Botswana: Savute Elephant Camp

One quick puddle jump and we were in the dry, desolate Savute Elephant Camp. The land looked like something out of a sci-fi movie -- all of the trees were barren and gray, the dirt was a palid gray sand. But the actual camp gets its water from a well. Enough for a swimming pool.

Pictures:

• Impala - Our first trip out was our best - saw lots of Impala, lions and the elusive leopard.


• Lion Yawn - Lions are so fucking lazy during the day. There were puddles of kitties, and they look just like harmless stuffed animals out of Disney. Joe, our guide, said not to stand up because if you did, you will separate yourself from the jeep (visually) and become a target for the lions.


• Mama Leopard Pissed - Joe managed to track down a leopard from the truck (pretty cool to watch him analyze tracks and find it). We followed this leopard onto the rocks to see the cubs play. Remarkable. But everything was so far away that there were no good images.


• View From Savute -- This is the view from our room. There was a man-made watering hole outside the camp. There were tons of elephants out there.


• Elephant Family - We saw so many elephants out there that by the end of the two days, we became jaded. "Elephant." we would tell each other, in a listless voice while we hunted for other game.


• Lion Cub -- So adorable. Very cute.


• Rover In Savute -- these are the jeeps that the we rode around in. Our guide, Joe was really into tracking down game. In this photo, M. and I had to ride with a different group. The other guide was not nearly as good as Joe and we were fortunate to have him.


• Kudo Locking Horns -- there were lots of cool antellope. This is one of the better images that I took. They are truly magestic animals. And they taste good too.


• Giraffes -- the giraffes were curious to see us and even though there were babies, they were remarkably un-skittish.


• Elephant Alone -- View the image. Words don't do it justice.


• Sunset In Savute -- the wide open spaces were remarkable.

There is a shocking amount of poop in Africa. Elephants (and there are a lot of them out there) generate a lot of poop.

I should create a photo album of my animal shots. I could call it "Butts of Africa" -- the animals are usually running away from us, so by the time we are close enough to take a picture, all I end up with is a photo of their butt.

Botswana: Eagle Island

Orient Express Hotels operates a series of camps in Botswana. The first one we went to was Eagle Island. After a grueling series of flights (Cape Town --> Johannesburg --> Maun --> Eagle Island) we settled into our deluxe "tents" and started our first mokoro journeys.

Pictures:

• Botswana By Air -- the something I didn't realize at the time is that everything green is actually water. The water, by the time it flows down to Botswana, is really salty so that there is a very clear break between water and land.


• Eagle Island Tents -- these had air conditioning, bathrooms, showers, netting and a fridge.


• Mokoros -- these are traditional hollowed out trunks that they use as canoes. They are very shallow, so can glide over water that is only inches deep. The use poles to push the canoes around.


• Frog On Reed - these little frogs hold on tight. They climb the reeds to avoid being eaten by other critters. The guides have remarkable eyes, being able to see this 25 feet off.


• Crane Taking Off - One of the many birds in the area. They are really skittish, so this is only one of the few images that turned out.


• Wildebeast - Wildebeast are also skittish. This herd was on on the actual Eagle Island.


• Elephants From Helecopter - we did a nice helecopter (I was really freezing up there that morning) ride and saw a lot of animals from above. The noise of the helecopter was so loud we couldn't get close to anything else.


• Evil Croc - These critters lie in wait, still like stone. Their eyes are really creepy.


• Sunset On Water - one of the many stunning moments over the water. (One of my best photos)

Our guide was named Mighty -- as in Mouse. The smallest guide of the bunch, he was able to pole around two of the biggest guys in our group when we got stuck in the marshes.

Sleeping was unusual - there were tons of noises outside our camp. For example, the hippos would splash and grunt right outside our tent. The lions would track and kill something off in the distance -- and the noises would keep M. awake. I, of course, slept through everything.