Christmas in the Kalahari

Me and the newly painted vehicle

Lest you be left with the impression from the last entry (about the puff adder under the tent) that there’s nothing to enjoy about the Kalahari at Christmas, let me tell you a few more stories about our recent camping trip. Despite the heat (and the fact that our new air conditioner in the vehicle broke on the first day), uninvited snakes and additional pain created by banging around in the bush (I’m really not sure the neurosurgeon who advised that bouncing around in a safari vehicle wouldn’t make things worse has ever really experienced Botswana roads), we enjoyed our time during our Christmas travels.

Kalahari Christmas Tree - loaded with weavers' nests

Storms brewing - CKGR

The Kalahari is stunning in the raining season as the pans that are normally dry and desolate without a stitch of grass during most of the year are bursting with new green grasses and an abundance of veld flowers. Driving along you encounter burst of aromatic scents like cinnamon or nutmeg from fields of flowers which looked to be part of the “forget me not” family. Off in the distance you’d see a flash of red or yellow and walk over to find flame lilies, pin cushion lilies or Chinese lanterns.

 

aromatic flowers of the Kalahari

flame lily

 Many animals have babies at the beginning of the rainy season so as to ensure their greater likelihood of survival and we saw baby wildebeest (see the shaky video of the rambunctious young wildebeest), jackal and bat-eared fox. Adult jackals and bat-eared fox are some of the cutest things you’ll find in the Kalahari and their babies are even cuter! We spent one late afternoon in Qwee pan watching a jackal family of seven frolicking around searching for dinner. Siblings running at full speed to dive bomb each other while parents viewed us cautiously ensuring we were no threat to their offspring.

Curious jackal pup

Baby bat-eared fox

Our first night staying in Deception Pan we are serenaded to sleep by the calls of three male lions. When we woke in the morning we rushed off to see if we could find any of them. But…as per my theory about looking for lions (i.e. I don’t think you ever actually find a lion when you’re looking for one. Only when you’re not looking for one, do you see them.), once we’ve given up all hope of finding a lion, we find one swaggering down the road in the opposite direction of where we thought we heard them the night before. He is a stunner! Full mane. Full belly. In beautiful shape with very few battle scares. I like to think that he might be the grown up version of the very sad young male lion we saw several times in the CKGR a few years back. He had the most pitiful look in his eyes as he waited by the water hole for his dinner to show up (like waiting for pizza delivery). He had several safaris in the Kalahari that year and kept running into him. I’m hoping the lion we saw this trip is him. Well fed. Confident. At peace with getting kicked out of the pride as a mere adolescent.

Our days are hot (Kalahari hot!) and we literally try to lie low during the hottest parts. By late afternoon we are ready to go explore a bit and look for a nice pan area to enjoy the sundown and our traditional African “sun downer” (a beverage of choice to enjoy while the sun is going done). There is nothing quite like an African sunset and I feel “at home” while watching the 360 degree panorama of Technicolor beauty. At night we are visited by all sorts of creatures including the ever terrifying solifugae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae) – which I will never get a picture of because 1) they move too fast and B) they are really creepy and I usually run in the other direction when I see one. 

Joining us for sundowners

 

Kalahari Sunset

 On Christmas day we find a coolish place to stop under a tree for lunch. As we’re setting up, a huge truck full of people pulls up (literally a truck you’d load large cargo in the back that is filled with people). The three men in the front jump out and explain that they are showing a group of deaf people from all over Botswana the Kalahari. Interested in who Paul is and his work with the bushmen in the 1970s one of them signs to the group about who we are and specifically Paul’s work in the Kalahari. As we’re leaving, I ask how to wish them a Merry Christmas and their translator shows us. I then proceed to spell out Merry Christmas using the sign language alphabet, which I think I learned in 7^th grade. They are very impressed and wave their hands in the air to express their joy. They then ask our names and I spell them out for them. Who knew my minimal signing skills would come in handy in the Central Kalahari??

My nemesis - the tent chewing tree mouse

One night I am thoroughly tormented by a tree mouse (who’s actually kind of cute if you can get past the annoying; I swear he sounded much bigger than he looked). I woke from my drug induced slumber (the nerve pain meds I’m on usually knock me on my butt) to the scurrying of little feeties on the tent. I look out the front screened door and see what looks like a body with a tail. Am I losing my mind? Perhaps hallucinating? And then it moves (maybe that’s who the puff adder in the previous entry was looking for). All night long he scurries and nibbles and scratches. Really? How can something that small make that much noise? Paul, of course, has blissfully slept through all of it. Despite my waking him to ask what to do if it chewed through the tent and fell on us. In the morning, as we’re taking down the tent, we find him on top of the tent under the rain cover. My nemesis. The creature that will add to my crankiness all day (on top of the heat and the pain, now we have lack of sleep – kind of a bad combination!).

perhaps moving a bit slower these days, but moving...

Many of you have asked about my neck since I’ve return to Africa. For those of you who don’t know, about three days before I was to fly back to Botswana I was diagnosed with degenerative disk disease. Four of seven bulging disks, spinal stenosis (or narrowing of spinal column), osteophytes (or bone spurs), radiculopathy (or damage or disturbance to the nerve roots that causes pain) and while the neurosurgeon announced that it wasn’t the “worst neck he’d ever seen”…he said it was pretty bad. We debated a bit about what this meant for my travel plans and ultimately decided that, if I thought I could manage the pain, I could travel. So here I am…traveling.

I’m doing a lot of stretching and trying to correctly sit, lie and stand to try to alleviate the pain along with taking lots of meds. Nothing really seems to help much or make it hurt worse. What does seem to alleviate some of the pain is traction and while the over the door traction contraption I came with doesn’t really do the trick, Paul is pretty good at pulling my head with a towel as I lie on the bed. Lying flat also helps which I’ve been doing a lot of lately but I’m not sure quite how that will work on study away. I’ve also recently found a physiotherapist (what they call physical therapists here) and she has been doing massage, ultrasound, traction, etc. and I’m hoping that will help. Paul suggested a new line of work of “mattress tester” (he thought that was quite funny) but I think I’ll stick to what I’m doing for now.

In the long run there will probably be surgeries (yes, with an ‘s’). But for now…I’m managing (although I did upgrade myself to “economy comfort” for the return flight back in April – the flight over was excruciating and I’m hoping a bit more of a seat incline will help and perhaps far more pain meds than I took on the flight over). As many of you well know, you’ve got to do the best you can with the hand you’ve been dealt.

PS: I failed to mention we also saw three cheetahs in the CKGR. One sitting near a watering hole then wandering off crying for his/her friends (see the shaky video below - kind of sounded like a house cat!). A short drive later we saw two more. Hope they found each other.