Friday, September 6, 2013
Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones!
Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones!
Bones! There are bones everywhere in the bush! Some have only been there for a matter of hours and others...years! When an animal meets his demise, nothing goes to waste. For example if a Cape Buffalo is killed by lions. They will eat until they are uncomfortably stuffed. There are always vultures in branches and on the ground fighting for a bite. At some point the hyenas will usually show up and have a go at it. After they leave, you may have a leopard, serval, cheetah, wild cat, jackals, bugs and so forth until there isn't much left. Usually it's just the large bones and horns left behind. The smaller bones are eaten by hyenas. Hyena poop is white...flush with calcium. The bones that remain get scattered. It isn't like looking at a chart of a skeleton like we did in school. Beginning at Kings Pool and continuing on at Mombo and Jao, my son-in-law just couldn't pass up a pile of bones without asking/demanding that we stop! If it was safe...meaning no dangerous animals in the near vicinity, he would jump out and begin to examine the bones. He would explain what the individual bones were. Then he would (sometimes with Lemme, Sefo, or Alberto's help) begin to reconstruct the animal! Yes! I am positively sure that some of the guides that have passed by these graveyards of bones several times a week for a long time are taking a second glance/maybe getting a whiplash upon viewing these reconstructed skeletal remains! I can only imagine how they are explaining to clients how this happened! Barry quickly joined in on the fun by making Cape Buffalo monuments. Every time we passed a skull and horns of one, he would have to jump out, grab it and find a place to display it! Reminded me of old western movies and tv shows where "monuments" like this would be a marker for a graveyard or a "stop, turn around and get out of here!" sign! Just keep thinking about that song...."dem bones, dem bones gonna' walk around...."
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
It’s Never Easy to Go Home...Especially When ONE Leg of the Trip is a 15 Hour Plane Ride!!!
It’s Never Easy to Go Home...Especially When ONE Leg of the Trip is a 15 Hour Plane Ride!!!
UGH! It’s time to go back to Mississippi for us and to New York for Davis! We were packed before breakfast this morning so that we could go on one last game drive with our beloved Alberto! By the way, we LOVED the breakfasts at Jao! They are the best!! Before our game drive, Barry had an event! He was walking from our tent to the lodge on the elevated walkway. A large male baboon was on the walkway and saw Barry. Instead of running away, he charged Barry while baring his teeth. They can be quite scary! I have seen baboons taunt leopards which are their mortal enemy! If this event had happened to me instead of Barry, he would have said that I had an exciting adventure! Hmmm.... We had fun seeing a marabou stork up close and personal! They are one of the ugliest birds that God created! We saw lots of elephants of all sizes. We had a few charge our vehicle which makes Davis understandably nervous. We also saw a red lechwe that only had 1 antler. The antlered animals in Africa (at least this is my understanding) don’t shed their antlers yearly like the deer in the USA do; if you lose one, it is too bad! Time went by way too quickly and it was time to meet the plane to begin the very long trip back to Mississippi! Our first leg took us from Jao Camp to Chitabe Camp. From Chitabe to Maun, Botswana. After clearing customs, we flew from Maun to Johannesburg, South Africa where we had to go back through customs. In Johannesburg we had a layover before boarding the extremely LONG Delta flight back to Atlanta. This is the longest flight that Delta airlines has. Before boarding we were at the Delta gate in line to board. A very intoxicated and obnoxious American man was insisting that he talk to a Delta agent. He wanted an upgrade. He kept telling the agents that he traveled for a living and blah blah blah. They didn’t let him talk to the agent. He was sent to the back of the line or told he could go to the Delta counter. Poor Davis, the icky man was seated right next to him in the middle seat. I don’t think he was pleasant, but I think he passed out after having many drinks of straight up Vodka so that the trip was tolerable for Davis. We sailed through customs in Atlanta with no problems and for once it wasn’t raining and we left on time! That is a miracle in Atlanta! Even though I am now home. I think I may continue this in a frequent basis...but probably not every day. I do have some funny and/or interesting things that happened or that we saw that I didn’t cover in the daily posts. We will see.... Thanks for traveling with me!!!
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Mokoros and More!
Mokoros and More!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Welcome to Jao Camp!
Welcome to Jao Camp!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
A SAD, SAD, SAD Day for me....
A SAD, SAD, SAD Day for me....
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Five Star Bush Luncheon Mombo Style
After a quick breakfast at Mombo, our family with the fun addition of Paula enjoyed a fun morning with Sefo. We knew that there had to be lions very near the camp because of the volume of the roars we heard early that morning. Yep, we were right! They were in camp....not close enough to our tents...but very close..in fact under some of the employee tents. YIKES! We saw a lot of giraffes, elephants, zebras, the usual abundance of impala, and an enormous owl. Graham met us somewhere in the middle of nowhere to steal Paula from us. Paula and Jimmy left late that morning for Vumbura Plains and she had a plane to catch! After Paula left, we were bouncing along one of the middle roads and Caroline said to Sefo that she had been looking all morning in the trees for a leopard. Sefo said for us to look under the trees instead of just in them. As soon as those words came out of his mouth..BAM...that she was! Pula...Legadema's daughter under a tree. And what a beauty she is!!! As we sat and watched her, Sefo said noticed that she kept looking up in the tree. It was a tree that was covered in leafy thick vines...so it had lots of cover! There tucked into the vines in an upper branch was the lifeless body of a large baboon! Soon, Pula, climbed the tree and began eating her prize! I won't describe it to you! Yall know stuff like that makes me ill! Time was escaping! We were late to lunch! Reluctantly, we left, Pula with the happy meal and headed for camp! Sefo received a call (or so he said) from Graham that the lions were blocking the road into camp so that we would have to go a back way. We are always up for any areas and roads that we haven't seen! After quite a bit of driving and after Sefo said that he was lost, we knew something was up! Sefo doesn't get lost! At least not in his backyard, Mombo! As we came around a corner, there was beautiful Jemima, the chef, and another wonderful staff member from Mombo. They had a surprise bush luncheon just for us at Hippo Corner. It is a beautiful spot! There is a raised structure there too. Jemima had soap and water for us to wash our dusty hands. A beautiful table had been laid. The chef had a grill set up and had several selections of salads and veggies. A full bar was also part of the setting! And the "port-o-potty" bush style! I will include a pic of that! Ha! The dessert was crepes bathed in chocolate and topped with fruit! What a fabulous surprise! We loved everything! It was truly a highlight of our African Adventure! We had such a great time looking at all of the hippos, red lechwe, and exotic birds while we dined in style!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
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