Written October 13, 2015
By Louise Bishop (University of Alaska, Fairbanks)
Dumela!
Yesterday marked three weeks since we arrived in Botswana. We are currently staying at Banoka camp, in the Khwai concession area. Although it’s cliché to say, time really has flown by. We wake up with the sun around 5:30am every morning and head out of our campsite to collect data. There are surprises around every corner in the bush. The wildlife here is like stepping onto a new planet.
In the last four days I’ve been lucky enough to have two lion sightings. The first was on our way back from our morning transect when Vehi, our instructor from Namibia, spotted a shadow in a dense bush on the edge of a dried up watering hole. We stopped to watch two cubs and two adult females emerge from the bush and walk leisurely to the shade of an acacia tree with the remains of an impala skull in one of the adult lion’s mouth.
We drove around the tree until we were four meters away from the lions. The female cub was attempting to wrestle the impala skull from her mom who was not interested in sharing. Forrest and I were on the edge of our seats as the mom growled and grunted at her cub. The guttural noises that come from a lion are almost alien. They are closer to a deep vibration than a sound, even when they are just playing.
The second sighting was on our way back from a trip into Maun. We came across two young male lions at a watering hole. One of my favorite things about lions are their piercing yellow eyes. When you catch their attention they stare right back at you with predatory confidence. One of the young males sprayed a tree as he walked by and then laid down and watched us intently, switching his tail back and forth.
Every day brings a new adventure here. I could write pages about all of the animal encounters we have had, but a close second to the wildlife is the human company. In the afternoons we have a lot of free time so there are a lot of camp shenanigans including some serious games of spike ball or more recently soccer with some of the guides at Banoka camp. They kicked our butts, but we try to keep up. In the evenings we cook dinner and talk around the fire. Annie recently got a guitar in Maun so our new goal is to learn some camp songs, although we’ve discovered we’re all horrible singers.
Overall, transitioning to life in Botswana was easy with so many wonderful people and so much wildlife around. Tomorrow we move on to Santiwani. I am looking forward to a new place and new adventures!
Tsamaya sentle!