Africa 9/12/24 - 10/3/24

Overview

The way safaris work is pretty much the same in all of the camps.

Moring game drive. You get woken up at an ungodly hour, typically between 5AM to 5:45AM. You get a half hour to get dressed, have coffee, and a small cold breakfast (cereal or granola or small muffin). Then you start your drive between 5:30AM and 6:00AM and spend 3-4 hours looking for animals (you always find something to see, no worries about that). You always take a coffee break in the bush toward the end of the drive (everyone gets out of the vehicle while the guide&tracker put up a small table and offer instant coffee and small cookies). Note that some of the camps don't trust you in the morning and require you to have a camp escort to get from your tent to the dining area.
Morning breakfast. When you get back from the game drive you have the real, hot breakfast, typically eggs and bacon or whatever else the cooks decides to make that morning.
Free time during the day. Nothing happening until tea time, you just hang out, read a book, look at the scenery, or whatever (can't go on a real walk, you're not allowed to leave the camp boundary)
High tea, typically around 2:00PM-2:30PM. Not my understanding of high tea, this is more like a lunch. Normally there's a buffet put out with things like game sausages, small sandwiches, fish tacos one time , more substantial things than I associate with a high tea.
Evening game drive. Go on another 3-4 hour game drive around 4PM. During this drive you always have a sundowner (toward sunset everyone gets out of the vehicle and you all have a drink - kind of a waste for those of us that don't really drink but it's traditional and all the camps do this).
Dinner. Served when you get back from the evening game drive. One little hickup is that, unless your tent is very close to the dining area none of the camps will let you walk back to your tent after dark alone, you have to have a camp escort with you, this is a bit of a pain and there's no appearant reason for it but them's the rules.

The Big Five: Everybody always talks about the Big Five. These are the big animals that everyone wants to see. Note that this list was created by big game trophy hunters. As such, these macho men were only interested in the dangerous, hard to kill animals - which is why giraffes didn't make the cut.

Day 1-5 - 9/12

Travel to Cape Town

Very uneventful trip from Boulder to Cape Town (ignoring the fact that the shuttle drove north from our house to get us to the airport that is to the south of us but it worked). Have to say, flying business class can really spoil you. Lie down flat, real food with real silverware, free drinks - it's not too shabby.
Now the fun begins. Get to passport control and the agent points out that our passports expired 2 years ago. We have current passports but they're back at the house and there's no way to get them to us. Unlike the Tom Hanks movie The Terminal there's no way to keep illegal aliens at the Cape Town airport so we get sent back to the states on the next flight. Even though the trip starts with 2 days in Cape Town before the first safari that doesn't give us much time to fly back to Denver, Uber to the house, find our passports, drive back to DIA and get to the first camp. Currently I'm writing this in the Cape Town airport waiting for our first flight home, more details to come as they transpire.
OK, so to start, the United people in Cape Town reschedule our current return trip to today and we fly back to Denver. In the meantime, Barb has convinced our neighbor (big thanks to Judy) to rifle our house and she finds our current passports. Our daughter Meaghan then gets the passports from Judy and meets us at DIA - passport issue solved but now we have to get back to S. Africa. No problem, we're scheduled to arrive in Denver at 11AM and I got us flights that left at 2PM to get us back to Cape Town. When we got off our first flight at Dulles we got a text from United about the first leg of our return to S. Africa (Denver to Dulles) - "Your flight has been delayed 3 hrs, sorry about that, here's a $15 meal voucher to make up for any inconvenience". Since we had a 2hr layover in Dulles this killed our return to S. Africa.
Since we're at the airport we find an agent that agrees to help us reschedule our flight to S. Africa (finding an agent is hard, 99% of the agents at DIA only deal with checkins, we had to go to one of the 2 desks that deal with other problems. The agent there agrees to help us (even though she wasn't trained in booking flights - go figure). She basically called a real booking person who was able to reschedule (at no extra cost) the flights I had just booked into something that now worked. Our new itinery was now Denver -> Dulles -> Adis Abbaba (with a stop in Lome) -> Johannesburg -> Skukusa (where we get driven to the first camp). We actually get into Skukusa 2hrs before every body else so we're good.
The flights were fine modulo the Ethiopian Air 787s (Dulles to Johannesburg) were older and things like the seat monitors were marginally operational and one of the bath rooms had a clogged sink and open panels but the planes made it fine.
Then there was the transfer at Adis Ababa - what a mess. After getting through the long line to do a security check (even though we were just doing a transfer so why did we need yet another security check) we then had to get to our departure gate - a major hassle. We follow the signs and wind up in an area with half a dozen gates and half the population of Ethiopia crowded in front of those gates. It was an utter zoo. After talking to some fellow travellers we discovered you just push your way to the appropriate line that is for your gate. Then you spend 15 min. getting up to the gate agent who lets you know you're at the right gate but he's checking the flight to Kigali and he's not ready for us. We stand to the side and, after the Kigali flight leaves, we're one of the first ones to board our plane (no boarding by group number or row number in Adis Ababa). We finally get to Johannesburg at 4AM.
After finding out departure gate we find the one cafe that has power outlets and wait the 6 hrs until our final flight leaves. While waiting I decide it's time to visit an ATM to get some local money to tip our guides. Getting out of the gate area is hard, no apparant exit path, so I ask and they tell me to just swim upsteam through the security area. Surprisingly enough, that's that correct thing to do and the agent who lets me out (after setting off the metal detector as I walk through it the wrong way) tells me there's an ATM just around the corner - simple. Actually, not so simple, that ATM is out of commission so I have to walk forever to find a working one. Finally I find a sunken area that looks promising, get the cash from a working ATM, and return to Barb at the gate. (Ironically, as I leave the ATM I find a bank of 6 ATMs that were hidden around a corner, there's lots of ATMs if you just know where they are.
Finally get on our plane for our fight to Skukusa (cute tidbit - Skukusa is so small/new that the security agent checking our tickets at the airport security area had never heard of it before).

Day 6 - 9/16

Idube, Sabi Sands - Pictures Hilights All

Evening - Finally get on our plane and make the 1hr fight to Skukusa. Anyway, we get there with no problem and land on a quintessential Africa landing strip - out in the middle of no where with veldt on all sides. No one there to greet us because our flight changes got us in 2hrs before the rest of the party and the driver, Jeff, wasn't able to get there until an hour after we arrived. No problem, Jeff found us and we spent a pleasant hour talking to him while waiting for everyone else. After the rest of the group arrives on their flight Jeff drives us to our first camp.
Arrive at Idube, our camp, and immediately take off on our first game drive with our guide FJ (he claims that's his real name) and tracker ?. Lots of interesting stuff including a hole dug in the ground that had been used to mark territory by hippos. A male hippo had dug the hole and then spread its poop in and aournd the hole to mark its territory - I wouldn't argue with him, he can have it.
Then we hit the highlight of the drive. A leopard had killed an antelope and was protecting it from a puff adder. We spent a lot of time watching although, unfortunately, I never got a view of the adder, it was too well hidden in the dead leaves. Eventually the leopard went over and grabbed the antelope and played with it a little (her mom obviously forgot to tell her not to play with her food :-) We did hear later that the leopard stashed that antelope up in a tree (good way to protect it from scavengers) and by the next day only about 10% of it was left.
We discovered an unfortunate snag at dinner that night. We wanted to have at least one of our game drives be a bush walk but this camp requires anyone over 65 to have a doctors note asserting we won't die if we go on a 2 kilometer walk over slightly rough terrain (even though the company that set up our trip said no camps ever enforce that kind of rule). Looks like we're out of luck on the bush walk (turns out this walk would have been pretty trivial, less than 30 min, and we have better walks planned at other camps so no big deal).

Day 7 - 9/17

Idube, Sabi Sands - Hilights All

Morning - Start the day way too early (5:30AM wake up call, on the road by 6AM). See lots of game but there were 3 highlihts
- Our guide finds a pack of about 2 dozen wild dogs. Very beautiful spotted animals. There were over a dozen pups and they were running around and playing, just like pups do.
- A little farther along we come to the carcase of a giraffe that had died of natural causes (not from a predator). The insides of the giraffe were gone but a group of hyenas, wild dogs, and vultures were scavenging the body for what was left. The hyenas were running the show but every once and a while the dogs and vultures would sneak in for their share.
- We stopped for a coffee break by a small water hole, admiring the sights and the hippos in the pool. The a single male elephant came by and eventually came withing 50 yards of us, to the point where the guides packed up the snacks early and had us stand by the vehicle, just in case. The elephant was in must (sexually active, looking for a female) and they can be rather unpredictable in that state.
Mid-day. Our friends took pity on us for our troubles in getting to the camp and got both Barb and I massages to work the kinks out a little. The massages almost made up for the constant flying over the last few days - almost :-)
Evening - This game drive wound up being all about the rhinos. Went to a water hole where we saw two of them just hanging out on the bank. Saw others during our drive around, for a total of about 7 rhinos. On the way back to camp there was a leopard and 2 cubs that had been spotted and we quickly drove back to camp and saw them, basically in our units back yard.

Day 8 - 9/18

Idube, Sabi Sands - Hilights All

Morning - First checked out a water hole with a stork on the bank, a flock of ducks on the other bank, half a dozen hippos in the middle of the lake, and a crocodile checking out the breakfast menu. The ducks were putting on a male dominance show so the crocodile slowly swam over their way. Before the croc could do anything the ducks decided to walk away from the shore (fortunately for them) and the croc missed out on breakfast.
The rest of the drive we spent trying to find leopard tracks/scat. The guides knew a leopard and 2 cubs (probably the same 3 from last night) were in the area and all the guides were trying to track them down. Eventually one of the other guides found them in the tall grass. We went over and took some great photos of the mom and cubs playing around.
Evening - Spend most of the drive looking for the mother leopard and her cubs - no luck. Good news is there were lots of good animal sightings to compensate

Day 9 - 9/19

Idube, Sabi Sands - Hilights All

Morning. After lots of searching (by our guide and tracker and other parties) we found the leopard and her cubs by a water hole, having a drink to start out the day. Then we followed other reports and got to see 2 male lions. Toward the end of the drive we found an anomaly - an antelope carcass with with no predator near by. We even sent our tracker off on foot and he wasn't able to find anything. We'll check it out again on the evening drive.
Evening. Went to the antelope carcass and it was still there with no predator in sight. The carcass had been eaten a little more but it was probably buzzards that did that. The guide was a little mystified as to what is going on. We also ran across a rhinoceros that still had most of its horn - this rhino wandered in from Kruger Nation Park. Guide explained that they'll leave the horn on this rhino until they can find some other rhinos to dehorn. The process is very expensive since they have to use helicopters (they don't want to use cars so that the animals don't get afraid of cars) to bring in a vet so they like to do multiple animals at the same time. On the way back to camp there were reports of the lion, we went to check it out but had no luck sighting them - too dark by then to see anything anyway.

Day 10 - 9/20

Idube to Bateleur, Timbavati - Hilights All

Morning. Cold front came through and it was cold. Do our morning game drive and checked the anomalous kill - it was still there and still hardly touched. No idea where the scavengers were. Ran across the painted dogs just huddling together, they we probably trying to stay warm just like we were. Saw a hippo that was standing on the shore getting a drink from the water hole - why a hippo (who spends all day submerged in the water) needs to get out to get a drink is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
Drive to Bateleur. Say goodby to iDube and take the 3hr drive to Bateleur. The drive was uneventful except everyone told us to make sure to use the restroom break after the 1st hour but, turns out, there was a water problem and no restroom break. We waited to take a break until the gated entrance to the Timbavati reserve where there were facilities (an hour before we get to the camp) and it all worked out. Checked into our new camp and immediately went on a game drive with our new guide Timba and tracker Simba (interestly enought Simba's real name was Timba but the camp thought that would be too confusing so one of them had to take on an alias and, since guides are more senior, our tracker had to change his name).
Evening. Slowly ride around looking for animals but not too concerned when we only saw a few elephants and impalas, it was so cold nobody was upset. Then, toward the end, we got in the queue and eventually watched a herd of 15 lions chowing down on a recent buffalo kill. That was worth the drive, watching the lions crouching down taking dainty bites of the buffalo. The guide says it'll take them abut 3-4 days to finish it off, they'll eat until stuffed, lie around to digest the meal, then go back when they're hungry again. Note that they will protect the kill and not let hyenas or painted dogs or anything else get a bite.

Day 11 - 9/21

Bateleur, Timbavati - Hilights All

Morning. The cold front moved through and the day was cold (low 50s), damp (light drizzle), and windy (could hardly keep my hat on). Comfortwise it was a miserable morning but the sights made up for it.
Go back to the lion buffet and they were all still there. The buffalo was about half gone and, when we got there, the lions were in their post-prandial digestive phase. Everyone had a full belly and they were just waiting for the next meal time.
Say goodbye to the lions and then we spotted an ostrich off in the distance but he was too shy and ran away from us. No good pictures but we definitely saw him.
The highlight of the ride was that they had tracked down a cheetah. We and another vehicle caught up with him and had a very good sighting. Turns out this cheetah was one of a pair of brothers but his sibling was taken out by a cape buffalo who horned him in the stomach. Unfortunately, the brother wasn't found until it was too late to give him any medical assistance (normally they let nature take its course but, since cheetahs are an endangered species, they'll try and save one if they can).
Evening. Slightly warmer (but not by much) - at least it was dry and for the first half of the drive not as windy.
Randomly drove around until some other guide spotted a male leopard. Hurried over and got a brief glimpse of him, not even enough to get any good pictures. Checked out 2 biggish water holes but there were no Egyptian Storks as we were hoping for - oh well, try another day. Got a brief glimpse of a steenbok (a small, solitary antelope) but he ran away before I could get a picture. After dark we got to see a bush baby (big eyed relative of the monkeys) and an owl. Others in the group were happy but I've been rather under whelmed with the evening drives.

Day 12 - 9/22

Bateleur, Timbavati - Hilights All

Morning. Start out by driving around a bit and then stopped at an open area for our first bush walk. Lots of rules/regulations (single file, keep quiet, snap fingers to get the guide's attention, ...) - they really don't want to lose any guests. During the walk we saw tracks that were explained by the tracker. How he can see some of this stuff is beyond me. He pointed to one track and said you can tell it's not from the cat family because you can see the claw marks - no you can't, I looked at it and didn't see them. Anyway, really fun to walk around in the bush, we all enjoyed that.
During the walk we found a non-hill creating termite and the guide went over a lot of termite info;
- One queen and one king in the hive, that's all the royalty.
- The queen can choose what kind of egg to lay - queen, king, worker, or soldier.
- A new queen/king immediately fly off and start their own colony
- The hill is at risk from anteaters
  - An anteater will drill a hole in the hive and slurp up all the termites it finds.
  - If the anteater hits the queen that's it, the hive will die out
  - If the anteater misses the queen then the soldiers (a soldier has pincers for attacking, workers don't have the pincers) will attack the anteaters tongue. They can't kill it but eventually they will annoy it enough such that the anteater will leave
  - Since the soldiers basically go on a suicide mission the queen will have to adjust its egg laying strategy to produce more soldiers
  - The queen can lay about 1 egg per second and it takes about a day before an egg hatches so replacing soldiers/workers is a fairly easy task
After the bush walk we found a leopard that was taking a stroll. After a while we got to see it climb a tree which was pretty cool.
Then we found an elephant that was lying on its side. We were worried that it was dead until we saw it move one of its legs. We left it and went on, when we went by it again later we watched it roll over and stand up. After stretching a bit (don't we all do that in the morning) it decided it was time to start the day and it strolled off.
Saw a heart of elephants across a dry and I have the video to prove it.
Evening. Start out by finding a leopard that was working on a kill. The leopard was out in the open and the kill was, supposedly, hidden nearby at the base of a tree. I never saw the kill but others assured me it was there.
Next we saw a lioness and her two cubs chowing down on a wildebeast. The 3 were part of a pride but for some reason they had decided to strike out on there own for a little bit. The expectation is that they will go back to the pride when they are ready.
The highlight of the day was we finally saw 2 rhinos. We were setting up for the sundowner drinks when we spotted the rhino a little way off. We all packed up in the vehicle (leaving our tracker behind to fend for himself and finish setting up the drinks) while we approached the rhinos. Great sighting but, unfortunately, it was just a little too late in the day, the light was rapidly disappearing, and I wasn't able to get any pictures but the sighting was great (and the drinks didn't hurt).

Day 13 - 9/23

Bateleur, Timbavati - Hilights All

Morning. This is our bush hike. We go out to some scrub area and our tracker drives off and leaves us with our guide to make our way to the rendezvous (where ever that is, hopefully the guide knows). Our guide shows us some antelope, elephant, zebra, and rhino tracks and I'm amazed they can see anything at all. The ground is hard with a thin layer of sand on top and the prints are faint and fuzzy but, somehow, the guide can see them.
The guide also shows us a tree which is poisonous but, used properly, is helpful in medicine:
- The leaves have a sap that will make you throw up so avoid it
- Except the sap of the leaves can be put on a tooth that is causing problems and it will kill the nerve of the tooth. The tooth will eventually have to be removed but it's a lot easier if the nerve is gone (make sure you put the sap on the bad tooth and not the good one next to it, otherwise you will wind up losing 2 teeth :-)
- The smoke from burning the branches is also toxic so that bad chicken you had for dinner might have been OK except that it was cooked over the wrong fire
- Except that smoke can also be used to clear vermin out of your house. Every 3 months you seal up the doors and windows, start a smoky fire, and all the insects will be killed and the snakes will slither away
After the bush hike we went back to a water hole we visited the night before and now there were a half dozen Egyptian Herons, which made the bird fanciers in the group happy.
After checking out a few zebras who came by to visit we went to a dry creek bed where there was a wild dog lying in the middle of the creek bed. The dog had been injured and, since it's an endangered species, they fixed it up and put a collar on it for monitoring purposes (a wild dog with a collar - you don't see that very often). Our guide is not optimistic that the dog will survive but they're doing the best they can for it.
Bush survival skills 101 At noon our tracker gave us some practical demonstations of how to obtain the 4 essentials for survival in the bush:
- Water. Two solutions here:
  - Dry stream bed. Just dig and within a meter or so you should get clean water that has been filtered by the sand in the stream bed. Best place to dig is at a bend in the river when the water pushes against the bank and will be easily available.
  - Elepht dung. Make sure it's fresh (only about an hour or so old), dig into the center and get the dung in your hands and then squeeze. The water that comes out is safe to drink
  Note that water holes are bad (animals have been pissing and pooping in the water) so stay away from that. Also flowing streams are dangerous, you don't know what animals upstream have been doing. Best bet is to stick with dry stream beds and elephant dung water.
- Food. Stay away from red fruits, they are probably poisonous. Mushrooms are iffy also, creamy mushrooms are OK but creamy mushrooms with spots are bad - just ignore mushrooms. Termites are a great source of food, stick a branch in a termite mount, pull it out and eat the termites that have attached themselves to the branch. In order to catch some small game for food you need to create a trap and you need twine for the trap. He showed us how to make twine from the leaf of a Mother in Low plan, here's part 1 and part 2
- Shelter. Don't try and sleep in a tree (you'll fall down) and don't try a cave (the only reason the cave is empty is because the lioness is out hunting and she will be very upset with you when she gets back). The best option is an open area, just surround yourself with a barrier of thorn bushes that the elephants have conveniently broken off for you. The barrier will stop the hyenas and most of the other animals know to avoid humans.
- Fire. Demonstrated how to make a fire from a wood rod and a block of wood. One of the secrets (and where I went wrong when I tried it as a kid) is to make sure the rod and block are from the same tree, if the two have different hardness then it won't work. Here's the video showing how to do this.
Evening. No specfic sightings but we certainly saw animals.

Day 14 - 9/24

Bateleur, Timbavati to Pafuri Tented Camp, Pafuri - Hilights All

Morning. Short morning as we are leaving for the next camp. Drove far east for the first time where we stopped and watch a male lion chomping down on a small elephant. Normally, lions don't go for elephants so the suspicion is that it died of natural causes and two lions chanced upon it. The second lion was a little ways away with a very full stomach just lazing around digesting. A jackal came by to scope things out but it never got that close (lions will frequently let jackals share in a kill since the jackal doesn't eat much). It was interesting how the guides found this lion pair since they were well hidden in the brush. One of the other guides was checking the sky and noticed some buzzards circling around. He decided to scope out the area and found these two lions.
A little farther down the road we came across a steenbok that actually stayed still long enough for me to get a picture of it.
Ended our drive with a good view of some zebras where the guided explained that the zebra has black skin so they are black with white stripes.
Bateleur -> Pafuri This is a short flight with one minor exciting feature - I got to fly the plane for a bit :-) When we boarded the pilot asked if anyone wanted to sit in the copilot seat and, of course, I volunteered. The pilot, Benjmin, and I got to talking and he sensed my interest and asked it I wanted to fly the plane to which I of course said yes. Once we got to cruising altitude, 7,000 ft, and the turbulence died out he let me take the controls. It's remarkably hard to just keep the plane flying straight at the right altitude, there are lots of little corrections you have to make and you have to deal with fact that there's a delay before a change you make actually affects the plane. I wouldn't say I was perfect but we didn't crash - what a blast.
Evening. Got to the camp in time for a late lunch and the evening game drive. They do things a little differently here in Kruger. We only have one guide, Jan, in the car, no tracker. The vehicles are not allowed to go off road unless we are chasing a leopard or a lion. Cuts down the animal viewing just a little but it's still acceptable (unlike in Sabi Sand where our guide FG would drive through anything, anytime - 10' tree in front of us, no problem, it's not a protected species, just drive over it :-).
We saw a lot of Cape Buffalo in herds of up to a dozen animals. Never seen more than 2 together before so that was a little special.
Caught sight of an eland, a fairly uncommon antelope in this area and was able to get a few good pictures of him.

Day 15 - 9/25

Pafuri Tented Camp, Pafuri - Hilights All

Morning. Decided to take a short hike up to the archeological site Thundamela, a hill top where the local ruler set up shop. Interesting to see the low stone walls that had been recreated to show what the settlement looked like.
Afternoon - we had an elephant encounter right outside our tent. There was a stream beside the camp and a heard of over 2 dozen elephants came down for a drink and a stroll scross the stream. Also, an elephant decided it was hungry and came over to de-bark the tree that was growing right next to our tent. The elephant was about 10' from me (I could have walked to the lower deck of our tent and touched him but that seemed like a bad idea). It was interesting to watch him use his tusk to wedge the bark away from the tree. I've decided that I don't like elephants that much, there's too many of them in Africa (over 30,000 more that they can really support) and they just destroy the trees.
Evening. Starting out on the drive we came across a herd of over 2 dozen buffalo, those beasts really congregate in packs in this area.
Had our sundowner at Crook's Corner. This an area along the Luvuvhu river that is the intersection of 3 countries - Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and S. Africa. Crooks (ivory poachers, black forced labor providers (e.g. slavers), etc) hung out here relatively save from the law. The area was so remote that the law took too long to get there so crooks had plenty of time to hide or move to a different country from the law men. If, by chance, law men from all 3 countries came the crooks just sat in a tree and laughed as the 3 different law groups argued about who should arrest anybody.
Moving along we came across a herd of about 1 dozen eland, an unexpected sighting.
Driving back to the camp at night we almost hit 3 hyenas just lying in the road (I use the term road loosely, it was a barely visible track in the field). The hyenas we so chill they basically ignored us. They were there first, it was their territory, it was only when we started to go around them that they finally got out of the way.

Day 16 - 9/26

Pafuri Tented Camp, Pafuri - Hilights All

Morning. Off for another bush walk this morning. Our guide parked the vehicle, got every body out, and then looked at the elephants nearby and said they were blocking where he wanted to go so he had to choose a different site (you don't argue with elephants, they're bigger than you). Of to another site, we get out and the guide decides that the nearby buffalo herd are not a problem as long as we take a slightly different route for our walk (turns out a herd of cape buffalo is not that dangerous, they will normally just walk away - a single buffalo, on the other hand, is called a "widow maker", they are unpredictable and aggressive, you really want to avoid them). The is fine except, on the way back, there was a herd of about a dozen buffalo that we watched very carefully. Again, they walked off away from us so it was OK but we were very quiet walking along there.
Evening. Six of us decided to talk the longish (1-1.5 hr) drive to Lanner Gorge. A good portion of the way was on paved road but then we went on dirt track. I have to say, that was the roughest dirt road we had ever been on, to say we got an African Massage was an understatement. Rough ride but the view at the end was well worth it. We parked at a trail head and scrambled up a couple of hundred yards to a spectacular lookout over the gorge. Unlike the other group that beat us to the top (including a couple who used to live in Aspen :-) we did not force our guide to haul our sundowner drinks to the top, we hiked back down to the trail head for that.

Day 17 - 9/27

Pafuri Tented Camp to Mashatu, Botswana - Hilights All

No game drive today, we have a longish ride to Botswana. over 3 hr drive (bumpy road) to the border crossing plus another hour drive from the border to the camp. The pot holes on some areas of the paved highway we were on provided competition for some of the dirt tracks we have been game viewing on. After the controlled chaos (not that controlled) in Musina (a border town we had to drive though with lots of activity, interesting tidbit - there's a church in Musina gets over 2 million pilgrims for Easter and Christmas - based on how it was on a normal day I can't imagine what it is like during those holidays) we continue on to the border.
Anyway, we got through customs/immigration at the border and I was expecting another transfer van but no, one of the safari vehicles from our camp met us on the Botswanna side of the border with our new guide, Ben. Even through the preserve for our camp was right up against the border it was another hour drive to get to our camp.
Evening. Our guide Ben and tracker Tao (which means lion) took us out on our evening game drive. Elands, which were uncommon down south, are very prevalent here. We immediately came across a herd of over a dozen elands here.
We then drove to where a male leopard was chilling out. Compared to the female leopards we had seen down south this guy was huge. He was just lying there, no care in the world, completely ignoring us and the other vehicle intruding on his space (the other vehicle was a photo vehicle with only 2 guests and the guy had the worlds largest telephoto lens - I'm rather jealous).
On the way back we got a great view of an owl, just sitting on a branch by the side of the road, probably considering what was on the menu for that evening.

Day 18 - 9/28

Mashatu - Hilights All

Morning. Start out the drive with a great view of 4 elephants that were walking in a hurry (a hurrying elephant goes pretty slow by our standards) trying to find shade after drinking at a water hole.
Came across a flock of quelea birds which are now my favorite bird. There was a flock of a few dozen of these small birds, all together, pecking at seeds on the ground. Our guide clapped his hands and they all took off in a mass, flying so close together they block out the view of anything behind them. Beautiful.
Came across an area where dozens of baboons and dozens of impala where hanging out together. Turns out right now the two animals are friendly and can cohabit the same space. When the impalas start dropping babies the friendship ends. The baboons like to eat baby impalas, they like the milk-fed meat the babies provide so the friendship ends.
Ended the ride with a group of 5 lions that were just lazing around on the ground, not bothering anybody. Turns out, the adult males (about 10 years old) wasn't concerned bout the three 3 yr old males in the group. Once the youngsters got a little older and started thinking about mating then the older male will drive them out of the pride and let them fend for themselves. The older male doesn't like competition.
Evening. Drive started out slow with some birds like an owl to keep the birders happy. Then we ran across dozens of baboon that were walking across the plain, later in the evening then they should be out, looking for trees to spend the night. They were probably spooked by a predator that kept them away from the trees later than they wanted.
Then we came across dozens of guinea fowls that were walking along, also out later than they should be. Predators must have been busy that evening. Interestingly enough, even though they can fly, these bush chickens prefer to walk, which was what they were doing.
On the drive back, it was pitch black, and Barb somehow saw a scorpion on the road in front of us. How she saw that was a mystery to all of us but she got the spotter medal for that drive.

Day 19 - 9/29

Mashatu - Hilights All

Morning. This morning we spent in the hide. This was a low structure with open widows that was located right on the edge of the artificial water hole that had been set up. Artificial in that it was a natural hole that they were pumping water into. Great sightings. Started with some elephants (nasty beasts, they chase other animals away from the water for no good reason), lots of antelope, a couple of giraffes, and there was even a couple of jackals that came by even if they didn't come down to drink.
The hide is run by Photo Mashatu and there was a professional photographer there who gave tips and advice to anyone who wanted it. I learned that I was basically doing things right although he had some good pointers that will hopefully improve my pictures (unfortunately, this came on the last few days of the trip, sadly it didn't happen on the beginning of our safari).
Here a a couple of videos, one showing a group of elephants taking a drink (notice how there are no other animals, the elephants have driven them away) and another showing an elephant covering himself with mud to cool off.
Evening. Start out by finding a monitor lizard hiding in a tree stump. How our tracker was able to see just the head poking out of the stump is a mystery to me. We moved on to a big tree with another vehicle looking at the leopard hiding in the tree. Unfortunately, all you could see was the tail hanging down and a part of the face but there was definitely a leopard in that tree.
The highlight of the ride was when we found a lioness and her 3 cubs hanging out on the bank of a dry river bed. Spent a lot of time admiring the family, the cubs are soo cute when they're that small (although they would probably tear you arm off if you got close to them).
On the ride back we saw a brief glimpse of a spring hare darting into its burrow in the ground. Don't see them very often so that was special.

Day 20 - 9/30

Mashatu - Hilights All

Morning. Four of us went on a 4 mile bush hike with a guide. Things feel a lot different when you are on the ground outside of the vehicle. I didn't feel worried but it was definitely different. One issue is you can't get that close to the animals. Unless you are very lucky (we weren't) and happen to be down wind the animals won't let you come near. They recognize that humans are to be avoided (cars are just big beasts with many head, nothing to worry about). Our guide had a lot to say about animal poop (it's every where) and burrows.
Evening. Relatively low key game drive tonight. We ran across a large herd of eland, those antelope are surprisingly common in this area.
The highlight of the drive was when we checked out the female leopard (we got there first but 2 other vehicles arrived soon after). This is a female about 15 yrs old, still in great shape and making cubs. she had a pair of cubs earlier this year but in January they disappeared, mother nature is a cruel mistress.
Turns out today is Botswana independence day so all 4 camps in the area decided to hold a large bush dinner to celebrate. They set up a boma (fire pit with seating all around) out in the middle of nowhere and hosted dinner for all 54 guests that happened to be there (they don't do this on a regular basis, we just lucked out and got here at the right time). After dinner most of the staff sang a few songs and then we went back to camp.

Day 21 - 10/1

Mashatu - Hilights All

Morning. Back to the hide where I got a few more tips from the resident photo pro (have I mentioned that I really wished we had started and not ended the trip here). Normal complement of antelope (impala, kudu, and eland) and elephants (including, toward the end, a herd of about 20 - unusual for this time of year, it's so dry the elephants normally split into small groups and spread out scrounging for food). A jackal come by and did some nice posing and a group of 4 mongoose also came up to say hi.
Evening. I had mentioned (admittedly, more than once) that I would love to see a cheetah so our guide took us on a long drive over to an area where one had been spotted in the past. On the way it became clear that the giraffes were having a get together, we'd neve seen so many giraffes, they were every where.
Almost needless to say we didn't spot the cheetah but the other sightings made up for that.
Ran across a group of about 4 jackals who didn't immediately run away. Normally these guys are very shy so it was nice to see them for once.
Barb once again proved her tracking skills as she was the first one to see a couple of ostriches. These, unlike the one we saw distantly in Bateleur, were close by and only strolling along.

Day 22 - 10/2

Mashatu, Botswana to Zebras Crossing, S. Africa - Hilights All

Morning. Last game drive of the trip. We started out by seeing a couple of kudu emulating mountain goats. They were going up a steep embankment quite comfortably. There was a faint track they were following so obviously this was a common route for them but still a little strange.
A little further on a leopard casually walked in from of our vehicle. After taking some pictures of him hiding in a bush he walked off and we tried to follow but lost him in the undergrowth.
We then found (I assume our guide just followed directions since there was another vehicle when we got there) a lion lying down digesting the first course of the meal he was having on an eland he had recently killed. Ho hum, just another boring day in the bush.
Mashatu to Zebras Crossing. The plan was for our guide Dan to drive us an hour to the border and a new driver would pick us up on the South African side of Pont Drift. The plan worked with a couple of minor hickups:
- Our guide had been using the euphemism "should we check the tires" to ask if anyone wanted a bathroom break. Half way to the border he suddenly said he needed to check the tires. Turns out he truly did need to check, we had a flat tire. It was no big deal, he calmly got the spare and jack out, changed the tire is about 10 min, and we were on our way again.
- At the border we switched to a new driver and got on our way. The trip was uneventful until we got to the last city, Modimolle, before our camp. Then the driver got on his cell phone and started arguing with the camp staff about the bad directions they had given him. Turns out most people get to the camp from the south while we were coming from the north. As it turns out, we had multiple Apple/Google map apps to confirm that yes, we were going in the right direction, and got to the camp with only one wrong turn (which we corrected in about 100ft).

Day 23 - 10/3

Zebras Crossing to Johannesburg Airport to Home - Hilights All

Morning. Since Zebras Crossing is in an area with no predators there are multiple self guided hikes available at this camp. We decide to do the 2 hr hike since we weren't being picked up until after noon. The hikes are marked but they really need to work on their signage. The camp told us to start at the rock with white arrow and go until you see the colored markings for the different hikes - green (easiest), red, yellow, brown (the one we wanted). All well and good but they forgot to mention that, between the white arrow and the first colored path marker there's a fork in the road. Naturally we took the wrong branch of the path (it looked like the more used direction), spent 30 minuntes before we convinced ourselves we'd made a mistake and then wound up back at the camp. We then tried again, took the other branch, and actually came acros the rock with the 4 colored markers. It was too late by then to take the long hide so we just took the red one and got back to camp after about an hour and a half of hiking. No game sightings in this area but it was nice to get out and about.
Drive to Johannesburg airport. You didn't really think this trip would end without some sort of a hickup, did you? The drive to the airport was perfectly fine until we were a mile or so from the airport itself. The highway department decided that it was a good idea to do major road repairs in the middle of a work day. They shut down 2 of the 4 lanes for resurfacing and then, at the end, just before all 4 lanes opened up again, a truck had broken down and blocked one of the 2 working lanes. Basically, a very congested 4 lane highway had been blocked down to 1 lane, causing the mile long traffic jam that you would then expect. Fortunately, we had about 5 hrs before anyones first flight home so there was no problem - but still.