Safari I - Savuti

Getting to the camp was quite an ordeal: An Air Botswana flight from Johannesburg to Maun, followed by a 6-seater Cessna flight to the Savuti airstrip. First of all, the Cessna plane was so small that my bag wouldn't fit in its belly. I had to take out my plastic extendable lock so that we could push it through. Secondly, Savuti happened to be the last stop on this chartered flight, so I had to go through 3 take-offs and landings. But I got to sit right next to the pilot, a cool Australian girl doing this gig for 2 years after she got sick of teaching flying back home. I promised not to touch any of the controls : )

I saw a herd of elephants from the sky, and guess what?!?!?! I was greeted by elephants (wild ones of course) once we landed at Savuti! Total awesomeness.

Had a quick lunch and met my four fellow companions for the next 2 days: A nice couple who happened to work for the safari company and a mother-daughter pair from Colorado. These Americans were THE SNOTTIEST people I ever met! The girl just graduated from NYU and has an offer from GS. She wouldn't stop bragging about how she's going to be working at an investment bank (do you HONESTLY think that the people working at the camp, mostly locals, would CARE about an investment bank?!). And it turns out that she's not really a banker, but IT support. Oh my god, and the mom...she truly thinks that she's a National Geographic photographer. It was like a show-and-tell of their camera equipment. I was so relieved when I found out that I'd be joining the couple for the game drives rather than the American duo.

So, the game drives. I had a total of 4 drives at this camp, 2 morning and 2 afternoon. I thought they'd be relaxing affairs...just sitting on the jeeps and watching the animals. But NO, I was wrong!!! It's actually really tough work - getting up before the sun rises and keeping an eye open to spot animals. Being in an expansive nature reserve (Chobe National Park), you never know when/where you'll see something. During some drives, we went on for over 2 hours not seeing anything. By the end of the day, I was completely exhausted (plus, I think I was coming down with a slight cold with the freezing temperatures and lack of warm clothing).

When you encounter animals, though, you just can't help but smile!!! They look so beautiful in the wild. Obviously, seeing the big 5 is exciting...but I was pretty much happy to see anything. Some highlights:

- Sunset with elephants by the watering hole

- Pissed off male elephant running towards our jeep (and following us for quite a while)

- Mongooses by the dead termite mounds. I think I especially enjoyed seeing them because I was reminded of the Nodame comic books

- Cheetahs are absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I was so excited and caught up in watching the cheetah that I missed the leopard...Apparently, it was a cool scene of the cheetah being chased by the leopard. I can't believe I missed it! And you know what the sad thing is?! I didn't get to see a leopard for the remainder of my safari, no matter how hard I looked. Stupid Waru.

- Herd of zebras. Gotta love those stripes