Long Live The Sar

Each day of safari feels like two full days. The morning consists of a 5AM wakeup, huddling around the campfire with a mug of coffee and a bowl of granola at 5:30AM, game drive from 6-10 (with a tea and coffee break around 8:30),   and then brunch at 11. We siesta (obviously) from 12-4 and then the afternoon consists of high tea/happy hour from 4-4:30, game drive until 8 (with sundowner drinks and snacks at sunset) and dinner until 9:30 or so. So each day feels like two full, separate days. The is all to make the point that events on safari are best remembered and narrated as discrete events rather than full days. For example, today consisted of two game drives, more meals and snacks than I can count, a nap, a short calisthenics routine, and reading time. But I prefer to think of the day’s episodes: coming across a pack of 9 hyena slowly swarming a mother elephant and her brand new calf* (*According to Dukes, hyenas are typically solo unless they are congregating at

At 2:30 in the morning, the plains outside our safari tent were silent except for the guttural grunting of three lions. Nothing reminds you of your place in the food chain quite like this aural reminder of the thousand pound cat separated from your bedroom by a flimsy screen door. Contrast this with the conversation Liz and I just shared – [waking her up from an afternoon siesta] “Time to get up darling, we have high tea in twenty minutes.”   Yes, ‘tis the life of a safari-er. We arrived at the Kwando Lodge in Nxai Pan ("nx" = the click you make when you shake your head and cluck your tongue at someone who messes up), Botswana yesterday after an easy direct flight from Atlanta-Johannesburg then JoBurg to Maun, Botswana, and then a puddle jump 45 minute ride from Maun to Nxai Pan. Fun side note - Botswana and Namibia are home to tribes that speak languages from in the Khoi-san group , which includes clicks and is considered one of the most dynamic langua