Chapter 12: My Favorite Marsh-ians
After coffee and fruit, we headed out on the morning game drive. The target that
morning was the Savuti marsh, which despite its wet-sounding name, was quite dry. And
flat. Flat for as far as you could see, with far fewer trees than the wetlands around
Moremi. Much of Botswana is made of large, flat, nearly-featureless stretches of sandy
clay called pans. It was clear that somebody had a sense of humor, because on our way to
the marsh, we drove over "Peter's Pan." |
What the lions call "the buffet line..."
Photo by Pam Bloxham |
The marsh was not quite as good for game viewing as other places we'd been.
Because it was so flat and open, without many trees, the animals could get further from
the roads. Nonetheless, we did get to see some new animals, including a couple of jackals
skulking around in the grass looking for eggs, some wildebeest, and a bat-eared fox.
And then there were the birds: the colorful lilacbreasted roller (Botswana's national bird),
hornbills, the unfortunately-named kori bustard (which is the largest bird that can fly), the
omnipresent guinea fowl, and we even finally saw some ostriches. The first few groups
we saw were very skittish, and we couldn't get close. But later, we managed to get closer
to a small group.
 |
After the morning snack, Edward heard a call on the radio that a leopard had been
spotted back near camp. We made the decision to go after it, and so we went tearing up
the road headed back north. Since we were now in a hurry, of course we
started seeing more animals, including some giraffes laying right by the road. We made
one or two very quick stops, and finally made it to the area where the big cat had been
spotted...and which was now a traffic jam of safari jeeps. Just as we pulled up, we saw
something dart into the bush, and another guide said that we just missed it. But
Edward knew the area, and circled around on a road behind the spot, and we did manage
to catch a very fleeting glimpse of the leopard.
A leopard. Honest. |
 |
In the afternoon, Edward took us out on a special side trip to the Gubasta Hills and
we climbed up a short way along the rocks to see some San (Bushman) rock paintings.
Although the paintings are not terribly spectacular, they are exceedingly old, perhaps as
old as 40,000 years. At the base of the rocks was a small cave where you could still see
the soot stains from ancient San campfires. |
 |
The afternoon game drive netted us the usual: elephants, warthogs, impala. Towards
the end of the drive, we went down a road that got close to a thicket of acacia trees, and
sat for a time with a close-up view of a small herd of giraffes munching at the thorny
trees, their favorite food. |
 |
Thursday was our last day at Savuti, and we did one last game drive, catching a brief
view of a mongoose poking his head out of a burrow in an old termite mound. Later, we
came upon some lions lying right by the side of the road and got veeerrrryyy
close. Too close, for my taste (which right at that moment, I hoped was something the
lion wasn't interested in). I was sitting on the outside of the rear seat, and there
was nothing between me and the cat but about 3 meters of air. The lion just looked
bored.
PAGE: 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15
All photos and text are ©2001, and may not be used without permission
