April 12

We camped in Kesane Botswana on the Chobe River last night.  Our camp was less than 50 meters from the rivers edge. Last night you could hear a group of warthogs working their way through camp.  They were rooting their way and sounded like a huge group of them.  Then this morning we could hear a couple of hippos making their grunting call down at the river.  Pretty cool having wildlife so close.

Yesterday evening I rode up to town and saw a family of warthogs just strutting their way down the Main Street.  Our guide says the people of Botswana hold wildlife in high regard.  They give them a wide berth and do not bother them whenever they encounter them.  That is much different than Zambia.  We saw very little wildlife there.  Our helicopter pilot shed some light on that.  He said that 90% of the wildlife had been hunted out by tribes and safaris and poachers as well.  He said the only wildlife left in Zambia was on preserves.  In Botswana it is supposed to be everywhere.  

For instance here are some of the road signs along the road we traveled in Botswana today:

You wouldn't see those on a road in the US or anywhere else that I have biked!

Here is a little Michael humor...

This morning I was in line for breakfast getting my daily portion of grool.  Today they had a nice surprise.  They had some raisin buns instead of the normal bread.  Well the lady behind me in line said...  Nice buns!  So I turned around and said... Thank you, I didn't think you had noticed.  At that point the cook behind the table cracked up but the lady stood there just looking at me.  I don't think she got it at first but even when she did she did not appreciate the humor.  Oh well, there I go making more friends...  :)

The ride today was a 106 mile adventure.  The morning part of the ride was straight forward with virtually no wind and some rolling hills.  There are supposed to be wildlife roaming throughout the area (as you can see by the signs).  At one point a semi truck driver pulled up to the SAG vehicle and told him there was a lion about a kilometer or two down the road in the tall grass.  Now I know what you are thinking...  this is a joke right?!  NO, we are in a total wildlife area.  The tour people said we might be cycling right by a pride of lions and would never see them in the tall grass.  So here was a confirmed sighting.  What to do is the question...  a line from a Dirty Harry movie came to mind.  Do you feel lucky today???  Lucky I felt, so off I pedaled.  I pedaled at a good clip with a bit of reserve.  I was ready to go engage an adrenalin infused massive acceleration at any movement in the grass.  That and I put on a grimacing, angry face to strike fear in the heart of any errant lion who would decide to put me on the menu for lunch.  Alas, no lion showed his or her or their face.  So I did not get to try out my massive acceleration trick.  :(   

We were traveling down what is known as Elephant Hiway.  I saw two large bull elephants in two seperate sightings.  They looked at me when I stopped and flaired their ears wide.  That is their sign of being preturbed and getting ready to do something about it.  I took the warning and pedaled on.

A great day all in all.