Monday, June 24, 2024
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Kent is ready for the morning game drive in the open-air
safari vehicle, with a poncho lined with a blanket |
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Camp Kalahari is surrounded by an electric fence
with a cattle guard on the entrance driveway |
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| Seed pods of the Leonotis nepetifolia/Small Wild Dagga |
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| A cheetah on the hunt |
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| Ardeotis kori/Kori Bustard |
We would also see ostriches, red-billed teals, guineafowl, red-billed spurfowl, Cape turtle doves, Burchell's sandgrouse, white-quilled bustard, blacksmith lapwings, African wattled lapwings, lesser black-backed gull, white-backed vulture, grey hornbill, southern yellow-billed hornbill, lilac-breasted roller, fork-tailed drongos, a pied crow, red-billed buffalo weavers, southern masked weaver, a grey-backed camaroptera, and Arnot's chat.
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| Zebra paths, since they walk in single file |
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| White thorns on a Peltophorum africanum/Wattle Acacia |
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| Waterhole |
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| Peltophorum africanum/Snouted Termite mounds |
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| Geosciurus inauri/South African Ground Squirrels |
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| Fungus-growing Termite mound with branches |
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| This safari vehicle has seats on the roof |
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| A confusion of Connochaetes taurinus/Blue Wildebeests |
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We had a scheduled encounter with Suricata suricatta/
Meerkats; scratching in the dirt for insects |
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| Meerkats have a designated area for pooping |
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| A meerkat standing guard |
Video of meerkat standing guard
We would also see elephants, jackals, yellow mongooses, hartebeests, topis, springboks, Thomson's gazelles, Grant's gazelles, steenboks, elands, and kudus.
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| Heading onto a salt pan, a dried up lake (KSS) |
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| Crusty dried salty surface of the salt pan |
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| This salt pan seems to go forever |
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| Preparing the Sundowner |
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| A special wooden cocktail kit |
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| The nightly sitting around-the-fire |
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
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Our request to see Chapman's Baobab, despite its
having fallen and is rotting away, was granted;
there truly is little left of this historic tree (KSS) |
Chapman's Baobab fulfilled several functions for early explorers, including Dr David Livingstone. It was used as a beacon when crossing the unforgiving salt pans, appearing as a tiny black dot on the horizon to lead the explorers across the narrowest section of the salt pans. It provided shade and refuge from the heat.
There was a cavity in one of the trunks that is said to have served as Africa’s first post office. Explorers and missionaries going north would leave their letters for loved ones and expedition funders in the hole in the hope that those returning south would take the mail with them and post it if and when they got home.
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Kent stands in the area of the base of the six-stemmed
Adansonia digitata/Baobab Tree that collapsed in 2016 |
This baobab tree was said to be 5,000 years old, and Livingstone once recorded its circumference as 25.9 m/85'.
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| You can see the many layers of this branch |
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| A nearby kraal/traditional fenced area for huts and cattle |
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| A pride of Panthera leo/Lions (KSS) |
Video of lion cubs playing
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This black-maned lion looks very regal,
or is he sphinx-like? |
Lion manes darken with age, and thick dark hair indicates a well-fed lion. Having higher testosterone levels, these lions were more likely to recover from injury, spent more time resident with prides, and had higher offspring survival.
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| A youngster came to bother Dad |
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| Oh, okay, it is not time to play (KSS) |
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| Perhaps the dominant female lion |
We would also see jackals, wildebeests, springboks, and steenboks.
We would also see ostriches, guineafowl, red-billed spurfowl, Cape turtle doves, Burchell's sandgrouse, Kori bustard, white-quilled bustard, African wattled lapwings, white-backed vulture, grey hornbill, southern yellow-billed hornbill, fork-tailed drongos, and a pied crow.
Next: In transit to Kenya.
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