November 4 - Do Not Move! Stay In Your Tent!

Just when you think it can't possibly get any more exciting.....IT DOES!!!! Barry and I were woken early this morning at around 4:30 am by a baboon. We should have realized that there was a problem by it's alarm call. It made that awful noise about every 5-10 minutes. We had our wake-up call...which is a personal knock or call from our guide at 5am. As we were getting dressed, the baboons began constantly making the alarm call. We knew at that point something was not right. We could hear a lot of noise under our tent and in the water in front of our tent.....but it was dark outside and we couldn't see anything. Barry even unlocked our screen door and walked out onto the deck....again, we could hear something, but couldn't see anything. He came back in and we were anticipating our guide at any moment to "collect" us for breakfast. (you can't leave your tent after sunset or before sunrise without a guard walking with you) All of a sudden we hear Sefo, our guide, yell for everyone to stay in their tents because there are lions in the camp! Well, we knew exactly where at least one of those lions was.....under or in front of our tent! The muddy lions that we had seen yesterday.....15 members strong.....were out hunting! They ambushed a lechwe and killed it in front of our tent and in front of the dining room. Sefo came to our deck to watch the excitement. When it was safe, we joined our fellow Mombo guests and staff at breakfast while watching the lions dismember and eat the lechwe. The sounds of the chase, the alarms, the kill, the dismemberment, and the feasting......something that I will never, ever forget! We left for our final game drive later than usual. One of the first things we came upon was a den of hyenas with 4 pups. All animal babies are cute! THEN......Sefo found a leopard lounging in a tree. How in the world he found it is a mystery to us! He listens to the sounds of monkeys, birds....and watches other animals' behavior...amazing! We watched this leopard for quite sometime. Sefo was pretty sure this leopard was Slim Girl. When Slim Girl decided to climb down the tree and walk towards our vehicle, it was exciting but we were not too alarmed because it was a girl and Sefo had seen her before. Well, we were very surprised when she came to within a few feet of our vehicle.....but not fearful....she stood and stared up at us for a few minutes. Of course, I was snapping pics. Slowly, she turned and walked around the back of the Land Rover and went to the other side of us..... Sefo excitedly exclaimed that it was definitely not Slim Girl but a male leopard that had not been seen at Mombo before. He suddenly stopped a few feet from Barry, Karen and Sefo's side...Sefo quietly, but sternly whispered..."Don't anyone move! Stay still! Do Not Move!" and we didn't! He then sat down around 10 feet from us! WOW! It was unbelievable! We have named the new leopard BarryBob! We are anticipating updates of future sitings! After packing up and having one last lavish bush brunch, we are on a plane to Johannesburg from Maun. I shed many, many tears leaving Mombo and new friends that seem like family....not just from Mombo, but from each lodge/camp that we have been to as well as ALL of our fantastic guides, staff, and friends we have made along the way. Africa has stolen my heart!
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November 3 - Sundowners and Hyenas!

This morning was fantastic! Barry and I .... Along with our fab guide Sefo and Karen and Bob Hobbs from Phoenix, we watched something quite remarkable. There is one wild dog left here near Mombo. She is a female. She has become very good friends with a pair of jackals. They hunt together...protect each other and so forth. BUT, the jackals have had 2 pups. She thinks the pups are hers....or rather she wants them to be her pups. She is very protective of them. Their den has 2 holes...1 on either side of a termite mound. The jackals had to pester her and get her guarding one hole while they got the pups out of the other side in order to quickly nurse and feed them! It was something else! We saw another pride of lions...20 members strong! They were sleeping away...and covered in mud. I think they must have had some party last night! This afternoon after a great game drive with a highlight of watching one of the Western Boys (lion), we stopped for sundowners. We were having a great time with Bob, Karen, and Sefo enjoying the sunset when.......Barry suddenly yelled, "There is a hyena!" as he was running towards the vehicle. Why in the world I thought he meant that the hyena was in the distance....and that he was actually running to get the camera, I will never know! The hyena was very large and about 5' from our vehicle! WOW!!! It was a little tense for a few minutes!

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November 2 - Legadema - The Legend

Oh what a beautiful morning!
Everyone was delighted that the obnoxious Boston couple decided not to go on the morning game drive. They wanted a morning of leisure before departing Mombo. YAY! Once again, we were joined by a beautiful lady that works for Wilderness Safaris for our morning drive. We loved being with her last night. Pretty soon after we left on our morning drive, we came across the famous leopard movie and book star, Legadema. (National Geographic, Eye of the Leopard and so forth) She had just killed an antelope and was trying to decide where to hide it from vultures, hyenas, and lions. We watched her for a long time. She posed big-time! After we left her, we drove for a while and came upon one of her daughters sitting in a tree. Rather she was sprawled out in a tree snoozing. It was pretty cool. Now that this daughter is 3 years old, she and her mom have different territories and would/do fight when they have an encounter. We then saw the large pride of lions began getting ready to hunt when an unsuspecting warthog ran into them....literally. Luckily, he escaped unscathed. That afternoon, we were joined by a wonderful couple from Phoenix. I know we will be life-long friends! We all clicked and had great fun!

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November 1 - The Ugly American Tourist

After an early morning fishing trip and brunch, we hopped on another Barbie plane bound for Mombo which is also located in the Moremi area of the Okavango Delta. We loved the staff and our guide at Jao......all so great! Even though we are still in the delta, the land is so different than Jao! There are a few similarities. NO AIR CONDITIONING! No Wifi...no computers. Mombo Camp like Jao is built up on stilts to allow animals to pass freely underneath. After getting settled into our tent, we left for a game drive with the guide we had requested...Sefo. Our new friends from Virginia Beach had highly recommended that we email ahead and request him. We joined Sefo and 4 others. It was VERY HOT! We did see a lion pride with 15 members.....they were so lazy and sleepy that they barely raised an eyebrow when we drove up. We saw lots of the usual animals, too. Due to the extremely unpleasant couple from Boston is our jeep, we came in early! Those 2 bad apples were the epitome of "The Ugly American Tourist". We had a lovely dinner where we met the cutest couple from Minneapolis....Mary Sue and Pete. I told her that she has a very Southern name. We clicked with them even though they were much younger! I am looking forward to visiting them in Minneapolis!

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October 31. Poling in the Delta

After a sleepless night because of the elephants that hung out under our tent all night long, we were already tired before the day ever began. Today we went on a mokoro ride. Reminds me of a pirogue! In fact this part of the Okavango looks much like the Louisiana marsh land. It is a long and shallow dug-out canoe. Barry and I sat on the bottom of the boat while The Captain (that is what our guide called him...and so did we) poled us around channels of the delta. We were instructed to be very still....any wobble could turn the boat over very easily. As we glided past boisterous hippos, huge monitor lizards, and hungry crocs, we tried to fixate our eyes on the lovely water lilies and ignore the wildlife around us. Barry was so still that he didn't even talk! We enjoyed a festive dinner that night in the boma. The food and local entertainment was truly outstanding!

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October 30 - Houma/ Homer.....Small World!

WOW!!!!!! I just thought it was hot in that Barbie plane! We had a 6am wakeup call. We ate breakfast and were on our way before 7 on a boat for a 45 minute ride to get to the Land Rover for a game drive. We took lunch with us.......ugh! Way, way too hot to do that! We did see a lot of cool animals including a baby steenbuck that had been hidden by it's mom in the tall grasses. We couldn't see it until Bundi parted the grasses for us. So beautiful! It was great animal viewing....but we got hot and tired before noon. When we got back to camp in time for High Tea, 6 new guests had arrived. One of the gals is from Houma, Louisiana! We had a fun laugh about that! At dinner that night, I was seated next to the gal from Houma...her name is Margaret. After each asking each other all of the correct Southern questions about each others lives and our "people" we figured out that she knows my sister Ginny and my brother-in-law, Ault! They are all the same age and went to LSU together! SMALL WORLD!!!!!

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October 29 - BARBIE PLANES AND UNIFORMS

BARBIE PLANES AND UNIFORMS

After 3 extremely HOT flights in a "Barbie plane", paying departure and arrival fees and taxes, and signing various visa forms, we finally arrived in the heart of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. May I say to my dear friends (and you know who you are!) that must pop a Xanax before boarding any flight, "Go to Europe! These flights are not for you!". First of all, the pilots appear to be in junior high! Barry is sure they are not shaving yet. These planes are VERY old. They are VERY hot! You can only bring small soft duffle bags! Forget your fashionable rolling luggage! In fact, you are allotted so little weight and space, you have to pretty much ditch everything! The good thing is that everyone is dressed almost the same. I wish that we had stock in ExOfficio clothing brand....for I haven't met a fellow traveler that wasn't decked out in it yet! I now know what it feels like to wear a uniform to school! Jao Camp is really cool....looking....not cool in the sense of temperature! We are in tents.....but that is a bit misleading! We are way up....the whole camp is built up to allow animals to pass underneath tented and walkways. They tents are very large....we have a sitting room, bedroom, outdoor shower, indoor shower, and a loo with a view. A part of our tent area includes an outdoor deck with chairs, a hammock, and an outdoor lounging bed. All of this faces a fabulous lush marshy lagoon. We are watching a red lechwe in the marsh and listening to a symphony of bird and animal sounds as I type. We arrived in time to settle in and have High Tea. Then went for a boat ride around the area with our guide. I think our guide said his name was Vundee...but Barry thinks he said it is Bundi. I am going with Barry because in Kenya I was SURE our guide's name was Vincent..... after calling him that for 2 days, we found out that Barry was right...BUT....to my defense, we met an English couple in Zambia. He said that he had been to Mississippi. Of course I asked why.....I heard him say that he was there for A HAIR SHOW.....Barry heard him say for an AIR SHOW! Barry began talking airplanes and such with him.......the man had a very puzzled look on his face to me....he finally explained to Barry that he knew zero about airplanes......yep, it was hair shows !

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