Southern Africa Safari 2017 – Days 14, 15 &16

Southern Africa Safari 2017 – Days 14, 15 &16

Another African Sunrise over the Chobe River

Collect Moments, Not Things (Aarti Khurana)

Day 14

The above saying is pretty apt for us and others who lost their homes and all their things.

We managed to get away reasonably early from Caprivi River Lodge and following Keith Rooken-Smith’s advise we had a tar road all the way to Sangila .then we hit a very sandy rock and roll section all the way to the entrance gate to the Mamili National Par.

The variety of game in Chobe is amazing

 We were told at the gate that at this time of year as the water levels in the Okavango swamps drops through evaporation the wildlife and in particular the elephants migrate across onto the islands in the swamps where there is an abundance of their favourite food. I recall we went to one of these islands in a mokoro (canoe) in June 2015 and saw a lot of palms which our guide told us the fruit is really enjoyed by elephants. So it looks like one should go to the Okavango in the dry months August to October and to Mamili and Muhombo at the start of the rains in November/December, deep into the rainy season I understand the roads in these parks cannot be navigated and we saw signs of that in our travels where there are deep ruts in the black cotton soil (I think this is an East African name for sticky deep mud) I must research this phenomenon.

We did see wildlife, but not in any great numbers and we believe they should rename Mamili; Wart Hog park as we saw a lot of them. The real event of the day was when I got stuck in deep sand with a consistency of face powder. Now imagine this, we have not seen another vehicle in 3 hours and we are buried is sand up to the running boards, without a word passing between Denise and I, well not ones I can put into print, I get down Roger Hogarth’s shovel and Denise goes off to get dry wooden branches to put under the front of the wheels and she tells me later her fall back plan was I should go back 500metres and collect elephant bones lying by the side of the road and she would shovel.

We named this one Ilean she would not move away from the tree

Against this background we were told by Rangers, Lee and Norah at the gate that we could well see lions now I understand Denise’s logic of taking over the shovel duties. The temperature at this time is 30 degrees centigrade and I am sweating like a pig. It took two runs at getting out and when the wheels finally started to bite all I could hear was Denise yelling at the top of her voice go, go, go.

After that we decided to go onto our next destination; Namushasha River lodge, which is located on the banks of the Kwando River and a lovely lodge it is too. We have a very nice room right on the river and a short nap is necessary, but Denise decides it is pay back time and I should do the clothes wash and wash the shoes that were covered in and full of sand from Mamili.

We have a very nice dinner and crash early.

There were so many beautiful specimens of Kudu on this journey

Day 15

We awoke this morning to the grunts of hippo right outside our front door and saw that as a good omen.

In the light of the good omen, we decide to do a self drive - game drive into the Muhombo Game Park also bordered by the Kwando River and because the Swiss couple we met at Chobe said that they saw hundreds of elephant, just our luck they have all migrated to the Okavango Swamps in the last three days, because all we saw of elephants was very dried calling cards, we did see some wildlife, but not a great deal to write home about.

You could call us persistent, devils for punishment, or just plain optimists, as we had also signed up to go on a boat/game drive into the Bwabwata Game Park yesterday.

Well we can confidently say it was one of, if not the best game drive, we have been on, we had sightings of Red Lechwe, Reed Buck, Impala who, a bit like in the Kruger they are known as the Macdonalds, one on every corner, Sable antelope, giraffe, buffalo, big herds and very close, and then at the Horseshoe, so named because of the shape of the river at this point, we saw over 150 elephant and although we were some distance away when the first group arrived, we were even standing around drinking Windhoek lager and eating a “buffet” a bit more variety than our last buffet feast, then we ended up surrounded and we could smell them and they certainly could smell us and they were not comfortable with the smell and they approached us from up the river, behind us and the other side of us, our guide and driver had left it a little late and the elephants were getting very irritated, luckily not irritated enough to attack us as we were sitting ducks as they only had to charge 10 metres.

We get back to our boat and it is twilight time and as we are approaching the Lodge we see a hippo right in front of us, the boat pilot decides to put foot and this annoys the hippo and he dives under, right alongside the boat and catches something that sounds like the propeller, now he is very upset and he chases us well above water level with his huge mouth agape less than 2 metres behind the boat. We think the boat pilot also got a fright as he sped away, because he nearly smacks into the reeds. We also think that this hippo has a personal vendetta against this boat and waits for its arrival every evening and one day he will get his own back as he nearly did today.

Keith of Caprivi River Lodge told me he and two elderly clients had a lucky escape from upset elephants when a baby got left behind and was squealing and although Keith was acting responsibly parked some 15 metres away, the elephants did not see it that way and almost destroyed the vehicle, they were lucky to escape with minor injuries. Keith put the incident in perspective and it was much the same with us today he said “it all happened so fast you did not have a chance to s- - t yourself” 

Day 16

This must have been all of 5 metres in the Kwando river

 We have now reached Rundu and we are staying at the Hakusembe Lodge (part of the Gondwana Group) we have stayed here before in 2015; it is located on the banks of the Okavango River and across the river is Angola. It is, I am told, the place to come fishing but there is also a good deal of bird life and it is a convenient stop over between Windhoek and the North Eastern game parks of Namibia and Botswana if one comes via the West coast of South Africa.

We had to go back into the Bwabwata Game Park, well when one thinks that we saw 150 elephant at Horseshoe yesterday, today you would have thought there are no elephant in this park as Horseshoe was deserted bar a few Reedbuck and Impala and we also covered a good deal of the park in our 4 hours there, however what we did have was some very good practise driving in thick sand which was again like face powder.

The B8 road to Rundu must be one of the most boring it is dead straight and with very few bends, there are warnings of elephant, wild dog and kudu and we did not see one, must be the wrong time of year!

I am going to try and download this onto the blog today and hope I have better luck than at Namushasha.