Today is an American Holiday (Martin Luther King Day) which means as US Government employees we have the day off but not many other people do in Botswana. So we used the opportunity to book a Giraffe Tracking Adventure at Mokolodi (http://www.mokolodi.com/activities.php).
We arrived at Mokolodi at 7:30 this morning. Our group consisted of a guide/driver, a tracker, and Thom and Debra. This is why we do things on American holidays.
Our guide Kesa explained we would drive until we spotted giraffe tracks and then get out and try to track the giraffes. He told us that we should let him know if we thought we saw any giraffe tracks and they would get out and track them if they actually were giraffe tracks. We quickly realized we've never really paid any attention to giraffe tracks but after some discussion decided we could probably tell the difference between giraffe tracks and leopard tracks. But nothing any more complicated than that. Fortunately we had an expert tracker, David. After about 20 minutes driving toward the south end of the game park, David spotted the tracks. We pulled off road and started tracking. In case you are wondering, giraffe tracks are long narrow 2-toed hoof prints.
For about 30 minutes we hiked through the bush following the giraffe tracks. It turns out that giraffes walk through a lot of spaces you wouldn't think they could go. They walk over rocks and through mud and in between bushes and trees that are really close together.
We arrived at Mokolodi at 7:30 this morning. Our group consisted of a guide/driver, a tracker, and Thom and Debra. This is why we do things on American holidays.
Our guide Kesa explained we would drive until we spotted giraffe tracks and then get out and try to track the giraffes. He told us that we should let him know if we thought we saw any giraffe tracks and they would get out and track them if they actually were giraffe tracks. We quickly realized we've never really paid any attention to giraffe tracks but after some discussion decided we could probably tell the difference between giraffe tracks and leopard tracks. But nothing any more complicated than that. Fortunately we had an expert tracker, David. After about 20 minutes driving toward the south end of the game park, David spotted the tracks. We pulled off road and started tracking. In case you are wondering, giraffe tracks are long narrow 2-toed hoof prints.
For about 30 minutes we hiked through the bush following the giraffe tracks. It turns out that giraffes walk through a lot of spaces you wouldn't think they could go. They walk over rocks and through mud and in between bushes and trees that are really close together.
Fortunately it had rained (hard!) the night before so it cooled things off a bit because it was a hot sweaty hike. Also, the guide told us that it is really a lot easier to track anything when all the old tracks are wiped and the ground is soft to make new tracks. But then we saw our first giraffe! Absolutely amazing!
Our first giraffe sighting
And a little further in, we came across a journey of 8 giraffes. 3 of this group were about a year old and very small compared to the others. And for the next 20 minutes or so we followed them around but we couldn't keep up with them. They are very fast and quite fascinating when they run in a group.
Getting a little closer to a giraffe
After our time with the giraffes, David led us back to the truck in less than 10 minutes. That was also impressive.
The rest of our morning was quite fabulous. We saw a large herd of wildebeast, lots of ostriches running around, herds of kudo and impala, zebra, warthogs, a pack of jackals which was cool -- we had never seen them before. Thom got to stop in to see his friends, the cheetahs, who really had not yet woken up for the day. And then on the way out of the park, we saw 3 rhino. A very satisfactory morning.
The cheetahs sleeping very hard
At least one cheetah woke up enough to be petted (after Thom poked it)
