MLK’s family home growing up in Atlanta

Ebenezer Baptist Church where MLK and his father preached.

Our driver gave me a “Happy Birthday” hug.

Did you know that there are 57 countries in Africa?

Beloved Botswana at last!! The 50 refers to when the country became independent from England in 1966.

I managed to give away the huge slice of birthday cake in my right hand that Deborah thoughtfully arranged for.

Lodging in Maun. Joanie and Gordie helped me to hunt for a room at the lodge that didn’t have air permeated with pesticides and air freshener. I felt fortunate I was able to get a good night of sleep.

My dear friends, Joan Borysenko and Gordie Dveirin.

Our lovely trip leader, Deborah Stephens, who resides in Baja, Mexico, leads trips to Africa, as well as to remote places in Mexico for viewing whales, cave paintings, and exotic plants and animals.

We will be spending much of our days inside one of the two safari vehicles.

Let me introduce you to Peace Shamuka on the left, hailing from Botswana, and David Carson from Zimbabwe on the right. Both men are extremely accomplished trackers and guides, having gone through four years of intensive training when they were young men. Their knowledge is vast and mind-blowing. They know how to think like the animal they are tracking.

Our first three nights we will stay on the Khwai River, part of the immense Okavango Delta, a pristine wilderness that offers an abundance of food and water for wildlife—even in the dry season. We will get to see the animals in their own natural environment.

These canvas tents will be our homes for the next 10 days. They hold two narrow cots with mattress and bedding.

Ken Hughes and Ellen Kemper, my neighbors at my community, The Commons in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Each tent has a canvas attachment to the back of the tent, accessed through the zippered flap, that serves as the “bathroom” with a hole dug in the ground over which stands a precarious toilet. On the other side of the roofless enclosure is a pole with a canvas bucket that can be filled with warm water for a camping-style shower.

My tent mate, Tina, from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We’re having a good time together. Tina is taking a year to travel the world. Africa is her starting point.

The African painted dog, aka wild dog, is only found in the southern part of Africa.

The painted dogs lie together and den, until they are rested enough to go off hunting again as a pack.

The leader of the pack is ready to take off and look for a meal. Working as a pack, David said they are ferocious hunters and can bring down even large game by using teamwork.

This Marabou stork looks less threatening.

African Fish Eagle, waiting for some action.

The impala are ubiquitous in this area. They are one of many types of antelopes found here and are the source of food for the large predators, like the lions, leopards, wild dogs and hyenas

This large antelope is called a Tsessebe.

Sometimes it’s hard to know if a tree is dead or simply lost it’s leaves for the winter months. Many dead trees are scattered around the savannah from the floods several years ago.

This tree is dead from the elephants stripping the bark in search of its nutrients. When the tree is “rimmed” and the bark stripped in a circle, the tree will surely die because it’s “circulation” has been disrupted and it cannot pull up nutrients from the soil.

The first of many giraffes that we spotted. Many of these photos (certainly not all) I’ve taken with my iPhone camera, which tells you how close the animals let us get to them.

Can you see the leopard lying on the tree branch, waiting for supper to pass by?

The dinners in the open air dining tent are delicious and elegant. Every dietary need is accommodated—somehow. The staff is friendly and gracious and never short on smiles.

Night comes to the Delta. We crawl into our tents and listen to the animals making their unique and sometimes scary sounds in the night—sometimes too near for comfort.

Sure enough! David found the leopardess well camouflaged in the tall grasses, slinking around trying to get a decent meal.

She must be really starving because she’s stalking a squirrel—a mere hors d’oeuvre for such a big animal.

Now it’s time for her to go all out to find a filling meal. Squirrels are like eating candy. Intent on her mission, she completely ignores our safari vehicle only a few yards from her.

The leopardess is right next to our vehicle, up close and personal. As long as we stay in the vehicle, we are of absolutely no significance to her.

After David temporarily took his focus off the leopardess, we spotted a cluster of zebra.

The mokoro men poled our canoes silently around the watery marsh land. The experience was mystical as we floated past the wildlife—including a python snake in the rushes.

Female version of Ernest Hemingway—without the rifle—standing next to a hippopotamus with a telltale hole in his skull where he had most likely been gored by a competing male to win the favor of the females.

Joanie and Gordie are under the spell of the primordial scene surrounding us.

As we silently moved through the water a very large family of elephants appeared for their morning drink.

After the bull elephant walked out into the water to look us over, he saw that we were not a threat and then ignored us and watched over his family as they drank. After drinking, a big commotion ensued when a baby elephant walked off with the wrong family and then freaked out and started racing around frantically  looking for her mommy. The bull elephant responded to the commotion by raising his trunk and loudly trumpeting.

Hippopotamus eating grass. It’s surprising to find them openly eating in full view. They like to hide when they’re on land and feel most comfortable in the water.

We won’t be going into these waters with crocodiles and hippos waiting in the water. All the little faces you see in the picture with the frog-like eyes are enormous hippos.

Do you think this hippo is roaring for joy? Or is he simply letting the other males know that he is the boss?

Tracks of a large male lion in our camping area.

This male lion gorged himself into a stupor from eating much of a large antelope called an Eland. The rest of his family is passed out as well. The all have abdomens that look like they will burst.