Two Other Blogs to See

We have had the pleasure to meet two other bloggers that we recommend you check out:

www.dumelafromgabs.blogspot.com

...is authored by a fellow ex-pat living down the street from us. She gives some great insight and perspective into Gaborone and Botswana. There is a good picture of Eden on the April 16th entry.

www.leatoto.blogspot.com

...is authored by James Butler. We met him on our recent trip to northern Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe (more on that later). He is working for World Teach in rural, rural Namibia (the country to the west and north of Botswana) after being a kindergarten teacher in inner-city Austin, Texas for six years. World Teach is a non-profit, non-governmental organization placing volunteer teachers in developing countries.

A desert???

So here is the rest of the story of our camping visit to the Kalahari desert. First detail (of interest to Ted and Todd),

The Trucks:

We were well equipped again with two (twice as many as last time) huge 4x4 diesel powered monsters. One even had a truck cap (called a 'canopy' here) to keep vicious, wild animals (or blankets and jugs of water) from escaping. We mowed down everything in our paths. Because of park rules, though, we were restrained to the roadways. So, we mowed down lots and lots and lots of sand. We did spend most of our time in 4L (meaning low 4 wheel drive).

Inside the park, the girls were given a nostalgic treat - riding in the back of a open pick-up truck. We wouldn't think of letting our kids bounce around urban streets but bouncing around the wild, rough pathways with blind turns and the constant threat of lions, hyenas, jackals, snakes and big-clawed falcons seemed within reason. Eden said she felt 'free'. Hope got a bump on her head after one surprise bounce. We kept Trey inside the cab with us (he is within the carrying capacity of some of the birds of prey).

The Landscape.

Even knowing it has been a very wet rainy season, we were surprised by the extent of vegetation. It looked more like harvest time in Kansas. The grass was at least 2 feet tall in most all areas concealing most animals (like the similarly colored lions).

Most pathways appeared as below.

The Kalahari covers 80% of Botswana and creeps into nearby Congo, Angola, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. This part of Africa (millions of years ago) used to be dotted with lakes. These lake beds are now mostly dry and called 'pans'. Large concentrations of salt are sometimes found in the central areas of pans from past evaporation. The first picture below captures the edge of one of these prehistoric lake beds. The brush gives way to the salt tolerant grasses. Further out, the concentration of salt is even too much for scrub grass leaving white dust.

We stopped at the edge of one of the pans for drinks.

What staggers you when you stand there in these pans is the 'vastness'. There is nothing but solitude and silence for miles for the entire 360 degrees around you.

The Water Feature.

This was a 'good news' 'bad news' sort of thing. In an effort to quell foot and mouth disease as well as other cattle ailments, Botswana erected long fences across many parts of the Kalahari. This prevents the spread of disease but interrupts migration paths of wild animals to find water. As a result (and to prevent wide spread death of the wild populations), the Khutse Park had two boreholes (groundwater wells) installed to make sure two separate locations have a permanent watering source. Solar powered, cellular data sending and control, squirrel guards and posts to prevent a errant 4x4 from backing into them complete the unfortunate lifelines.

The Wildlife.

We really did not see much. Below is a lonely springbok (the Rugby mascot of the South African national team). A beautiful small gazelle with a porcelain white face. very shy.

Off on the far side of a random pan were a couple of ostrich and a gemsbok (also known as an oryx).

The gemsbok is quite stunning: a large, stately antelope that prefers the dry desert climate. The horns are more than 3 feet long and have been known to impale lions.

Ground squirrels here are tough. They live without drinking water and could break our North American brown or grey counterparts into pieces. They make underground borrows more than a football field in length. The Afrikaans word for them is: waaierstertgrondeekhoring. We will just call them squirrels.

The yellow hornbill is a smart bird featured as 'Zazu' in the Lion King. The golf-ball sized beetle can be seen first chasing Ted but then he saw our trucks and heads for the safety.

The Camp Site.

Below is pictured our campsite. Ted picked up a nick-name on this trip, "Sir Packs a Lot". [In my defense, I will state that we were prepared for anything.] We did not see any lions (or hyenas, jackals or any other predator) but at night we did hear the lions roaring. The first night they 'seemed' far away and we listened. The second night, they were noticeably closer and for some roars you could correspondingly feel the ground vibrate. There is not really a lot you can do when it is pitch black and you hear lions roaring but a lot goes through your mind. Our much discussed plan was to run to the pick-up trucks if anything happened. We all played dead instead. In the most hair-raising moment of our rather undramatic trip, one evening at dusk we heard a low growl on one side of the campsite. We all looked at each other and then went about our business. A few minutes later: same growl - other side of the campsite. At this point Amy was a bit freaked out - obviously something was walking quite close. Then, a few minutes later still: same growl - right behind the tents. That was enough for Amy and Deb to grab the children and head to the trucks, while Ted and Todd played 'find the creature'. They saw the grass moving as whatever it was walked through, but as noted above the grass was so tall we could not tell what it was. Probably a good thing.

The Park Warden knows how to get a message across. This sign is posted in the bathroom in front of the user. I felt compelled to build a couple of barns for the owls to nest in after reading through the information.


The girls noticed a curious 'White-browed Scrub-robin' hanging around our camp. They named him, 'Twitter'.

Sunsets were incredible and the stars were even better (but dont show up well in pictures). We could clearly make out a satellite as it trekked across the sky, saw a couple of shooting stars and pointed out several constellations rare to the northern skys like the Southern Cross.

Walking with the San.

We were excited to spend a couple hours with a San bushman on a walking safari where he showed us many things of his culture and way of life. The San once roamed over most of Africa. Archaeology finds in the Kalahari show their presence as far back as 30,000 years ago. Some linguists even credit them with the invention of human language. The San were nomadic hunter-gatherers who travelled in family groups. Decisions were reached by group consensus. Everything they needed for their daily existence they carried with them. (Note - San is not the name that this tribe refers to themselves as - there is some disagreement about how to refer them most respectfully. We use this term as it is a common reference to them.)

Botswana and Namibia are privileged to retain some of the only remnants of the San communities. It is a struggle though, much like that of the Native American, Innu of Canada and Aborigines of Australia. Most all are poor and alcohol is a problem. They have largely been discriminated against for a long time. They are a controversial political issue in Botswana, as the govt. has made some attempt to relocate them off of the Kalahari and 'resettle them'. Sadly, this has had a very bad impact on them and their way of life.

Our guide started by making a fire with nothing but two sticks of wood and his hunting knife. He then showed us how to build a bird trap (below in the video) and later how he gets water from an underground root of some sort.

Later, he showed us a typical home and some hunting techniques. Finally, he took three hemp leaves, stripped them down, made rope out of them, and created a bracelet for Hope. All this - start fire, set trap, find water, make rope, find food ('sandpaper raisins - not pictured), in less than an hour, with absolutely no disruption to the environment. Takes us that long to find what we need at Target! It really was a humbling experience, actually. Oh, and when we asked how long it takes to build one of these shelters, the answer was 'in about an hour if the rain is coming'. Amazing.

The outlook for the San is uncertain. It is a political 'hot potato' for Botswana and one of Africa's greatest dilemmas: How to preserve old cultures and traditions while accepting and adapting to the new.

we survived

We promise to post a longer description of our weekend soon, but for now - enough to let you know we are alive.

We (Ted and Todd) wanted to see this :

(pictures are courtesy of past visitors of the park that hung their snap shots on the walls of the reception area at the main gate)

The Park Manager was very friendly. One of us (not Ted or Todd) explained that there was 'some concern about lions'. His response was, "then why did you come here??". He was not a big help.

But all we really saw was this:

We survived and had a great time. more later....

Todd and Ted's Excellent Adventure {also known as: If my Fate is to be Eaten by Lions, this Weekend may be when it Happens}

So, in a previous post (about the campus unrest, I believe), I mentioned that this semester I have an office-mate. His name is Todd, and he is a professor at Cornell College in Iowa. He is here with his wife, also a professor, and their two kids ages approximately 9 and 6 (one of whom's name is Eden, believe it or not). Anyway, what I failed to mention at that point was that Todd seems to bring out the extreme adventure side of Ted - the side I try to keep a lid on when it involves me and the kids. Todd was the one who invited Ted to climb Kgale despite all manner of warnings and rumors that it was a bad idea (see the post below). Having conquered Kgale, Todd's next big idea, which took no convincing on Ted's part, was that we should all go camping together in the Central Kalahari, where lions and hyenas roam freely and have been known to explore campsites at night. Guess where we are going this weekend...

When we told some other friends this is what we are doing, they promptly went to their computer and pulled up a picture of a big male lion coming out of one of the bathroom-type facilities at the campsite. It should be noted that they did not take this picture themselves, but said that they found it posted somewhere at the entrance to the Reserve or something like that. It could be fake. But still...

So, this is how the conversation went from there.

Me: I am not taking my kids to the Kalahari unless you have a firm plan for what we do when lions come into the campsite.

Ted: Lions are not going to come into the campsite.

Me: They might. Have you not read Cry of the Kalahari??? Lions were in their campsite all the time. {BTW, this is a very great book by two Americans about the three or four years they spent in the Kalahari studying the lions and hyenas, back when virtually no one had done that. They eventually made the government mad and are now banned from the country. Recommended reading.}

Ted: Ok, well we will just be safe.

Me: JUST BE SAFE?? What kind of plan is that?

Ted: Ok, I will look into it.

Me: I am not going unless you have a plan.

Me to Todd the next morning in our office: I am not taking my kids on this trip unless you and Ted come up with a plan for what to do if lions come into the campsite.

Todd: much laughter.

Me: I am serious, and I KNOW you have read Cry of the Kalahari. Then I tell him about the picture of the lion coming out of the bathroom facility.

Todd: Oh, that is not good. If we are going to be eaten by lions, it will be much cooler to do it while fighting them off at our campsite then to just be surprised by them while going to the bathroom.

Me to myself: I am going to die.

Since this time, Todd (but not Ted, I should say) has managed to identify two strategies: firecrackers, and lots of really strong bug spray.

Deb (Todd's wife and I) on the other hand, have tried to think of how we will design the layout of the campsite to have the quickest escape route from the tents to the trucks. Deb also came up with the most intelligent and creative, yet practical, strategy of all: buying Depends for late night emergencies, so as not to have to wander out of the tent in the middle of the night and risk being surprised by a big ferocious beast...

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Mountain Climbing

There is a mountain at the edge of town. The top of the mountain (called Kgale Hill, pronounced kahl-ay) stands at 1280 or so meters above sea level. That is pretty high except that most of Botswana sits on a plateau averaging about 1000 meters. So, the 'mountain' is about 900 feet tall. The urban areas of the southwestern part of Gaborone run right up to the base of the hill. You can see the popular 'Game City Mall' in the shadows of the hill below. The hill itself is protected as a vast park area.

It is well known that there is a trail to the top of the hill. In fact, there is a cell tower's red light that acts as a beacon at night. You would think the bulb burns out from time to time. There are many legends and stories about Kgale. For one, security types warn of robbers waiting in the bushes ready to take everything from unsuspecting climbers. Amy's security briefing at the Embassy last year warned of this and stressed not to go there: "A while back a couple drove to the foot of the hill. Husband says 'lets go', wife says 'no'. Husband goes up. Husband comes down in nothing but boxer shorts." Also, there may be man-eating leopards. Officials from the United States (even Peace Corp) are not allowed to enter the area. This of course made finding a way to the top even more intriguing... I (Ted) should bring some of the kids too. To complicate things, the girls' school is nearby. Everyday I dropped off the kids, Kgale would taunt me.

The next round of US expats that went through the Embassy briefings early this year heard of no such warnings. Also, we found out that Kgale groupies scale the peak every Saturday and Sunday morning as the sun rises. Taking the Embassy's silence and the safety of groupies into consideration - I made a plan. A nearby family from Iowa has two girls about Eden and Hope's age. With the increased security of the 'buddy system' we could not fail. Early one Saturday morning (about 7am), the girls and I set off with the family from Iowa. I had enough granola bars and water to last a week in my backpack.

This was the sign at the parking area (one of the lower lower peaks in the Kgale area is an aggregate mine):

There were several dozen empty cars in the parking area, so we figured they had pressed on in spite of the warning. We noted it was Saturday and they likely were not using dynamite on the weekend and started our climb...

The trail is worn and well traveled. The climb is a mixture of large boulders, rocky-rough terrain, sandy trail, and some paved pathway. You start by scaling a lower peak and then back into a valley before scaling the Kgale peak.

In the valley between the two peaks, we saw a troop of Chacma Baboons. They were curious and watched us closely.

The old, grumpy, leader of the troop was hanging out in the shade along the trail. I would like to say his 3-inch canines were safely far away and behind a strong fence, but he was not. He sat less than 20 feet away. We could smell him. By this time, though, we had seen more than fifty climbing groupies heading back down the mountain. The baboon was probably already full of tourists by this late in the morning.

After about an hour, we reached the summit. A bald expanse of an area where groups mingle, rest, and take pictures. We were no exception.

This view (above) looks to the southeast over the main highway 'A1' and the Gaborone Dam. The highway is the main route south and leads to the villages/towns of Otse, Labotse and Mokolodi (the subject of previous posts). Otse is where the mountain cliffs that house the Cape Griffon vultures are located. This is the highest point of Botswana at 1500 meters. The Gaborone Dam is the source of drinking water for the capital city. Gaborone was selected almost fifty years ago to be the capital of Botswana in part because the water supply was considered more reliable. The lake created by the dam is considered more than 110% full this season. The summer rains have been plentiful.

Here are Eden and Hope at the top. Note the power line to the cell tower light in the background. I checked, the bulb was burning brightly.

The trip down the mountain is almost more challenging than the climb up. The rocks are very loose and you really need to concentrate on each step to avoid a spill. Once we returned to the bottom of the mountain, ours were the only cars left. We headed off for breakfast.

We enjoyed the climb so much, we returned a couple of weeks later with the visit of my Aunt Alice. She is well traveled but this was her first time in the Southern Hemisphere. On Easter Saturday, we climbed the 'Sleeping Giant' (what Kgale means) again in spite of the many dangers.

This time, we did not see any baboons. I picked the picture below because of the near-complete green landscape it shows. It is the end of summer now in Botswana and the entire area has exploded with vegetation. When we arrived almost nine months ago, everything was brown and dusty. Local residents say that Easter usually marks the end of the wet season. It will now be dry and near cloudless until October. In that time, the landscape will return to brown, dusty and parched.

Finally, we met a couple of dogs at the summit the second time around. They were traveling with a South African family who do the climb often. The dogs were happy to see us and rested with Eden and Hope.

As Aunt Alice and I caught our breath, wiped the sweat from our face and revelled in our accomplishment; we made a discouraging discovery: The dog pictured above had made it all the way up the mountain - hopping on three legs. Even with a head start, we couldn't beat them back down the mountain. Next time, less granola bars and water bottles in my backpack.

[Footnote: This blog post is dedicated to George, one of our most loyal followers who has been subtly reminding us that it has been a very long time since our last post - even sending suggestions for how to overcome bloggers' block. So, we sincerely apologize for the long delay in posting, if we even have any readers left to apologize to...]

Tuli Block

Recently, it was mid-term break for the girls ('Spring Break', except its not Spring here). In our ongoing effort to see as much of this country as we can before we leave, we took a road trip to the Tuli Block region of Botswana. We chose Tuli Block for a couple of reasons.

1. It is at the eastern most point of Botswana, right at the tip where Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa meet. This is along the Limpopo River, and it is geologically different than the desert-like conditions of most of the rest of Botswana. We thought it would be pretty and interesting.


2. The real reason: It gave Ted an excuse to rent a massive 4x4 diesel truck for the trip. The 6 hour road trip to get there includes very rural and rocky terraine that Ted insisted required the use of the crew cab Toyota Hilux pictured below. It actually was more of a necessity than we knew - the Corolla simply would not have made it. The last 50 kilometers of our trip were on some very challenging, axel-breaking rocky dirt roads and included a washed-out bridge that required us to literally drive through a river. Ted was in heaven.

We stayed at the Mashatu lodge (http://www.mashatu.com/). Much like other lodges, it includes a morning drive to seek out wildlife and an afternoon/evening drive. A drawing point, though, was that the lodge also houses scientific researchers. Three scientists are currently there, studying wild dog re-introduction, lions/leopards, and elephant populations. To raise money to fund their research, you can hire them to ride along with your drive and explain their research.

The elephant research is lead by Jeanetta Selier. She has been at Mashatu for more than ten years and is studying elephant population management. Her work counters the prevailing choice to cull (kill) elephants when their populations seem too high. She is attempting to document that the elephants have the ability to monitor and control their own populations.

We spent a morning with her and learned more about elephants and the intricate social interactions of their daily lives. The video below captures a moment when a juvenile bull thought we were a little too close.

We also saw giraffe.

We spent an afternoon and early evening with Andre (we didn't get his last name) who is researching the terrritorial tendencies of lions and leopards. He has several lions and leopards fitted with radio collars. He taught us how he uses his equipment to track them. In the video below, Eden is trying her hand at it as we track a male leopard:

We were on the trail of a leopard named "Skebangwa" (which means 'fearsome'). By dusk, we finally caught up with him, although he was cleverly evasive and we were always looking at him through trees or tall brush. (no pictures turned out - too dark) We first found him jumping out of a shephere tree where he had been feeding on a baby impala he hid there. He had a severe eye wound (from being scratched by a female, according to Andre), and Andre noted that it was getting worse each time he finds this leopard. When we got back to the lodge he showed the girls lots of photos he has taken of this leopard over time, including the progression of the wound. Despite their ability to do so, they do not interfere in the lives of the animals, unless the wound is man made. In this case it was not. They do not expect that he will survive the wound.

As an added treat, two hyena (a mother and cub) waited near the shepherd tree for impala leftovers. It was the first time we had seen hyena in Botswana. They are Amy's favorite, but she appears to be the only person in the country who feels that way. Of the thousands of animal souvenirs of all types (figurines, shirts, posters, photos, etc., etc) for sale in this country, you can not find ANY hyena souvenirs anywhere. Apparently not much of a market; someone told us they are a symbol of bad luck (recall the nasty and evil hyenas in Lion King...). Oh well, we have this photo.

A special interest for Ted was getting close to a Baobab tree (Adansonia digitata). They are more familiar to people in the dry season after they have dropped their leaves (it is late summer in Africa now). Without the leaves they appear to be upside down with the roots instead sticking high into the sky. Our guide explained that folklore throughout the area says that God made these trees last and instead of carefully planting them, he tossed them down to the ground and they landed upside down. These giants live for thousands of years and dot the horizon if you know what to look for in the area we were visiting. Our guide took us to the foot of a very young Baobab at the top of ridge. They estimate the age of the young tree at 500 years. A short time after Columbus discovered America.

Near the Baobab tree, we stumbled across an almost entirely complete giraffe skeleton. We explored the skeleton and even matched up some of the bones to ours (thigh bone to thigh bone). Ted says the neck bones were as large as his waist.

In the picture below are our guide and driver, Mallman, and our tracker, Morgan, with the giraffe bones. The are both Batswana who have worked at Mashatu for several years. They knew their stuff.

Another unique experience was the ability to actually get out of the safari vehicles and hike. Mallman carried his rifle and Morgan stayed far back with the Land Rover. We had to stay in single file formation so that Mallman knew where we would be if a hungry warthog jumped out at us (the only animals we saw on the hike - upwind).

We tasted wild berries, smelled minty leaves, saw more bones (below of an unfortunate male impala):

And no safari would be complete without examining some poop. First, elephant. Apparently those who spend their time thinking about such things can tell from the composition of the elephant waste about the quality of the previous summer's food availability. The grassier the better, or something like that.

Perhaps more interesting (again, if you spend your time thinking about this kind of thing) is from the hyena:

Hyena have the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom and eat their prey like we do a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. The grind and crush the bones as if they were crust on the bread. Becuase of this, their waste is powdery white from the ground calcium that is left behind.

Shortly thereafter, we decided it was time to get back in the Land Rover.

Lastly, we (Ted) saw a buried water pipe (daughters grumbling). The terrain is very rocky so the piping is buried very shallow. The rocks were added in this area to protect the piping (the only water supply to our camp) from the heavy footsteps of elephants.