Ladies night?

 Tuesday brought another 5 am wake-up call from Max. Sue’s shower was working last night, but not Julie’s. It was a hot sweaty night nonetheless, and the cool morning was welcome. It’s quite chilly at morning pick-up from our tents at 5:30am. Probably in the upper 50s but when we get cruising along in the open air jeep at 6am, Julie wishes she had on more than her 3 layers & long pants. Sue & Nick tough it out in shorts and a long sleeve over their tshirts - must be that hardy Wisconsin blood. 

By 7:00 or so Julie’s unzipping her sweatshirt, by 7:30 it’s off, by 8 she’s unzipping her windbreaker and by 8:30 everyone is in tshirts. By 9 Julie is commenting on the heat & by 9:30 she’s really wishing she had on shorts! We are typically back at camp before 10:30 for a slight break before lunch. 

Daytime temps climb to near 100 so activity pretty much stops noon - 4pm when high tea is served &  “cooling” begins. Fortunately so far during our stay a pretty good breeze has blown during the day, which helps a little. 

Same breakfast drill as yesterday with over easy eggs and delicious bacon. The sky glows as the sun rises, and the birds start calling to announce their territory. We learned that the distinctive and prolific birds we’ve been seeing are the hookbills. We’ve seen 3 different kinds. Ona explained that they seal their nests with mud and just a single tiny hole to pass food to the chicks. It saves them from snakes. 

Ona starts each game drive with a cheerful “Let’s see who wants to be seen today”. We drove along the sand road that is traversed by elephant highways - paths created by hundreds of elephants heading to and from the water holes. We immediately came upon several zebra, Botswana’s national animal. Ona said that Botswana was never colonized but was a British protectorate. The black and white stripes of the zebra are supposed to represent the peaceful coexistence between the black native people and the white European settlers. 

We also saw some giraffes, including a 3-year old baby.  We learned that the males fight violently to establish their fitness to mate. It leaves them subject to stroke and sudden death. Many guides have witnessed giraffes suddenly drop dead in front of them. Ona also said that the population of giraffes has decreased drastically due to veld fires destroying their favorite trees. What has been planted in place of these trees is not conducive to giraffes’ diets. And the replacement is prolific - squeezing out other food sources. So conservationists are working on changing this before it’s too late. 

We saw a tawny eagle perched in a baobab tree and a submerged hippo- only its back showing - in a deep watering hole. He or she never came up for air the whole time we watched. 

We saw many large Guinea fowl and a gabar goshawk that can catch little birds in midair. We saw a magpie shrike with its very long tail and a beautiful black headed oriole. We told Ona about our own Baltimore oriole and he promised to look it up. (The bird not Cal Ripken, Jr. still Sue’s favorite Oriole). 
Near a water hole, Ona and Max discovered fresh prints of the 3 female lions - without the cubs! The lionesses had gone out for a drink leaving the cubs alone. While this seemed alarming to us, Ona said it’s common. We went on a mission to find them, thinking they might be hunting. Unfortunately the tracks led into a thicket that not even Max’s monster jeep could cut through. We followed around the outside of the thicket to see if they may have emerged. We had no luck but decided to return to where we saw the male Lion yesterday. Sure enough he was lying in the shade of the same tree. Ona surmised that he had been left to babysit the cubs. His “job” was to remain in the area while the lionesses hunted, thus deterring any buffalo who might come around and pose a danger to the cubs. When the females returned with their kill, he would get to enjoy it. The cubs were nowhere to be seen - but we really didn’t look for them. Apparently it would be bad form to try to find them when their mothers were away. The babysitter appeared to be fast asleep on the job, but as Ona had explained previously, they can instantly awaken if need be. It made our record of spotting lions on game drives 100%. It also seemed much easier than babysitting grandchildren. 

We saw the shed skin of a very large Black Mamba in the hole of a hollow tree. We learned that the really big ones don’t waste much venom on biting people. There’s more danger from younger ones who can’t control their secretions. Also we learned that they only need to eat a few times a year. They may come out and lay in the sun but mostly stay in their holes for long stretches. 

Satisfied that we were probably safe from the gigantic black mamba, we disembarked, had our coffee break and learned some facts about poop. I guess we will save that information in case we have a slow day in the
Blogosphere. 

On our way back for lunch, we saw more 
Tsessebe antelope, a few elephants and giraffes. We learned about the Shepherds tree that is used by bushmen to collect water, and the treetops are loved by giraffes. When young the tree bark is white so the scientific name is a derivative of “albino”. 

Lunch was burgers (Sue had vegetarian) and then a siesta before tea and our last evening game drive with Max. Ona hinted that we may be able to step into a game hide if one is available. We have had such amazing close encounters up to this point, it’s hard to imagine it could be improved. Our hope is that the ladies will have returned, and we get another peek at them and the cubs.