Tuli

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The lodge where we were staying was pretty cool and the most amazing thing about that place is that there were almost more wild animals inside the lodge than outside... they even had a few elephants crossing through the previous night (you could see the spores they left behind).

The rooms didn't look like anything special from the outside

But on the inside, they were quite alright, actually. The one you can see on the picture above and the two below belong to Ina's room. It even was by the swimming pool!. She had the best room!... or so we thought until the night came and the toads started to sing... all night loooooong... she was the only one who didn't sleep at all because of the noise. We were all quite jealous when we saw her room... not so much when we saw her face the following day...

The room is the one at the end...

As you can see there was a lot of trees and grass all around us

Which attracted many wild animals... like
Wild boards

 Monkeys

and springboks

Just to name a few of them... there were lots of different birds as well and the place was just by the river Limpopo, right on the border with South Africa
The river below is the Limpopo river and the other side of the river is South Africa, we were still in Botswana... as you can see it wouldn't be difficult to enter South Africa illegally... in fact you may get there by accident if you go for a stroll...

We managed to see a sizeable zebra and wildebeest herd coming to the river to drink

It was an amazing place to stay and rest after the Kalahari experience... it really felt like civilization... but within a natural environment, i.e. we had running water and electricity (we went for many days without it), even hot water!  but at the same time you could see all these wild animals around you...

We only spent a couple of nights there though... the following day we were on the move again, destination: Kruger National Park

This is the place where the below amazing video was taken... if you've never watched it before...stay until the end, it's really worth it... no special effects, just being at the right time in the right place...



Amazing wasn't it? Well that was our next destination although our expectations weren't as high as what you can witness on that video...

Back on the road

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After Makgadikgadi pan it was time to get back on the road and travel south.

At lunch time we found a nice tree and decided to stop there and have a break

After being there for a while I noticed like a small sting in one my my legs... I looked down and saw a tick blood sucking my precious red fluid!! but that wasn't the worst part, I pinched it with my fingers and it came out easily, however when I looked at my feet my trainers were covered with them, at least a dozen of them and there were many more on the ground coming my way, tens of them!!

Before we all went back into Carmen  we did an full inspection on everyone getting in...

As I learnt later on, back home and watching a program about the Kalahari, those type of ticks are very common to the Kalahari and they live in the sand under the trees where the animals tend to go at the hottest hours of the day, they follow the CO2 expelled by the animals and that's how they find them, then they attached themselves to them and suck, suck, suck...until the animal moves. At that point they release themselves and get back to the sand to wait for another victim... it seems to be a better tactic than stay with the animal and to fall in the desert with no chance to survive.

I had to have my lunch on the move because the moment I stopped I could see an army of them coming my way...

We also did a stop in a place full of Baobab trees

We visited the Khama Rhino Trust where we camped and spent the night. This is a Rhino sanctuary where animals injured by poachers get rescued and relocated here.

In the morning we went for a safari and a few minutes after starting the safari we already spotted some rhino spores

The guide took his rifle (apparently in all game reserves, guides must take a rifle with them for protection) and followed the spores... after a 10 minute walk we found it.

You can't appreciate much on this picture, we had to keep the distance and my camera isn't the best for long distance photographs...

But the two people with reflex cameras and telescopic sight outflanked the guide (one on each side) and run towards the rhino using the bushes for cover, the guide didn't know what to do, started shouting at them to get back but he couldn't shout too loud or the rhino would hear him, the two keen photographers got really, really close, so close that the rhino saw them and started to get nervous and make some aggressive moves, the guide raised his rifle and point at it (what else could he do)... nobody moved for a few minutes, the two  photographers, oblivious to everything just took their time, took their pictures and for our relieve they turned around and re-joined the group... you could see the relieve on the guide's face... he was so close to shoot at the rhino... for the rest of the safari we didn't leave the vehicle... and you couldn't blame him for that really, I think he shaved a few years off his life that day...



Apart from the rhinos we got to see some other animals the park not only had rhinos in it.

After the Khama park, we went back to the road and headed towards Tuli, another game reserve. We were to spend the night there in a nice lodge. When we got there we dropped our bags and went for yet another safari. The sunset was approaching so it was the perfect time for spotting animals, so we all got into a couple of 4x4 and started another safari

Apparently this was a park were you could see leopards, they used to have quite a few but it seems not too far from the park they started to grow cattle and the leopards are not stupid, chasing a cow is piece of cake, chasing a springbok or a zebra is another matter all together. Hence most of them migrated to areas of easier prey.

They did have a nice baobab here too.

After this, we went back to the lodge

It also rains in the desert

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Then we went to see the Bushmen who were going to show us some of the skills they use to survive in the Savannah

Let me just start by saying that should you were to think that what he's got in his left hand is a piece of Jackal shit you wouldn't be mistaken.

When they were coming I looked around and thought... this is going to be quite disappointing there is nothing around to show us... but I was about to be proven wrong...

They really use everything... he took a piece of crap (crap is not figurative speech by the way, it was a real piece of shit) from the ground and from that he knew which animal made the deposit, what it had eaten and hence where he came from (because they know where all the plants are) and then he also knew were he was heading based on what they normally eat and the spores he left... really impressive... from just a piece of crap... I personally always try to avoid the shit on the ground... but that's probably because I'm a city boy.

But it got even better...

The guy above was as crazy as they come but also really funny, he didn't speak English... much less Spanish but he didn't need to... his theatrical skills were second to none... and here is him making  a demonstration of how to get water... he also did a total representation of how to hunt a springbok... Let's just say his white coat wasn't white anymore after the demonstration... but we all understood everything he was trying to tell us... although sometimes it was hard with all the laughter...

Making fire looks easy but believe me it is not... the lighter was a great invention... although Paul told us once the old bush men would light a cigarette making fire this way and they would be faster than you looking for your lighter, taking it out and lighting your cigarette... so I suppose it's all practice...

The next part of the trip in makgadikgadi pan looked quite promising on paper... We were going to spend the night somewhere in the middle of the pan... no roof, just us and the stars...but with a comfortable bed! and that's not all... we were to go there by Quad, cool right?


This is a photo of what the salted clay crust looked like

I think is worth noting there were several metres of mud underneath that dry salted clay crust... which usually is not a problem in a desert, it would only be a problem if it rains... we would be swimming in mud tens of metres deep... but this is a desert right? it doesn't rain in the desert, everyone knows that...


We put on our Bedouin gear, and got onto our quads

The plan to sleep rough-ish (when you have a proper bed you can't honestly say you were sleeping rough even if you didn't have a roof on top), was a good plan and we got there, had dinner, went to bed and at 2 in the morning the unthinkable happened...started raining!!!... yes, that's right, what are the chances of having a rainy day in the desert? I bet I'm one of the few people in the world who can now say I experienced a rainy day in the Kalahari desert...

On the downside we were sleeping over several tens of metres of mud... if the crust we were on got wet we could end up in a mud pool so we all run off to the quads and put them to the test,  imagine a pitch dark night (not even the stars due to the clouds) and full speed trying to get out of the pan where we were, as fast as possible...

It took us about 1/2 an hour to get out of there but we all made it safe and sound... that was quite an experience!

When we got back to the base camp and had some time to get our breath back and let the adrenaline go, we all got together and had a hot drink...

We went back to our tents...and this time we were so tired we didn't even check for scorpions... we just went to sleep... When I tucked myself in and felt no sting I thought it was good enough for me... there were no scorpions and allowed my dreams to catch up with me...

Makgadikgadi pan

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On paper this looked like the best part of the trip and it turned out to be pretty cool.

The Makgadikgadi pan is a large salt pan in the middle of the dry savannah of north-eastern Botswana, it is one of the largest salt flats in the world.

For most of the year it is covered with a dry salty clay crust and this is a very important piece of information to which I'll get back later.

We spent 2 or three nights here. When we got on the first day it was getting dark already, which didn't prevent us from trying one of the many local beers

yes... even here you can manage to get a cool beer when you need it the most. :-)

It was quite a nice lodge although instead of rooms they offered tents... large tents, but tents nonetheless. :-)

I had read somewhere you had to be careful with the scorpions and the snakes in that place so just to be sure I asked one of the employees at the lodge whether they had any scorpions or snakes and for our surprise he said...yes we have lots, you have to be careful...

After that reassuring response, Fran and I (we were sharing tent in that lodge) decided to take extra precautions so as soon as we got inside we checked the place out, all over, we even check inside the beds, undid them and did them again... Every time we went out or went to the toilet (which by the way was outside) we locked everything up and gave no chance to any snake or scorpion to get into our tent...

At this point I think is important to mention that not everyone was as cautions as we were, Luís and Victor (who were sharing the tent next door) had a couple of nice visitors when they came back from dinner and found a couple of scorpions in their tent... they didn't sleep much after that...

Dinner was nice

The following day we had an early morning, we were going to see the meerkats

We got into one of those typical 4x4 safari vehicles

and off we went to see the colony that was nearby, although along the way we managed to see a few zebra and wildebeest herds

And finally, we made it there... and there were lots... and you could get pretty close as you can see from these photos

That's how close we got to them!!

And below a couple of picture taken with a reflex camera with telescopic sight...
it really looks like taken out of National Geographic

But no, these photos were taken by Ina with her super-dupa camera. :-)

Leaving the Central Kalahari Game Reserve

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In my previous post I stated that we went North where most of the fauna is, due to the wells and the water that gets trapped there after the raining season. The Northern part of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is not as dry as the South and in the past millions of animals used to travel South to North in the dry season.

Unfortunately back in the 80s Botswana decided it would be a good idea to use their vast lands for producing cattle and they fenced most of the North preventing wild animals from reaching the most needed water supply on the dry season... as a consequence of this, millions of animals died of thirst and in one decade it decimated the wild population. Nowadays you can see a few hundred zebras and wildebeests but the herds are not what they used to be.

Surprisingly, wildebeests and zebras share the herd since one has an excellent ear and the other an excellent eyesight which allows them to complement one each other at spotting predators.

Talking about predators, on our last day in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve we spotted a male lion spore on the track we were following. A male lion had passed through this track only a few hours ago!

Check it out!

It's quite unsettling knowing there is a big beast like this nearby... it makes you think twice about wander around on your own, doesn't it? 

We went to the North gate of the reserve just to let them know we were still alive

And by the gate we saw a pick-up truck with what looked like a big box covered by a blanket. When I approached the vehicle I realised it wasn't a box, it was a cage and there was something alive in it! so I got closer and for my surprise I found a sedated lioness in it. I told the others and soon everyone was looking at the sleeping beauty...

We were told she had escaped from the reserve and gotten into a farm, so they sent some rangers to bring her back. The problem now was that they didn't know to which pride she belonged to and leaving her on the territory of the wrong pride would have catastrophic consequences for her, also it transpired that lioness contrary to their male counterparts cannot survive for long on their own, they need to live in a pride in order to survive. Due to the place where she was found the rangers guessed she came from the pride that hunts in the area we were in.

It was good to hear the lioness would probably find her pride but not so cool to find out you spent the night in the hunting grounds of a lions pride!!

As the rangers were about to release the lioness we decided to follow them and see the release...
Everything started well... the lioness was a bit groggy but good enough to stand up and walk ...

Unfortunately for her, they released her where a couple of male oryx where grazing and as soon as they saw her they went for her... she run for her life! it was quite a chase... mind you, if they get you with those horns you won't be able to tell the tale!, eventually she managed to get into an area with higher grass and the oryx lost her...

After that all the other animals we saw that day didn't look as exciting any more... but we managed to see quite a few...
Jackal

The photo is taken from way back because these animals are wild animals and at the minimum noise they run off and disappear. In the parks and other animal reserves they are used to cars so they just ignore you, but not here in the wild. That's were a good Reflex camera with telescopic vision comes in handy and your mini portable camera just doesn't cut it.

Wildebeest  taking advantage of the only shade around

There also were smaller animals around...

Even vultures like this one

And a giraffe... again... in the distance... This is the difference between my camera (mini portable camera)

And a reflex camera with telescopic sight

Almost the same thing, isn't it? :-)

We also visited the lakes which now were pretty much dried

We had our last night at the Central Kalahari Game reserve, knowing full well we were spending the night at a lions pride hunting grounds... in our flimsy tents... way out of anyone's comfort zone I would have guessed.

And the following morning we headed towards the East gate in order to exit the reserve and go to the Makgadikgadi pans.