Botswana - Xakanaxa Camp   (9/10-13/2010)

The next day we returned to our early morning and late afternoon game drive schedule. On the morning drive we came upon a pride of lions that we observed for an hour. The patriarch of the pride was a large male that gave us some great poses. Later in the morning we went to explore the carcass of a female elephant that one of the guides had spotted the week before our safari started. What we found was skeleton of the animal spread out over a large area. We even found the skull complete with two good sized tusks. According to our guides the old female died of natural causes, not poaching, which was borne out by the presence of the ivory. The skeleton was very interesting and we got to play big game hunter with the tusks. The weight of the ivory was impressive and the guides estimated each tusk was worth about $10,000. The guides took the tusks to park headquarters to turn them in.

Our camp at Xakanaxa was close to a large pond and every evening we were treated to a background serenade of reed frogs tinkling with occasional grunting of hippos. After two melodious nights at Xakanxa we broke camp and after a morning game drive in the area east of the camp, we continued on the road east.  We finally left the Moremi reserve and drove about 50 km over bush roads to the Khwai area where our next camp was located. Each vehicle was separated by a couple of kilometers so we didn't have to eat the dust of the vehicles in front. While cruising down the road our guide suddenly slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the vehicle. It turned out he thought he had hit a snake on the road, but it turned out he had just spooked it into the bush on the side of the road. After poking around, he called us out of the vehicle to see a Mole snake that was in the process of swallowing a lizard he had caught. we spent the next 10 minutes watching this three foot snake slowly engulf a rather large lizard. We finally arrived in the Khwai area about an hour later and started to explore the area.