Supermarket, dancers and a long, long day!



 It's a 5.15 start today because we have a long trip ahead of us to Chobe Game Reserve. We pack up quickly and have the truck loaded and ready to go by 7am. Ike can't resist a short safari first, though, so we go back into Savuti.  We see a number of safari trucks waiting for a pride of lions to emerge from the bush so we  join them, waiting  silently and expectantly, but after about 10 minutes, when the lions fail to appear, we leave to start out on our long trip to Chobe, a distance of 172km, not a huge distance but it will be slow going on the deep sand roads. At one point we see a solitary flamingo beside the road deep in the park and wonder how and why it is there.  We all feel sorry for it but Ike doesn't seem to think it is in trouble.  We pass a sign which tells us Kasane, close to our destination, is 142 kms away.  We travel for another 20 minutes and see another sign which tells us Kasane is 145 kms away!  Africa!!  After our usual firewood stop we travel on seemingly endless, wide, straight, roads.
 







 For some strange reason, approximately every 100 metres or so, there is a tree right in the centre of the road and Ike has to veer around it.  We reach the gates of Chobe Reserve around lunch time and stop for a lunch of macaroni, mashed beef and fresh bread.  We watch in amazement as a 12 seater van fills up with local passengers and give up counting how many have boarded it after about 25. Ike tells us we are going into the town of Kasane so that Mfana can get an injection for the severe rash he has developed through his allergy to the Kalahari Apple Tree. He says he will drop us off for about an hour so that we can have a look around.  Kasane is a small dusty tourist centre town with modern shops and an affluent, progressive look about it. We change some currency into Botswanan Pula and walk along the busy street to the supermarket which is large, modern and deliciously cool inside. We are like kids in a candy shop swooping on cold drinks, fruit, beer and wine to replenish our stocks.  While we wait for Ike and Mfana to return to collect us we enjoy watching the locals.  They are handsome, happy looking people, many dressed in bright colours with several women carrying large loads  on their heads.  We stroll past a very glamorous resort and eye it longingly...good showers and decent beds are now but distant memories! We re-board the truck and stop again on the outskirts of Kasane.  Ike goes into a scruffy, run down looking, building while we wait wondering what he is up to.

 

 After a few minutes a group of dancers come out and approach the truck.  They invite us into the building where they put on a free half hour concert purely for our benefit. It is an absolute treat, the highlight of the day.  They dance with vitality, enthusiasm and joy using syncopated rhythms and foot stamping.  The men slap on leg shields and the women ululate.   We are all invited to join in, something I usually hate and shy away from, but I join into the spirit of it this time and love it, it is great fun. Their leader tells us that the music is drawn from a number of different tribes and that the group's philosophy is to unite people through music. It works, the whole concert is exuberant and uplifting.

Then it's back into the truck and on the road  to our camp again.  We  re-track back into Chobe Park and go through another very perfunctory disinfection.  We turn off the main road and are starting to get excited at the prospect of nearing our camp  but we are wrong!  After another hour of bumping and crawling along a rutted, sandy road we are getting hotter, dustier and tetchier.  We come across a herd of several hundred Cape Buffalo making their way to the water and stop to watch them,  all of us becoming fixated on a young, injured buffalo valiantly trying to keep up with its mother but really struggling. Sadly, it probably won't live long.  After watching for about 40 minutes Hils makes a comment to one of the group about "watching paint dry".  Ike must have heard her because he starts the truck up immediately and we once again start out for our camp site.  We drive along the edge of the gigantic flood plain and see herds of many different animals in all directions.  It is a magnificent sight and we are enthralled.  

We finally arrive at our camp site at 6pm - 11 hours after leaving Savuti and still have to unload the truck, pitch our tents and make camp.  It is always amazing how quickly we make the most impossible looking site look like home, though, and this really is an impossible looking site!  Ike tells us to keep our tents zipped because there are a lot of snakes in this area - eek! - he won't have to tell me twice, that's for sure. We sit around the fire enjoying a hard earned glass of wine and waiting for dinner then, later, we toast marshmallows on sticks over the fire and chat about our day.  The toilet tent is set a fair distance from our sleeping tents and Raewyn comes back from it to tell us there were two bright blue eyes staring at her from the bush.  Mfana accompanies a few of us down to have a look and tells us it is a jackal.  We fall into bed at 10pm, exhausted, hot and dirty.

Photos: (1) Our truck loaded up and ready to go, (2) Exotic signpost.  Shall we go to Zimbabwe, Zambia or Namibia...I know, let's  go to Kasane, (3) The long straight sand road....,(4)....with trees in the middle,
(5) The exuberant and captivating Matsosa Ngawao Dance Troupe.....(6)....the highlight of our day, (7) Hilary and I pose with the dancers, (8) Hils in our tent, pleased to have finally made camp













Indiana Jones and the African wild dogs

We're already on safari at 6am hoping to beat the vehicles from the lodges to any cheetahs or leopards that may be around.    Despite driving around for a long time we don't find any felines but we do see our first Roan Antelope and then drive out to a vast open Savannah where there are herds of  many different animals, including,  elephants, giraffe, wildebeest, impala and water buck, with jackals, warthogs and the occasional steenbock.  It is spectacular and wonderful.

 When we stop in the middle of the Savannah to get out of the truck and stretch our legs we are entertained by five ostriches chasing each other backwards and forwards across the plain.  Ostrich can reach speeds of 60 kilometres an hour and these five are certainly sprinting.  It is quite comical.  Ike tells us that when he was training to be a safari guide he would be dropped off in the middle of the game reserve and left alone for up to ten hours a day for two weeks.  He had to learn by observing the animals and birds, getting to identify them and learning their habits.  It sounds like a formidable and dangerous training to us but it has certainly paid off for Ike who has a deep and respectful knowledge of the wild life. 

We get back to camp at 10.45 and I wash some clothes in a tiny bowl of swamp water.  All my clothes are filthy so even rinsing them in dirty water is better than nothing. It is too hot in the tent, 39 degrees, so we are lounging around camp trying to get into tiny bits of mottled shade for relief.  Mfana bakes a delicious cheese and onion bread in  the fire and we munch happily on that, coleslaw and sausages for lunch. 



 The superb and wonderful D Team are on kitchen duty today, yes, you guessed, it's my team consisting of yours truly, Trevor and Lawrence, both fine men and good company who make doing chores fun.  It is now early afternoon and there is great excitement...we have an elephant in camp. Shivers of fear and delight run up our spines  as the elephant weaves around the camp and lumbers past us but the elephant seems more interested in eating than attacking us.  We watch transfixed as he roots up grass with his trunk, shakes it a number of times to get rid of the dirt and seeds and then stuffs it in his mouth. 

 Ike tells us that elephants have very poor eye sight and that since we are down wind of  him  he cannot smell us

                                                                                             



 At 3.30 we head out on a mission to find the African Wild Dog.  One of our group, Murray, is particularly keen to see this fearsome animal and Ike is very keen to ensure he does.  We drive a long way out into the game reserve but with nothing much happening we are becoming a bit restless when suddenly everything begins to happen.


  A ranger tells Ike where he has spotted a cheetah so we race off to find it.  Sure enough, it is resting under a tree about 3 metres from us, a beautiful animal, not bothered at all by our presence. We watch it for a while and then drive across an area of the plain where there are numerous deep holes dug into the ground.  Ike explains that they have been dug by elephants  burrowing down to extract the minerals lacking in their diet. We meet a safari guide who informs us he has spotted some wild dogs resting at a water hole some distance away. Ike sets off at a hair raising speed to get there before the dogs head off hunting for the evening but before we get there we come across an incredibly large herd of elephants, literally hundreds of them making an awesome sight as they swirl up red dust against the setting sun.  Ike is a keen and very good photographer and has enjoyed using Gary's camera so we pull up and watch the elephants while Ike takes numerous photos of them and of an equally large herd of cape buffalo.  He gets a bit carried away taking photos, losing  track of time until he suddenly realises we could miss seeing the wild dogs, if we don't hurry, so away we go again at  great speed.



 


  Luckily, the dogs are still by the water hole.  They are  frightening and hideous creatures with mottled coats who walk with their heads low and thrust forward.  I almost feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck when I see them.  The African Wild Dog is a specific species and another of the "ugly five" of Africa.  They are the most endangered animal of Africa and therefore very hard to find, so we are lucky. Vicious animals, they hunt in packs and can tear a lion limb from limb. When we arrive they are lying in the mud and largely ignore us but after a while they get up and start pacing around.  I am beside the open side of the truck and feel very nervous.      



  We watch them for about a quarter of an hour and then Ike realises we are in danger of being still in the park after  curfew.  If he is caught  on safari after curfew he would face a large fine so...here we go again, hurtling through the park to get back to camp before closing time.  The sand roads are deeply rutted and Ike throws the truck from side to side, screaming around corners and crashing into trees which whack the truck from all directions.  He is our real life Indiana Jones and we are all hanging on for dear life ducking and diving to avoid the trees, absolutely thrilled and terrified in equal parts. We get to the park gate with 5 minutes to spare but still have to ford a river filled with crocodiles.  We cross our fingers, pray and reach the other side safely all whooping and shouting with delight...what a spectacular day!! 


To round things off perfectly, Raewyn, our leader, had lost her photo card with all her photos of the trip on it and it turns up amongst the drink bottles at the back of the truck.  She had been deeply upset by the loss and we all felt for her, so there is great rejoicing at the find. Hils Gary and I celebrate by sharing one tiny bottle of rum and peach nectar.  We have a traditional Botswana dinner of maize pap, mashed beef, pumpkin and gravy with peaches and cream to follow.  Trevor, Lawrence and I do the dishes in the dark.  It is very hard to see what we are doing but we enjoy laughing and joking together, nevertheless.   Everyone sits around the camp fire reliving our day, chatting, watching the stars, feeling contented and happy.  Ike is on a high after his Indiana Jones performance and laps up being the centre of attention.  He talks of his dream  to be a professional photographer.  Mfana sits beside me and tells me he would like to travel overseas and maybe live somewhere else in about 5 years time, perhaps New Zealand.  I ask him about Botswana and he tells me the population is only 1.6 million.  This surprises me as it is a vast country, albeit largely desert.  Then Ike tells us there is a leopard nearby which may come into camp tonight....eek!  I am not too keen to go down to the toilet but needs must!  We are safely in our tents by 10pm. 



Photos: (1) Ostriches sprinting across the plains, (2) Hilary and I attempt to wash some clothes in a tiny bowl of water, (3) The superb D Team, Trevor, Miriam and Lawrence make doing chores fun, (4) There's an elephant in camp!!...my tent to the left...there are crocodiles in the river, too,  (5) The gorgeous cheetah, my favourite animal, (6) Cape Buffalo at sunset, (7) African Wild Dogs...vicious killing machines......, (8)...and this one looks me  in the eye, (9) Ike, our very own Indiana Jones, (10) Fording a crocodile infested river





Leopards and lessons

I didn't sleep well  last night, just lay awake listening to the hyena in camp and a lion roaring close by.  Hils got up at 4am to go to the toilet.  She carefully checked outside  with her torch and was as quick as possible but  had no sooner got back in the tent when a lion let out a tooth rattling roar.  Hils nearly needed to go again, I can tell you! We were up pulling down the tent and packing up at 5.15 and then had breakfast, a pretty stingy effort, just a slice of bread and coffee. 


 The men in our group notice a bolt has sheared off the coupling of the trailer so it is kiwi men to the rescue again.  Ike and Mfana are pretty disorganised and casual so don't seem to notice when things are going wrong until it is too late. They are so lucky to be travelling with our willing and practical men who repair the coupling very quickly. By 7.30 we are on our way  with a pleasantly good humoured Ike at the wheel.  We stop, briefly, to collect more firewood from the bush.  It is never a problem finding firewood as there are always a lot of branches and logs lying around.  Elephants cause, what seems to us, horrendous  damage to the trees but Ike explains that the damage is all part of the necessary ecological cycle required to thin out the bush so it can  regenerate and provide food and shade for the animals.  Part of our journey today is over the infamous Savuti Sand Ridge, a distance of about 90 kilometres. The road, if you can call it that, is an undulating track through deep sand,  passable only by four wheel drive vehicles.  We travel through mile after mile of smouldering, burnt landscape, so recent that we can feel the heat coming off the ground.  Apparently these fires are a common problem in Africa where things get tinder dry in the dry season and the swirling and fickle winds spread it over large distances.

Gary has a wonderful ability to sleep anywhere, any time, and soon falls asleep en route.  He provides us with entertainment as he bobs up and down and from side to side on the uneven road with Cherry propping him up and gently protecting him from bumps.  When he wakes up, with a start, he tells us he dreamed he was riding a wild horse.... very apt. 

It takes us five hours to get to Savuti Game Reserve and as we arrive at the reserve gate  Ike hears from a safari guide that a leopard has been spotted up a tree near by.  Suddenly it is all actions go... Ike and Mfana uncouple our trailer and leave it at the gate and we race off to find the leopard, crashing and bashing our way through trees with all of us ducking and diving in the back.  It is a hair raising trip but worth it when we see the leopard right where Ike thought it would be, up a tree, calmly looking at us.  It looks like a giant domestic cat with its tail dangling over a branch and its huge paws resting comfortably in front.  It licks its paws, yawns and stares straight at us with its enormous amber coloured eyes.  So gorgeous, thrilling and scary.
 

 

 We crash our way back through the trees to collect our trailer and head to our camp site, right beside a river, home to many crocodiles.  It is hard work putting up our tents in the 37 degree heat so that by the time we have set camp we are sweaty and filthy.   We have a lunch of cold meat, green and potato salads and then another delicious bucket shower.  All things are relative and a 50 second shower is a joy when you have to go days without any shower at all.  Ike tells us not to go down the short bank to the river.  He says that crocodiles are very smart and will watch you approach the river a number of times, allowing you to become complacent, and then, just when you think there is no danger, they will pounce.  I am certainly not going to test that theory!  He tells us that the bank is steep enough to prevent the crocodiles coming up into camp. Around 4pm, as the day starts to cool, we set out on safari.  There are a lot of safari trucks, from the many lodges in the area, circling the reserve, the passengers looking decidedly cleaner and better dressed than we are  but we are proudly intrepid and wear our dishevelled state as a badge of honour.  We find some female lions and cubs under a tree however they are a long way off and hard to see so we drive out to the river marsh. 
 





 Ike stops the truck and we all get out and gather around him as he produces a large map of Botswana and gives us an interesting lesson on the rivers and tribal history of the area.  Then another guide stops to tell us he has seen a baby leopard alone  high on a rock face so we go looking for it and quickly find it.  Ike says that it's mother would have left it there while she went hunting.  The cub looks very cute and vulnerable waiting for it's mum but the light is behind it and it is too difficult to photograph. As we head back to camp we see two giant eagle owls up in trees and a herd of water buck bouncing happily along in the marsh. Back at camp we have a welcome glass of wine before dinner and enjoy spaghetti bolognaise followed by apricots and cream.  We are happy but worn out again so in bed by 9pm.





Interesting, but entirely useless, facts I learnt today:

* An elephant's penis weighs 27 kg, on average

*An elephant will use it's penis as a scratcher...we saw them using  them to scratch their stomachs

* Male elephants like walking around with their penises extended and they almost touch the ground, the locals call it the elephant's fifth leg.

 











Photos: (1) Some of our group help repair the truck while other give "helpful" or should that be "unhelpful" advice, (2) It is a long trip through this savannah, ideal cover for lions, (3) And hours passing through this burnt landscape too, (4) A gorgeous leopard peers down at us from a tree, (5) Nice pussy cat!, (6) The very pretty river marsh in Savuti reserve, (7) Ike gives us a lesson on the history of the rivers and tribes of Botswana..... (8) ...and we inspect the map of Botswana

Sent to the naughty tent



 I must be getting used to this wilderness lark..... Ike tells me that there were jackals and hyenas wandering around our camp and howling last night but I didn't hear them...just slept blissfully through it all.  He also thinks that the lions were within 100 metres of our tents so I'm  rather pleased I didn't hear them.  In the light of day we see that this is a lovely camp site in a big clearing under large shady acacia trees. There are other campers in the vicinity,  but they are at least 100 metres away.  We set out on safari early  and almost immediately come upon a large lion sleeping contentedly under a tree.  We can see he has had a good meal, his stomach is distended.  We watch him for a while and then move on.  The scenery here is quite different from Namibia,  it is greener and more gentle and because we are right beside the river Khwai  the bird life is prolific and varied.  We spot a number of vultures hanging around in the top of the trees.  Ike says they would have fed on the remains of the lion's kill.  A honey badger sprints across the road in front of our truck.  They are very small but very violent.  Men are particularly scared of them because they have a habit of attacking a man's manhood.  Ronney, our guide in Namibia was terrified of them, having been chased by one once.  We come to a waterhole where a large troop of baboons is grooming and courting.  The baboon is another on the list of the Ugly 5 of Africa and I think they deserve that spot however they do entertain us for quite some time with their antics.  Next a herd of 25 elephants of all ages arrives at the water hole with a tiny adorable baby.  Still not sure how to use it's trunk it slaps and slurps at the water.  It gets into the water hole but can't get out  slipping and sliding in the mud until the older females nudge it gently and ease it out.  Three large males get into a competitive tussle, challenging and threatening each other. Eventually two realise this is a fight they won't win and wander off leaving the most dominant male with the herd, and very proud of himself too.  This is an amazing thing to see from such a close vantage point.

 

Back at camp late in the morning I enjoy a chat with Mfana.  He tells me that his grandmother taught him to cook, something he enjoyed very much, so he took a chef's course.  His ambition is to become a senior safari guide which should enable him to save enough to become a farmer, a common ambition in Africa.  He is 29, has a girlfriend and two children but needs to save for a bride price before they can marry. He told me it was normal to have children before you marry in Botswana, and, I suspect, in  all of Africa, because every man wants to be sure his future wife can bear children. While we are chatting the tempting smell of his fresh baked bread rolls wafts through the camp from the cast iron pot in the fire.  After lunch we watch fascinated as Mfana repairs a plastic Jerry can which has sprung a leak.  He gets a used plastic water bottle and melts it on the end of a stick in the fire.  He plugs the hole with a small twig and then seals the stick into the hole with the melted plastic.  The ingenuity of repairing things and wasting nothing in Africa both amazes and inspires us.  While Mfana is repairing the can Ike has gone to the river to get water so we can wash some clothes. We get about an ice cream container of water each but it's better than nothing.  The owner of Lewis Safari Company, the company we are travelling with, arrives with food supplies and makes some repairs to the trailer.  He also brings a couple of bottles of Amarula for us to share to thank us for our patience during our long wait in the game reserve yesterday.




 We are as excited as children at a birthday party when Ike tells us he is going to get water and rig up a shower for us.  It will be our first shower in three days and we will be allowed only 50 seconds each under the big canvas bucket suspended from a tree and surrounded by canvas screens.  Raewyn hits on the idea of drawing cards to see who goes first.  This is done with a lot of laughter and good humour.  I suggest we line up naked to save time but nobody else thinks that's a good idea.  I tip some of my drinking water on my head and lather up before going under the shower to make the most of my shower time.  It is only 50 seconds but it is bliss! We all feel like new people and relax for a while before going on safari again.  Ike bushwhacks the Land Rover through the trees and it is pretty scary as branches come in the sides from all directions.  We cruise around for a while stopping to watch a blood red sun sink below the horizon. 
 

 Ike is a complex character.  he doesn't keep us informed of what  our programme will be and has a superior air about him but his knowledge of the animals and his stories are wonderful and I have learnt so much from him.  

  As darkness falls he removes the windscreen from the truck and we cruise around for an hour or so searching the bush with a spotlight looking for animals.  We have limited success seeing only some  elephants so eventually stop by a large pond where we sit in complete darkness listening to the sounds of the bush...frogs, insects, crickets. I love this, It is so peaceful and calming.  We sit there for so long some of our group think Ike has gone to sleep but I don't mind, I am enjoying it. On our way back to camp we pass a large hippo on the pond bank calmly munching weeds.  Mfana has prepared us a welcome meal of rice, chicken, honeyed carrots and custard apple pie.  After dinner we sit around the camp fire chatting until Ike tells us all to be quiet because we could be disturbing the other campers near by and suggests we go to bed.    We are a bit upset by this because the nearest campers are a long way away and it is only 9pm!  
 

 Feeling chastened we trundle off to bed at 9.30 and Hils and I chat for a while, gossip more like,  and  laugh  a lot, feeling  like naughty children sent to bed. We note that Ike and Mfana proceed to have a loud and long conversation around the camp fire for an hour or two. We think Ike just wanted a break from us.








Photos: (1) Jackal, they are regular camp visitors, (2) Mfana baking bread, (3) Toilet tent to the left, shower tent to the right.  Note the shower bucket in the tree (photo Raewyn Empson), (4) Wildebeest, or Gnu,
(5) Dusk at the water hole, (6) Elephants in the twilight

Stranded in the game park

You know you're in the wilderness when a hyena spends the night whooping in, and prowling around, your camp site.  Something is walking up and down outside our tent.  It is either a hyena or a black backed jackal but we are not keen to investigate. We can also hear lions and elephants through the night, so, all in all, not much sleep for us tonight. It is another 5.30am start for breakfast and it takes us over an hour to get the site packed up and the truck loaded.  Our guides are pretty disorganised, and very casual, relying on our group to do most of the packing and loading.  We finally get away at 7.30 and shortly afterwards pass a broken down safari truck.  Three men are working on it and say they don't need our help so we sail by feeling rather smug...oh dear, pride comes before a fall! 


 A couple of kilometres down the road Ike notices problems with our truck.  Water is gushing from the radiator.  He fills a gerry can from a nearby water hole to top it up again but it still gushes out.  The men in our group are in their element and gather around to inspect the radiator which they find has a huge hole in it,  pierced, it seems, by a stick.  Several safari vehicles stop to offer help and at one point there are 10 men gathered around the engine but there is nothing they can do, the truck needs a new radiator and the nearest help is three hours away at Maun.  Ike radios for help and we settle down for a long wait.



  Initially we follow the rules of the game reserve "Never leave your vehicle", but it is stiflingly hot and there  is little room in the truck so eventually we all grab our safari chairs and move to the shade of an acacia tree.  We idle away the hours reading, doing crosswords, chatting, snoozing and taking it all in good part. Mfana even produces a delicious lunch and spreads a table cloth on the ground for a picnic of baked bread, pumpkin salad , cheese, ham and cups of tea.  One member of our group gets snitchy about  losing a day of his trip but his is a lone voice and we all tell him that it is all part of the experience of Africa. He soon settles down. 

 We actually feel very proud of ourselves and unbelievably intrepid.  Here we are sitting for a full day in a game reserve with wild animals all around, fortunately for us no animals come to find us! Every time a safari vehicle approaches we get excited but it is not until 3pm, 7 hours after we break down, that help arrives and the mechanics quickly replace the radiator.  The men of our group happily cluster around the vehicle to watch. Ike gives us the option of making camp for the night near by or pushing on to our designated camp.  We all opt to push on to give us two nights at the next camp site.  At last, at 4pm and after a final "bush toilet", we are on our way.  At the game reserve gate we fill our water tanks and a bit further on stop to collect fire wood.  Ike wants us to collect a lot of wood because it will be a few days until we can collect more.  The only place we can fit it is on the floor in front of the seats  forcing us to  spend the rest of the trip travelling with our knees up to our chins. After travelling a while Ike spots cheetahs in the distance and we race across country to view them.  We drive right up beside two of these magnificent animals resting on a small mound.  They are gorgeous with their distinctive facial markings, their muscular sinewy bodies and their plush coats.  We get within 5 metres of them and they look at us warily.  Cheetahs are not known for attacking humans but I still feel nervous when they stand up and pace around beside the open truck.

 

 

It is a very long trip to our next camp but I thoroughly enjoy looking out over the countryside as the sun sets and, as night falls and it gets dark,  looking up at the starry sky.  In the pitch black and silence  we come across a couple of suspicious looking cars with evasive drivers.  We are pretty sure they are poachers, a common problem in Africa.  We pass through a few tiny villages where the inhabitants wave at us as we pass, hoping, no doubt, that we will stop to buy drinks but we have no local currency.

Finally, after 5 and a half hours, we arrive at our next camp site.  It is hard work unloading the trucks and pitching our tents in the dark however once we are set up we are pleased we pushed on and can stay here for two nights.  Mfana produces a meal of maize pan (looks like mashed potato but is a kind of porridge) and boerwors sausages with tomato sauce, cooked barbecue style over the fire, in record time.  We chat around the fire for a while and head to bed about 11pm.

Photos: (1) Broken down in the game park, (2) Mfana and Ike get water from the swamp to fill the radiator, (3) Mfana keeps our spirits up with a delicious lunch, (4) Our day is made with our first sighting of cheetahs in the wild, (5) Magnificent animals.... (6) ...that eye us warily, (7) Mfana prepares dinner in record time

Blue balls and elephant dung

Ike had warned us that he was "stingy" with his time in the morning and that we were to be up breakfasted and ready to safari at 6.30am.  Hils and I wait until we hear movement in the camp before stumbling out of our tent in the dark at 5.30am. After a light breakfast of weetbix and coffee we are off on our first Botswana safari.  

We drive around for quite a while before spotting our first animal, a tsessebe, the fastest of the antelopes.  Later we find two large male lions sleeping in the grass.  We get within 2 metres of them but they have full stomachs and are more interested in sleeping than they are in us.  Ike tells us that because guns are forbidden in the game reserves the animals have not learned to fear humans.  He said, however, that if you get out of the vehicle animals would attack because walking in an upright position is seen as challenging to them.



 Further on we see the blue ball monkey, so named  for obvious reasons!  I ask Ike if they have blue balls because they are cold and he laughs and laughs.  Ike has a dazzling smile and an infectious laugh.  We take every opportunity to get him laughing just because we enjoy listening to him. We head back to camp with the usual ducking and diving.  Because the land rover has open sides, and the park tracks are narrow, trees crash through the sides as we drive along.  Many of the trees are acacias with vicious, long thorns, so we have to lean left and right to avoid them.  We all take turns at shouting "left" or "right" to warn each other and it is always accompanied by much hilarity.

 

We arrive back at camp to find Mfana has prepared a delicious lunch of his own fresh baked bread, sausages and a feta and beetroot salad.  My team is on kitchen duty so we do the dishes and then relax before setting off for a cruise on the Okavango Delta.

 It takes an hour to reach the boat which cruises at a slow relaxing pace through the various narrow fingers of the delta.  As we set out we pass luxury lodges lining the river banks and ruefully discuss the fact that they probably have flush toilets and showers.  Our guide, Punch, takes us in close to  the roosting area of some maribou storks, a hideous bird with a bald neck and a pendulous droopy gizzard, and further along to where the attractive yellow billed stork is nesting.  We spot a crocodile right beside the boat but it dives into the water and disappears as we get nearer. 

 

Punch pulls the boat in amongst some reeds where we have afternoon tea while watching an elephant resting under a tree.  I travel on the top deck for the journey back and feel relaxed and sleepy as the scenery slips by.  Ike safaris us back to camp giving us thrills and spills aplenty.  We ford some deep crocodile infested streams and cross the infamous number 3 bridge, which appears to be just piles of sticks balanced on top of each other. It wobbles and shakes and bends alarmingly as we cross.



 

We come across a family of 20 to 30 monkeys climbing

and dangling from a tree and another tree covered in the gorgeous red carmine bee eater bird, making it look like a decorated Christmas tree.  We stop to watch a pride of 6 lions.  Ike knows this pride and says there are usually 12 in the group.  They are about 30 metres away and we have seen many much closer so I entertain myself by watching the other safari vehicles watching the lions.  One couple, the woman in white slacks and dangling gold earrings, with only their guide for company, sit elegantly sipping wine, as they watch the lions. White slacks, for goodness sake!!!....It is clear they are not camping! 

 

Ike stops further on and picks up some elephant dung to hand around the truck.  He tells us to sniff it.  I am reluctant, at first,  but when I do I find it is sweet smelling, like fresh grass.  Ike explains that elephants have a very poor digestive system and that their food passes straight through them therefore they must eat for 18  hours a day to gain adequate sustenance.  We make a stop at a water hole glowing pinkly in the sunset and watch hippos bobbing up and down and yawning.  

 

A glass of wine and a meal of beef stew, couscous and broccoli followed by bananas baked with chocolate is most welcome. Lanterns glow softly around the campsite as Ike tells us more stories from the jungle.  I am enchanted and cannot quite believe I am sitting here in Botswana in the wilderness.  We go to sleep to the soothing sounds of a thousand frogs.


  

Photos: (1) Ike at the wheel of the Land Rover, (2) The startling blue testicles of the "blue balls" monkey,

(3) Mfana slices his fresh bread baked in the camp fire, (4) Our boat for the cruise on the Okavango Delta,

(5) The Maribou Stork, one of the "Ugly 5" of Africa, (6) Yellow Billed Stork, (7) Luxury lodge on the Okavango Delta, (8) We crossed this precarious bridge made of sticks, (9) I watch the watchers on safari, (10) Ike keeps us enthralled with his tales of the African bush.  Who knows what is lurking over his shoulder!!?

Into the wilderness

Boy, Hils and I are proud of ourselves! Up at 5 and our tent down in record time!.  After an excellent breakfast we help pack the truck and then say our fond farewells to Ronney and Jonas. They have a long 12 hour journey ahead of them to get back to Windhoek. Ronney tells us that we have covered 3447 kilometres so far.  That's a lot of driving and he is tired so we are all hoping that they will make it back home safely. 



We spend the next two hours sitting around camp waiting for Ike and Mfana, our new guides, to arrive.  They finally turn up at around 10.30 and we load our luggage onto our new truck.  It is an open sided land rover with 4 rows of bench seats, each row slightly higher than the one in front for easy safari viewing and a large trailer for the camp equipment. Mfana, he tells us Mfana means friend, is the cook and a very pleasant young man.   We had expected the truck to be ready to go but it isn't so we head into Maun to get fuel. 



  It seems to take forever to get organised however we are entertained by the colourful life around us.  Goats roam freely through the streets of town and there are numerous tiny shacks offering hair cuts, jewellery, cell phone cards, drinks etc.  Lots of people are milling around, some in their tribal dress.  Eventually we leave town and make our way over very bumpy sand roads to the Moreti Game Reserve. 

 

We get tossed around a lot more in this truck but I love the experience of the open truck.  It feels like being in the outdoors and I can really smell the sweet scent of Africa.  We make a short stop inside the Moreti Gate for lunch, where we are entertained by a southern yellow billed hornbill repeatedly attacking it's reflection in a window, and then push on because Ike is keen to arrive at our camp site before dark.

 

A safari guide coming from the opposite direction stops to tell us he has spotted a lion not far away so we go to have a look.  Sure enough a large male lion is lying right beside the road, only feet from our vehicle.  We are all nervous - there is nothing between us and the lion- but he is unfazed, just looks us in the eye, stretches, yawns and rolls over.  It is thrilling! 

 

It's still a long way to our camp site and our group starts singing "Show me the way to go home" amid much laughter.  We are a happy lot! We arrive at our "camp" at 6.30.  "Camp" is a bit of an exaggeration, it is just a dusty clearing in the middle of the game park with no facilities of any kind.  Putting up our tents is a bit of a mission.  These are different tents and it is dark but with a bit of grunting, sighing and bad language we get there in the end.  Ike digs a long drop toilet and places lanterns around the site.  Before long it looks like home and we enjoy an  atmospheric meal around the camp fire.  Jonas is a hard act to follow but Mfana holds his own and serves us stir fried chicken with chocolate cake for desert. I have been thinking specially of my late husband, John, all day. It is our wedding anniversary and at dinner I propose a toast to him.  I think he would be proud of me for being so intrepid. After dinner we linger around the camp fire as Ike tells us stories and facts about the different animals in the game park.  The men in our group are in awe of the male lion, and rather envious too, when Ike tells us that the male lion mates with the female every 20 minutes for the 7 days she is in season.  This camp is a whole new experience for us, it is unbelievably romantic and exciting.  There is the nervous thrill of knowing that wild animals are just beyond the light of the camp fire and we are not protected from them by fences.  Our guides do not carry guns, they are forbidden in game reserves, so we are dependent on their advice and following their instructions for our safety. Hils and I go to bed about 10 and chat for a while before nervously venturing out to go to the toilet. We both take a sleeping pill tonight...we think it might be best not to know if we are eaten in the night!!

 

 Photos: Loading up our new truck in Botswana, (2) Tiny shops in Maun, (3) Entry to Moremi Game Reserve, Chobe, (4) Yellow billed hornbill, (5) This lion looked me right in the eye.  Note how close he is to the truck, (6) We bought plenty of fruit to give to children.  They were always delighted.