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

(Clicking on a photo will bring up a filmstrip at the bottom.   You can then scroll through the photos full screen.)  

  "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.

??????

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?

The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch: 11. Is It a Case of Not Hearing or Not Listening?

During the short drive from the airstrip to Dinaka Lodge, we saw a Lanner falcon in a thick bush.  That’s my tentative ID of a cell phone shot.  

 

Then, several kudu, a large antelope, stare at us without fear as we drive past.

Once at the lodge, we gather in the nice main lodge building for a brief welcome and orientation.   Some staff are introduced, and then a gentleman talks about the camp and the dos and don’ts.   I move closer to him so I can hear better.

It helps.   I can hear him, but it takes too long to understand his words because of the accent.   That is one of the things my husband was told when he got his first hearing aids—you will have to learn to hear again.

 

That’s my excuse for what happened later.   And I’m sticking to it.

 

The camp is somewhat protected by electric fencing, but animals visiting the waterhole in front can walk right into camp.   For that reason, we are instructed to wait for an escort when it’s dark in the evening and morning. 

Electric fence connectors.

Further, we can’t go to the waterhole, but we can go into the fire pit area that is immediately in front of the lodge.

Fire pit as seen from inside the lodge.

 

After the session, we are escorted to our tents.   Sylvia and I will share tent 5.

 

It’s very nice, but we will learn later that it’s also poorly lit, and we must wear headlamps or use flashlights to find anything in our luggage.   Other than that, it’s wonderful.

Our tent

Sylvia likes to have her large duffel bag spread open.   I prefer mine to be folded closed, so I use the small area between the right bed and the wall for mine.   We haven't yet messed up the tent.

 

We quickly unpack and get our cameras ready.   Then I head for the main lodge to check out the wildlife around the waterhole.   The kudu appear and show off their magnificent form.   They are, I think, my favorite of the large antelopes.

 

Suddenly, the waterhole is swarming with birds!    Hundreds of birds in a flock.   Some land in trees.   It’s impossible to identify them, but I want to try.

Hundreds of red-billed quelea.

I venture out of the lodge onto the ground and walk along the front, making sure I don’t go out farther than the edge of the firepit.

I photograph some birds as I walk along, and then I hear my name being called.

Red-billed female quelea.   

“Jeanne!   You’re not supposed to be out there!!!”

Oops.   I thought he meant "go no farther than the fire pit,"  and I didn’t.   Apparently, he meant we could go only into the fire pit and nowhere else.

Lions.   They were seen nearby.

I obey.   I’d run out of birds and places to walk anyway.

Dining table in the main lodge.

Bar in the main lodge.

Ceiling, main lodge

Ceiling detail

Another gathering area.