The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch. 23: Goofy Zebra, Eye-Level Giraffes, and a Braai

(Remember:  You can see the photos full screen by clicking on one.  It will bring up a filmstrip.)

        Late afternoon, and we are off on our game drive, with Bashi as our guide and driver.   The other half of our group is going to the Lala Limpopo overnight hide, and I hope they have more luck than we did.

        

        Almost first thing out of camp, I find myself looking straight into the eyes of a giraffe.   Not looking up, just straight and horizontal.   Not often that happens.

        Bashi drives around some bushes and into the dry stream bed.   The giraffes are nibbling from the top and from the bottom.

        A peanut gallery of chacma baboons watches from on high.   

        And then!!   Today's drama.   These zebra are playing, Bashi says, but it could get serious if it goes on much longer.

 

Note the little impala, completely serene, in the left foreground.

        Okay, I don't think kicking another zebra in the teeth counts as play.!

        A final lookback and the zebra wander off, apparently still friends.

        Suddenly, we are on a Ferrari Safari!   When something great is spotted, we rush cross-country to it.   Hang onto your hats and cameras!

The leopard known as Mohoyo

        We spend a lot of time with Mohoyo, and evening draws nigh,   I look around and like the cloud formations.   The leopard is at lower right.

        Mohoyo moves to a different location.   We follow.

    It's getting very late, and night is fast approaching.   I wonder why we are still out and not heading back to camp, but I'm enjoying the sunset.

The wonderfully enchanting baobab tree.

        Now it is dark, and our spotter shines a spotlight on the surroundings, in search of the night critters.   

Video :

        I have no photos, but we see springhare, a genet, and BEST OF ALL, an African wild cat.   A LIFER FOR ME!

        Seeing an African wildcat is considered insanely rare.   They are nocturnal, elusive, and their numbers are scarce.   In size, they are somewhat larger than a domestic cat.

        This is a photo I borrowed from the Internet.

        I don't know what I was trying to capture here, but this gives you an idea of what it's like.

        I don't know how to explain what happened next, except to say that everyone else seemed to know something I didn't.   Remember, I came late to this trip after a lady had to cancel, so I guess it was discussed before I joined the pre-trip conversations.

        On the other hand, sometimes they will throw in surprises.

        The vehicle stops, and the others start getting out.   Assuming we were back at the camp, though things looked a bit different, I hand my heavy camera down to someone.

        "You can leave it.   You don't need it,"  that someone said.    I'm confused.   What?   I wasn't going to leave my expensive camera in the safari vehicle overnight!!!

        I get out, holding onto my camera bag.   "No, you don't need it.   Leave it all in the truck."

        Then I look around.    Oh, my.   An outdoor dinner.   It's called a braai in the southern part of Africa, and it was spectacular.   What we call a barbecue, they call a braii.

 

The beverage bar.

Getting the fire ready.

There are kettles sitting on four-legged stands over some hot coals.   Kettles like Dutch Ovens.

Sausage, chicken, steak, corn on the cob!

Our table.

Shelly, left, Virginia, and Bashi.   The tea candles in paper bags are a nice touch.

                        Cory, Shelly, Virginia, Bashi, and Randy.

        And would you look at this!!!   We are dining next to a baobab tree, and it is in bloom!  It blooms only once a year, and always at night. By morning, the flowers have faded and turned brown.

From the Internet:    Baobab trees bloom, producing large, white, crinkled flowers that typically open at night and last for only about 15 to 24 hours. These flowers bloom annually, usually at the end of the dry season, and are primarily pollinated by fruit bats, moths, and sometimes mouse lemurs. 

What a special occasion Tuli Lodge arranged for us.

My plate:

My plate.   The largest piece in upper right is a chicken thigh.    That was enough for me, but the servers couldn't believe I didn't want sausage (2 inch piece) and a piece of steak to the left of the chicken.   (Uh, steak is very tough in Botswana.).  Then, a wee bit of salad, lovely creamed spinach, a bit of pap*, and 2 baked potato slices.   I would have been content with just the chicken and more spinach!

*Pap:   A staple food in African countries, pap is made from ground maize with water and salt.   It resembles porridge or polenta, but stiffer.   Africans often take a couple of fingerfuls of pap and use it to scoop up any stew-like food.

THE OBLIGATORY BIRDS!

Here are two very, very bad photos.  I did what I could with them, but they are hopeless.   They are also LIFERS, so here's the proof.

Green-backed hoopoe.

Marisco flycatcher

The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch. 22, From the Hide to the Camp

        In considering this day in Botswana, I find no particular storyline, so rather than a lot of text, it's time to enjoy a lot of photos.

        I posted some of these giraffe photos earlier, but here's the whole sequence.   We knew these two were juveniles, so we stopped to photograph them.

        They weren't alone.   There was an adult nearby.

        Then a baby popped its head up from the acacia bush.

 

    Here are all three of the youngsters.

        We saw a lot of black-backed jackals.   Seems like every day we would see a few.

        Not too many hyenas, though.   Here's an adult and a youngster.

        Then we came upon some lions with very big tummies.  We call them "flat cats" when they are well-fed and sleeping.   Not likely to be any activity then.

Makes my stomach hurt just looking at that belly.

        They dined on a wildebeest.   That's the rib cage behind the bush.

        Resting in the shade.

        About an hour after the first lions, we found more with big tummies.   I think these were from a different pride.

        Some Burchell's zebra.

Birds!!!

Fork-tailed drongo.

A Sabota lark.

Common myna.

        The big treat was close to camp.   A number of tiny antelope called Klipspringer.   Less than two feet high at the shoulder, and weighing 18 to 40 pounds, these little guys have unique feet.

        From the internet:   Klipspringers possess unique, specialized hooves, about the size of a dime, designed for navigating steep, rocky terrain in sub-Saharan Africa. They walk on the very tips of their hoof digits—resembling ballet toe shoes—with a rubbery texture that provides exceptional, suction-like traction and shock absorption for jumping. 

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Peeking around a tree trunk.

        Below is one of the several bushbucks that live in or near Tuli Lodge  grounds.   They feel safe from predators there.   These little creatures are about three feet at the shoulder.

        One of them beds down a few feet from my tent.

        And, back at camp.   I love how they incorporated trees into their structures.

        We have time for lunch and a couple of hours to rest in the heat of the day before the afternoon game drive, and it will be special!   Promise.