Tau Lodge, Madikwe South Africa

I left work early on Friday and was picked up by Tendai (he drove my dad and cindy to Madikwe too) and he took me to the lodge. It was great going across the border with him. He told me where to go and what to do. Everyone knows him so they don't give you any hassel. We got to the lodge and I checked in. Tau means lion so everything there has lions on it. It was great! The lodge is entirely fenced so you can walk around where ever you want. I was shown to my little cabin and right outiside my patio was a waterhole. There were waterbuck, impala, warthog, zebra, wildebeest, 2 elephants and a ton of birds right outside my door. It was amazing! There weren't many people at the lodge when I 1st got there. I was assigned a guide, his name was Denzel and a couple from Australia were also with him. We went out on our 1st game drive and that is where we saw the lions from the previous post with the warthog kill and the lions mating in the road. We also saw a black backed jackal and a steenbok which were new animals for me. Our guide wasn't the best for stopping for birds. I liked the guides better in the Delta. They were more about the people and letting them see everything not just the big animals and talking on his radio.

They have a rare bird at this lodge and people come there just to see it. They call it the "morph" it is a crimson brested boubou that is yellow instead of red. I followed it around until I finally got a good pic of it. They had a lot of good birds there. I am still working with the ID on quite a few. I gave Aunt Susie a lot to work on! I have 22 new ones that I know the names of but have to figure out the rest. I have 135 birds so far! I will have a scrapbook just of birds!

Another exciting thing I saw was a black mamba. It was inthe road and Denzel stopped realy fast. They are very aggressive snakes. It went back into the bush. We sat there for a while and it raised its head up to see us. I got a good picture of it! I did complete the Big 5 while I was there so I was happy about that. I saw the white rhino and the buffalo. I unfortunately didn't see the African wild dog. I will see it before I go home! Enjoy the pictures.

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.