Botswana: Lion Sleeps, Leopard Strolls and We Get Stuck

For our final game drive at Nxabega Camp, Botswana, our Guide Botsile Mdosie, aka "Bee," suggested we head for a distant location where two male lions had been sighted at first light.  We all agreed it was a good plan, even though the lions were far away and one of our fellow safari-mates needed to be back earlier than usual to be shuttled to the air strip.

So we raced through the woodlands...

and through the deepbush...

over the Okavango river channel...

...and around several dry marshes...

to find the king of the jungle sleeping off an active night in the middle of the road.

We slowly drove around his comatose hulk, without raising the slightest response...

You don't tug on superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind and you don't wake up the king!  Time was getting on and the air strip was calling when Bee got word on the radio that a leopard had been sighted not far from the sleeping King.

So off we raced to find the leopard, which was supposed to be up a tree, the usual place to view them, as once they hit the ground, you typically only see them if they want you to see them.

We were extremely lucky, as within seconds of finding the leopard tree, this female climbed down out of the tree and slowly strolled away.

Bee slammed the Land Cruiser in gear and followed her through the bush...   

...keeping us just ahead of this magnificent cat, giving us the best view...

...(because she tolerated us) until reality intruded and it was time to retrace our route to camp and ultimately the airstrip...  

and the leopard wandered off.  And we raced back towards camp to find another safari truck in the middle of the dry marsh watching the male lion.  We agreed to delay a few minutes to see the lion again.

It was hard to find the lion in all the tall grass...

Can you see the lion in this picture?

For perspective, the lion is no more than ten feet from the truck and our safari-mates Anna and Scott.   Eventually, nothing to see here, keep on moving...as first the other Land Cruiser leaves and we start to pull away.  Of course as we start to move, Susan leans over and whispers to me, wouldn't it be funny if we got stuck at precisely the moment that we lost traction... 

Looking over the back of the truck, skid marks and just to the upper left in this photo, the lion continues to sleep.

Bee radios to our companion truck that he needs help and cautiously exits the truck to connect a tow strap...

All eyes are on the lion and hopefully our successful tow.

Our tracker "Equator" keeps an eye out for the lion, while we hope to get unstuck, when the lion roused himself and checked on all the commotion going on around him.  My heart was in my throat thinking the king was going to come visit our exposed Ranger and Tracker.

Don't mess with the king.   And then Susan's prophecy comes true, the other truck gets stuck too!

Bee and Equator jack up the truck and add some tree limbs to gain traction, keeping an eye on the lion who is on the other side of the truck 15 feet away.

As luck would have it, Bee and the other Ranger jockeyed the towing truck into a better position and got us out of this tense situation.

...there was the part about returning via the dry marshes, over the river, through the woods and the dense bush.  The flight was held and unluckily our safari-mate made his flight onward and we had a good story to tell.

Great White Sharks Up Close

When we finished our tour of Cape Town, we headed east to the White Shark diving capital of the world, Gainsbaii.  As scuba divers, we are aware of White Sharks.  They are omni-prescent along the California coast, though they offer little risk to divers.  Their preferred food is seals/sea lions and as long as you don't look like a seal from below, you represent little interest to these sharks.  So an opportunity to cage dive to observe these magnificent animals up close was not to be missed.  We set out from Cape Town following a day of severe weather.  The forecast was to dive in very cold water in large, large swells.  We hoped for the best. 

The South African coast east of Cape Town is incredibly beautiful.

We headed east into a strong weather front.  Winds were strong at 30 knots and seas were roiling with swells to 10 to 12 feet high.  We were concerned about getting into such nasty water/conditions.

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.

Elephants Make Terrible House Guests

Don't ever invite an elephant over for a bite to eat or to spend the night.  Not only will he eat everything in sight, he'll wreck your furniture and then destroy your landscaping.  

  
You'll enjoy watching elephant family groups, and the young elephants are adorable.   Just forget about asking them to stick around.

The problem is an elephant will eat anything, even if it seems inedible or lacks nutrition.  Elephants have only one stomach, unlike ruminants (buffalo, antelopes,zebras etc.), so they throw down anything they can wrap their truck around and let their digestive system do the hard work of attempting to digest wood, tree limbs, brush, fruits, palm kernels, grass.  Naturally, they have their favorite foods, in season, but at the height of the dry season, when the sun has fried everything to a crisp an elephant won't hesitate to push over a dead tree and look for something tasty in the process.

In good times, you'll find them grazing on the grass, naturally...

Eating aquatic plants, in this case water lily tubers...

Even the bark of trees...which is why you see a lot of dead trees where elephants roam.  In fact, elephants are gradually remaking parts of the Okavango Delta from woodlands to open savanna.  This baobob tree has been severely girdled by elephants seeking the moisture rich cambian layer of inner bark.  Once completely girdled the tree will die.  Repeated many times over, the woodlands become open grass lands better suited to browsing animals like the various African antelopes, zebras and Cape Buffalo.    

But the elephant doesn't just take away from the landscape, he also gives back in the form of scattering seeds wherever he goes.  His dung is a rich source of food for many foraging animals, like baboons.  Because the elephant and his single stomach only extract about 40 percent of the nutrients from what it has devoured, elephant dung gets picked over by many other species.  That further disperses undigested seeds.



With dead trees everywhere, the woodlands have retreated closer to the waters edge, leaving many delta islands as open grass lands -- at first glance a good thing for grass eaters.  However, the natural cover and security for grazing animals is found in the trees.  With more grass comes better hunting for the lions and leopards who hide in that grass.  Especially tall grass, that provides perfect concealment.  The proverbial double edged sword.   

One animal that appreciates the elephants destructive behavior: the giraffe. Opening up the woodlands and reseeding new saplings provides food within easy reach of the giraffe, who tends to keep the regenerated forest about shoulder high...a nice stunted thicket of trees easily pruned by giraffes, and no more stiff necks stretching to eat the unreachable greenery.

A harem of Tsessebe antelope trudge past regenerating woodlands, seeded by elephants, pruned by giraffes.

These elephants are trying pick up our scent to figure out who we are and whether we have any tasty treats for them...

When we fail to produce any goodies, mom blows us off with a false charge.

So even though it is not a good idea to invite an elephant family to visit, the country of Botswana has decided their elephants are a source of national pride and wealth.  Estimated at over 100,000 animals, Botswana's elephants are the largest elephant population remaining in Africa.  Botswana is working to keep their many herds healthy, fed and protected from poachers, so you don't have to worry that you might be perceived as a poor host when you refuse to invite them over to your place.