The Central Kalahari Desert

Yellow billed kite flying over
the Central Kalahari

Botswana Trip: Part 2
If you missed my post about part 1 of this Botswana road trip click here.

After spending the morning in the rhino sanctuary in Serowe, I hit the road again. I had about a 4.5 hour drive to a small town called Rakops, where I would stop for gas before turning west on to a small dirt track for 100km before hitting the gate for the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. 

Drive from Serowe, to Rakops, and then to my campsite in the Kalahari

It was a beautiful sunny day, but it was incredibly windy. A few hours into my trip, mini tornadoes made from sand were forming on either side of the road. They would zip back and forth across the highway, and then disappear as quickly as they had formed. There was even less vegetation on the sides of the roads than previous day, but there were still plenty of goats and cows crossing the road. If there was a tree, there was some type of livestock using the shade for shelter from the sun.


According to my map, Rakops was the last place that I could fill up with fuel before heading to the game reserve, and I was spending two days there. When I got into the town, school was just getting out. I drove past an elementary school, and a bunch of the children ran after me down the road. I was glad I took this road, because I had a chance to see what a small town looked like. Many of the houses in town were made of mud/dirt walls and thatch roofs. After driving up and down the main road again, I still couldn't the gas station. I ended up asking a man for directions, who led me to a tiny building that I had passed at least four times. 

Finally, I started to head west towards the game reserve. After turning on to the road, I immediately realised why you NEED a 4x4 to tour Botswana. After about 400m I was driving in about a foot and a half of loose sand. It felt like I was driving in really heavy, and slightly less slippery snow and I had to stay in second gear to avoid stalling. At this point, the wind was so strong that I couldn't see more than 20 meters on either side of the road because of the blowing sand. Even though I was already in the Kalahari desert, there were still cattle farms on either side of the road. Every once and a while I would pass a dead cow that had mummified in the sun. 

Flash flood on the way into the kalahari reserve.
This "river" is actually the road I drove in on 

After about an hour of driving in the sand, it started to cloud over again. Ten minutes later, it started to chuck down rain, almost as hard as two nights before. It only rained for about 20 minutes, but by the time it had cleared up, the road was completely underwater. I couldn't tell where the road was, and I was terrified that I was going to get stuck. I just kept moving, and luckily I didn't have any problems. Again, thank goodness I had a land cruiser.

Finally, I approached the gate of the park. I quickly signed in, payed my park fees, gulped down a can of beans and a bun (I had some very classy meals on this trip), and started heading towards my campsite. I only had about an hour and a half before sunset, so I unfortunately couldn't stop for too long on the way in. 

The park was very different then what I imagined. I was expecting it to be incredibly flat and barren, with a few trees scattered here and there. Although there were plenty of areas like that, there were also huge patches of lush vegetation with lots of trees, grasses and herbaceous plants as well.

An example of a flat barren area of the Kalahari.
Click to enlarge

Just a few km away from the photo on the left, with dense thick vegetation

I reached the first clearing to find a black backed jackal skulking around some ground squirrel burrows. You would think after spending six months observing ground squirrels I would be sick of them, but I couldn't help but stop and take a few shots of them. Besides, I didn't get that much of a chance to photograph them back on the reserve anyway.

Four young squirrels hanging out near the burrow entrance. These guys had much larger social groups than the ones we were studying in South Africa!

Guess what the sex of this squirrel is...

Swallow-tailed bee eater

The raptor sightings on the way in were spectacular. At one point, I turned a corner and ended up about 15 meters from a martial eagle. Even without my binoculars, I could even see the colour of its eyes from where I was sitting. Unfortunately when I went to pick up my camera, it flew away (I swear animals have an extra sense when it comes to cameras). Just before I got to my campsite, I managed to get a shot of a swallow tailed bee eater. I got to my campsite just before sunset. I was so exhausted so I quickly made a quick dinner and went straight to bed.

The next morning, I was packed up and in the truck for sunrise. I mostly booked my time in the Kalahari because I wanted to see the desert itself, but I was also hoping to see a few of the larger predators (lions, wild dogs, and hyenas are supposed to be fairly abundant in the Kalahari), and I was also hoping to get a few photos of gemsbok (pronounced hemsbok). Gemsbok have to be my favorite antelope species, so if they were all I ran into all day I would have been happy.

Black Korhaan

The morning was actually quite slow, although I did manage to find a few species of raptors that I hadn't seen before. At one of the first pans that I drove up to, I managed to get quite close to a Black Korhaan. This is one of the most annoying bird calls of Africa, and we heard it constantly back at the reserve, but I was happy to finally get a decent photo of one.

It wasn't too long before I managed to find a few gemsbok. For whatever reason, they always decided to stand between me and the sun, so I had a heck of a time getting photos of them. The plain grey sand also made it difficult to find any contrast between the gemsbok and the background. It took me several hours to get any kind of half decent photo of one:

Gemsbok

Overall, my first full day had been very quiet. Most of my day was

A Lion "hiding" under a tree.
Why didnt I see that right away?

spent watching different eagles and kites, but I had plenty of gemsbok sightings as well. I suspected that since it rained so heavily outside of the park perimeter, many of the animals likely headed in that direction for a drink. I wanted to get to my campsite at a decent hour so that I could have my dinner in the daylight, so I headed towards my second site. 

On the way there, I found a fresh springbok carcass next to a water hole. I parked and faced the water hole at a good angle and waited. After waiting for a few minutes, I noticed that a pride of lions had been sitting nearby the entire time. As the night started to cool off, one of the lionesses stood up, and I almost immediately noticed several other lions and lionesses scattered under a few different trees. In the distance, a jackal was trying to sneak towards the water hole unnoticed. 

Black-backed Jackal

Unfortunately for the Jackal, one of the lionesses was also thirsty. As she approached, the jackal quickly trotted away.

After watching them for quite some time, I decided I should probably find my campsite. I started the truck back up, and headed back up the road. After about 30 seconds, I was quite surprised to find myself already at the campsite. Unlike in South Africa, the campsites in Botswana have no fences whatsoever, so I was going to be spending the night about a hundred meters away from a pride of lions. I must admit that I was a little bit nervous that my dinner for the night was a steak. As I was cooking, I could hear the lions roaring in the distance. I was happy that they sounded a fair distance away, but I could still feel the bass of the roaring rumble in my chest. Fortunately, I eat my steaks quite rare so I was gorging myself as fast as I could, half out of nervousness and half out of hunger.

I noticed that an area where I had spilt some water a few minutes prior was now covered in dozens and dozens of moths. I guess if you live in a desert, you need to be able to take advantage of any water that you can find.

I crawled into my tent, feeling thankful that it was on the roof of the land cruiser. Every 10 minutes or so, I would hear some more roars coming back from the water hole. I was wondering if maybe they had already brought back a kill for the night.


The next morning I packed everything up fairly quickly, excited to see if the lions were still at the water hole. They were all still lying around, and there was no kill to be found. However, it didnt take me long to figure out what the loud roaring was about....

Apparently at least one of the lionesses was in heat, and lions are not very quiet when they mate..... After getting a few dissaproving looks from the male lion, I decided to make a final round before heading back out of the park towards Maun and the okavango delta. 


Early in the morning, I managed to find a pair of bat eared foxes! This was the only pair that I managed to see during my entire trip so I was super excited. Unfortunately they were to far to get a decent photograph though. Despite being canids, these guys eat mostly insects, and use their enormous ears to locate their prey.

A little while later, I saw several Kori Bustards. This species is one of the heaviest flying birds on the planet, and can weigh up to 41 pounds. Male bustards will puff out their necks during mating displays.

Kori Bustard

I also went back to a few of the spots where I had run into gemsbok, to try and get some nicer photos. I still had some trouble, but I managed to get a few more sightings in. 

At this point it was about noon, and I had a few hours of driving to get back out of the reserve and to Maun, so I started to head back towards the entrance. On the way out, I had one of my most anticipated sightings yet. As some of you may already know, one of the animals that I wanted to see the most in Africa was the Ratel, or the Honey Badger.....

Finally, I could leave the reserve a happy man. I headed back out towards the gate, and headed North towards Maun. My next stop was the Okavanga Delta. Stay tuned to hear more about this trip!!

I cant figure out what bird this is! It looks like some kind of francolin but I cant find it in my guides.

From Bears back to Botswana

A small cactus-like succulent from the Kalahari Desert
 Suspected to be Hoodia sp.

My recent trip to Churchill reminded me that I still have a plethora of photographs from my trip to Botswana and Zimbabwe last fall. Its hard to believe that it has already been a year since I got back from Africa. I booked my flights to and from Johannesburg way back in February 2013, and I was scheduled to fly into South Africa on April 29th and to fly out on November 14th 2013. Once I sorted my visa out, I realized that the type of visa I was applying for only lasted for 6 months, and that I had to be out of the country on the 29th of October.

Rather then rebook my flights, I decided to rent a Land Cruiser and drive from Johannesburg, across the border to Botswana, through the Kalahari desert, along the edge the Okavango Delta, and along the Chobe river to Kasane. From there I was taxied to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to spend my last few days in Africa before flying back to Johannesberg to catch my return flight home. I plan to write about this trip in a series of blog posts over the next few weeks.

I started planning the trip while I was still in SA Lombard, which was incredibly frustrating since I was relying on the unreliable web browser on my blackberry. I knew that I wanted to tour either Namibia or Botswana before heading home and I basically had two options; A cheap group safari tour, or a self drive tour. The group tours are much cheaper, but have very specific schedules and strict baggage restrictions. I had everything with me from the previous 6 months of field work, including an action packer full of research equipment so my only option was to rent a vehicle and drive myself. I ended up contacting Bushlore, which is a company that rents fully equipped 4x4s and plans and books custom trips. This was perfect for me, since I really didn't have the time or resources to plan a two week trip while I was still on the reserve. Despite the cost, I would highly recommend Bushlore if you are planning a trip like this. They were knowledgeable about the accommodations, and responded very quickly to dozens of emails back and forth about changes to my schedule. I was very picky when it came down to where I stayed and for how long. For my trip I wanted to maximize the time I spent camping in national parks, and minimize the time spent in fancy lodges. Looking back, I dont think I would have changed a thing as far as scheduling goes.

The house I was living in at SA Lombard for my field season

Route from SA Lombard, through Joburg to my first stop in
Waterberg, and my second stop in Serowe

The 29th of October (2013) marked the end of my field season, and the beginning of my vacation. I packed the research truck, locked up the house and hit the road. My first stop was the University of Pretoria to drop off the vehicle (it stays there for the fall-spring). From there I arranged with Bushlore to be picked up and driven to their base of operations just outside of Johannesburg. There we had an hour long orientation going over my route, and the vehicle. The 4x4 I rented was a Land Cruiser, which was outfitted with a rooftop tent. The back was converted to have a roll out compartment that contained six containers full of camping gear. It had pots and pans, utensils, a stove, a lantern, two propane tanks, blankets, pillows, and emergency supplies. On top of that compartment was a fridge that was wired into a second car battery. The truck also came with two spare tires (apparently most people go through at least one if they go off the main highway. Other than food, I was all set. 

At this point, it was about 5pm and getting dark. I got in the truck, grabbed a quick bite at McDonalds and tried to get onto the highway before the sun had set. It felt that the moment I got onto the highway, it started to pour down with rain. After about 30 minutes, it was raining so hard that I had to slow down to avoid hydroplaning. It poured for the entire 4 hour drive to the first game park, and the lightning strikes were so frequent that I almost felt like I didn't need my headlights on. 

I got to the front gate, and got out of the truck to find the gatekey. The bushlore folks told me that the key was under a rock near the bottom right corner of the gate. There were only about four rocks to chose, and the key was nowhere to be found. I looked at the other corner of the gate thinking I may have misheard what side of the fence the key was on, but I still couldn't find anything.  There was an intercom on the side of the gate so I tried calling, but nobody answered. I noticed that there was a phone number to call after hours, but there was no cell reception at the gate. So I hopped back into my truck, and drove up the highway a few km to make the call. Luckily, they were able to unlock the gate remotely without having to come and unlock it by hand.

Crimson Breasted Shrike
(The red looks even better in person)

At this point I was already completely soaked to the bone, and I still had a 15 minute drive or so to my campsite. This gate was not only the entrance to the game park, but also to several cattle farms and private estates in the area. Every once and a while I would come across a run down sign that said "Waterberg game reserve" with an arrow pointing to another gate. The gates weren't locked, but each time I would have to get out of the truck in the lightning storm, open the gate, get back in the car and drive ahead, and get back out a second time to close the gate. I honestly felt like I was in a scene from Jurassic Park or something. Finally I could tell that I was in through the last fence because when there was a lightning flash, I could see wildebeest around the car rather then cows and sheep. I got to an area with what appeared to be a camp-fire pit, and decided that was where I was going to sleep for the night. I was so cold, wet and tired that I didn't really care if it was a proper site. I opened the rooftop tent, quickly threw in my sleeping bag, pillow and towel, and stripped off. My clothes felt like they weighed about 10 pounds from all the water that they soaked up, so I just through them in the back of the truck and crawled into the tent.

By the next morning, the sky had cleared and it was nice and sunny. I unfortunately didn't have much time to spend in the reserve, because I had another long drive ahead of me and a border to cross. The terrain was incredibly rocky and the roads were quite rough, so it was a great opportunity to get used to the truck. I had a chance to practice a river crossing, which was great since I still had cell service for if I got stuck. Some of the "roads" were on rock faces, so I had ample opportunity practicing with the 4WD. The game viewing was mediocre, but I did get a good view of a klipspringer. Other than that, there were a few wildebeest, giraffe, and zebra. I also finally managed to get a decent shot of a crimson breasted shrike!

The Land Cruiser on my campground at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary

In the late afternoon, I set off for the Khama Rhino Sanctuary in Botswana. I was a little bit nervous for the border, since my Visa was set to expire the day I was leaving South Africa, but I managed to get through with no trouble. I noticed a change as soon as I crossed the border into Bostwana because there was livestock everywhere. Every few km you would see a herd of cattle on the side of the road, or a group of goats crossing the highway. Once I reached Serowe, I noticed a difference in the people as well. I felt that they just seemed more relaxed and laid back then in South Africa (presumably because of the lower crime rate). I went to a bank to take out some pula (currency in Botswana), and there was a man who left his car running and unlocked while he ran in to use the ATM. I dont see that in Winnipeg, let alone in South Africa! I did a small shop in the grocery store, grabbed a steak and kidney pie for lunch, and headed down the road to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. 

This sanctuary was established in the early 90's to maintain a population of wild rhinos in Botswana. Unlike South Africa, Botswana's parks are not fenced in and so they have had a difficult time defending their rhinos against poaching. Once I got to the sanctuary, I had enough time for a short drive before heading the campground for bed.

A mother go-away bird and her fledgling

I spent the next morning driving around looking for wildlife. I did manage to find one white rhino with her calf, but they quickly ran off into the bush. Most of my sightings were your typical game species, but I had a blast nonetheless. In the afternoon, I headed off towards my next destination; the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Stay tuned to read about the next leg of my trip.....

Feed me!

Polar Bears and Aurora Borealis

At the end of October I had the opportunity to travel to Churchill, Manitoba, and live in the Northern Studies Centre for three weeks. About 10 years ago, a former graduate student in our lab developed a computer program to ID polar bears using photographs. This is done by comparing the side profile of the face of a bear, and comparing the whisker print patterns between bears. You can think of a whisker print pattern like a human finger print, where each bear has a unique pattern.

One of the reasons that I travelled to Churchill was to collect bear photographs for the whisker print project; The more photographs we have in the library, the easier it is to ID a bear in the future. I was also there as a guest lecturer on two of the Polar Bear educational courses that are hosted by the study centre every Fall. For each course I gave a short lecture on the project, as well as a seminar to show people how the program works to ID bears. The end goal is to not only teach people about the project, but to also get them involved by collecting photos of bears when they are out on the Tundra. This way, not only am I collecting photos for the project, but potentially everyone who is involved with the course is also collecting photographs.

In June, the ice cover starts to rapidly decline in Hudson Bay. Polar bears are pushed off of their hunting grounds on the sea ice back on to the shore for the summer months. During the summer, polar bears spend most of their time resting and waiting for the end of October (Now usually the middle of November), for the sea ice to form once again. During theses months, they spread out quite a bit and are incredibly inactive.                                                                                                            

Just waiting for the sea ice to form, so he can start hunting seals once again

I've heard quite a few stories of people seeing the same bear in the exact same spot for several weeks during the summer months. 

At the end of October when the temperatures start to drop, the bears start to head back towards the shore in anticipation for the bay to freeze back up. This is by far the best time for people to see bears, and it is the reason why Churchill is at its busiest in late October and early November. Even in the small 10km x 15km area that we tend to survey, its not uncommon to see 30 bears in a day at the peak. Once the bay freezes over, the bears immediately go out on to the ice to start hunting seals again. 

A Tundra Buggy used to view bears. (Photo from Frontiers North)

The best way to see bears is by chartering a Tunda Buggy (pictured below). These are massive, custom made vehicles with the base of an old airport fire truck. The tires alone are 5-6 ft tall, so even the largest bears have a difficult time trying to pluck you out of the windows.

It was nice to be able to see the transition to snow and ice. When I first got there, the landscape was filled with many small pools of water, grass and willows. Although they don't get much rain, the permafrost prevents the water from draining, and it instead forms a wetland of sorts. On the 27th of October, everything has frozen over by the time we got back to base. The transition virtually happened overnight.

Spotting bears on the tundra is definitely quite a skill. For the first 3 or 4 outings, I thought that every single rock was a bear. For a white animal, its amazing how well camouflaged they seem, even without the snow.

Even in mid October, the bears seemed to spend quite alot of time lying around. Every so often one would take some time to check out the buggy.

"Hey, Im over here!"

I was surprised to see many bears eating grass and kelp. Their digestive tracts are certainly not built to get any kind of energy from plant material, but maybe it makes them feel full. Or maybe they're just bored....

nom nom nom nom

Digging for Kelp

Once the temperatures started to drop, the bears became noticeably more active. The very first bear I came across after the snowfall just decided to roll around in the snow for about 10 minutes. She even did some very impressive yoga poses.

Mom and cub of the year (COY)

Large male with many facial scars

We also got to see alot more play behaviour and interactions once there was snow on the ground. For the most part, polar bears are considered a solitary species. Females avoid males, especially when they have cubs around, because males will readily kill and eat cubs if given the opportunity. Once the sea ice forms, male bears will fight intensively for mating opportunities. Fights can often lead to serious injury and even death. It is common to see older males that have scars all over their face and bodies from previous encounters with other bears. Despite all of this, during the summer and fall when bears are fasting on land, it is not uncommon to see male bears play fighting with one another. Play encounters can last from several minutes to an hour, and bears are often left completely exhausted and overheated. This energy intensive display is all happening at a time of the year where bears may have been fasting for several months, and may not eat again for several more.





                                                                                          I actually didn't see too many males playing this year, but I did get a few shots of mothers playing
with their cubs. These cubs are often almost the same size as their mother, so they are likely in their second (or maybe even third) fall......

An although I was really excited to see the bears, I was happy to see a few other species on the tundra as well. I spotted a Snowy Owl, several light and dark phased gyrfalcons (yay!), snow buntings, redpolls, and I even managed to snag a few shots of some willow ptarmigan. Ptarmigan are one of the few species of birds that stay in the arctic-subarctic year round.

Look at those fuzzy feet

Overall it's been an incredible experience. All of the staff and volunteers at the study centre have been a pleasure to work/live with, and I've had some much desired "teaching" and public speaking experience. I must say I've probably gained 10 pounds from all the delicious food I've inhaled. Every meal was cooked for us, it was delicious, and it was buffet style.

With that being said, I'm glad to be home. I more or less spent my entire three weeks inside of the study centre, with the exception of my excursions on the tundra buggy. You can't really go outside without a shotgun, since there are bears all over the place. However, there is a balcony that can be used for northern lights viewing. A few days before I headed back to Winnipeg, we finally had a clear night with Aurora......

Its actually not all that common to get a clear night in the fall. Most days are windy and overcast.


Anyways, if you have made it this far, you made it through all the terrible formatting. I like the interface of blogger, but arranging photographs in anything but the centre is incredibly challenging.

Hopefully, ill be able to backtrack through my Botswana photos and do a post or two on that trip before Christmas. Stay tuned for more Africa photographs!!