Madikwe game reserve, South Africa

Wow! I went down to Madikwe on Monday morning and stayed the night. It was incredible!! The lodge was stunning, the staff was wonderful, and I saw some amazing animals. I got there about 11:30 and was given a tour of the lodge and shown to my chalet. It was complete with a bathtub, king-sized bed, outdoor shower, and a deck overlooking the water hole. During lunch I watched as blue wildebeest, springbok, and waterbuck played at the water hole. They were running around, jumping, and chasing each other. It was pretty cool! wildebeest

waterbuck

At about 4 pm we headed out on the first game drive. I met Penny and her son Michael who were also down from Gaborone and our rangers Morah and John. We headed over to the area where a lone male lion was guarding the wildebeest he had killed that morning. He was clearly agitated, so we decided to leave him alone to settle down. I couldn't really get any good pictures, sometimes animals just don't cooperate! Then we headed further into the reserve and found some zebras grazing by the side of the road. My first zebras!

When we left the zebras we decided that we should stop for some refreshments while the sun started to set, because the animals are more mobile at sunset and after dark. After our beverages we came upon a male giraffe with a beautiful deep coat.

We watched him for quite a while as he munched on the treetops. As the sun set we moved on and came upon a breeding herd of elephants, including a baby that was about 1 month old! The lighting conditions made getting a good picture difficult, this is the best I could do.

The baby was super cute, still a "bit wonky on his legs" as my ranger put it. As we left the baby elephant and its family behind we ran into a group of seven giraffes grazing by the side of the road! Giraffes don't have a set social structure, so while you sometimes find them in groups they are often lone grazers. It was too dark for pictures by that point, and of course that is when the really crazy stuff started to happen. We got word on the radio that three prides of lions had moved in on the lone male and his kill and there was a fight for territory and food. We rushed back to where we had begun, and there were 10 lions within 30 feet of the vehicle. By the time we got there the fighting was over and three of the other lions were finishing off the wildebeest. A pride of six lions was hanging out in the shrubs, and the male who lost his food was resting a few feet away. During the fight one of the prides crashed through the electric fence and into the Tau Lodge Staff Village. Again, pictures were not possible due to lighting conditions (and not wanting to piss the lions off with my flash...). On our way back to the lodge we saw a spotted hyena headed straight into the mess of lions. Hyenas and lions are arch enemies, so it would have been the end of him if he had proceeded. Luckily for him, he managed to avoid the lions.

Dinner was great, I sat with Penny and Michael and our rangers Morah and John. I had the impala steak. While I am not sure how I feel about eating the animals I was just admiring, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to try something exotic. It was quite good, not gamey at all. It was very similar to beef steak. After dinner I took a warm bath with bath salts and climbed into the huge bed. At 6:30 I got my wakeup call and headed down to the main lodge for some tea and muffins. Then we headed out on our morning game drive.

I hope these impala didn't hold my dinner choice against me... We saw kudu, the group of giraffe from the night before, zebras,and two bull elephants. We tracked a leopard that another group had seen the previous evening, but she was hiding. We saw a red hartebeestand a steenbok (tiny but full grown)

lots of cool birds

Just as we were heading back to the lodge we saw a herd of cape buffalo!

Then I had a lovely breakfast and headed back to Gaborone. I am glad I made it down to Tau, and highly recommend the trip to Madikwe if you are looking for a wonderful experience. Of couse, there is more to life in Botswana than game drives, so in my next post I will cover "other goings on." For now, I am headed to bed, I am going in to work tomorrow!