BUSH FIRES and DRAUGHT in Botswana, Okavango Delta
Botswana Safari Day 3, Friday, March 29. WTRD 13
When Bush Fires and Draught Affect the Animals in Okavango Delta
Up at 5:15, wake up and coffee at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00, in the Safari Land Cruiser, SLC by 6:30
and through the bush. The morning sky is relatively clear despite the smoke. Some of us think we heard a leopard last night near our tents, and we are anxious to get going. Our guide finds some leopard tracks, but they are moving in the opposite direction from our tea-time destination.
We are headed towards one of the few remaining lagoons away from the smoke from the brush fires. The smoke shrouds the landscape as we shoot photos of animals and birds in the morning light, scanning tree limbs for stealthy leopards. We do not see any leopards but are not disappointed in the beauty of Africa that we do see.
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| One of my favorite photos of the giraffes in the smoke. |
When we reach the pond/lagoon, mud hole, we board small flat bottom kayaks and learn what a “poler” is. Sunday is our poler.
We climb in his two person boat and he poles us down the very shallow river for about 10 minutes. We pass by water birds and water lilies
and head towards some large black mounds that turn out to be a dozen or more hippos. These are the smart ones who found some water.
We beach the kayaks on the opposite bank where morning tea has been set out on a table.
We are warned not to get to close to the bank directly across from the hippos as they are "lack of water" stressed and might become aggressive. There are also several crocodiles floating about and sunning on the bank. So we drink tea and eat biscuits from a distance, observing a water thirsty baboon, hippos rising and sinking in the water, and impala sipping at the water’s edge.
Sunday makes me a water lily necklace. The the lily has a delightful sweet fragrance. We sit back down in the bottom of the kayak after tea and return through the dried Okavngo Delta to PomPom camp.
There are seven new arrivals at the camp, After we eat, there will be two additional SLCs on after noon safari with us. There is great value in having other guides and trackers communicating with one another.
We eat lunch, change into our swimming clothes, and relax out by the pool until 4:00 pm.
when we have high tea and return to the SLCs for another hunt for leopards and cheetahs. This is the last of the big five we would like to see. The smoke from the grassland fires west of our camp is starting to settle as the afternoon winds die down.
Between the smoke and dust, I put on my face mask. We get a radio call, that one of the other Safari guides who has spotted a female lion. She is not a leopard, but she is indeed a young lioness trying to nap in tall grass while he paparazzi have a field day.
She seems unbothered by us. After a half hour of photographing the lioness, we resume our hunt for a leopard. Later, we receive another radio call from a guide, who has spotted a large lion.
We think he has either found Scar Face or Slack Jaw, the names we nicknamed yesterday’s cats. We decline a look and continue on our leopard hunt. Once again we did not find a leopard, but spotted a trees filled with baboons, vultures, and
marabou storks, and a horn bill bird.
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| Purple Breasted Fly Catcher |
At our afternoon tea, we enjoyed a pack of elephants bathing and splashing as the sunset.
We returned to camp, and enjoyed dinner with a full table. The bush fire is coming closer and burns bright. We will be glad to leave, but before we do, we have one more chancel in the morning to search for leopards .
Four of us have decided to continue the hunt, three plan to sleep in. Our plane leaves tomorrow for Labala at 9:55, so if we choose to go on the leopard hunt, we need to pack our bags tonight as once we leave our rooms in the morning, we will return to Pompom camp for just a toilet break and a drink before heading to the airstrip.
Russ and I pack everything up and are in bed sleeping by 11:00. View of the brush fire from our tent. We do not sleep easy.
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