Khama Rhino Sanctuary

We arrived at Khama Rhino Sanctuary after umpteen hours on the road, (14? 16?) and saw our first glimpse of game. 

Our first animal sighting as we pulled in at dusk.  Kudu?  Waterbok?

Our first night at Khama Rhino Sanctuary, we set up our tents and were told that if we needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, that we should go with someone in case something happens to us.  We were told there is a black rhino running around that isn't very afraid of people because he was hand-raised, but if we see him, we should run.  Nice.  While we were sitting around the campfire, Goodman also told us that the rhinos wouldn't come around because they don't really stamp out fires like they were portrayed to in the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

 Rhino stomping out a fire from "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

I went to sleep in my tent- alone.  I heard kind of this snorting sound from outside my tent.  I imagined the black rhino standing right outside.  I was petrified; afraid to move.  I had nightmares about rhinos.  At some point I realized it was just one of the guys snoring in the next tent over.  Whew!

We got up bright and early at 5:30am for our first game drive.

A little far, but I think these are Waterbok.

Baby giraffe!

Zebras!

Springbok, the national animal of South Africa.

Impalas having their morning sparring session.

Mommy and baby rhino!

It's Gary Gnu!

While everyone was analyzing a pile of elephant poo on the road, I spied a stampede of zebras, wildebeest and rhinos!

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

Grey Go Away Birds

Dung beetle rolling his stash.  p.u.!

Botswana: Happy Days!

Our first day was going to be the driving day of hell.  We set out around 4:30 am.  We were all pretty exhausted and the scenery wasn't that interesting, so most of us slept the day away.  There were some lockers at the back of the bus for us to put our valuables.  The problem was that when the bus would shake, some of the locks would get loose and the locker doors would pop open.  Sudden;y there was a loud smash and an overwhelming smell of vodka.  A nice bottle of Smirnoff bit the dust before we even crossed the border.  We had to pull over so that Innocent could clean up the glass.

Popped open locker and vodka glass clean up.

The scenery that day wasn't too exciting, but the cows were sure interested in us!

Tired, but very excited to be crossing the border!

Left-right: Andrea Murachelli (Italy) Kylie Howard (Canada), Me!, Spud (Ireland), Andrea Aegerter (Switzerland), Carillo (USA), Mary Frances (USA), Laura Thompson (Scotland), Katie Wright (UK), Henning Oberbeck (Germany), Naya Nord (Denmark), Georgina Anderson (UK), Willie Walsh (Ireland)

We were schooled by Innocent in the ways of getting through the border crossing with out getting your food confiscated: just leave out some food you don't want and they will feel like they did their job!

That evening, we arrived too late for our game drive, but no problem, we would just do it in the morning.

First night at camp.

We were told that there is a black rhino roaming the sanctuary.  It was hand raised, so it tends to get closer to people than the other rhinos do.  We were warned to take a buddy over to the bathrooms at night in case something happened to us.  There was an odd number of us, 13, so I had no tent partner.

That night, as I lay alone in my tent, I could here some funny noises close by.  I had no clue what a rhino sounds like since I never heard once before.  I was petrified at the thought of the black rhino being right outside my tent ready to trample me at any moment.  Later, I realized that the ominous grunting noises I was hearing was actually just one of the guys snoring in the next tent over.  Whew!

Johannesburg

 I signed up for this trip to Africa for spring break.  It was going to be a camping trip, which I have never really done before.  I think I spent more money buying supplies for this trip then I did on the whole trip itself.  I went to a few outfitter stores I found in Dubai Mall and bought everything I would need. I spied this interesting product in one store:

What the hell is "pocket ass"?

Arrived in Johannesburg yesterday evening.  I got a room at the Sandton Holiday Inn and decided to enjoy a nice upgrade to include a king sized room and free drinks down in the executive lounge.  I went sown and met up with two Qatar Airline pilots.  One was from Mexico and the other was from the Seychelles.  We were also joined by a Qatar Airways air hostess from the Ukraine named Oksana.  Had dinner at a place called the Bull's Run.  Steaks were very good.

Took a walk today up to Nelson Mandela Square where there are three or four malls combined into one.

King-sized room. I could have a had a huge dance party in my room!

Nelson Mandela stature in Nelson Mandela Square.

Still a bit shy with each other! photo courtesy of Mary Frances

Tonight, we had out pre-departure meeting.  We were told by our group leader, Innocent, that he had some "breaking news."  We were all kind if  nervous, wondering if our entire trip was going to be cancelled or something.  It turns out that there had been a lot of rain in the area and the roads were washed out where we needed to cross at the border.  This wasn't a big problem, except  now we would have to travel about 100km or so out of our was to use a different border crossing.  Innocent even brought out a map to show us the new route.  We all looked at it and nodded our heads in understanding, although I'm not sure if any of us actually had a clue or not as to what the previous route was anyway.

Departure time: 4:30am!  Yikes!

St Patrick's Day

Fun on St. Paddy's Day.  Need I say more?

An Englishman, an Irish woman, a Scotsman and the American.

Flamingos at Ras al Khor

Ras al Khor, Arabic for Cape of the Creek,  is an elusive wetlands area in Dubai and one of the few urban protected areas of the world.  Elusive because I can't tell you how many times I have driven by the place, but couldn't quite figure out how to enter.  My darling new gps helped that a lot.  I love you gps!

The Dubai Municipality is fenced off from the public and three birding hides have been built.  We managed to find two.  It is the home of about 500 Greater Flamingos and a variety of other birds and crustaceans.

The wetlands with the Burj Khalifa in the distance.

Flamingos in the wetlands.

Flamingo taking off.

We didn't see much at the first hide.  This was the second hide we stopped at.  The birds were much closer here.

Flamingos in flight.

There are 3 hides on the property.  We couldn't find the third, but we were pleased with all of the birds we saw that day.

Kayaking at Yas

Today my friend and I decided to go kayaking at the mangroves at Yas Island.  There weren't many birds to see and we weren't really in any mangroves like I expected.  Our kaying guide said, "Honestly, you need to come at high tide.  This is very low tide."  Ahhhhhh....well now we know for next time.

On the bright side I got an awesome work out on my arms from kayaking 6 kilometers!

My arms are killing me!

Ferrari World, home of the world's fastest roller coaster.  Eat your heart out Cedar Point!

"One is the loneliest number that you ever knew..."  ONE yes, one flamingo!

A little rocky island that we stopped at.