Lions of the Okavango

Wow, what an amazing safari we had last week into the Delta. Actually, it was a lot of ups and downs, but totally worth it. It's the most beautiful place I remember seeing ever, with the water and lilies and clouds and reeds. A brief recap:

Lowlight: Our safari almost never got going. We'd met our guide the night before, and he promised to call us when he would pick us up the next morning, around 9 or 10. 10 o'clock came and went, and we finally tried calling him, only to find the entire cell network was down, and no communication possible. We eventually went out to the main road in the wild hope he'd be driving by, and waited there for awhile. I then ran back to my apt to grab something I forgot, and what do I see passing by but a safari truck! Somehow, some way, our guide (Ike) had found where I lived, so only an hour late, we hit the road.

Highlight: Just after entering Moremi Game Reserve, we went straight on our afternoon game drive, and came upon an entire PRIDE OF LIONS. They were laying a ways off the road, but Ike, being awesome, just veered off the beaten track and drove right up to them, and they watched us nonchalantly from 5 feet away. Ridiculous welcome to the park.

Lowlight: We'd been driving out of camp for about 5 mins just after sunrise the next morning when our truck hit a deep patch of mud (the entire park is basically flooded) and instantly sunk. It tilted so much we had to struggle not to fall out. When Ike's attempts to get the truck free failed, three of us had to walk through the park to the nearest gate to find help to tow us out, leaving the other three alone with the truck. I was terrified we'd be stranded all day (that can happen if vehicles don't go by), but luckily we got ourself out within an hour.

Highlight: The following morning, as we were on our way out, we detoured around on another brief game drive, and just as the sun came up found the pride of lions again! We stayed with them for almost an hour, in a beautiful sunrise photoshoot. When we finally left, we then found, from a distance, six cheetahs out in the Delta. An unbelievable ending to our final safari.

Anyhow, it is now unbelievably my last day in Botswana. Too many thoughts to put into words. Tomorrow the adventure continues, with a 2-day bus trip to Capetown!!!

Home Stretch!

I'll have to be brief here, since I'm back to paying for internet in a cafe, but I wanted to update everyone on the last few weeks of my independent study. I went on a couple more trips into the bush: first was a weekend trip to the Chili Project run by the Dept., which cultivates chili peppers (Tabasco kind) to distribute to farmers to protect their fields from elephants. Each of the 3 days I was there we harvested the peppers for 3 hours in the morning, and then... did nothing for the rest of the day. I read a lot, and listened to a lot of Setswana conversations. Worthwhile, I guess, to see the home base of this important project (chilis are considered the only semi-effective means to keep elephants away from crops), but not the most exciting of times.

Then, last Thursday, I joined up with the Parks division for a 5-day trip to Moremi Game Reserve, the prime wildlife-viewing park in the Okavango Delta. I stayed with Banele, a pretty cool 30-some-year old guy who is head of staff for the park's South gate, in the staff housing which has no electricity or phone reception. I didn't get to see much in the way of animals while I was there - mostly baboons who played around the gates, some impala, and a couple hippos at the river - but I did get to accompany the staff to pull a tourist's truck out of the mud and fix a bridge. Most of the time, though, I was stuck in the office along with most of the staff, because there are virtually ZERO vehicles available to the park staff. There are supposed to be 2 or 3, but they're generally broken, in Maun, or out of fuel. It's a ridiculous situation, which I'll be writing to the Botswana government about (along with many other management problems) when I get home.

In between all this I've been working on some reports, since the end of the semester is next week. Crazy, to be almost done studying abroad, and so close to leaving Botswana.

Yesterday was a very happy day, as 4 of my friends from the program who have been in Gabs came up to visit. it was the first time I've seen any of them in 5 weeks, and boy was I in need of some English-speaking American company! Mma Moruti is out of town for the week, so they crashed at my flat (shh... don't tell), and tomorrow we're going back to Moremi, on a real safari this time! Yay, finally I get to relax and have some fun. Then, on Thursday-ish, it's back to Gabs to wrap things up!