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.