Botswana

Stumbled on to these pics for some reason...Thought I´d share them with you.

10 or so years ago I went on a scouting trip to Botswana for a travelagency. They needed to check out this new Horseback safari outfit and see if they could partner up with them. I was part of a "testpilot" crew and was also doing a story about the operation. We flew to South Africa and from there travelled by Jeep to the Botswana border. Traveled way in to the bush on cow track type roads. Crossing rivers and bouncing through rocky ground. We finally reached our destination, Mashatu Gamereserve. The camp was a cluster of huts in the middle of the Botswana bush, 500 miles from anywhere.

There we hooked up with Steven, (last name forgotten) the owner and guide of the Horseback Safari. We spent about two weeks in the bush on horseback. Travelling from one camp to the next and had a ground crew, cook and handyman, travel ahead of us and pitch camp.

The country was rough and unforgiving. To make matters worse my luggage was lost in South Africa and all I had for two weeks in the saddle and Botswana bush was the clothes I wore and my camera. I did have an x-tra set of underware I used as padding for my lenses in the camera bag, that was it. I washed my stuff acouple of times in rivers and watercrossings and let them dry as I wore them.


Some amazing experiances came our way though, and one of the cooler trips I´ve been on.


This is a pic I took while chasing Zeebras. Chasing is the wrong word actually as we rode up behind them and when they took of they acted like the herdanimals they are and listened for hoofs hitting the ground. As we were horseback, our horses sounded like the rest of them and we were able to steer the herd right or left by veering that way ourselves. Really cool! Not so cool was the bumps and bruises I got on my forhead from taking the reins in my teath, raising my 10 pound camera and firing away while my horse ran all out, crashing through brush, jumping logs and draws! I looked like a Wildebeast (Gnu) for a couple of day´s after that ordeal!

Another "Kodac Moment" came when we were tracking an elephant herd. We had gotten pretty close and I was able to get some pretty good shots of a fairly young calf.


In a cloud of dust, flying branches and brush, came an elephant bull charging right at us!! Steven screamed not to move a muscle and act cool and calm! The bull stopped dead in his tracks some 50 feet from us and sounded his trumpet and flapped his ears. After a while he backed up, turned and headed back to were he came from. Apearantly the attacker was a younger animal trying to show off and the tell was the fact he had his ears out to make himself look big and frightening (wich he did a really good job of I might ad, wish I had packed more shorts in the camerapack) If the charge is for real, the elephants pin their ears supposedly...



The horses we rode were mostly domestic stock. Dutch and English horses crossed on thoroughbreds to make a stout, stocky type of horse for the boer war in the late 1800:s.
Me and Togella

My steady mount was a gray gelding named Togella. Great minds on them, sure footed and tough.