Botswana Day 9: Boating in the Bush

After a day of rest, I was excited for the 5a wake up call. Mike, on the other hand, was having a flare up so he stayed behind again. We all met for breakfast as usual before the drive.

Our vehicle mates for the day were Tom and Chris (a couple from the US), know-it-all Louie, and cool chick Brenda. I decided to sit with Brenda because neither of us wanted to sit with Louie. This turned out to be a good decision as she and I got along famously. Our first sighting of the day was a black-backed jackal and pup wandering thru the tall grass.

We then came across a freshly-killed impala. He had been speared in a fight with another male. Obviously, he was the loser.

You could tell it had just happened, as the wound was fresh and bubbling. It didn't take long for the scavengers to appear. A hyena and jackal began lurking around....suspiciously. They were skittish thinking a predator had killed it and would be back to claim its prize. We could hear the other impala snorting all around us as they were thinking the same thing.

We moved on from the impala to watch some vervet monkeys frolic for a bit. These monkeys are easily identifiable by the blue balls on the males.

My vehicle mates had chosen to go on a 1.5 hour nature walk during our drive. This basically consisted of seeing a few skulls and hearing about plants and poop. All of this would have been fine except it was hot, hot, hot.

Tsessebe

We came upon a lone male cheetah lounging under a bush.

A herd of zebra hanging out by a hippo pond.

Then it was back to camp for lunch and a much needed nap. For the afternoon, we had all decided to take a boat ride down the river rather than a game drive. The boat ride started out as a nice, leisurely glide thru the water, admiring the flowers and water birds.

We arrived at a nursery for marabou storks. These poor guys are so ugly and their babies are as big as they are.

Just as the sun was going down, a couple of elephants made a river crossing in front of us. They were so deep that at times, you could only see the tops of their trunks just above the water.

We lost some time with the elephants so the boat ride back was anything but leisurely. It was full speed in the pitch black with bugs flying right into our faces. I couldn't wait for it to end and was exhausted when we got back. I skipped the group dinner and went to check on Mike, spent the evening catching up on my journal and reading.