The Kalahari Desert Has Lip Smacking Lions!
Yes, we spent some time watching this Lion licking his lips and pondering his next meal – because we were in Botswana’s Kalahari Desert, where the wild life was everywhere – like this Lion smelling the air for signs of his next meal – take a look:
Welcome To Ker & Downey’s Dinaka Preserve!
This was just another magical moment from our African safari, this time in the isolated Kalahari desert in Botswana…like when these two Lions took over the road and made us wait for them to wander by:
The Kalahari desert was filled with wild animals like this, and it’s also where we saw one of the more elusive animals:
Meet An Oryx!
This was a terrific sighting, as they tend to avoid the Jeeps!
An Oryx is a genus of four large antelope species native to the arid regions of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Known for their striking appearances and extreme desert adaptations, they are characterized by long, slender horns (which can be over 4 feet long), pale coats, and contrasting dark facial markings.
What a beautiful animal! We saw so many incredible sightings here at Dinaka!
An exclusive private conservancy against the northern edge of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Dinaka is host to one of the most unique bio-diversities in Southern Africa and well known for it’s high density of desert wildlife sightings. This ever-changing desert landscape gives refuge to the Kalahari lion, springbok, Oryx and brown hyena.
Here is more with that magnificent Oryx:
So graceful – and peaceful as well…I couldn’t say the same about these Lions, who decided to argue over who got to finish their meal of Kudu…
This was fascinating but a bit scary as well…my wife Alex began to take videos of just how close the Lions were to me – here’s an example of one very noisy Lion clearly unhappy about something:
While I felt safe because they really don’t care about us at all – because we are in an open air Jeep about 5 feet off the ground – and their prey runs directly ahead of them…still, see just how wild this Lion encounter got here:
One of the most unusual sightings we had in the Kalahari were these giant Ostriches! And boy do they grow big here in the wild!
With so much wildlife everywhere, was it scary? Well, we were a bit on guard when we did a walk with Kalahari Bushmen:
We saw their thatched huts, learned how to find water in a desert, and of course, saw them do this – make fire:
If you haven’t read it, here is the entire tour we took, learning so many fascinating things about surviving in a desert!
The Kalahari desert may not have much water, but it was filled with wild animals, like these Wildebeests:
It’s crazy to drive around in the Jeep and come across countless animals of all kinds, grazing, drinking water, or in this case, devouring it!
Check out these incredible “Finches” as they descend on a watering hole:
Just incredible.
Here is the entire 11-minute video with lots of different videos and facts about this incredible part of our world:
I also shared a shorter version of this story, with the birds, Oryx, baby Rhinos and more – you can see it here:
Thanks to those of you who are following along as I share all of our incredible safari adventures here….there is still more to come!
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Categories: Africa, Exotic Travel, Memoirs, nature, safari, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
johnrieber 
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