A rare African Owl

 April 30th

Today was a free day; we could do what we wanted, and although I suppose we should have relaxed and just chilled out, this was not something us Jameisons could do. On offer was a cruise along the Okavango River, so we and one other couple, Nessie and another Ian, decided to go. Initially, the time was set for one hour, but the guide said we would see more if we went upstream to where small channels had formed through the reeds. So another hour was added, and wow, we couldn't have asked for a better guide.  So many birds pointed out, and he even pulled out sweetroot, which is a delicacy here in Africa. Taken from the web,

  Sweet reed, often described as a thinner, easily chewable wild sugar cane, is harvested and eaten along the Okavango River in Botswana. It tastes similar to cultivated sugar cane, providing a sugary, fibrous treat. It is often enjoyed fresh, broken by hand, and acts as a natural treat, often gathered along the riverbank 

We all had a taste, it's sweet, almost like sugar cane. 

After 90 minutes, he decided to come out of the channels and head to Shakawa. In trees near the river, owls have been seen. These owls are rare and can only be found in Botswana, and as luck would have it, three were perched in branches just off the river. The only way to truly see these magnificent birds was to alight the boat, clamber up the bank filled with undergrowth to an advantageous point further up. Gosh, these birds were big! One flew off as we stood looking, and the wingspan was huge. I took this from the web

The Pel's Fishing Owl (Scotopelia peli) is a massive, rare, and highly sought-after owl species found in sub-Saharan Africa, often considered a "holy grail" for birdwatchers. They stand 2ft tall and have a wingspan of 5ft. Only about 100 pairs are left in the Okavango region.

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I think we went well over the 2-hour trip; a hefty tip was given as a thank you for a great morning.

The rest of the day was spent chatting and drinking, not necessarily in that order, needless to say, by the time we had our Braai cooked by team 1, I was well and truly gone!

Braai fire lit. Wood and some coal were used. 

 And more photos

 

Oops done for speeding

 April 29th

I'm wondering what will top yesterday's safari. We do have another one arranged at Chobe National Park, but that is at a later date. I'm hoping that will be the chance to see the Leopard!

Today was to be a travelling day, a long, long journey of 380km. On good roads, roughly 3/4 hours. On the Botswana roads, more like 7! Anyway, first a shop at the supermarket called Checkers. We were there at 8 am, hoping to get all the provisions we needed for the next few days. Groceries, yes... alcohol no, more's the pity! Liquor is not sold in the supermarkets but in separate liquor stores, and they don't open until 10. Never mind, we were hopeful of finding something on the route.

The first 100 km were on decent roads, but from then on...good god....can they get any worse? It was as Ian drove through a small township of Sehithwa that coming towards us, was a car flashing its lights. Now we have encountered this many a time, and it usually means beware, animals on the road or police vehicles present. At an 80mph sign, Ian had slowed right down, but we completely missed the 60mph sign. And that flashing car turned out to be a Police car...blast! Yep, you guessed it we were stopped and fined on the spot. 300 pula was taken...sounds a lot, but in English, money was the grand total of £15!

 

It did take us 7 hours to get to Droyski Cabins at tonight's campsite; they made us very welcome, offering tea and coffee before showing us to the site. The site is beautiful, and the swimming pool looked very inviting. Having been in the van for so long, a swim was just what we could do with. But...and this was the problem... being shown to the site, we drove for about a km, damn...a bit too far to walk in this heat. Never mind, we found another bar only about 5 minutes away. It overlooked the Okavango River, a massive river swollen at the moment because of the floods further upstream. It was a perfect setting to sit, relax, drink and watch the swallows swooping low across the water.

And photos

 

Why use cones when rocks will do.

 

Breakfast with the elephants

 April 28th

An exciting day ahead of us as today we were off on safari again. Pick up time was 6 am, total travel time to the game park was an hour and 40 minutes, probably why we had to be away so early.

3 4X4 Land Rovers were our transport for the day. Ian and I went to the back and the highest point. Trying to climb onto the seat was amusing as Ian had to give me a boost up just to get up there. Much hilarity from our fellow travellers until those in different vehicles tried to get into the back too. 

The first part of the journey was on a tarmac road, but the majority was on a rutted dirt track. With the recent rains, this made the bounce at the back of the Land Rover really uncomfortable. Maybe I should have gone for the front seats instead of the back. 

 Anyway once in the reserve, the hunt was on. For over an hour, we travelled along tracks to find something with four legs, but nothing was found! Really disappointed our driver took us to a lodge with a watering hole in the hope of seeing something, but apart from a swish of a tail from a buffalo, that was it! Here we had a wee break before setting off once more to hunt our quarry.

Not far from the lodge was a carcase, a VERY smelly one. An elephant lay dead, tusks still in place, so not killed by poachers. Our guide thought it must have been old age.

Another 15 minutes went by when, hallelujah, a giraffe was seen. From that encounter, things started looking up as one animal after another was seen. A call on the car radio alerted our guide to lions, so we high-tailed it up a very windy, bumpy track to find it. And there it was, a lone juvenile lion sheltering from the heat under a tree. Wow is all I can say. We were so close, about 3 metres away and slightly scary considering we were in an open vehicle! Our guide assured us all he wanted to do was sleep and was not at all interested in us! Several other vehicles turned up, and the lion then decided he had had enough and left, but not before he walked within spitting distance of Ian. In fact, so close was it that if Ian had been stupid enough, he could have touched it!

By now, we should have been at our breakfast stop, but seeing the lion was far more important. It wasn't until after 10 am that we stopped and right by a watering hole. As our cornflakes were served to us, from behind elephants appeared. Wow, what a place to stop for breakfast!

 

 

With this stop right in the open, of course no proper toilets. The guides pointed to two trees. The larger was for the ladies and the smaller for the men! Hmm..its all right for the men, but us ladies, having to drop our knickers, show a massive target for those nasty biting insects to aim for!

Setting off once more, having been helped up by Ian's hand on my bottom, pushing me up to my seat, another message came through on the radio. This time, Cheetah had been spotted. Well, our guide floored it! The ridged track kept us bouncing about, with us hanging on for grim death. He kept shouting sorry every time the back end of the vehicle left the ground, and it was extremely uncomfortable. But you know what...I would do it all again to see the sight that greeted us on arrival. A mother with three sons. We watched for ages until she got up and led her sons away. Our guide followed across shrub and hidden dips, but he was not going to give up the pursuit. Wow, again and how lucky were we!

 

Lunch was again had in the open under the shade of a large tree. By now, we were all sweltering in 30-plus temperatures. No animals joined us this time, and we were again shown which tree was the ladies and which the gents!

 

Plenty of animals still to be seen, some I have put at the bottom of this post, but with so many to choose from, I have put a link to my web album if you fancy a look.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CwvQWkTZe1XM24Tg8 

Anyway, we eventually headed back to Crocodile camp, along that dirt track again, but the bouncing around didn't bother us anymore. I have bruises on bruises, but oh, the best day of our trip so far. Because we arrived back at camp so late, I couldn't be bothered to cook dinner, so scrambled eggs on toast sufficed. We also had a Roosterkoek (rolls made with flour and water and cooked on the braai) waiting for us, made by Kobus. It was filled with Jam and Cheese, yummy!

And some of my 100's of photos