Safari Day 16: Added the last animal to complete the sighting of the Big5

Moremi (Botswana)

Last day in the bush of Botswana and no night mishaps in any of the tents - we are getting the hang of this. Mind you collectively we are depleting supplies - running low on wipes and tissues, the last roll of Mentos has been consumed and nearly depleted @Roz's evening snack supplies. On the alcohol front the wine has evaporated, the beer lids popped on the rough roads and @Shimmy informed us we were low on water. Not sure what was the biggest crisis - water or wine.

From early morning till late in the evening - on full alert!

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS:

Hard to believe that there wasn't a stir in the camp until 7 am - that was a 10 hour sleep! Well for some at least. We were out in the morning taking photos of the elephant dung and urine from behind @Del and @Steve's tent. They had the VIP visitors last night and had lain very still under their thin veil of canvas protection. At some stage @Steve went outside for an alternate call to nature and spotted two sets of red glowing eyes in the trees, darting and then stopping. @Shimmy had spotted them as well and said they were hyenas or jackals. @Del and @Steve have tent position number one and obviously are the reception committee. Glad they were awake cause no-one else was any the wiser as to their arrival. @Shimmy, @Joseph and @OT were also out and about at 1:30 because the VIPs needed to be turned away.

@Del doing a @Louis after nighttime VIPs

Did our first loop with a departure time of 8.30 after bacon and eggs with all the trimmings. Spoilt with close up encounters of many breeding herds of elephants - they were everywhere.

@Shimmy stops regularly to inspect the tracks to identify what animals are in the area and find out the direction they are heading in. He circles them with his key to show us the difference between the dog and cat. The cat retracts the claws and shows the pad and muscles whereas the dog's have the claws out permanently. I am sure that somewhere in my life in the next few years this will prove to be extremely helpful ?*&%$?

@Shimmy keeps our minds going with all sorts of info

He explained to us that some of the vehicles we can spot in the distance are actually chasing the animals away. The passengers are out of their vehicle and literally "scaring" the wildlife with their body shape.

Got a lovely compliment from @Shimmy this morning praising The Crew for our calm flexibility. We are #special. And we believe him! Have tried to offer or assistance telling him we believe that "many hands make light work," but other than putting lids on jars and passing our plates to the end of the table and @Roz and @Steve collecting firewood- we are not included on the roster of help.

Visited the water boundary between Moremi National Park and the concession rhat ends on the Mogabe (?) Depression. Narrow channels created by the movement of hippos - another keystone of nature. Where the pod follows each other, tracks and channels are made and low-lying land can be filled with water. Elephants also create large boggy areas and water pools which are catchment areas for water. Watched in these channels for the hippos and the crocs which are usually found together. The grass in the channel attracts the fish which in turn attracts the crocs.

Wall to wall elephants

Stopped at a dried skull of an elephant and were surprised to learn that "anyone" could pick up the Ivory. You are then required to transport it to the park officials. Even though @Shimmy has come across Ivory- he prefers to notify the park of its location rather than touching it - he is aware of the disease the carcass may carry.

Returned from the game drive at 1.30 and enjoyed a leisurely lunch under the shade. Our conversation was regularly interrupted by herds of breeding elephants wandering by - so big but so silent. No need to make too many adjustments, just quietly moved to the inside of the table setting. They munched and stripped branches from the trees behind our tents. We were on full alert - but no reaction from our camp team - totally relaxed so we followed their cue.

Lunch time live viewing - elephants in camp - again

Camp life

Loaded up at 3:30 for the game drive, optimistically determined to be there for a viewing of the cats (the cheetahs and leopards), the dog (endangered wild dogs) and the in betweeners (the hyenas.)

 Stumbled on multiple breeding herds of elephants turning up to the dry water hole to dig for minerals. Given figures of about 120 000 with high concentration in Chobe. We can confirm prolific sightings in Chobe, Savuti and Moremi camps - wall to wall elephants. The comment today was that we have seen more elephants than impala or warthogs.  

Tried diligently tracking those cheetahs. Followed their tracks which were overlain over our afternoon return from the morning drive. But they remained elusive. 

@Shimmey had warned we needed to be out for 5:30 to be a chance of a cat sighting and almost on cue at 5:26 we spotted the last of the Big5 - the leopard. This solitary animal lolling outstretched in the sand, can track a mate by the smell of urine. He can lift twice his body weight up the tree and can easily scale the tall trees to the fork.

We watched this leopard from 5:26 until the dot of 6:00 pm. He swished his tail and his ears, lifted his head a mere few centimetres and had a couple of little twitches of his front paw and that was enough to keep us and the adjacent truck of 12 passengers spellbound. @Shimmy begged him to move but to be honest we were all so grateful to just tick off that final Big5 sighting.

Perfectly camouflaged and lazy - we had to run the elephant gauntlet at dusk

We are never late returning from an afternoon drive. Every vehicle needs to be back in its campsite or out of the gate by 6:30 - the military don't ask any questions and assume you are a poacher if moving around after the curfew. Our trek home this evening got us into camp at 6:33 after a drive home in the dark dodging giant elephants who wanted to share the pathway. The crew is in AWE of how @Shimmy manages to find his way through the unmarked, almost identical paths in the day let alone the night. But, he returned us to camp straight as an arrow, apologising every time a branch or twig scraped the canvas.

As an aside, the tented camping sites are kept pristine in the park. Each tour groups is allocated a specific site for their tented stay. The Gate officials inspect the camps and they require each group to take all of their rubbish and return the area to "perfect" condition. @OT, @Joseph and @Shimmy are meticulous in their approach to keeping everything organised and clean. 

I appreciate that from a distance this game drive thing seems easy peasy but at the end of each day we are spent! You are on a roller coaster of a ride and constantly on the edge of your seat. If you are not sitting holding your breath watching in disbelief the live action of a sighting, you are on full alert scanning up down and around trying to find the next one. Add to that you are constantly tuned in to @Shimmy, listening and learning, there is not much down time. 

Enjoyed our toast "Here's to showers and clean clothes tomorrow." To which @Tom added enthusiastically "And a bar!" It was a bit of a dry argument here tonight - underestimated the wine requirements although @Mac timed his coke and rum rations to perfection.

Chewing the fat at deep and meaningfuls

Rounded put the night with campfire deep and meaningfuls after again, collectively, hatching the plan for tomorrow. 

At our insistence @Shimmy shared his journey from the son of a hunter to a photographer, to a guide. His recount of how the felling of a big elephant in a hunt on the concession finally just hurt his heart so much. He was faced with the challenge of telling his Dad he just couldn't follow in his footsteps and had to break the line of hunters. @Shimmy is a very eloquent man and, with English as his second language often finds just the phrase to stop us in our tracks and rethink our position or perspective. He's also very funny, has a streak of cheekiness that keeps us guessing and it goes without saying, he is deeply knowledgeable and professional with a close affinity to the bush and all its secrets.

Three fires burning tonight to try and keep the elephants out of camp - hopefully a good night's sleep for all.

We are all rooting for @Del and @Steve in tent number 1 in the line. They have unwittingly become the elephant magnets and didn't get as much sleep as the rest of us last night. Poor @Del was even scared off her TipTop ice-cream bucket.

At number 3 in the lineup, surrounded by the treble and confident that the ever watchful and alert @Shimmy, @Joseph and @OT are patrolling and stoking we snuggled down for our last canvas tent sleepout in the unfenced wilderness of Moremi.

PS Getting a system going for 🌙 wee stops in the night. Have #Sheweena set-up complete with larger empty water bottle - have torch suspended above and all accessories within easy reach. I can accommodate multiple uses by unzipping the bottom flap of the tent reaching my hand out as far as possible and emptying the bottle. On first wakeup run, I bound out of the tent and do a little doggie shuffle of the sand to cover up the wet spot. I'm a master. 

Wildlife Spotting:

Hippo : pathway right to the water's edge - so very big here!!! two separate paths separated by drag of the big belly through grass - runs 40 km per hour - saw one out of the water away from water - was covered in bloodied scratches, needs to keep cool with "waxy" blood sweat

Leopard" secure kill by taking up tree - we saw one AT LAST - sleepy head; light body weight not interested in zebra - use thermo regulation through paws; uses heat of sand for warmth; prefers trees with paws hanging down 

Red eyed dove

Saddle billed stork

Plover

Woolly necked stork - feeding chick - very "furry" - life time pair (great spotting @Roz)

Red hornbill

Elephants: so so many; baby suckling on teat, teats are at front, tusks appear at about 2 years, this baby about 3, mother elephant has second baby after about 5 years, male only drops in the check on readiness of baby, group in small numbers (young males stay with mother 13 years, kick them out if the herd to find new herd), male starts to mate at 20 years so now needs to find fellow males to learn how to be independent, males join in group, in must (?) driven by hormones, dribbling urine - crackling timber as they feed) - elephant avoids acidic taking if the leaves - strip bark - elephants keystone of nature and provide browsing possibilities to smaller species - adding compost with 60% o soil - elephants help nature - walk in straight line narrow path, babies take shade under mother, 160 litres may last them a number of days, prefer clear water so stretch trunk to get cleaner water, babies underv3 months have very short trunk and use it as toy before they learn how to use it; herd always keeping baby safe nudging and pushing through water, largest world population of elephants. (Relocated elephants to Namibia and Angola and tracked them - they walked home in 21 days) - avoid countries with land mines- have memory of danger)

Franklin red billed road runner: saw mother with babies; noisy in afternoon warning all animals of predators 

Vultures - killed by poachers - alert military to their location - poachers poison carcass and the vultures and hyenas consume poison

Banded mongoose

Red eyed dove: coo, coo

Giraffe

Tsessebe: open areas, run fast from predator

Slender mongoose: long tail with black tip

Impala: jumping display, gland of black spot above hind hooves - if threatened release pheromones to be able to reunite the herd - babies can be hidden away from the herd and can be relocated by sense of smell; when threatened can jump and release pheromones and confuse predators and then they leave

Water buck: antelope - not always in water - stripped on rump, the antelopes saved in the flood of Noah - first animals to enter ark; White marking is the "follow me" - bit more lucky than rest - predators not really interested in them - have body glans which are used as defence - produce oily substance makes skin and flesh take unpalatable - only for short time - shooting them glans don't react - predators sometimes don't have choice and have to take unpleasant taste

Sage: fresh picked; used for funerary services, wrapped body in Sage to control smell - masked odour of rotting flesh while family arrived; burn as mosquito repellent (as well as elephant poop); 

Dwarf mongoose: tiny, under tree trunk and in termite mound

Long tailed starling: black, long tail log and in termite mound

warthog: use the den of the porcupine or any other den, go in face first and then turn around with face out; seem quick to forget - can run from enemy then turn around and come back; jackals kill the babies in numbers

Crocodile: impressively large specimens

Guinea fowl: alert other animals to movement of other animals

Common red buck

HAMMER COP (?)Tiny bird builds huge nest, 40 - 50 kgs; grass and small twigs, single pair, renovated each year by any pair, other birds use the top of it

Nest of buffalo weaver bird - a community nest - small five

Wattle crane : good spotting @Roz - wattle under the beak, 

Red lechwe: shape of the horns same as Water buck but red hide - always by the swamp - hooves with two discs (?)- allows running through mud; front legs shorter for jumping; 

Fish eagles: very big, national bird of Zimbabwe, diet 80% fish; 

Lead wood: hard timber - even dead one can be upright for 60 years

Termite mound: DeBeers company for diamonds, because of termite mounds ? What is connection? 6 metres above ground- large area under - termites bringing soil from under ground - almost like "soil sampling" giving indication of what is underneath. @Shimmy says his diamonds are found in the nature of the bush. As an aside, talked about extreme security associated with access to diamond mines - water tables are built where water table is close to surface - good place for water bore - abandoned termite mounds where water has sat on the surface - prefer elevated

Proliferation of dead trees: area where water has inundated surface and killed the roots of the trees - drowned them

African jacana - Jesus bird - lily trotter - females who take responsibility for chocks for making eggs - then male responsibility for incubation, not seasonal mating, female can mate with 4 or 5 males a year, eggs deposited on lily pads are very vulnerable, prolific layers 😉 

Zebra: found in conjunction with his "friends" the warthog and Impala 

Elusive animals - maybe to come - still looking

Cheetah - tear marks on face, long legs, long sleek body speed, , weak predators (hyenas and leopards steal their prey), like open areas so they can run away, hint in packs but cam be solo, cheetah are actually the animal with spots

Wild dogs are under threat because of farmers - wild dogs have a team spirit - easy to kill because when one dog goes down - others return to check out - all pack killed at one time