Botswana – Day 4 (Part 7)

Although this trip to Zambia and Botswana was cut by a day because travel arrangements were changed, we still ended up rating it as one of the best tours we have ever done.  This is mainly because of the amount we fitted into each day.  I guess this might not have been true for travellers that were not interested in the wildlife, but then they probably wouldn’t have chosen this tour.  Here we go again for the afternoon/evening game drive today.

Even if we couldn’t live in harmony with the hippos (see this post), it seems like this Heron had no problem with his hippo relationship.

Sorry, yet another dragonfly conveniently perched.

We met another family of elephants that just marched on by.

Wait for me, my legs are shorter than yours.

Warthogs.  Interesting how sometimes they kneel to eat.

Hippo with a happy grin being pampered by some oxpeckers.

A family of Egyptian Geese.

We sat and watched this group of Chacma Baboons for a while.  It was amusing to watch the youngster playing and generally making a nuisance of himself to the adults, who just sat quietly and let him get on with it.

The big fella was keeping a wary eye on things throughout.

Three Birds and a Baboon seems like a good title for the next one.  I think what we have is a Glossy Ibis, an Egyptian Goose and an Openbilled Stork, but as always I am ready to be corrected.  The baboon was one of the same large troop that the earlier images also came from.

A male Sable antelope.

A Giraffe doing the splits.  If they are designed to feed from trees, why do they like grass?

The next couple of images depict a very sad event.  The elephant, initially seen in the water, was lame, and unable to follow the rest of the family group away from the river for the night.  In fact, we think he was standing in the water to help ease the pain in his leg.  These animals often trek some distance from the water to spend the night, and to eat, and then return to the water next day.  Being unable to get to food, it seems that the future for this animal was dire.  There are strict rules that prevent human intervention to help the wildlife and our guide thought that this elephant would not survive for many more days.

It was clear to us that the family group really did not want to leave the sick elephant, but eventually they left as the sun started to set.

Just as the light was fading, our driver heard over his radio that one of the other guides had found a lioness.  As it was getting dark, and we had to be out of the reserve ourselves by a certain time, our driver rushed to meet with the one providing the intelligence.

We watched as the lioness lazed in the dying light, which did make photography difficult.  She rolled and stretched before eventually getting to her feet and walking up to our vehicles, and straight past us within not much more than an arm’s length.  This story was also a little sad, as she was apparently one of three sisters, but the other two had recently been killed in a road accident on the nearby highway.  She now had to hunt alone and fend for herself.

The next photo was taken in extremely low light and is of a hare, the guide said a Scrub Hare.

And finally, for today, another sunset with the bonus of a couple of geese in the foreground.

I’m afraid that I have another two days of wildlife shots from the Chobe.  If you can stand it please come back and have a look.  I will try to be selective.

If you want to see the trip from the start, it can be found here.

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