Susan's African Birthday Party

As you probably all are aware by now, we are in Africa to celebrate Susan's birthday.  It was a fantastic day.  It started with a canoe ride in the traditional dug-out canoe of the Okavango Delta: the Mokoro.  A very relaxing way to see the delta from water-level.  We were polled along getting the micro-level view of the riparian habitat.

How fun is it really? to spend one of life's major passages in the cradle of life's most incredible wilderness?  Especially when all you have to do is site back and enjoy the proceedings?

And it was truly beautiful, peaceful and relaxing...

You can just sense the fun and enjoyment in Susan's face.

And they made me a funny hat out one of the lily pads...

We spotted a painted reed frog, hiding in a water lily.  This tiny frog gives off the most beautiful chirp like a tinkling bell, to attract a mate.  Lovely music to fall asleep to every night... 

We floated among the reeds and water lilies before returning towards our camp... when our Mokoro leader SK called out there was a dead hippo up ahead!

We were totally sucked into this joke, thinking there must really be a dead hippo.

But it turned out to be a floating ice bucket with a champagne toast to Susan's 60th.

Our new friends Veronique and Pierre from Paris eye the bottle of bubbly as our Ranger and lead poller SK look on. 

Pierre pops the cork.

The birthday girl has to agree, turning 60 isn't so bad after all.  In the background, Heiko and Christine of Berlin join in the fun.

What better way to start your birthday than with a few glasses of bubbly...

retiring to the observation deck of your safari lodge to play the guitar
  

and end the day with a game drive where you observe the cutest animal in world that isn't a unicorn, a baby giraffe...

and stop for sun downer cocktails in the middle of Botswana's wilderness entertained by another beautiful sunset.

and fall into a bed commemorating the big day only to find...

that the sun rises the next morning and you aren't feeling the least bit depressed about turning 60.