We flew to Bird Island, a privately-owned inner-island in the Seychelles for an overnight trip. It is one of the few places where the critically-endangered Hawksbill Turtles come ashore to nest. Though we’d hoped to see some more miracles of natures while here, we didn’t see any turtles laying eggs. We did, however, see some recent nests and tracks from the sea.
Hawkbill Turtle Tracks; Bird Island, Seychelles
The water here is even bluer than on Mahe; the sand even finer—it’s like baby powder. It’s also hotter.
Bird Island, Seychelles
There are also giant tortoises here. It’s the home of Esmerelda (but he’s a dude)—the oldest tortoise alive at 200+ years old. The giant tortoises have to hide in the shade for much of the day, or we’d be having turtle soup for dinner because they get so hot and die, so I didn’t get many great pictures of Esmerelda. However, I did get a picture of Raphael. There’s fat me for some perspective of how huge this guy is. Raphael is about 1/3 the size of Esmerelda. The tortoises liked me. They hissed at my mother.
Freef and the giant tortoise Raphael; Bird Island, Seychelles
We’re here. Barbarons beach on the West coast of Mahe island in the Seychelles. It’s hot. We’re only 4° North of the equator, and holy cow, can you tell the difference between the sun here and the “sun” in Seattle (I hear there’s not been much of that mystical creature in the last three weeks).
Fifteen minutes in the sun and my beautiful Southern Africa tan turned a lovely shade of purple—and that was with SPF Bazillion.
The beach is lovely; the Indian Ocean a clearer than my bath water and the most beautiful shade of turquoise I’ve ever seen.
We ventured into Victoria—the big city—to do some shopping and escape from the resort where we feel somewhat held hostage (mom and I aren’t very good at down-time). It’s about 8km across the island, but a $42 cab ride. One way. Shopping was a total bust (for those who do not get my subtlety, I’m now prepping everyone for lack of souvenirs). There wasn’t a good shit-shack to be found.
And the safari continues in paradise. This is the tiger that lives outside our hotel room. Mom won’t let her come in and sleep with me. Hatred.
Seychellois Tiger
Ok, we saw a couple of White Rhinoceros at Kapama (they’re not really white; maybe I’ll tell you the story of how they got their name someday).
And we saw Hippopotamus at Savuti and Okavango Delta.
My mother (Hi, Mom! Love you, mean it!) continues to call all of them rhinos. The camp managers at Savuti got excited on more than one occasion when my mother reported the “rhinos” we saw on our game drives. They got excited because there are no rhinos in Savuti. There are hippos. Hippos, not rhinos. And you can correct her 234203948209348 times. She’ll still call them rhinos.
At the Maun airport, as we were leaving the Okavango Delta, I saw a French couple we’d met at Savuti and they looked at us and suddenly Teresa (the wife) pointed at my mother and yelled “WATER RHINO.” God, Help Me.
In addition to the South African Peacock, I present, the Water Rhino (who was charging us; very angry; presumably because my mother kept referring to him as a Rhino…):
Sunrise over the Okavango Delta, Botswana
- Watched the sun rise over the Okavango Delta
- Saw several Malachite Kingfishers
- Spent two hours with a female LEOPARD!!!
I swear, I must be the luckiest brat alive. I really miss my friends on my birthday, though. A lot.
Instead of an evening viewing via the flat-bottom boat, we went out in the Mokoro this evening with our guide, Joseph. Mokoro is nothing more than a dug out canoe; sitting that low to the water (where there are hungry crocodiles, angry hippos, and charging elephants), though, made it difficult for me to relax.
Hippo (his name is "Toby"), Okavango Delta, Botswana
I was convinced we were going to tip over. Joseph had me move closer to the rear of the Mokoro where he stood steering the boat on the way back so that he’d be closer to saving me from the crocodiles that I was certain were prepared to feast on me. Lessons learned today: it’s just a boat, Tracey, relax; chivalry is not dead in Botswana (even though men eat first in this country–just like in the lion community).
We had our sundowner (i.e. drinks at sunset) on a tiny island with a giant Baubab tree that is more than 1,000 years old at their best guess.
Freef under the Baubab tree, Okavango Delta, Botswana
See? It’s giant. They call it the “Three Sisters” because of its three trunks. After, we had dinner under the stars with a herd of Red Lechwe grazing less than 20 feet away. It was rad; it’s still hard for me to believe that I’ve had the opportunity to even be here.
Still no fucking leopard.
We arrived at our third safari destination, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, again by light aircraft. It’s truly a water camp and we’re on a little island. From the airstrip, we took a 20 minute drive to the dock and then took a flat-bottom boat to our island—mom and I are 2 of only 4 guests at the exclusive camp.
There are plenty of water birdies here and we saw a Malachite Kingfisher on the boat ride to the camp. SUCCESS!!! I’m in love with these little guys. For reals. I’ll update with a higher rez close up once I’m back home–this is the best I can do right now with African Interwebz (which is very, very, very slow):
Malachite Kingfisher, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Also saw plenty of Pied Kingfishers. Africa has turned me into a bird lover.
Pied Kingfisher, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Our days here will be similar in schedule to those in Kapama and Savuti: sleep, eat, see animals, eat, see animals, eat, sleep, eat, see animals, eat, sleep. I am not tiring of seeing elephants, for sure; however, I am still in search of the allusively cunning leopard. Goddamnit, I want a refund if I don’t see one.
After leaving the Kapama Game Reserve and spending a night in Johannesburg, we took a two hour flight to Maun, Botswana. Goddamned Air Botswana, though… they have recently purchased new airplanes and haven’t figured out that it’s hot in Africa (seriously) and couldn’t bring any of our baggage. All of six people on a 34-person flight received their luggage in Maun. Hot Freef in dirty clothes thinking “I’ll shower and change when we get to Savuti camp” without luggage does not a Happy Freef make. Period. It finally arrived the next day.
We took a luggage-free, one-hour flight in a 4-seater Cessna to our camp on the Savuti Channel. A little history here, so that you understand what an incredible miracle of nature I’ve been able to witness: the Savuti Channel has been completely dry since 1984. Shifting of tectonic plates in the area opened the channel up, and water once again started flowing in 2007—this has created a complete shift in the wildlife and game on the 115,000 hectare reserve. It’s amazing.
Our camp is right on the water and elephants came within 5 feet of my front door. The elephants here, though, are nothing like the elephants in Kapama. First, they’re in herds by the hundreds; one day we sat in a 500-elephant (at least) herd for an hour while they walked by. This crippled dude walked by
Elephant--Savuti Channel, Botswana
(calcium deficiency).
And so did this five-legged elephant <snort>.
Five-legged Elephant, Savuti Channel, Botswana
The elephants here are also significantly less-accustomed to vehicles and, thereby, much more aggressive. Our Land Rover was charged by a momma elephant in distress and, I’ll admit it, I tinkled in my pants a little bit. Even our guide Sefo was concerned and had his flare at the ready. Admittedly, it was interesting to see the stark contrast of wild animals who see far fewer visitors in their home versus those are accustomed to Land Rovers. You see, tourism in Botswana, particularly safari, is more exclusive than other parts of Africa.
Savuti is absolutely beautiful, the camp is pure luxury, and the wildlife viewing is fantastic. We’ve yet to see a leopard, though not for a lack of trying—we did track one from a fresh impala kill, but those spotted cats are sneaky and we never saw him (despite the fact that I was wearing my lucky leopard underwear that day).
I’m also on the hunt for a Malachite Kingfisher—I’ve seen a couple of Pied Kingfisher’s, but am holding out hope for a Malachite Kingfisher when we move on to the Okavango Delta.
Oh… maybe the lucky leopard underwear did work (though as usual with me, something got lost in translation). We saw two leopard tortoises .
Tortoise Leopard, Savuti Channel, Botswana
Giraffe!!! We saw giraffe on the way to our intimate camp—the first big game spotting of the trip. Hey look! A giraffe:
Giraffe, Kapama Game Reserve, South Africa
We saw plenty of other species on the 15,000 hectare reserve, including baby elephants that came within six inches of our Land Rover without showing any signs of aggression. We also saw so many warthogs and impala, that after three days, I didn’t bother to shoot any more pictures of them. They’re practically like squirrel around here.
Elephant, Kapama Game Reserve, South Africa
Impala, Kapama Game Reserve, South Africa
Today proved nothing short of utter success. After chilling (literally) out at the top of Table Mountain, which provides sweeping views of Cape Town and the cape, I chauffeured us (again, mostly on the left-hand side of the road) down the coast towards the Cape of Good Hope. For the first time in 16 months, Chapman’s Peak opened today, so we took advantage of that scenic route.
We saw penguins at Boulder’s Beach. African Penguins (also called Jackass Penguins). African Penguins that I wanted to grab and sneak home in my luggage. Apparently, the locals are fairly annoyed with the penguin colony because they’ve taken over a popular beach and are a protected species, making the beach now closed to us bi-ped nature-killers. Some Japanese tourists were taunting the penguins and I wanted to punch them for it.
African Penguin at Boulder's Beach
Driving home, we kept seeing Baboons! warning signs and, after not seeing a single freaking baboon (despite our best efforts of “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere Baboon, Baboon, Baboon), we started to believe that the signs were just big, fat lies. Until a bunch-o-baboons jumped out in front of the car. They’re stubborn, angry creatures and the big ol’ boy baboon just sat in front of the car and wouldn’t let us leave. I was fairly sure he wanted to rip my face off. He finally walked away, but no joke, he shot me a dirty look and glared at me as he sauntered off. Turns out, the locals hate the baboons, too, and suggested the next time one blocks us in that we just simply run him over.
This morning, after breakfast at the Villa, we drove to the Winelands. I’m pretty sure the rental car idea nervouses mom a little bit, but 10 minutes into our drive, she was yelling at the GPS, telling the GPS lady that she was wrong—and we didn’t rely on her for the rest of the day. We drove through Stellenbosch, Paar, and Franschhoek, stopping at a couple of wineries for wine flight tastings at 20ZAR (about $2.50). Each flight was 5 or 6 wines—from Pinotage to Rose. Most notably was Fairview, closest to Paar, which features the Fairview wines and the Goats Do Roam wines (and a goat really does roam on the vineyard—if you can call being fenced in “roaming”). We shipped some wine back; I might share with you, but probably not.
The source of hysterical laughter for much of the rest of the day, here is the conversation I had with my mother on our way to the Winelands this morning:
Mom: Oh look! A peacock!!
Freefs: A real peacock? Huh?
Mom: Yeah, a real one!
Freefs: Huh. Well, I’d like a picture of a peacock.
Mom: No. Not a peacock. What are those called?
Freefs: Huh?
Mom: You know, one of those two-legged birds with the long neck that runs real fast…
Freefs: An ostrich, mom?
Mom: Oh yeah, an ostrich.
I present... the South African "peacock"
