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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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