Madikwe Game Reserve, Part 2

As I wrote in my previous post, Rishi and I spent three nights at Madikwe Game Reserve (http://www.experiencemadikwe.com/ ), a 75,000 hectare reserve in northern South Africa, just an hour’s travel by car from Gaborone, including the time required to get through immigration and customs at the border between Botswana and South Africa. Until about 1990, the area was farmed, but unsuccessfully due to its poor soil. An independent study commissioned by the South African government suggested that the best choice for economic development in the region would be establishing a game reserve on the land. 

The Madikwe landscape as seen from our Buffalo Ridge Lodge cabin is beautiful but somewhat harsh,
with low trees and scrub. Gaborone lies just to the left of these hills in the distance.

The area was thus enclosed in fencing and stocked with 8,000 animals of 28 species that live in similar ecosystems in Southern Africa. Add that to the animals and birds already present, and the reserve now hosts a wide range of species. The reserve operates as a joint venture between the regional parks and tourism board, the private sector, and local communities.

The young male lions in the front, at about 8 months of age, are just starting to develop their manes.
The female behind is about 5 months.

You might think the place sounds a bit like the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, as I did before I visited. But it’s 100 times the area and though the outer perimeter is fenced, the animals could be anywhere within that enormous area, which means seeing a particular species depends on your guide’s skill, as well as a bit of luck. Plus, the animals are exhibiting their natural behaviors while competing for resources within the habitat. In other words, the predators are killing their usual prey.

Game drive vehicles jockey for position for viewing the elephants.

Madikwe boasts of being a Big Five area, home to the five animals most difficult to hunt on foot -- elephant, tiger, rhino, cape buffalo, and leopard. Of course, hunting these animals now is illegal in the reserve, so rather than stalking them with guns, visitors aim at them with zoom lenses. 

Is this male lion under the tree enjoying another spectacular sunset?

No live buffalo sitings, but we did come across a skull.

We were lucky enough to see three of the big five: lions and elephants, which are well represented there and easy to spot, but also the much harder to find rhinos-- both white and black. No cape buffalo, though we did see a skull, and no leopards. 

We saw a cheetah, which is really special because the reserve has only five of this endangered species. We also came across African wild dogs, another endangered species. We spotted the latter in the evening around sunset, so couldn't get any photos as it was already too dark.  

Cheetah!

Some animals, like the lions, seem accustomed to the safari vehicles so you can get pretty close. 

The rhinos, on the other hand, kept their distance. With elephants, the vehicles can get fairly close but must still keep a respectful distance lest an elephant decides to charge. 

Also seen were lots of antelope species, zebras, giraffes, and my favorite local bird, the lilac breasted roller.

Rishi's great shot of the lilac breasted roller. Yes, it's really that colorful.

Young male kudu.

View from the Buffalo Ridge Lodge's deck.

We stayed three days at the lovely Buffalo Ridge Lodge, owned by the nearby village Balete Ba Lekgophung Community (http://www.buffaloridgesafari.com/?p=30). All of the employees come from the village and profits go back there. The lodge is built into a ridge, so its various spaces are on four levels, with great views of the surroundings. 

This young klipspringer antelope is taking advantage of a leaking hose by the lodge to catch a drink.

Our cabin was lovely as well, and very comfortable.

We're all set for a chilly morning game drive.

Service was great, including little touches like fleece blankets and hot-water bottles awaiting us in the vehicle for the early morning game drives. That’s right, it was cold, about 38 degrees F, and windy too when we started out at 6:30 am. At those temperatures, driving around in an open vehicle is a mite chilly. It was making me wish my down coat was here with me in Africa instead of stored in my Colorado basement. And it was dry, dry, dry, because it hasn’t rained there in quite some time.

Rishi soaking in the sunshine after a cold morning game drive.

We definitely plan to visit Madikwe again, most likely this coming summer after it’s rained, so that we can see how the landscape and animals differ depending on the season.. 

Beest – It’s What’s for Dinner, and Breakfast Too

The blue wildebeest, also known as the gnu because of the sound it makes. 

Beest -- it's what's for dinner. Wildebeest that is. 

Rishi and I spent a long weekend at Madikwe Game Reserve, where we saw a pride of lions dining on a wildebeest that the pride had killed several hours earlier. 

Time to digest.

While the lionesses enjoyed their meal, the male of the pride was lazily stretched out nearby, having already eaten his fill. Our guide, Israel, explained that the male usually eats first and also that this particular male is old, probably approaching the end of his life expectancy.

Still working at it the next morning.

The next morning we returned to the same spot to find that the lionesses were still at it. Shortly after our arrival, however, the last of the lionesses leisurely walked off, licking her lips and leaving behind mostly skin and bones.

Lip-licking good!

The carcass after the lions finished with it.

But enough remained of the carcass to make it good eating for scavengers. We watched as a black backed jackal cautiously prepared to move in. He watched from a distance before warily coming closer, looking about, moving away, and then coming closer again, all the while sniffing and scanning the distance to be sure the lions showed no sign of returning and that no other threats, such as hyenas, were nearby. 

Jackal, making sure if's safe to dine.

Finally, convinced it was safe to approach the carcass, the jackal began to rip at the carcass.

Jan's first week in Botswana

For the most part during my first few days here, I’ve been getting oriented and setting up the kitchen in our new home. I’ve spent a lot of time (too much really) surfing the web and using Facebook to virtually discover what’s available here, but I’m also getting out and about to check things out, in the real world.

Check out this crazy flower on a tree in my neighborhood.

On Monday and Tuesday, I opted to stay at home, while Rishi headed over to the University for his way-too-early 7 am class. That afforded me time to catch up on emails, read, write last week’s blog post, spend lots of time on the web as mentioned above, and walk around our neighborhood. Per my pedometer, a loop around the main circle in our development covers 0.3 miles. A brisk ten times around takes me just under an hour and nets a 3-mile walk. Our neighbors' landscaping varies from raked dirt and pavers to some interesting xeric gardens featuring a wide range of succulents, thorny plants and strange trees, most of which I've never seen before. It’s making me miss my Boulder walking companions, though!

Same flower, side view.

Another plant that's new to me.

On Wednesday, after dropping Rishi at the University, I drove over to the nearby Riverwalk Shopping Mall. The first stop was Barclay’s Bank for a debit/ATM card. The bank was busy, so it took a half hour or so for me to get through the three people who had to handle some part of my getting the card. First was the customer service person who had opened the account for Rishi the previous week. She rifled through the stack of papers on her desk to find the forms with our account information. After she authorized my card, I waited for a second person to issue the card, enter the card info into her computer terminal, but also hand write my name, account number and card number into a ledger that I had to sign. Finally, once I had the card in hand, a third person operated the machine that allowed me to set my pin number. I’d recently opened a new bank account at home and though that process probably took just as long, only one person handled everything and of course all of the data entry and record keeping was electronic, except for the signatures. In the U.S. I had to wait for the card to come in the mail a week later, whereas in Botswana I walked out of the bank, card in hand. I have the impression that hardly any business is handled by mail here.

After the bank, I stopped at he nearby store of Orange, one of several cell phone service providers that serve Botswana. Here I waited as well, while the staff dealt with the long line of customers ahead of me, many of whom were there to pay their bills (no checks in the mail?). But once I reached the front of the queue, the service was great. The man who waited on me inserted a test SIM card to check that my AT&T Iphone had been unlocked before inserting a new local SIM card for my number. He clearly explained the various payment plans available to me. Once I chose a plan, he walked me through setting it up, which we quickly did using the phone itself. I walked out of the store with my phone working perfectly. I should mention that getting AT&T to unlock the Iphone was a real pain, involving a visit to their Boulder store, an online chat, and numerous irate phone calls. So at the moment, I’d rate Orange’s customer service way ahead of AT&T’s.

Having handled those two bits of business, the next task was shopping. The Riverwalk Mall has three different grocery stores: Spar, Shop Rite, and Woolworth’s. I visited all three, as well as a store called Mr. Home, sort of like Bed Bath and Beyond but much smaller, looking for specific cooking ingredients and kitchen tools. I’ll write a future blog about grocery shopping in Gaborone, but for now I’ll just say that I’ve been having fun looking through what each store has and trying to get a handle on what’s available where and what things cost. Plus, as most of you know about me, I’m food obsessed.

The rest of the week was more of the same. I’ve been driving around town, visiting the different shopping centers, especially the grocery stores. I’m also having fun cooking (who, me?) and experimenting with gluten-free recipes because Rishi is on a gluten-free diet. On Saturday I went to a Zumba class, which was great, and a tough workout.

Our Gaborone Apartment

Because many of our family members and friends were asking about where we’d be living upon arrival here in Gaborone, I’m writing to describe our new home. We are living at the Manor Apartments, a group of 14 apartments within a gated community called Kgale Manor. The main part of the development consists mostly of single-family homes and some side-by-side duplexes. We’ve taken a three-month lease on a furnished, two-bedroom suite on the second floor. Bonus: our balcony faces west, so we get great sunsets.


Sun down from our balcony.

The kitchen even has granite counters. Not bad, though the
electric stove is a drag.

Let’s start with the most important room from my perspective: the kitchen. It’s decently equipped and Rishi had a delicious dinner waiting for me upon my first evening here. We have a refrigerator-freezer, a range with an oven below, a microwave, a toaster, and an electric kettle for boiling water. I’m sorry to report that the four-burner electric cooktop has my least favorite type of cooking element: French plates. These cast-iron resistance heating units take too long to heat up and then a good while to respond when you turn them down. So if all you need to do is scramble an egg, you still have to wait about two minutes, just for the pan to warm up. And forget about making any kind of delicate sauce that requires sensitive heat control. It’s déjà vu because our Boulder home had the same type of heating elements before we remodeled and installed a gas cooktop. The kitchen contains the basics: dishes, glassware, table ware, a few pots and pans, cutting boards, a colander, some basic tools, and much to my surprise, a decent set of knives. On Sunday, we picked up a food processor / blender combination, which is a single motor unit to which you can attach either the processor bowl or the blender. I’m already making a list of other kitchen items we’ll want, but we are in good shape for starters.

Living/dining room

The kitchen and the adjacent living room are nice and airy, with a cathedral ceiling. All of the furniture, which includes a sofa, arm chairs, and a dining table with four chairs, is contemporary and comfortable. The flat screen TV appears to be brand new and included in our rent is Dish TV, with a selection of about 400 channels, but there’s still nothing worth watching. From the living room, we can walk out to our balcony where we have a small table and a couple of chairs.




The master bedroom includes a queen bed and bed tables, while the second bedroom has a double. Within each bedroom, one wall has built-in closet/storage units with sections to hang clothes as well as shelves and drawers, so we have plenty of storage space. And, we have two full baths. Plenty of space for guests!


The pool and palapa, with apartments in the background

The fourteen apartments have access to a common area with a pool, a thatched palapa, and a grill, which in these parts is called a braii, from the Afrikaans word braaivleis. We’ve picked up some charcoal, so one of these days we’ll have to slap some of that famous Botswana beef onto the grill.

Our rent seems somewhat steep, but it’s not that bad when one considers that not only does it cover the furnishings, but also our water, electricity, wireless internet, dish TV, security services, landscaping, and oh yes – the best part of all, which is going to completely spoil us – a cleaning service five days a week! 

The main drawback with this place is the distance from the University, requiring about a 20-30 minute drive depending on traffic. Because we only have one car, Rishi either takes the car and I’m sort of marooned here since there’s no place nearby to walk to, or I have to drive him back and forth. Consequently, we plan on seeing if we can find someplace closer to the University to move into when our lease is up. If nothing suitable turns up, though, we’ll be fine staying here.

The view from the front entrance to our apartment, showing a couple of the single
family homes, with Kgale Hill in the background. The red rock looks a bit like Lyons, CO.

Rishi's post: I arrived safely in Gaborone

Rishi wrote the below post about a week ago. 

Hello Everybody,

I arrived safely in Gaborone, Botswana on July 25 around 11 PM. All flights were on time and I had a comfortable journey. The University put me in a Lodge that was quite far away from the campus and was not a good place. Since I had no car, I could not go anywhere so asked the university to move me to a place with which I was familiar. After some wrangling, they let me stay at the place of my choosing.

The next day, I arrived on campus: it is a bureaucratic mess. Everybody wants paperwork and if anything is not quite right, then one has to go back and start over again. They love to stamp documents, accept only certified copies, and to get certification one must go to a police station. I think bureaucracy is everywhere but here it seems excessive. I am still struggling to get all the paperwork done. I have a very short fuse when it comes to bureaucracy and I almost blew it in the Dean’s office. Sensing my discomfort, they assigned me a paper-runner to do legwork for me. I am talking it all in stride, after all I have come here to experience their way of live.

The campus is really nice. It is brand new and has modern architecture. It is under construction therefore one has to drive around in a convoluted manner to reach where one wants to go. One never knows where the barriers will appear and there is no signage for detours etc. (It appears somewhat disorganized, but the campus residents seems to know their way around because the information spreads from word to mouth. I have a disadvantage here that I do not speak and understand the local language. The campus buildings are super clean. One notices an army of cleaners always cleaning the buildings, windows, and floors. The toilets are as clean as anywhere in the advanced countries. One day, our department secretary dropped some food on the floor in the hallway. She immediately went to get some cleaning materials and cleaned it up. I wish the Indians could learn these habits.

I am teaching a class on Mondays and Tuesdays from 7 AM to 9:30 AM—these are combined lectures and practicals (in the US, we call them tutorials). I have the liberty to run my class any way I want to except I have to adhere to their examination rules: the finals contribute 60% of the grade and up to 40% can come from the midterm examination and other CA (continuous assessments). I like to give homework and in my case, 20% grade will come from homework, 10% from midterm examination and 10% from laboratory work). I went to see the classroom where I will teach around 2 PM Friday, the floor was being polished, but I am assured that it will be ready on Monday. From my experience here at the university so far, I am very skeptical; I will see if I am right and post in my new blog.

Traffic in Gaborone is orderly: everybody follows the traffic rules, but they are less courteous then US drivers. Taxis and minibus (they call then “combis”) are as rude as anywhere. Again traffic is far superior compared with Indian cities, where there are essentially no rules. I am driving a lot, getting lost and then finding my ways in the city. I am quite comfortable while I drive, which is on the left side of the road like the UK and India, but have not yet mastered the layout of the city. Roads are not always marked and signage is often poor.

Most people (professionals) here are amazingly punctual. They keep their schedule by the minute. They arrive when they say they would; if for some reason they are running late, they always call for send a text message. Text messaging is more popular then calls.

On Friday (8/1), I moved into a furnished apartment, where Jan and I will be living for at least 3 months. The furniture is quite new and comfortable. The utilities, internet etc. are included in the rent. When I moved into the apartment, I found it super clean! All things in the apartment are in working condition except for the television, which I suspect that I am not operating it correctly.

I have included some photographs of the views from our apartment. One view is from the entrance to the apartment, and you can see Kgale Hill in the background. The other view is from the balcony. The road in the picture is an access road highway A1 that runs through Botswana.

View from the front of our apartment with Kgale Hill in the background.

View from our balcony; it's not much but the sunsets are great!

The weather is about 80F during the day but it cools off at night so much so that I have to wear a full sleeve sweater in the evening. I do turn the heat in the bedroom just before going to sleep for about 30 minutes. Nights are quite comfortable. Locals wear warm clothing in this weather, even during the daytime —you see them wearing hoodies and coats. At the university, in one office a lady had coat on and she had a heater on! 

We are on the move!

After months of planning for our move to Botswana, the time has arrived. Way back in March, Rishi was offered a two-year teaching appointment in the Engineering school of the University of Botswana. In April, we visited the campus, met Rishi's potential colleagues, and acquainted ourselves with Gaborone, the Botswana capital where we would be living. While in Botswana, we also spent a few fabulous days at a safari camp in the Okavango Delta. We had a great time and everyone we met was warm and welcoming. After returning home and weighing up all the pros and cons, we decided that Rishi would accept the offer and we would embark on a two-year adventure abroad, beginning in August, at the start of the University’s academic year.

The next few months were busy ones, as we planned for the move. Though we seriously considered selling our Boulder home, we finally opted to rent it out. For every item of our vast accumulated stuff, we had a decision to make: store it at the movers (almost all of the furniture), store it in the basement spaces that our tenants aren’t using (all of the kitchen stuff and winter clothes), take it with us to Gaborone, give it to charity, sell it on Craig’s list, or throw the darn thing away. On top of that, we had to deal with selling cars, cancelling subscriptions and services, arranging to pay bills and vote from abroad, and dozens of other details.

In late July, Rishi headed out to Botswana to prepare for the start of the school year and move into the furnished apartment that we’ll be renting for at least our first three months. He’s also purchased a car, opened a bank account, set up a cell phone, and managed other details to ready our new home.

Meanwhile, I finished up the move out of the house and prepared it for the tenants’ August 1 arrival. Even as they were moving in, I was frantically stashing the last of our stuff into the basement storage spaces, tossing garbage bags into the car for a trip to the dump, and toting my mostly packed suitcases over to the home of our wonderful next-door neighbors, the Diamonds, where I’d be staying for a few days while I tied up loose ends and prepared to join Rishi in Gaborone. I’ve got to say that it felt really strange – sort of being in limbo – staying next door while somebody else was living in my home of 18 years.

That's a lot of stuff in our basement storage room!

 

But now I am truly on my way. As I write this post, I’ve completed an overnight flight from Denver to London Heathrow, and am waiting for my next flight to Johannesburg, then on to Gaborone where Rishi will pick me up at the airport.

I need to send two special thanks: first to the Diamonds for hosting me the last five days and second to our daughter Lisa for all of her help with the move.