Bush Life

We went out on our first safari following tea the afternoon we arrived at Camp Moremi. With much gratitude I landed in Frank's vehicle with my best girlfriend, Cheryl, and two other couples I'd met on the trip. All of us are novice photographers whose primary interest above all else is learning and having a good time. The other 2 trucks in our group were full of photographers donning 8 inch lenses, tripods, monopods, and other annoying paraphernalia. Ours was kicked back and fun-loving making for an even better experience than I could have hoped for. We left camp in our land rover and bounced along the off road trails in the back bush; everything new and and exciting. Frank, our guide, is a 23 year native of the Botswana bush and the son of a true bushman. He told us that he goes out into the wild for a month at a time with nothing more than the clothes on his back. He can survive solely on the land around him and he shared many of the bushman's tips and tricks with us.

I've already mentioned that dozens and dozens of bird species flutter all around us and we happened upon a few of them in the first few minutes of the safari. The national bird, once the lilac breasted roller, is now the African fish eagle. (It changes with the government.) Only one of two fish eagle eggs will survive because the first hatched pecks its sibling's shell so ferociously it snuffs out life. This gorgeous iridescent blue bird pictured is called a long-tail starling.

Frank taught us all about the plant life found in the bush as well. The Marula tree is my personal favorite - coined bar of the jungle by one of the girls with us. Known to make monkeys drunk, its fruit is harvested to make a creamy adult beverage which is served over ice and is just the thing after a day on safari in the heat. We saw sausage trees which nourish giraffes and an abundance of acacias. We learned that elephant ear can be used for toilet paper (or firecrackers) and the bark of Botswana's 3 in 1 tree is a good natural toothbrush and toothpaste. It also stains your lips like lipstick. The leaves of the large fever berry tree are used by villagers to cure malaria and wild sage is rubbed on hunters' skin to mask their scent plus it repels mosquitos. Many herbs are found in the wild like basil which can be used easily in cooking but wild sage will spoil meat. Certain prey will deliberately eat wild sage so their predators will find them foul and steer clear. On that note... we learned that predators' eyes are situated on the front of their face but located on the side for prey. There is a tree called the strangler fig. New seeds germinate and grow in crevices literally choking off sunlight to the host tree which eventually dies as competition in a dense dark forest is fierce.

The back woods is riddled with termite hills. I initially thought that it was the remnants of trees just chowed down to dust by termites. They are actually started by one male and one female which mix their saliva with dirt and start building their palace. They spawn and the next generation, soldiers, continue to build and protect the nest before giving birth to the workers. A live mound resembles wet cement. One that is no longer living is just a dry heap and is a haven for black mambo snakes. This is significant because the mounds are also used by humans as cover when nature calls. :]