Life and Death at Kwara Camp, Okavango Delta

The familiar sound of Gums’s “Good Morning” woke me at 5:30 and I got ready before he escorted me to the common area for tea and coffee with the other guests, which at this point were now good friends. No charging elephant this morning, just a wandering giraffe.


As guests came and left the camp, the people you shared a safari vehicle also came and left. Today we were in for a real treat as we would be joined by a bloke who was an expert on everything but with knowledge of nothing. This is the guy who after being told not to stand up in the vehicle and not to use a flash, will stand up and use a flash. Unfortunately his seemingly infinite database of knowledge was missing an entry that might have advised him that a bright blue shirt is perhaps not the best garment one can wear when going on safari when trying to get close to the animals. We headed out with Big Tom driving, Gums tracking, and Cliff Clavin narrating our journey. We came across an elephant who did not seem to mind bright blues.




We then found more lions, can you spot them both?






Breakfast was not far away.


But the lions were not hungry so we moved on.










We then encountered a herd of giraffes. While Cliffy Clavin regurgitated pretend and made up facts I took some pictures.










Wildebeest.


We then found the cheetah that ran away from us the other day. Today he was just chilling.






Over the years people have asked what camera I use to take pictures. It’s nothing more than your standard Canon point and shoot, specifically an old Powershot 260. So I guess the old saying is true, it’s not the size of a man’s lens that matters but the man behind it that knows how to use it.















OK, these are cool pictures, but could you get up and do something?












OK, something cool is getting ready to go down.


But it didn’t so we moved on and found these buffalo looking things hanging out by the water, called water buffalo(s).








Something was getting ready to go down.


You know it is going to be good when the hyenas are on alert. You know it is going to be great when Gums leaves his seat up front to move to the safety of inside the vehicle.


I have some really shaky video of the cheetah accelerating and taking down an antelope, here is the aftermath.




The cheetah takes it down and suffocates it by crushing its windpipe. Once I get around to creating my trip video you can watch it slowly die, waging its tail and twitching until the end when the cheetah opens him up to begins its meal. OK, that was just about the coolest thing I have ever seen.




The look says it all, back off it’s mine.


Nah, come on in we can share. Or maybe “You look like the perfect dessert”.




OK, let’s open this thing up.












Now that’s good eats.


Making sure no one else is around that could steal this wonderful bounty.








That was amazing, let’s go back and get lunch. I’m hungry and the others will not believe this. Back at camp we ate and shared, and then went to rest and wait out the heat. After a nap we headed out around 4:00 and came across a hippo.




While in search of the male lions we passed the teenagers again.




These guys seemed like friends eating and hanging out, but then maybe had a few too many beers and started fighting.




We finally found the old males who were tired and weathered, as an old soul I can relate and feel for them.








We then had afternoon tea/happy hour.




That night we drank around the fire pit and solved all the world's problems, unfortunately no one wrote them down so I guess we will have to try again tomorrow night. But then isn’t that always the case. The answer is always close enough to touch but never close enough to grab.

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