My last post of my African Trip

Here I am, doing one last blog to finish off my trip to Africa.

My previous post was about Etosha, the vast Namibian desert game park.  It was here that I became fascinated by animal behaviour, particularly that of elephants.  As I write in mid October, many of you will have seen the recent delightful news video of the baby elephant rescued in Kenya and galloping to its mother who rushed to greet her.  It was in Etosha that I first became really aware of elephants’ human like emotions, their social structure, their love for their little ones, and their grieving.  Other animals are in awe of the huge elephants, and around the waterholes we watched herds of zebras, giraffes, impalas, oryx, sables, and others, all circling patiently and waiting their turn as the elephants dominated.  That is until two thirsty warthogs decided to brave it and tucked in tightly together beneath those great grey behemoth legs.  We spent enthralling hours watching and waiting at waterholes as the animals interacted and went about their daily activities.

Giraffes have difficulty drinking due to their anatomy and blood pressure problems

Those brave little warthogs

In the vast park the animals roam free, and we humans must stay in our vehicles or enter specially fenced areas to protect us.  There’s a photo below of a fenced-in toilet building, but in fact we all got quite used to bushes and the open air!  There are many man made waterholes in the park to assist the animals.  Wells are dug to source the water, and mini windmills do the job of pumping water to the surface.

Progress comes to Africa

The attraction of water.  In the background are wildebeests and ostriches.

The desert washroom

After several days in Etosha we made our way via Waterberg to the Namibian capital, Windhoek, en route to Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls.  I was thrilled by the Falls, and only sad that we had so little time to enjoy them after all the expense and hassle (yes – this was Africa, there was hassle!) of getting there.  But a helicopter trip over the area was the icing on the cake. 

We saw many beautiful and strange (to us) flowers and bushes

Uh oh!  The lions are watching!

What grubby feet you have!

The proud Korybuster (the world's heaviest flying bird) and the slinky jackal

So many birds we saw

Cute baby baboon

Low water at Victoria Falls.  Full flood comes in April.

Just one section of the majestic Falls, seen from our helicopter

Our final destination in Botswana, became the highlight of the whole trip.  Our lodge beside the Chobe River, and the game drives and boat rides we had twice daily into Chobe Game Park, were quite wonderful.  During the land drives we saw much more of what we had already seen, but in different terrain – lions, giraffes, sables, impalas, and of course my new favourite, elephants, elephants, elephants.  The boat trips brought new delights, masses of hippos (those huge floating beanbags), a few sinister crocodiles, herds of water buffalo on the large flat islands that separated the channels in the wide river, and, you guessed it, yet more elephants.  We watched a family swimming across the river in front of us (however do they do it?), and another family being pestered by baboons.  I’m not sure why, but the baboons were a real bother, and it was fun watching them darting nimbly hither and yon as a young elephant lurched and lumbered after them kicking its legs and swing its trunk wildly.  All to no avail!  The variety of birds was amazing, and a true delight for birders.  I’m sure that in just one photo alone I captured a dozen different varieties of birds twittering and fluttering and stalking around a reedy river bank, but without a crocodile in sight, needless to say.

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'Never smile at a crocodile' we learned as kids.  Can they ever snap fast as a potential meal appears!

'Eats shoots and leaves!'  Whole branches too!  Salad and fibre all in one mouthful.

Just shootin' the breeze in the evening air

A family gets in their happy hour drinks

By now we had seen a vast variety of animals, including four of the so-called Big Five animals – lions, elephants, water buffaloes, and rhinos.  All we needed was the fifth, a leopard, to seal the deal, and on our very last day a leopard we got.  Wonderful!  The trouble is that leopards are cats, and spend most of their time sleeping, only becoming active when they are hungry and out on the prowl.  So the hour and a half spent watching the leopard produced only a few ear twitches, one quick stand, a roll over with a scratch-my-tummy-please pose.  And a yawn!  Hurray!

Last but not least - a leopard

All good things much come to an end, so home we had to go.  My journey covered four days, three continents and six countries before I arrived back in Eastern Canada to the warm welcome of my Ottawa and Nova Scotia families.  Now home in Vancouver, I have thousands of photos to process and wonderful memories to enjoy, and am plotting on when and how I can get back to Africa.  It was beyond my expectations.

Au revoir, Africa!

 One last thing: various people have asked about my camera equipment.  I use Olympus, and 'wore' two cameras as I prepared to go out each morning.  They were hands-free and comfortable and not too heavy to walk fair distances and be forever up and down from the ground.  My E510 bore my wide angle lens and I wore it on an elasticized harness made by my friend, Catherine, hanging at my centre waist.  My E5 (love it!) bore my zoom lens with a teleconverter hanging via my lumaloop on my right hip.  Thus I was ever ready with a focal range of 24 - 560 at my fingertips.  My hand just went to the one I needed at the moment, no fuss no muss.  I also brought along a macro lens with an extender, but after the flowers of Namaqualand, where I really needed it, I found it too much trouble to carry.  I didn't bother with a tripod.  Three of our group of fifteen keen photographers carried huge lenses and tripods.  I eagerly wait to see their images, which will be tack sharp and gorgeous I know.  But that would have been too much for me.  I am happy with what I have got.

See you all - and thanks for reading.   Margaret