By Rachael Podtburg of University of Vermont
February 16th, 2020
My usual birthday wake up is a phone call from my best friend at midnight on my birthday. We’ve had this tradition since we had our first phones, and it’ll continue until those calls turn into holographs. We’ll usually chat for 10 minutes and then I’ll go to bed, only to wake up 6 hours later to start my day. As social media grows, what used to be verbal “Happy birthday’s” turned into texts, then Facebook posts, and now Instagram stories. My day is always full of friends and family, and lots of good food.
This time was wildly different.
I woke up at 6 AM, shined my Maglite out my tent to check for hyenas and elephants, slipped on my Chacos and brushed my teeth. As the first one up, I boiled a full kettle of water on the stove and made 2 French presses worth of coffee. When people still weren’t up, I grabbed my cup of coffee and journal and cozied up in my hammock to write and watch the sunrise. One by one, people woke up, brushed their teeth, poured a cup of coffee and wished me a happy birthday before it was time for raptor transects.
I was lucky: raptor transects start a whole hour later than herbivore transects, which meant more sleep and doing the car checks in daylight. After all the prep was done, we hopped into Lucy, one of our cars, and went on our way. The transect assigned was T2 along the buffalo fence in the Okavango Delta. Admittedly, this was my favorite transect to do in Sankuyo and I knew it like the back of my hand. In the first couple kilometers, you pass a skeleton of a giraffe that had gotten stuck in the fence. By kilometer 5, you would pass a couple of red-crested korhaan birds, and if you were lucky, you could see the male dive into the tall grass from 10 meters up.
At kilometer 7, there was a great bug hunt by little bee-eater birds, showing off their vibrant greens and yellows.
This morning, a male elephant decided to greet us with a bluff charge, which Dix responded by putting pedal to the metal until the elephant stepped out of the way.
Kilometer 8 was a turn off from the buffalo fence and into a mopane scrubland. There lived a couple dozen buffalo gathered near the small watering holes, and lilac-breasted rollers perched on the top of dead trees.
At kilometer 10 there was an elephant skull to your left and a little further was a baby rock monitor sunbathing in the stump of a burned tree. Scattered throughout the drive, were elephants popping out from behind the dense mopane scrub, most likely scaring itself more than scaring us.
At the end of the drive, kilometer 20, are giraffes 4 meters tall grazing on acacia trees, staring at us as we drive by.
Now, to go back to camp. One of the reasons why T2 is my favorite, is because we can take different transect route back home, T3. This one drives across a dried up river system from 30 years ago. You see a female leopard’s tracks from the early morning in the soft sand. You see the one lonely wildebeest in a herd of 100 zebra. When you hit the open pan, 6 old male elephants will be playing in the mud.
A big bull cools himself off with the muddy water. Photo by Shalynn Pack.
When we got back, I was greeted with a huge hug and happy birthday from Shay. I saw something being made in the bread pot, but I wasn’t allowed to know about it. Lunch was the usual peanut butter sandwich and cookies to snack on. Class was at 2 PM, and then back to T2 for the afternoon raptor transect at 3:30 PM. Afternoon raptor transects are a treat because there’s no other drive we do that’s right before sunset. We saw all the usual characters, but with a couple additions. A beautiful pale chanting goshawk was perched on a tree, and oxpeckers made an appearance on buffalo at the watering holes. Two male long-tailed paradise whydahs were chasing each other in the sky and a group of three shy roan were grazing with some zebras.
The drive back at 6 PM was lit with the pinks and oranges of golden hour. The ostriches and giraffes, the elephants and zebras, the kudu and impala. All bathed in the setting sun. When we got back to camp, homemade potato chips and pasta were hot and waiting for us. After dinner, sitting around the fire, the homemade chocolate cake that Shay, Indira, and Jenna made for me was decorated with matches as candles. They sang happy birthday, I blew out my candles and the gooey chocolate cake was passed around the fire.
I was worried about having a bush birthday. Not having my friends and family from back home, not having my midnight call, and not responding to texts was all very strange. But I still got a hug, and happy birthdays, and good food. And when we got back to island after 12 days in the bush, I had that midnight phone call notification from my best friend.