Things you might see on a Kalahari Safari

The days are comfortably warm but the nights can be seriously chilly on a Kalahari Safari in the Botswana winter. On our recent ten-day safari, most nights found me in long johns and fleece under several layers of bedding often with my ski hat on to try to stay warm through the cold night. There is no going out until the sun rises.

Despite the fact that we only covered the top third of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) we spent several days driving on sand tracks through the bush. Along the way we encounter gemsbok, springbok, wildebeest, jackal and bat eared foxes. All species that don’t require much water. During the dry season, their only options are the solar pump water sources of the “watering holes” or the dew on the morning grasses (but there isn’t much of that). This time of year we see lots of new babies as the herds practice “synchronized birthing”  - timing the arrival of their young in order to improve their chances of survival (any one baby is more likely to survive if there are more to choose from).

Gemsbok babies

Springbok babies

Wildebeest

Jackal

Bat eared foxes

 When people hear the word “desert” they may think of rolling sand dunes but what you encounter in the Kalahari is rolling plains of yellow grasses that blow in the wind like the waves on the ocean. There are a series of “pans” – large flat areas with a slight rise at the edge (like a pan) and more “wooded dune” areas than you would think – creating a bit of variation in the terrain that is pleasing to the eye. 

Kalahari traffic jam - guinea fowl

The birdlife in the CKGR is stunning. At our first camp site in Deception Valley (named because, from a distance, it looks like it is filled with water, even when it is not), we were greeted by the sweet songs of white browed sparrow weavers and multiple sightings of crimson breasted shrikes whose red chests looks like they were colored with the “crimson” crayon from a box of Crayola Crayons. There is also an abundance of kori bustards (huge pterodactyl like birds who look like they could have served as an inspiration for some scenes from Jurassic Park), pale chanting goshawks and secretary birds (large (~4 feet tall) grey birds with black leggings that work tirelessly all day to stir up bugs and other critters for eating). We also encountered a slight traffic jam…of guinea fowl.

These trips remind me that Paul and I both share a love for “the journey”, not just the destination. Both of us enjoy the drive, the different landscape you see, the 360 degree panoramic views. Neither of us are fussed by hours (days?) of endless driving (perhaps those childhood road trips imprinted this in me early – thanks Mom and Dad!).

Paul’s stories fill the time during long drives and around the camp fire at night. I often wonder if people realize how lucky they are to have Paul as their guide in the Kalahari. He has a wealth of information and his experiences as a Bushmen Development Officer “back in the 1970s” (a phrase my students often giggle about because of its frequency of use when Paul is telling them stories on study away) are one of a kind. And, when it comes to “knowing the Kalahari” Paul is responsible for cutting many of the roads that are currently used by tourists. I realize I might be bias but I can’t imagine many other guide having over forty years of experience in Kalahari like Paul does. 

We also enjoy the unpredictability of it all…not knowing what you might see or encounter on any given day. Some of our unique sightings this time included a curious aard wolf who came right up to our vehicle as we were returning from “sun downers.” An aard wolf looks like a small hyena, is nocturnal and vegetarian. We also had a wonderful sighting of a young male lion at Letiahau. He was parked off at the watering hole just waiting for dinner to arrive. He looked to be in great shape…perhaps a young male recently kicked out of the pride. He had few scars from previous fights and I couldn’t help feel saddened by a system that kicks its young males out once they reach maturity. At night we could hear him calling and I wondered if he missed his pride. 

 

We also encountered the notorious remains of a car that caught on fire heading towards the Xade gate. Rumor has it that two older Swedish ladies found themselves in quite a pickle when their car caught on fire due to grasses caught in their exhaust system. They walked the 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) through the deep sand and heat only to find no help at the main gate. So…they found a tractor, somehow got it started and drove another 180 kilometers (~ 112 miles) to Ghanzi where they finally found some help. I’m not sure if the burnt out car is left there as a reminder to all drivers to use a screen over their engines to avoid this problem OR simply left there because it is too cumbersome to remove it from there!

Male Hill at Tsodilo Hills

Each night we saw breath-taking sunsets and one of our last nights, up at Tsodilo Hills where the Bushmen rock paintings are, we were lucky enough to see the total lunar eclipse. It was magical to be in such a mystical place for such a unique experience – the sky darkened as the full moon turned from bright white to deep orange. I wondered what the Bushmen of the past might have thought they saw such an aberration. Perhaps they feared the world was ending.

Bushmen Rock Art, Tsodilo Hills

  

These are just some of the things you might see on a Kalahari safari with Kalahari Skies.

These are a few of our favorite things… from Greece.

Separate flights, common airport. I watch for Paul coming off his flight arriving from Johannesburg, South Africa via Munich. I’ve just arrived from the States via Paris. Moments like this I’m reminded a bit about the strangeness of my life. Am I really meeting my husband by “door #1” at the Athens airport in Greece? Weird (but exciting!).

We had a lovely two and half week vacation in Greece in May. It all started in Athens where I presented a paper at the 5^th Annual International Sociology Conference. My paper was on the “Botswana paradox” -- the fact that Botswana has the second HIV/AIDS highest rate in the world, despite all of its government’s efforts to ameliorate the situation. I largely reviewed those efforts and talked about some cultural factors that may have been overlooked in all the well-intentioned planning that might be leading to persistently high HIV/AIDS rates (FYI - approximately 24% of the adult population in Botswana is HIV+). 

Once the “business” was done, the vacation could begin. We spend a total of 4 days in Athens before heading off to Crete to meet Paul’s family for a week. Paul’s brother and sister-in-law came from North Carolina, his sister from Colorado and his son and daughter-in-law from Copenhagen, Denmark. This was the first time his family was together in a long time. The biggest news of the trip is that Paul is going to be a grandfather in December! His son and daughter-in-law shared the news by giving him a coffee mug that said “World’s Best Grandfather” in Danish – it took me a few minutes to catch on since I didn’t know that “Farfar” literally means “Father of the Father” in Danish. All the family was very excited about the news! 

After our week with the family we ferried off to Santorini for 3 nights on our own and then returned to Athens for a couple of days before flying back to Africa via Frankfort and ultimately Johannesburg. From there we enjoyed a couple of nights of luxury at the African Rock Hotel thanks to our generous friends who are the owners. If you ever find yourself with a night in Johannesburg between flights and want to spoil yourself, I highly recommend it!  Paul made a quick trip to the dentist to have his tooth pulled (it had been bothering him for some time and couldn’t be repaired) and then we made the long drive back to Maun.

So as not to bore you with endless details and almost 500 pictures from the trip, I’ll just try to hit the highlights. Below is a description of “a few of our favorite things” from our trip to Greece:

Parthenon - Athens, Greece

It is difficult to know where to begin but, clearly, one of the more remarkable aspects of Greece is the intermingling of modernity and ancient ruins. It was remarkable to be walking down the streets of Athens through shops selling everything from shoes to Ipads and look up and see the Acropolis. Its imposing stone structures loom over the city as a constant reminder of the importance of this location. For many of the roots of ancient civilization were born here and have so clearly influenced much of present day Western civilization.

Acropolis - Athens, Greece

Ruins at night - Athens, Greece

The city of Athens itself is large and chaotic. The traffic, noise and crowds were a little overwhelming.  At red lights the motorcycles cut in through cars so they are all lined up in front and then when the light turns green… it’s like a MotoGP motorcycle race. Motorbikes, taxis and buses wiz through the city streets and sometimes up on the sidewalks and pedestrian walkways. After a few days of this I was getting pretty twitchy about it, as you could hear a motorbike behind you revving its engine heading in your direction. It was like a scene from “The Running Man” when all semblance of order in society had degenerated into a warrior-like state. Terrifying. I was constantly grabbing at Paul to move quickly out of the way before he was squashed by an oncoming vehicle.

One of the aspects of Greece we really loved were all the (well-fed) stray animals. Unlike Africa strays, which look like they could drop dead from starvation at any moment, these dogs and cats were plump with good Greek leftovers and everywhere – at the base pillars at Hadrian’s Library, on glass sidewalks that allow viewing to ancient ruins below, and even outside our studio apartment in Oia, Santorini. The latter, we affectionately named “Raki” after the lighter-fluid tasting after-dinner drink served (for free) at most restaurants (the stuff is so bad they can barely “give” it away!). He was really a sweet puppy and we enjoyed having him in our lives for a few days (even if he had a penchant for stealing socks!).

Raki - our adopted dog of Santorini

Since it was spring we also got to enjoy the tremendous wildflowers all around Greece. We managed to squeeze in two hikes, one to Imbros Gorge on Crete and another at the peak of the caldera wall from Oia to Fira in Santorini. Both provided stunning, although dissimilar views. In the gorge we meandered through narrow passageways with amazing views up of the walls of the gorge and on Santorini we walked atop the volcano rim with breath-taking views down toward the crystal blue ocean. We especially enjoyed getting away from the crowds in these more “hard to reach” areas and decided we are much better suited for that than the frenzied crush of humanity we encountered at the acropolis or National Archeological Museum.

Paul touching the sides of the gorge in Imbros

View from the caldera wall in Santorini

 We took several day trips with Paul’s family and I appreciated “learning from the masters” (Paul’s brother and sister-in-law have traveled around the world twice!) a different manner of travel than I’m used to – namely using the local bus system. We took day trips to Knossos to visit the ancient Minoan ruins, a boat trip to Spignola – an old leper colony, and a failed visit to Aptera (which was closed on Monday) but landed us in a little village to enjoy one of the famous Cretan dishes of potato, cheese, eggplant and mint (whose name I can’t remember but boy it was yummy). Our trip was filled with many such adventures taking in whatever Greece had to offer us (even if things didn’t always go as planned)…even an encounter with old men playing cards!

Fortress at Spignola

View from our hotel window in Heraklion

We enjoyed lovely views from our hotel rooms in Crete. In Heraklion we could see the old fortress from our tiny balcony and in Chania our much bigger balcony allowed for breakfast to be served with a view and a nice venue for sundowners with the family. 

Breakfast view at the hotel in Chania

The food was predictable but tasty. Most restaurants serve a fairly standard set of “traditional” Greek foods – moussaka (the Greek version of shepherd’s pie), souvlaki (skewers of meat), gyros, tzatziki (Greek yogurt with garlic), feta cheese, pastitsio (a baked pasta dish), dolmas (rice stuffed grape leaves)…I could go on and on. Fortunately for me, I started liking olives this year (I have tried olives occasionally but never really liked them until this past visit to the Stellenbosch wine region in South Africa). Many days we would stop by the local deli and get some olives, cheese, bread and wine for lunch or sundowners. Delicious! We also drank our fair share of Mythos  (local Greek beer) and ouzi. Enough said.

Olives for sale

Some of the scarier moments of the trip included tremendously winding mountain roads which barely seemed wide enough for one car and the strikes and protests we experienced in Athens which delayed Paul’s family’s arrival by a day (in addition to buses and the metro going on a “planned strike”, the air traffic controllers were on strike). I had my first encounter with tear gas (which burns like crazy) and the experience reinforced something I probably already knew, namely that, when I see danger I retreat to safety and when my husband Paul sees danger, he goes closer to get a better look! We were not harmed but it was quite a unique experience to have an army of riot police on every corner. It truly felt like a police state…something I have never experienced before (my mother told me the other day that she never thought she’d be saying she was glad I was back in Africa where it was safer!).

The windy roads were the greatest challenge when we rented a car in Santorini but it was worth it for the additional freedom we had to explore the island at our own pace. We visited beaches (although it was too cold to swim) and wineries by day and each night we went in search of the best sunset – one night we overpaid for a piece of fish (that’s it just a piece of fish, it didn’t even include side dishes) to be able to catch the infamous sunset in Oia. Another night we returned to a somewhat secluded bench we had scouted out on our 8 km caldera hike with a picnic dinner to watch the sunset in Fira. 

In short, you can see that overall it was a very good trip to Greece. It was also nice to have the “Sheller Clan” in one place at one time!