The highlight of the day came early. We found a parade of elephants that were browsing the bushes and they started bugling each other to stay off the bush they were eating, one episode lasted over a minute.
Elephants bugling
Elephants bugling
Then we came upon Burchell's zebras, the stripes cover the entire body versus mountain zebras which have a white underside. They control their body temperature by opening their views on either the white (to cool) or black stripes (to warm). The range of these zebras has been dramatically reduced in recent years.
Zebra and giraffe
The guides asked us, "what came first the termite mound or the tree?" since we saw many termite mounds built around trees. The answer - it depends. For fruit trees, the fungus terminte mound is first, the fruit tree seed gets carried by baboons who use the hill for a lookout. For dry wood termites, the tree came first, and the termites build the hill up the tree, eating the outer bark. Finally, there are no trees around, harvest termite mounds, they are low mounds near grass connected by tunnels.
We tried out the branches of the Magicquarry or toothbrush tree, which leave a fresh taste in your mouth. We didn't try the weeping walto or bushman's toilet paper.
We're in the Caprivi strip of Namibia, which lies between the Angola and Kwando rivers. This is the rainiest portion of Namibia and has always been a haven for animals during the dry season. The strip was worked out by the Germans to provide acess through the river system to the Indian Ocean, but there was one problem - Victoria Falls. This region has housed revolutionaries from the surrounding countries into the 1990's, because it was largely ignored by the government until recently. When they created the park - they had to move two villages. They used the villagers as park rangers as well as setting the new homesteads up as examples for the tourists of typical village life in the past and present. Schools were setup and solar panels provided for electricity at the school. As their families expand, the chief can give out new land which they rent for about $1/year.
We tried out the branches of the Magicquarry or toothbrush tree, which leave a fresh taste in your mouth. We didn't try the weeping walto or bushman's toilet paper.
We're in the Caprivi strip of Namibia, which lies between the Angola and Kwando rivers. This is the rainiest portion of Namibia and has always been a haven for animals during the dry season. The strip was worked out by the Germans to provide acess through the river system to the Indian Ocean, but there was one problem - Victoria Falls. This region has housed revolutionaries from the surrounding countries into the 1990's, because it was largely ignored by the government until recently. When they created the park - they had to move two villages. They used the villagers as park rangers as well as setting the new homesteads up as examples for the tourists of typical village life in the past and present. Schools were setup and solar panels provided for electricity at the school. As their families expand, the chief can give out new land which they rent for about $1/year.
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