24 April 2016, Moremi
A spotted eagle owl looking very wise
My iPhone just about died yesterday, so I switched it off overnight. Miraculously, it's now back to 24%!
We saw leopard tracks but no leopard and then a lone impala to start the day. We were out for 90 minutes before collecting the other staff and the trailer.
We then drove north towards Chobe NP.
At one point, the road ahead was flooded. Contrary to what you may have been told, there's no bridge on the River Khwai, so we had to take a different route...
"Nkwe!" Makabu suddenly shouted, which I later found out meant 'leopard' in Setswana.
He had just seen one crossing the road, and he immediately followed it. After a few yards, he stopped, got out and jumped on the roof to work out where it was, then he unhooked the trailer and drove after it off-road.
You're not supposed to do either of those things, but I like the fact Africans think rules are there to be broken! The leopard escaped, sadly, but that means Makabu now leads 2-1 in big cat sightings...
Fun fact:
'Nkwe' means leopard and 'tau' means lion in Setswana.
Having said that, our handyman chipped in with a great spot of a spotted eagle owl perched in a tree as we were driving past.
It was just hidden by a branch, so I asked if I could get out and walk a bit closer. Makabu said I could, and I took a very rare picture. I've never seen a spotted eagle owl before...
We stopped for lunch (and to collect firewood), and I managed to get attacked by very prickly and sticky fertility grass. Not even thick socks are good enough protection against it.
Then again, you can always boil it up and drink the liquid if you're having problems with your womb!
At around 1400, we dropped off our team to make camp, then we went back out for another game drive.
The radio chatter suggested there were lions out there and maybe even a leopard, but it all seemed like a wild goose chase until we saw a pair of young lions asleep under a large fever berry tree.
They like it as it has the best shade, and - lo and behold! - you can also boil its leaves in water to cure a fever. Is there any plant out here that doesn't have medicinal properties?!
We even had chance to come back later for some great close-ups.
Shockingly, I had to change my WB setting to cloudy a few times today. Very poor...
Fun fact:
You can tell which termite mounds are active by the presence of wet sand deposits on the surface.
Species lists
We saw impala, black-backed jackal, tsessebe, low veld giraffe, hippo, warthog, Burchell's zebra, blue wildebeest, red lechwe, tree squirrel, chacma baboon, vervet monkey, elephant, waterbuck, lion, wild dog.
We ask saw birds including Burchell's starling, African darter, blacksmith plover, Swainson's francolin, helmeted guineafowl, red-billed hornbill, saddle-billed stork, grey hornbill, African fish eagle, spotted eagle owl, long-tailed pied shrike, African jacana, wattled crane, Cape turtle dove, little egret, Egyptian geese, Gabor goshawk.
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