In Search of a Leopard
Day 4: This morning we headed off with Nesco to the Moremi Reserve which is close to Khwai but is government owned. Check in required but no passports. We were once again in search of the "leopard."
On the way we crossed the Khwai River ....not the one from the movie "Bridge on the River Khwai ". It is a wooden bridge and we have great pictures. The Khwai River runs into Botswana whose has it's source in Angola.
Cecilia and I have been learning collective nouns for the animals in Africa so we are going to use those that we saw: a troop of baboons, a mustering of storks and a journey (or tower) of giraffes. We came across a family of 5 giraffes minus the father, and were able to observe them for about 1/2 hour. They are so graceful in their movements and it was a pleasure to watch then as they ate and moved around.
Olga is the bartender at the lodge...and of course, I always become good friends with the bartender. She came from a small village near the lodge. We were asked if we would like to visit the village… and of course we said yes. When we learned that it was Olga's village we asked if we could meet her family. The Lodge gave her time off to meet us and we were delighted to meet her Mother, whose name is Cecilia, (amazing) her sister, auntie, cousins and her daughter Pel. It was wonderful to meet a family whose life is completely different from ours and we have great appreciation for their culture. We were presented with gifts of beautiful baskets that Olga's Mother made. We felt bad that we had no gifts to give but we are told that the culture is to honor your guests. It is always an amazing experience to be invited into another culture with friendship and respect.
The guide from the lodge who drove Ogla to her village was named Leopard… the only leopard we have seen so far.
We returned to the Lodge to find that we were no longer "the Queens" as 6 other people had arrived...2 travel agents from England , a couple from Germany and a couple we never met.
That evening we had our last game drive in the rain to find that the animals were not cooperating.
Cecilia and I were still recuperating from Jet Lag and decided to forgo the early morning drive.
Well, wouldn't you know it....they saw the elusive leopard. So the question that will never be answered is...would we rather have slept or seen the leopard.? The early tourist sees the leopard!!!!!
And tomorrow we are off to Eagle Creek.
