The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch: 14: A Mouse Prompts a Deep Philosophical Dive

            (NOTE:  Click on one photo to bring up a filmstrip which you can then scroll through to see the photos full screen.)

The story comes first this time, followed by the photos.

              I’m walking along the beautiful boardwalk at Dinaka Lodge to where the Toyota Land Cruisers are parked and ready for our late afternoon game drive.   

            I’m the first one, as the others are still in the main lodge, finishing their coffee and snacks, or gathering their gear.   Once again, I’m wondering about the kind of wood, the difficulty of maintenance, and so on, of the boardwalk.

            I see something small and white next to the boardwalk ahead, and my first thought is a crumpled wad of paper.  Not litter in this camp, I think.   It’s far too clean.

            Then I realize it’s something dead, something like a rodent.   White rat?  Maybe, but hard to tell as it is literally paws up.   About the size of an Alaskan red-tailed squirrel, its body about six inches long.  Pretty, though.   A beautiful white..   I think I see some light cinnamon colors on the head.

            Our guide, Booth, approaches, and I nod at the rodent to point it out to him.

            “Hey, little buddy.   What happened?” he says.

            I am dumbstruck, and all my questions about the boardwalk and even the identity of the little rodent evaporate.  Dumbstruck at Booth’s words, his tone of voice, and his obvious empathy for the little critter.   I sense that I have just seen the measure of this man. And he is admirable.

            He steps off the boardwalk and uses a dried branch to move it to a spot beneath a bush, into some dried leaves.

            “We have owls,” he says.   I take that to mean an owl will soon have a meal.   Perhaps it was an owl that dropped it beside the boardwalk. *

             I’ve met many African guides in my previous six trips to Africa.   The guides I remember most are the ones who indicated their heartfelt love for the animals they showed us.   To some, guiding is a job that pays better than most in their country.  To others, it is much, much more, an avocation rather than a vocation.

            I think of a quote often attributed to the novelist and playwright Alexander Dumas, who said, “We always leave a piece of ourselves in the people we meet, and take a piece of them with us.”   I extrapolate that to include everything—people, places, birds, animals.   

This quote from the Internet expresses my ever-evolving philosophy better than I can:     

“The core idea … is that human interaction and experience are a two-way street, involving a profound exchange. We are fundamentally shaped by our observations and relationships, while our own actions and presence leave a lasting impact on our surroundings and the people in our lives.”

 

A beautiful egg sac on an orb weaver spider led to less repulsion on my part and greater understanding of spiders, to the point now where, if I find a spider in my bathroom sink, I understand it is thirsty.   I wet a Q-tip and hold it close to the spider, and sure enough, it lunges at the swab and drinks.

All I know for certain is that the closer I am to nature, the better off I am.

 

As I sit here writing this, late in the evening when truth rises, I think of a thirsty spider.

 

Of a lioness who looked me right in the eyes and, perhaps sensing my silent pleas, moved her ten-day-old cub into the only open spot where I could see her. 

 

Of little birds that land on my hands for peanuts.

 I  think of that little white mouse and of Booth, and of his kind and gentle words.

 

 

These are the intimate connections with nature that I treasure and will always remember.  I feel they make me a better person.

 

 

So as to not break the spell, here are some photos of our interactions with wildlife this day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Booth, our guide, is pouring a shot of Amarula liqueur on ice for me at our Sundowner break.   It is much like Bailey's liquor.  The liqueur is fermented from the fruit of a Marula tree, and that fruit is a favorite of elephants and baboons.  I have seen photos of very tipsy elephants.     For our group, it is customary to salute our travels with a bit of Amarula.

Some Gemsbok oryx finally stand still.

The amazing kori bnustard.   It is courting a nearby female, as revealed by the lovely gray neck feathers all puffed up.   Male bustards stand about 4-1/2 ft. high, have a wingspan of 9 ft., and weigh about 44 lbs.  Females are smaller.

 

A Red Hartebeest photo showcasing its distinctive horns.

 

 

 

The fascinating Northern Black Korhaan has one of the loudest cries of all the birds I've heard.

 The korhaan sound from You Tube:

Northern black korhaan

Yellow-billed hornbill.

These two cheetah brothers seemed to care little about our presence.   All they wanted to do was sleep.   Male siblings often form coalitions after leaving their mother, while the females stay longer.

Beautiful, graceful cheetah.

Scaly lizard

Ant-eating chat.

Springbok and calf.   

Springboks.  Those are shadows from branches on their back.

Steenbok

*  My research suggests the ID of the mouse is a Southern multimammate mouse.   It is often referred to as the link between a mouse and a rat.   Its body length is about 6 inches.

  

https://crittery.co.uk/species-list/multimammate-mice

The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch: 13: The "Hide" Part of Hide and Seek

            The name of the trip I’m on is called Botswana 2025 Hide and Seek Tour.    So far, we’ve been engaged in the “seeking” part, the searching for birds and wildlife in Chobe National Park and Chobe River, and now in Dinaka Game Reserve.

            Today marks the first “hide” part of the safari.

            Blind or hide?   A blind, from a photographer’s or wildlife viewer’s perspective, is some sort of above-ground structure that enables you to peer through portals while being hidden from wildlife.   Usually, it is enclosed on only one to three sides, perhaps a camouflage tarp or wall of logs and brush.

            In a hide, you are completely hidden,.  The are often dug into the ground so you look out at ground or water level.  For photographers, this is the ideal level.   The object in such photography is “the lower, the better” for eye-level shots.  

            We stopped earlier for a “potty break” and to see a hide.  This one, we were told, was not active insofar as wildlife, but I went in to see what it was like.   There were two “restroom huts,” shielded from a small waterhole by a log wall between them and the hide.

Inside the hide.   There are canvas flaps covering the windows now.

            This morning, after driving for several hours and photographing  game, we pull up to the hide we will use.  A pathway leads us slowly underground while shielding us from view by any wildlife at the waterhole.

            There is room for eight photographers inside.   Our group of ten makes it work, but there is no room to move around or get better angles.   The hide is a simple, narrow concrete room with open viewing windows along the waterhole side.                     

 

We look out over the waterhole.

            There is no action as we settle in, so we focus on whatever we can to get our camera settings right.   I am elated because there are two ducks I have never seen before, making them Lifers for me.   They were once called Hottentot teal but are now called Blue-billed Teal.

"Hottentot" is considered an offensive slur by the native Khoisan peoples, a leftover from colonial days,. and efforts are being made to eliminate the word.

These very small Blue-billed teals  are Lifers for me.

When there is nothing else, we shoot anything on the ground, like this skink.  

Or this utterly frightful delta emarginatum or black mud wasp, we think.   Wikipedia says the larger female is 1-1/4 inches long, but this thing seems to be four inches when it flies around us.

        Then, a flock of red-billed quelea appears, much like a murmuration of starlings, and hundreds of birds almost blot out the sky.

A video of the flock:

Soon, the kudu appear and our cameras are filling memory cards like crazy.

 

A couple of wildebeest arrive and move in among the kudu.   

A wildbeest coats itself with dust.

Rubbing faces into the dirt.

One wildebeest rubs its face in the dirt.

And then looks like this.

The wildebeest do things I’ve never seen before.   They rub their faces in the dirt, kick up dust, and so on.   My guess is that they are trying to get rid of biting insects.

More and more kudu join the others.   

A kudu calf.

 

Then an impala stag takes its turn at the waterhole. 

Two blue-billed teal are in the water.

 

As always, the quelea land, drink, fly, land, drink, fly.   There are some doves that join them.

Laughing doves

Eventually, it’s time to leave and work our way back to camp for lunch and our mid-day break.

 

            

 

            

The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch: 12: First Impressions and a First Sighting

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  "The gladdest moment in human life is the departure on a distant journey 

into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Francis Burton

 

 

I was curious about the name for this camp, the game reserve around it, and its origins, so I did what anyone would do:  I Googled it.

 

Here’s some information I thought interesting, interspersed with photos from our first game drive at Dinaka Game Reserve

At the end of WWII, two British soldiers,  Leonard Ker and Syd Downy, decided to establish  “the best safari company the world has ever known” to outfit and guide big game hunters in Africa. 

 

Their website tells the story better than I can.

From the Ker and Downy website:  They were hired to run a camp in the Maasai Mara for the production of The Macomber Affair, the United Artists blockbuster starring Gregory Peck and Joan Bennett. It was the beginning of a long love affair with Hollywood, which would see “K&D” outfit some of the biggest films ever to come out of Africa.

 

This little steenbok lingered for photos.

About 24 inches at the shoulder and weighing roughly 35 lbs, steenbok, or steinbok, are counted among the several dwarf antelope.   And they are cute.

Common male ostrich.

The company continued to grow – extending its reach across southern Africa, west to the jungles of Congo, and north into the deserts of Ethiopia and Sudan. By 1977, when hunting was officially banned in Kenya, "K&D" had transformed itself into the leading provider of customised mobile photographic safaris in Africa.

 Crested francolin

The common wildebeest, also called the blue gnu, is a large horned antelope that looks like it was assembled from left-over parts.   It has an ox-like head, but belongs to the same family as cattle and goats.

Like moose in Alaska, a wildebeest always wants to be on the opposite side of the road when it sees you.   This one was no different.

Wildebeest portrait.

I think this is a red-crested korhaan.   The red crest appears during courtship time.

Scarlet-breasted shrike.

Today, Ker & Downey is celebrated as the longest-existing safari outfitter in the world.

 

One step on the wooden boardwalks at Dinaka lodge, and I have questions.   What kind of wood is this?   Where does it come from?  How much maintenance does it require?   What’s the secret to keeping it looking so nice?

 

A fork-tailed drongo.

Everything at Dinaka looks very nice.   Everything is nice!   Someone cares an awful lot about this place.   It truly reflects the adage, “You never get a second  chance to make a first impression.”

 

A hartebeest stops in the middle of the road to scratch an itch, and then.....

...gawks at us.   Three to five feet at the shoulders, and around 440 lbs, they are fleet of foot, often reaching 70 km/h (44mph).   haar tuh-bees

Most of the large animals we encounter early in the first game drive want nothing to do with having their photos taken, and they quickly disappear into the brush.  This is indicative of how “unhabituated” they are to humans, unlike a lot of other camps that cater to tourists.  

With only four vehicles at Dinaka, and no other camps in the privately-owned reserve, that makes a maximum of eight game drives a day in almost 50,000 unfenced acres per day.  Of course, some animals might see the safari trucks more than once per drive, like the male rhinoceros that seemed to prefer a main trail and that we encountered often.

 

The birds, however, are a bit more cooperative.

 

 

Fawn-colored lark.

Some wonderful action between this pale chanting goshawk and a forked-tailed drongo.  

The drongo, a much smaller raptor, was attempting to drive away the goshawk perhaps because of a nearby nest or hatchlings, or because it's a drongo doing what drongos do.

The goshawk gets tired of the whole kerfullfe.

And leaves.

Another of the dwarf antelopes is the dikdik.   They are about 15 inches tall and around 10 lbs.   They mate for life and are often seen around campus at night, where they come for safety from predators.

Too late for photos, we find a white rhino cow and calf.   Lousy photo, but proof we saw these elusive animals.

This is a Burchell's zebra, identified by the small brown lines between its stripes.

AND THEN!!!

Walking out from behind the zebra is a springbok!   It's a life animal for me--my first ever sighting!   I am stoked.

More springbok.   These medium-sized antelope are famous for their "pronking,: a stiff-legged leap in the air that often reaches 4 meters (13 ft.).    They can run as fast as 56 mph.

A yellow-billed hornbill.

What the?   Where will this take us?