Tag Archive : Safari

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Goodbye Botswana

2019-02-13 | Botswana | 1 Comment

The Okavanga Delta

It is difficult to comprehend the amount of open spaces in Botswana – the country is the size of France, but France has almost 30 times as many citizens. So much space everywhere.

The Khalihari Desert covers a large part of the country. Together with the Okavanga Delta and Chobe National Park it attracts a lot of tourists – but it is by far the most expensive country I have visited. The parks are covered with air strips where tourists are flown in to stay in luxury lodges. Some cost several thousands of dollars for one night (one night!). A bit out of my league.

Endangered wild dog

The wild life is amazing. Even with my budget I managed to se a lot of animals – even some I haven’t met before, like the pack of wild dogs and the python I met in Moremei Game Reserve. Botswana has thousands of elephants which causes a lot of tension with the local farmers.

Elephants will take down trees, fences and crops on their way. The number of elephants is so high it is a problem. If there is not enough food for them in the parks, they will migrate and ruin farmland. Even though I love elephants I see the problem – some places in the Moremei Game Reserve looked like a graveyard for trees due to the elephants taking most of the trees down or eating the bark of them.

An elephant passed by

Climate changes also has an impact in Botswana. The country is very dry, but I visited during the rainy season and it hardly rained. Newman, my guide in the Okavanga Delta told me the water level should be 2 meters higher at this time of year.

Like in the other countries I have visited the population is growing despite the fact Botswana has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world (estimated 25% of the adult population). More youngsters get an education. But unfortunately, there isn’t enough jobs and unemployment is high even though Botswana is a success story in Africa with high economic growth rates.

Religion plays a vital role in Botswana. Most of the population is christian, but the traditional beliefs still exist including witchcraft. Being a non-believer can be challenging since they are considered to be devil worshippers and without ethics and moral.

There is no humanist organisation in Botswana – not yet. There is a small group of friends, non-believers, who wants to create a humanist organisation.

I met a couple of them while visiting and at this point, they are focusing on being formally registered. Next steps are to make humanist more visible, basically showing the public humanists are good people through charity work.

Like other humanists in this part of the world their biggest challenge is the lack of funding. I hope they succeed.

Some facts:

Botswana (Denmark)

Population:   2.3 mio. (5.8 mio.)

Area:   582.000 km2 (43.000 km2)

Density: 4/km2 (133/km2)

Life expectancy: 63 years (80 years)

Cradle of humankind

2019-01-21 | Tanzania | No Comments

Ngorongoro Crater

I visited the Ngorongoro crater yesterday not far from the place where scientist have found evidence of continuous presence of human for the last 2 million years – 2 million years! Here where two tectonic plates met and formed the rift valley many millions of years ago is the cradle of humankind. This is where hominoids were born and later developed into homo sapiens.

Watching the huge number of elephants, wilder beasts, zebras, antelopes on the plain grassing while lions and hyenas are watching ready to hunt. The Masai are still living in this area, integrated with the wild life – risking the life of their cattle and themselves. It makes you wonder how life might looked here a million years ago, how did humans survive.

It is appealing to believe that life has been unchanged here for thousands and thousands of years. But this is not the case. The Masai migrated here from Sudan only a few hundred years ago. The plains and the savanna are not untouched by human hand – herders have been living on this land for a long time, their cattle have shaped the landscape, integrated with the wild life.

I live in a country with a history of humans being of only a few thousand years. As Danes we are normally proud of our height, light skin and blue eyes. In reality the first humans in the Nordics – the hunter-gatherers – were short, had dark skin and grey eyes.

The genes for the light skin and blue eyes (a genetic mistake) came from Spain some thousand years ago and migrated to the North. Then 5.000 years ago, the Yamnaya’s from the northern part of Caucasus migrated to the Nordics – they were tall and had light skin. The Scandinavian look then developed – due to migrants, even though we off course all are migrants from the rift valley.

Homo sapiens one of the most successful animals on earth, unless we succeed in destroying the planet making it impossible for us to live here. We have migrated to all corners of the planet where it is possible to live (and in some cases not possible to live).

Climate changes is also visible here – the wet and dry seasons are getting out of balance. It’s raining during the dry season, and not raining in the wet season.

This area – where we were born – will be one of the first area where it will be impossible for humans to live. Humans will be forced to migrate – again – to find a place to survive. Unfortunately, we would have destroyed all the magnificent animals living here… so beautiful to watch.

We love elephants

2018-12-28 | Uganda | No Comments

From the top of the mountains to the savanna in Queen Elizabeth National Park – from gorillas to elephants. On the bumpy roads we passed volcanoes, villages, farms on the steep hills, mosques, churches, tea plantations – all over we see ongoing constructions of petrol stations and houses.

We arrived early at the Simba Safari Camp and had time to relax all afternoon. On the evening game drive, we saw a tree climbing lioness with her cup and a lot of antelopes. During the next morning’s game drive, we saw two lions and a lioness in the distance, not pictures were taken since they were to far away. We met waterbucks, antelopes, vultures, eagles and a group of elephants with a tiny baby elephant maybe only one month old.

You spend so much time starring and searching for the animals that your eyes gets tired. You stare at the grass, the cactus trees and the bushes in the hope of seeing an animal. When you finally spot an animal it’s like winning, a victory, a rush. I could look at these amazing animals for hours.

In the afternoon we went on a boat ride on the Kazinga Channel – filled with elephants, hippos, water buffalos and crocodiles. Amazing, so many animals and birds – eagles, storks, pelicans and our favourite the kingfisher (and many many more). The boat ride was a nice smooth break from the usual bumpy rides. We could have stayed there for many hours just slowly passing by the many animals and birds, watching.

A hippo Christmas

2018-12-24 | Uganda | 1 Comment

After a long journey with 2 different planes leaving Copenhagen Saturday evening we arrived in Kampala, Uganda Sunday afternoon. Our guide Morris picked us up in the airport and got us checked in to a nearby hotel. Monday morning, we started the long drive (6 hours) to Lake Mburo Nationalpark.

When driving these distances on bumpy roads at some point you get into a zen-like state looking out the window, watching the landscape and villages passing by. It’s a bit like meditation, in the beginning you try to organise your thoughts, but at some point, you stop thinking and just follow the flow – waving to the kids waving at you at the side of the road. Occasionally dozing of while your kidneys gets a good shaking on the road.

When driving these distances on bumpy roads at some point you get into a zen-like state looking out the window, watching the landscape and villages passing by. It’s a bit like meditation, in the beginning you try to organise your thoughts, but at some point, you stop thinking and just follow the flow – waving to the kids waving at you at the side of the road. Occasionally dozing of while your kidneys gets a good shaking on the road.

After a late lunch at the Rangeland Mburo Lodge we go for a game drive – meeting tree climbing lions, zebras, vultures and the best of all meeting the one hippo greeting us – my daughter’s best Christmas present so far. Celebrating Christmas this way is the best way.