Written November 18, 2015
By Drew Stazesky (University of New Hampshire)
I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to celebrate my 22nd birthday (on November 18th) in the African bush, at our amazing campsite located in Mababe, Botswana!
I knew something was up when my tent-mate, Amanda, woke up and left the tent at 5:15am—even though she wasn’t on transect that morning and didn’t have to wake up that early, while I on the other hand had was on bird transect and was going to wake up at 5:30am…
Once I emerged from my tent, I tried to sneak off to the bathroom, since I knew something was going to happen and I’m not overly fond of surprises. But alas, those who were awake and getting breakfast (Kaggie, Ben, Amanda, Louise, Forrest and Fen) saw me. Cue the appropriately titled song, “22” by Taylor Swift, blasting from the cars speakers, followed by a quick sing-along and brief dance party by all of us.
And once I joined everyone around the fire, they all said “Happy Birthday!” and wished me well. Other than this brief interlude to my morning, things continued on as usual as I enjoyed my breakfast combo of cornflakes and granola and a hot cup of tea.
At 6am my birding partner for the day, Louise, and I got in the car and headed out to conduct the only bird survey for the morning (with Ben and our eco-guide System). We saw nothing out of the ordinary during our bird survey (where we count and list the species seen), but I did get to pick the music for the ride to and from the transect location. After we finished the birding transect we took a detour back to camp to drive along the riverbed, a brief little birthday game-drive courtesy of Ben, and we saw the usual impala and wildebeest. A new species though, which we were all excited to see, was a pair of red hartebeest intermingled with a group of tsessebe (both species of antelope, similar in shape and size). Our eco-guide from Mababe, System, was particularly excited since this was his first time seeing this species in the area.
Back at camp, around 9:30am, Louise and I disembarked from the car and I was heading to the supply tent to put away our data sheet when Amanda asked me to check the bread pot for her. I headed over, and when I lifted the lid there was a surprise waiting for me—fresh, homemade cinnamon buns (with homemade powdered sugar glaze)!! Kaggie and Amanda had slaved all morning to make these cinnamon buns, remembering that I had requested them for my birthday way back in October when we were camped at Banoka Lodge.
Everyone got to enjoy the cinnamon buns, and I’m hoping they get made at least once more before our time in Botswana is over.
The rest of the day was pretty typical, and I did some academic reading and worked on my species accounts. Once in a while when someone would walk by me working in my chair, and say happy birthday!
Later in the afternoon, when a group went off to play volleyball in the nearby village of Mababe, I elected to stay behind to go for a nature walk (along with Sierra and Lauren), lead by Ben. It was a beautiful walk along the river, and we got to test our spore (track and scat) identifying skills with some waterbuck, impala and hippo tracks. We did some birding and enjoyed the breeze from the river, and kept a leisurely pace (but always on alert for any signs of movement). The cloud formations were particularly beautiful that afternoon, just as the sun was setting, and I took a couple of pictures.
Back at camp, we sat around and waited for the rest of the group to come back from volleyball. Amanda, Louise and Kaggie were the first to return because they were on dinner duty, and wanted to make me a great birthday day. I had requested chicken with mixed vegetables and rice in a delicious peanut sauce that Kaggie has made previously for us while we were all in Kasane the week before.
I must say that the chefs did a fantastic job, and everyone was happy to eat the same meal twice within the span of a week. The chicken, cooked by Amanda, was the best we’d had so far on this trip. There were no leftovers, and afterwards everyone sat back by the fire to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. A pretty good day overall, and a pretty good birthday.
But wait, there has to be a cake, right? Well, while I was reading my book by the fire, I saw the glimmer of a candle out of the corner of my eye and when I turned around I saw Kaggie emerging from the tent with a cake in hand. Everyone joined in and sang “Happy Birthday!” and applauded me as I burned out the candles. Louise handed me a card, which had been signed by everyone, as Fen proceeded to cut the cake. The little notes which people had written in the card were both endearing and entertaining.
And so my birthday came to a close, with everyone enjoying a piece of birthday cake and listening to the roars of a nearby pride of lions and the occasional rumbling laugh of a hippo emerging from the river to go graze. It’s pretty amazing to turn 22 in Botswana, and it’s something I won’ ever forget.
PS—An early birthday present came courtesy of Vehi, and that when we were driving back from transect TI in the Mababe Depression he spotted an Oryx (also known as a Gemsbok)! This was one of the species I was really hoping to see while in Botswana, and was very happy that I got to see one in the wild.