Botswana: Vervet Monkey Adventure

 

One of the first things they tell you when you arrive at camp is to make sure to close your doors tight or the monkeys will get in your room and haul away your clothes, etc. Since my husband, Joe, was busy taking 7000 photos of the trip, he didn’t realize when he came back into the room carrying his huge camera, that the door was closed… but not tightly!

So, off we go, with our guide, Gift, to the elephant hide. Kings Pool was the first camp we stayed at and they have buried a container with 4 windows in it next to a man-made watering hole that they pumped water into. It’s a short drive from camp and we arrived there with our friends Jane and Steve. Within 2 minutes a large group of elephants arrived to drink, bathe and play in the watering hole. We were watching and taking photos, they were just a couple feet from our hide. They were aged between 1 month and 30 years old, it was mind blowing to say the least. What a treat! We watched them for an hour and then they slowly wandered off.

We then headed back to camp for a little siesta before taking off for our 4:30pm drive. When Joe opened the door to our room, he saw, in a flash, at least 5 Vervet Monkeys scatter right out the door they had come in. Our vitamins and malaria pills were sprayed all over the room, they ate all the herbal vitamins! Needless to say we had to throw everything out in case the monkeys had tasted our malaria pills, but we borrowed enough from our friends to make it back to Passport Health to purchase more. We took all the precautions advised but really had no mosquitoes or tsetse flies; the government of Botswana sprays for the tsetse fly.

If you look up the description of the Vervet Monkey in the Wildlife Book of the Okavango, it says “Inquisitive, agile primate. Often enters camps“. Live and Learn!

Written by: Peggy Romano, Passport Health Client