First, thanks to all of you that sent along birthday wishes. I had a nice birthday on the 18th. Paul spoiled me all day beginning with an attempt at coffee in bed (until the parrot in the living room started squawking because she wanted Paul to come out there…she’s quite social…and demanding). At the office I was given a package of assorted “biscuits” (a.k.a. cookies) to eat with my mid-morning tea. At lunch, I announced that I really would like a piece of cake for my birthday to which Paul promptly left the office to retrieve a chocolate mousse cake from his neighbor’s fridge (he had purchased it the day before and was hiding it in there for dinner that night). He said I made a “pre-emptive cake strike” by requesting it for lunch (instead of the plan for dinner). Also received some nice gifts throughout the day including a nice beaded giraffe for the house in Greenville (that we don’t live in yet but are buying things for on a regular basis) and a fuzzy pink bathrobe (very “bush worthy” for my walks to the outdoor shower – although I’m not sure I’ll be using that too much until I recover from the story our friend Mike told me of his sighting of a boom slang in there the other day – that snake has 3 red dots on the snake chart in the living room meaning “super venomous”).
Last weekend we went down to Ghanzi, a big cattle farming area, about a 2-3 hour drive from Maun to visit a friend of Paul’s Kevin and his wife Merle. Paul had worked with Kevin several years ago when he started the range rehabilitation project with funding from Tiso Kalahari. Botswana is a big cattle raising country (hence the cows in the road) and there is a lot of “over grazing” of farm areas, meaning there is no grass left to eat. Paul worked with Kevin on some “controlled burns” in areas to clear out the under-brush that gets so thick there is no room for grass to grow. We spend the weekend bashing around the farm in a giant tank like tractor mapping the farm with the help of Paul’s GPS so that long range comparisons can be made between burn and non-burn areas. We stayed in an elevated reed chalet on a watering hole and heard howling jackal at night and enjoyed the bird life during the day. In addition to cattle, the farm also had plenty of kudu and ostrich roaming around.
This weekend we went up to Moremi Game Reserve to give a star show for a safari. The group was a very nice family of fifteen from grandparents to grandkids from California. We came in on Saturday night just in time to celebrate one of the granddaughter’s 16th birthdays with a traditional elephant dung cake (a classic of safari companies, there’s always great laughter when they figure out it is filled with poop!). The real cake delivered, champagne poured, and the evening was off to a good start as the sun set over the pan. It was a beautiful sunset.
With pre-dinner sundowners Paul told them a bit about the galaxy, astronomy and bushman folklore regarding the constellations of the southern hemisphere. As he was talking, with the sky only partially illuminated by a quarter moon, we notice movement about 20 feet away as a huge hippo made his way to the pan. With a flash of a torch (a.k.a. flash light) he backed up a bit but eventually worked up the courage to make a mad run to the watering hole sending water flying everywhere like a tank driving full speed into the water. He signaled his triumph with a signature set of grunts as we cautiously looked on.
We continued the evening with a fabulous steak dinner and after the meal Paul entertained them for hours with his telescope viewing Saturn (which at this point is tilted in such a way that it looks like an olive with a tooth pick stuck through it), Jupiter, the moon, and many fascinating stars and nebular clusters. I enjoyed observing the family dynamics of what must have been a very wealthy family. This was just one evening of a two week trip which involved multiple chartered flights from one scenic location to the next. A quick Google search on return to Maun revealed that one of the sons was a TV producer from LA who had directed several episodes of Lost! One of my favorite shows.
One of the advantages of money like that is that you don’t have to endure the actual drive to these unspoiled areas. Since they were jet setting to their next destination there was an extra vehicle that needed to be driven back to Maun so while Paul drove the safari vehicle back, I drove our Mitsubishi through mud, sand and slippery calcrete roads (which felt like driving on corrugated ice, bumpy and slippery at the same time!). There is still a lot of 
water up in Moremi, unusual for this time of year (which is supposed to be the dry season). On several occasions Paul had to wade into the icy cold mud water to see if it was passable. Better him than me.
Fortunately, no elephant encounters while driving in the bush this time (unlike my first time driving in the bush). We did see some ellies but they were calm. We also saw giraffe, kudu, impala, lechwee, zebra, baboons, vervet monkeys, etc. The coolest sighting of the weekend was a small pack of wild dogs. While I had seen some before in captivity…never in the wild. They were not fussed at all by us and walked right by the car. Two of them 
were collared for research purposes but the others were not. We were very excited about our good luck in seeing them and I was surprised how much they looked like skinny lanky domestic dogs!
It was a very nice weekend. In a couple of days, we head off to Savute to help cut a new road for the mobile safari companies. It has been very cold at night (close to freezing) so I’ll have to pack everything warm that I own. It was a long cold night in Moremi listening to the hippos, lions and hyenas and freezing my butt off!
PS: Well the parrot finally worked up the courage the other morning to try to land on me again. There I was innocently drinking my morning coffee and the bird launches itself off its cage, flapping erratically, and lands…square on my head. Paul insists it’s because my shoulders are too small to suffice as landing strips. So there I was in my pink fuzzy bathrobe, coffee cup in hand, with a bird in my hair. With nothing to grip on to, his talons are digging into my skull and the more Paul tries to get him off the more he digs in. At some point I start to cry in a complete fizzle as he backs up towards my face. Finally, our friend Mike walks in and the bird calmly walks off my head and onto his arm. It was quite a start to the day. Fortunately, he didn’t poop on my head (especially since we had no water that morning for a shower!).
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