 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

madaboutcheetah

Yes, Thomas - saw Aaron's facebook updates yesterday and the cheetahs were still away into those woodlands - So been gone a long time. What I noticed from my trip in Sept, was they move very little distances these days compared to before. Move very little; kill; eat; sleep for two days - etc etc., either they are walking/marking little as they get older or they are so confident of their territory without any other males in the vicinity that they are getting lazy ........ When we there- got lucky because they came out of the woodlands after over a month away. I told you the story of their split up and they were not all together for 6 weeks before the grand re-union.

 

I last met Paul (the Lebala waiter in 2011) - missed him this year also. That's Lizzie's brother.

 

Balli is definitely a very good guide. We tracked the cheetah boys several times together - big thumbs up!!!

 

Since those Landcruisers (Great addition; the URI although a great vehicle needed replacement after years and years of pounding from all those wild dog hunts) are brand spanking new - I would guess the guides are taking it easy on them. I trust with time to come, they'll be doing more serious chasing dogs on a hunt -

 

Aardvark and Pangolin in the same trip at Lagoon - that's what dreams are made of!

Edited by madaboutcheetah
Link to comment
Share on other sites

madaboutcheetah

Lagoon´s cookies are better :)

 

Thank God, I am off cookies for a little over a year now. They are addictive!!!

 

Chef Hoitsi (spelling?) at Lebala is the best IMHO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We arrive at Little Kwara after lunch and are welcomed by our guide for a day Dutch and the tracker Chester.

After shortening the usual do´s and don´t´s, we tell Dutch how long we are already coming to Kwando, we arrive at Little Kwara.

And there she was, the best sighting yet:

Cassie ;)

She recognizes us in the very first moment and seems to be so happy, that she almost drops the welcoming drinks. We give her a big hug and are overwhelmed to see her.

It seems she´s something like Junior Manager at LK, not sure.

She tells us that Dutch is her friend and that they have a little one year old child. The kid is always with her parents, so she only gets to see it when she´s on leave.

She leads us to our tent.

 

After brunch we are off to our first game drive.

We are alone in the vehicle. Great!

 

This game drive was supposed to be the only one with serious rains.

We have to wear our Ponchos.

Dutch says that he had seen a female Cheetah with cub in the morning. She was very skittish and disappeared in the bushes.

 

The magnificient 7 male lions are also around and there are two different prides of lions. One pride specialized in taking down Giraffes.

 

The wild dogs have not been seen for a while.

 

So we take it easy on our wet drive and after seeing some Red Lechwe

 

gallery_5715_750_12437.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_215102.jpg

 

we quickly find one pride of lions with subadults.

 

gallery_5715_750_179172.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_199998.jpg

 

 

A film-maker from Maun is in the concession for some time The team stay at the old Splash camp.

 

gallery_5715_750_198359.jpg

 

One lioness is not really happy with this guy and is growling at him. He moves a lot on the hood of his car, that seems to make this lion nervous.

 

gallery_5715_750_274800.jpg

 

One lioness has problems with the stomach ;)

 

gallery_5715_750_67007.jpg

 

We leave the lions as we want to find the cheetah, the rain starts to get heavier and we feel more and more uncomfortable.

Then Claudia calls. „there´s a … , there´s a ….. , I forgot what it is called.“

Well, Claudia sighted a Pangolin walking close to the vehicle.

 

The Pangolin quickly walks to a tree and sticks its head into the trunk of a tree.

 

gallery_5715_750_142481.jpg

 

We get out.

In the culture of the botswanian people seeing and touching a Pangolin brings good luck.

 

We lift the little creature to get some quick shots.

 

gallery_5715_750_323773.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_90740.jpg

 

Matt asked, after I posted a picture of the Pangolin in the hands of Chester and Dutch, how I felt.

I had mixed emotions. I am sure that the animal was in stress, when it was in our hands, but look at these happy faces! I think, it rode the situation well out and has no emotional damage.

 

gallery_5715_750_63817.jpg

 

We called the other vehicles and Hobbs, the cowboy, responded and arrived and looked happy as well.

 

And: the animal brought luck: the rain stopped and we proceeded for our sundowner drinks.

 

With spot lights we begin our night drive.

 

Radio call: the pride has taken down a Giraffe close to the airstrip.

High speed night drive! 24 hours race in the bush! Dutch is the better Bush-Schumi than Matt, he flies through the dark to get to the sighting.

 

gallery_5715_750_105865.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_73536.jpg

 

We have a good time at the sighting. I hoped there would be some action, like lions fighting each other for meat. But the prey is that big, that there´s enough food for everybody, so it´s a peaceful dinner. These shots are all without flash light, just spotlight and ISO 6400!!

 

gallery_5715_750_36884.jpg

 

 

 

After a while the „slowman“ Hobbs arrives. He has a slow puncture and leaves the car at a secure distance from the kill. We change verhicles and slowly drive his car back to camp while Hobbs takes his guests in our car to the sighting.

 

That was a good start at the Kwara concession.

We ask at camp, if we could have Dutch also guiding us at Kwara, where we´re going tomorrow afternoon. Dutch would love to, as he has no guests the next few days before he goes on leave, but this seems to be a bit difficult to arrange. We take it as it comes and have a few glasses of wine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WHOAH!!!!! AMAZING TR! I cannot wait for the next update! I am so "following this topic"! So happy for you but SO jealous at the same time!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brings back very pleasant memories of 10 months ago at LK. I clearly recall the places and landscape in most of your pictures from the Kwara concession. Again, congratulations on some superb photography. The night kill pictures are simply amazing quality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

madaboutcheetah

Thomas, What was the story behind his film? Can't wait to watch it when it eventually comes out....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WD, In my musings on LK I mentioned ONE very personable, enthusiastic young lady who came in the mornings and greeted us with a huge smile - that was CASSIE - and yes she is with Dutch, one of the guides who unfortunately was on leave.

 

The manager, who regretably was in and out - I believe doing some training, was Lizzie.

 

Hobbs told me it was ALLOWED to fly over the land to chase the dogs ONLY, but at an acceptable 40.

No reason to go speeding for anything else, especially "lunch" and/ or chasing Kwara vehicles. We missed just about everything but cheetah at those speeds, but hope you made up for it with spectacular sightings

 

Looking forward to your continuing report!

 

Graceland,

I just had an eye on the speedo once when we were "racing" and it said 50kmh. This is not really fast in my eyes, but it feels fast sitting high in the jeep.

I am sure we at least had missed the leopard walking, when Matt would have been driving like he normally did, and we would not have seen the one very special sighting, which will occur later.

And I never ever made the experience that they drove fast just to get back to lunch. And I´ve visited the Kwando camps for now 8 years.

 

A bit of international misinterpretation - I wish he were going 50K as YES, I can handle 30 MILES Per Hour/ but according to our seatmates and Greenlantern it was at LEAST 50 MILES per hour. That is indeed TOO fast (imo) & I had an intense discussion with Hobbs on that, with him very agitated about the speed and the games played with the other two Kwara vehicles.

 

That's all I have left to say on his speeding, but I do believe my MPH were confused with the European KMH.

 

But really enjoying your fabulous stay at LK... Just wanted to clear up MPH vs. KMH...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15.11.2012

 

As usual we depart early.

 

The plan is to first see what happened at the carcass, then find the cheetah, after finding we want to go to Tsum Tsum, as Dutch said, the wild dogs had last been seen there.

Having the vehicle on our own helps in this plan, as it´s quiet ambitious.

 

The lions are still feeding,

gallery_5715_750_6122.jpg

okay some had enough of their share it seems ;)

 

gallery_5715_750_335476.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_208319.jpg

 

We leave them and head towards the area, where the 3 boys had been seen yesterday.

It is close where the pad to Tsum Tsum through the Mopane is, Hari might know the area well ;)

 

We scan the area and circle, but can´find them.

Then I see them. They are lying in the shadow, just from where we came. They must have been active while we searched.

 

gallery_5715_750_242980.jpg

They are well fed and don´t look as if there will be some action.

 

gallery_5715_750_243803.jpg

 

After a while Hobbs also arrives.

 

There is some roaring not far away and we decide to check, if we can find the lions quickly.

As we do want to go to Tsum Tsum we don´t spend a lot time searching and before we procede through the thick Mopane we see a proud Bateleur Eagle up in the tree. A great sighting!

 

gallery_5715_750_274371.jpg

 

The eagle shows us the way:

 

gallery_5715_750_41891.jpg

 

At the lovely Tsum Tsum Pan we have our coffee break (we should have taken some biscuits from Lagoon;)) in the company of Elephants, Zebra and lots of water birds.

gallery_5715_750_117284.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_476.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_39571.jpg

Little Egret

 

gallery_5715_750_8223.jpg

African Spoonbill

 

gallery_5715_750_181706.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_72644.jpg

Great White Egret

 

gallery_5715_750_54146.jpg

Open-Billed Stork

 

You should not miss Tsum Tsum if it´s possible to go there.

 

We don´t find hints for wild dogs but there´s a herd of Buffalo but they are pretty skittish and disappear in the woodlands.

 

gallery_5715_750_78702.jpg

 

On a pool we see some nice Pinkbacked Pelicans and Yellow-billed Stork, up in the dead tree a Pied Kingfisher.

Birder´s paradise!

gallery_5715_750_194891.jpg

 

and an African Hawk Eagle is sitting up on a tree.

 

gallery_5715_750_50843.jpg

 

At least we see some hippo

 

gallery_5715_750_110737.jpg

 

and I can take my first nice photo of a Tsessebee Antelope on our way back to camp.

 

gallery_5715_750_202044.jpg

 

In Lagoon the Impalas where still heavily pregnant, here the first new life´s already around.

 

gallery_5715_750_18307.jpg

 

The last sighting of this very productive morning is a juvenile Lappetfaced Vulture. I wished Steve could have seen that.

 

gallery_5715_750_127210.jpg

 

After Brunch we still have time for Siesta before we switch over to Kwara Camp.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

madaboutcheetah

Buffalo in Tsum Tsum - WOW ........ You really had a good trip. I've never seen any there. Although, sleeping off their full bellies - the boys look great!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It´s time to say bye bye to all the good people at Little Kwara, swearing to Cassie, that I will certainly pay into the „Thomas wants to go to Kwando 2013 fund“ :).

Dutch is not gonna be our guide at Kwara, which is a shame. He´s going on leave in a couple of days, but his Cassie has still to stay. Guides have a 2 months shift, while the other staff has a 3 month shift. So they will almost never be on leave at the same time :(

 

At Kwara we are welcomed by KB, the manager.

We also meet Hilda, the second manager.We met her 2 years ago also at Kwara, she´s a nice lady.

Our guide is George, who welcomes us a bit later. We are his last guests before he goes on leave. Tito is the tracker.

On the afternoon game drive we will be together with another pair from Germany.

The guy is something like an alpha male, which makes the game drive not easy.

 

First the obvious drive to the Giraffe carcass. There are some more Giraffes around, maybe they come for the funeral.

Lions are still around.

 

gallery_5715_750_47405.jpg

 

We procede trying to find the Cheetah and see what else we can find.

 

The ever-present LBR.

 

gallery_5715_750_26098.jpg

 

Go-Away-Bird: Grey Lourie

 

gallery_5715_750_13307.jpg

 

On a wide open plains we find some

 

gallery_5715_750_370019.jpg

Carmien Bee-eaters busy feeding on insects (the alpha-male saying: „Did you have enough shots, can we go?“), while

a Secretary Bird is making his way.

 

gallery_5715_750_30655.jpg

 

Then we see a beautiful male Roan Antelope easily walking over the plains.

 

gallery_5715_750_182824.jpgGreat:

Sable, Eland and Roan, all the huge and elusive Antelope on one Safari!

 

At least we make it to the Cheetah.

 

gallery_5715_750_94230.jpg

I am happy, that they move around.

 

gallery_5715_750_99413.jpg

 

I like to see them walk and take snaps of it.

 

gallery_5715_750_26986.jpg

 

In the distance we hear the lions roar. We learn that there´s a mating pair somewhere in the bushes and try to find it.

 

We find them close to the old Splash Camp. But before we see a Blackbacked Jackal.

 

gallery_5715_750_64679.jpg

 

There are three lions from the Magnificient 7, 2 lost the battle for mating,

 

gallery_5715_750_86820.jpg

 

one´s the happy guy ;)

 

gallery_5715_750_112054.jpg

 

The German alpha male is so happy ;) to see that, he does not want to leave.

 

So we have our sundowner almost at dark. But the alpha-male is almost tired, he wants to get back to camp quickly. Claudia and myself are still standing on the termite mount enjoying our beer, while he´s already sitting in the car waiting.

 

The night drive is more a let´s get back to Camp drive. So we´re back in camp at time.

I am not happy to have one more drive with these guys.

We had discussed, that the next day we´ll do a game drive again. Neither us nor them want to do Mokoro and walk.

On dinner a Swiss group tells our alpha-male, how nice the Mokoro thing this morning was and that they liked it very much. So the alpha-male decides: he now wants that also.

I can see how George´s getting angry and I tell, that I won´t go on a Mokoro. So George leaves dinner and has to organize a Mokoro drive for them last minute.

Another guide has to take them on his day off.

This was the climax of the day with a German alpha-male.

BTW, you can imagine, that I was not unhappy, we´d have the vehicle on us tomorrow ;)

Edited by Wild Dogger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16.11.2012

Our last full day at Kwara.

Claudia is still keen in hunting with dogs, so George suggests, that we try our luck in the „Four Rivers“ area, which is not so often frequented. He says, that last time they visited the area, it was quiet. When they say, it´s quiet it´s just in terms of predators, all other animals are normally around.

 

Just on that bridge close to camp we see a beautiful pair of Saddlebilled Storks, posing for some nice pictures.

 

gallery_5715_750_135621.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_91381.jpg

 

On our way to 4 rivers we find the „Solo“ pride of lions.

 

gallery_5715_750_90329.jpg

 

 

They are all busy doing nothing, so we procede and see a Slender Mongoose

 

gallery_5715_750_269223.jpg

 

and a Yellowbilled Hornbill.

 

gallery_5715_750_210325.jpg

 

As we reach the area we see: it´s a beautiful landscape, a bit comparable to Tsum Tsum, but less water.

 

The area boasts with Zebra

 

gallery_5715_750_50125.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_23906.jpg

 

and Red Lechwe.

 

gallery_5715_750_315323.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_175959.jpg

 

A beautiful pair of Wattled Cranes is walking on the woodlands edge

 

gallery_5715_750_268195.jpg

 

while Zebras are busy fighting

 

gallery_5715_750_39907.jpg

 

and an Impala denies our company.

 

gallery_5715_750_36232.jpg

 

A solitary Wildebeast is posing for us.

 

gallery_5715_750_21041.jpg

 

I love this peaceful place.

 

On our way back to camp we see on of those ever present Elephants on a pod.

 

gallery_5715_750_64844.jpg

 

We arrive at time for brunch and are really happy to have gone to this lovely area, even if there were no predators.

 

In the afternoon I want to check the Carmine Bee-Eaters again, so we skip the boat trip to Gadikwe Island.

We hear that the Cheetah must have left the area.

They are expected to have moved to Tsum Tsum, probably the lions came to close.

 

After High Tea we go out what in retrospect I want to call the Elephant-Saturday.

One of them was pretty aggressive and George had to drive away from the, hopefully, mock-charging animal.

 

gallery_5715_750_69058.jpg

 

It´s full moon, maybe they go crazy then.

Elephants all over,

 

gallery_5715_750_98469.jpg

 

but no Bee-Eaters

 

Okay there was one Leopard tortoise

gallery_5715_750_92204.jpg

 

and a Kudu Bull.

 

gallery_5715_750_28146.jpg

Even on our sundowner:

Elephants

 

gallery_5715_750_158201.jpg

A vehicle from Little Kwara joins us:

a nice group of 3 Germans. We have a good chat. We should see them tomorrow, on our last drive again.

 

We enjoy our last evening in the Delta.

One more drive and then we fly into Maun and drive to Gweta to see the Meerkats.

Edited by Wild Dogger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is it just me and my monitor or do all these pictures have a Magenta touch?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just you and/or your monitor I think.

 

I loved the Four Rivers area too, it's stunning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a great time we had so far with all these lovely people at Kwando and such amazing sightings,

so we were happy when we went on our last drive on

17.11.2012

not knowing, that the best was yet to come.

 

We went out, with all these spectators waiting at the doorstep of Kwara Camp:

Impala, Zebra and Tsessebee

 

It was suspected to be a short one as this was George´s last drive before he went on leave. He had to get a flight to Maun @ 11.

 

We just cruise around, while all of a sudden there was some action on the radio.

We see a second Kwara vehicle flying on a parallel road and

George just yells:

„Hold on guys, there´s an Aardvark with a baby. We have to speed before they are in the burrow again.“

I quickly secure my gear and up we race.

The mother is already in the hole, hopefully the youngster will stillbe around.“ George shouts while pushing the throttle.

Tito is already sitting beside him, the seat on the hood would be challenging.

It takes a long 10 minutes until we get there and I am sure that we miss the elusive animal.

Luckily I failed.

„Get your camera ready.“, George shouts needlessly.

 

And there it is:

 

gallery_5715_767_58692.jpg

 

Emil (I named him, as Rainbirder requested a name for this cutie) is exploring the wild, wild world.

 

gallery_5715_767_200192.jpg

 

gallery_5715_767_173433.jpg

 

There´s a car from Little Kwara who found the little family and saw the other disappear. The guys we met yesterday on sundowner .)

Luckily, Emil is not that shy and is sniffing and hoovering around.

 

gallery_5715_767_242352.jpg

 

George says, that he´s still to small to dig. We guess that he´s looking for the burrow and can´t find it.

While the second Kwara car arrives (the guests in this car already saw an Aardvark at Lebala, double lucky shot!) the Little Kwara vehicle leaves.

In the end Hobbs arrives with Chester.

More pictures in The Aardvark files Gallery.

We all grin from one ear to the other!

It´s Double A – Sunday!

After 20 minutes we leave the kid alone as the sun is already heating up and we want to give him a better chance to get back in the burrow to mom.

The guides several times told us, that the eyes of Aardvark don´t reflect the light, I don´t know, if that´s true.

One thing, I realized while watching all the pics: the eyes of the animal where always open, no twinkling or closed eyes. Maybe just coincidence, I don´t know.

The rest of the drive stood under the emotions of this sighting.

There were the usual suspects:

Giraffe

gallery_5715_750_210528.jpg

 

Ostrich

gallery_5715_750_84327.jpg

George tells us, that the males get red legs when they are ready to mate. Well, I don´t get red legs then ;)

 

gallery_5715_750_215150.jpg

Suckling Impala

 

gallery_5715_750_168419.jpg

Suckling Wildebeest

 

gallery_5715_750_101457.jpg

Tawney Eagle

 

No drive without a lion:

 

gallery_5715_750_39909.jpg

 

We bumped into these lions as we were watching this elephant:

 

gallery_5715_750_2297.jpg

 

We receive a radio call, that another car had found the Cheetahs at Tsum Tsum.

It would be a long drive to get there and the sun´s already high.

We deny looking for them (sorry Hari ;) ), as we expect that they would just lie in the shadow. That would not be worth the long drive. And George would miss his flight. I must say, if we had insisted to see the Cheetah, he would have gone there with no doubt.

 

So this drive ends with two happy guests and guides.

 

At Camp we meet Matt, our guide from Lagoon, again. They show him around in all camps so that he gets used of the areas and does not get lost ;)

I have to show him the Aardvark pics, as I nerved him on all night drives to see it.

 

We also meet Matotsi (don´t know the spelling), who was our tracker in Lebala 2 years ago.

 

After breakfast we still have some time and we rest in our tent.

 

Our flight to Maun leaves at 1.30, and everybody´s coming to say byebye even Matotsi and Matt show up.

gallery_5715_750_47261.jpg

We pick up our vehicle to Gweta at 2.

It´s a 200 km long drive to get there.

We drive through Nxai Pan. There must have been a big fire there a couple of days ago. No plants, everything´s black. Lot of animals (Zebra, Wildebeest, Steenbuck and Ostriches) are walking on the road side. Drive Slowly!

 

We arrive at Planet Baobab at about 5. Tomorrow we´ll go to the Meerkats.

We have booked a package including all meals.

Our dinner is something an hyena would have liked: Bones with little, little meat on it. I really felt like an hyena (but my poo didn´t turn white :) )

The bar at PB is really nice and after a few Black Labels we go to bed.

Edited by Wild Dogger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

madaboutcheetah

Hey, Thomas ... no worries. I would have been at Tsum Tsum with the cheetahs without having left their sight to begin with ;)

 

Aardvark at Lebala and Kwara???? Whoa! I have to look them up - I need to be in their vehicle!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

George tells us, that the males get red legs when they are ready to mate. Well, I don´t get red legs then ;)

 

 

Do red stockings count? :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those aardvark photos are so good, most of us would be green with envy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Waiting on Planet Baobab as we are going this year, Yay I can say 'THIS YEAR' at last. Pen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

uneblievable pics of Aardvark - fantastic write up. Almost felt was there with you on those drives !! :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18.11.2012

 

The night in the hut was a real horror.

It was hot and the mosquitos have been eating me alive. Although using the mosquito net, I have stitches all over. My face looks like a crumble cake.

My wife calls me „Pickie Crumble, our man in the bush“.

 

At 6 we leave the lodge for our more than 2 hours drive to the edge of the Makadikadi Saltpan. Meerkat expedition.

We are 10 people with a family of 4, two ladies and another couple in the vehicle. The car is full, every seat is taken.

After cruising around we finally find the suricates.

gallery_5715_750_152816.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_33329.jpg

 

There are also some „babies“ around.

 

gallery_5715_750_216253.jpg

 

gallery_5715_750_166716.jpg

 

 

Two years ago our experience with this group was better. Maybe they are a bit more skittish because of the youngsters. Or our group is to big. Who knows.

Nevertheless it was nice to see those lively creatures again.

gallery_5715_750_23170.jpg

After our breakfast we go and visit the Saltpan.

 

There´s nothing but horizon.

 

The small and big kids (no, it´s not me) have fun :)

 

gallery_5715_750_58695.jpg

 

Again it´s a long way back to PB (what else?) and we are happy as we arrive in the Lodge.

 

Planet Baobab is nothing special. The huts are really dark and functional and the food is food, nothing more. But the rate is okay, if you want to see the Meerkats or just stopover on transit.

And the bar is good!

 

So, that was about it. The other day we drive to Maun and fly to Joburg.

After one night we fly to Cape Town for a change and to relax from an adventurous, spectacular time in Botswana.

 

As I said at my first post:

I didn´t expect much but in the end had the sighting of our lifetime plus very, very good sightings.

And it was so nice to meet all these good people at the Kwando camps.

 

What´s next?

In a little more than 2 weeks we´ll be of to the Serengeti. Hopefully we will get to see the huge herds of wildebeests and, cross fingers, will be right in place for the calving.

 

Thank you for reading

Pickie Crumble, your man in the bush :)

Edited by Wild Dogger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you very much for this wonderful report and good luck with the migration.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Safaritalk uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By using Safaritalk you agree to our use of cookies. If you wish to refuse the setting of cookies you can change settings on your browser to clear and block cookies. However, by doing so, Safaritalk may not work properly and you may not be able to access all areas. If you are happy to accept cookies and haven't adjusted browser settings to refuse cookies, Safaritalk will issue cookies when you log on to our site. Please also take a moment to read the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy: Terms of Use l Privacy Policy