Kwara Camp (Okavango Delta, Botswana)

May 9^th, 2011 (February 2011) – We rose early and made our way to the Namibia/Botswana border. The security situation at the borders is a bit lax, so much so that it is entirely possible we could have driven through both checkpoints undetected. This probably explained why an immigration official on the Botswana side was a bit ticked off when I drove past the office to park the car. Apparently, I could have just kept going with little threat of being stopped. Oops

While waiting for our paperwork an elderly gentleman returning to Botswana asked us for a ride. Actually, it was more like pantomiming as he spoke nary a word of English. We wanted to assist him but we did not think we had enough space in the Spark for another person, at least not without jettisoning some of our junk. He was having none of it. After we left the office he followed us to the car and awaited his chariot. I am sure he could have hitched with the next vehicle to cross but this man was impossible to deny. Age had chiseled this kind soul into a work of art and only the hardest of hearts would have been capable of saying no. 

Lucky for him I'm not  complete prick. So I managed to rearrange just enough space for Mr. Bots and his luggage.....barely. At that moment I felt a little ashamed to have ever said no in the first place. Not far into Botswana he gave us the signal and we pulled off the road to let him out. He was incredibly grateful. However, nothing in life is free. We forced him to pose for a picture.

Yippee-ki-yay!!! (Okavango Delta, Botswana)

May 14^th, 2011 (February 2011) – We were not finished with Simba's crew. Although still sleepy from the previous evening we managed to drag our cabooses out of bed for the morning game drive the following day.  The guide drove us to the scene of the crime (i.e. the baby zebra slaying) to see if our new pals were still around.  Thankfully, they were indeed close by. Although nowhere near as thrilling as the night before the chance to see the family with the lights on was well worth our time. And it appeared that all had been forgiven as mother and child spent time kanoodling with dear old dad. Hopefully, he made it up to them but I wouldn’t bet the game farm on it.

There was a tense moment when I crouched as far down in the vehicle as I could in order to get a ground shot of an approaching kitty cat. For some reason my stealthy perch attracted her attention and for a couple of heart-pounding seconds she stared directly at me as she advanced ever closer. I nearly pooped a little. Note to self: Playing hide and seek with a mother lion is a terrible, terrible idea.

After saying farewell to the Furball Gang we spent the rest of the morning drifting around the Delta grasslands with no particular aim in mind. We felt we had been given an incredible gift the previous evening and merely sat back and basked in the warmth of the experience’s afterglow. We did pause for our tea interval and shared the morning with an elephant that had come to a nearby pool to have a drink. And then it was back to camp.