worth getting up for

Me on the way to the Central Kalahari

Those of you that know me, know that I am not exactly a morning person. And while Paul exaggerates the severity of the situation (suggesting that I am not unlike a ground squirrel which are notorious for staying in their warrens (little holes in the ground) until things warm up sufficiently), I’m really not that bad. On your average weekday I’m up by 6:30 or 7 AM and, if I’m lucky, I’m in bed until 8 AM on the weekend (a far cry from my college days where I fondly remember sleeping sometimes until 10 or 11 AM … now granted, late nights might have found me out well after midnight eating French fries and gravy in Burlington, Vermont – ahhh…those were the good old days!).

Ostriches in a Kalahari Sunrise

On safari in the Kalahari we are often up by six and there are certainly many things worth getting up for even though it is still dark and quite cold this time of year. 

Leaving behind the warmth of the many layers of covers in the bedroll is difficult but I soon forget  the separation anxiety when I am confronted with the amazing pink, yellow and orange of the rising sun. With 360 degree views of an open horizon, a Kalahari sunrise (or sunset for that matter) is breath taking.

With coffee in our systems we head off on a morning game drive not quite sure what we may see along the way. You might find a guinea fowl surveying the land on top of a termite mound. 

Or a springy young springbok “pronking” to show his virility (now that’s a picture that’s hard to catch. They do a stiff-legged back bending "pronk" straight up into the air). 

Or a pride of lions warming themselves in the road.  

We spend some time watching this pride – a mom and her off spring of varying ages. There was one particularly curious cat (you know what they say about curiosity and cats??) who watched us ever so intently coming right up to the vehicle. It is always such a relief to see lions on a safari as it is certainly something all clients want to see. We were lucky enough to see this group on day two, exhaling a sigh of relief that we had such a cooperative group of cats for such a nice encounter. They were pretty relaxed and stretched and yawned and lazed around like house cats for some time. Truly amazing!

But we didn’t just see lions in the “cat category” we also saw three cheetahs (too far off in the distance for my tiny camera to get any good footage) and a leopard. I can count the number of leopard sightings I’ve had in five years on one hand so this was a real treat. On our fourth day we were headed off to Tau Pan and along the way I spotted a leopard (my primary job on these safaris are bird identification and cat spotting!). He crossed the road and went around the back of the vehicle. We quickly turned the vehicle around and followed him back down the road until he slinked off into the field to walk more closely to the tree line. 

At one point he stopped. Frozen in space as if he was playing a childhood game of “red light, green light” and someone had just called “red.” Seeming to lower his body about six inches in one silent move, he crouched. I tried to see what he had spotted with my binoculars but could only see birds. Perhaps he was planning on having one for breakfast. He took one slow motion step forward, keeping his body low and perfectly parallel to the ground. His eyes were fixed on something. Ears down. Tail out. And then, in one swift move…he pounced. Dust went flying. Fur went flying. I caught the glimpse of a furry tail.  The sounds of a blood curdling cry of a bat ear fox rang out. Changing to an octave higher within seconds before there was absolute silence…interrupted only by Paul’s announcing to the other passengers in the vehicle that I was crying. How could I not cry? 

Cute (and vulnerable) Bat Eared Fox (not the actual victim)

Poor thing was probably just out eating some bugs for breakfast. Large ears pointing down to the ground listening for bug activity. Minding his own business and then… WHAP! A leopard pounces on him from behind and ends his life in seconds (painful terrifying seconds from his perspective, I’m sure). I’ll never forget the sound. It was soul wrenching. Now… I know, I know…it’s the laws of nature. If the leopard didn’t have fox for breakfast, he might starve. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad for the fox. Cute little thing with his little raccoon mask on (if I think about this too much, I know I’ll become a vegetarian so…we’d better move on).

Paul noted that in his 37 years in Botswana he had never seen a leopard make a kill, so it is quite rare to actually see. What I’ll remember most, however, is not the seeing but the hearing. Clearly it was worth our getting up early in the morning. I’m not sure I can say the same for the bat eared fox!