In the nick of time...

Lying in bed snuggled under the weight of several blankets that have managed to keep most of me cozy for our night under the stars in celebration of our anniversary, I wake up just in the nick of time to see a bit of magic. Rolling to one side I see the full moon setting, red in the dust of the dry Botswana earth. Rolling in the other direction, just past Paul’s head, I see the sun rising. Magic!

We’ve celebrated our 8^th anniversary in a “sky bed” (watch this video to get a better look of what I’m talking about). When we arrive after dinner the stairways are illuminated with lanterns to guide us to the top of this two story structure where we find our beds all made up for the night. Before climbing under the warm covers, we sit at the viewing counter and watch the elephants drink from the watering hole just 100 yards away. While we bring our night vision binoculars we don’t really need them because the full moon makes it pretty easy to see. For much of the night I hear them quietly coming and going to the watering hole. While it wasn’t the best night of sleep I’ve ever had, it was pretty special none the less (it was pretty bright with the full moon and cold, all night I felt like a dragon with very cold breath was breathing on the exposed skin of my face).

Sky Bed - Hyena Pan

Paul looking up at Sky Bed

Me looking down from Sky Bed

Beds all made up for the night

A couple weeks back I put in a bid for two nights at Hyena Pan Tented Camp as a part of an online breast cancer fund raiser. Little did I know the auction ended at noon, so my bid at 11:59 was well-timed and outbid the standing offer with no time to lose. With that we were off to the bush for a short escape. Nestled in the mopane trees near the Khwai River (always an amazing place for wildlife viewing) we were the only guests in camp over Botswana’s President’s Day holidays (which happened to fall this year on our anniversary, July 18).

Paul's friend Peg, the one legged bird

While there was not much wildlife at the camp itself (and what we did see was quite skittish – this area used to be hunting area and it seems the animals still remember), we do have some nice encounters including a one legged bird (I’ve named “Peg”) who Paul befriends and likes to feed cookie crumbs to at tea (and bread crumbs to at lunch and breakfast). As the sun sets one night a honey badger trots into camp looking for goodies. Unphased by us, he makes his way around camp. Notoriously fierce, we keep our distance.

"Peg" with cookie crumbs at tea

Wild dog

The wildlife not far from camp does not disappoint. We hear from other guides that there is a wild dog den with ten pups not too far from where we’re staying so we venture out to see if we can catch a glimpse. We visit the den a couple times only to find a few sleeping adults but the pups must be safely tucked down in the den because we see no sign of them. On our third attempt, the mother is sleeping in the sand track we’re driving in on. As we slowly navigate around her (it is shocking how unaffected they are by the presence of vehicles), she decides to get up and walk over to the edge of the den where she is rushed by the ten pups who scurry to have a mid-morning snack. The puppies scramble out of the den vying for a good seat at the table, so to speak. When mom decides that’s enough, she simply stands up and walks away leaving the kids to play outside a bit on their unstable legs.

Wild dog pups at play

More fooling around

The Khwai River area is teeming with animals. We see large pods of hippos and on our way back to Maun we come around one bend in the river to find literally hundreds of elephants coming down for a drink. Who knows where they’ve come from or how far they’ve traveled (it is the dry season and access to water is limited to rivers or artificially pumped watering holes, all the standing rain water from the rainy season has pretty much dried up by this point in the year). They arrive in waves, family groups washing up to the bank of the river like the ocean cycles to the shore. One breeding herd arrives, drinks, then moves on and another arrives to take their place. It is breath-taking! We stop the vehicle and watch for a very long time as they pass in front of us and behind us. Low grumbles. Small ones kept in the middle surrounded by mom and aunts and older sisters. An occasional cheeky adolescent male, who feels the need to shake his head and flap his ears, gives us a little trumpet just to let us know he could “take us”, if he had too.  Typically you don’t need to worry about those adolescents (they are more bluster than real threat), it’s the big mamas protecting their babies you’ve got to keep an eye on. But that afternoon they seemed relatively calm.

Waves of elephants

Mama and baby drinking

Breeding herds drinking

Giraffe family

We decide to take the “old road” back to Maun for part of the return trip (there is now an incredibly dusty and bumpy road made of calcrete that most travelers take from Maun to Moremi). Off the beaten track and away from the other tourists we putter back towards Maun. We find many surprises along the way. Rounding one corner looking away from the river and up into the mopane forest we see a large herd of Cape buffalo tucked under the trees (sorry no picture of that one). We encounter curious giraffe families and see plenty of impala. Out of the corner of my eye as we're heading down the road I even catch a glimps of a group of four male lions napping under a bush (I have a theory that you only see lions when you’re not looking for them and this was definitely one of those cases). They must have just eaten because very close by is a herd of impala that they are not at all interested in. One is on his back splayed out like a satisfied house cat, legs in the air. Another has leaves stuck in his mane which is a bit skewiff with lion “bedhead”.  He yawns with disinterest in our direction. So glad I turned my head in that direction, just in the nick of time…

Napping lions

Lion Bedhead

Licking his chops