Well, so much for being no game at South Gate. Around midnight we hear all kinds of racket, like metal clanging. We took out our flashlights to see what it was, and it was hyenas in the garbage bins. They are made out of metal grating with a lid on it that is made to be animal proof. We couldn't tell which type of hyena they were, because it was so dark. Later on in the morning, there was more noise and when we investigated, it was a honey badger in the garbage. When we were leaving there were vervet monkeys, then on the road to Maun we saw giraffe, wildebeest, water buffalo, impala, and hartebeest. I would say South Gate has plenty of game!
We are at Crocodile Camp Safaris Lodge in a chalet for the night.
Tomorrow we go to Nxai Pan National Park camping again. It is nice to get into civilization again, but then it is nice to leave it also. We bought some more supplies and some souvenirs today. We stopped at an african village that had a very small curio shop, and we bought a few baskets from them and also gave the girl some toys for her children. I bought elephant dung paper today at a shop here in Maun. More tomorrow...
9 Oct. 2002
We stayed at Nxai Pan last night. There is hardly any game there. We saw one elephant with no tail, some springbok, impala, and a few tortoises on the way. We were cooking dinner when Doug says " there is a snake in that tree". He is talking about a tree just a few feet away from me. We looked it up in the field guide, but didn't see it in there. It looked similar to a black mamba, but wasn't. Doug took a tree limb and got the snake and moved him from our camp. Besides all that there wasn't much to speak of at Nxai Pan.
We drove to Baines Baobabs which are these huge trees called "Baobabs" They are pretty much spread out everywhere, but at Baines there are about seven all together. An explorer named Baines painted them about 130 years ago. Ther trees have not changed since they were painted; even the fell down tree is the same.
We are the only people at this camp, so we should have a nice quiet night. Maybe sounds of lion along with the wind will lull us to sleep!
Note: Later in our trip after talking to a few people, one of who is a ranger said the animals were probably poisoned.
The only thing we heard last night were zebras all night long. Once I did hear an elephant rumbling.
Today we drove to Serowe and did some shopping in town, then went on to Khama Rhino Sanctuary.
We drove around in the reserve and finally saw a mom and baby rhino. I had one picture left on my last roll of film. We had been sitting there for about 15-20 minutes waiting for them to get out in the open space. I noticed a van behind us, so we pulled off the track so they could pass. When they passed, they spooked the rhinos and they were going to cross right in front of us. The van stopped right in between us and the rhinos.
Can't believe our luck!
