Trials and tribulations of a former railfan videographer: August 2019

In July, 2019, Margie and I went to Botswana on an “Images of Wildlife” photographers safari. We flew from Tucson to Chicago to London to Johannesburg to Gaborone to Maun. A long 3 days. We had an extra day in Maun to get over jet lag, we’re not as young as we used to be. Very small party on the safari, just the two of us, two other ladies, Sarah, our Images of Wildlife leader, and Jasta, our driver who was with us the whole trip, and was an amazing tracker, and knew the track roads through the parks like the back of his hand. (We took one wrong turn in the dark, turned out great as we found a leopard and a nighthawk!) . Our accommodations were a tent, big enough to stand in and for two beds, and a canvas surrounded outhouse with toilet and shower. The stars in the middle of the night bathroom break were absolutely amazing! 4 men took care of the accommodation and cooking, taking everything down and moving it to the next location on travel days and setting everything up again. Eddie was our cook, came up with delicious meals, his soups were amazing, and Zulu was camp manager. We would sit around a camp fire before dinner, with a wine or G&T, and Zulu would come out and announce our dinner menu, and from what I understand, made a mean gin and tonic. Everyone was accommodating to my bird watching. We had some amazing sightings, especially lions, leopards (my favorite) and more elephants than we knew existed, plus 123 species of birds. Sarah taught us all a lot, and was a terrific host. The whole team was awesome! We ended up in Kasane, with a delightful evening river cruise, and the whole trip ended with Air Botswana... never mind, best left unsaid. The 10+ hour trip from Johannesburg to London was spent in business class on an A380 and passed by quite pleasantly. A wonderful trip, excellent company, some really great sightings and a totally great time.