Lion preview

I got back from Tau this afternoon and am too tired to pick the pics for the blog so I am just going to give you a preview of the lions I saw. The 1st game drive we got to 3 lions just after a kill. A female got a warthog, she got cut in the thigh/back in the process. The male stole the kill. One of the females was next to him eating the warthog and he had issue with it and went after her. I got a good shot of that. She went over and waited with the other female. He didn't share at all. The pride has 2 males- brothers and 3 females. One of the females has 4 cubs. On the way back to camp after seeing the 1st three lions it was getting dark and we came across a big male lying in the road. Our guide said it was the brother to the one we just saw. Then we saw the female on the side of the road. She went over to him and they mated right in front of us. The guide thought she was the mother of the cubs but we later found out she wasn't. The next day we found the mating par of lions and this morning we found the 4 cubs their mother and the female with the cut on her leg. The adults were off to hunt. The cubs were very skinny and in need of food. After a while the cubs went into the bust after the adults. We went around and you could see the females and the cubs far behind. We were hoping they would come and get the impala next to us but that didn't happen. I didn't see the wild dogs that was disappointing but I did see some good lions! I will post more tomorrow. I am not going to Jo'burg for a few weeks.

Rock Hyrax

I finally figured out what that animal was, it is a rock hyrax. Thank god, because it has been driving me crazy! I leave on Friday for Tau until Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed I see the wild dogs! I will post pictures when I get back. I think I am leaving Monday for Jo'burg but haven't heard if it has changed or not.

Tau Game Lodge South Africa Madikwe Game Reserve Malaria-Free

A naughty vervet monkey

On Saturday I went to Mokolodi and drove around for a few hours. Didn't see the rhino's again. They are hiding from me! I got back and then Wai Man and I went to the airport to pick up Nha. He is going to be here in Gabs for a few weeks then go to Jo'burg after I leave there. After that I went to Riverwalk mall to see the travel agents about my trip to Chobe. It was closed, I couldn't believe it. I will have to call them on Monday now. Wai Man and Nha met me there and we had a late lunch at Primi's. I finally tried something other than my cheese pizza I like so much. I had pasta and it was good. Sunday morning we went to the Gaborone Game reserve and drove around. We saw kudu, red hartebeest, impala, ostrich, zebra, warthog, wildebeest and a bunch of birds. We stopped at the observation tower and went up. I decided to go down and take a picture of Wai Man and Nha in the tower and when I got down a vervet monkey ran by me and jumped into the truck. I went over there and he took my bag of multi grain cheerios out of my bag and started to rip the bag to get at the cheerio's I was yelling at him and it did nothing. I went to the other door and opened it and still nothing. By this time Wai Man and Nha came down from the tower and were watching. I went back on the other side of the truck and he grabbed a bag of Lay's potato chip and jumped out to the truck with the chips and the cheerios. He then sat behind a tree and ripped into the chips. I just couldn't believe it. I now know to roll up the windows there before getting out of the car!

What the heck is this?

We went to the Gabarone Game Reserve this morning and drove around. I saw that same animal again and don't know what the heck it is. I looked online but couldn't seem to ID it and haven't heard back from Pat. It had only 3 toes. I thought it might be a cane rat but it doesn't have a tail. Somone figure out what it is!! I will post later about my adventure with a vervet monkey in my car later. We are going to go to lunch at the tea garden then drive around Mokolodi.

South Africa

It now looks like I am going to South Africa to work in the Jo'burg lab for a few weeks. It keeps changing. I will go on Monday the 31st and stay for 2 weeks. I was supposed to go on the Friday before that but asked to go on Monday instead so I could go to Madikwe that weekend. I am trying to go to the Tau lodge. My dad and Cindy met someone at the airport that had been there and saw the big 5 within a day. I emailed them and they do have the african wild dogs there and that is what I really want to see. I guess they have large herds of elephants there too. I hope i get in there! David from NY is planning a weekend in Sun City and the weekend he picked I should still be in Jo'burg so I can drive there with him and Liliana. I don't know if it is closer to Jo'burg or Gabs. It should be fun. I want to book my trip up to Chobe and Vic falls before I go to Jo'burg so I will have to make another trip to the travel agent. At least this one won't be last minute so she should be happy.

My Weekend in Gabs

Friday night after work Wai Man and I went to the portugese restaurant for dinner. They seated us even though we didn't have a reservation. I had the kebabs. They were pretty good. I still think Bull and Bush is better. The power went out several times while we were there. After that i just went back to the apartment and read. Of course I fell asleep doing so and woke up with all the lights on and had to get up and turn everything off.

Saturday morning I got up and went to Riverwalk to check and see if the one shop had the right butter dishes. Unfortunately they didn't. I am still on the hunt for them. After that I went to the museum to pick up the baskets I had bought from the basket exibition. I had to pick up my co-workers also since she is in Jo'burg. Tabona met me there and from there we went to the Gaborone Game Reserve. It is actually really close to the apartment. It was really cheap too. It was only 30 pula for the both of us and the car. It is a self driving place. They don't have any predators there. They had lots of ostriches and impalas. We also saw zebras, wart hogs, kudu, vervet monkeys, banded mongeese, baboons and 1 animal I couldn't identify. I sent it to Pat to see if she could figure it out. If she can't maybe she can send it to someone she works with at the Wild Animal park and they will know what it is. Tabona couldn't remember what it was but remembers they would kill them in his village. He said they were tasty but smelled and you had to have someone who knew how to cook them. It is the last picture on this post if anyone else want to figure it out. I saw some new bird there also. I did get a good picture of a blue waxbill. There were tons of little ones there. I didn't see them when I went back to the footprint carvings with my dad so that is good. I have a couple that I couldn't identify but I will have Aunt Susie help me with those. After that we went to the St Claires Lion Park. We found out when we got there it was a little amusement park for kids and didn't go in. Then we decided to go to Mokolodi and drive around. We didn't go at the right time of day and it was warm so we didn't see much. I did see Red Hartebeest for the 1st time and 1 new bird. I am over 100 birds now. I dropped Tabona off near his house and went back to the apartment, had Nando's strips and rice and finished my book.

This morning I was woke up to the sound of the politicians talking over the pa systems as they drove around our block. It was 6am! I couldn' believe it. THey did it all last night also. I can't wait for that to end! I talked to my mom this morning for awhile on skype. I said hi to Kiaya and Trevor. Trevor didn't get as worked up this time. She said it took a while for him to calm down the last time. Kiaya raked her a few times when I was taking to her also. She doesn't want me to talk to JoDee anymore because she says she gets depressed. My dad called from Australia this morning too. I am going to go drive around Mokolodi for a few hours.

Dad and Cindy leave for Australia

Dad and Cindy left Botswana this morning and are on their long journey to Australia. It is sad that they are gone. It was nice having them here. For being such a stuggle to get him to come, my Dad really enjoyed it here. On their last full day here they took a combi to the Riverwalk Mall and then one back to the apartment. Then they took a taxi to the Game City Mall and back and were waiting for me at the apartment when I got off work. We decided to have pizza for dinner for there last night here. It is really good pizza! We just get cheese but it is delicious. After dinner we made our last trip to the market then back home for them to finish packing. They had to get up early this morning to get to the airport by 7:00am. They had no problem getting on the 1st flight to Jo'Burg. It will be a long wait in Jo'Burg before the flight to Australia. I hope they make it on the plane! By the time they leave Australia and go back to San Diego they will have traveled around the world. Now that they are gone I will go out and do stuff with the graders and they will show me the other parts of the city. I heard talk today that I might get sent to Jo'Burg so we will see.

Trip to the Delta

We left Sat morning to go to the Delta. Wai Man overslept but we did make it to the airport in time. It is lucky we are only about 15 mins from the airport. We got to Maun and then went right to our little plane to go to the Delta. Dad rode in the co-pilots seat. We had to stop and pick up 2 more people at another camp before we were dropped off at Shinde. It was only 15 mins in the air before we landed to pick up the other 2 and then 15 more before Shinde so we were pretty low the whole time. We could see a lot of game on the ground that way. We saw lots of elephants, hippos, crocs, giraffe, vultures, eagles, antelopes and a herd of water buffalo. WE went to land at Shinde and we had to aport the landing. There were a bunch of warthog on the runway. We were able to land on the 2nd attempt. The next plane had the same problem. One of the guides went down and shewed them away. Farley who was the camp manager drove us back to camp. When we got there Kelly showed us around. Shinde lodge was a lot like a multi-leveled tree house. It was neat. We couldn'g go to our rooms/tents for a bit so we hung out in the chairs around where the fire is. We had lunch and then could go to our tents. We decided to go on a game drive for our 1st activity.

Our guide was named Bee and he had us and a family from Spain. He was a great guide and spotter. I couldn't believe the things he could find. We saw a very young giraffe and its mother. It wwas only 3 1/2 weeks old and still had it's embilical cord. The highlight of the activity was on our way back to camp. It was getting dark and he saw some movement in teh tal grass and said thereis something there. We went a little further and it was a male leopard! They are the 1 of the big 5 that are hard to find. It was dark but I did manage to get some good pics with the spot light and my flash. It was very exciting. After dinner my went out on a night drive and he saw a female leopard.

The next morning we went on the mokoro's. I thought it would be good like at Kanana but it wasn't. What a disappointment. We saw no game and I had a guide that I couldn't understand and he went sooooo slow. At least it was peaceful and Dad and Cindy got to experience the mokoro's. We went on another game drive for the afternoon activity. We saw a lot of game on all of our drives. There was more game at this camp than at Kanana. I later found out Kanana was known for the birds and Shinde for the game. I did see a bunch of birds at Shinde though. I got a lot of new ones too. On the way back to camp in the dark we saw a genet and a side stipped jackal. After dinner we went on a night drive and we saw a mother hippo and a young hippo out of the water. They high tailed it back to the water when we got near them. I never knew they moved that fast. It was amazing. We didn't find the leopard again but we saw a bunch of game and 2 marsh owls.

On our last day there an elephant came to camp early in the morning. They call him Snorey because he has a hole in his trunk and makes a lot of noise. He was crashing around a couple of the tents and broke some lights. I slept right through it. When we got up there was another elephant in camp. There were 2 more when we went out for our game drive. Those 2 we follewed to the water and watched them cross. We say a lot of game and then went to a water crossing we had gone to the day before. It was deep water and it was going into the truck. Everyone was watchingthe water when I looked ahead and said "lions!" everyone looked up and we were driving straight at 4 female lions lying on the shore of the water. We got through the water and they didn't really even move. They all had very full bellies and had obviously just made a kill. We got a lot of photos. There were 2 young females that still had some spots, their mother and the mothers sister. THe other car arrived after we called them about the lions so we left and went on. We found the remains of the lions kill. All that was left was the skull with horns and some vertebrae. There wasn't any meat left anywhere. A little ways away we saw some more of the spine and the place where they buried the entrails. We met up with the other truck and had a tea break and then stopped back by the lions on the way back to camp.

We saw a lot of game there. We saw Kudu, Red lechwe, Impala, Elephant, Waterbuck, Reebuck, Zebra, Warthog, Giraffe, Baboon, Vervet Monkeys, Leopard, Lions, Side Striped Jackal, Banded Mongeese, a Genet, lots of Hippos, Blue Wildebeest, Nile Crocs and a lot of birds. I saw many new birds. I was excited to see more birds of prey. I saw 4 different eagles and a vulture. I am up to almost 100 different bird now.

We left to Maun after lunch. Our plane ride in the little lane as very turbulant. We all felt like we were going to loose our lunch. We had a few hours in Maun so we took a taxi to where our pilot said they had good crafts. Cindy bought a bowl and then we walked back to the shos by the airport. It was so hot I thought I was going to die! We did some shopping and I bought a pottery bowl that was overpriced but it was neat. It had lions all over it. I still can't believe we saw the leopard and the lions. We had a jet instead of the normal planes that fly back and forth to Gabs to Maun so it only took 1 hour to get back. Dad enjoyed the beef jerky they give you on the plane. He got 2 bags and then wanted another one but wouldn't ask. I got the attendants attention and said my dad would like another bag of jerky if you have one but he is too embarassed to ask. She brought him another one. We both had a beer on the plane. They don't even charge for it!

We all had a great time on our trip. It was fun to do it with my Dad and Cindy. It is sad they are leaving. It will be lonely here without them.

Off to the Delta

We are off to the Delta this morning. Same flights as last time. We go Gabs to Maun on Air Botswana and then get on a little plane that takes us to our camp. It should be fun. I hope se see some new stuff. I should see different birds. We are on the other side of the Delta from where I stayed last time. I hope Aunt Susie is ready for some ID help again! I will have lots of pictures when we return.

Dad and Cindy are back from Madikwe

Dad and Cindy arrived back from Madikwe and the driver dropped them off at my work. They got a tour of GIA Botswana which they both liked. They had to sit around for about a 1/2 before I got off work and then we back to the apartment. The water was shut off at the apartment. It took us a while to figure it out though because it was on when we 1st got there. We just thought something was wrong with the washing machine. I was going to fill up the washing machine with water from the sink and that is when I realized the water was off. We looked at the pictures they took on safari. They had a good time and saw lots of animals. I am jealous. They saw lots of lions and the african wild dogs. I am going to have to go to Madikwe. I have to see those dogs! We went out to dinner and had pizza again at Primi Piatti, dad loves the pizza there. After dinner we made our usual trip to the grocery store. We go to the store every night. We came back to the apartment and we all went to bed early. I don't know what it is but the dogs don't bark when my dad is here. I don't get it. They barked like there was no tomorrow on Wed night but last night barely anything. He keeps saying he hears them barking but it isn't like normal. Sometimes they get going and every dog in the block is barking and howling. the dogs here are real dogs, not the pampered pooches like I have. The dogs here aren't as bad as in India. People do have them as pets. They live outside and they leet them out of their gated properties and let them roam around. You hear them fight sometimes. They are pretty skinny too but nothing like India. You see a lot of goats roaming around too. I have had goat several times at lunch here. It's not bad!

Travel Plans

On Monday, Dad and Cindy walked to the Riverwalk mall from the apartment while I was at work. It took them 1.25 hours to get there. Everyone at work couldn't believe they walked there. The travel agent still hadn't found anything for us because it is high season here and the flights are limited out of Gaborone. I went to meet them at lunch time. I went in to talk to the agent and told her if they couldn't get anything see if she could get them into Madikwe during the week. She told Dad and Cindy to come back in the morning on Tuesday. I drove them to the mall in the morning before work and they had 1 hour before the place opened. They called me at work and told me they were going to Madikwe for 2 days and were leaving at 1pm so I had to go to the apartment and get the keys from them and wait for the driver to pick them up. When I got to the apartment Dad told me that he and Cindy came back from the mall in a Combi. A Combi is like a mini van with 4 rows of benched seats and they are jam packed with people. I was so shocked, I couldn't believe my Dad actually did it. They went on 2! They will get back on Thursday night. I hope they see some good stuff! They have the big 5 there and I hope they get to see lions, rhino's and water buffalo because we might not see them in the Delta. They couldn't get us into Chobe or Vic Falls so we are going to the Delta for 3 days. We leave on Sat and come back on Monday evening. We are staying at the sister camp to Kanana where I went the 1st time up there. It looks nice and should be fun. They have free beer so my Dad will be happy! Here is a link to where my Dad is now and where we will be in the Delta.

Madikwe River Lodge

Shinde Camp - Ker & Downey - Journeys of Distinction

Mokolodi

Our Sunday outing was to Mokolodi, the local game reserve where you can pet tame cheetahs. We got a bit lost on the way there. I wasn't paying attention and none of us saw the sign. We kept driving and driving and we finally called and they told us we had past it and had to drive back about 15 minutes or so. We stopped and got more gas, luckily there was a station way out there, and finally arrived at Mokolodi. We looked on the way out and the signs were clearly visible. I don't know how I missed it!

We went on a 2 hour game drive with the cheetah pet. Our guide was alway a bit in a rush and it was annoying. We did see a lot while we were there though even though he wasn't happy when we kept asking him to stop. We saw elephants, kudu, impala's, warthogs, ostrich, a white headed vulture, long tailed shrike, red hornbill, yellow hornbill, grey lourie, crimson breasted boubou, african darter, crimson francolin, fork tailed drongo egyptian geese giraffe and more birds. At the end of the drive we went to the cheetah enlosure was. They are in a separate pen because they can't hunt on their own. They were orphaned at 3 weeks old and have been raised by the park. We all pet the cheetah and then it was back to the lodge. At the lodge we did a little shopping and then we inquired about driving around by ourselfs. YOu have to be a member to do it so I signed up for a 1 year membership and we just had to pay 55 pula each for Dad and Cindy to e my guests. We drove around for probably 5 hours. We almost went on every road there. Dad drove the truck for me because you had to use the 4x4 and I could just say stop and Dad would stop. We were on a quest to se the rhino's. We never found them. They were up by the lodge and we tried to get there but they had left by the time we got back. We did see a lot more giraffe, kudu, impalas, blue wildebeasts, zebras, ostriches and a brown hooded kingfisher. I added 6 new birds and 2 new animals to my list. We left when it was getting dark and went back to town. We ate Nando's for dinner so Cindy could try the Peri Peri chicken. They talk about Peri Peri chicken in the No. 1 Ladies Detective books. It is pretty good and spicy. Leaves fire in your mouth! Monday we find out about the safaris and what she found for us. Here is a link to the Mokolodi website:

Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Gaborone, Botswana -- dedicated to conservation and education

Dad and Cindy's 2nd day in Gabs

We got up Sat morning our bellies still full of steak and went to the Riverwalk mall to see the travel agent about safari's. The poor girl there has had to deal with me twice on short notice trips. She is going to call us on Monday to see what she can do. We are planning for Dad and Cindy to go to the Delta and thenI will join them in Chobe and we will go to Victoria Falls. I hope she gets it all! While we were at the mall Dad and I went to the electronics store and got me a headset for skype so I could use that instead of the crappy phone I have here. Plus it is so much cheaper to call on skype. We tried it out, we called mom, tony's cell, beth's cell, judy, sue, susie no one answered. We finally got a hold of aunt bob at my house and talked to her. She was in a compromising position, she answered the phone right as she got out of the shower and was naked, luckily only JoDee and Jami were in the room with her. If Trevor was in there she would have been having to guard herself from goosing attacks from him! We also called Jean and Debbie and talked to them for a bit. Later in the evening we got a hold of Beth, Mom and the kids on their trip back home.

Our other outings for the day were the Three Dikgosi monument. A wedding party came to take pictures there while we were there and then we went to Matseing to see the footprints. After we drove through the gate we saw a red billed hornbill and we were trying to take a picture of it with my camera. It flew over to my side, I was driving and i was hanging out of the window trying to get it when all of a sudden a man says hello, it scared us half to death. of couse i took a picture of the nothing. He was the guide for the footprints and he got into the car and we drove up to when you enter. THe place was locked so we were lucky he saw us. After that we were going to go to Molepolole to see the village but I went the wrong way and drove for a long time till I figured it out. We turned around and went back to the apartment where Dad andCindy took naps. After they were up we went to dinner at Riverwalk. We had pizza, dad said he was just going to have some of ours, ha ha. He really liked the pizza. We went to the Gaborone Sun next and went to the casino. Cindy was the big winner she won 195 pula and I lost 180 pula. It was fun. We went back to the apartment and then to bed. We needed to get rest for our next adventure!