Hope your New Year is off to a good start. We had a nice Christmas celebration down at Meno a Kwena (www.kalaharikavango.com) one of my favorite places in Botswana. Unlike the last time I visited, there is now water flowing in the Boteti River which had been dry for twenty years. On Christmas day we watched several bull elephants frolicking in the water. It’s amazing to watch such big creatures playing around weightlessly in the water. They truly looked like they were having a fun Christmas!
Most of the week since Christmas we’ve been busily working: Paul on end of the year accounts for his three companies and working up quotes for safaris next year and me on planning the final details for my group of twenty Furman students coming for two months of travel as part of study away in early February. The weather has been hot and humid with almost daily rains. My first real experience with the “rainy” season
(last year we took off the day after Christmas toward Tanzania and avoided the rain; the year before that we headed down to the Transfrontier Park which was dry as a bone). The drive home has become a mud puddle filled adventure and, in heavy rains, our driveway and yard are converted into a lake. One day last week the ostriches managed to escape their fence and came springing down our driveway. It was quite a sight to see (fortunately I had my camera handy).On New Year’s Eve we went over to Eddie and Mano’s, Paul’s safari business partners, and visited with Mazoe the Amazonian Orange Parrot that briefly lived with us last June/July. She has clearly found the best home for her. She seems happy and well feed and as cheeky as ever. (Note: “cheeky” is a commonly word adjective here, according to an online dictionary it means “Impertinently bold; impudent and saucy.”) She squawked and tweeted when she saw Paul and easily mounted onto his shoulder which served as her perch a few months ago. Safely on his shoulder she nibbled at his ear and nuzzled his neck and then tried to remove his glasses (or eat them, I’m not quite sure).
Speaking of cheeky birds we have two young horn bills that are routinely terrorizing
our vehicles and house. They enjoy flying at the house, landing on the window’s edge and scraping their bills up and down the glass. Several of our windows now look like a dog has tried to scratch its way out (or “in” as the case may be). When they get bored with that they move on to the vehicles. Here they perch themselves on the windshield wipers and pick at the rubber of the blades. Not sure what’s prompted this terror attack but they look at you with quite an attitude when we scold them for their bad behavior. (Here's a picture of one of them through the kitchen window standing on the top of the outdoor shower.)Finally, yesterday we had an opportunity to go out to visit our friend Mike’s plot. I’ve heard about “Mr. Mike’s Plot” for the last couple of years and lacked an image in my mind as to what it really looked like. His open air living is comfortable and simple. A caravan (RV) serves as his bedroom, a small building suffices as the kitchen, and several outdoor spaces create his living room and den (including a “hand me down” coach and hammock). Well located near the river (where he sees an occasional hippo!) he is serenaded by the ringing of cow bells and sounds of birds.
On our way home we drove by the camel farm where three old camels looked at us curiously. Once used by the Botswana police to patrol the border areas with South Africa and Namibia they were sold off to locals to start a “camel back” safari business that never got off the ground. They now exist as exiled ex-patriots, a mere curiosity for anyone driving by (sadly I didn't have my camera with me - sorry!)
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