Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
Our “camp” for the next two nights will be rather comfortable, our one stay at a lodge during our safari until its conclusion at Victoria Falls – which isn’t a lodge anyway (more on all this later). We’ve come up-river to the Xugana Lodge, about a five hour boat ride along the Moanachira River from the Xakanaxa Boat Station not too far from our last camp at Fourth Bridge.
Jul 21, 2004 Okavango Delta, Botswana
Tom Schueneman2006-03-27 15:37:49
Displayed times (last time: )
all going to give him a run for his money (assuming I can acquire more film). Nicky is a tall, slender young woman, with a pretty face and a quiet demeanor. As we rode out of camp, Jayne talked with Nicky about her upcoming freshman year in college, and I picked Bill’s brain about running Wilderness Travel.
Our morning game drive was a little abbreviated due to our need to get going on the long boat ride, but we did see some giraffe on our way out of camp and later spent time studying a herd of buffalo (African Cape Buffalo to be exact) on the way to the boat station.
I can see all you sophisticated urban types rolling your eyes; “Oh my, studying a herd of buffalo, how terribly exciting; that sounds just marvelous – next he’s going to start talking about the subtle nuances of elephant dung!”
Well, the elephant dung thing may come later, so sit tight; and if you haven’t studied a herd of buffalo in the African wilderness before, don’t knock it! It’s actually about more than just watching the buffalo stand there chewing their cud staring back at you with a motionless intensity. There’s actually a lot going on when buffalo chew their cud and stare at you staring at them. For instance, this morning there where signs that the herd was being stalked by lion (our lion friends from yesterday perhaps – or even most likely). The buffalo perceive this sense of danger and group themselves for maximum protection. The bigger males take up position on the outside of the group, with the younger animals and females bunched up in the middle. When a lion attacks, they will go for the slower and weaker. Any animal that gets away from the herd is very likely doomed. The big adult males guard the perimeter, and the females guard the young animals standing in the center of the herd. And somewhere close by and unseen are the lion watching the buffalo – and the humans. As the morning sun grows higher in the sky, the chances that
...
See photographs from:
Botswana Gallery
