Written by Harrison Buck (Westminster College)
Life is good here in Khwai. The days seem to fly by as we continue our morning transects, wrap up class lectures, and begin final exams! While we aren’t occupied with academics, time is spent playing Hearts, making cheesy bread, laughing at things that aren’t funny, chasing off monkeys, reading, and napping. This past week we had our second field practical quiz, which involved finding and identifying wildlife tracks along roads. Many species in the bush use vehicle roads as a more efficient mode of transportation, because the grass is just so thick this season it takes a lot of energy to jump or push through it. Lucky for us, we’ve been able to observe a lot of spoor (any indication of the presence of wildlife) along the roads, which has been very interesting to study. We may not be as experienced as our master trackers (Joe and Xaro) from XaiXai (yet), but all of us can distinguish the tracks of a few species of antelope, the big cats, smaller nocturnal predators, a few birds, hippos, giraffes, and of course elephants.
The proximity and abundance of wildlife here in Khwai has been incredible. We have had more close encounters with lions (right outside our tents!), elephants strolling through daily, and even a few sightings of a local leopard which has been hanging out around our camp and storing his impala kills in a nearby Acacia tree! The morning we saw the impala in the tree we all kept our eyes on it, waiting for the leopard to come back for it. We left camp for not even 20 minutes to wash in the river and it was gone. That leopard must have been waiting for us to leave all morning, and it retrieved the impala the first chance it had. Everyday holds endless amazing photo opportunities and many of us have been awe inspired by breathtaking sunsets every evening, and the endless expanse of stars that fill the night sky.
“Look closely!”
Today we head into Maun to resupply and tune up the vehicles before attempting a long drive northeast to Kasane. This trip will be as close to a “spring break” as we will get here in Botswana, but most days feel like a vacation anyways. We have plans to travel to Victoria Falls via the Zambian route, visit a local Biodiversity Center, go on river cruise, and more! Stoke is high as we pack up camp and head towards the next leg of our adventure. More updates and photos to come!
