Onward. We got on the small bus that had brought us to Baobab Lodge and drove to the Kasane, Botswana airport, where we boarded two small planes that flew us over the Kalahari Desert. An hour and a half later we landed at an airstrip, if you can call it that, an unpaved flat spot on the edge of the desert... the only other thing in sight was another small plane and two safari vehicles waiting to take us to the Moremi Wildlife Refuge and the Moremi Tented Camp where we would spend the next three days.
After another warm welcome of singing and cold wash cloths, we were shown to our palatial tents, connected by wooden walkways through the dry brush and mostly dead-looking trees... a deceptive appearance since this ecosystem teemed with life and the sounds of the wild. As with the previous camp, Jan and I were given the most remote 'tents,' since we were the newest travelers with this group, the Overseas Adventure Travel company, OAT. Turns out they were the best tents, in our opinion at least, because we saw more wildlife right in our 'yards,' being on the outer edge of the camps.
Cheetah are not the most common sightings we are told, in part because the tend to be more active at night. However, on our first game drive that evening, we found a cheetah and followed it and watched it lay about all evening, getting lots of incredible photos no more than 20 yards from the animal, which paid us little to no attention. It had a collar on it's neck, put there by researchers interested in tracking it and observing it's behavior.
Because of negotiated deals with the local peoples, to whom the governance of the wildlife areas had been turned over, we took on all of the game drives with us, one in each vehicle, a local expert who made sure we didn't abuse the land... they were actually very helpful and expert at spotting animals and guiding us over the terrain. Our local guides were a young woman named Honest and a young man named Boxer (we suspected the names were used since we probably couldn't pronounce their real names). Our drivers at this camp were Lincoln and Muzilla.
Lincoln became a favorite... he had a magnetic personality, so much energy and enthusiasm we should all have! His favorite refrains were, 'I'm a cowboy,' and 'I'm relentless,' as indeed he was! Jan and I liked riding in the back two seats of the safari vehicles because they were the highest up and had the best vantage for viewing and photography. Riding back there with the relentless cowboy, Lincoln, driving truly was like riding a bucking bronco... we loved it. It was a bit much for some of the others so we had no problem getting the seats we preferred anyway! YeeHaw!!!
We followed and photographed this cheetah for about an hour...
We took two game drives most days, early morning and late afternoon...
Our lodging at Moremi National Park in the Okvango Delta...
Head 'em up, move 'em out... our inimitable, relentless, cowboy driver and guide, Lincoln...
Our signature 'feet up' photo against an African sunset...
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