{"id":1606,"date":"2019-10-21T12:45:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T19:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2022-10-05T12:21:08","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T19:21:08","slug":"rra-dinare-and-the-okavango-delta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/?p=1606","title":{"rendered":"Rra Dinare and the Okavango Delta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off we go to our last tent camp, Rra Dinare. \u00a0https:\/\/underonebotswanasky.com\/botswana-lodges\/rra-dinare-father-buffalo<\/a><\/p>\n

Rra Dinare means “Father Buffalo” in the local language.\u00a0 Fitting with all the Cape Buffalo we saw thoughout the area.\u00a0 It was a very short flight cross the Okavango Delta from Khwai to Rra Dinari.\u00a0 By this time, after three previous flights, I wasn’t leaving imprints of my fingers on the seat back in front of me.<\/p>\n

Ken, Lynne and Kay waiting for the plane.<\/p>\n

\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

Our stewardess as usual sitting down, not serving her customers.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

On the way to the camp we saw an ostrich and a herd of the ubiquitous impala.\u00a0 Our guides were NT, assisted by tracker Michael, and Paul who had tracker Lake with him.<\/p>\n

\"Ostrich\"<\/p>\n

\n

\"Herd<\/p>\n

The camp was possibly the most luxurious of the four, if not, close to the top.\u00a0 The staff was excellent, managed by Andy.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

\n

On our afternoon game drive we saw an active pride of lions.<\/p>\n

\"Pride<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

A magpie shrike<\/p>\n

\"Magpie<\/p>\n

How about a mongoose or two.<\/p>\n

\"Mongoose\"<\/p>\n

Late in the afternoon we\u00a0 passed a helmeted guineafowl.<\/p>\n

\"Helmeted<\/p>\n

and another kori bustard.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/p>\n

And finally a giraffe.<\/p>\n

\"Giraffe<\/p>\n

\n

The African sky was always beautiful in the evening.<\/p>\n

\"Beauriful<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/p>\n

After another fine dinner and some quality time visiting, we retired for a good evening’s sleep.\u00a0 Up and out the next morning, we saw this roan peering out at us from the bushes.<\/p>\n

\"Roan\"<\/p>\n

and another giraffe, a stately creature.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/p>\n

\n

We saw an African Wildcat running across in front of us, but this is the best picture I could get.<\/p>\n

\"African<\/p>\n

A Southern Ground Hornbill, but in a tree.<\/p>\n

\"Southern<\/p>\n

That afternoon, we saw some of the destructiveness of the elephants, with this guy tearing up a tree outside our tent.<\/p>\n

\"Elephant<\/p>\n

A little later, a kudu wanted a snack.<\/p>\n

\"Kudu<\/p>\n

Back on our afternoon drive, we saw two zebras strolling to graze with impalas and warthogs.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

A young warthog.<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

Continuing our love affair with birds, a little ground feeder, a blue waxbill.<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

This impressive bird flew overhead.<\/p>\n

\"Big<\/p>\n

Nothing to do with airplanes, but I have to remark on a study initiated by our fellow traveler Cynthia.\u00a0 Due to her curiosity, we learned a lot about how to identify scat from the various animals.\u00a0 Fascinating.<\/p>\n

Scenes from our further travels:<\/p>\n

A curious cape buffalo.<\/p>\n

\"Cape<\/p>\n

Another eagle in flight, a bateleur.<\/p>\n

\"Bateleur<\/p>\n

\n

“It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog (lion)
\nIt’s been a hard day’s night, I should be sleeping like a log ”\u00a0 (Courtesy The Beatles)<\/p>\n

\"Lioness<\/p>\n

We can’t leave without a picture of the ubiquitous anthill.<\/p>\n

\"Ant<\/p>\n

And, Aslan and the anthill. (Hint: Narnia)<\/p>\n

\"Aslan<\/p>\n

African Fish Eagle and impalas.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

A hartebeest.<\/p>\n

\"Hartebeest\"<\/p>\n

Back to birds, a southern white crowned shrike.<\/p>\n

\"Southern<\/p>\n

And the last of the big cats we saw, a leopard. He was focused on a nearby impala.\u00a0 I continue to be amazed at how acclimated the cats were to the vehicles around them, just ignoring them.\u00a0 I asked for volunteers to get out of the jeep and walk around to see if that got their attention, but no takers.<\/p>\n

\"Leopard<\/p>\n

On our last morning at Rra Dinari, we declined an early game drive, and instead took a leisurely drive to the airstrip.\u00a0 The ride was kind of like the ending a Disney movie, driving by a giraffe, then an elephant walking out of a thicket to say good bye.\u00a0 We spotted two female lions resting under a tree, and a male under a tree behind them.\u00a0 We drove past them, and up to the male, who raised his head and in a first, growled.\u00a0 TJ, our driver, pulled around behind the tree and stopped to give us a view of the male.\u00a0 Faster than you could say Lion King, the male charged our jeep, right at the side where Ken and Gina were sitting.\u00a0 Ken hit the floor, Gina leaped into Kay’s lap, and TJ hit the accelerator.\u00a0 A little excitement to end our stay. \u00c2<\/p>\n

At the airstrip, we saw one of our planes coming in for a landing.\u00a0 You see the problem below.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"<\/p>\n

An elephant ambled across the airstrip, forcing the pilot to fly around again.\u00a0 Saying a sad goodbye to Beautiful Botswana, we flew to the Maun International Airport, and boarded a regional flight to Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

The trip was wonderful, the scenery was great and the animals exciting.\u00a0 The best part, however, were the people we traveled with.\u00a0 Our leaders, Janet and Byron, Sig and Ellen (Precious,) Ken and Cynthia, Roger and Leigh, Kay and her friend Lynne and last but not least, the mother and daughter team, Leslie and Shelda, the Kentucky girls.\u00a0 We could not have had better traveling companions.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

A stop overnight in Joburg, then another long trip home.\u00a0 The floor in the Orlando airport was very hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Off we go to our last tent camp, Rra Dinare. \u00a0https:\/\/underonebotswanasky.com\/botswana-lodges\/rra-dinare-father-buffalo Rra Dinare means “Father Buffalo” in the local language.\u00a0 Fitting with all the Cape Buffalo we saw thoughout the area.\u00a0 It was a very short flight cross the Okavango … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1629,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions\/1629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.travelswithwesley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}