Gulliver's Travels 08/12/2024

Gulliver's Travels - Botswana February 2024

 Botswana is another of those places in the world I've been itching to visit for the last 20 years or so.  In February I scratched that pesky itch for two weeks, and it felt good.

  
   Botswana is often called the most successful economy in Africa, generally avoiding the too-common grinding poverty of the continent.  Its 2.63 million inhabitants (half of Wisconsin's) are thinly spread over 581,730 square miles (about nine times the size of Wisconsin).
   The main reason for my visit was to see the famous Okavango Delta.  It is formed by the Okavango River flowing from its source in Angola a thousand miles away to empty into the Kalahari Desert, where it disappears into 5800 square miles of sand.  That makes for an oasis in the wet season, home to about 200,000 large animals, including 18,000 elephants.  It is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, along with Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Nile River, Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, the Sahara, and the Red Sea Reef.  I've seen all of these but the reef of the Red Sea, though I saw the sea itself.  
   After visiting the delta, I went to Victoria Falls, just across the borders of Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Too bad the list did not have eight places. 

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An elephant herd in the Okavango Delta taken from a helicopter

Traveling the numerous waterways in the delta is done with makoros, small canoe-like vessels...easily capsized by hippos if they so desire.

Taking the "youngin" for a walk

Elephants are quite the social animals.

Water lightens the load an elephant carries.

I did NOT jump in for a swim with the hippos.

Nor did I wander over to say "Hello" to the group

On a long walk through a grass meadow with a huge termite mound in the background

A friendly boy riding his burro (or whatever they are called in Botswana)

A female lion 30 feet away

Two adult females with their young after having "breakfast" on some poor impala

What a ride the young baboon had!

No, I did not yell out to them, "Hey, you big baboons," as they are very aggressive.

This group of impalas was wary of a suspected leopard in the bushes.

Impala

These two young rhinos were practicing fighting to sharpen their skills.

I was going to get a really close photo, but I wisely decided to use my telephoto lens, instead.

What we call ZEE-bras are called ZEB-bras in Africa.

A lonesome giraffe made for a nice photo.

Nope, I did not pet the croc.

Nor this cape buffalo, as it is the meanest animal in Africa.

Wildebeests, a favorite snack for crocs when they cross rivers

Some type of fowl testing its fate in lion and leopard country

Victoria Falls, 354 feet high and 1.1 miles long, is the largest sheet of waterfalls in the world, and marks the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia.

One gets wet walking along the path opposite the falls.

But so many rainbows are seen, so nobody cares.

EPILOGUE

One by one, I am checking off my "must-see" places in the world.  I am wondering, when few...or none...are left, how will I feel?  Perhaps it will be like the old Peggy Lee song that I loved, "Is That All There Is?"  In the song, she said, "If that's all there is, then let's keep dancing."  I like that, as I often go dancing, to Madison and Louisiana for Cajun and Zydeco music and more recently to swing music gigs.  My mother danced until she was 90, square dancing and ballroom dancing.  So, maybe it's genetic...and I'll keep dancing for another eight years.  But before that, I'll just keep traveling, my next trip being to Spain and Algeria in October.
   Next up in Gulliver's Travels is my March 2024 trip I took to Bolivia.