Look I slept in a tent

As promised here is the video of my tent in Botswana.  For all of my readers who want me to go camping, if the tent is like this one then sign me up.  For my readers who don't understand what to do, it's a YouTube video so click on the picture to start it playing.

Here is a video of the main lodge at the tented camp

Here are some additional pictures of the Okavango Delta animals

I forgot to mention it but we also saw a honey badger last night.  These are also rare to see.  I kept thinking about the YouTube video "Honey Badger Don't Give A Shit"

Trip from Botswana

I have good news and bad news...

Good News: Airport security at the Okavango Delta Airport is a breeze.

Bad News: It's a breeze because there is not actually a terminal or a building or, you know, a paved runway.

Even Worse News: This is our plane

And how long were we on that plane?  1 and 1/2 hours.  That's right.  1 1/2 hours on that really small plane flying over the Okavango Delta.  Above is a picture of us landing at the Kasane Airport which is on border between Botswana and Zambia.  We had to go through immigration in Botswana and then get back on the plane to fly to Livingstone in Zambia.  The second flight was only 20 minutes.

Kasane Airport is basically one room. There was a wait at immigration only because they had to find the immigration officer to stamp our passports.

It was a mad rush to even make our flight because our morning game drive found this guy

And this cheetah family just waking up

I cannot recommend a trip to the Okavango Delta enough.  I have never been in any place where you see nothing but animals all the way to the horizon.  The only humans you see are the few out in the truck with you.  The Okavango Delta is over 60,000 acres. The elephants are safe from poachers in the delta because all the wetlands make it impossible for them to drive a truck in there.  At night, it is pitch black except for the stars in the sky but it is not quiet.  You can hear the roar of the lions and the trumpets of the elephants and the chatter of the baboons and thousands of other sounds that I could not identify.

We saw 3 of the Big 5 - the lion, the elephant and the cape buffalo.  We are missing the rhino and the elusive leopard.  We were looking for the leopard this morning but did not see him.

Here is the cape buffalo; the most dangerous of the big 5.

I'm currently in another new country: Zambia.  That's #34.  More about that in the next post...

Last night in Botswana

We had an exciting afternoon here at the camp.  Angela was walking back to her tent and found it blocked by some angry elephants.  She then proceeded to really piss them off by taking a selfie with them.

I happened upon the charging elephants and ran back to the main lodge yelling at her "you are one of those stories we here about on the news 'American Tourist killed taking selfie'." We had to get a person from the lodge to escort us back to our tents and past the scary elephants.

The afternoon game drive was good.  We went back to see the lion at the water buffalo kill hoping that some additional lions had joined him.  He was alone and still sleeping.  It seems that lions kill a water buffalo and then spend 3-4 days just eating and sleeping next to it.  It's good to be the king.

I don't have a camera with a big zoom lens.  We were really this close to the lion. The guides say that it is ok because "human" is not on the lion menu.  

Here's a picture of something not being killed

Tomorrow is another big travel day.  We will go for a short game drive in the morning and then back to the sketchy airstrip for another flight in the small plane.  We fly to Kasane Airport and then switch to yet another small plane for our flight to Victoria Falls.

I hope the internet upload speed is better in Victoria Falls so I can upload more pictures and my video of my tent.

Next update from Zambia... 

There are also lions and cheetahs...

So what did you do today?

Me?  Well, for starters this guy woke me up this morning.  Having a bit of a snack outside my tent.

Then after a wonderful breakfast, we went on our morning game drive.

We saw elephants, zebra, giraffes, 4 different kind of antelope, mongoose, hippos, baboons, water buffalo and warthogs.

All of that was spectacular but nothing can compare to finding this lion resting after his water buffalo kill

After seeing the lion, I thought that I could go home now and easily declare the trip a success but then something even better occurred.

We saw 2 cheetahs run down and kill an impala.  One of the guides had never seen this in person. He'd seen many near misses but never an actual kill.  It was a mother cheetah and her cub.  The mother actually knocked the impala over with her a few swipes of the paw and then she let the cub kill it.  The guides said that the cubs are close to leaving the mother so she is just teaching them their final lessons.

This is the cub with her bloody face

And all of that was just the morning.  We are having a brunch now and go out for another game drive in the late afternoon.

Mosquito Update: Not bad at all.  I guess this is the low mosquito time which is surprising because it is also the high water time.

There be elephants here

We arrived at the Nxabega Tented Camp in Okavanga Delta, Botswana after a half day of traveling which included 2 planes one of which was quite small.   This is the wildest place that I have ever been!

View of the delta from the plane

The second plane was a light aircraft which was not as scary as the small planes in Galapagos but it was close.  This plane landed on a small dirt strip in the middle of the delta. Good thing Butch did not join me on this trip; he would never have gotten on the small plane.

From the airstrip, we were taken in a bush vehicle to the tented camp.  The tented camp is beyond cool.  I'll take a video since mere pictures won't do this place justice.

There are no fences so you need to be escorted from your "tent" to the main building while it is dark. They don't want anyone to get eaten by a lion.   They said not to be surprised if you get awoken by an elephant next to your tent.

We went on an afternoon game drive where we saw elephants, zebra and antelope.  Elephants... real live, wild and giant elephants.

My tent is a like a little cottage and it has a shower, a toilet and a mini-bar.

Tomorrow, they wake us up at 6 am for our early morning game drive.  There are 2 game drives per day.

There is just a satellite link here for internet access so I can't upload that many pictures to the blog.

Sunset over the delta

On my way to Botswana...

At the airport now to start our 2 plane trip to Okavango Delta in Botswana.

This is what I learned so far:

1. Johannesburg is at 6000 ft above sea level or higher than Denver
2. Johannesburg only exists because of the gold mines
3. I can still be delighted by the service at a hotel
4. Winter means winter.  It's cold here.  I knew it was winter here but I did not think it would be cold because it's Africa and Africa is always hot.  
5. People can be unbelievably stupid.  How did they think that forcing 80% of their population into tiny houses with no running water and no electricity and no jobs was ever going to work?
6. Nelson Mandela is more amazing than I realized
7. The South African people are exceptionally warm and friendly

With our blue-haired guide

With Angela's well traveled friend Ceri

Next update from Botswana provided that I have wifi at the camp.  

Some history before the animals...

Today, we had a full day tour in Jo'burg.  The original plan was to visit the caves at the Cradle of Mankind.  However, I don't do tight spaces so we swapped it for a visit to the Apartheid Museum and
a tour of Soweto.

I continue to be surprised at how little history I know.  I know the main points of the history of Apartheid so it was good but a bit depressing to learn the details.  Not surprisingly, the conversation at lunch quickly turned to American politics. It seems that the entire world is afraid that Donald Trump might actually get elected.

A typical house in Soweto

With a bunch of kids outside Nelson Mandela's house

I did not realize that the turning point was the killing of many children by the Apartheid police in 1976.  This is the first time that the rest of the world learned about the atrocities here and they started to put pressure on the government to end it.

This church is where many children would run to seek shelter.  There is significant damage from the police inside of the church.

They were happy to tell us about Michelle Obama speaking here.  We agreed that she is something special.