Just filling in the blanks a bit. My next entry will be a lot of photos. I wrote this during down time on the Okavanga Delta.

There are baboons everywhere.  They are a lot more fun to see roaming around the national park than they are at the immigration crossing!  The troops are large and riotous, big ol’ males and females with babes on their backs or bellies, the babes with big eyes and hanging on for dear life, looking like they wished they were back inside mom’s belly. 

Impalas are also everywhere in the parks.  They are the deer of Southern Africa and needn’t worry about one or two being killed off by lions or leopards.  There are plenty to go around for the predators and the tourists.  Impalas only deliver during the rainy summer season (November through April) so there is enough food growing for the family.  They will wait an extra four weeks to deliver (human mothers would lose their minds) – and if no rain they will deliver and leave the baby to die so that she can live. 

The red Kalahari Desert sand is the deepest in the world – up to 200 meters deep.  Our jeep ride through it was bumpy but soft at least for a part of it. 

That safari ride in Chobe National Park ended with the guides/trackers calling each other to let us know that lions had been spotted – post kill.  The photos tell the tale as they sat in the shade and chowed down.  One cub was particularly cute – like a dog who didn’t want to share his bone he would tussle with another cub and then get up and walk a few feet away.  He did this several times until the other one just gave up and went back to mama and the other cubs.  In the photos you cannot really see them eating so much except for the male who clearly had the biggest piece of the pie.  At one point one of the females stopped what she was doing, stood up and looked into the brush – we were told she was stalking something.  

Why do the lions and other animals we see let us get so close?  They have acclimated to these big noisy “animals” coming by now and again and not shooting them.  They do not see us as individuals in the jeeps but just one big individual that they have learned does not harm them and which they know is probably too big to take down.  This would change if we were to step out of the vehicle and become an individual.  At one point one, the young man in our group – 15 yr old – was handed a bottle of water to transfer to the next jeep that was parked within tossing distance.  He misunderstood and started to step out.  Like a physical therapist who is gait training a patient who falters, the guide had grabbed the kid and pulled him back into the seat in a flash. 

The female elephants are particularly curious and/or protective, however, and more than once I was taking a video and you can hear me saying “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god” as the not-as-big-as-a-male-but-humongous-nevertheless female turned, looked at us, came a little closer and just as my “oh my god” was going to turn into “oh shit” she veers off.  We do not venture close to the males and no need – they are massive even from a distance and can be extremely dangerous for no particular reason at all.  Speaking of baby elephants, they eat their mother’s poop so create the biological biome in their gut that they need to survive. 

And speaking of poop, hyenas eat their prey bones and all.  So their poop has white stones in it it that other animals eat if they need the nutrients. 

Went out in the morning on our last day in Chobe and saw so many birds.  Because we left before sunrise many had not awakened yet.  The maribou storks were sitting up in the tree and don’t some down until the ground has warmed up  and they can ride down on thermals.  They are so big they would never be able to eat enough to fly if they didn’t take advantage of this phenomenon.  I’m going to just make a list in my final blog post because my notes have bird names scattered throughout and I’m not sure if I have them all right or if I’ve already mentioned them.

We saw kudus for the first time which are brown and in the elk family.  They also have faint stripes that, like zebras, are as unique as fingerprints.  The males have impressive horns that curl as they grow – up to five curls!  They have a weird little hump on their back that is pure muscle that allows them to just 2 meters straight up into the air.  This allows them to escape predators by jumping over obstacles that the predators cannot.  I’m telling you, Africa is a master class in how animals have evolved to survive, whether they be predators or prey.

One of our last hours in Chobe found us watching a giraffe spread its legs to reach the water, something Al always wanted to see.  This particular lady was pregnant – 14 months gestation for these graceful ladies…

Left Chobe to head to the Okavanga Delta….