The second day at Tau

We got a wakeup call at 6:30 am today for our second early morning game drive. The first thing we saw were these little vervet monkeys sitting right on our roof! They were pretty cute. During our gram drive, we spent most of the first part of the morning chasing after the mother lion and her 5 cubs, but it was so cold she probably had them hidden away. I was glad I brought all these warm clothes – it was pretty windy and chilly. Some of the other people didn’t realize how cold it was going to be (which I think is a little silly) and didn’t bring much warm stuff.

The first things we saw were more elephants – two more bulls traveling together. Hein also took us on a short walk to see to some elephant bones. This female elephant was one of the lucky ones and actually died of old age. They live about as long as humans do – up to 70 years. Even years after they die, the other elephants will drag their bones around and spread them around. Hein said this was a sign of respect. A few of us took pictures holding Hein’s gun next to the elephant bones – which was a little silly. Being medical people, we also spent some time trying to figure out exactly which bones were which - there were maybe 5 large pieces strewn about. The skull was easily identified of course (it has a huge nasal cavity!), but the rest of the pieces were a little tougher. We thought we identifed the hip bone and maybe a femur, but we were just guessing. Hein thought we were funny. :)

Then Hein took us to a fenced enclosure to see these 3 wild dogs that the park was releasing in a few weeks. They looked like they could be pretty savage animals – I’m glad they were fenced in. There’s already one pack of wild dogs in the reserve, and I think Hein said they were hoping that another pack would form. Hein said that the existing pack once took down a rhino! And they start eating it before it dies, and he said it was pretty brutal – it was several hours before the rhino finally died.

We finally also saw some zebras – there were 3 or 4 of them right next to the trail! They weren’t too scared of us – we stopped right next to them to take pictures and they didn’t run away. Kiona really liked these, and I thought they were cute, but nothing that great. We had a break where we had coffee and tea, and Kiona did some acrobatics. :) And finally, we saw some white rhinos in a pack. They were a little away from the dirt road, so Hein took us off-roading (which he’s not supposed to do) to get a little closer. They were pretty skittish and ran away a little bit when we drove up, but we still got pretty close to them. We saw a few other deer-like things, I think kudu, but they were mostly running away from us and we didn’t get a good look.

When we got back, breakfast ready! It was a huge buffet of eggs, pancakes, bacon and sausages, fruit, cereals, sautéed mushrooms, breads, breakfast pastries, and I’m sure a ton of other things I can’t remember. It was great, especially the sausages. I really can’t say enough good things about the sausages here. It was also somebody’s birthday and towards the end of breakfast, the entire staff came in dancing and singing, bearing a birthday cake! It was a pretty impressive scene and must have lasted close to 20 minutes. One song would end, and they would start another one. It’s amazing how well every single person can sing, and even harmonize.

Then it was time to leave… Goodbye Tau!

It was a super busy weekend already, but it was Steve’s last weekend in Botswana (although he will be coming back in six weeks) so Michael organized a Braai (barbecue) at ICC flats (where we live) and had Steve and Barry over. None of us were hungry, but we had a huge amount of meat again. And Steve made bananas foster, served with ice cream for dessert. He also made a little speech saying how well we were all doing, and how well we had adjusted to everything – I bet he gives a similar speech every time he leaves. :)

It’s actually very nice outdoors – our flats have a large outdoor area, which includes a pool, a large barbecue pit, along with smaller grills, tables and chairs, and shaded wood benches for sunbathers to lie on. It’s also very nicely landscaped, with all sorts of different flowers, plants and trees around. I think it takes quite a bit of water to keep it up, which is a commodity here in Botswana. It actually rained for about 5 minutes! I bet Motswanas were overjoyed for a split second. Apparently last summer they got a ridiculously low amount of rain, something like 3 cm. And they need the rain.

My first game drive!

We had lunch around 1pm, which was one course – we got to choose between steak with peas and mashed potatoes or calamari salad. They both sounded good, but of course I got the steak. It was sooo delicious! It was incredibly tender and had great flavor, and the sauce that it came with was good too. The salad also looked very good, and people said the vinaigrette dressing was great. Steve stayed for lunch before he left, so with such a big group, we didn’t finish until about 2:45 pm. And they told us that we were going to meet for high tea at 3:30 before setting off on our first game drive at 4pm! So we were going to have half an hour before we were supposed to eat and drink again! But not to worry – it was just tea and these super buttery small cookies/biscuits. I tried only one, but they were so good I grabbed another for the road as we set off for our first game drive.

We all piled into this huge 4WD car/truck that seated 11 people, including the driver. So it was perfect for our group since we had 10! This car was super heavy duty, and it was really good we had it, because some of the dirt roads were pretty uneven, and we did a little off-roading as well. The way the game preserve works is that there are probably about 10 different lodges that have access to the preserve. And there are more traveled dirt paths that are pretty even and stamped out, and there are more private dirt paths that are often pretty small and uneven. The driver/guide, whose name was Hein (he was a pretty cute Afrikaan guy), told us that during the wet season, even these heavy duty trucks get stuck in the muddy ruts sometimes. And these trucks can go off-roading as well, although the drivers have to be careful of course, because there are all sorts of incredibly thorny shrubs and trees in the way, not to mention the uneven terrain.

So the game drive started out with a bang – the first animals we saw were two lions who were brothers. Lions sleep 20 – 24 hours a day, so we didn’t see them active or anything, but just lying curled up against each other on the ground. We got really close, and our guide told us that of course, the lions know we’re there – they have super keen senses – but don’t perceive us as a threat. They were breathing really fast, so Hein told us that they probably recently had a meal – they eat until they’re bursting, but they only eat once every 3 days or so. They eat so much that they don’t have room for their lungs to expand so they have to breathe really fast. It’s so funny! Sounds like me when I eat too much. :) Apparently close by, other trucks saw a mother and 5 lion cubs, but we didn’t get to see them. Hein told us that 3 of those cubs were hers, and 2 were her sister’s. Her sister died, leaving 3 cubs. One of them died, and just when the other 2 were about to starve to death, they were found and sort of adopted by their aunt. Kind of a cute story. We tried to find them again the next morning, but it was sort of cold and windy, so she was probably hiding them away in some shelter.

The next things we saw were two bull elephants. All the female elephants stay in a pack, but once male elephants reach about 13 years old, they get kicked out. So they often stay solo or keep company in small bull packs of 2 or 3 animals. They can get pretty aggressive though and charge at the truck, like they charge at each other. One of the bull elephants started getting a little aggressive, and our guide backed the truck up a little bit, which the elephant took as a sign of us backing down, and stopped being aggressive. I was a little worried, because those elephants can go pretty fast – Hein said up to 30-35 km per hour. But he didn’t charge us, so it was okay. We also saw them using their trunks to drink water and eat – they were pretty impressive. That snout has a lot of flexibility and strength!

Then I saw far off in the distance two giraffes! Everyone congratulated me on spotting them. :) We couldn’t get any closer, but my camera was able to get some questionable pictures of them. If you look closely, you can just see their shadowy outline. Apparently giraffes have the same number of vertebrae in their neck as humans do – 7 cervical vertebrae. Their vertebrae are just huge! They also have this sensor in the back of their head that monitors their blood pressure. Normally, like when they’re eating, they have to maintain a very high blood pressure so that enough blood gets to their head. Because their heads are so high, if they lower their head to drink from water, the blood pressure could shoot up as the blood flows downward, and they could pass out! What this sensor does is monitor when the giraffe lowers its head, and decreases the blood pressure while the head is lowered. This makes me wonder if there are mutant giraffes out there with malfunctioning sensors, who are passing out every time they try to drink some water. That’s probably selected against in evolution. :)

Then we saw some white rhinos. There are two types of rhinos – white and black, although I was told that because of political correctness they have renamed them to something like wide-snout and horned-snout. I’m sure I’m not getting those correctly. Compared to black rhinos, that usually eat from trees and keep their heads up (and have the correct type of snout/mouth to eat from trees), white rhinos tend to keep their nose to ground because they eat grass, and also have wider snouts, ideal for eating off the ground. They also are supposed to have different horn patterns, which I know nothing about. Black rhinos are supposed to be more skittish too – we certainly didn’t see any during our safari.

By this time, it was getting pretty dark and we saw a beautiful sunset. Hein stopped the truck and we all got out and took more pictures - we all climbed on top of the truck canvas too and took a good look around. It was pretty cool. He set up drinks and snacks, and I had some biltong – that’s beef jerky – and it was amazing!! They told me you can’t take it back with you to the states due to regulations, but it’s the best beef jerky I’ve ever had. We drove around for about an hour more after this, with Hein shining this huge penetrating light around to search for animals, but we didn’t see too much more.

We did see some really cool insects. There are these huge termite mounds everywhere, and at some point, Hein stopped and showed us these huge African ants. These ants go en masse to a huge termite mound, kill all the termites, and bring them back to their ant mound for the rest of the colony. We saw a huge line of incredibly large ants (and they can sting!), each carrying a dead white termite on their back, going back to their hive. It was somewhat scary.

We also saw a dead rhino skin. It apparently died about 6 months ago, and was immediately eaten up, leaving only the skin. It looked like leather, and Hein said around their neck, the skin can get up to 3 inches thick – pretty tough for animals to eat or chew through.


We got back around 8pm, and I finally could pee. :) Then we had a few minutes to freshen up, and then basically went straight to dinner, which was delicious! The appetizer I chose was smoked salmon on top of a potato cake on top of smoked kudu, on top of another potato cake. And there was this good sauce spread all around it. The entrée I chose was roast duck, which also had this really good tangy sauce all around it. And for desert I got a cheese plate with 4 or 5 different cheeses, some jam and some honey. Yum!!!! I left feeling very full and satisfied.

After dinner, we went upstairs, and some of us checked email, some of us just hung out, and some of us played pool. Only Kristy, Hein and I kept drinking, and I eventually played pool with them. My partner, the bartender, had to leave to settle up, but I beat them even though I was down by 3 balls! There was definitely some big-time flirting going on between Kristy and Hein, so eventually I left them alone and went to bed. Everyone else had already gone. Apparently that night, he took her on another midnight game drive! But he had to leave his gun because he was a little drunk – but I guess not too drunk to drive the 4x4 truck. :)

Sitting at Tau

This was such an exciting trip! Tau is a lodge in the Madikwe game preserve just across the border in South Africa. It’s basically like a resort – they pamper you, feed you extremely well, and in between meals, they take you on game drives.

We left for Tau at 10:30 am. Steve drove all 10 of us (Barry, Mike, Tara (Mike’s fiancée), Lisa, Kristy, Kiona, Josh, Anne, Betsy and I) there even though he wasn’t staying himself. We all squished into Gill’s (she’s the administrator for this Penn in Botswana program) Land Rover, which fits 10 tightly. It’s not that long of a drive – maybe 30 minutes to the border, then you have to get out, get your passport stamped on the Botswana side, walk/drive to the other side, get your passport stamped on the South Africa side, and the Madikwe game preserve is right there! But we had to drive another 20 minutes or so on dirt roads to get to Tau Lodge.

The pampering started immediately – we got out of the Land Rover and the served us glasses of champagne with juice. They gave us a little tour of the main area – there’s a big building that is located centrally, with 15 huts on either side of it. The capacity of the entire lodge is 60 people (30 huts). Inside the main building there was a large dining area and a large lounge on the first floor, complete with fireplace, gift shop, reception, etc. Upstairs, there is a large bar, with a TV, computer area, pool table, and more tables and couches to sit and chat at. This upstairs area opens up into a large outdoor porch that overlooks this huge watering hole outside of the lodge. This watering hole is amazing – more on that later. Outside, there was another large dining area, which surrounds this huge outdoor fire pit. There’s also a heated pool outside and more areas to sit and drink and hang out.

After this tour and explaining our time table, they took us to our huts, which were super posh. There were two twin beds with mosquito netting (which is just for looks) in a small room, heated blankets, a porch with a personal view of the same watering hole that you can see from the main lodge, a large bathroom with a bathtub, and attached to it, an outdoor shower! I never got to use it – but it seemed really cool. There is a large brick wall that shields you from the outside world, but the top is open to air. It would have been interesting to take a hot shower in relatively cool air. From the porch you got a great view of the watering hole, where animals would just walk up to drink from, and you couldn’t see any other huts or people. You’re protected from the animals by this electric fence that I believe encompasses the entire game preserve – which is huge. But apparently sometimes the animals come right up to the electric fence, which is only a few feet from you!

So that afternoon, after settling in our rooms, we sat around for about an hour first on the porch of the main building and watched the watering hole. It’s amazing how many animals you see just sitting there! It was really nice weather, and these animals just come up to the watering hole. We first saw kudu, which are deer-like animals – they’re probably the most plentiful mammal at this game reserve. We only saw the male, although Steve said that often there’s a female following several yards behind the male. It was amazing, just sitting there on the porch watching the water hole, we also saw hardebeest, a family of wild boars. The boars were pretty skittish and they run funny… their little legs can move them pretty fast, and their heads bob up and down and they keep their tails high as they run. We also saw a sable, which according to Dr. Gluckman, are very rare. They’re amazing animals though – very noble and statuesque. And finally, we saw baboons! I know Pete would say ewwww! There was a huge clan of them, maybe 20 or so. And there was one huge old male baboon that mostly just sat around while the younger ones climbed trees and played around.


There were also tons of birds, which I can’t even name. We saw a Jesus bird, which has a more indigenous name that I can’t remember. It walks on water. There were some big hawks, and white stork-like birds. These little birds, called weaver birds, build these really cool nests in the trees. They build them at the end of thin branches, and they hang there, like a big drop of water. Apparently, the male builds the nest, and if the female doesn’t think it’s up to snuff (probably because it’s not sturdy enough or something), she knocks it down and he has to rebuild it! I find that pretty funny.

Getting to Jo'burg

Well, I was supposed have a short flight on United from JFK airport in NYC to Dulles airport (IAD) in DC on Thursday August 9^th, 2007, then a longer flight on South African Airways from DC to Johannesburg (Jo’burg), that took me into the afternoon of August 10^th, 2007, and then finally a short flight on South African Express from Jo’burg to Gaborone (Gabs) in the late afternoon of August 10^th, 2007, which was a Friday. Due to weather in DC, we sat on the tarmac in the plane at JFK for several hours, and then they finally let us off to get some food back at the terminals. I was only supposed to have a 1.5 hour layover in Dulles so I completely missed my 5:20pm flight to Jo’burg, and since I was sitting on the plane on the tarmac, and they wouldn’t let us off earlier, I also completely missed a 5:20pm flight from JFK to Jo’burg. I thought, well, I can do the same exact route a day later, since I had arranged to be in Gabs several days early to prepare for working. However, the South African Airways reservation agent told me the flight from DC to Jo’burg the next day (Friday) was completely full! And there was only one spot left on the Friday flight from JFK to Jo’burg! So I really had no choice to but to take that spot. It turns out later that another student was on that DC to Jo’burg flight on Friday, and said there was plenty of room! So maybe there were a lot of no-shows? I dunno. Anyways, another problem was that the flight from JFK to Jo’burg got there several hours later than the flight from DC to Jo’burg, even though they both left at 5:20pm. This was partly due to the fact that the flight from JFK to Jo’burg had a short stopover at Dakar. That meant that I would miss the last flight from Jo’burg to Gabs on Saturday late afternoon and would have to stay the night in Jo’burg at my own expense to catch the first flight out Sunday morning.

So on Thursday night, I waited about 1 hour for our luggage to get sorted and finally come out of the plane (most others were still waiting for the plane to get off the ground to DC, which probably was not going to happen for at least 8-9 hours). Then I waited about another hour for Super Shuttle to pick me up and take me back to Carol’s house ($50 round trip!). I didn’t get back until after 8pm, and emailed all the appropriate people saying I was going to be late, and started looking for places to stay in Jo’burg Saturday night. I was so tired Thursday night, I was falling asleep at the computer around midnight, so I emailed a few lodges, and decided to finish it up Friday morning. The super shuttle wasn’t picking me up until around noon. The next morning, I made arrangements at a place that was going to cost R550 (Rand, or ZAR – at the time, ~R7 = $1) that had 1 free airport transfer, and I think would have cost another R200 or something for the 2^nd airport transfer. But then Kiona and Kristy, who I had emailed about my situation, emailed me about the Thulani Lodge in Melville, Jo’burg, where they stayed Thursday night, and it was R450 per night. So I switched to the Thulani Lodge. Little did I know that the airport transfers were not covered – they were R300 each! So I ended up having to pay a total of R1050 (about $150) for the overnight stay. Man was I pissed!!! I ended up having to fork over close to $200 for the delay. :( I guess that’s just international travel…

The flight from NYC to Jo’burg was long. There was a stopover halfway in between the 18-hour flight in Dakar. We didn’t get to get off the plane though. There was this super bitchy white South African woman (Afrikan?) who was supposed to sit next to me. I had the aisle seat in the middle row of 4 seats, and she had the seat to the inside of me. She seemed really nice at first… she was talking to the young undergrad on her other side and giving her all this advice about traveling in South Africa and Johannesburg and everything. She even gave out her phone number in case people needed help. She was basically super nice to everyone but the attendants and the black natives. Before the plane took off, she switched seats to an aisle seat and talked to this other girl from America for a long time. She practically became the tour guide of the plane – people started asking her all sorts of questions, and she was super super helpful. Very nice. But she sorta had attitude. She stowed her small carry-on under her seat instead of in front of her, taking up someone else’s space, but the African couple behind her didn’t have it in them to complain, I don’t think. The first incident that really got me disliking her was after we had a meal (i had like 3 meals on my flight! - 3 big ones!) and they took most of her tray, but for some reason she had the silverware left, so she threw it in a plastic bag with all this other trash (candy wrappers, napkins, plastic cups) and threw it on the floor where her seat was - she was sort of like that in general. Her trash was everywhere, like she expected to be cleaned up after. So her trash is on the floor and somehow makes its way out to the aisle, and a flight attendant comes by and picks it up, and says, whose is this (she had gone to the bathroom)? And the girl sitting next to her says it's the bitch's, who then comes back from the bathroom. The flight attendant says miss, I just want to let you know that the silverware is stainless steel, and we don't throw that away – we reuse it. And immediately she got very aggressive and angry for not a very good reason. I couldn't hear exactly what she said, but it was a very angry tone, and the flight attendant sort of got angry too and he said, well, it's stainless steel, and we don't throw that out, and she got more mad, and said something back, and at that point, the flight attendant, said whatever or nevermind or something like that and walked away. The bitch turns to the girl next to her and says something like "can you believe that man?" If I was that girl sitting next to her, I’d either say something rude back, or just try to ignore her from that point, even if she was very helpful earlier with travel tips.

That wasn’t it with the bitchy girl either… so in Dakar, they tell everyone to go back to their original seats because it's completely a full flight. The girl decides not to, and to wait it out and see if somebody comes - which I sorta understand, i've done that too. She actually asked the flight attendant (a new one since they switched crews) if anyone was sitting there, and the flight attendant looked at her seating chart and said she didn’t think so, but there might be people flying stand-by that were going to have the seat, and said the girl might have to move if that happened. The girl basically said she wasn’t moving unless someone showed up, and the flight attendant rolled her eyes and basically let it go. But the girl did say she would move if someone showed up. People start boarding, and of course, this tall, big black guy shows up and says that it’s his seat. The flight attendant comes over and says she has to move, and the girls starts arguing! Can you believe her nerve??? She basically argued to the point where the flight attendant agreed to let her ask the other guy personally if he would mind trading seats with her (and he's watching this entire exchange by the way), so she does, and he says it's okay with him - but i'm sure he's just too nice to say no. He's also this big guy and he’s in this inside seat now. Plus, he's next to me, and he's so big (not fat, just big and skinny) that he's half into my space so that gave me a legitimate reason to hate her. :) That’s about it, but she really got my dander up. :)

The flight itself was pretty amazing though. The flight attendants were sooo courteous and there were so many amenities. Of course each person got a little bag of goodies (socks, toothbrush, night mask, etc), a pillow and blanket, and their own personal television. This television let you watch from a selection of like 16 movies, watch a number of TV shows, play video games (pretty hokey ones), and some other things. I ended up watching like 4 or 5 movies. One was Paris Je t’aime which was like 9 little vignettes about couples of all sorts in different quarters of Paris. It was an alternative movie, and sorta interesting at first, but it got tiring very quickly. There was no overall plot, but there were a ton of pretty famous people in it! Then I saw Blades of Glory with Will Farrell in it – it was just ok. I didn’t really even crack a smile until near the end, but it definitely had a few scenes at the end where I was totally laughing out loud. Then I saw Lonely Hearts with John Travolta, James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) and Salma Hayek, which was super good. It was about the couple that became serial killers. Very good. Then finally I saw Jane, which is about a real-life flirtation that Jane Austen had with some guy. They took a lot of liberties with the story, of course.

Anyways, so by the time I got to my lodge in Melville, Johannesburg, I was exhausted. I set up my computer and rested a bit, and begrudged my overnight bill of over $200. But I eventually explored a bit – it’s supposed to be a pretty Bohemian and safe area. I ate around the corner and had a huge steak at Melville grille for like R105 (like $15!). I didn’t realize it was going to be sooo huge! I ate all I could and it was like only a third of it – it was a yummy T-bone. I ended up giving the rest of it to the maid of the lodge. It actually looked like a pretty hopping area… girls were really dressed up in makeup, jewelry, high heels, etc and there I was in my jeans and t-shirt. Oh well. The room was pretty cool at Thulani Lodge too, too bad I didn’t get to enjoy it too much. The keys were these old-fashioned metal ones, but the outside door to the lodge had a real lock, so I wasn’t too worried. :) I didn’t stay up too late because I had to get up at like 4:30 the next morning to get picked up for the airport. My flight the next day was scheduled for 8:15am.