The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch. 8: Explosions in Bird Photographer's Heaven

(NOTE:   Clicking on  one photo will bring up a filmstrip where you can see the photos full screen.)

We’re on the Pangolin photo boat on the Chobe River, and I am in a bird-photographer’s heaven.  We are up in a narrow, winding side channel, almost plugged with aquatic vegetation, which is where I have seen a wide variety of birds, both now and in the past.

We’ve been trying to get our long lenses on a tiny Malachite kingfisher, to some degree of success, until it flies off beyond our reach.   Then, the boat driver backs the skiff away from the riverbank and turns to travel farther into the narrowing channel.

Ahead of the boat, a great egret stands in some grass on a small island, and while there are plenty of egrets to photograph, this one is in a particularly nice setting.  Its pure white feathers are set off by the rich green grass.

I turn my heavy camera that is attached to a gimbal mount that allows it to turn in any direction, even in a complete circle, and start shooting.

 

Suddenly, the world explodes.  I have a brief moment of fright before all the pieces come together, and I look to make sure my hunch is correct.

A huge, adult hippo exploded from the water when it sensed our approach.  

 

The egret flies off but returns immediately to land on the hippo’s back.

The boat driver stops, and we watch a comical sight as the egret, not moving a muscle, seems to float on the top of the water toward land.

 

A little laughter to calm the nerves is a good thing.   You can’t take photos if your hands are shaking, gimbal mount or no.  Some of us know how dangerous that situation could have turned in an instant.    You don’t mess with hippos.   Ever.

You don’t sneak up on hippos when they are sleeping—or awake for that matter.   They are one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, rumored to kill about 500 people annually.   They attack and overturn boats, or crunch down on them with their deadly incisors.

Yet, unwittingly, we had approached without warning and startled the hippo.

 

It climbs onshore and walks closer to our boats, where it proceeds to show us how dangerous it is by opening its mouth to expose its weapons.   A hippo can open its jaws almost 180 degrees.

Crunch and munch, and you aren't getting outta that mouth alive.

That warning accomplished, it proceeds to start grazing on the lush grass, and we work our way farther into the channel.

On our return, the hippo isn’t in sight, but a Malachite kingfisher is, so it becomes the object of our cameras.  

 

 Once again, we move slowly through some floating vegetation toward shore, only to flush a crocodile sleeping in shallow water.  

 Another explosion of water!

The croc goes deep.   We stay and photograph the kingfisher.

 

                                    

 

 

Long-toed lapwing

Juvenile African Jacana

The magnificent Purple heron

Openbill stork

Swamphen

 

            

In Honor of World Elephant Day

 I hope this works.   

To commemorate World Elephant Day, I am re-publishing a post from a 2018 trip to South Africa and Kirkman's Camp, which is located just outside the borders of Kruger National Park.

It is the incident art the end of the story that I want to highlight.   A tale I will never forget.

https://gullible-gulliblestravels.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2018-08-12T22:17:00-08:00&max-results=7&start=23&by-date=false

Any Fall Cap Can Take, I Can Take Better....

My friend Cap is traveling in Russian Siberia and I've been following his (almost) daily posts.  In today's episode, he laments about falling down a couple five inches elevation changes in the hallway and reception area of his hotel.


 Cap has traveled extensively, and does so frugally, blending in with a country's citizens.   He stays in modest accommodations and uses mass transportation.   Every day he faces situation that are--or have the potential to be--dangerous to his health.

In the photo above, which I took of the photo he showed on his blog, the transition between the white tile floor and the yellow flooring in front of the reception desk involves one of the five inch steps downs that he missed.

The photo below, again snapped from the photo of his blog, shows another five inch step down right where he exits the hallway from his room.    He missed that one, too.

In fact, he missed these two steps twice.

Now, you might ask why someone would post something like that on his blog.

Well, two years ago, Cap stumbled over his untied shoelaces after clearing the security line in the Dubai airport.   He broke his hip in the fall.   Soldiering onward, he then flew to Hong Kong, stayed a couple days, then on to Seattle and Phoenix where, finally after six days with a broken hip and a useless left leg, he had hip replacement surgery.

He was 80 then.   He is 82 years old now and back to international travel.  Hence, Russian Siberia in the winter.

There are dangers everywhere out there for senior citizens, who might not be quite as aware of their surroundings as they should be.    We are certainly not as spry, our reflexes operate in slow motion, and our healing takes much longer.

Sometimes, we are on certain meds that compound our injuries in fantastical ways.  

In my travels, I have certainly come across dangerous situations, places where I could have been hurt or killed.


I might have tripped over this broken sidewalk in Mazatlan, Mexico, and broken my neck.

 I might have fallen into the polluted Ganges River while walking on this narrow, flimsy bamboo ramp and died of some horrid infection.

This lioness in Kenya was hot on the trail of dinner.   She might not have stopped.

 This sow and her cubs might have decided I was too close.

 Or this sow coming right at me....

When I stopped to pet this  young bull on a train platform in India, I might have been gored, or crushed, or stomped.   (You'd  have thought it had already happened, the way my tour guide acted.)

This elephant in Jaipur, India, could have picked me up and splattered me on the ground.

 The driver of the vehicle I was in could have run off the road to avoid this herd crossing, and killed us all.

Who knows what gruesome end awaited me in this hotel room bathroom?

 Why, I could have died from an embolism after falling while standing still on a remote road in Mongolia.   This is where blood-thinner meds contributed to this fantastic bruise.

This bruise is on my upper thigh.   By the time it finished spreading it was all the way down to my knee.

 Hey, dangers lurk in my own home.   This is my woodstove.

 This is the door I open to put wood in it, which I attempted to do a couple nights ago when the temperatures were minus 15.

 This is what I see when I squat to fill the stove.   Except for the night in particular, when the fire was roaring with all the air it had access to with the door open.

This simple little gadget is what I use to open and close the door.

 

Thus:

So the other night, quite late and hardly any lights were on, I filled the roaring stove, and set a knee down on the hearth while I felt around for the innocent little gadget to close the door.

However, my knee came down on said innocent looking gadget and my leg rolled forward.   Of course, that put me off balance and my head was propelled forward--right towards the open door/roaring fire.

I caught myself in time and I am un-scorched and alive.  

Can you imagine what might have happened?   All the blubbery particles in my body would have fed that fire.    My house would have burned down, and me with it.

The Fire Marshal would be clueless, never for a moment suspecting that innocent looking gadget that  lay in the ashes of me and my home.

And the medical examiner, having removed my skull from the open woodstove, would have no option but ruling that my death was a result of self-euthanization from placing my head into a roaring fire.

I am not making fun of Cap's falls and trips and stumbles.   Dangers lurks everywhere and only The Shadow knows where they are.   But, for bruises.   Any bruise Cap can get I can get bigger!