the big two

Today we did a one-day safari in Moremi Park. In order to do this, we had to wake up at 4h30…  the mornings keep starting earlier and earlier… and this morning was a bit of a struggle for all of us. We were all fast asleep within moments of getting into the 4x4 that came to drive us to the park.

Now, I’ve never really supported going on a safari because historically in order to protect wildlife and create National Parks, conservationists forcibly removed Africans, many of whom had been living symbiotically with nature for centuries, from the parks. Today, many game parks and safari parks do try to employ people from the surrounding communities (the parks still don’t pay them well), but there still seems to be a gap in understanding between conservationists and people that are looking to live off the land (and not to exploit it).

Oh well. I bit the bullet and went on a safari. And I have to be honest – it was pretty cool. Instead of telling you what we saw, let me show you:

A leopard! One of the hardest animals to spot and one of the Big Five,
which are the five most dangerous animals to hunt. The Big Five are the
leopard, the lion, the water buffalo, the elephant and the rhino. We saw
two of the five on our trip.

Impala on the plain.

Driving through elephant trees (where elephants like to
hang out).

Elephants! Another one of the Big Five!

A lone bull elephant.

The landscape.

Hippos on the bank.

Yawning hippo.

Giraffe!

Katie, me and Podge with giraffes in the background.

Zebras!

Pumba! Aka, a warthog.

That's just a glimpse of some of the awesome stuff we saw (we also saw a lot of cool birds, but if I stared putting those pictures up, I would never stop). It was another fantastic day in the delta and a great way to bring our time in Botswana to a close.