As I write this, me and dad are safely back in the great state of Pennsylvania, with ample and fast wifi.
We left Zimbabwe via car, an hour and a half later than the departure time we were originally told. A fitting end to Zimbabwe. Border control on the way out was about as annoying as on the way in- with an added bonus of stepping in bleach water to protect Botswana's cattle.
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| Our tiny plane |
We drove to the Kasane airport, where we caught a (much larger than expected) bush plane to
Machaba Camp. The bush plane actually makes stops, which added to the rather nauseating experience.
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| The "tent" |
Machaba is remarkably similar to Rhino Post- substitute tents for our cabin and you have it. Plus more honeymooners. The same schedule- wake up, eat, drive, eat, sleep, eat, drive, eat, sleep. Very similar wildlife, but much rougher roads- and the ability to go off road. Thus we could follow animals for longer (topped by the low speed leopard chase, where 12 safari cars followed one leopard as it went about its evening).
The leopard and it's cub were a definite highlight of the trip. We also saw the wattled crane (which we came to the delta for) from afar, took a canoe ride - that ended in an elephant stand off, and saw a lion swim. Botswana has much stricter wildlife protection regulations than South Africa, but it did not seem to make a difference in what we saw (you cannot kill, touch, or interact with animals or animal remains under any circumstances, poachers are shot on sight).
The trip from the Okovongo to home was something- 30 hours, 3 planes, and several layovers. The Main airport stood out as particularly terrible, although we were patted down and had our bags thoroughly hand checked at the gate in Johannesburg.
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| Grey egret |
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| Fish eagle- we saw several of these call (and pretended it was a bald eagle on the fourth!) |
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| The mokoro (traditional transit in the delta) |
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| Herd of elephants on our canoe ride |
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| Leopard cub |
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| Paparazzi for the leopard |
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| But look how pretty it is |
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| Sunset over the Delta |
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| This is how a lion finds a lioness in heat, the smell sensors are inside the mouth |
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| the process (a lioness had peed in the bush) |
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| swimming |
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| yes that is a lion swimming |
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| wild dogs |
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| herd of 45 elephants |
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| The baby is less than 1 year old |
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| Another leopard chase, this is the baby again |
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| This hippo is copulating with an unseen hippo beneath it |
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| Another Botswana sunset |
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| The camps July 4th celebration prepared for us! |
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| The delta from above |
Welcome Home!
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