The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch. 37: Full Disclosure

(Click on any photo to bring up a film strip, then scroll through to see photos at full screen.)    

     To my great delight, Bellamy drives the safari truck back into the riverbed after we leave the lions.   Just before we peel off the high ground, we find a herd of impalas heading to the water.

    This beautiful stag watches us until it decides it is safe for the herd to move.

    When he gives the go-ahead, the herd comes out of the brush and goes to the river.

    

    Some birds we find while driving along the river bed:

    A blue-eyed white-breasted cormorant.

    And a gray heron.

        We see a couple of warthogs enjoying a drink and a refreshing bask in the cool wet sand.

    Up the hill they go.

    We meet up with the others under this magnificent Mashatu tree.

    I am fascinated by the multi-faceted trunks of these trees and take a few photos.

    Morning coffee/tea break with a few munchies.

In the distance, I see safari vehicles driving down to the riverbed.

    It's a beautiful, scenic spot for a video, so I get my cell phone and start recording.  

    There are two things I want you to note in this video:   1) the bushes on the right at the very end of the reel, and 2) the clear view of the riverbed there at those bushes.

    After consuming a can of Passionfruit juice, I decide it's time to find a "girl bush" so I wander away in the same direction the other gals had gone.

    The first bushes I find don't provide enough privacy, so I keep walking along the high bank over the riverbed.   Finally, quite a distance from the Mashatu tree and the others, I decide one bush affords enough privacy, but just in case, I face toward them as I drop my drawers.

    There's a baboon about 50 feet from me, so I'm concentrating on it and hoping it doesn't take offense at my bare bottom.   They can be dangerous.

    

    I'm paying so much attention to the baboon as I pull up my britches that only now do I see a safari vehicle in the riverbed--in full view of me.  I walk back to the others and tell them this funny story.

    One of the guides assures me that the occupants of the safari vehicle were no doubt watching elephants climb the riverbank and not looking at me!

    I still think it's funny.

    When we continue our game drive after mid-morning break, we encounter a couple of elephants under another Mashatu tree.

    

    

    One has its trunk stuck into a cleft of the tree trunk.   I have no idea why, but I think it's unusual and interesting.   I suspect the elephant has found something edible, perhaps fruit from the tree.

Your bird fix for this chapter--the astonishing Lilac-breasted roller.

    Driving onward, we see a bat-eared fox running away from us, and we follow slowly at a distance.   It lies under a bush, and we take some photos.    I am using every mm of my 500mm lens, plus this photo is highly cropped.

Had I not found the memory card that went AWOL for 2-1/2 months, this would have been my compensatory photo instead of the fabulous close-up shots that were on the missing card.

About Mashatu trees, from the Internet:

• "Land of Giants": The Mashatu Game Reserve is named after these trees, which are often found in areas with large elephant populations.
• Structure: They feature thick trunks, wide, dense canopies, and sometimes have exposed root systems.
• Wildlife Impact: They are a vital food source for elephants, which consume their leaves and fruit.
• Lifespan: These trees can live for 300 to 600 years.
• Fruit: They produce small, yellow-brown, edible berries.
• Habitat: They thrive in deep alluvial soils, often in association with termite mounds. 

    The Mashatu tree, also known as Nyala tree (Xanthocercis zambesiaca), grows up to 90 meters high, or almost 300 feet.