WET BOTSWANA, Guest Post by Owen Floody

Botswana, Africa. Half-collared Kingfisher

Our friend Owen Floody, who recently retired from a career of teaching and research at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, has had the good fortune of being able to travel frequently.  These trips have been divided between treks and safaris, reflecting his interests in seeing (and photographing) interesting landscapes and wildlife.  In 2017, for example, he completed three treks and two safaris, a personal record. (Note his previous posts on The Intrepid Tourist.) This post will describe the first of his 2017 safaris, a 14-day trip to Botswana with Wilderness Travel .

The trip to Botswana appealed to me for two major reasons.  First, it ran at an unusual time of the year.  Whereas one usually goes on safari in the local dry season (for reasons that will become apparent), this trip was aimed to coincide with the end of a wet season and I was curious to see how the African landscapes would look then.  Second, in comparison to many other commercial safaris, this had an unusually diverse and interesting itinerary.  Rather than visiting just one or two areas, this included 4-5 distinct (sometimes very distinct) habitats.  These included the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve, Savuti Channel and Chobe River.  But perhaps most notably, it included the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which I was particularly anxious to see and which essentially can only be visited in the wet season.

Including myself, there were seven guests on this trip and at least twice that number of support staff.  In that and other respects, the trip might be described as a luxury camping tour.  For the most part, we lived comfortably (e.g., hot showers on demand, amazing food from an extremely simple “kitchen”) in a tented camp, but one that moved from area to area with us.  The only exception to this was our stop in the Okavango Delta, where we got in and out by small plane and/or boat, and so could not bring with us the truck that gave our mobile camp its mobility.

Wild dogs, Kalahari

In turn, my decisions to follow this itinerary in the wet season had both positive and negative consequences.  Let’s get the latter out of the way first.

Lioness

The first negative consequence was completely predictable and so can’t really be seen as a weakness of the itinerary.  Because of the lush vegetation and widely distributed water, animals simply are harder to find and view in the wet season.  For instance, (1) Why is the lioness walking in the road? (2) How visible would she have been if displaced a few feet to the left?  Second, even though I initially thought that the mid-April timing of this trip might be too late, we ran into a surprising amount of water, enough to flood roads and potential camps, requiring adjustments in our plans. All safaris are at the mercy of unpredictable weather and our guides were able to make very effective adjustments on the fly, reflecting a big advantage of travel with a very reputable company.  Last, I thought that the amount and variety of wildlife near our Okavango lodge was a bit disappointing.  But I don’t know if this says something about the choice of lodge, the season or my expectations.

Kalahari

Offsetting these limitations were a like number of pluses.  First, we were able to visit the Kalahari and it was an eye-opener—much more lush and productive than I expected it to be in even this relatively fertile time of the year.  Second, largely due to the efforts of our two expert guides, we managed to see many wonderful mammals and birds.  This was a little less true in the Okavango than elsewhere. 

Hippo, Okuvango

But even in the Okavango, we had a terrific encounter with a pod of hippos and also a very pleasant morning on a Delta island, tracking elephants on foot.  Third, I think it’s worth emphasizing that the variety of sites that were included on the itinerary exposed us to a greater variety of wildlife than we otherwise would have seen.  Last, the wet season really was different.  It was lush and highly attractive as a result.  And the late rains even made the skies attractive and dramatic, especially early and late in the day.

Gazelles

So, do I recommend this trip?  That depends completely on the person I’m advising and what they’re after.  Remember that any safari is in part a game of chance.  And, despite the greater ease of avoidance and concealment enjoyed by animals in the wet season, we did very well.  Therefore, I found the trip to be very productive and enjoyable, though I might research the Okavango site to be used a little more searchingly before signing on again.

A RAINY DAY in VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, HAWAII

In the Kilauea Iki Crater in Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii

A week ago, on our trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, Art and I were hiking across what felt like a moonscape–the hardened lava at the bottom of the Kilauea Iki Crater in Volcanoes National Park.  It had not been our first plan for the day, but when we woke up in Hilo that morning to pouring rain, we decided to take the 45 minute drive to the volcanoes and hope for better weather. We did encounter some rain, but found the cool, mostly misty air perfect for hiking.

Beginning of Devastation Trail

We started our day with a short hike from Crater Rim Drive along the Devastation Trail. The path goes through a vast cinder field, created when a violent eruption of Kilauea in 1959 covered the area in scorching cinder.

Cinder deposit on the Devastation Trail

The thick rainforest at the beginning of the trail shows what disappeared when the hot cinders rained down. Since then patches of trees and flowering shrubs have begun to regrow, seemingly out of nothing, and were home to flocks of noisy birds.

New growth on top of the cinders

We also encountered a pair of pheasants, introduced as game birds and now gone wild. We had hoped to see some nene geese, Hawaii’s national bird, but had no luck. Signs along the path admonished us not to pick berries because they are the nene’s food.

Beginning of Kilauea Iki trail across crater

We then drove back toward the Kilauea Iki Crater trailhead and began the four mile round trip hike down into and across the crater. After descending 300 feet from the crater rim, we followed the path across the crater, marked by piles of stones (ahu), then climbed back to the rim and followed the rim path back to our car.

Hikers are dwarfed by the expanse of the crater

We were reliving a hike we had done on our first visit to the island twelve years ago. At that time there were still places on the crater floor where steam was leaking out and we could put our hand on the surface and feel the hot rock. Then, as now, we were amazed at the amount of new life that has begun to grow between the cracks.

Flowering plant growing up from a crack

Than after a stop at the Visitor Center and lunch at the Volcano House Hotel, we drove to the end of the Crater Rim Road to the Jagger Museum for a view of the Kilauea caldera and the current eruption.

Active eruption of Kilauea Volcano, viewed from the Jagger Museum

On the way there we passed a number of steam vents.(The Crater Rim Road, which circles the caldera is closed after the Jagger Museum on because of noxious fumes.)  From the overlook we watched the pool of red-hot lava churn and burst into the air releasing a giant plume of smoke visible for miles. I used my binoculars to get a close-up view of the exploding lava–bubbling like a giant witches’ cauldron. Inside the museum we learned about the science of volcanoes and how they are formed.

Smoke and steam vents viewed from Byron's Ledge

In many ways we picked the perfect day for a visit to Volcanoes National Park. It was not too hot and not too cold, and not too rainy.  At an elevation of 4000 feet at the Visitor Center near the crater rim the air can be quite chilly, although nothing like the weather at the top of Mauna Loa, at 13,677 feet, the highest point in Hawaii. Hawaii is the only place in the United States that you can see an active volcano. If you visit the Big Island, the volcanoes are not to be missed.