7/6 & 7 -- Chobe National Park

7/6 -- Today, we woke up to baboons in the tree near us exiting as a group and heading out to the river wherever 'work' was for them. They started  leaving just before the sun was totally up, making picture taking challenging. 

 After a light breakfast, we started exploring Chobe National Park. If possible, the entry road is worse than most the roads in Thornybush -- deeply rutted sand with dips alternating on each side of the track so we were constantly swinging side to side. First up was a large herd of Cape Buffalo, followed by a bunch of vultures at the waterfront. As we watched, the vultures flew off one at a time -- because their wings are so long, they need to jump up for the first couple steps to get any lift. We saw zebra, waterbuck, egrets, a coppery coucal, and elephant tracks. When they walk, they place their back foot, in the footprint of the front foot, which is a bit larger to help support the weight of their head.

Cape buffalo herd

Burchell Zebra herd on the plains -- pronounced zeb-ra here.

Vultures

Egrets - just like home

Double elephant foot print -- lower one is the front foot and
the hind foot fits inside.

Waterbucks.

Coppery Coucal

When we  headed back inland, we saw several hyenas and a jackal sparing for pieces of a zebra. Oddly, there were zebra nearby who just kind of ambled along as their buddy was getting demolished. The jackal is considerably smaller than the hyena (and possibly smarter). When they would fight each other for a piece, he would grab a small piece and dart off to sample it, and then bury it before going back for another  hunk. Toward the end of our stay there, the vultures sauntered up hoping to get in on the action, unsuccessfully. Although kind of gruesome, it is the circle of life and interesting to see in person.

Hyena with zebra leg

Black--back jackal with his stolen piece

Jackal going back for more

Zebra watching the hyena dine on a pal

Vulture waiting his turn

Things got more upbeat after that, with lots more animal and bird sightings.

Giraffe trying the grass

Male kudu

Baby zebra

The Burchell Zebra has a 'shadow stripe' between the black ones.

Lilac- breasted roller -- even prettier in flight

One of the hornbills

Buffalo Weaver - one of the Little Five - below his enormous nest

One of our group asked about crossing the bridge to Namibia and coming back, so we took an impromptu jaunt to another country. The bus drove us to the border, less than a mile away, and we exited Botswana, which ended up being VERY slow because the computers were down and it had to be done by hand. Finally, we clamored back onto the bus for the trip over where we got entry and exit stamps, and crossed back to Botswana, where the computers were working again.

The crew who went to  Namibia -- bus driver, Lynn, Jim, Karyn,
Millie, Jim, Bob

Baobob tree near the Botswana Immigration Office

In the late afternoon, we headed out to meet a women's group in the nearby town of Mabele. We met Henriety, a leader of the group, who showed us her garden and house before introducing us t o the  others. They make basketry items in the traditional way and shared how they are dyed, using modern materials in some cases: old soda can tops produce gray, and when combined with the root for dark brown, you get black. They gave a couple of us a chance to weave, then we had a chance to buy things they had made. On the way back to camp, we stopped at the river with a table set up to serve wine and snacks. and enjoyed watching the sun go down over the river.

This billboard was along the road where we turned to the village.

Ladies entertaining us before the basket demo

Sundown treat

Zebras at sunset at river's edge

Waterbucks and zebras

Sunset over the river

7/7 - As we went to breakfast, the baboon troop that lives in the tree outside our room left to go to the office for the day and Jim snapped a really nice picture of 3 of them before they left the house.

We had what was billed as a 20 minute drive on the highway to another more river-oriented area of Chobe. In an open vehicle on a highway when the outside temperature is in the 50s is a seriously cold experience, even with the lined ponchos provided. I had on 2 shirts, a down jacket, a lightweight soft shell, and a heavy fleece with a billed cap topped by a very warm fleece hat with the poncho wrapped around me from the waist down. The jeep only went about 25 MPH and I think it took at least twice as long as they projected.On the way to the park, we saw zebras, kudu, and an odd bird called a bustard.

If you click on this photo, you can clearly see the
shadow stripes

Bustard

Once we got there, there were more kudu and then we encountered a big elephant herd, which decided to cross the road in front of us, so we sat back and watched and took pictures. There was a very young calf in the group -- maybe a couple weeks old who was still nursing and short enough to run under its  mom. There were also a number of younger elephants in addition to the tiny baby. Elephants typically only give birth every 6 years --it takes 22 months to gestate and moms don't come into season again until the young one safe.

Baby elephant nursing

Next, we saw helmeted guinea hens -- they have a crest on their heads like male quail-- more impala and a weird gray bird with yellow wattles hanging down from the corner of its eyes to below its yellow beak. We also caught sight of an elusive honey badger running thru a field of tall grass -- it looks a lot like a skunk with a wide gray stripe. There were lots of giraffe too, and several times they looked like twins or as though their  necks were entwined.

Lion footprints

Helmeted guinea fowl

Impala

African Fish Eagle

A Congress of Baboons

Nile Crocodile

Black stork

Egrets and gray heron

White Crested Wattled Lapwing

Honey badger

Later, there were elephants again and one came toward us pretty aggressively and stopped only about 10 feet from the truck. The guides say they can identify the signs that the elephant is really charging, but sitting on an upper row in the truck on the side of the "not-a-real charge" is more excitement than I need.

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area where they warned us not to feed the monkeys and we took some tables under the monkey tree. Bad idea. Sammie told us each to pick up a stick to warn the monkeys away, which kept us pretty busy. Even with 14 of us protecting the food, the monkeys made several successful incursions, including at the end when one ripped a hole in the garbage bag.

Vervet monkeys like the ones who visited us at Thornybush

From there, we got word of a lion sighting, so we headed over to check it out. On the way, a self-driver stopped us and asked if we could radio the park HQ for help because a mini-van had gotten stuck in deep sand. We could see them below us seriously hung up in the sand in a vehicle that should never have been there. Unfortunately, the radios we have a better for communicating between drivers and didn't have the range needed to reach HQ. When we got to the lions, we found quite a group dozing in the shade of two bushes, maybe 6 or 7 in all, including 2 young  males.

Our next sighting was a beach of hippos, looking like a bunch of large dark potatoes. One was in the water and played peek-a-boo with us. Then there was a second lion sighting quite nearby -- about 8 of them also sleeping, including one with a tracking collar. Next up were warthogs and more giraffes and a southern ground hornbill, which reminded me of the frigate birds we saw in the Galapagos because of the floppy red neck trim.

Warthogs

Southern Ground Hornbill

Then we came upon a large herd of cape buffalo as we were starting to head home along with another bustard. I think  my favorite bird is the lilac breasted roller --when they are flying, they roll back and forth and have the most beautiful wings--two shades of turquoise. They look pretty good on a branch too, but I would love to have a photo of one in flight.

Baboon

Cape Buffalo

More rollers

On our way out, a car started to pass us and got our driver's attention and we stopped. This was the same car that had gotten stuck in the sand and had apparently blown out their clutch. They were only able to drive in 4th gear and asked if we could tow them to a nearby camping check-in station. They had two short lengths of a webbed rope that they tied together and we gently pulled them the 3K to the station. The knot separated three times, the  last time very near where they were going, so they were able to request help. We still had a ways to go to get to the road and didn't get back to camp till 3 or 4. 

Amazing that this tow rope held at all.

That evening, we attended an African style dinner with one of our guides as the chief -- we ate polenta and meat and salad with our fingers and were treated to wonderful singing afterwards. Then we were expected to entertain them -- we had been warned, but hadn't taken in very seriously. Doing "YMCA" had been suggested and when it was our turn, we were suddenly expected to know the words AND choreography. One of our crew tried to play it on his cell phone, but it wasn't loud enough for more than a couple people to hear. It was a total disaster, unless seen as a comedy routine. The woman who suggested it said it was all the rage at weddings and was stunned that I was clueless.