Kasane September 3rd

By Jain

Each morning we wake up to the sound of birds chirping outside our room;  each species singing it's own songs kinda sounds like a mismatched symphony happening. Most people come to Africa to view the animals but for the bird lover there are over 593 different kinds of birds that would give the bird enthusiast a lifetime of sightings.

On our game drive our tour guide pointed out many different bird species. I am not really up to speed on birds yet I was totally captivated and impressed by the variety and beauty of these creatures. Many birds just sit and ride on the back of zebras, elephants, and Hippos.

The National Bird of Botswana is the Kori Bustard although most people say it is Lilac Breasted Roller.  We saw many Lilac Breasted Rollers and they are easy to spot since they are a beautiful bird with red, yellow, green and blue feathers. It  performs acrobatic stunts dropping and rolling from the sky. A real sight to see.

The Kori Bustard is one of the largest, heaviest birds (40 pounds) that can fly (remember an ostrich is flightless) although 70% of the time it prefers to walk, probably because it takes so much effort to take off. If you are unfortunate to be its flight path and get hit by it it would be like two huge turkeys hitting you on the head. I guess then you at least can say you have experienced your first Kori Bostard, if you live to tell about it.

The male birds can get up to twice the size of the female Bustard. To court the females they fluff up their neck features to make them seem bigger than they are. We saw some on our game drive but not with feathers puffed out. I did see a picture of the Bustard in the gift store and their neck feathers in full bloom are quite impressive. The males like to mate often and play the field, and as they say, "Love them and leave them." They then abandon the female to raise the chicks. Hmm, interesting, now I know how they got their name.

This morning we took a walk through the town of Kasane which basically is along President Ave. for about 2 kilometers. Saturday is a busy day. School kids are out and about and everyone seems to be shopping. We saw women coming home from the market with large sacks of oranges and big bags of rice balanced on their head. Try that at home.

Most people don't own a car here so you see many people waiting for the bus or walking. In Africa you hardly ever see people riding bikes; they consider bikes beneath them and prefer to walk.  As we walk through town it gives you a different perspective on the town and the local life. We heard music coming from everywhere; drums beating in the distance,  people singing. It is nice to know that these are real authentic sounds and not just to entertain the tourist.

In the afternoon we decided to take a tour of a tiny Namibian Village across from Botswana. We are the only ones signed up for the tour so we are greeted by Niven, our tour guide and whisked away down the river in a speed boat. The boat ride was fun, but unfortunately Jay's hat flew off in the first 30 seconds. Going back to retrieve it is totally out of the question; like who is gonna stick their hand in that water anyway. We will be watching for a crocodile wearing a Lake Tahoe Sunnyside Resort hat.

Upon reaching Impala Island we walked about a kilometer to a small village. I thought it might be a village full of locals selling souvenirs and one of those staged Disneyland type mocked village for the white man but it wasn't.  This small village has no electricity, but does have water.  Niven led us around the mud shacks explaining how they are built.   We saw some very impressive 1,000 year old Baobab trees commonly called the tree of life, because they provide shelter, water and food. They are huge trees that look like they are made of stone.  Our on visit it just seemed like people going about their daily life and children playing in the dirt. No other tourists around and the village folk didn't seem to care about us wondering around their huts.

After our tour we returned to the Old House and had dinner and drinks with some English friends we met yesterday. We talked for hours.  Quite a nice couple. All and all it has been a great day in Africa.

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