Moving to the next Kalahari area, we stopped in a small town for gas and water. These small towns have varying degrees of development. Some now have schools provided by the national government with primary and secondary education mandatory. However, many rural students still spend their childhoods living in boarding schools; transported, at government expense, in large buses to and from their remote villages for holidays.
Village life. The temperature is about 90!
The literacy rate is climbing steadily among younger people, but many older people still can’t read or write. Education in the far-flung villages is still spotty. Health care is pretty good everywhere.
Getting off the bus.
Mobile health care units visit even the most remote villages several times a month with vision, dental, pre-natal, and general health providers on board. The national government is exemplary among African nations in taking good care of its people. And the people respond by loving their leaders. Botswanans are very proud of their 52 year independence from the former British protectorate status.
The mobile health team on their way to very remote villages.
The Kumaga area of the Makgadikgadi Pans park, near the Boteti River was the next camp. Such a difference water makes! We arrived on a very hot day: 40 degrees C/104F.
Park entrance sign.
Ferry across the Boteti River at Kumaga.
The Boteti in the dry season. One side of the river is park and the other private.
After setting up camp we drove to the river to see what wildlife might be around. We hadn’t seen any large animals yet. Wow! Here they were, all coming in for afternoon drinks. Giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, kudus, impalas and elephants. Hippos and water birds. It was like a garden of Eden. We were stunned.
Giraffe going for a drink. The world’s tallest animals are huge, weighing 1800 to 2600 pounds.
Try this.
Drinking is an awkward affair if you are 18 feet tall.
Some are luckier than others. We hadn’t seen any lions, but signs of their handiwork, and tracks were about.
Female kudus at the river.
Water Thick-knee
The thick-knees hazing the large water monitor below.
Water Monitor lizards are fairly common in wet areas. They are omnivores, but especially love to eat eggs. They can grow to over 6 feet long.
Golden-tailed Woodpecker
Hadeda Ibis have a call like a screaming baby.
Egyptian Geese. Many already had families in tow.
One of the ugliest. The Marabou Storks are successful scavengers. While other stork numbers are declining, these are flourishing.
One of the prettiest, the Lilac-breasted Roller, is also doing well.
Female elephants with baby. Many elephants have broken tusks from digging roots and stripping bark off trees. Babies don’t grow tusks until they turn 1 year.
Scrub hare snacking by the river.
Blacksmith Plover. These are doing very well near all the wet areas.
It’s hard to tell by the numbers migrating south, that these Black-winged Pratincoles are a threatened species. However, the flocks used to number in the hundreds of thousands.
The Hippo Pool was busy. Hippos are also huge: second in weight only to the elephant.
A lovely way to end the day.
That night we had an impressive thunderstorm with rain and lots of lightning. The next evening, when we returned to the river we could see and smell a big wildfire started by the lightning.
Wildfire!
Now the temperatures were cooler and remote waterholes filling: the animals disperse. We never again saw the concentrations of the previous day. With more rain the next day, the fires were extinguished and the air freshened.
Signs of new plant life emerge signaling the return of the wet. Flowers begin blooming.
New growth pokes through the dry dirt.
Beautiful flowers start appearing.
Black-backed Jackals are more in evidence.
One of a number of large black beetle species.
Dung beetle on its prize.
Out in the bush we found more entertainment (we are easily amused). The flying dung beetles are a hazard. They look like clumsy hummingbirds zooming around and if one hits you in the head, you’ll notice. Joseph found one on its giant self-made dung ball. They bury these to provide nourishment for their hatching larvae.
Stinging millipede.
Ubiquitous, harmless millipedes about 3 inches long.
Namaqua Dove. Flocks of these sound and look like parrots overhead.
Grey Hornbills defend breeding territory.
Grey Lauries are called the “Go Away Bird” because of their raucous calls.
Vervet monkeys are the only monkeys in Botswana.
Gourds are food for many animals when it is dry.
Porcupines are nocturnal, but obviously different than ours. The barb-less quill is about 8 inches long.
Red-billed Spurfowl are definitely not endangered.
Of course, I have to include a dragonfly here and there.
Even the smallest puddles were supporting dragonflies.
Fresh impala baby.
Mom and baby together.
Elephant population in Botswana is thriving to the point that they are migrating into areas of the Kalarahi previously elephant free.
Elephants are very hard on the landscaping. Unfortunately, they sometimes trample people’s gardens and make pests of themselves.
Many of the male elephants had black secretions coming from temporal (on the temple) glands. This signals they are in musth, or breeding mode. They are more aggressive to other males during musth, (and also to tourists). Females have temporal secretions also, perhaps having to do with mating readiness.
Male elephant with musth gland secretion on side of face.
The next stop, Nxai Pans will be drier. After the cloudless blue skies of the dry season, a plus for the beginning of the wet is the magnificent sunsets.
If you want to see the animals in the post in motion,
click here...https://youtu.be/0L0Fq2T8UBY