Khwai Conservation Area

 Day 25 - Khwai Conservation Area

We returned to the Khwai Conservation Area for a morning game drive. I  was determined to see leopards today, and expressed my intention to everyone, especially the safari driver. As tested a few times during this trip, we did see a young female leopard regardless of the low probability. I think the law of intention may play a role, yet more importantly, suggestive motivations play a bigger role. The safari drivers generally want to accommodate clients’ wishes. The stronger out interests are, the harder they seek out the animals we want to see. When I told the driver, “do you smell any lions?” He responded with driving off-road to a place where lions were. I am not sure whether it was a lion frequented spot or he got the info via radio. 

In the afternoon, we were transferred by safari vehicle to the poling station, where we met the polers escorting us into the Okavango Delta  by mokoros.  The polers steered us through the serene area of narrow, reed lined channels full length f birds and some animals like elephants, waterboks, etc. Reaching one of the many islands, we took a nature walk to see hippos, then we return ed by mokoro through the channels back to the poling station. On the way back, one elephant was in the channel while the other was going in the channel. All polers dodged down to make them less threatening (or looked more like a crocodile?) and the mokoros lined up like the front line of soldiers to break into the space next to the elephant to pass as a group. What an exciting warfare-like moment!

My 2nd night in the same permanent tent was nerve racking. I wake up by noise around 1:30 am and thought it was wind, yet my whole body tensed up after hearing animal breathing. It sounded like a size between a hyena and a zebra that walking from the left side to the front side of my tent slowly (about one hour). There was no emergency bell in my tent to call for help. I tried to turn lights on and off a few times but no result. So I stayed up the full hour in fear to wait for the animal to leave. I left my tent the next morning before sunrise in tight schedule, so I did not investigate around the tent to find out what animal it was.