salt pans & flood lands

sometimes the unexpected sights are the most beautiful ones 

if you google " Makgadikgadi salt pans" [assuming you can spell it right! jk. I've done the hard work for you, just click] you will find images of a cracked white landscape and barren earth with no end in sight. We visited the Salt Pans right at the tail end of a particularly rainy season though. Moreover, the days before our arrival it rained so hard that many of the roads leading to the pans were flooded. We weren't even sure if we would make it. But the rains held off just long enough for us to see the Salt Pans in a very different light. 

forget desolation, they were teeming with new greenery, grasses swaying in the wind, puddles rippling in our jeep's wake... we even stopped to watch the sunset and for all intents and purposes it appeared that we were standing at the edge of an ocean, not in the middle of a landlocked country looking out over what was supposed to be a wasteland. 

^^ this is probably my favorite picture! I just can't describe how oddly calming it was to be rumbling over the flooded lands with the blue clouds reflected in the water and a soft wake trailing behind us. 

^^ my ponytail game was on point that day! jk. wild, wind-swept hair for the win.

cotton candy clouds ^

  

water truly is the essence of life, I will probably say it about 110x more throughout the course of my Africa Safari recaps, but I am just so in awe of nature's beauty and ingenuity! What a world. 

Bush Camping

we camped our way through Botswana, for most of the two week adventure, but the three nights we spent in the bush were unlike any other! 

we were so remote that we had to drive for a few hours in safari jeeps, plus ride for 2 hours in shallow wooden dugouts just to make it to our camp site! And by campsite I mean a wild area just off the Okavango Delta waters. There were no "amenities" , so we carried in all of our gear. Which meant that space was at a premium, so I fit everything I needed for 3 nights into my tiny camelback and then carried a 5L jug of clean water (priorities!) and our tent. 

rugged. 

we peed in holes, waded through mud, adventured through tall grasses, and climbed trees to watch the approaching savannah thunderstorms. It was all so glorious, I nearly cried. 

I kept on looking out over the horizon in disbelief that a) it was so flat! I could see for hundreds of miles and b) that there was no sign of human civilization. The okovango delta truly is one of the last wild places left. Even thinking about it now makes my heart soar. 

I have had the pictures for this post uploaded for the last week, but I almost didn't publish this post..  none of these photos come even close to reflecting how special this place is and that really bothers me!  I wish that I could've better captured the spirit of this place, but maybe it is one of those things that isn't meant to be captured in a photo (Walter Mitty  "ghost cat"reference anyone!?)  

we did a lot of animal tracking while in the bush (with our trusty guides, of course!) mostly at sunrise and late afternoon, when the animals are most active. one morning, we woke up before sunrise and spent the next five hours in small groups exploring the savannah! We found the skull of a hippo, lots of tracks, lots of birds + small animals, and a huge herd of zebras with a dozen giraffes nearby. It was incredible.

there were no paths to follow, at times we had to take off our shoes and walk through thigh deep mud or quietly crouch in the grass. That first afternoon we went exploring the grasses were swaying like the ocean swells as a huge storm blew in. The sun was still bright but the black clouds were rapidly rolling in. The air was electric, the grass was soft, as the light patter of rain began.. I have never felt so alive.






I also have never felt so clearly that I am a guest of the wild, not there to tame it. Before we went into the bush area our guides gave us a very serious lecture about safety. "There is no time to think, you just have to react. If I say run, don't question me. If I say climb a tree, you do it. If you don't, if you hesitate, you might be dead." And they meant it too. This wasn't just something to scare us into behaving. Two nights I woke up to the sound of lions, hyenas would roam through our camp at night, the poisonous snakes and scorpions were the least of our concerns. Let's just say that you didn't leave your tent at night unless you reallly realllllllyyyyy had to. and even then, you always acted with extreme caution and took a buddy.

We often ventured through plants that were nearly as tall as us. This particular variety of grass was my favorite. It is so unbelieveably soft that I took to mentally calling it "the cashmere plant". I spent most of our walking hours with my hands outstretched, letting the grass gently sweep over my palms as I walked by.

I was excited to continue our adventure, but part of me never wanted to leave this place. I hope that I will always remember how it felt to live in the wild. This is going to sound very hippy-dippy but, reconnecting with nature was exactly what  I needed at that moment. To rise with the sun, explore natures beauty and then fall to sleep enveloped by the noises of the wild. Yes, the danger was real. I am happy to report though that we all were respectful/smart and we all survived.

Personally I would extrapolate that statement even further, I didn't just survive, I thrived!

Jump

Skipping ahead (chronologically) in my Safari 2014 posts, I am just too excited and can't wait any longer to share this post!

Our last few days of travel were spent in Zimbabwe near Victoria Falls. A definite change of pace from all the bush camping + safaris. Victoria Falls was pure adventure, and I decided to embrace it all. So off I went on an adrenaline filled afternoon with a few of my good travel friends!

Jumping. Off. Cliffs. In. Africa.

youthful spontaneity and recklessness at its finest!

We superman-ed our way over a gorge, we ziplined down a cliff face at a 45 degree angle,  slowly working our way up to the big one.. the JUMP of all jumps.

400 feet above the rushing river
all you are wearing is a little harness
oh and the line doesn't catch until 30ft above the water
so you are free falling for most of that distance

#$&!($&(#@*)!

When I envisioned myself doing that jump earlier in the morning, I had every intention of closing my eyes, clutching the rope, and jumping off. But once we got to the gorge the daredevil inside of me had other plans! So before I knew it, I was on my hands, being hoisted into a handstand about to flip off the platform into free fall.

hashtag YOLO, amiright?

shoutout to all my friends who were there and helped me film this! Thanks to all the adrenaline coursing through our veins, it turned out a little shaky, but I love it all the same!

wait a few minutes, for it to load in HD. It's worth it.


and some photos from the day!


look carefully at the line. you are pretty much zooming straight towards the water,on some rusty little carabiners.. but this was by far the least scary one! I even got to see two crocodiles in the water!

see that itty bitty second rope that is knotted to the top of my harness? well that is what is supposed to catch me if the first line breaks.. 

I really wish that we had filmed ourselves more before jumping.. all morning I had butterflies in my stomach, just thinking about it! When it was time to go, we all were freaking out! so nervous, but so excited!

Once I got my harness on I was a nervous ball of energy, I literally could not stop bouncing around as I watched my friends go.

We were the only ones there, which didn't really help me feel any better about the whole safety thing.. but oddly enough, once I launched myself off that first platform I wasn't scared at all! Quite contrary, I had the time of my life!

I would do it again in a heartbeat, no hestitation.

So here is the real question: how am I going to top this? skydiving anyone? I need my adrenaline fix.

Elephants

To start off my grand Safari adventure we flew into Johannesburg, South Africa and then over the course of a few days basically drove the entire length (north to south) of Botswana. So that meant a lot of time on our "adventure mobile" 

aka "the duck" 

aka "the tank" 

aka "the bus" 

But more on that in another post! Just trust me, this thing was a beast (we had to climb a ladder to get in) and it got some serious mileage over the course of our two week camping expedition. 

We also didn't have any AC, but with some windows down, hair whipping in the wind and sunshine streaming in, I am pretty sure it was scientifically the perfect temperature for napping. Just the right amount of warmth and cool breeze. It was glorious. 

But my real favorite part of driving? umm ELEPHANTS! In Northern Botswana we only saw a few elephants in game reserves and national parks, yet somehow we saw 50+ elephants on the side of the road as we would be driving down the road! Surreal.

At one point we saw a family of nearly TWNETY elephants, just a few hundred feet away from us!


I don't think anyone actually dislikes elephants, but over the course of this trip I went from liking elephants to elephants-are-the-coolest-creatures-in-the-world! Not only are they beautiful and a lot more graceful than you might expect. But they also pretty much have super sonic hearing, are crazy intelligent, and have strong family bonds. As we were driving in the "adventure mobile" I actually was reading an article about how a study of 300+ elephants demonstrated that they have the ability to distinguish between human languages. Elephants had a defensive reaction to a traditional hunter tribe's language, whereas they had a neutral reaction to a farmer tribe's language.  

Elephants herds are matriarchal and all the adults work together to raise and protect their young. If they sense danger they will circle up, placing the vulnerable baby elephants at the center, to protect them from attacks on all sides. They are one of the few mammals that practice altruism and display a wide range of emotions including: grief, joy, anger, and play. 
Because we came to Botswana at the tail end of the rainy season, it was really hard to spot animals on safaris (tall grasses + plenty of water = animals hiding) BUT the huge up side to visiting during the spring? All the BABY animals!

^^ pretty sure that this little guy is the cutest elephant ever.
more elephant facts: babies gestate for 22 months! and then when they are born they weigh 200-250 lbs! 

 And to wrap it all up: I am seriously digging the Dumbo ears the little guy in the back has going on.

Fun fact: Dumbo was my favorite show when I was toddler and at the tender age of 4 my mother accidentally taped over (back in the days of VHS) my Dumbo show and I told her "you are ruining my life."

and with that fun fact, I'll conclude this post!

elephants are the greatest. that is all.