22 February 2010
Safari! Up before the crack of dawn for our 6am safari in the torrential rain. I was already soaked by the time I made it to reception and loaded myself into the open jeep. I wondered if we would see any animals in the rain and Kat even remarked if it was worth going or if we should just go back to bed.
It certainly was worth it. We drove around for about half an hour and saw only baboons, which to all of us was now becoming a pretty common site. Our driver stopped occasionally to examine the ground for traces of big cats, and we did see some lion tracks leading away into the undergrowth. Then, over the radio we got a call that another truck had spotted lions. We drove to a clearing near the river and there they were, two cubs, two lionesses and two male lions, in all their majestic glory. The clubs played and tousled with each other, which was really cute to watch. We were so close to one of the lionesses that she could have easily jumped into our jeep and mauled us. It was truly amazing. The male lions just didn’t look real and when they started to move closer to us, it almost looked as though they were part of a movie we were watching.
We left the lions in peace and went in search of other quarry. We found about two thousand impala and a black backed jackal, curled up trying to sleep in the rain covered in small droplets of water. Our tour leader Sarah looked at him and said “Ah, you’re so cute…are you rabid?” which I thought was really funny and had a good laugh. The jackal however, only looked annoyed and stared at us with his ears back.
We stopped for a tea break in the torrential rain under some trees. It was weird having tea in the rain out in the wild. We were all wearing big green poncho like raincoats, and I remarked that we all looked like hobbits. Someone remarked that they couldn’t wait for breakfast, so I in my best hobbit voice commented, “What about second breakfast?” which made people laugh; I do Pippin’s voice quite well.
After our very wet tea stop, we continued on our safari and saw more impala and a few elephants in the bushes. We then headed back to camp and had breakfast. After breakfast we had a bit of free time, so I went to use the internet at the local shopping centre, after about half an hour of blogging and chatting the Ben I got disconnected. The internet in Botswana had gone down. I walked out, muttering, “Only in Africa”. I decided to go to the hotel spa and have my eyebrows done and get a back massage as sleeping in the tent had given me quite a sore neck.
After that we went on the safari boat cruise, we saw so many hippos and a few crocodiles. The hippos were out of the water and much easier to see than those in the Okavango Delta, although we were not as close. The sun was behind the clouds and golden rays of light were coming down over the swamp where the hippos were grazing. All the Aussies in the group predicably scoffed at how the crocodiles were much bigger in Australia and Annette our friend from Switzerland actually pretended to faint at the sight of them. It was so convincing we all rushed over to help her as she collapsed onto the deck of the boat. We all had a huge laugh when we found out it was a prank…we all had a new found respect for Annette too I think.
Towards the end of the cruise, we came to a clearing on the water’s edge and an elephant came down for a drink, and then another elephant and another, until there were about seventeen of them, including a two-week-old baby. It was amazing to see them all frolicking in the water. One young elephant even chased after some Kudu, trumpeting at them, which was quite funny to watch.
After the cruise I went back to camp for dinner and pretty much went straight to bed, we have an early start tomorrow and crossing into Zambia.