Termite Mounds. That above is a live one.

Other than seeing termite mounds on TV, usually on National Geographic programs, I’d not paid much attention to them. They’re odd looking. Many are phallic-shaped, and some jesting was mentioned amongst our group about that. The one above is a fairly young mound, probably only about 4 feet tall. And when I tell you they “pepper” the African landscape is an understatement. They’re everywhere.

As days went by and we drove by hundreds of them (pictures below) I began to notice the differences between them, and could tell whether one was live or not. The answer to that has to do with the color and look of the stuff you see on the outside – this one is dark colored, meaning that the workers (the termites who take care of the mound, build it, clean it, excavate it) have been doing their jobs by removing detritus and dung, pushing it up and out, where it clings to the outside. There are vent holes in the mound, which are kept scrupulously clean by the workers.

The soldier termites defend the nest (mound) and have unique stuff they excrete onto attacking animals or insects that becomes a glue-like substance, in effect paralyzing the attacker.

The surface of these things is hard. I never did go up to a fresh mound and push on the dark stuff (we were rarely out of the Land Rovers) – perhaps I could have budged it – but I wasn’t interested in touching termite dung. As the weather on the savanna changes the surface of the mound becomes hard, almost like rock.

Termite mounds have a king and queen (similar to a bee hive but without a king bee), worker termites and soldier termites, and believe it or not, a mound can live for about 20 years. Eventually the life span of the insects wane and the mound dies. When that happens other rodents move in – mostly mongoose. Or snakes (but not both).

At first, I thought the termites must choose a place near a tree (because so many of them were mounded next to one), but actually not. These termites aren’t exactly wood eating (like the type that live in the wood in my house) – they eat anything that contains cellulose, which they forage from the surrounding landscape. It’s in hay and other botanical stuff they find. The workers and soldier termites are both blind.

There at left is an abandoned termite mound – note that there is no fresh (dark colored) stuff on or around the mound. And the mound has been cleaned out by rodents with plenty of escape holes.

As a termite mound rises in time, baboons use the tops of them as a sentry post, scanning the savanna for predators. And those baboons poop as they’re sitting there. Because baboons eat botanical stuff, their poop contains seeds, hence you can see behind this termite mound a tree that’s grown up beside it. So here I thought it was the egg and the chicken, but no it was the termite first, then the trees.

Utterly fascinating, this planet of ours and how it all works!

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You know when I tell you you have to make this. Yes. This. Soon. Fabulous.

Oh my goodness, this recipe is so good. I do love salmon, but it’s almost like chicken, in a way, since you can do so many different things with it – broil it, bake it, pan sauté it, or in this case it’s sautéed briefly, then baked for 6-8 minutes. And then served with this wonderful tangy, spicy apricot sauce/glaze. And with those pistachio nuts on top (with chives, parsley and a little oil to hold it together). Oh yes.

The sauce will keep several weeks. And, in fact, Phillis Carey talked about how good it is with chicken or halibut too. Phillis’ original recipe made half as much glaze, and my friend Cherrie and I, who attended Phillis’ class together, decided then and there that we’d make more of the sauce to use on other things, so I’ve increased the glaze part by 50% in the recipe below. We also thought a serving portion of the salmon could use just a bit more of the glaze than we had, so that’s another reason to make more.

So, the sauce can be made ahead by several weeks, as I mentioned, or the day before. Do give it some time to marry the flavors, though, if time permits. The salmon fillets are seared for a minute or so on each side, then placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Then you combine a tiny tetch of oil, the pistachios, parsley, chives and salt and pepper, and carefully pile it on top of the salmon. Into a 375° oven it goes and bakes for 6-8 minutes (depending on how thick the salmon is). Serve immediately! I promise – to raves! Easy. Good enough for a company meal, and not so hard that it couldn’t be made for a weeknight dinner. Especially if you made the glaze ahead of time.

What’s GOOD: everything about it – especially the glaze. It’s all good, and it’s also very easy.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click link to open)

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I took a photo of this, just so I could show you the difference about 5 minutes can make in the life of one can of Coke Light in the summer African bush. First it was poured into the glass, with ice, and I’d sip it some, and within 5-7 minutes or so it would be like the left one, all the ice had melted and it was diluted and getting warm.

Those of us on this trip talked about our obsession with ice. Every one of us was asking for ice – ice in our water, ice in our cocktails, ice to take back to our cabin, and ice in our soft drinks. At one of the camps they ran out of ice. I’m tellin’ you, that was one very sad day. Of course, remember that it was hovering at about 100° every day, so except for lying on our beds under the light breeze from the A/C, we were in the heat elements. Our water bottles were at room temp. None of the tent cabins had a refrigerator. We did have one at our first camp, but it wasn’t a safari tent cabin – it was a tree house and a more permanent structure. We did keep water cold in that one.

At our last stop, Stanley’s Camp, we all did some shopping at their little boutique. They had a nice mixture of things and since I left behind most of my clothes, I was able to fit in a few trinkets.

At left is a banner – I’m not sure what it was made of. At right was a shelf full of baskets of all shapes and sizes. There was one I wanted, but it was a bit too big to get into my duffle.

More baskets of all shapes and sizes. I bought one of those bush figures – the one at left with green trim. I loved the orange one, but I have no place in my house where an orange figure would fit very well.

One of our guides at Stanley’s Camp. He was a happy person and grinned all the time.

There at left is the lovely tray of coffee and cookies our room attendant brought to us both mornings. Very nice. We sat out on our spacious front deck, enjoying the view over the reed-filled savanna, listening to the morning birds. Did I mention that mostly we had French press coffee everywhere. They’d bring all the parts, with a thermos of hot water and we’d make it ourselves.

After I got home, I did some research about the many birds in Botswana, and I identified this guy as two different ones, so am not sure what he was. Pretty, though – kind of like a sandpiper with a similar running gait.

That’s our front porch. Too hot to sit there in the heat of the afternoon, but it was really nice in the early mornings. There were tarps on the sides, so we had some privacy, but the front just had screens, which was fine.

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This was the first grouping of elephants we saw, and this cute little baby (he was actually about 3-4 months old) was not far from his mother. Of course, it was a big thrill – that first elephant as we watched the breeding herd forage. They’re slow and soft-footed and their trunks are almost in constant movement. As the babies move about – usually quite close and almost dangerously (you’d think) under their mothers, but the moms are very aware of where the baby is. The baby usually has his trunk nuzzling some part of the mother, and occasionally reaching down to the grass, or pulling a small twig from a tree as this little guy was doing.

So many times this was the scene from our Land Rover, watching a herd of elephant crossing an open savanna, probably on a path that’s unseen to us. Sometimes the lead female would glance over at us – they have an acute sense of hearing – and she might pause – but unless she felt we were threatening her or her brood, she went back to foraging or walking. The herds were usually in groups of about 4-6.

Can you see why lion are almost invisible? If they’re lying down you absolutely can’t see them – only when they move does the shape become something. During the daytime the lions will walk some, but their goal is to find a comfortable shady spot to sleep away the intense heat. This female was with a young male (probably her brother) and another young female and they were just moving from place to place. They weren’t hunting, and they gave us no never-mind, as the saying goes. They didn’t even look at us. When the Land Rover got near (with the diesel engine running) sometimes they’d get up and move. Occasionally they’d lift their heads up and glance at us, but usually they’d fall back to a recline.

Warthogs, part of what’s called The Ugly Five (hyena, marabou stork, vulture, warthog and wildebeest). So named because they jokingly say they’re so ugly only a mother could love them. We saw wildebeest, but I didn’t get a photo. And I don’t think I took a picture of a vulture – we saw lots of them, but usually off in the distance, circling. Warthogs are elusive – once they spot a safari truck they usually make themselves scarce. We saw the backsides of many of them as they scooted off into the bush.

Before I go on with more animal pictures I want to paint a picture for you. And this, to me, is the most important paragraph I’m writing in this post, maybe in all of my posts about my safari experience. For the most part, the African savanna is peaceful. It’s amazing. Awesome in its beauty. Eerily silent sometimes, and wildly loud at others. A few times during our game drives the guide would stop, pause when we’d enter a big, wide savanna (I love that word, it’s so soft and descriptive). Once, and this is a time, at a place, that I’ll have indelibly imprinted on my mind . . . we were in a fairly round savanna, with a ring of trees off in the distance – maybe about 1/3 of a mile off. Much like the photo above, except it was that kind of a view, 360°. Off to the left, about a block away, was a small grouping of elephant. Gently walking and foraging. Further right was a big herd of impala, motionless for a second or two until they identified the Land Rover and went back to walking and foraging. Further on was a herd of kudu. So elegant in their stance, with the male horns protruding in the sky. Then there was another small herd of elephant, a bigger grouping with babies in tow. Further right was a small group of giraffe. They’re so graceful – the most graceful of all the animals we saw as they reach and stretch to find the most tender of new leaves on the trees, ever watchful, though. And yet they were almost intermingled with the kudu. Yet further to the right we saw a small group of warthogs that flitted off into the brush. And then there was a small grouping of Cape buffalo. None of the other animals want to be around them – they’re not king of the jungle by any means, but they’re feared by most. They too, were foraging. Walking slowly, feeding. And lastly, another small grouping of elephant.

That place was magical for me. To see these wild animals, all in one place, all living peacefully alongside one another. There were no predators (cats) anywhere. Time and time again we saw similar scenes, but not usually with so many animals visible.

I never saw a kill during my safari trip. Although I’m well aware of the way of life in the wild, I usually close my eyes when I see it on TV. And a kill happens all the time – somewhere. Yet for the most part, the animals graze in peace, their brains watchful for danger, but not dwelling on it. Not like we would if we walked into a drug- and gang-infested neighborhood at night, knowing our lives were in jeopardy.

Note how they blend into the background. Impala are identified by the dual vertical black stripes on their back end. They look much like deer.

There’s a kudu. A male. They’re noted for the vertical stripes on their sides, and by their darker color. They’re also big – about the size of elk. And, they’re known for their unusual curlicue horns. Did I mention that once a kudu has 3 full curls on his horns, he’s reaching the end of his life? They’re fast – very fast, and lion don’t generally go after kudu unless it’s a young one or an old one that’s weakened.

This gal didn’t like us. She turned just after I snapped that picture and stomped toward us with her ears full forward. But she stopped. Note the dust around her back feet – she was getting ready to move. They kind of run toward you and bluff you into moving on. There were other elephant back in the brush behind her. The guides are very attuned to when an elephant is going to do a bluff move, or if they’re really charging in earnest! We never saw the latter, when the elephant might have attacked the Land Rover with her tusks. Just let me tell you that when she charged us, the hair on the back of my neck was at full attention!

Note in the picture that the elephant’s far horn is stunted. Most of the elephants we saw were left-tusked and many had a stunted left tusk. Meaning that they used their left tusk for most of the work, scraping bark off trees, moving logs mostly to get at good vegetation to eat, and sometimes they jamb the tusk into a tree (they like to eat the interior of trees) and then can’t get it out, and it gets broken off extracting themselves from the tree. From that point, the elephant may still be able to use the left tusk (they learn to sharpen that tusk on trees so it’s still useful, albeit short), but not so well. Occasionally they will develop skills with the other tusk, but one guide said no, he’d never seen that. If a female loses both tusks, she becomes a breeding female only. If you’re interested in reading more about elephant characteristics, click this link.

We saw zebra several times, and what intrigued me about them was that off in the distance (let’s say a block away) they were completely invisible in the brush. You’d think those vertical strips would be a dead give-away, but no, when they’re still, they blend into the trees (the stripes looking much like short brush or trees).

That’s not such a great photo because I’m inside my tent cabin and this group of foraging females surrounded my cabin. The blurred effect is the screen. They stayed there for nearly 2 hours, moving around and around my cabin finding leaves and grasses to eat. They were almost silent except for the occasional foot-fall as they crunched some dry leaves.

That was the view near the lodge at one of the camps. Peaceful for sure. Birds of all variety noisily talking, maybe a hippo snorting out in the pond, and frogs chirping.

We saw baboons in lots of the camps, and they’re quite mischievous. They’re big, and also can be vicious. We were told that generally they wouldn’t attack us if they were outside our tent cabins, but that it would be best to wait until they moved on. At one of the camps they liked to sit on the edge of our private pool and take sips of water. They were quite docile if you observed them doing their thing, but if I’d opened a door they might have become aggressive.

We saw bats sometimes at night as they swooped down over the water. This little guy hung inside the roof of the lodge nearly all day. I was very close to him and he watched me quite carefully.

Our best sighting of lion was one day when we followed a trio – a brother and sister, and another young female. The mother was nearby, and the guides told us that when males get to be older adolescents, the dominant male wants them out of the pride and tries to run him off.

So, the females (the mother usually) leads a smaller group off to find food and share a meal, to protect the young male for one more season before he must leave the pride.

Once they do leave, young males form a bachelor pride and begin their search for a group of females, as one by one, they think they might be able to fight for, and win.  These two were searching for shade. They walked right up to the Land Rover and right in front of the front bumper as they walked leisurely on to find a place to nap.

The Cape Buffalo. The horns are so beautiful and such a unique shape. Usually the buffalo move off when we approached, but this group just stared at us for awhile before turning to wander away. As I think I mentioned, they can be very aggressive if provoked.

A young leopard female. They told us she was very hungry, but because she’s young, she was having lots of trouble catching anything. Unless they’ve made a kill (see below) they nap in the trees. This cat was so startlingly beautiful – the coat, and her piercing eyes. I’ll never forget the eyes – which you can’t see in that photo. She turned, opened her eyes wide (they’re quite big), looking at us. Her pupils were thin slits and the rest of her eyes were like molten gold. A few hundred yards away this female’s mother had killed an impala.

She dragged the impala several hundred yards, under the shade of a tree and began the meal – from behind the animal’s back legs. Once she’d feasted for awhile, she got up (see picture) and laid down to take a break, with her tail swishing around the head of the impala. She was just feet from us and totally ignored our presence. After awhile she moved back into position and began eating again. Others who visited this site the next morning found her still there, eating. By evening, though, another truck visited and she’d allowed her daughter to have some of the kill. The mother was sated. The next morning the entire animal was gone – with the hyena having eaten all of the bones and other scavengers having eaten the last of the meat. Sometimes the leopard will drag the kill up into a tree – away from the scavengers – and the lion – because the lion won’t (can’t) climb trees. The guide explained that all that was remaining were the insects who were carrying away the last of the kill.

There is the threesome we saw earlier – as they checked things out before lying flat to snooze. As before, they totally ignored our presence, so close to them.

We followed a group of giraffe one day, as they were eating the new leaves from the trees.

The male is the darker one, with 2 females in tow. The females are young, lighter in color. They weren’t willing to mate yet, but obviously one was showing interest because he followed her around, never getting more than a few feet from her, nuzzling her neck now and then. Very sweet. All part of the mating dance.

Whenever we saw giraffe, they were gracefully walking. Only occasionally did we see them run. It takes them a few seconds to gain momentum, which is why a lion can catch a giraffe sometimes.

There’s a jackal. Beautiful coloring on them. She just trotted along a path near the Land Rover and crossed in front of the truck and went off on a mission, or a trail. She never even glanced up.

A second one, more tentative, came out of the bushes, following the same path, but much more wary of us, but she went along the same route and off into the bushes she disappeared.

And there, lastly is the hyena. We were approaching a watering hole that was completely invisible because of the tall grasses. A family of hyena lived in/around this watering hole, but the young adolescents were busy in the hundred yards or so around the water. There were two of them, and this one, a male, was quite curious about us in the Land Rover, so he approached and actually looked up at us from within about a foot or so. He hitched his front leg up on the tire so he could get a better sniff of us, then jumped down and wandered off. His sister approached but didn’t get as close.

I have photos of birds, which I guess I’ll do another post since this one has been way too long! I sure hope you’ve all enjoyed seeing the pictures and hearing my stories.

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Not exactly quick, but not hard, either. In any case it’s delicious and worth making.

My friend Cherrie and I were finally able to find another class we could take with our favorite cooking teacher, Phillis Carey. Since the cooking school in San Diego closed some months ago – the one we attended often, Phillis is trying to find new venues to teach. But she’s always taught classes in other places and one is in Orange County, about once a month. (The downside is that the class is in a very cramped little space, hard, folding chairs, with a tray on our laps – i.e., not ideal.) This class was about Italian cooking at home.

Phillis is the queen of chicken breast cooking. She’s written an entire cookbook about it (her website is the only way to purchase it). And she continues to develop new and better ways to eat chicken. I don’t know about you, but I eat a lot of chicken and I love new/better ideas of ways to cook it. This one is worthy of a company meal – I might not go to the trouble just for a meal on my own.

The idea behind the oven fried part is that you lay the chicken breast (coated in eggs and bread crumbs) into a very little pool of hot oil in a rimmed pan and it sort of “fries.” How? Well, first you make a long, deep cut in the center of the boneless, skinless chicken breast half and open it up like a book. You don’t cut all the way through. Anyway, you fill the chicken breast (more on that in the next paragraph) and fold it together. Kind of squeezing it so it sticks together. Meanwhile, you will have heated the oven to 425° F. That’s HOT. Then you use a older, less attractive rimmed baking sheet (one that you don’t care how it looks and how the oil will mark it) and you heat olive oil (a tablespoon of oil per chicken breast) in that pan in the oven. When Phillis demonstrated this, after she put the baking sheet of oil into the oven to heat – it took about 4 minutes. It was smoking. That’s what it’s supposed to do. If you used canola oil (with a higher flash point) it wouldn’t smoke, and you can do that. It’s just that olive oil will give you a bit more flavor (more Italian, obviously). In the interim you will have coated the chicken breasts (dipped in beaten eggs and then a breadcrumb mixture that contains some Parm) and once the oil is smoking hot, you pull the oven rack out and gently – very gently – lay the chicken breasts, smooth side down (first) – in the hot oil. It will sizzle. If it doesn’t sizzle, then the oil didn’t get hot enough. That’s what creates the crust – you can see how beautiful it is in the photo at top. The chicken is baked in that hot oven for 7 minutes, then the breasts are turned over and baked another 6-8 minutes and they’re done. When the cheese (she used Fontina – a good melting cheese) begins to ooze out of the edges of the chicken you know it’s done. And you can serve it immediately, while it’s still hot as a pistol.

The filling – well, you could improvise if you wanted to. If you don’t like basil, use a different herb (fresh, though). If you don’t like Fontina, use Provolone or what you have on hand. A soft cheese, though, but not Jack or cheddar (tasteless). If you don’t like sun-dried tomatoes (these are the oil packed ones, drained) use fresh, but oven dried roasted tomatoes. Don’t use regular dried tomatoes – they’d be too firm even if you reconstituted them. And don’t use fresh tomatoes as they would give off too much liquid (would steam the chicken and you’d lose the whole point of the oven frying technique). She used prosciutto. You could use pancetta, but it won’t have the smoky flavor of prosciutto. But do remember that both of those Italian deli meats are salty. Use it judiciously.

So, you lay on a nice big leaf of basil on the open chicken breast “book.” Stack the filling on one side. Then you add the prosciutto. I’ve added into the recipe to cut it up in bite-sized pieces before laying it in the chicken. Phillis just laid a slice on the breast, but prosciutto kind of shreds when you try to cut it, so I think cut into pieces makes it easier to cut and eat it. Then the well-drained sun-dried tomatoes are added. I’d cut those up in small pieces also. THEN, you divide up the cheese and kind of cup it in your palm and place it on top of the filling. The other chicken breast half is laid over, pulled slightly and you press down (to compress the cheese) and so the edges of the chicken stick together. If you really wanted to do it right, brush the outer edge of the chicken with a bit of the beaten egg (used in the coating) to seal the edges. But it’s not really necessary to do that step.

The nice thing is that you can stuff the chicken a day ahead (covered, in the refrigerator). And you can coat the chicken an hour ahead (and refrigerate). So if you’re having guests, everything is ready except heating the oil and baking them. See? Easy, really. And it makes a beautiful presentation. That top turns a perfect golden brown.

Now, just a note about the CHICKEN. I buy my chicken breasts at Costco, and they’re big honkin’ breasts. Those are just too big for this recipe. So either buy smaller breasts (ideally about 6 ounces per serving), or if you use the big, big breasts, cut off the tender (you’ll do that anyway) and cut off some of the outer edges so you do end up with about a 6-ounce portion. If you were to use a bigger breast it will take longer to cook through and unless you’re feeding football players, they won’t eat it all. The chicken is very rich and filling.

What’s GOOD: the flavors are wonderful – very Italian for sure. I loved the crispy crust. I loved the oozing Fontina cheese in it. The flavor boost from the sun dried tomatoes was lovely. When I make it I will be sprinkling on just a tiny little bit of salt ONLY on the outside edges (where the prosciutto isn’t), as whatever chicken doesn’t have any filling needs just a hint of salt. It’s a beautiful presentation – serve on a platter if you want to with a sprinkling of Italian parsley and a few whole stems for color. The chicken is very rich, and is high in calorie with all those goodies in it and the oil it’s cooked in, too.

What’s NOT: only that it does take a bit of prep. But it’s not hard to do. Just a bit of time. The chicken probably won’t be great as leftovers. You’ll not be able to get the crispy crust the 2nd time around, so plan to eat it at the first sitting, if possible!

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file.

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For years, I’ve been enamored with baobab trees. They have a very unique shape and they are such a stately tree. The baobabs hadn’t yet begun to leaf out (they’re late bloomers in the spring) when I was in Africa. I took several pictures of them, but this one was my favorite.

There are 6 varieties of baobab (by the way, it’s technically pronounced bay-oh-bab, but the natives pronounced it bow-bob), yet only one variety grows in central Africa. It’s often referred to as the upside down tree because it looks like (some more than others) the tree got stuck into the ground with the roots on the top. The trunks (which can grow to a huge diameter) hold water (tens of thousands of gallons) which keep it alive during the hot, dry summers.

The elephants like to eat the inner bark of the baobab – it’s such a shame because they can, eventually, kill the tree. They rub up against it to remove the outer bark, then they get to the reddish interior bark that they enjoy eating. They just keep rubbing and rubbing to expose a big area of that inner layer. Then more elephants stop by and do the same thing, until they’ve badly damaged the tree. The tree can regenerate its bark and will usually recover.

When we arrived at Xudum (pronounced koo-doom), we had lunch, then were shown to our tent cabins. This one was on two levels (half levels) with the bedroom upper, and the bathroom (huge) was 5 steps down.

We had a relaxing afternoon, more of that 100° heat and so Gwenda and I stretched out on those beds with the little A/C blowing right on us. We read, relaxed, snoozed and it never took us more than about 3 minutes to unpack our duffle bags at any camp. We took dunks in the pool – because the A/C stopped working at this camp and we were so hot we could hardly stand it. The water in the pools was always cool, so it was refreshing.

All of the camps provided lovely toiletries for us. One brand, Africology, was popular at several of the camps. I didn’t care for it – the shampoo or the body lotion. The shampoo was really hard on my hair, and the scent in the body lotion was just odd. I can’t tell you why – it just didn’t smell like anything I really wanted to put on my body – but since it was all we had, obviously I did! I read the label, but it wasn’t definitive enough to tell me what kind of weed, bark or flower provided the scent. Whatever it was it wasn’t an aroma I liked. Gwenda didn’t like it either.

Speaking of odd scents – all over in Africa we encountered wild sage. It grows everywhere on the savannas. The Land Rover drove over it, around it and it popped right back up. It has small yellowish flower on it. We didn’t much care for the scent of it and were surprised to learn it was in the sage family. Finally I looked it up in a botany book at one of the camps. Under the description it said the scent was most closely aligned with perspiration. Well, no wonder we didn’t like it! Although all of us smelled of it – perspiration –for the entire trip!

There at left is the spacious bathroom. Most of the tent camps had slatted-floor showers. You can see it there behind the bathtub. Since it was so hot all the way through our safari stays, we rarely had to use much of the hot water, but it was plentiful. Just behind the tub is a tall screen (decorative and functional) and the shower head was on the far wall so we girls had some privacy. I have to laugh – Gwenda and I didn’t really know each other well before we went on this trip, but modesty played no part by about day 4 of our safari camps.

There at right was a spiral wheel of bush sausage – it was beef and was cooked on a propane cooker out on one of our sundowner evenings. It was delicious!

There at left was an old ladder that they used for displaying all the liquor brought along for the sundowner boat cruise. It was just such fun. Not only the boat ride – pictures later – but at the end we stopped and they’d set up this lovely light repast – they’d put a very clean linen towel down the steps of the ladder and had the liquor varieties just so. On the nearby table were glasses and mixers and Amarula. At right is the cocktail they made for most of us – it’s a pour of crème de menthe on the bottom, then they carefully poured Amarula on top. I’m not a fan of crème de menthe, so I opted to have a gin and tonic.

The wild game didn’t come into that clearing – maybe the staff at the camps use these places frequently enough that the animals don’t come near. It was just getting dark and we looked out at the water – just steps away – and there was a hippo who wanted to retake his territory. There’s a rule in the bush – no boats on the water after sunset because the night belongs to the animals. Sure enough, when we were done, the Land Rovers arrived to drive us back to our camp, which wasn’t far away.One morning we were offered the option of going on a nature walk. It’s something they are just introducing into the camp. In came two of our guides (who are hamming it up) with the 3 women who were going. Gwenda (my roomie) is on the left, in the middle is Carol, our leader (travel agent and fondly called Mother Hen – and that’s a compliment) and at right another Carol in our group. The guys were in native wear, obviously and the gals are all laughing because they were holding onto the guys – on bare skin and the rest of us were teasing them. I didn’t go on the walk – it was in the morning, but not really early morning, so it meant it was going to be very, very hot. They were told to wear very nondescript clothing (no color). The walk was about 2 1/2 hours long. Those who went said they learned a lot about the flora and fauna and the men demonstrated how to start a fire with sticks, etc. Very boy scout territory. They didn’t see any game, as I recall. These two guides were just so much fun – actually all of the guides in all the camps were well-spoken (meaning they spoke English well – they learn it in school) and they sincerely worked at engaging us and showing us a good time. And they worked hard – long hours.

Isn’t that just gorgeous? That was out on the boat cruise – we ended up in this rather large channel (felt like a lake, but it wasn’t) just as the sun was dipping behind the clouds.

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Everyone in our safari group had the opportunity in one or two camps to take an evening ride in a small boat. Some in a 2-person canoe type thing with a guide, others in a 4-6 passenger outboard, flat bottomed. By 4:30-5 pm every day the temperatures started to wane (thank goodness) and off we’d go in the boat. The Okavango Delta is so beautiful. Quiet. Peaceful. If they stopped the boat and turned off the outboard (as they did often) you could hear the birds, maybe crickets and frogs. Maybe you’d hear an elephant trumpeting in the distance.

The goal was to see game, but from a different angle, obviously, than in a Land Rover criss-crossing the paths and roads on land. The guides knew these waterways like the backs of their hands, so they zipped up and around many different channels, seeking some of the typical watering holes for hippo, but mostly we were seeking elephant.

In some of the more still waters there were jillions of lily pads and some blooming lilies as well. I didn’t happen to catch any in my camera lens as we zoomed along.

There are frogs of all sizes in the water there. As I listened to a TV show  (here at home) the other night, about a couple who were doing a research study in Botswana about elephant bones, they were trolling along in a boat and I could hear the very unique tink, tink of a particular frog sound. It almost sounds like an outdoor wind chime. Every night – if we were near water – we could hear them. I loved the sound. Have no idea what type of frog made the sound, but one of the guides told me it was frogs.

There’s one of them at right. He couldn’t have been more than 1/2 inch long and he blended right into the reeds. Our guide spotted him as we slowly trolled in the reeds. He stopped the boat and I reached out and grabbed the reed stem and snapped a photo of him. There was another one – an almost translucent yellow one, about half his size on a further reed, but I messed up trying to reach out for the branch. I nearly fell out of the boat trying to reach it and I scared him off.

We had to be very careful about crocodiles. It’s very easy to get lazy about what kind of predators live in the water when you don’t see them. We actually scraped over the top of a croc on the boat ride and he may have sustained a bit of damage from the outboard. We had no idea he was in the water – he was right in the middle of one of the main water channels. It’s tempting when the boat is trolling slowly to drag your fingers in the water. Unh-uh. No-no. We saw a young crocodile one evening when we returned late from a game drive. He was in the watering hole we had to ford (this was in the Land Rover). One of our group spotted him and by flashlight we could really see him well. He was scared-off from our light and as he flipped over a fish jumped out of the water and the croc just quick-like swallowed him. The croc was about 2 1/2 feet long – young. We helped him with dinner, you see!

Did I show this picture (above) already? Maybe I did. Sorry if it’s a repeat. That was at the end of our boat journey – loved the reflections in the water.

There’s a photo I took the morning we flew out, the beginning of the journey home. We flew out of one of those small sand-packed air strips and flew at very low altitude (because it was only a 15-20 minute flight to Maun, a small city in western Botswana). The dark places are areas where there is still water.

The Delta is so beautiful. Some of it has lots of greenery. Other parts of it are vey arid and dry as a bone.

When we were out on game drives we saw all types, but mostly the dry, arid types as that was where the game was – en route to a watering hole, usually.

They can’t all live by a watering hole – the predators would corner them and they have to go great distances to forage for food. They like the open spaces to run away. I think that’s the case. If they’re lucky.

There’s a more typical bit of arid space and a big watering hole. In the winter – the rainy season, all of those slightly green areas are abundantly full of water. The cycle of seasons in Africa is quite distinct and it’s hard on all the animals during the dry season as they have to go great distances to find water, which most of them do at least twice a day.

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Passenger Waiting Lounge, Pom Pom Airport, Okavango Delta

Like that picture? We went in and out of this airport (nothing but a compacted sand strip) several times as we hopped and skipped between safari camps. And indeed, one of the times our plane had mechanical trouble and we had to wait – in that lovely little covered space, for about 15 minutes (yes, in the 100° heat) until another plane came to get us. We also referred to that hut as “baggage claim,” and most commonly “Terminal One.” We all had many a laugh about that rickety structure!

Once we arrived here, the safari trucks (Land Rovers or Land Cruisers) met us – they’d be waiting in the shade nearby if they could find it and once we’d landed they’d drive up to the bush planes. Baggage out (sometimes food for the camp too) and into the waiting trucks we’d go, for another bumpy, hot ride to our next camp. This time it was to Xaranna, pronounced ka-ran-ah. We arrived in time for lunch. The staff would meet and greet us with dance and song, and more of those cold washcloths and a fruit drink to quench our thirst.

Here’s a typical day in the bush, at a safari camp:

1. 5:30 AM A staff member would come to our cabin outside (remember, mostly no walls, just screens or canvas tarps) and call to us  – “it’s 5:30, time to get up; breakfast at 6:00.” We’d answer and say we were awake. We’d quick-like get up, wash our faces (no time for a shower – no sense anyway because we were going to be out in the dust and sand in the bush), throw on our every-other-day safari outfits (remember, we had but two), maybe put on a dash of eye make-up and lipstick, sunscreen and mosquito repellant.

2. 6:00 AM Having trekked to the lodge (sometimes only 100 yards, sometimes 1/4 mile, being ever watchful of wild game wandering through the camp) there would be coffee and tea, bread or croissants, toast, fruit, juices, sometimes muffins, sometimes some cheese. Although we always needed water, the more fluid we drank the more risk there was that we’d have to ask for a “comfort stop” on the game drive. Nobody really wanted to ask. Because of the heat, very few times did we have to ask because we were all somewhat dehydrated the entire time. We’d wolf down some food and at about 6:27 the guide would call us all to go climb on the Land Rovers. And off we’d go. With me on the game drives was: my long-sleeved shirt, usually wearing it, my camera, my safari hat, a Kleenex stuffed into a pocket, and a bottle of water. Oh, and my dark glasses for sure!

3. 6:30 AM We’re off on a game drive that would last for 3 to 4 1/2 hours. All depended on how much game we saw and how far afield we went from the safari camp. Bone-jarring rides in the Land Rover. At first, at 6:30, it’s cool – very pleasant – but within about an hour it begins to heat up and has reached the high 90s by about 10 or 11 AM. Wickedly hot. If we wore a long-sleeved safari shirt, it got peeled off soon enough. But we all wore our safari hats, with the chin strap fastened securely. I’ll do a blog post about the animals (a separate post altogether and put all the animal photos in one post). Sometimes we’d stop for refreshments part way through – coffee, tea, Amarula, snacks (usually peanuts and dried mango slices) and cold soft drinks and beer.

4. 11:00 AM – (approximately) back to the lodge, with cold washcloths and a cold drink. Refresh ourselves at the lodge co-ed bathroom, wander around, stretch our legs a bit, then a lovely sit-down lunch with a couple of courses. Always good food everywhere (this was an Abercrombie & Kent tour, remember). Wine was offered at both lunch and dinner. I preferred a very cold Coke Light on lots of ice.

5. 1:00 PM – (approximately) trek to our tent cabins for an afternoon rest, a snooze, reading, relaxation, watching for game wandering through the cabins, maybe a dunk in our private pool and/or a refreshing cold shower.

6. 4:00 PM – meet back at the lodge for “afternoon tea.” Usually it was a dessert of some kind and whatever kind of drinks, hot or cold, that you wanted.

Our tent cabin at Xaranna, partially clad in wood, screened around the front (the view).

7. 4:30 PM – afternoon game drive. All aboard, and off we’d go for another 2 1/2 – 3 hour game drive. Usually to see the same animals, but we never saw everything on every game drive. Always there were birds, usually elephant, always some impala (remember, they’re kind of the bottom of the food chain for the wild cat family). We’d stop part way through and have a sundowner – same as the morning refreshment stop except that there would be gin and tonic, bourbon, and other types of alcohol, beer, Amarula, soft drinks and water. We’d stand around the Land Rovers sipping drinks, looking out in the distance, aware of the silence.

8. 7:00 PM – (approximately) back to the camp, maybe time to refresh ourselves before dinner. Often we’d gather for a drink and appetizers on the main deck of the lodge, talking, telling stories about the different experiences on the game drives.

9. 7:30-8:00 PM – dinner at the lodge. Always sit down – sometimes within the confines of the lodge; sometimes out on the sand around the lodge. Often a campfire (did we need a campfire? absolutely not, but it was part of the ambiance).

10. 9-10:00 PM – a walk, with a guide, and a flashlight, to our tent cabins and we’d promptly fall sound asleep. Sometimes we’d wake up in the middle of the night to hear animals nearby (baboons playing on the roof) or something furtive going by the tent. I never was scared inside our tents despite the mammoth elephants that walked by.

At Xaranna, as I mentioned earlier, I was surrounded by a herd of female elephants and their babies one afternoon. Gwenda was over at the lodge and I was just resting, when I heard rustling. I looked up and here were elephants very softly foraging for new, green leaves on the trees and shrubs around my tent. I dared not open any of the screens as they were no more than 5 feet from me, and with babies in the midst I knew the mamas would be alarmed. I did open the bathroom door enough to take this picture at left of two adolescent elephants foraging around the plunge pool at our cabin. They took a little drink now and then. They didn’t seem to be alarmed with me there – the only thing that was outside the room was my iPad and my forearms.

There at right is a little bit of décor at one of the camps – made with dried bark and twigs, they’re a depiction of baobab trees. I wished I could have bought some, but there was no place whatsoever to put them in my little duffle bag! After doing some research online, these baobab trees may be made of painted (dried) banana leaves. Very clever. If I ever find them online, I’ll be ordering at least one.

There’s the lodge deck as we relaxed in the late afternoon. There were always plenty of places to sit and read, relax or write notes at a table, and be served a refreshing drink or cocktail. Always there was someone available to help.

Each of the camps did have a tiny gift shop. They didn’t have a lot of merchandise, but some were baskets and trinkets made by the staff during their off hours, or during the off season. Still I was limited because of my small duffle and no room to put anything. At the last camp many of us bought some things – because we’d unloaded the safari clothes and left them for the employees to use or give away – so I did buy some things. They’re sitting on the mantle in my master bedroom – I need to take photos of them to share here on my blog.

If you click on the links (the safari camp names) in all of my posts about the safari camps you’ll get a much better overview of the camps and how luxurious they are, and how open they are to the savannas. My photos don’t do them justice.

That’s something they call cotton grass. There have been fires in the Okavango Delta in recent years and the cotton grass is one of the things that comes up after a fire. My photo doesn’t show it very well, but the cotton grass went on and on almost as far as the eye could see in this area.

That was my view, most frequently, when we were out on a game drive. I preferred to sit in the front row seats, mostly because as a very short person, getting into the lower level (that’s still up about 3 feet above ground but requires agility to get in) was always a challenge. The taller people had an easier time climbing into the higher tiers.

The road there in the picture is actually in really good shape – I think this was the road to the airport. The tracker is sitting out front and he’s eyeballing the road for animal tracks. Every trip to or from an airport was also an opportunity to see game. He’s holding onto a bar on his left side, attached to the seat, so he can stay in place. The roads were bumpy, and when I say bumpy, they were BUMPY. Had he not held on he’d be tossed off the Land Rover in a jiffy. One thing I never realized, when you watch National Geographic or documentaries about African wild animals is that all of Africa is just a maze, a spider web, an irregular one, of tracks. The single-file tracks are either people tracks from one village to another, or elephant tracks. And the 2-tracks, obviously are used by vehicles. All the animals, but particularly the elephants and the cats, use the tracks and roads to get around. This was such a surprise to me – I just assumed they went their own way, regardless of a road or track, but they find it very easy to get around – easier than strolling in the ordinary bush. Not that they don’t go off-road – they do – but when they want to get from one place to another they use the roads just like we do!

When you fly over Africa, at low altitude (which we did in between the different camps) you can really see the maze. I’ll post pictures of that at the end of my African sojourn.

Now there, is an elephant hole. Perhaps a few weeks before this it held some water (see the mud all around), and the elephants used it as a small watering hole. But as the savanna began to dry out in the spring heat, the holes dry up. And because the elephants are smart – very smart – they will dig down into a drying up flattish watering hole to try to find more water, rather than walk another mile, perhaps, to find a bigger water source. So they use their feet to dig. This hole didn’t happen to be ON a road, but on one of our game drive trips the tracker, who is responsible for looking out for elephant holes, was scanning off in the distance, and BOOM, we drove the left front wheel right into an elephant hole. Needless to say, the Land Rover came to a complete stop with the front wheel down about 2-3 feet into the hole. The tracker went flying off. I ended up in the left seatmate’s lap, my knees jammed into the roll bar in front of me, and my camera took a flying leap. Fortunately it landed inside the truck and wasn’t damaged. I was amazed. No one was hurt, thankfully. We all had a laugh about it, though. When you think about hazards in the bush, you may not realize until you’ve been there that an elephant hole can be a serious one!

Another view of the tracker’s seat, attached to the front bumper of the trucks, with a roll bar and wire foot rest. You can just barely see the handle on the far side of the seat. The back folds down when no one is sitting in it, and when we began tracking cats, the tracker gets into the body of the truck – too dangerous to stay out front.

Up in the treetop you can see a bird. It was a lilac-crested roller, I think, though I wasn’t taking notes. I might be wrong. In that waning sunset light even if I blew it up I’m not sure. The sunsets on the savanna were absolutely beyond gorgeous.

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The chef at Sandibe (pronounced san-dee-bey), the safari camp where this was served, just called it hummus, but because peanuts are such a major player in the cuisine of Africa, I started calling it safari hummus. Instead of tahini, they used peanut butter. It’s a surprising change of flavor.

I don’t think I expected to be served hummus in Africa. Maybe in a cosmopolitan city yes, but out in the bush? Yet it was very refreshing. They served it with fresh vegetables – icy cold carrots and celery, which tasted particularly good after being out on a morning game drive. I made this the other day to take to a luncheon (my friend Cherrie had a Halloween lunch for a bunch of her girlfriends). Several people commented on it – that they liked this and hoped I would be posting it here. Here you go, friends.

The safari camps must be used to people asking for recipes for their dishes – they delivered them usually the next day after I asked. I came home with several, as I mentioned last week.

This takes no time whatsoever to make. But if you did it exactly as they made it with roasted garlic (instead of fresh, which is what I used) it would take a bit longer. It was hot the morning I made this and I just didn’t feel like roasting the garlic, easy as it is to do – I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen. I’ve left the recipe as-is, below, so you can decide whether you want to roast it or not. Do use soft peanut butter (like JIF creamy), not the natural stuff, and not any peanut butter with nut chunks in it. The hummus is made completely in the food processor – it contains a fair amount of lemon juice which gives it some tang. And there is cayenne in it too, which gives it a kick. Make it the day before if you have the time so the flavors can meld.

What’s GOOD: the peanut butter is subtle – some people could pick it out of the flavor mélange – but some couldn’t determine what was different about it. I liked the option of pureeing the first can of garbanzo beans so it’s smooth, then adding in the 2nd can and leaving some of the chunkiness there. It gives the hummus some texture.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click on link to open)

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At the camp in Zambia, we were there to visit Victoria Falls. The day before we were told that unfortunately, in October, there is no water flowing on the Zambia side of “Vic Falls.” We all gave a collective groan. Oh no. But they said if we were willing to pay extra, they’d take us into Zimbabwe, we’d pay for a Zimbabwe car/van and guide. We all did that. That’s why it was fortunate we’d all decided to get the visa that encompassed a few other countries, so we were able to get into Zimbabwe. So off we went. First we came to the Zambia border crossing (the leaving Zambia side). Picture below was approaching it. I think this is much like I’ve seen on tv. People waiting for people. People wanting to sell trinkets. Our guide wanted us to have nothing to do with the hawkers there. It wasn’t very nice to look at – lots of squalor and trash. Poor people. They weren’t living there, just spending the day there. But maybe they were eking out a living this way. There were dozens and dozens of semi’s parked along the road, waiting and waiting. Only trucks of a certain size are allowed to cross the bridge (see below), and I’m guessing they do it mostly at night when there isn’t much tourist traffic.

We parked and all of us trouped into the small building and waited in line for someone to eyeball our passports and stamp us out. Back in the van we shortly came to a bridge.

Now, I’d never heard of the Victoria Falls Bridge before, and I’d suppose, unless you’ve been there, you probably haven’t, either. It’s an arch bridge, constructed in 1904-05 by an English engineering firm. It was fully constructed in England, then shipped to Africa and re-constructed. When the workers got close to meeting the two sections in the middle, they were absolutely perplexed because there was a gap – the bridge didn’t meet. Oh my. The team of workers left and “slept on it.” During the night, in the cooler air, the bridge relaxed and by golly, the next morning they discovered the bridge had come together. They locked it in place and it’s been there ever since. The bridge is 420 feet above the water below. Dizzying, I’ll tell you. Cars and trucks cross the bridge from both directions, but only one at a time – it has just one lane. Safety concerns were voiced about 10+ years ago, so the bridge was somewhat reinforced. On some tours people are encouraged to walk the open grid cat-walk underneath the bridge. Not me. Actually, doing that wasn’t offered to our group. There’s also a bungee jump from the center of the bridge. And sure enough, while we were there someone made a jump.

We did another border control stop on the other side of the bridge – to get into Zimbabwe, went through a museum about the local national park there, then drove further and parked. Our guide said, as we were standing in that 100°+ heat, that we needed to take the right path first, to go to the bridge (where I took the photo above), then we’d take the longer meander along the edges of the cliffs to take photos of the falls themselves.

And oh, are they glorious. They’re in a chasm, a gorge, plunging down over 400 feet. It’s mesmerizing. Noisy. Misty. A place to take in the power of God who created this magical place.

Note the man (a native) standing on the far side. He was a guide, leading a group of Asians who had purchased a special tour package – right where he’s standing the group was going to jump down into that little niche below him. It’s a sort of cauldron, a pool, where you can sit in the cauldron for awhile with just your head above water. And then he would lead you up onto some precarious steps and climb your way out. We didn’t stay long enough to see the people do it. There were about 6-7 people carefully picking their way to where the guide was standing – it was obviously very rocky and uneven because it took them a long time to go 50 yards.

We just continued to walk along the path, with occasional viewpoints. And can I just tell you how unbelievably hot it was? Oh my. We were all soaked through in sweat – nothing to do with the mist!

We had no time to go down further (picture left) but with that picture you can see the depth of the gorge and the power of the mist.

Back in the van we retraced our paths, going into the border crossing building – to leave Zimbabwe – to drive across that bridge again, having to wait awhile as there was a bit of a traffic jam waiting – then stopping on the other side to re-enter Zambia, getting our passports stamped there also. So hot. I thought I was going to faint. Cold water in hand, that quickly warmed to 100° bottled water. I learned on this trip that I don’t much like sipping 100° water. But when you’re dehydrated, you’ll drink anything!

That concluded our Vic Falls visit. We went back to our lodge near Livingstone, rested up, had a lovely dinner, then departed the next morning for our next camp.

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