No.1 Lady's Dectective Agency

I got Miya hooked on the No. 1 Lady Dectective Agency books. She got the 1st few books and now she can't stop listening to them. I finally have someone that will go around and see the sights from the book. Mma Ramotswe always talks about the Presidents hotel and having tea looking over the mall. I wanted to go the last 2 years but didn't have anyone that knew what I was talking about. When I told her they have a sign that say Mma Ramotswe's Tea Corner, she was in. Derek, Miya and I had breakfast at the hotel and drank bush tea just like Mma Ramotswe. We were going to have Pie City too but it was closed.

Gaborone Game Reserve

I took Miya and Derek to the Gaborone Game Reserve. Miya hadn't been there yet and it was Dereks 1st weekend. We drove around for awhile. The wholeplace is torn up. they are putting in sewer pipes I think. It is just a mess. There are dead ends everywhere. Actually the water levels is pretty high so you can't get around the one pond anyway. It was very cloudy so the colors are really good. It was a good first drive for Derek.

Road trip to Nata Bird Sanctuary

Miya, Pollen Amos and I took a road trip to Nata to go to the bird sanctuary. I had wanted to go there the last 2 years but never made it. We left very early, it was suprising we got Miya up that early but she slept most of the way to Francistown. We stopped in FT for lunch, Pie City...yum. They had peri peri chicken pies, I was so excited. There was a post office next door and Miya and I got some nice stamps, well I got a few bird 1st day covers she bought just about every stamp they had. After lunch we made the 2nd half of the journey to Nata. It was a long drive but we made really good time. Nata wasnt at all what i had pictured in my mind. I was thinking there was going to be a lot of water and it would be more like the Delta with a lot of birds. It was more like the Kalahari, dry and desert like with lots of pans. I had a great time, I guess it is better to go during the rainy season to see more birds though. I was hoping to see flamingos but they had already migrated out. We had a fun time and neither Amos or Pollen had ever been there before so that was another plus for them.

Sua Pan

We1st tried to stay in Nata but there was no rooms available at the lodge we went to. Pollen said there was a lodge in Sua so we tried there. If we stayed there we could drive around the pans in the morning and then head out. The road to Sua was under construction. we went on and off the road. We finally got to Sua but the lodge was further down the road by the salt mine. We finally got there, Amos and Pollen slept in the car. Actually we were all supposed to stay in the car but that didn't end up happening. Miya and I stayed in the room. Again, not my kind of place, yes I am a snob. I would have been ok in the car. All I could think about was bed bugs and then I had a dream about lice on the bed. We had dinner at the lodge and the guys played pool. We got up early, had a few snacks for breakfast. I walked around and took some pictures of birds. I did see a few new ones, a pied barbet and a black flycatcher. After we packed up, we drove to the pan. It was so white and so large. There was a springbok walking on the pan and some wildebeest on the long grass that went along the pan. We stayed there a bit and then drove by the mine and then back toward Francistown with a stop first at Amos' cattle post.