I handle my morning routine, and head out of camp in my trusty Land Cruiser for an early start to make my last exploration through the Moremi Reserve. Rather taking my time to work my way in a loop by three bridges and then back out the South Gate again. After I leave the park, I get a glimpse of a beautiful Black Sable, technically it is an antelope. It was just beautiful! And I had no idea what it was, until I got home and looked it up, it turns out to be a very rare animal and rapidly declining in population.
The Black Sable, a majestic creature, almost mythical in a way.
I think today, was unusual animal day, as at the Okavango Delta, I find a Nile Water Monitor. At first, I had no idea what it was, other than a very freaking big lizard. Google came to the rescue once again, and identified the reptile.
Nile Water Monitor, apparently some people have these as pets. It really doesn’t look all that cuddly to me.
Throughout Africa you’ll find community camps, where local community organizations set up a coop of sorts, where they run a camp, and share the proceeds with the local community. The Kaziikini Community Camp was set up very nicely, not fancy, but very well put together, and efficiently run by a very nice woman in traditional dress, there was a small area with handicrafts for sale, and I bought a couple of grass baskets, and a painted fabric wall hanging, with the most vibrant reds, gold and oranges. She also set me up with a local guide for 3 hours the next day; I think the cost was around $40 to ride with me in their reserve to see if we could find a lion!
This camp had some very rustic showers, and toilets, all outdoor and open to the sky, there was kind of privacy, and I loved the ambiance, so long as something didn’t “join” me. That’s why pharmaceutical company has one set of price for drugs in the U.S. and another, cheaper set of prices for medicines in other countries. 2. generic viagra sample Without talking about this problem to the why not try this out cialis viagra online doctor regarding the same. Abnormal testosterone levels cause potency problems. get levitra Kamagra Fizz is a fast dissolving form of cialis overnight no prescription is a hot favorite with men who only trust drugs that are reliable and safe.
I was becoming old hand at this bush camping thing, and met a guy nearby who apparently had a bit more money to spend than I did on his safari, finally though another lone safari person, but this guy well, not so much, he had a driver, a guide and another guy to set up and take care of camp…he didn’t even have to boil water. He’d done this about several times though, and yeah, if for sure removes a lot of the guesswork.
Kaziikini Camp site, and subsequent sunset through the trees.
This camp wasn’t was out in the bush, but the same rules about wildlife still applied, the stars this night were stunning though, so I spent some time trying to shoot the night sky.
The stars were amazing, I think I captured the Southern Cross.
In the dark, once again, loud lion growls a couple of hours before dawn, I’m getting pretty used to it by now, kind of like the third small trembler you experience in California, you just roll over and go back to sleep. The baboons were the first thing on the move in the morning and they were making their presence known by throwing things on your vehicle. I get up, and they scurry, I think they were testing to see if anyone was home. As I made breakfast, I noticed two smaller monkeys in a tree right above my camp table, they were literally keeping an eye on everything I brought out, so I quickly decided to leave nothing out that was small enough for them to steal. Sure enough the second I went back to the truck to put something away, they ran down to the table to see what they could get. Sneaky litter buggers.
These innocent looking guys will steal anything they can carry!
I enjoyed them thoroughly, can’t say I spend much time camping typically where I’m hiding things from baboons and monkeys. Since I was moving to another campsite tonight, and this camp suffered from curious baboons, I packed everything up, and headed out into the bush, my destination was the hippo pool in Moremi, and then on to the North Gate and the Western edge of the Okavango Delta and on to a place called Xakanaxa, sounded exotic me so why not? I saw many elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, impalas, and gazelles, especially all around the water, it would be hard to leave and head back to camp. I ran into other people in groups and as couples, but in my entire time, I never ran into another solo tourist, I think it’s true I must be mad to be out here on my own.
Grey Go-Away Bird. Yes, that is what it is called.
Is it still a selfie when you set the timer and place the camera on a post?
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My new campsite is on the farthest end of the camp area, somewhat all alone by itself (inside joke with a friend of mine). It did make me more nervous with nothing blocking access to my camp site, just wide open grassy prairie, all the other campsites I’d been in had wonder trees and brush around so I could hear something approaching. Let’s just say my concerns turned out not to be without merit.
Camp site out in the open, feeling a bit exposed.
Just after dark, I’d had my steak, and cleaned up, was enjoying a glass of wine, watching the fire. As had become my routine, I’d do a sweep of the perimeter every 10 or so minutes, with my very bright LED flashlight. I had also positioned my truck behind me, so it was kind of blocking access to the open prairie. In this moment, I think I had become a little hypnotized by the fire, suddenly I felt a bump on my elbow and amazingly managed to not jump out of my chair, I turn on the flash light, and look to my right, and find a spotted hyena standing right next to me! Since it was dark, I couldn’t get a picture, but he looked exactly like this one:
Full credit to wiki for this picture. No way I could take a picture of the one who came sniffing around me at night.
Somehow I didn’t totally freak out, and jump and scream like a little girl, and he just snorted and walked away. About five minutes later, I heard a scream from a woman, and surmised the hyena was now over there visiting their camp. Then I thought oops maybe I should have said something about there being a hyena in camp. Alarm people, when they may not even see it or, just count on them to know there might always be something coming around? The campers closest to me, had invited me over for a beer this evening, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to walk over to their camp alone in the dark, especially after the hyena. They must have sensed this and came over to get me, and walk me over to their camp showing me amazing hospitality, and even gifting me a bottle of Sloe Gin. The family was from South Africa, with an older mom and dad, and their adult son and daughter with their spouses. They treated me to a taste of Pap which is a corn-based porridge with whole kernels of corn in it, and topped with ground meat in a tomato sauce base with some savory spices. As we eat, two elephants make their way through camp, one not even 10 feet (3 meters) away from us. Everyone just gets quite and watches the giant mammal closely. He eventually, turns and heads back toward my camp. These four nights in the national parks of Botswana have been surreal.
Awoken again at 5:30 with lion roars nearby, and I decide to make the coffee inside the camper, and have breakfast and wait for daylight before heading outside. Around 6:30 I peak outside, and figure it’s safe enough to pack up the chairs and lower the pop-up top, use the restroom, and head for the ferry to cross the river and the drive up to Maun. I had tied a sock around the loose and flopping springs, just hoping it would be strong enough to keep them from banging back and forth where they might hit the gas tank or the inside of the tire, I felt a bit like MacGyver, just not as handsome.
While waiting for the ferry, I am rewarded with one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen in my life.
Colors typically seen at sunset. This is the breaking of dawn over the Boteti river.
Once on the ferry, an addition of violet is added to nature’s palette.
The 90 mile (145 km) drive to Maun was a bit stressful, there was one spring left, and it if snaps, I’m not going any further. I was also worrying if my sock tie was holding, but in the end it held all the way, and in fact couldn’t be removed by the mechanics replacing the spring, they got a laugh, but thought it was resourceful. While they were removing the springs I talked with the shop manager, and he says it’s pretty common for these springs to break on these customized vehicles. Toyota specs the spring strength for a specific gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) which includes the chassis, body, engine, transmission, fuel, driver and passengers cargo…basically everything that sits on top of the springs, which is almost all the weight. When Britz customized the vehicle they added, electronics, a fridge and sink, drawers, cabinets, a 60 liter water tank, an extra 80 liter fuel tank; basically hundreds of pounds of extra weight. But, they kept the factory stock springs and suspension. As evidence he showed me the left spring which was showing two fractured springs in it as well, and most likely it would break just like the right one did, in a matter of a few weeks or months.
Tyremax shop is not where I want to spend any of my vacation time. Shop manager in the foreground has seen a lot of these broken springs.Toyota engineers informed me this kind of break is due to metal fatigue. Along with the various levels of oxidation (rust) indicate these springs were broken long before I rented the Land Cruiser. Another indication this was preexisting was after the repair the snapping and popping noises from the roof disappeared, because the vehicle’s chassis was no longer twisted.
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The spring removed from the Land Cruiser, with my sock still tied to hold them in place.
I was pretty shocked, and even more so when the shop told me that Britz hadn’t made arrangements to pay for the repairs, and needed my credit card to charge $500 to! I wasn’t in the mood to sort that, out and just wanted to get on the road, so paid that nice folks, and off I went to Moremi. Immediately, I noticed something: it was quite! For the first time since the trip to the grocery store in Johannesburg, there was no noise coming from the roof! This convinced me the spring had been broken before I ever left, the noises were because the chassis was twisted from listing slightly to the right from the broken spring! That mystery solved, but the crazy lack of lights at night-time riddle remained.
Driving into Moremi Wildlife Reserve I see this cute guy!
OMG I’m so glad that spring got fixed, as the tarmac road leaving Maun going toward Moremi NP becomes dirt, I find the ruts and washboard surfaces punishing, and with that broken spring it would have been brutal. After about two hours on this road, I come to the south entrance gate for Moremi, and go though the registration procedures again, and shown on the map where my campsite is, but I have to move the next night to another site, eh, whatever these kinds of things you have to let roll off you’re back like water does off a duck’s back or you’ll drive yourself nuts when traveling internationally. My first site has a view of the river, and a bridge, but it’s also a favored area for baboons, which can be quite destructive. Next door I see a large camp, with tents and several tables, chairs and coolers, needless to say, the baboons have a great deal of fun with all the toys these folks left out, while they were on safari in the bush. I sure wasn’t going to intervene; these baboons were at least as big as I am.
Beautiful view from camp site. The bridge also serves as a baboon highway.
Something about this campsite was for sure amiss though, the access roads to it were a complete disaster, mud holes several feet (around 1 meter) across and at least a half-foot deep (around 15cm) were abundant, I saw some people had brought trailers in, and later found out they had a very difficult time, I could only imagine!
Baboons wrecking havoc on a campsite.
But, what a beautiful location! On one side you are bordered by a river, the other end is basically the south gate park entrance, and the other two sides are wide open to the bush. I was a bit early to get dinner going, and it was too late for a car safari, so I decided to be neighborly, one of the camps near me seem to be a five or six frat brothers, or so it seemed from the empty beer cans the obvious pee spots all over the camp, but nice guys, friendly and I hung out with them talking about the damage the baboons did to the other camp, they mentioned they didn’t feel too bad, as that camp was a bunch of inconsiderate people, who strung lights up in the trees played music too loudly until midnight the night before. This happens everywhere, I’m not sure why some people go camping when they bring every comfort of home with them. Anyways, when they got back I decided to just be direct and talk to them, let them know what some of the other campers were thinking, and they were really nice, they kept most of the lights off, and were mostly quite after about 9pm. I had another grilled something that night it was either steak or chicken…but I think steak, I really loved the red meat here, especially after I borrowed some seasoning from a fellow camper.
I’m awoken by a click, and the lights coming on inside the pop top sleeping area, which I find strange as the sun is coming up outside. I flick the switches off, and jump down to the floor of the truck, and take a peak outside (still not sure what lurks) before opening the door, and getting about to making some coffee.
My first view of where I spent the night.
I pull out the cooker top, and propane bottle screw the cooker on the bottle, and twist the valve holding a match to it, and POOF flame shoots out the bottom of the cooker top, and across the valve right at my hand! For a guy jonesing for that first cup of joe, I exhibit surprisingly quick reflexes as I jerk my hand away. Watching the flame, thinking this can’t be good, and I have to get the valve turned off somehow, or the bottle could explode. I get two sticks, and twist the valve till I can get it off, that crisis averted I get my gloves and unscrew the cooker top to inspect it, and notice a rubber seal is missing on the bottom…great, I’m not loving the Britz inspection process.
Still needing my coffee, I go make friends with my neighbors, who let me use their burner to get my water hot, and we chat about what it’s like camping out here, and I learned, I needn’t be completely paranoid about animals lurking at every turn, but indeed be careful, and never explore alone on foot. They were nice guys from South Africa, when I apologized for my late arrival the night before, and told them I hope I didn’t wake them with the Land Cruiser, they asked if I was the one with the music…”wasn’t me” I said, and they said, “yeah you didn’t bother us then, but those jerks with the music sure did.” I think I like the directness of the South African’s.
I found out where the ablutions are, and take a shower, enjoy another cup of coffee, with a new friend, isn’t he cute?
I pack up and head out to make my first safari exploration ever in the confines of the reserve. Of course hoping to see Rhinos, but when I see my first giraffe I’m so thrilled, I just marvel at the idea, I’m seeing a giraffe in the wild! Then I find zebra, warthogs, impalas, water buffalo and wildebeest.
The lighting was terrible, but these were the first giraffes I have ever seen in nature!
When Warthogs run, their tail stands straight up like an antenna.
I keep looking for the rhinos, but in the end, I’m told, it’s too early for them to be out much, and I have to get on the road soon to my next destination, especially since now I have to go find a cooker top! I’m impressed with my Land Cruiser, but I find the ride to be hard, and when it goes over a bump I think it feels like it’s hitting harder than it should. But, it is a modified vehicle, which I have little experience with, so it could be perfectly normal.
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I back track to the town of Serowe, where I fuel up, and find a section of town, that seems like a hardware store belongs in one of these shops, where I feel I’m standing out more wandering around with my cooker top in hand than because I’m the only white guy in this part of town. I hadn’t even noticed before, but I’m sure that’s been the case often since arriving. I’m bringing it with me because I don’t know what they are called here (we call them burners). I find a shop with a nice lady behind the counter who goes and gets me a new cook top, price: 95 Botswanan Pula ($9) which seems like quite a bit, and I wonder how people here manage to pay that much for something I’m sure is a basic necessity. When in a totally foreign situation, it’s easy to become proud for accomplishing a simple task, such as buying a new cooker top.
Heading further north I found a place called Tuuthebe which was ideally located and didn’t require a herculean drive effort for a day. Also, it was still day light, and I figured maybe I could sort a few things out on this camper, since they had power at the campsite maybe I could figure out the lights.
This place isn’t a charming or adventurous kind of camping, in fact they have everything you could need, but for a bit of a recharge, it was perfect. I bought a frozen steak from their supplies, and set myself up for a nice braai (BBQ). As, I was cooking an older German couple camping up the road a bit, dropped by and chatted, and to point out that my Land Cruiser was leaking oil! I would investigate this new discovery in the morning. They invited me over to their camp after dinner for drinks and cheese.
Nicest people, Walter and Margaret shared with me their many years of self-drive safari experiences. They own a Toyota Land Cruiser that was converted to a small motor home. I’d never seen anything like it, but it looked pretty cool.
The coolest RV ever, can go anywhere, and has security and comfort.
They keep it in storage in South Africa, and come down once a year for a month or two to explore Africa, and have done so for 20 years. They were a fountain of knowledge for me going on the rest of my adventure, telling me the number one priority every night is FIRE, so I should buy or gather wood every day for a fire that night. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work once I was in the bush, which would be the next night, did you really just sit out by a fire? You won’t get eaten? Their “of course” response and assurances that if you’re alert and careful, it will be fine, was a great relief on many grounds. The idea of staying inside my vehicle each evening wasn’t at all appealing. My new, very experiences friends gave me a lot of pointers, like the fire, which they say the smoke annoys the large cats, so they don’t come around. Gathering wood, to be very careful, make sure there are no scorpions in it, and of course watch for snakes, though being the cooler winter in June, they will probably not be too active.
With my new-found knowledge, I felt much better about heading out into the bush and I thought back on what my German friends told me this evening over about three cold beers (love Germans, they always have good beer) many times on this trip.
