Maun, Botswana

OKAVANGO DELTA

Charles and I arrived in Maun, Botswana looking forward to getting ourselves into the Okavango Delta! We based out of the Okavango River Lodge where we've been camping for a few days right on the water (great view, a bar/restaurant and huge bonfire every night too-bonus!). We hired the Lodge to arrange a village guide from Boro village to take us on an overnight mokoro trip in the delta this weekend. Nice!





We've been dividing our time here in Maun between touring and working (on-line classwork). We're at our "office" now - a booth in the local Wimpy's restaurant (a Denny's-style joint) with free fast internet. (SCORE!) So far, we've been able to stand 6-7 hours of continuous loops of Kenny Rogers music before needing to run out. We're heading north tomorrow toward Chobe National Park. (Unfortunately, Moremi Park roads are mostly flooded so we have to bypass that park - it's the most water they've had here in 40 years (!) - so, we're catching up on work and heading to Kasana and Chobe after this...



The Mokoro trip this weekend was amazing!! Despite the really cold mornings here, the days and afternoons are perfect. We took the warmest layers we owned, our camping gear and enough food for 2 days and we were off. First, a 1/2 hour motorboat to Boro village (and neighborhood children making silly faces around a pot of 'pap' porridge). Our village mokoro poler guide, Newman, was selected and we were off in our mokoro to explore the delta.

We were spotting nearby fish eagles, jacanas, and swamp boubous every once in a while but mostly....silence. No sound except the pole through the water and the rippling water sounds as we moved slowly through reeds and delta. Amazing. We were lulled to some sort of meditative state.









A 1/2 day of poling and we set up camp, had a nice siesta and then went on an afternoon game walk on this nearby island. I think we covered a 500-meter circle in 2 hours stopping about 100 times for sightings of wildabeesst, impala, lechwe, warthogs, burchell's zebra, elephants, baboons - all at a little uncomfortably close range. Newman, our guide had us hide low while warthogs came VERY close. (Yikes, are you SURE?)! We had to make a choice to pause as elephants were crossing our path...and here we were on foot - a crazy long anticipation/adrenaline rush.









Then a pre-sunset mokoro back to camp. Newman caught 3 talapia with his fish net - so we had a beautiful camp braai of meat, fish, potatoes, baked beans and wine! A nice sunset and a million stars around the campfire...WOWwwwww...and inevitable talk of 'if you hear an elephant walk though camp just stay in your tent' (holy shit)...so I'm not totally sure I slept soundly that night.
Manthanyane "Newman", our Moyeyi guide of Boro village was teaching us some simple Setswana words around the campfire:

Wari: Hello
Tali-boha: Thank you
Dumela: Good Morning
Hakuna matata: you're welcome/no worries
Ra/Ma: man/woman

A Conversation:
Newman: "Wari, dumela ma".
Kristi: "Wari, dumela ra, taliboha"
Newman: "Hukuna matata ma"

Next day was a 3-4 hour game walk (fresh lion tracks and hippo scat), back in the mokoro for 1/2 hour to camp (Charles tried his hand at poling semi-successfully - ask him to tell you about the thorn bush) and another break, a nap, book reading, and campfire lunch of pasta and fresh fish. Then a few hours of meditative mokoro riding to the village, bye to Newman and Boro village, some welcome drinks on the motorboat back to the river lodge and then the best 'bunny chow' (beef curry stew in a bread bowl) dinner and beer you've ever tasted. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!







BIRDS
African Jacanas
Pied Kingfishers
Palm Swifts
Lesser Jacanas
Blackcollared Barbet
Whitebreasted Cormorant
Great White Egret
Redbilled Wood Hooeoes
Senegal Coucal
Squacco Heron
Hammerkop
Pigmy Goose
Cape Vulture
Blacksmith Plover
Grey Lourie
Greater Swamp Warbler
Swamp Boubous
Reed Cormorant
Spurwinged Goose
Sparrow Hawk
African Fish Eagles
Bateleur
Turle Doves
Sand Grouse
Lilac-breasted Roller
Swallowtail Bee-eater
Little Bee-eater
Crowned Plover
Grey Hornbill
Larks
Forktailed Drongo
Redeyed Bulbuls
Chinspot Batis
Longtailed Shrike
Blackcrowned Tchagra
Longtailed Starling
Myer's Parrots

OTHER WILDLIFE
Bush Buck
Blue Wildabeest
Impala
Lechwe
Burchell's Zebras
Baboons
Elephants
Tilapia (dinner): 3-spotted, Redbreasted, and Largemouth
Click frogs (tons)

Namibia (Central and North)

SWAKOPMUND and WALVIS BAY

After a much-needed break in Windhoek (a bed, laundry, internet), we made our way west toward the Atlantic coast – Swakopmund (the bigger town) and Walvis Bay. We splurged on a 4-hour catamaran tour of Walvis Bay. No whales but 2 types of dolphins (Bottlenose and Duske) – Charles touched one stretching down from the catamaran – pretty cool. Also, we were seeing TONS of cape fur seals. We’re finding it amazing and totally eerie that there is NO – zero – vegetation leading to the coast. The dunes or sparse salt flats meet the sea. Same with the rivers – no riparian vegetation… a strange land indeed! Desolate, barren - the sailors who shipwrecked here were doomed. Skeleton Coast – totally. We drove up the Skeleton coast north of Swakopmund a couple hours but desolation did us in. We turned around and stayed at a B&B in Swakomund where we could converse and have some human interaction with the local population. There were barely 5 cars the entire 4-hour drive that afternoon so we needed to see people. Out to dinner at a pub, we met and dined with a nice German couple. People are SO incredibly nice here everywhere we go. We are meeting and getting invites/contact information from fellow travelers and the locals are so welcoming and hospitable. We get “(It’s a )Pleasure” every time they do a favor and we thank them. Nice nice!







ETOSHA NATIONAL GAME PARK

We left Swakamund and headed directly to Ethosha for a couple days. The roads were paved the whole way (and you would not believe how awesome that was!) We stopped right outside Ethosha to camp at a “Farmstall’. Super nice owners/farmers with a great camp ground set up (with the wood-fired hot water shower and braai!). Also they rescued four Cheetahs that were on death row after killing too many livestock on neighboring farms. So they took them in and now consider it part of their tourist business. We watched and helped feed these cats – beautiful animals. At their family bar/restaurant, they gave us information on the park, sold us beer, his farm’s biltong (kudu jerky) and an oryx steak, and gave us 2 shots of their home-brewed schnapps. After the Orxy braai and a campfire with another German couple, we were fast asleep!

Inside Etosha at the crack of dawn! Elephant, zebras, jackals, giraffes, tons of ungulates, and LIONS! We watched this pair of Lions for about 20 minutes and got very close to them (in the car of course). Great photos of other wildlife – tons of birds, snakes, squirrels, impala, springbok (see complete list below) and then camping inside the park. Etosha is FLAT flat flat – there is a huge pan which fills with water in the wet season (water is mostly on the east side of the pan). Being dry season now, animals were coming to the smaller waterholes in the pan so that worked nicely for us! At the Halali Park campground where we stayed, there is a lit-up water hole nearby the camp (you can view it from a rock overlook behind a wildlife fence.) Nice – especially the next morning when we watched an African Wildcat try to take down some sand grouse as they lifted off. Pretty cool. Mucho elephants, zebras, giraffes, impala, jackals (and a few sleeping lions we occasionally got a glimpse of when they popped their heads above the grass) on the east side.








BIRDS

Helmeted Guineafowl
Turtle Dove
Ostriches
Yellowbilled Hornbill
Kori Bustard
Blackshoulderd Kite
Namaqua Sandgrouse
Greater Kestrel
Crowned Plover
Starling
Lilac breasted Roller
Bateleur
Vulture
Hoopoe
Dabchic
Blacknecked Greebe
Redknobbed Coot
Secretary Bird
Palechanting Goshawk
Redcrested Korhaan
Northern Black Korhaan
Blacksmith Plover
Doublebanded Courser
Barn Owl
Giant Eagle Owl or Spotted Eagle Owl
Gray Hornbill
Black Crow
Southern Anteating Chat
Cinnamonbreasted Shrike
Redbilled Oxpecker
Whitebrowed Sparrow-Weaver
Forktailed Drongo
Groundscraping Thrush
Goldenbreasted Bunting
Southern Pied Babbler
Swallowtailed Bee-eater
Gymnogene (raptor)
Pink Flamingos
Southern Whitecrowned Shrike
Eastern White Pelican
Grey Heron
Swainsons Francolin
Redbilled Teal

OTHER WILDLIFE

Red Hartebeest
Blue Wildabeest
Burchell’s Zebra
Sprinkbok
Warthog
Oryx
Giraffe
Ground Squirrel
Black-backed Jackals
Lions (3+)
Honey Badger
Black-faced Impala
Kudus
Impala
Steenbok
Slender Mongoose
Small-Spotted Genet (small cat)
Marsh Terrapin (turtle)
Puff Adder (snake)
Cross-marked Grass Snake
African Wildcat
Bats (unknown)
Banded mongoose
Damara Dik-Dik
Wall Crab Spider

WATERBERG

We love Waterberg! Hugely needed hiking here at this national park – thank GOD! We’ve been traveling so much in a car at other parks (they won’t even let you THINK about exiting your car in the game parks) so we were both having a weird case of cabin fever at varying speeds between 30-40 kph (in the park) and 80-120 kph (outside the park). So when we got to Waterberg park, we hit the ground hiking. Late in the afternoon, we hiked up to the top of a mountain viewpoint as the sun was setting – scurrying over rocks and climbing up and back down big boulders….Ahhhhhh TERRAIN and TOPOGRAPHY!! Yes! The sunset was gorgeous on the red sandstone cliffs and our spirits were totally lifted. We made an interesting tomato-pasta dish with grilled cheese for dinner (trying to use up food stuffs we accumulated the last three weeks). Seeing what’s packable and not, we’re starting to look forward to the trip to Botswana and the Okavango Delta!

Next morning we started hiking right from our campsite (at the bottom of the cliff in the valley) doing the park’s loop trails and bird walks. We continued walking and wandering the valley trails and ended up hiking back to the shelf at the base of the cliffs…and back up the cliff’s to the top to see an incredible 180 view over the valley below. Beautiful! Turns out #1: we love getting into nature (and out of a car), #2: we love hikes and wildlife/bird watching, and #3: we love topography and cool views. Nice!







BIRDS

Redbilled Francolin
Helmeted Guineafowl
Laughing Dove
Rosiefaced Lovebirds
Grey Lorie
Bradfords Hornbill
Grey Hornbill
Acacia Pied Barbet
Redeyed Bulbul
Short-toed Thrush
Familiar Chat
Mountain Chat
Whitebrowed Robin
Kalahari Robin
Greybacked Bleating Warbler
Puffback Palewinged Starling
Melba Finch
Blue Waxbill
Pririt Battis
Melba Finch (female feeding 4 young)
Blackcheeked Waxbill
Swallowtailed Bee-eater
Monteiros Hornbill
Rock Kestrel
Forktailed Drongo
Lilacbreasted Roller
Palewinged Starlings
Ground Plover
Turtle Dove
Cinnamonbreasted Shrike
Burchell’s Starling
Whitebrowed Sparrow
Southernbilled Hornbill
Maricos Sunbirds

OTHER WILDLIFE

African Wildcat
Rock Hyrax
Baboons (too close to camp!)
Steenbok
Red Hartebeest
Warthog
Brown Hyena
Oryx

Farewell Namibia!! Thank you for the wonderful wildlife, scenery, desert beauty and kind and beautiful people!! We head to Maun, Botswana next to experience the Okavango Delta by mokoro (dug out canoe) with a poler/guide to take us through the delta waters. Can’t wait!

Namibia (South)

Hello Namibia!

We spent a week (July 3-8) in the Namibia's capitol Windhoek where Kristi presented her paper at the 2011 World Conference on Sustainable Value Chain Agriculture for Food Security and Economic Development. The highlights were the bonfire dance performance at a reservoir and game meat BBQs (the favorite meat I think was Ostrich but the Kudu, Zebra, and Springbok were good too…crocodile, not so much). Then we were off again to take in the sites. We started at the NWR (Namibia Wildlife Resorts much like the Park Service) office in Windhoek to reserve 3 weeks of camp spots in the Parks. We headed south to Namib-Naukluft Park and then Sesriem Canyon-Sossusvlei with a stopover in Luderitz coastal town before Fish Canyon, then Kgalagadi, then northwest coast (Swakapmund/Skeleton Canyon) and then interior Waterberg Park (near Etosha) before heading to Botswana.

Interesting things we’re noticing in Namibia compared to S. Africa – Warmer temps (and colder at night) …definitely this is a desert. It looks a LOT like New Mexico and Utah (eerie). Grasslands, shrubs, rock formations, desert feel. Namibia is mostly remote – there is one north/south highway and one east/west highway. Everything else is dirt and gravel road. And Namibia is BIG (bigger than Texas). Everyone does the ‘thumbs up’ instead of waving. So, only passing car you see for hours: thumbs up. Saying hello across the street as you’re walking: thumbs up. Also there is a huge German presence here – a mix of German, Afrikaans, and English spoken mostly although we do hear Damara/Nama (language with clicks) a lot more than I thought we would (more with people socializing). People here are multi-lingual…it’s pretty amazing to see. Example, yesterday a park ranger giving us a park pass was speaking to us in English, the next person in German or Afrikaans, then to her co-worker in Nama I think. Wow. Also, a strange thing: one-way trails. You can only hike one direction on the loop trails - interesting.




NAUKLUFT TRAIL

Leaving Windhoek, we totally underestimated the time to get to Naukluft the first day – looong dirt roads - and ended up getting to our campsite right at sunset when the gates closed. Phew – too close for comfort! Next morning we set out on the Waterkloof (water ravine) trail. Beautiful beautiful canyon and amazing birds – colorful rosyfaced lovebirds too! - and other wildlife: klipspringers, hyrax, crazy frogs, mountain zebras and I swear I saw baboons climb a vertical cliff (at least a 5.9) when we startled a huge troop of them. Campsites there are in the backcountry - but amazingly still had hot showers and of course the reliable braai (BBQ) set up! We have our own camp stove so we’re mostly cooking camp meals but every once in a while braai’ing whatever flavor game meat they are selling at the park store.













BIRDS
Martial Eagles (pair)
Grey Louries
Pale Chanting Goshawks
Pale-winged Starlings
Red-eyed Bulbuls
Black-chested Prinias
Arnot’s Chat
Mountain Chat
Yellow-bellied Eramomela
Cape Pinduline Tit
Pririt Batis
Cape Wagtail
Whitetailed Shrike
Brubru
Scarletchested Sunbird
Great Sparrow
Lesser masked Weavers
Sociable Weavers
Black Eagle
Laughing Dove
Rosyfaced Lovebirds
Ashy Tit
Harp’s Tit
Redbilled Quelea
Melba Finch
Ruppell’s Korhaan
Black Crow
Short-toad Rock Thrush
Fiscal Shrike
Bokmakierie
Pied Starling
Black shouldered Kite
Ostriches

OTHER WILDLIFE
Mountain Zebras
Kudus
Common Platanna (frog)
Striped Grass Frog
Baboons (30)
Rock Hyrax
Klipspringers
Springbok


SOSSUSVLEI (“sossus – vley’)

From Naukluft, it was only an hour drive to Solitaire – this ‘filling station’ in the MIDDLE of the desert…NOTHing else around it…but somehow it had internet. Thank goodness because unfortunately a) we need it to do our online jobs and b) Namibia seems in short supply of reliable/affordable internet. (We definitely take it for granted back home). Another hour to Sossusvlei Dunes - HUGE red sand dunes in the middle of desert grasslands/conglomerate strangeness. It’s amazing! We arrived mid day at Sossusvlei and got an awesome camp site and headed straight to the park to see wildlife and climb a dune at sunset. Beautiful! We saw our first Oryx! (Seeing our brother Orxy reminded us of White Sands Missile Range and experiences with friends there. We miss you guys!)

Next day we caught sunrise on the dunes - we entered the park at the crack of dawn, then to the 2wd car park at the end, then hired a refuge concession/safari truck to take us 4x4ing on the dunes out to the jumping off point for several “vlei” (ephemeral pan in the middle of huge dunes) hikes. Cool wildlife: gi-normous ostrich ‘monstrich’, hundreds of springbok, 2 bat-eared foxes, an adder snake, tons of birds (see list below). We were done/it was warming up by 10 a.m. The rest of the day we caught up on reading/relaxing after a quick visit to a conglomerate Sisriem canyon. Charles made an awesome braai dinner – game meat, instant mashed potatoes and wine/beer.
















On to Luderitz (German coastal town, definitely overhyped in the lonely planet) Tuesday night to do laundry, check internet and then back on the road to Fish Canyon Wednesday afternoon. HUGE THANK YOUs to Ed/Sara for giving us the penny coke can stove – we use it almost every day! Also Paul and Kim – we use the day packs every day! And dad, thanks for fixing my binocs – I’m using those all the time! Thanks to everyone – you’re definitely on this trip with us. We talk about our family and friends all the time and how much we miss everyone. We’re looking forward to being back for sure, but for the next couple months, we’ll TRY to enjoy it here and share with you as much as we can!

BIRDS
Doublebanded Courser
Whitenecked Raven
Pied Crow
Greater Kestrels
Ruppells Korhaans
Ludwig’s Bustards
Pale Chanting Goshawks
Blackwinged Stilts
Avocets
Threebanded Plover
Spotted Dikkops
Namaquua Doves
Redeyed Bulbuls
Blackchested Prinia
Privet Battis
Palewinged Starling
Sociable Weavers
Yellow Canaries
Melba Finch
Ostriches
Rock Kestrel
Lanner Falcon
Black Crow
Northern Black Korhaans

OTHER WILDLIFE
Springbok
Bat-eared Foxes
Oryx
Puff Adder (snake)
Blackbacked Jackal
Plains Zebra
Suricate/Meerkat
Steenbok
Horned Adder (snake)
Wild Horses


FISH CANYON TO KGALAGADI PARK

From Luderitz we headed to the southern border (Namibia/South Africa) along the beautiful Oranje River. Incredible sunset colors on the rocks. We stayed over at the very popular Ai-Ais hot spring oasis. We see one or two cars after HOURS of driving and then WHAM – hundreds at this hot spring camping resort. The transition from solitude and desert desolation to camp city with a restaurant and pool is totally nutty. Next day we headed to nearby Fish Canyon (supposedly ‘big-as-the-Grand-Canyon’) but were quickly disappointed. The overlook was fine (nice canyon but nowhere near the Grand Canyon) but they don’t let anyone hike, just overlook the canyon! Oh noo! Some tourist died in 2001 and now for some reason they just closed it off –so we changed our camping reservation and took off to Kleetsmanhoop to get in some internet time and start heading to Kgalagadi. (Check out the canyon pic – notice, no riparian veg. We are strangers in a strange land).

CHEETAHs! ~20k outside Kleetsmanhoop, we saw three cheetahs hanging right on the side of the road. What? Crazy! Loads of raptors too – Martial eagles, goshawks, lanner falcons, mating secretary birds –whoa. You can definitely tell where the desert transitions to the Kalahari –it’s pretty remarkable. We’d watched “The Gods Must Be Crazy” right before leaving on the trip so this desert was instantly recognizable. We camped at a private rest camp ‘Farmstall’ right by the border of the Transfrontier Park (South Africa and Botswana) - Holy crap its cold here!! Remarkably cold!! We wanted to rustic camp by the border (full moon too – bonus!) so we’d be close to spend the whole day slowly traveling to our reserved camp. One of the strangest things for us is having to make camping reservation – we’re used to just heading a direction and winging it, so this is a new concept for us. And there are a LOT of long dusty roads. (I’m going to have to do about 10 netty-pots when I get the chance.) But it does make you slow down and arriving yesterday here at dark, we saw an AARDVARK! Also, porcupine, strange foxes (with black tale) and the tiniest antelope you’ve ever seen – I think smaller than the Brockett deer in Belize. Wooo-eee-uuuu-oooooo. Strange. But cool.





BIRDS
Hammerkop
Grey Heron
Southern Masked Weaver
African Sedge Warbler
South African Shelduck
Redeyed Bulbuls
Laughing Doves
Yellow Canaries
Pale Chanting Falcons
Lanner Falcon
Secretary Birds (copulating)
Martial Eagles (pair)

OTHER WILDLIFE
Baboons (2 troops)
Cheetahs (3)
Rock Hyrax
Aardvark
Porcupine
Unidentified Foxes (with black-tipped tail)
Unidentified tiny ungulate (brocket deer size and shape, maybe smaller)


KGALAGADI PARK and KALAHARI DESERT

We decided to visit Kgalagadi (South Africa part bordering with Namibia) on this part of our trip because it’s the closest in proximity to where we plan to travel. In other words, it was only 1 whole day’s driving in desolate Kalahari desert conditions barely seeing other cars versus driving a much longer distance in Botswana later on. We’d heard Kgalagadi was not to miss from Jackie, Ronnie, Anel, and Innie on our first days in South Africa a month ago before entering Kruger Park. So here we are!

We entered Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park from Namibia rather painlessly through a one-room customs/immigration office and then onto Mata Mata rest camp a few steps away in South Africa. We lost an hour though in the time change but made up for it in a birds and wildlife list – see below. It took 6 hours to cover 120 kilometers! We entered the rest camp – a gated camp to keep predators out - right at 6 p.m. closing time (we’re getting good at this timing!) The rest camp is on the border of Botswana and South Africa. We’ll drive north to explore more of the park and the Kalahari Desert and exit through the Mata Mata gate again to Namibia to continue our Namibia journey there.

We got an early start the second day – self safari’ing right when the gates opened at sunrise. It paid off – we watched 2 lions in the distance – one nice sized male - very cool! The morning was nice-loads of springbok, wildebeest, orxy and ostrich, birds and raptors galore… and surprisingly a lot of steenbok and jackals. Everything we saw was so close to the road – this is one of the best close range wildlife viewing places there is – although it’s big and the bumpy dirt roads take all day between camps. The afternoon was a long slog back to Mata Mata camp and the Namibia border to cross tomorrow on the way to Windhoek. We’re on the fence a lot of times, trying to balance work with play. Southern Namibia is SO remote and internet so sparse and expensive - I think we’re really looking forward to northern Namibia… but the south was incredible, desolate, sparse, barren...and so beautiful. Good memories!











BIRDS
Titbabbler
Cinnamonbreasted Shrike
Sociable Weavers
Melba Finch
Southern Yellowbilled Hornbill
Lilacbreasted Roller
Blackshouldered Kite
Greater Kestrel
Kori Bustard
Pale Chanting Goshawk
Martial Eagles
Crowned Plover
Redbilled Hornbill
Shafttailed Wydahs
Yellow Canaries
Cape Sparrow
Ground Scraperthrush
Black Crows
Forktailed Drongo
Namaqua Doves
Scalyfeathered Finch
Whitebrowed Sparrow-weaver
Ostriches (lots)
Booted Eagle
Redcrested Korhaan
Rednecked Falcon
Jackal Buzzard
Kalahari Robin
Turtle Dove
Bearded Woodpecker
Familiar Chat
Gabar Goshawk
Northern Black Korhraan
Chat Flycatcher
Beurchell’s Sandgrouse
Bateleur
Barn Owl

OTHER WILDLIFE
Slender Mongoose
Springbok (lots)
Common Duiker
Blue Wildebeest (lots) (note: Black Wildebeest in Kruger)
Oryx (lots)
Black-backed Jackal
Cape Ground Squirrel (lots)
Kudu
Lions
Steenbok
Oribi
Bat-eared Fox
Suricate/Meerkat