Follow Me Tour: Spectacular sunset

Sunset #1

Day 3 - 28 August - sunset

Like most people I love a beautiful sunset. The photographs you see here are not the result of any editing afterwards - they were just resized, otherwise it would take forever to upload. To be honest I cannot do much editing afterwards anyway, since I neither own a copy of Photoshop (or Lightroom) nor do I have any idea how to use these software programs.
So you might rightly ask how it is possible to take photographs that look black and white, and yet they are not. The easy answer is: camera settings.
Brendon, our intrepid photographic guide instructed us to set the ISO on the camera low and to under expose the image between 1 and 2 F-stops. And I listened :)
So here are two of those images of a spectacular sunset on the Chobe river, taken about two minutes apart as we drifted with the flow of the river.

Sunset #2

Follow Me Tour: And it gets better...

Blue heron

Day 3 - 28 August - the late afternoon

We went out the boat again. We expected the leopard to still be where we had seen her earlier in the day. She had a kill hidden under a tree that we could see and that told us that she could be around for a few more hours.

On the way to the site, we got distracted by other birds and animals, and were a little late to arrive. There were other boats already and they had spotted the leopard. While we didn't catch her drinking, we stuck around and got some more photographs of this gorgeous cat.

I also caught an African fish eagle in flight. Please forgive the lack of sharpness in the photographs as this was the first time that I have tracked a bird in flight and I didn't think it too bad for a first effort.

We also got some great shots, and really close up, of elephants on one of the islands in the river. The baby elephants were too cute as they swung their trunks around still trying to figure out what it was supposed to be used for. We saw one mimicking its mother as she picked the grass, shook off the dirt from the roots and then ate it. The baby got it right until the putting-in-my-mouth part, that didn't appear to be working so well :)

We hit some waves from the side of the boat and I was feeling a bit uncomfortable there for a few minutes, but it passed. If I had to choose between the boat trips and the trips on the vehicle over land, the boat would win hands down.

I didn't have to hold the Nikon camera with its heavy 200-400mm, f4 lens in my hand to shoot with, as the boat is fitted with a rotating tripod. On the vehicle that is not the case.

The roads are very uneven and it is not comfortable to hold on to keep your balance, hang on to a rental camera of high value and also keep an eye out for a good sighting to photograph.

Here are some more photographs to enjoy :)

Elephants

Leopard

Giant kingfisher

African fish eagle in flight

Follow Me Tour: I went on a boat!

The selfie is Francois, I am in the dark glasses :)

Day 3 (28 August) of our trip and I went on a boat today. For me that was a really big deal, since I suffer from motion sickness and it is the worst on water. So to say that I was apprehensive beforehand, would be the understatement of the year.

But I swallowed my pride/fear and climbed on board. And what an amazing experience!

Our cameras were attached to special rotatable tripods that moved with the chairs, and that was pretty cool. The best was the view we had of the animals and birds though.

Buffalo

We were so close to ground level on the river, that if felt like we were looking the crocodiles straight in the eye. Not quite literally, but very close.

Crocodile

The water birds were plentiful today, and so were the antelope and buffalo. I took almost 500 photographs today, because...we saw a leopard. It was a female that came right to the water's edge to drink. I kept pushing the button to get as many photographs as I could. Fortunately, the camera kept up with my enthusiastic finger :)

Animals we saw: leopard, buffalo, lechwe, puku, crocodiles, hippopotamus, water monitors, impala, kudu and waterbuck.

African fish eagle

Birds that spotted us: African fish eagles, marabou stork, Egyption geese, African spoonbill, yellow-billed stork, blue heron, goliath heron, large white egret, little egret, black egret, oxpeckers, squaco heron, giant kingfishers, pied kingfisher, spruce winged geese, glossy ibis, sacred ibis and jackana.

Leopard

Follow Me Tour: Nata Lodge

I apologise - this post was supposed to go live two days ago. Please blame my inability to deal with a slow internet connection :) There will be more coming up today, and I promise to make sure they are posted properly - Linzé

On our way to the overnight accommodation we drove behind a small truck with a bull, a cow and a small calf on the back. I don't know where the people went when they turned off, but I couldn't resist a few pictures as the animals moved around and upon occasion faced backwards, right at us.

When I opened my email, Google+ told me there was a Google+ Awesome picture. Curious, I opened the application and burst out laughing. I took several pics with my mobile phone today, but it picked one of the cattle on the back of the small truck! Awesome indeed :)

And boy are there animals to look out for when you driving this way. Goats, cattle and donkeys. Yep, thousands of them, with the number of donkeys only slightly less.

I had fun with Francois' GoPro camera on the road. He told me to put my mobile phone away and use the GoPro. I took about ten video clips starting from the border crossing to Nata Lodge.

We will charge the battery overnight and then I can play some more tomorrow.

Travel tip: Unless you are an experienced driver on bad roads (read bad potholes and uneven surfaces) avoid the George's Bridge/Martin's Drift border crossing if you are driving into Botswana from South Africa. Francois has a 4x4 and is a competent driver, and yet it was not easy to drive on this road. I would imagine that sedan type vehicle drivers had a nightmare driving this road today. It can be done, but you need to be extra careful not to cause damage to the tyres or the car when you drive too fast for the road conditions. The bad part is about 92 km from the border crossing to Palapye. Thereafter the road (the A1 main road) is much better, with only the animals and heavy trucks to look out for.

Follow Me Tour: The famous lady of Botswana

Red marker is at Nata, where we will stay overnight on the journey there and back

As I have recently mentioned I love amateur sleuth mysteries. I have to confess that I have not followed this series as one of those I had mentioned. However, the book I have read (and the two films I had watched) I really liked.
In keeping with Follow Me this week, I would like to introduce you to Mma Precious Ramotswe, a lady who has a passion for getting to the truth. She is the lead character of the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, written by Alexander McCall Smith.
The story takes place in Botswana, where Mma Precious has her office in Gaborone, the capitol of the country. While she - and her always ready to help assistant, Grace - are going about their sleuthing, while personal matters always seem to pop up to make life a bit more challenging.
While I might not be travelling in the direction of Gaborone on this occasion, I will be seeing some of the country on my way to the Chobe Nature reserve where we will be staying.

Be on the lookout for more tales and pictures of my adventure in Botswana.

Infographic Thursday: Reward Yourself...you need it!

Source: www.visual.ly

Follow Me Tour: Nata Lodge Overnight

Upon arrival at Nata, I was reminded that we were going to sleep in a tent. With everything going on, I had completely forgotten about that part.

It is a permanent fixture, more so than the usual tent for camping. The tent is erected on a wooden platform. There are two beds with mosquito nets (an essential for sleep) and a nice bathroom. But the best of all? The outdoor shower! Man, did I enjoy that after we had dinner.

Francois took a shower before we had dinner while I was sorting out my stuff and getting this post underway. A few minutes later he waltzed in completely out of sorts.

He was already dressed, and smelled nice and clean, so I wondered what had happened.

He replied with, “if you have a self-image problem don't take that shower outside.”

I went, “Huh?”

“Yes,” he deadpanned, “those birds you heard just now? They were laughing at me while I was stark naked out there.”

I was hysterical. The birds he was referring to are commonly called katlagters in Afrikaans. (Minas in English) They literally sound like cats laughing at you. He just shook his head, but eventually gave out.

Wild animals we saw along the road: springbuck, warthogs, blesbuck and kudu.

Birds we saw along the road: Yellow-billed hornbill, minas, armour falcon