Senyati Lodge, 10/9/11 (Day 6)

Usual sounds through the night (didn't hear lion, though).
Woke before sunrise to witness sunrise! (me thinks that's the only way you can do it?) Best vantage point was near the waterhole so I trundled off in the (mostly) dark night. Taking pics and an Ellie came to join me. Got quite a fright as I was all alone with nowhere to go! Fortunately I was downwind and he was more interested in water! I don't think I've mentioned that the waterhole is a mere 20 paces from where you stand and no barrier between you and the wildlife. Awesome!

First sighting of Bradfield's Hornbill:

The "resident" yellow billed kite - he's the same one who was dive bombing the work crew on our first day here:

Patience rewarded after all those years, a relatively unimpeded shot of "Spookie":

Splish, splash I was taking a bath (under the watchful eye of the family):

Remember, there is no fence. While I was filming this water celebration on video, I was keeping a wary eye on the sentinels. I noticed one coming very close so I backed off behind a bush. Won't make for steady video footage, I'm sure!

C'mon ellies, you do NOT own the mud patch:

Tropical Boubou - pretty bird but his call sounds like a bullfrog:

Luis is out tiger fishing with Christo. The staff seem to have gone off for the afternoon. Noticed a lot of smoke coming from the back of a unit close to us. Turned out to be a fire starting. I rushed backwards and forwards with water and managed to put it out.
While sitting here, all alone, minding my own business, I hear a slow rustling among the root growth and dead leaves at the foot of the tree next to me. Managed to convince myself it was a snake and sat for ages, intensely watching, waiting for him to pop out somewhere. Eventually plucked up the courage to investigate and it turns out to be a tiny tortoise!

Luis has just returned - proud "catcher" of 3 x tiger fish. Largest was 1.8kg

He also managed to "catch" (capture) some lovely pics of the sun going down on Chobe river. This is my favourite:

Chobe river is very wide. Luis ended up fishing in Botswana, Namibian and Zimbabwean waters.

It's currently 19h30 and the elephant are very vocal!

Senyati Lodge, 9/9/11 (Day 5)

Elephant, hyena, lion and jackal all voiced their opinion through the night. One of the hyena that we hear at night has such a funny call - he sounds like a little boy making ghost noises; the cadence rising and falling. Likewise the "resident" jackal has a very off key, hoarse, flat cry.
Quite cold from about 4am onwards, had to put blanket on my bed. Soon warms up when the sun rises, though.
Went off to Chobe this morning. En route it was very strange to see cows, goats and dogs intermingled with elephant!
We weren't in Chobe park for 30 minutes when we went down in the thick sand. Luis had to brave the wild and deflate tyres. A little piggy watched all these proceedings with some amusement:

When he eventually crossed over the road, he sunk up to his belly in the sand!
We soon got going again and had some lovely sightings, including sable and puku:

Spent the afternoon on the deck playing putt putt (iPad) and chatting to Christo. He's the park manager and will be taking Luis tiger fishing on Saturday.
It's a nightly occurrence for the Ellie to come to the waterhole from about 5ish onwards, then throughout the night. Watched them for a long time (until we went to bed) - the hierarchy was incredibly interesting to witness. More noticeable, I suppose, because of the assorted herds involved.
A herd of cattle (at first glance I thought it was buffalo) tried to sneak a drink but were chased away. I felt sorry for them, to be so close to water and then it's snatched away, but .... I suppose us tourists want to see wild stuff and not cows!

Senyati Lodge, nr Kazangula 8/9/11 (Day 4)

Our spot at Nata

Luis massaging stressed neck muscles!

Compliments of meat impounded, we had a lovely meal at the lodge under a starlit setting. Delicious meal.
I woke up around 4:15, wasn't tired so decided to test good old Orange signal. Managed to post some remarks etc on fb and generally get up to date with emails, et al.
Interesting trip travelling north to Senyati. Poor road with major (165km) detour initially but got better. Bushveld started yielding some nice sights: an abundance of yellow billed kites, martials, batteleurs, steenies, lovely sighting of tawny getting airborne just in front of us. Bigger trees including Baobabs, a few hills (thus far it has been a straight, flat road and horizon).
Senyati is lovely. Each site has it's own 'blute with kitchen and shady patio. We have a view of the waterhole. Within minutes of arriving, Spookie (Grey Headed Bush Shrike) made a guest appearance, partially posing for a few pics. "Woodbills" performing their mating ritual, yellow billed kite dive bombing one of the construction crew, piggies wallowing in the mud .... All good!

Strange wildlife sighting at waterhole
(he wouldn't have tried this an hour
later as, by then, the Ellies had arrived!)

A herd of ellies arrives to drink. Some tiny babies included. The water is not very deep (20 cm or so) and appears to get a bit brackish. The Ellie know where the source is and all crowd around the little weir, about 1m diameter.
We stopped watching to have supper, then returned to watch them from the deck. For the last 6 hours various herds and some solo boys have come and gone.

A tentative jackal cry close by followed by answering yelps all rising together in a chorus. Ah, this is bliss.
Hot water source is a donkey. Works incredibly well. Had a shower to the accompaniment of elephant growling and trumpeting joined by jackal howling.

Nata Lodge, Nata. 7/9/11 (Day 3)

Had a lovely evening entertaining a German couple (Bavarian) who have just come from Chobe and were regaling us with hilarious tales of their experience there, including getting stuck in sand for 4 hours. Was lovely and warm - 22 deg. Slept well despite shunting trains and barking dogs. Did hear night jar and pearl spotted owl at some stage.
Found a lovely mall in Francistown where I bought a cossie and Luis bought himself a pair of sandals to replace the new ones he'd bought in Kempton especially for this trip - they kept sliding off his feet!
Went through an animal disease checkpoint and learned that there has been a fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease. All our meat was impounded. They did say we could cook it there: in the blazing sun and 40 deg temp - no thanks - donated it to the greater good!!!!
Nata lodge is lovely although the camp sites are dry and sandy, as in deep, soft sand that gets in everywhere. Had a lovely refreshing swim (in my new cossie!)
A little brakkie dog has adopted us. Eish, heartache tomorrow when we leave.
Will have to revisit this particular blog to post pics when signal improves - it's useless at the moment.
Have decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the lodge tonight - easy decision when you have no meat left! Must make sure we only buy the meat we need at each stop point as they have told us that there are numerous more Vet gates still to come on our journey!

Camp Itumela, Palapye. 6/9/11 (Day 2)

Remainder of our stay at Kareespruit was all good. We ended up braaiing around a fire pit and, with wood supplied by camp management, made a large fire to ward off the evening chill. (As hot as the days are proving to be is as chilly as the nights are). Slept snug and well. At least I did as I got up to put an extra blanket on my bed. Luis claimed he was snug in his sleeping bag but has just confessed that he froze his balls off! We're still looking for them!
Cleared border post at Kopfontein relatively quickly only to find the Garmin gps died at the border post. Bad timing as navigating through Gaborone without it proved quite difficult. Eventually ended up at a taxi rank to ask for directions to the main road to Palapye. Once we agreed on the pronunciation (Palaapi NOT Pallapaaie) all went well and, with a little bit of added guesswork on our part, we were on the main road. Of course, it's clearly signposted once you've found it!!!!!
Vegetation is good old bush veld with certain areas being more densely wooded than others. (Suppose it depends on rainfall, etc). Lots of thorn trees (shrubs) bearing creamy colored blossoms. For a stretch of about 1km only after TheTropic of Capricorn, the soil was the deep red of Kalahari dunes.
Just after Mahalapye we witnessed 2 separate, huge colonies (committees?/flocks?) of vultures (white backed) taking to the skies. Each colony consisted of about 40 birds or more. Magnificent and awe inspiring.
Stopped at the Orange Shop in Palapye to purchase a micro sim card and data bundle for the iPad. What incredible service! The assistant really went the extra mile to get us up and running.
Camp site is well established with some very welcome shady sites. They also have a lapa bar which opens at 3pm - guess where we'll be!
Luis has just finished fixing the Garmin. Tested all the cabling and fuses for a fault to no avail. Undid the unit itself, fiddled about, put it all back together and now it's working. Relief!
The 'blutes are out of this world. Open air with canopy of bougainvillea (one of them - the other has large cactus - assume that's for the males?).

Zeerust -Kareespruit Game Park (Day 1) 5/9/11

Pleasant trip - mostly highway. Left home at 8:30 ish - traffic flowed smoothly. Luis a bit tense at first as we are not used to Brutus anymore. Feels like we're sitting in a sport car with our bums dragging on the road. Bought some diabetic rusks (thought of you, Gail) at Petroport near Rustenburg - need hyena jaws to bite them. Had to dunk them for about 10 minutes (only a slight exaggeration) before they were edible. Hit a traffic jam in the bustling metropolis of Zeerust!
Kareespruit is a strange little place. Camping encouraged but no sites per se. Just set up in the middle of an area surrounded by nice chalets. Our bathroom is in one of the chalets and our power point supply is in another! Saw our first "real" tambourine dove - couple of them in a little aviary together with blue waxbills and Melba finches. Emu's running around.
Have a 90km run to border post tomorrow, then about 300km to Palapye.

Villa Spa August 2011

This was first time use for iPad2.  Posts done via the iPad but photo's added afterwards as I cannot post multiple pics via iPad (at this stage).
Nice and quiet and relaxing. Weather started off cold and rainy but has cleared up nicely for the time being. Fishing has been slow (basically non-existent). Luis had one nice bite today (probably Shad).
Had an awesome sighting of a hawk hunting a dove in flight. Came skimming across the ground towards Gayle and I at knee level - unfortunately we were in the way and the hawk veered off into the wide blue yonder.
Cherry on the cake for today (17/8) was a wonderful sighting of a spotted eagle owl. Wow!!! Lighting bad as quite late but trusted Nikon D90 rose to the occasion.

Some other nice bird sightings:

Bronze Mannikin

Natal Robin

Cardinal Woodpecker

White Eared Barbet

18/8: Owl was in full sun - I presume warming himself after the cool of the night. Did get some clear "full-frontal pics of him but his eyes were closed against the glare of the sun.
Went to "The Terrace" for a bite to eat. They had a pot-bellied piglet there - so tiny and so precious.
Luis didn't catch any fish but weather was up and down all over the place.
Had uneventful and pleasant trip home.