eternal sunshine of a Botswana June

June, in my opinion, is the best month to be in Botswana. Not only are you greeted daily by perpetual Botswana blue skies but pleasant temperatures from the mid-70s to mid-80s fill your days and cool temps (sometimes down to freezing) keep you bundled under a warm duvet at night.

Fortunately, in addition to our typical office days, we’ve had a chance to get out to the bush a couple of times this month. In less than a two hour drive we are past the buffalo fence (that separates the wildlife from the domestic animals) and in the bush with elephants and giraffes as our closest contacts. On one Sunday we venture up to the Black Pools area of Moremi Game Reserve. I’ve mentioned the pools before on previous entries which, while typically filled with hippos and water birds, were dry as a bone this time. Unfortunately, the rainy season was not that rainy this year and so some of the typical standing watering holes are no longer watery and just…holes. The grasses which are meant to sustain the wildlife until it rains again (in late October/early November) are almost nonexistent. It is going to be a long dry “dry season” this year.

This dire situation, however, means that animals are concentrated around whatever water does still exist. This makes for good viewing, even if one is only out for a day. Our trip is filled with many giraffe (including this great little video of a baby trying to cross some water with its mom), elephant and lechwe (antelopes with strong back haunches for jumping through the water).

 

 

 

 

Lechwe

Paul also treated me for my birthday to a night out at one of my favorite lodges Meno a Kwena ("tooth of the crocodile"). I love it because it is a smaller more intimate camp that has the feel of an old African safari camp with lots of teak wood boxes, the most amazing outdoor shower and the best view of the Boteti River (even from the toilet).  The Boteti, which had been dry for years, now runs full and draws in tons of zebras, elephants and kudo. The lodge sits perched up on the banks of the river which offers a great vantage point for animal viewing. There was also cake and candles and singing at dinner to help celebrate my birthday!

 

zebra at the Boteti

Outdoor Shower, Meno a Kwena

View from the toilet

Tent, Meno a Kwena

Sunset from the banks of the Boteti

Just a few days later we ventured back to Moremi to do a star show for our friend’s family who was on safari visiting from South Africa. Staying in the “Bodumatau” area (roar of the lion) we had beautiful clear skies for star gazing. Our star show, however, was delayed a bit because there was a pride of lions (2 females, 1 male) in the middle of the road on the drive back from sundowners. As we came up behind another safari vehicle we were traveling with we wondered why they were moving so slowly only to realize that smack in the middle of the road, without a care in the world, were three lions. It is nice to be reminded that keeping to one’s time table is not so important sometimes.

 

The next morning we decide to game drive a bit before we packed up camp and headed back to Maun. Similarly unfazed as the lions on the previous night was a serval trying to warm up in the sand track. We spent about 45 minutes with this beautiful little cat first, tucked in like a “kitty loaf”, and then later sunning herself on the side of the road near a bush. You never quite know what you’ll see on a crisp June morning in the blue Botswana sky in the bush!