Kiwiblog

Just returned from a dinner at MariLuca Ristoro. Until the change of owners, it was previously Maria Pia’s – one of Wellington’s best restaurants.

The occasion was a farewell dinner with Auckland Girl who is returning to Auckland.

I was interested to see whether MariLuca could keep up the excellent food and service that was a trademark of Maria Pia’s.

For the wine, we went with a bottle of Gavi  D.o.c.g. Duca di Aleramo 2010 Piemonte. At $42 a bottle it was very reasonable priced and a very good match to the pasta. So good, we had a second bottle. Very helpful that the wine list suggested foods it would match.

My entree was the Grigliata Impanata di Pesce, which was grilled prawn, squid, scallops and mussels in herbed bread crumbs. It was very tasty, and I had no complaints. 7.5/10. Auckland Girl had cockles, which were also delicious.

My main was the Pappardelle  con Anatra, which was with braised duck sauce. It was quite simply magnificent. The pasta was home crafted, and the duck was exquisite. A 9/10 easily.  Auckland Girl chose the gnocchi, which was also lovely.

My dessert (which I normally skip, but was a special occasion) was the gelato. Hard to get a bad gelato, and this one certainly wasn’t. AG went for the tiramisu, and from the sound of her groans of satisfaction, it was also very good. 8/10 for the desserts.

After dessert we had a port and a cognac. The service during the night was excellent and classy. The waitress (from Argentina) knew all the essentials such as how to properly pour wine, and was very friendly, but professional. The owner topped off the night by offering us a couple of lemoncellos on the house. I give the service a 9/10 also.

The overall bill was around $200, which for four excellent courses and two bottles of wine is very reasonable. A definite recommendation to those who want a classy night out, without paying the earth.

During the dinner, AG and I had fun playing Sherlock Holmes and trying to work out the backgrounds of all the other diners based on observation only. Our conclusions were:

1. A table of two older men, and an older woman. Conclusion was a businesswoman out with her husband a a business colleague.
2. A table of a young man dressed casually, a blond young woman in business dress and older woman. After considering they were a couple we decided they were brother and sister as they had no body language between them. Also he was dressed too casually for a date, and she had relatively little makeup on. The older woman was their mother, whom we suspect was from out of town, and this was her treat for them. Out detective skills were proven correct when at the end we heard her refer to them as her offspring.
3. A man and woman in their 40s. Had one course only. Conclusion was a local Thorndon couple and this is their regular.
4. Two men and two women, with one of each in their 40s and 50s. The men we decided worked together, and were out with their respective wives.
5. A young asian woman and a slightly older ginga. She gave him a card. Our conclusion is she is a law student and he is probably her tutor and boyfriend.
6. A man and woman in their late 30s. She was wearing an orange dress. Based on the dress we decided they were from Lower Hutt. They took 30 minutes to decide what to order, so were obviously not locals. Obviously a special dinner out, so I think it was an anniversary dinner treat for them.

We also discussed what people would probably guess we are, if they were doing the guesswork on us, we had done on them. We figured their guess on us would be a couple who had met over the Internet and were on their first date

Anyway, back to the restaurant, definitely has kept up the good standards of its predecessor, and a restaurant worth returning to.

There’s two great reasons to go to Circa at the moment. In Circa One they are staging The Motor Camp for a repeat season. But if you have already seen that, then you can see Esencia del Flamenco in Circa Two.

I attended last night along with Stalker Girl and the performance put on by the Desde Sevilla Flamenco Dance Company, is captivating and engaging.

The first half is very serious – the Cry of Spain, about the Spanish Civil War. Five stern faced dancers do a wonderfully timed routine, supported by singer Christina Gomez and guitarist Paul Bosauder, both from Barcelona. Also in support are a couple of percussionists.

If you like great dance and music, you’ll love Esencia del Flamenco. There is a great contrast between the serious dancing of the first half and then the Fiesta Flamenca in the second half where the smiles light up the theatre as they dance and sing up a storm.

We had a very engaged audience, and you could see some of the audience almost wanted to jump onto the stage and join in.

We both thought it was a great performance, and I’m really glad I went along. I am never sure if I am going to enjoy a performance if it isn’t my traditional comedic or dramatic play, but Circa has been great at helping me discover a much wider range of performance to enjoy.

Highly recommended if you enjoy song and dance. Also would be a very good event to take a date to!

I’m always in two minds about posting about Great Barrier Island, as I’m worried too many people might start holidaying there, making it harder for me to holiday there. But it really is an iconic part of New Zealand that provide world class beauty, just 30 minutes flying from Auckland.

Myself and three friends stayed at Blind Bay, and you can see the view from the balcony. The weather was so nice, that we were able to drink and play cards out on the balcony until close to midnight. One can never get sick of views like that.

A couple of the locals very kindly took us out fishing over the weekend. This is their dog Max who just loves being out on the water.

Even I managed to catch a couple of fish, including this parrotfish. We also caught lots of snapper, which we had for dinner.

I loved this sight of the dog being towed along in his own boat.

After the fishing, we went to this very remote bay (basically only accessible by boat or a two hour walk) and it really was a piece of paradise. The water was wonderful.

Yum. I can never get enough crayfish. It was a perfect end to a great day out.

Also love the sunset over Blind Bay.

I love living in Wellington, and don’t think I would ever live in Auckland. But if I did, a big plus would be being able to spend more time on the Barrier. The locals are so absolutely friendly, and the scenery so wonderful.

Whale has the photo of what happens if I back out too quickly of an unfamiliar driveway. I needed to get to a NZ Post store quickly to do a Western Union transfer and backed out the drive. I backed in a nice straight line, but the problem was the driveway wasn’t straight

This is rather weird. On Thursday I was at Waikanae Beach in the morning. Drove to Wellington and then flew to Auckland. At Auckland Airport I grabbed my luggage and got on the flight to Great Barrier Island. Got to sit in the co-pilot seat which is always fun as you get the best view. You just have to be very careful not to knock or grab anything.

Anyway a few minutes into the flight the underside of my right arm starts throbbing – quite significant pain. I turn it over to see what the problem is, and I see this:

This photo was taken two days later, so have faded a bit. You can’t see all of them, but in total there were ten cuts from just above my wrist to just below my elbow. Still fairly visible five days later.

Now the weird thing is I have no memory of them. I can’t think of any activity I did which could give me multiple cuts on my arm, let alone ones I would not notice until later. If it had happened in Africa I would assume it was some bush we drove through, but this was back in NZ.

And no, they are not self inflicted – unless I have a very bad case of sleep walking. Plus they are cut the wrong way for that.

So this will have to go down as one of life’s mysteries – both how they occurred, but also why I only felt them when I was on the plane to Barrier.

In Waikanae they have the Nga Manu nature reserve. I’d never been to it, and saw a good review, so decided to give it a visit.

$15 entry (Zealandia take note) and it’s a very pleasant 60 – 90 minute walk around. On a hot summer day, especially nice. If you’re into birds, or have kids, could be a good place to pop into. Kids are just $6 each and a family no more than $35.

Just after the entrance a large grassed area with a pond and lots of ducks.

A black swan being curious.

You can get a packet of duck food for $2 and the ducks are not shy. The literally surround you, and even walk over your feet if they think there is food nearby.

This is a kakariki, specifically a red-crowned parrot. I love how the green matches the grass.

A kaka.

(more…)

My holiday in Africa was so exhausting (getting up at 5 am daily) that I needed another holiday to recover from it! I’ve been up at Waikanae Beach with my whanau and friends. We’ve got a great place for 10 days. It has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, and the sloped roof has windows so pretty much all day sun.

This is the view from the back lawn. At high tide, you are around 10 metres from the water. A great view of Kapiti Island. There’s something very relaxing about being able to hear and see the sea from your living room.

I was a bit surprised initially to see a sail whizz past at high speed, until I investigated and saw they were on land, not sea.

The water here is seriously nice. Great waves and warm water. I’ve gone in a few times. Kapiti is only an hour north of Wellington but by not being Cook Strait, the water is heaps warmer. The temperature is a few degrees higher also, often.

We’ve dined outside pretty much every day, and even had the BBQ fired up. Did fish and chips one night which was great – something “right” about fish and chips by the beach.

Waikanae Beach is very long, so good for long walks to burn off lunch. One day we decided to walk to the cafe down the road, along the beach. We over-shot it by around 1.5 kms which was very funny. Not so funny was walking back along the road (we didn’t want to miss it again). Bare feet on hot melting tar is a painful mixture.

Sadly it has not been all relaxation, as have had quite a lot of work to do and reports to write for various clients. But working on the laptop up here with a view of Kapiti, sure beats being in an office in Wellington.

A great place to have a week off for Wellingtonians, so to speak. And usefully if for some reason you do have to head home, you can be there in just 45 minutes (30 minutes if doing a Lundy).

Stuff reports:

The Labour Department has closed its investigation into a complaint by Australian computer programmer Glenn Watson who claimed to have been pressured to work up to 120 hours a week at the Auckland studio of games-maker Gameloft.

Spokeswoman Ailsa Mannell “no substantial evidence” of a breach of health and safety laws had been found and no action would be taken against the French multinational.

Watson’s description of working conditions at the Auckland studio, where he was head programmer, was widely reported in computer games publications around the world after he blew the whistle on his employer in July.

He said he resigned after a four-week stint in which he worked 14 hours-a-day, seven days a week. Watson accused Gameloft of creating artificial deadlines to encourage a frantic environment among the 70 Auckland staff and said a junior programmer had worked for 24 hours in a single, straight shift.

Ha, I can beat that. In 2000/1 when rolling out a new database system, I actually worked a straight 60 hour shift, broken up only by showers. It is amazing what you can manage when there is a non changeable deadline approaching.

The reason the deadline was not changeable is I was booked to fly/drive around the country doing installation and training starting on Tuesday, so I worked Saturday morning to Monday evening without sleep to complete everything.

What was funny was that when I completed the final testing and documentation just prior to my flight to Auckland on the Monday, I landed at Auckland early evening and had to drive to Warkworth. But I got a call from a friend inviting me to a party. I actually declined initially, but then he put on the phone the attractive blonde (knowing my inability to say no to them) who pressured me into attending, so despite no sleep for 60 hours I then attended a party (drinking non-alcoholic) for a couple of hours before resuming the drive to Warkworth.

It’s quite interesting when you go long periods without sleep, the cycles you go through. Every 12 hours or so you have a really tough period for 2 – 3 hours when staying awake is damn hard, but if you push past that, then you feel fine for another 9 – 10 hours or so.

Beyond doubt the highlight of a trip to Africa is going out into the wilderness. Until you have seen giraffes in their natural environment grazing trees, had a lion stare at you from a few feet away or had a hippo swim towards you – you’ve not had the full experience.

I was very lucky with the four places I went to. They were all great, but also all different enough that each was special. Below I blog a comparison between the four places I stayed at. I had an excellent time all four of them – the differences are minor, so don’t sweat the choices too much.

I did find &Beyond consistently great, and many fellow travelers said they swear by them, and only stay with them. However the first place I stayed at, Tintswalo, was easily equally superb.

I stayed at four places, with stays ranging from two nights to four nights. With the benefit of hindsight I would make all my stays three nights each. Two nights is too short as it only gives you one full day in camp, and traveling every second day is exhausting. Four nights on the other hand can drag on slightly on the final day. That means eight safari drives in the same area.

What I intend to do in future, and would recommend, is three stays of three nights each. That’s nine nights in total and 18 drives.

Now to the four I stayed at:

With the location important to note three of the four sites were in private concession areas. That means there are few other people about, and the guides are allowed to go off the main routes, can drive with spotlights after sunset etc. Chobe National Park is more restricted with what you can do, but the quantity and diversity of wild life there is higher than other places – so it is a trade off. I recommend rather than one or the other, you include Chobe but also include some private concession areas.

All the accommodation was luxury. Where-ever you go, you should be comfortable. Tintswalo was the most luxurious, and Ngabexa my personal favourite as being under canvas fits the environment.

The amount of time you spend out on each drive varies. I think four hours is a good maximum as Tintswalo did. You get a bit tired beyond that. Nice to have a bit more siesta time during the day also.

Tintswalo and Chobe had pretty well formed dirt roads to drive on, and would often go at reasonable speeds. With Tintswalo you would often go off road and literally push your way through and over trees and bushes. The two Okavango locations tended to be less well developed roads – sometimes just slightly worn tracks through fields. These would be very bumpy, but that is part of the fun. Normally driving around 15 km/hr or so (which is good for spotting things). I did discover that even on those roads, they can do around 60 km/hr as when we had to drop some water off to a broken down jeep on the way to catching my flight. I was almost bouncing out of the jeep, but loving every minute of it.

The hospitality was impossible to criticise. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. I give Nxabega slightly extra points for the fun we had on New Years Eve, with great hospitality from Megan and Dave – the co-managers.

With meals, you will also have nothing to complain about. Each place has a chef or chefs who will even make meals on demand. The challenge is to not eat too much.

I’ve included the trip advisor rankings and reviews. Again I would stress they are all excellent places to stay. Some of the reviews are years old, so I suggest anyone interested focus on more recent reviews.

It is worth noting that Nxabega was ranked 1st out of 40 in the Okavango Delta, and I’m not surprised by that. It was the perfect end to my trip. I’ll definitely be going back there. I’m keen to return to some of the other places also, but have to weigh that up against exploring new locations in Kenya and Namibia also.

The trips are costly. If it were not for the cost, I’d go there annually.

In terms of other things to do, outside the safaris – I would put Cape Town and Victoria Falls into the must see categories. Sun City was fun, but not a must do or see.

When will I return? I hope to do Latin or Central America in the next two years as have never been there, and that will cost a bit also. So realistically probably won’t get back until 2017, but will be something to look forward to.

I’ve had a fair number of people ask me about how I arranged the trip to Africa, saying they are keen to visit there also.

Normally I prefer to arrange my trips myself, and research places, activities and accommodation through sources such as Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor. I tried to do this with the Africa trip, but I found it too challenging for a first time visitor to Africa. There were three significant challenges:

1. Safety – I wanted to minimise safety risks such as travel in unsafe areas, dodgy internal airlines, being exposed to touts etc
2. Connections – it was difficult to work out by myself how one would actually get to and from certain safari camps
3. Variety – there are so many different lodges and camps to choose from, that even with Trip Advisor, deciding where to go was challenging – even deciding what countries to go to was a challenge

So in my googling I came across a package from World Journeys for The Cape, Kruger & Victoria Falls. Now these were three of the places I wanted to go to. However I was dubious, as I am not really into group tours, as you lose flexibility. However I filled in the form to see what they could do.

This put me in touch with Kirstine from World Journeys. She informed me that their packages are not all group tours, but in this case they put together individually tailored trips. So over the next few weeks I probably drove them crazy with my “Can we do Chobe also” and “How difficult would it be to also go into the Okavango Delta” and “Would a couple of days at Sun City blow the price out much” and they dealt with all my variations. They knew all about how you could fly from one camp to another via small safari planes to and from obscure air strips.

What was very useful is that Kisrtine had actually been to Africa, and stayed at all the places I was staying at. This was very reassuring when making decisions about whether to stay in a lodge or under canvass in certain areas. I’m glad she pushed me into the under canvass options.

After it was all agreed, World Journeys sent out a very helpful package of itinerary, travel advice, medical requirements, tipping guidelines, baggage guidelines (you need to travel with soft bags) etc. They were great to deal with, and I highly recommend them for this sort of trip.

But the really useful them is they were partnered with &Beyond in Africa. What this meant was from they point I arrived in Africa, &Beyond took over responsibility for my trip. They had a driver met me at Cape Town airport, who gave me vouchers for the rest of the trip. They had their own reps or other companies meet me at every destination where a transfer was needed. And when something happened such as a strike at one safari camp, they arranged me to stay at another camp at no extra cost. Knowing that no matter what happened, they would take responsibility for making sure the trip all fitted together was hugely reassuring.

&Beyond also owned several of the safari camps I stayed at. I will do a seperate detailed post on the four camps I stayed at, but suffice to say for now they were all great. In my travels I chatted to many other people staying at the various camps, and many of them were return visitors who swear by &Beyond and say they will only stay at their lodges and camps. They are at the higher end of the market, but have a mixture of price packages over their 35 lodges and camps.

So for someone who normally likes to do it all myself, I was very happy with the service I got from World Journeys and &Beyond. It was really good having both a company to deal with in NZ, and a company to deal with when actually in Africa. If you are a first time traveller especially, I would highly recommend both companies. I had nothing but good experiences with them.

Nxabega means Land of the Giraffes. This was my final full day in Africa. I went out on the morning drive but as I had undertaken 21 safari drives to date, I decided not to go out in the afternoon, and spend the day relaxing at the camp. It was one of my better decisions.

So the day consisted of an outdoor African massage, reading a biography of David Livingstone in the sun, and cooling off in the pool, plus food and drinks.

This is a view of one of the tents, merged into the surrounding area

This is the view from my balcony

The inside of the tent. Camping was never this fun when I was a kid!

A monkey making himself at home in the communal area

This is where I spent most of the day. Just fantastic. Great sun, amazing views, the sounds of Africa and no disturbances except refilling drinks.

The swimming pool.

This is the hat I wore pretty much non-stop when I was outdoors. It is a hand-me-down from my father (I think he saw it more as a temporary one off loan:-) ) and was fabulous. For it is not just any hat, but a Tilley Hat. They are well known, and quite a few people commented on it.

It handles sun and rain equally well. Highly recommended for travels in Africa.

A little tree snake. I was very grateful that I saw very few snakes and spiders during my three weeks in Africa.

After that I flew home. Four flights. A small Safari plane from Pompom air strip to Maun. A Botswana Air flight from Maun to Johannesburg. Then Qantas to Sydney and from Sydney to Wellington. Qantas had the entire Series 4 of The Big Bang theory, so that kept me busy, along with reading George RR Martin’s A Dance with Dragons on my iPad.

Another new bird, we had not seen before.

This large feathered beast is another type of Eagle. I would not want to get into a fight with one!

That afternoon we headed out back onto the delta. But rather than being in the relative safety of a motorboat, we were in traditional African canoes, called mokoro, where your method of locomotion is punting sticks.

Me pretending to be relaxed as we headed out. I wasn’t worried about any crocodiles as in theory they can’t jump up and get you unless you hang your arms over the edge, but the hippos are a major concern. Just two months ago a guide was almost killed by a hippo after it attacked them.

The trick is to not get close to them, as they can move a lot faster than you in the water. They are aggressive beasts, and are credited with killing more people than any other animal in Africa.

This frog is tiny – this is taken at close range with 12x zoom. It is smaller than a finger nail, yet can make quite a noise.

Another water lily.

This frog is slightly larger and more yellow than green. Still less than twice a finger nail in size. You find them on the reed stems.

Oh dear. They were hoping we would encounter no hippos, but this hippo was directly ahead of us, in the middle of the waterway we needed to go down. The lead boat, which was a guide only, spotted it at the same time as we did. I started to get nervous when my guide took us ahead of the lead boat to observe the hippo better. We were still a few score of metres away, but I was definitely getting bloody nervous as there was no land mass close to hand.

After around a minute the hippo submerged and we could tell from the bubbles it was heading towards us. I was much relieved when we decided to go back to the launch area and call it a day. Hippos move far faster than mokoro.

On the way back to camp we saw one of the largest beasts – a well tusked elephant.

And one of the smallest – a steenbok. This is a fully grown one. I guess lions see them as a plain hamburger, compared to say impala which is more a quarter pounder.

We tried the mokoro again the next day, and glad to say the hippo had gone, so we had a very pleasant journey

A fig tree

You can see here how it is covered with figs – and they unusually grow off the main branches.

My final destination was the Nxabega Under Canvas Camp. Also in the Okavango Delta.

The Safari Air plane. Half the pilots are kiwis, and the other half South African. They are really good at flying low, so you get magnificent views as you fly.

Shot from the plane.

A view of two elephants from above.

And a final aerial shot.

Due to flooding they have had to construct some bridges. But these are not bridges as we know them – more some poles secured together that you drive over – very slowly.

Some Tsessebe antelopes

A baby warthog

This was amazing. All this damage has been done from elephants rubbing their tusks against the tree. They have chopped away more than half the mass, and I reckon at some stage in the next few years some elephant will actually bring the tree down on them.

A great sighting as we drove in from the airport. A leopard up a tree, eating an impala it had killed.

The same leopard later that day out looking for more food. The cats have to kill regularly or they starve.

Nxabega stands for Land of the Giraffes, and there are plenty about.

We went out on an eight seater for a cruise up the delta. Saw one hippo which we avoided. The boat is not that large that it would come out best.

Close up of a water lily.

The guides showed us how to make a necklace from a water lily, by breaking the stem every couple of cm.

They told us we would have a coffee break on an island – but didn’t tell us it was about 5 square metres in size, sitting in the middle of nowhere. I asked if the island had a name, and when they said no, declared it to now be called Kiwi Island, which it now is.

The early sunset over the delta.

And the later sunset. Sigh.

The next morning we saw six hyenas.

They were tracking a leopard hoping to find its kill.

And they did.

Another type of antelope.

This little pool had over 100 birds in it – it must have been packed full of fish, so it was sort of like McDonalds for birds.

I liked the reflection in the water of this bird.

We had drinks here. Nice.

The buffalo is well hidden here. It could be fatal not to notice one, if you were on foot.

Another colourful bird.

Lots of monkeys at Nxabega – in the trees, on the paths and specifically in the tree next to my tent, which means they often jump up and down on the roof of my tent!

Not many laundry services have to warn that hyenas may raid the laundry room.

This is the open lounge area at Sandibe.

This tree overlooks our breakfast table and our cousins look down at us.

They quite make themselves at home in the lounge.

This is a giant eagle owl. The tracker did well to spot him in the tree.

I loved this tree – a sausage tree.

We ran into those five lions for the third day running – by accident the last two times. We were tracking a leopard and instead of finding the leopard, we saw the lions again, but …

Someone then looked up a tree, and saw the leopard. The lions must have turned up suddenly and the leopard did not want to risk a confrontation, so he headed up the tree. Lions will not eat leopards but they might kill them, as it reduces the competition for food. I guess deep down lions are socialists who don’t like competition

The leopard came down the tree after around 15 minutes, and sure enough one of the lions set off after it, and chased it for 600 metres or so.

Now this is a truly rare daytime sighting – a porcupine. Don’t get too close to it unless you want a face full of quills.

Some giraffes.

A crimson breasted stripe.

Didn’t note this one’s name down.

A red lechwe antelope (I think).

This is a hammerhead, for obvious reasons

Another colourful feathered friend

We heard the lion roar from around 100 metres away, otherwise would not have known it was there. At one point he stood up and stared at us which was unnerving.

But then he went back to the customary lion position

A typical landscape.

Some Marabou storks

Yay we spotted a cheetah – the last of the big cats I had to see. Not as large or strong as the others, but very fast. The collar is for some research programme.

She got joined by her son who had been unsuccessfully trying to hunt prey.

So mum consoled him with a good hug and kiss.

Also came across a group of five lions. Three of them here.

And the other two here.

It’s dark but this is another jackal

A frog we almost ran over

And a hyena out at night – their normal hunting time. Of course their idea of hunting is normally to scavenge.

I’m not normally a big bird watcher but I can’t get enough of the variety they have here

A Kudu staring out at us

A hippo moving alongside

And another up ahead

In an ideal world the camera would also be a dictaphone so I could record down the names as I get told them.

Some tsessebe, another species of antelope

This is the second day at Sandibe. We had been driving around three hours and I needed a bush toilet break. The guide said that we were only 30 minutes from where he planned to have the morning tea, so I agreed to hold off until then. However as we got to the planned spot for morning tea, we found to our surprise the five lions from yesterday were there. This was 20 kms away from where we saw them yesterday. As you can imagine I had to hold on for another 20 minutes or so, as me marking out the lions’ sleeping place could be a bad idea.

They got quite playful with each other.

Lots of licking and pawing

But their idea of a friendly nibble is not one I’d like to try

This is one of the many crossings the landcruiser makes through slightly flooded areas. This is the wake from the vehicle. Sometimes the water gets close to coming in over the sides.

Then at the end of day two, went out on a small boat in the delta

This is the boat – seats eight

Some truly beautiful sights

After Chobe I flew by small safari plane to the Okavangi Delta – the world’s largest inland delta. Stayed two nights at Sandibe, which is an @Beyond lodge.

This is the villa I stayed in. It has an outdoor shower which is very nice.

The view from the bathroom at the back

The view from the front

The bed

And the swimming pool

And this was the sunset. It is great not having hills. Africa is so beautiful, even without the wildlife.

I love mongooses as they kill snakes. Even the small dwarf mongooses will do it. They all team up against the snake. I’ve been lucky not to see any snakes so far (I hate them), and the only time I want to see one is getting killed by a band of mongooses.

A banded mongoose.

Pretending he is a meerkat

Crossing the road.

We did a boat cruise along the Chobe River. A great way to see some hippos, without having them able to get at you.

Mum, Dad and the kid going into the river to have a drink

He’s giving us the evil eye

A group of hippos grazing by the water. Chobe is unusual in that the hippos come out during the day. In most areas they stay in the water during the day and only come out at night.

Quite common to see birds on hippos eating bugs off them in a symbiotic relationship.

Nice colouring on this crocodile. Quite large – a bit over two metres.

A hippo getting out of the water. This is a younger once as he failed at first and had to try three times.

The crocodiles never move, hoping you won’t notice them. However having your mouth open like this gives it away.

Funny story around this photo. The boat pulled up on shore to let us take it. Then reversed into a sumbmerged rock, which killed the engine. An animated discussion followed on who would get out to fix the engine. Luckily they finally got it working again with no one having to bet crocodile bait. The croc looked very upset when we left!

There are elephants everywhere in Chobe. I would have seen several hundred over two days.

These are very new born elephants. You can see their size compared to their parents.

This gives a better idea of how tiny the baby ones are – barely taller than the grass. Very cute.

Had lots of fun seeing in the New Year. Despite the fact we still had to go out driving at 5.30 am, a small group of us stayed up until 1 am to see 2012 in, with a mixture of Tequila and Champagne.  The whole camp had a group dinner outdoors around the swimming pool, and it was a beautiful cloudless night where the stars were shining, the frogs were humming and you are hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town. Truly superb – even magical.

The camp is a fun mixture of people – French, American, Mexican, Canadian and South African. Only myself and the South Africans lasted until midnight though – the others were sensible! There was a python on the path to the tents, which is rather disconcerting. But the locals says the pythons are fine – it’s the Black Mambas to avoid.

Felt slightly queasy this morning as driving around bumpy fields in a landcruiser at 6 am is not the recommended cure for a hangover.

A jackal.

You can see the jackal behind the impala but the jackal is too small to threaten them so they just ignore it.

I’ve been very lucky. It had been five months since they saw the African Wild Dog at Chobe. I thought I was lucky seeing three of them at Kruger, but here we saw a pack of 18 of them. Fabulous.

I love their colouring.

You can see them moving out here.

The next day we got lucky again – we saw some impala running silently and quickly. Our guide had told us that when chased by lions or leopards they will run and make noise as the lions and leopards like stealth and will give up after a while. If you see them running silently then it is probably being chased by wild dogs, and it was.

You can’t see it here but they have just killed an impala. I’d say it was dead within 10 seconds. The pack just savaged it.

Within probably 90 seconds there was nothing left. You can see one of them here with a bone – they literally tore it to pieces.

Around half an hour after that kill by the adults, the younger dogs got an impala also. Here they can’t actually tear it apart so they all sit around eating it. Was a bit gruesome but fascinating.

Another shot of them after the kill. I’d love to bring back to NZ a pack of 18 African wild dogs and buy a house next dooe to a gang hq. The next time one of their pit bulls bites a kid, then let lose the pack! These dogs don’t attack humans and only attack for food.

So many birds. This is just a few.

The Southern Ground Hornbill

This stork does the most graceful landings. They glide in from around 100 metres away and then just pull up as they land.

A European bee-eater.

 And this lovely bird is a white-fronted bee-eater.

You can see the lion stalking the warthogs. Fortunately for them, they saw him and got away. The lions like to get very close to their prey – they are fast but lack some stamina.

Two lions happily ignoring us.

Looking at their physique, you can see why they can take on beasts bigger than them.

Yay. Finally after six days, captured a leopard on camera. They are very shy of humans. We were literally on the way to the airport, and my guide insisted on a final check of places they had been reported, and bingo. He was hiding in some bushes, but if you circle the bushes once in the vehicle, he knows you have seen him, so then comes out.

A close up. A beautiful beast.

I like this sight of King George sitting on his rock.

This shot at dusk is of the baboons going up the tree to sleep for the night.

As you can see the baboons can travel in large groups, to and from the water.

This is cute. The mum is holding the baby, and dad is giving her a backrub.

One of things in Chobe especially (but not only there) is how the different animals all mix in together. Well sure, not those who eat the others, but is quite a sight to see impala and baboons all together.

A nice viewing point for them.

This is a monkey, not a baboon. Far less of them about.

A more unusual antelope, with the hump and the more twisting horns – the kudu.

Two Impala having a fight.

A waterbuck.

Now you might be thinking how does an impala get up a tree? Can they climb? No. A leopard put him there. He wasn’t hungry when he killed him so is saving him up for the next day. Quite cunning and challenging to drag a dead impala up a tree.

A group of young impala. Their main purpose in life it seems is to be eaten up other animals.

Another of the rarer antelopes – the bushbuck.