Day 12: July 5, Moremi, Botswana

8:30am:
Today we're heading back into Botswana from Namibia. Overall, the Namibian people were far more reserved than the Botswana people were - at least at the lodges and in the villages that we've been to thus far. Perhaps that's because Namibia just won its independence in 1990 through a lot of heartache and bloodshed, whereas Botswana won its independence without conflict.

It's quite an adventure to get out of here - we take a 45 minute jeep ride, to a 1 1/2 hour boat ride, to a 40 minute small plane ride, to a 40 minute jeep ride. (I'm writing this on our morning boat ride, and I picked the wrong side of the boat - the shady side. I'm freezing my tush off. Oh well. At least my diarrhea has cleared up from yesterday - yay!! Oh, that was probably too much info, eh?)

4:00pm:
Some photos from today's journey... here is our international departing airport (and my plane):Here's our international arriving airport: And here is the bathroom (the "loo with a view"):
This is the women's room. The men's room doesn't have toilet paper. Whenever we need to "water the flowers", euphamistically speaking, the guide has to check out the area to make sure no predators or snakes are going to (literally) bite us in the ass.
The lodge here is gorgeous, and our tents are canvas-sided, but have plumbing. Yay! This place is so romantic... it would be perfect with someone to share it with. Especially the stars. I can't explain or capture a photo of the stars here. The Milky Way is like a silk ribbon across the sky, and there is no light pollution to hide any of them. I've seen the Southern Cross, Scorpio, Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter... one thing I really want to do before I leave is spend some time staring at the night sky. (I know someone in particular who would really appreciate it as much (or more) as I do... been thinking about him a lot...)

Anyway, back to our tent:
The lodge's bar... a fabulous view...
The lodge bathrooms are a bit more refined, but not quite the 360-degree views of the loos in the bush: Here's the sign for the girl's room:
And this for the boy's:
The drive to the camp from the airport was beautiful, and we had a picnic lunch en route. Some zebras wandered by while we were eating, and so now I can truly say that I've had lunch with zebras. We also saw:
- Steenbok
- Black-tailed mongoose
- Kudu
- Baboons
- Red- and Yellow-billed hornbills

Here's a magpie that I snagged a photo of:
This is the first camp we're staying at that doesn't have locks on the doors. The locks, however, aren't to keep the people out, but to keep the baboons from entering your room and "messing it up" (i.e. pooping on your bed). Apparently, the baboons can open unlocked doors, but they can't open zippered tent flaps, which is what we have here. We've also been warned not to leave any clothing to dry outside the tents / lodges, since the baboons love to play with things, and take your colorful undies and display them in nearby trees. Personally, I think it might be worth losing a pair of my knickers to see a baboon wearing them... but maybe that's just me.

We had one elephant on the horizon to greet us when we arrive - along with the staff, of course. This staff is also extremely gregarious and outgoing, and once again sang as we came into camp. I guess that singing and music is simply a part of their daily lives... everywhere we've gone, someone has been singing to us.

Moremi Game Reserve - in the Okavango Delta region of Botswana - has fascinating topography. During the rainy season, it rains (duh), but the rivers actually flood during the dry season. This is because it takes 6 months for the water from Angola's rainy season to flow through the ground and into the Delta. As a result, the rivers are full now, so they have water source all year round. I think that's kinda cool.
The British influence is still very strong here, and we have high tea every day at 3:30 or 4pm, and they call the bathrooms "loos".

At this camp, we can do more activities than just sitting on our toosh for game drives. We can also do game walks, or a trip on the river in a traditional canoe. I'm looking forward to doing more than sitting on a land rover on my toosh every day, so that's exciting. I'll bet any animal looks very different (and much more terrifying) from the perspective of your two feet, instead of the back of a truck.

P.S. Toilets really DO swirl in the opposite direction here! Whoo hoo!

8:30pm:
Tonight's drive was OK, but I don't love the guide as much here as I did in the last camps. Oh well, I guess I've been spoiled. He's not bad, but just... well... quiet. We did catch a quick glimpse of an African Wild Cat, but only for a moment, darting behind some grass. It holds to our record, though, of seeing at least one new animal on every drive we go out on! (I hope I didn't just jinx us, though.)

We've also managed to see three and a half of the "Big Five". We've seen a leopard, elephant and buffalo. We've also sort of seen a lion, but I didn't count it as a full sighting since we only saw a head (hence the 1/2). We have yet to see a rhino (the final of the five), but they're so rare that we're not holding our breath.

We did see a Tsessebe antelope, which is the fastest antelope in the world:
We also saw zebras: And did our "sundowner" drinks at the "Hippo Pool":
Gads, you just can't get tired of the sunsets here... note the hippo heads on the right side of the photo:
The clouds, on fire...
Here's a weirdly furry photo of our group enjoying our "sundowner" (which is basically just another excuse to stop and drink alcohol... like we need another excuse?)
Other stuff we saw on the evening drive:
- Warthog
- Senegal Coucal
- Nile Crocodiles
- African Civet
- Wildebeest
- Springhare (which was hysterical to watch.... boing boing boing!)

Tomorrow morning, Joanne and I are taking our tour of the river on a mokoro canoe, a traditional form of transportation for the villagers in the Delta. We're going to freeze our butts off.

Another amazing thing here is the sage bush growth. There are two types of sage here - silk sage and wild sage. Each has a unique scent, and it grows invasively here - the amount of sage is insane, and the scent is positively overwhelming. They burn it back to allow some grasses to grow, so that grazing animals can eat. I love the smell, though everyone seems to be tired of it except me! Am going to have to find some sage when I get a home...