After a few days together in Gaborone, Mom and I headed out to the Tau Game Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve just south of the Botswana-South Africa border. Fortunately, the border crossing both coming and going was simple and quick. We arrived around noon and had lunch and then explored the lodge until afternoon tea and the evening game drive.
So, you've heard of the wild goose chase... well, we went on a wild dog chase. But it wasn't JUST another chase, we were in an open Land Cruiser with our armed ranger in pursuit of wild dogs who had reportedly, according to the CB radio, just made a kill. For almost 3 hours, much of it in the POURING rain, some of it within inches if an enormous electric fence, we tracked but never found the elusive canines.
Thankfully, when we arrived home (the lodge), we had a few minutes to freshen up before dinner- which started at 8:00 p.m. My mom ordered the beef filet and I ordered the kudu filet. A comparative analysis (conducted by me) revealed that the two entrees had identical tastes and textures… they were both delicious. However, this analysis left us wondering about previous meals and the authenticity of the meat labeling. Our ranger (now un-armed) ate with us.
We slept well and were pretty much ready to go when the 5 am wake-up call came. It was a beautiful morning, seemed like an extremely early sunrise, and the elephants were already lining up for their morning bath outside the lodge. We were in the Land Cruiser before 6 am and declined the opportunity to follow the wild dogs again; our ranger had another “hot tip” on the radio about the dogs being sighted really far away from the lodge. He asked us what time we needed to be back, leading us to believe that it would be another wild goose chase.
Our game drive was successful, though. We saw giraffe very close up and a baby giraffe in the bushes. But the highlight was when mom rounded out her “Big Five” game viewing: Katie spotted the white rhino! It was in a quarry of mud and he did a little dance for us before joining his comrades in the bushes. The white rhino is not actually white. It is brown/ grey, just like the black rhino, but with a wider mouth.
After the game drive we had breakfast and then relaxed before departing for our return to Botswana. At the border crossing, we ran into a group of internationals who were crossing over to tour South Africa after competing in the World Debate Championships in Gaborone. This was our third encounter with people from this group of 1300 competitors. First, we saw them at dinner the night before we left for South Africa, then we met two of them at the Tau Lodge, and this time they looked a bit ragged after what must have been a pretty wild after-party.
Our drive back to Gaborone was quick and easy. We went out to dinner at the Beef Barron- Katie’s favorite restaurant in Gaborone and got ready for our departure to Durban the next morning.
Oh, and somehow, in all of my blogging about the safari, I forgot to mention that we saw CHEETAH at our first camp. So here they are...
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