Safari Tails Pt. 3 - The Kalahari
Trip dates: March 31, 2017 - April 2, 2017
Our final stop in Botswana was in the Kalahari Desert. If you missed it, details about where we stayed and our experience there are in the previous post here. Below are the highlights from our time at the DVL, all centered around cats.
On one of our morning drives, we went and checked out the runway to see what we could find. The first things we saw were the Kori bustards - the big birds you see on the runway. As we slowly drove down the runway in an attempt to get closer to the bustards, there was a movement further down the runway on the left edge. I could just make out a tan shape walking along the grass edge.
As our guide slowly inched the car closer, I got out my binoculars and could see little tufts on the cat's ears as it slowly stalked something on the runway. Lynx! I shouted out. We were still several feet away when our guide stopped the car and got out his binoculars. Turns out it's a caracal, eh I was close.
It was a juvenile caracal and shortly after we stopped, I saw it pounce and then dart into the bushes. Our guide immediately said that it caught something, maybe one of the smaller birds or a rodent. We quickly drove down to where we saw it dive into the bushes and looked around.
We saw a blur of tan as the caracal moved from its hiding spot to another bush further away from us. The shy little guy was desperately trying to find a spot to hide himself and his meal from us. Although we didn't get a clear look at the caracal, we decided that it was best to leave him to his hard-earned breakfast and we turned around and left the runway in search of other sights.
On an afternoon drive, we were hot on the pursuit of a lion. Our tracker had spotted very clear and recent lion tracks and we followed them until the tracks disappeared off the road and into the bush. (Lions, as well as most other animals, prefer to walk on existing paths instead of forging a new path through the bush. That includes the road that the vehicles drive, which is great because it makes it easier to see the tracks!)
At the point where the tracks left the road, there was a lot of dense bushes around. Our guide and our tracker got out of the car to inspect the tracks closer, trying to determine if the lion had turned around, or if he went left or right. After some close inspection and discussion, they got back into the car and we drove into the bush. We circled around a couple times but couldn't see anything. The guide and tracker got back out of the car and inspected the road and tracks again. They then wandered off to the other side, which had bushes but was a bit less dense, before returning to the vehicle. Convinced that the lion had to be on this side, we drove around a bit again.
Still not finding him, we stopped again. As our guide got out of the car, our tracker stopped him and pointed to this bush below. What do you see?
Our guide quickly got back in the car and as he did so, I saw movement and a flick of a tail. There's a lion in there! We circled around the bush, trying to see if there was any clearer views, but there weren't. We then pulled up next to the bush, where if you knew where to look, you could clearly see the lion looking back at you. It was an adult male with a dark mane, almost black in color. It even yawned a couple times as we sat there looking at/for him. If it weren't for his movements though, I wouldn't have been able to spot him at all! We were all incredulous at how the tracker had spotted him in that bush and how close our guide was to stepping right in front of the lion!
After waiting a little bit and realizing that this guy is quite comfortable where he is, we went back on the road and continued on our way. After going no more than 10 feet, there was a movement in the bush to the left side of the road.
We spotted this little guy! It seemed like maybe he was going to cross the road and he was looking for the adult male, but then upon seeing us, he headed back deeper into the bush.
We followed the cub through the bush, where we started seeing a couple more cubs. We kept going and eventually ended up in a bit of a clearing where we found the rest of the pride. Hello mama lions and all your cute little cubbies!
The lionesses didn't really care at all about us. Some of the young cubs tried to act like their mamas and pretended to not care. Two others were very timid and were hiding deep under the bushes - so adorable!
There were also some feisty young ones in the group. In this sequence below, you can see them trying to sneak up on us, and immediately plopping down when they realized they're caught!
This pride was a little smaller than the one we saw in the Chobe, and the cubs were older than the ones we saw in Chobe, but we were sooo much closer to them here! You can't off road in Chobe while we could here in DVL, so we were literally able to get right in to the thick of it. So awesome!
And no, it wasn't scary or terrifying at all. In fact, our guide was so confident that the lions weren't a threat to us at all that when one of the girls dropped her sunglasses, he got out and retrieved them. We were parked right in this clearing with the lions all around us and he got the sunglasses like it was no big deal. He moved slowly and quietly, keeping an eye on the lionesses the whole time. They flickered their ears once or twice during this but otherwise, paid no attention at all. Just goes to show that, while lions are wild animals, these open vehicles aren't dangerous if you have a knowledgeable guide that can read and react to the animals' behaviour.
The final highlight of our time here is an audio clip:
As we had mentioned in previous posts, all our lodges were essentially in the middle of nowhere in the bush and we had to be escorted back to our rooms at night. Our room at Deception Valley Lodge was no different and one of the nights, I was woken up from my sleep by this noise. There was a lion practically right outside the room and seemed to be calling out to locate the rest of its pride. It seemed like there was a leopard that had hung out by the pool on a separate occasion as well. It's pretty cool to be able to see or hear a glimpse of some of the action that goes on at night in the bush. I can only imagine how much more we could experience if (when) we're on a camping safari!
