Madikwe

My mom found a way to come to South Africa for business - helping the Bafokeng (an ethnic group in South Africa) develop a better education system.  Luckily she had weekends off and we managed to spend them together.  The first weekend, I made my way to South Africa and we spent a wonderful 24 hours in Madikwe Game Reserve.  The reserve is along the Botswana/South Africa border and (according to their website) home to 66 mammal species and 300 bird species.  We had an incredible time.  We spent the night in Mosetlha Bush Camp.  It was a camp of nine tent cabins, with open sides and canvas tops.  There was no electricity or running water, but they had a very ingenious toilet and shower system.  You poured water from a tank into a "donkey boiler" and it came out the other end boiling hot.  You then mixed the water in your bucket until it was the desired temperature before carrying it to the pulley shower.  It was an amazingly refreshing shower!

But the best part of the weekend was certainly the animals!  We went on two 4 hour long game drives.  One from 4-8pm and the other 5:30-9:30 am!  We saw tons of animals.  Here are just a few highlights, for many more pictures and a few videos you can visit:
http://picasaweb.google.com/leah.scherzer/MadikweOct09?authkey=Gv1sRgCMXV2oDAi4GOEg#

Watching the giraffe get down low enough to drink was incredible

Dung Beetles!  

The female lays eggs in the ball of dung and then the male has to push the ball while female rides on it.

Four lions who were part of a pride of 16 who were just resting in the shade during the heat of the day

Mother and her baby elephant (probably less than a year old)