Leaping Leopards

We are finally back from Maun and the vehicle is in fine form, at least for now mechanics is a prerequisite for the job. I will be posting a funny story soon on our trip this time round to Maun and what I learnt about mechanics in Botswana. I am always happy to be back from Maun, the 3+ hour drive is beautiful but when we drive into out “driveway” there is a sigh of relief to be home. I have been noticing a change in the landscape as of late. The rains are done and the sun has been shining daily. With this, the grass browns and dries out and the trees thin out. It is strange to see this change without also seeing the changing colors we are used to seeing in Canada. In any case it is starting to look more like the desert it is.

We headed out on monday to look for the lions as we do, however it’s been some time since we’ve heard them calling and we figure they are off in the depths of the Mapone, where Graham swears to never take his vehicle again, until of course next time.

We came across this Leopard who we’ve seen once before and have nick named Buddha because of his lazy and large belly. It is difficult to spot Leopard this time of year because of the long grass and they move quickly with great agility and speed. He was up in a Leadwood tree having his breakfast, Impala a la carte. It was amazing to watch him balance with great skill on the branches of the tree, and watch him move so diligently and efficiently.

Broken vehicles, fishing for frogs, climbing trees, breakfast with Elephants and heightened senses

It's been an incredibly hectic few days here in Moremi, we seem to be having a string of bad luck with the vehicles. Just when we thought we had it all figured out with the clutch, the starter went. Go to the Earth-Touch site to get an update as to why our vehicles are so bashed up. While a bit humorous, it's frustrating. A day in camp can be painful. I love getting out into the game reserve, I miss seeing the animals every day. It's why we are here, and I feel a day is not complete without a Giraffe, Lion or Elephant saying hello.


However there is never a dull moment even with vehicle frustrations. After a day of Mopane bashing following the lions we headed to a place called paradise ponds in hopes they may come out of the Mopane on the other end of the scrub. It was lovely, beautiful lilies in a pond and an open space where we could get out of the vehicles for a bit and climb a tree, wade in the water with the lilies, (until Graham mentioned he felt a leech to which I promptly removed myself from the water), and nap beside the truck.






On the way back to camp one day I hung my foot out the edge of the truck to run my feet through the water in a crossing, and when I pulled my feet back in the truck the most beautiful tiny florescent green frog was on my foot! I'd fished a frog out of the water with my foot! absolutely amazing!

This morning, with both vehicles down we were forced to try to find something to film close to camp, if I haven't mentioned we film for a television station here in South Africa called Wild Touch, so it is imperative that we film something. So there we were thinking hmmm.... there is a lovely orb spider that is capturing the sun just right at the moment, when a massive herd of elephant started to pass right through camp and past the loo (thankfully no one was on it)..... perfect timing, a perfect morning, sipping coffee and watching elephant run past camp. Again, for that moment I felt extremely small in this world. The elephant remind me of this every time I place my eyes on them. We are here in their home, they are not in ours.

Mandi had asked about my senses here in the bush so I thought I would touch on that a bit as well. My senses seem to be amplified here. You quickly learn to listen intently for things like the lions calling, but also signs of warning so that you are aware of what is around you. The birds and squirrels will screech if there is a leopard or lion or snake around. When I go to the loo, or walk back to my tent, I have to listen, and look around me constantly as I go. My vision is getting better, you are constantly looking near and far so you use your eye muscles more. So yes you do become acutely aware of all that is around you, sounds, smells and a sight. It's wonderful, and adds to the sense of self awareness that is also growing in this environment, you are forced to tap into your intuition. I've noticed an increasing sense of connectedness with the environment around me, and to my point above a sort of relationship forming with nature.

We are heading into Maun to get supplies and parts for the vehicle. Hoping it will be less hectic than last time I will try to take some photos.

Happy Birthday Marketa

Sunsets and lunchin'

The past couple of days have been simply amazing. Camp numbers are low right now, Brad, Andy and the kids are on holiday and Nick has left to get supplies and go home. So right now it's just Graham, Leto and myself. The vehicles finally got fixed and on thursday afternoon Graham and I set out to catch a sunset on Dead Tree Island. On route we saw the lions, they were sniffing out a herd of Buffalo again, however seemed to simply be sniffing with no real intent in mind. We sat and watched the Buffalo for a bit in hope the lions might make a move. At that moment we were surrounded by elephants, lions and Buffalo. I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear in the moment, it was absolutely amazing. The lions were clearly not doing much so we kept going to Dead Tree for the sunset. It was simply beautiful, as we sat an elephant came by grazing in the colors. Stunning.




Our hours are long here in Moremi, they often begin at 5am and do not end until 9pm. Our days off, today and saturday, are often spent working, by choice. Work for us is a way of life, and it does uniquely define us; and we are flattered that it does. We live and breathe our work. Today, this was amplified a million-fold for me.



I came from working in a corporate environment, in a windowless office, to this moment today, sitting in my office tent, peering out into the open African sky. I got up to get us some home-made iced tea when I heard a deep rumbling. It sounded like a car humming, I looked up and, to my shock and amazement, saw a breeding herd of approximately 10 Elephants! I called to Graham to get his camera, but he was by my side before the words were out of my mouth. He too had heard and seen them from the office window.

Graham directed me slowly and quietly to the edge of camp just inside the electric fence, I crouched in awe as we watched the herd feed only a few meters away. Silenced by their beauty as they grazed and fed right in front of me. My mouth open in amazement, my heart raced not in fear (well maybe a little bit), but mostly in excitement to be immersed in such raw and natural beauty. To stand small next to such a large and majestic animal. To be reminded that we are merely humans, living amongst the animals.

This lunch time experience reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

~I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man; if he spent less time proving that he can outwit nature; and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority ~ E.B. White

Hazard of the job - life in the bush

As I've mentioned, sometimes we get stuck, and sometimes Graham can not get us unstuck. The rains over the last 3 weeks have made for some challenging river crossings. After a stellar morning with the lions, we returned in the afternoon to see if they might get active again. We found them resting in the shade and there they remained until sunset. On route back to camp we managed to get our vehicle stuck in camp crossing. Unable to winch ourselves free, and realizing we had blown the clutch, we had no choice cut to walk back to camp. By now it was nearly dark so thankfully the walk was only about 1km. I hesitated and contemplated staying in the truck alone in the middle of the crossing, but than remembered the absolutely huge crocodile we had just seen and opted to join the boys. I must admit that a feeling of uncertainty and fear washed over me as we took the shortest route back to camp and marched quickly and with purpose. Graham and Nick picked up Brads truck and headed back to the crossing to retrieve Grahams truck. Within 5 minutes they returned, they had spotted a lioness on the road close to camp. I was in my tent getting stuff together to shower, and I hear Nick shout stay clothed and in your tent, and Graham shout, I'll come get you. With that I was walked into camp and we turned on the electric fence immediately, in which I stayed and listened carefully until I received a radio call to come and fetch the boys in the utility truck. They had now managed to get Brads truck stuck as well. At this point it was too dark and too dangerous to attempt removal, we decided to leave the trucks where they were and deal with them in the morning.

The lions roar under African sun

We’ve managed to locate the pride again. While we were at the circus on the weekend, Nick found the lions on Dead Tree Island (this is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, I will post pics once the lighting is just right for such a setting) They had finally managed to eat and had taken down a Buffalo calf. I was so excited to hear this news and couldn’t wait to see them with full bellies, there lack of nutrition as of late had left them nothing more than lethargic and lazy.

The rain has finally let up, the sun is shining, my skin is browning and the roads are drying up a bit. This makes for easy tracking, we quickly pick up the lions tracks and find them not far from where Nick had seen them on the weekend. They are looking lovely with full bellies. The cubs are playing gleefully. The lions seem to be an equal cross between a cat and a dog, they play like dogs, with sticks and such. Hiss and prowl like cats. They are amazingly strong. The average weight of a female is 126kg, males up to 260kg bar in mind as well that animals muscles are four to six times stronger than a humans. A mere tap from one of these “cute” cats and we’d be dead in an instant. This is the first time since I’ve been here that I have seen them move so much. I am in awe, they are such beautiful animals. We still are uncertain as to where the males are, but it is interesting to watch the females with the cubs, it’s almost as if there are lessons being taught. As we watch the pride starts to roar, I sit as the sound reverberates through my bones, it’s the most majestic sound sweet on my ears, incredibly humbling in such powerful presence. Possibly the most impressive natural sound that has ever fallen on my ears.

The function of the roaring is territorial advertising, location of pride members, and strengthening social bonds.

Patience is a virtue in Maun

A trip to Maun to conclude that I am not an imbecile, I do not have leprosy or syphilis. I am not an idiot, an imbecile or a feeble minded person. (see attached certification as proof) Yes, these plus a list of other seemingly odd highly contractable disease that I must be cleared of, and I am than able to apply for my residence permit. This process turns out to be a complete and utter gong show. Inefficient would be an understatement. I had full intention of taking a lot of pics of Maun, however because we spent the best part of the trip running around doing errands and being sent into all sorts of opposing direction by a lazy system I was unable to. There are two passport and immigration offices in Maun. Both appear exactly the same, both do exactly the same thing, process exactly the same paperwork and can produce exactly the same results. These two offices are less than 1km from each other on the same road. We proceed to one, with all the necessary paper work for me to apply for my Botswana residence. Police clearance from Canada to prove I am not a wanted criminal, my birth certificate, application, letter of employment, my film permit, and yes a note from a local Dr that states I am in good health, not an imbecile, clear of all communicable disease including and not limited to syphilis. The Dr that examined me, who is in a wheelchair, asked me do I have syphilis? No I respond, am I an imbecile, again a strong and certain, no. Do I have leprosy? no. He listened to my heart, took my blood pressure and signed the form. Clearly a thorough screening process. Than all these forms had to be signed by a lawyer to prove they were the real deal. I do have to say that I don’t know anywhere that one can simply walk into a lawyers office, no appointment, and have something done on the spot for a pretty reasonable price. I was impressed.

There we were, in the correct place, ducks in a row, money in hand ready to pay our $500 pula. You can’t pay here they say. The revenue is closed. I can see Grahams forehead start to distort into a strained position. Clearly he’s been through this before and is painfully aware of what direction this is going to lead us. You must go to the employment office to pay, get a receipt and come back with the form. It’s 2pm, but it’s a friday. Graham sternly asks what time they close, 4pm they say. Again, the forehead, now joined by the eyes.... I decide it’s best to remain quite and let Graham handle it. Some harsh words, a hard stomp out and we proceed to the “other” immigration office, 1km down the road. Money in hand, forms all ready to go. We hand it in, of course they inform us that we can’t pay there, we must pay at the other office. Graham suggests that they call them and tell them that. These ladies seemed much nicer and a little more helpful, they sort through my forms to make sure we have everything. This is when she points out that the film permits were not the originals. We must have the originals. I am now afraid to look at Graham, his forehead has disappeared into his hat. I must not make eye contact. The originals are back in camp.

At this point I should paint a picture of the office for you, the passport and immigration office. A government office. One desk, 4 employees, one phone, no computers. A list of names on the wall, similar to when your grades get posted, however this is where you go to look if your permit has come in, if it has it’s highlighted. There are no piles of forms anywhere, handy to hand out to those that need them, they are in another office, outside and down the way.

We high-tail it back to the earth-touch office in some hope that we have the original film permits there. We don’t, but my individual one is. We grab that and mix it in with some copies of the rest, back to the lawyer (again we just walk in!) and pull a cheeky move, we look stressed and he clearly sees this, therefore he may have been keeping a silent eye as well. We tell him we were just handed a bunch of papers and the originals are in there somewhere, he looks at us, back at the papers and stamps them for us. Off we go to the employment office to pay our $500 pulla, get a receipt and turn in the forms. The demeanor of the employees at these places is less then responsive, and they obsess little sense of urgency or efficiency. She barley stirs when we walk in, and barley picks up the phone to call the right person for us to pay. We have a seat, and wait, wait, wait....... you get the point. Eventually we pay, get the receipt, back to the passport office, hand in the forms, and are done, but not until I get my visitors permit extended till june, which I need while I wait for my residency to come in. This form is down the way in another office...eventually we are done. It’s 5pm. Graham needs a beer, maybe 10 of them. I find it all a bit hilarious, but I may not say that next time I have to deal with this. Now let’s see if my name gets on the board.......

Where's Waldo? I mean Penny

Hungry hungry angry Hippos

While out looking for the lions we often stop to photograph all the rest of the beauty that surrounds us, on monday it was the Hippos. They are truly ridiculous animals. They snort and laugh, it’s quite funny to hear, they waddle when they walk, a male can weigh up to two tons! and all that weight is carried on these tiny stumps of legs. Make no mistake that these short fat guys can move fast, while they only eat grass, if you are in the way of their water they will take you out. So there we were taking photos of the Hippos in the pouring rain, and Graham says “get out and walk around the car will you”, he needs me to distract them a little so they look up. Yes Graham, whom I’ve placed and enormous amount of trust in, is going to use me as bait so he can have a photo opportunity. I trust him. So I get out, all seems fine, and I get back in. The mother seems a bit irritated, there is a young cafe with her. But we shrug it off, there seem no real intent . We pack up the gear and start to move the truck. She decides to chase us. That is correct, hungry and angry mother Hippo is chasing our truck. Graham thinks this is hilarious and is laughing as we drive, shouting would "you like to have a look" ...to which I politely respond “no thank you, I am fine...just drive Graham”.

Camp Life

Camp life is basic. You’ve seen the shower and my tent. I’ve just added a picture of the loo to that post so you can have a better visual of where I do my business. Note that it is called a “long drop”. Literally it is a long hole dug into the ground with mud built up around a plastic toilet, might I add a very uncomfortable throne. There are only very small mirrors, if you can find one, therefore 99% of the time I have no idea what I look like. I often use the side mirrors of the truck to put a bobby pin in my hair. I have no access to exercise in great extents. Some push ups, sit ups and a game of badminton. It is obviously unsafe to simply go for a run. I sit all day in the truck and all evening. My physical body is changing and it is all somehow wonderfully liberating. I used to obsess about when and how I would fit my workout in on any given day. It was an added stress in my life. Because of the lack of mirrors and such, you don’t care what you look like. You can’t care. My feet are always dirty. They always will be. Manicured nails are a thing of the past as are designer suits and high heels. There is no room for one of the seven deadly, vanity. The result of all this seems to be this overlying feeling of developing my self awareness, feeling more and accepting more that this is a multi-faceted exercise of all parts of my being, no matter what there will always be new layers of me to uncover and new things to learn about myself. Becoming more spiritually and self aware begins with the process of learning to accept exactly who I am, with all of my warts, wonders, blemishes, un-plucked eyebrows and dirty feet. Being out here in the raw is and will force me to look at my physical self, mental self and spiritual self and integrate them into my total being without vain.


Since I’ve been here the rest of the world really does seem to fade into the distance. I don’t access news, I can I suppose, but I choose not to. I figure if its big enough news I will hear through email from family and friends. What I have tried to be conscious of is, not to forget to grief the loss of my father. Deep down inside me there is a lot of pain, and I fear that by removing myself from so much of my life as it was I may be suppressing what needs to come out. My emotions are raw. The truth is the pain cannot be outrun, I can’t run around it, over it or under it. I must run through it. I need to keep working through it.

There is so much in Africa that reminds me of my father. When I look into the male lions eyes, I swear I see him. He was a leo. And he was as burley as the lions and sometimes as grumpy as one.

When I look out into the open fields, it reminds me of a picture I have of him standing in his own similar field.

I speak about him out loud and in that I am reminded that he is no longer with me, and I fight back tears. I am quickly learning that it is something you get through, not over. At this point I must mention my remarkable company. I’ve managed to be surrounded with empathy. Both Graham and Andy have lost their father and both similar in age to myself. Which brings me back to my earlier points to that message that I sent out to the universe, the universal law of attraction.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the company I’ve found myself surrounded by is awesome.

Franette is simply lovely and in 23 years young very much reminds me of my cousin Katie. It’s like there is a piece of home here with me.

For whatever reason, Brad seems to like to crack jokes about south park and the mounties, I’ve challenged him to come up with something else canadian to tease me about. I fear this may be all he knows about Canada.

A call to the lions

We have had little luck with the lions this week, all the rain has made it difficult to pick up their tracks as well the rain has been widespread resulting in the game dispersing. I’ve noticed a difference in my ability to see and hear things off in the distance. The lions calling in the night is now a distinct sound to my ears. And something moving far off in the horizon and I automatically pick up the binoculars to have a curious look.


I have come across some fantastic photo opportunities and it’s given me the chance to try out some of the camera skills Graham has been teaching me. My mind does not think in a technical way at all, when he is speaking about Fstops and seconds per something or other I stare at him blank faced and nod as if to understand. I am a hands on visual person, I need to just go take some photographs and learn through trial and error. He has been wonderfully patient with me, and is extremely helpful in critiquing my pictures in a way I can understand exactly what I’ve done right and what I’ve done wrong. We had a good time capturing photos of these Zebra, Impala and Egrets playing together.

Moremi rains break the rules

The summer rains have set in this week, and I am starting to feel a bit water logged. It is not much different than what it felt like living on dads boat one summer in toronto, or sailing up the coast of Brazil or the time Mum and Dwight took Marissa and I to florida. Everything is damp. Bedding, cloths, seats in the vehicle making for a soggy bottom. It doesn’t dampen my spirits, while it would be nice to be building my tan so I don’t stand out so contrastingly white against my south african friends, I still can’t help but foolishly smile while I take in the sweet smells of wild sage and lemon and the Mopane scrubs in the air and laugh out-loud every time we dip the bonnet of the truck into a huge crossing and the water pours in. I can not understand why this pleases me so, perhaps because it’s exactly what one is not supposed to do. Which leads to me to tuesday afternoon. After much rain all week, the sun broke through, it was glorious! We all dropped what we were doing to get sweaty playing a game of badminton then go for a swim in our local watering hole, the river crossing just up the way from camp. Yes you read that right. Everything that everyone told me not to do, we did. We walked bare foot in the mud and still standing water (with the truck following close behind in case there was a need to quickly jump in) and swam gloriously in the cool water. Are there leeches? I ask hesitantly. A few, I get answered rather nonchalantly from the gang. Any crocs? I ask hesitantly. Probably not, answered again rather nonchalantly. Probably not, hmmmmm. At this point I figure that if Andy is ok with Rio and Keita swimming and walking. Then I figure I will be just fine. It’s cool and lovely and the sun is setting behind us. Once again I sigh and smile at the beauty that surrounds me and the feeling of the cool clear water on my skin.

For Luna

Blogging update

OK I think I am up to date now, I must let you all know that my posts will be done once a week. We have limited bandwidth and time slots. My days off are friday and saturday and that is when I will be posting. I am also just trying to figure out this blog thing so please bare with me. For those of you following on Facebook only, it does not seem to post pics, so be sure to go right to my blog site for pics www.pennyannlight.blogspot.com also to follow more detailed on the Lions of Moremi be sure to go www.moremi.earth-touch.com.

I am taking some photography lessons from Graham as we go along so I hope to learn more and you will notice a difference in my photo's as I improve.

I am off for now, I do know we are heading into Maun this weekend, so I in fact may not get a chance to post, but will try. I miss you all muchly.