DAY 147 - Maun - Spider Hunting Wasps, Angola Reed Frogs and meet the new Neighbours!

We said our goodbyes to Third Bridge - what a fantastic place to see game.

We finish breakfast, helped by our young chefs who were always keen to get involved with the cooking, as Jo was a great cook herself ............. and could even rustle up a full 3 coarse supper for 10 within the hour on the several occasions back in England, when we could often get home, from a day out, after our supper guests had already arrived! ..................... nothing like last minute! ............. but, her skills had clearly been passed on to the children and they enjoyed mucking in and there is always a sense of fun and wild spirit cooking food over an open fire, especially when you never know who is looking in through the bush and might want to invite themselves around!   With breakfast finished, we clear up and start to pack the Land Rover, but when taking our tent down I notice a small steel blue wasp dancing around at the base of the tree and taking a closer look I can see a huge Huntsman Spider sitting snug in the tree roots. 

 The spider was huge, brown and hairy, the size of the palm of my hand and this thin 'fly like' wasp was tiny in comparison, but a bright steel blue in colour, which is what drew me to notice it. At first I thought the spider was attacking the wasp, but couldn't understand why the wasp didn't simply fly away to safety.  I called the children over to watch and it became apparent that the wasp was trying to attack this huge spider, forcing it to leap up and down, in defense, from its shallow position nestled in the roots. It was a real David and Goliath situation and seemed like a loosing battle for the wasp, simply due to the size of the spider.

We continued to watch in awe as this small bright blue wasp danced around the spider with great care and agility, trying to strike a quick toxic blow, from the wasps abdomen, without being caught in the clasp of the spiders legs, which would undoubtedly mean sudden death to the wasp.  The wasp jumped and danced and flew around the spider, who was by no means slow in trying to catch the wasp and with significant speed the wasp would hit the spider with its toxic sting. 

We carried on watching as the wasp kept a close eye on the spider and the spider suddenly became limp and incapacitated, it was quite amazing to see.  This tiny wasp then cautiously approached the spider and grabbed hold of the spiders legs, clasping a leg in its jaws and proceeded to drag the spider, from its small burrow. It then did something quite amazing and dragged this huge hairy body, vertically up the trunk of the tree, some 3 metres in height.  How such a small, thin wasp could pull up such a heavy weight of a dead weight spider was unbelievable and not only pull it, but pull it vertically up a tree.

The wasp dragged it up the trunk and along a branch into a crevice in the tree.  We found out that the wasp was a 'spider hunting wasp' ( Batozonellus fuliginosus sepulchralis - to be precise. It normally hunts the Orb Web Spider, but this one had bigger aspirations taking on the Huntsman Spider!) and the wasps sting is extremely toxic and affects the spiders nervous system, by paralyzing the spider but not killing it. The spider is too heavy to carry in flight so the wasp must drag it to its nest.  Now for the gruesome bit! - The wasp lays its egg on the paralyzed spider and buries the spider in its nest, still alive! and the wasp egg hatches within 10 days and starts to feed of the body of the 'still alive', but paralyzed spider!!   ................... so having finished the visual lesson of the morning with the children on 'Natural Horror movies' ................... the 'Freddy Krueger' of the African Wasp world, which, although horrific,  was a pretty awesome thing to have visually experienced, we finished packing the tent and headed out.  

Fourth Bridge - or what was left of it!

  

 There were several routes out of Third Bridge and we take the longest route, winding our way back over to Fourth Bridge and then picking up a good road to South Gate. Here the children can fill in the board at the Gate Office of all the animals they have seen.

On the way over to Fourth Bridge we again, come across the Hippo family having fun in the shallows. There are about 7 of them with some youngsters and what appear to be a couple of teenagers who are again, play fighting in the water. We pull off the tack to watch them and realize that the play fighting seems to be getting a little rough and aggressive, as the two large beasts clash heads and jaws, with grunting blows and water splashing everywhere! We all get out of the Land Rover to take a closer look ........ it seems to be another game of 'who has the biggest mouth!' .......... and trust me a Hippo's mouth is by no means small. ...................... in 2005, whilst privileged to have worked in the previously mentioned rehabilitation clinic in South Africa I had the bizarre experience of feeding a fully grown Hippo, with jaws wide open, a bin full of food, on the back of a pick-up truck whilst being chased by a wild Rhino!  ......... still can't believe that actually happened!    The Hippo had been raised as a calf, but now fully grown had been released back into the wild. .... However, as it had only recently been released it was still dependent on being fed regularly by the rangers, until it got used to its new surroundings, but to complicate matters, the Hippo had recently befriended a wild Rhino! .... So, the rangers went through the plan: I sit on the back of the pick-up, with another student, with the bin full of food ........... we head out and find the Hippo.  When we find the Hippo, we stop the truck, I drop the back section of the truck down, the Hippo will run towards the truck, knowing it is going to be fed. ................ The Hippo will mount the the back of the truck with its front legs, open its mouth wide open ............ and I then have about 30 seconds to pour the bin of food into the Hippos huge open mouth before the wild Rhino catches up. .................... GOT IT!  .............. sounded simple!

We drove out into the bush in search of the Hippo, who tended to stay in the same location. As the truck was searching for the Hippo, one of the rangers in the passenger seat shouted: 'I see the Hippo ............ she's seen us'.  With that, the truck stopped ............. I looked up and could see this full grown Hippo 'bounding' towards the truck, ....... this dark brown, overweight giant with short stubby legs, sprinting towards the pick-up! .............. it all seemed a bit surreal ............ I quickly dropped the back hatch of the truck and grabbed the bin of food, slowly and subconsciously backing away, as the Hippo got closer and seemed to be getting somehow larger! ................  The Hippo thundered down to the truck, mounted the back up the vehicle with its front legs, like a circus animal ............ the suspension dropped to the floor carrying the weight of the Hippo and this huge gaping mouth opened wide and waited for its feed! ............... 'Quick, ... feed the Hippo, ............ the Rhino's coming!' .....  shouted the driver  ............... I looked up and could see this wild Rhino come bounding round the bend of the track, dust flying up from its feet, in hot pursuit of his friend, the Hippo ................ it was about 60 metres away and moving fast. ................... I rushed to the gaping mouth of the Hippo and poured the whole bin of feed into this expectant mouth as quickly as possible, shouting to the driver ........... 'it's in .......... GO, GO!'  ................. just before the Rhino arrived the pick-up sped forward, the Hippo dropping to the floor, the suspension springing back into action and we shot off, luckily avoiding a full on ramming speed approach from the Rhino!  ......................  I sat back in the truck, with a huge smile on my face, probably the most comical and surreal moment of my life! - ............... 'did that really just happen!?'  

 

 

Leaving the Hippo's to finish their spat, we get back in the Landy and carry on, down a particularly slow, dusty and bumpy track, this is supposed to improve after 15 km, but doesn't really get any better and it is a slow drive to South Gate where we need to sign out.   A quick loo stop and a coffee break and we head for Maun along another gravel road with huge pot holes that mean driving is again slow.  The last 25km are on tarmac road which is a very nice change! 

Our resting point today is Thamalakane River Lodge, where we have booked a two bed chalet for us all to squeeze in, giving us a break from the Camping and allowing us to take a good shower and refresh ourselves before heading out again. The lodge is very pleasant and sits on the banks of the Thamalakane River and lies about 19km from Maun, on the edge of the Okavango Delta.  It has a large restaurant and small pool and is a quick stop to re-charge the batteries.  We have a bit of lunch and decide to head out on a boat trip along the river at 4.30pm, which was not quite what we expected and is a little touristy and not a great deal to see, but we do manage to see few African Jacana birds wading on the water lilies and a very beautiful Angolan Reed Frog .............. very colourful and not poisonous!   

  

      

Angola Reed Frog

African Jacana Wader

Sunset on Thamalakane River

After the boat trip, we quickly freshen up and head to the restaurant for supper, ..........  a nice change from cooking over the fire and having to make sure the children are always in bed early. The food is very good but the waitress gets a little confused on the order and dishes up two 12oz rib eye steaks to Harry and Jo, enough to keep them going for at least a week!   Still, ........ fed and watered, we enjoy the meal, reflecting on our trip over the last week and turn in for a good nights sleep, after watching another wonderful African sunset - something that will definitely be missed.

After a good breakfast, Jo and the children pack the Land Rover, while I am trying to load photos on the blog, but as usual it takes a bit of time as African internet is pretty useless at the best of times.  It is amazing that in South East Asia, a great internet connection was available in every remote part we visited, but in Africa it was hopeless and took and age to get anything downloaded, so we don't end up leaving until about 11.00am.  

We reach the town of Maun, which is the fifth largest town in Botswana and known as the 'tourism capital' of Botswana, with a population of about 57,000 people, being the gateway to the Okavango Delta.  This was a good stop for us to finally get haircuts, stock up on food, water and fuel and also pick up a new sim card for Jo's phone, as with poor internet connection we are struggling to find somewhere to stay for the last 10 days of our trip.  When we finally finish our adventure, the children will go straight back to school, ............... literally, with one days gap, which is likely to be a real shock to the system, so we have decided that the last 10 days need to be somewhere where we can simply completely chill out and do nothing except relax and reflect on the incredible journey we had all been on. This would hopefully help both the children and us come back down to the reality of normal life.  It would be difficult, especially for the children being so young but we are hopeful that the education they have experienced over the last 6 months would far outweigh anything they would have learnt at school.

We finish stocking up on supplies and it is about 3.30pm before we leave Maun.  We are heading for the Nai Pan National Park and Jo takes a stint at driving whilst I am still trying to get a decent internet connection to load photos on the blog, although I end up spending time on the phone trying to get reception to resolve a few minor issues back at work! I have been very lucky to be able to take a 'self employed' sabbatical over this period with the ability to completely switch off which has been great. 

We are now on a tarmac road, which is a very unusual feeling, as most of our driving has been on either deep sand, pot holed gravel or dusty or corrugated tracks, so a bit of speed is quite encouraging and we make good time, travelling the 190km to the Park 'vets' control check point (for foot and mouth), which we reach at about 5.00pm and where we even have to take out our spare shoes to dip into the foot bath, which the children find very amusing. From the check point we still have 40km to travel to the South Camp and ....... yes ...... back through deep sand, so I find myself letting air out of the tyres to make the journey easier.

Travelling through the Nai Pan National Park, we see different animals than we had seen at Moremi and Chobe, the children getting their best spotting eyes in focus to spot Oryx, which I believe are one of the most beautiful animals in the bush.  The Oryx, or Gemsbok has the amazing ability to survive in dry arid central regions of the Kalahari without the need for drinking water, getting all of its moisture requirements from the leaves and melon it eats and has an a pair of very long and sharp horns for protection which have been known to impale the odd lion!  We also spot Springbok and even a couple of Ostrich on the way and manage to accidentally get unnervingly close to a large elephant who seems to be at home at our camping pitch, where we (and him!) are the only residents. ......... There might be a bit of competition walking to the ablutions block at night!  .......................... 

   

Just him and us at the camp site!

  

DAY 145 - 146 - Third Bridge - The Hyena that came for Tea - The Elephant that came to supper!

The Spotted Hyena (stock photo) - didn't have time for my camera as probably would have been eaten!

 

Botswana is renowned for its abundance of wildlife and Third Bridge is infamous for its Hyena population. The Hyena is a highly effective scavenger with a sense of smell that can detect carrion some 4 kilometres away, down wind. The whooping call of a Hyena at night is quite a haunting sound and unmistakable,  and can be heard from distances of some 5km or more. I love the sound they make and many a night was spent falling asleep to this haunting serenade, only to find in the morning that what started as a distant call had been circulating the tent whilst we slept looking for food, sometimes quite a clan from the number of Hyena tracks left in the sand as we rose for breakfast!  

We had been warned about the number of Hyena present at Third Bridge by Johann, a friend and an amazing guide, who taught the children all about wildlife back in Shamwari at the start of our African adventure.  He warned us to make sure that the children were up in their tent on the Land Rover roof shortly after dark as Hyenas were chancers and would take what they could. A year before, a young girl had been sleeping on a camping chair in front of the fire, when a Hyena rushed in and grabbed the sleeping girl by the neck and dragged her off into the bush.  She was 8, the same age as Imogen.  We later met up with somebody who knew the family and told us that her life had been saved by the metal pole of the chair, which the hyena had grabbed, which stopped her neck from breaking.  She survived, but only after 8 operations on her head and neck.

We made sure we had a strong fire roaring and ate supper quickly, managing to get the children up into their roof tent just after dark.  Our ground tent was 4 or 5 metres from the fire and after washing up we turned in shortly afterwards.  I had noticed when we arrived at our sandy tent pitch, that there were fresh elephant tracks running right through the middle of the pitch, clearly a visitor from the night before and broken branches were left sprawled around where he had been feeding.  I had a sneaking suspicion that he would be returning at some stage so placed some of the broken branches at the back of our tent so that if he did return I would hear him before he crushed the tent!!  -  Being in a tent with an elephant outside is usually fine as long as you don't keep food in the tent, especially fruit.  If you do .................... he will find it and there won't be much left of the tent or you!  ..... I made sure I left the outside window flap open so if he did return we could get a great view of him.

  The next day we had an easy day catching up on washing, showers and reading and cajoling the children catch up with their journals that each of them were writing.  As this was quite a slow process we left it too late for a game drive so planned an early supper over the fire and an early night.  Not 20 minutes after getting the children up into their tent, Jo called me as she heard something very close by in the bushes behind our tent.  'John .........  shine the torch over at the bushes, I heard something like a low growl'.  I quickly grab a torch and shine it on the bushes.  At first I don't notice anything, but then I catch the glistening eyes from the torch light of something relatively large, looking in on us.  'It's a Hyena', ..... I quickly shouted to Jo and as I shone the torch, I realised there were two of them, not 7 metres away, staring straight at us, totally undaunted by our presence.  I thought they would run off, but they didn't, I couldn't believe it, not really knowing what to do  .................. they casually walked along the edge of the bush, around our pitch, circling the fire.  That took us by surprise and I quickly said to Jo to get into the tent and fasten the zips fairly quickly ..................... time for an early night! ..............  The children were still awake and peaked out of their tent door to see them strolling round the edge of our pitch in a very brazen way, but I shouted them to zip up and no pee trips in the night!  Not sure how long it took them to get to sleep!   ..................... It seems absurd that within a canvas tent made from material not more than a few millimetres thick, you felt quite safe!  ................  thankfully Lions and Hyenas hadn't worked that out yet!   

 

This morning we head out to Mboma Island, next to the camp site. It is a beautiful drive and we watch Giraffe eating fruit from the sausage tree and then only some Impala as they spring into retreat on hearing the Landy.   We stop for a coffee and bump into a safari vehicle where we have a chat with the guide, who had just dropped his clients off for a boat trip.  He tells us about a family of Lions off the beaten track just by Second Bridge, which is about 30 minutes away, so we drink up and head over to find them, heading along the river bank, with Harry, Freddie and Imogen all eagle eyed, competing as to who could spot something first.  They spot Hippos along the way in the shallow waters and with an excited whispered shriek from Harry, we then come across two large very beautiful birds, that are some sort of crane.  They are amazing and we sit and watch them quietly for a while.  We later find out they are Wattled Cranes, which are on the endangered list and are very rare to see and feel very lucky to have seen them.  

We carry on and do not see much except several Impala, startled by the Landy and jumping high across the track in front of us, disappearing as quickly as they came. The Land Rover is going well through the dusty tracks and another coffee stop is needed for a break, just outside what looks like a huge field of brown corn, but what is actually small reeds, reddened by the sun.  

 We head off in search of the family of Lions and end up driving beyond Second Bridge, so realise we must have missed the wheel tracks leading off into the bush, so turn around and head back for another look.  After taking various openings off the track, winding our way through long grass, getting deeper into the bush, I finally catch a glimpse of what looks like a Lion, staring right at us, with cubs at her side. We have found them, but quite difficult to see from a distance as they blend in well with the dry brown grasses.  I move slowly, as close as we can and manage to get about 25 metres away from them and turn off the engine.   Although they have a close eye on us, they appear very relaxed.  What an amazing site!  The children are whispering, as loud as they dare with excited voices, wide eyed and keeping very still.  There is a full family of Lions, Mother and three young cubs, Granny and then Dad appears on the scene to show a bit of affection.  ..................... This is certainly not something you would see very often and I put the tripod slowly out of the window to take some better photos, aware that if there is a sudden charge, the tripod would have to go. 

We sit and watch the family for nearly an hour and I have never heard the children so quiet and totally focused.

    

After that amazing experience, we head back to Camp for some lunch, bumping in to more elephants along the way and patiently waiting for them to cross in front of us.  However, we get back to Camp only to find that Baboons have tried to get into our tent and have ripped a canvas strip off the tent right at the base of the door. This is not good as now there is a direct view into the tent for any animal that might get curious and suddenly realise that this 'structure', that they thought was made of concrete is only made of CANVAS!  -  had to make sure that was blocked by a rucksack every night.

After lunch, we head back out on a drive in the direction of 4th Bridge, which is only a short distance as we need to be back in Camp by 6.30pm and on the way back I spot 5 Ground Hornbill, which are quite  

a rare bird to see, their jet black coats with bright red head and throat sack (for the males) under their bill.  They are about the size of a large, but slim turkey, standing some three feet tall with an impressive wing span of about four feet across.  These birds are classified as 'vulnerable to extinction'  and like Crows back in England have an annoying habit of crashing into glass windows (breaking them most of the time) as they battle with to the death their reflections.

We wind our way off the track through the long grass to get a closer look and Fred is very excited as this is one of the animals on his list of 'Things to See'.   After our little detour, we just make it back in time to camp and get the fire going and food prepared, as in the African summers the sun sets at about 6.00pm, so darkness comes around very quickly.  We eat, wash up and get the children up in their tent by 7.30pm, which is just as well as our friendly Hyena pays us another visit at 8.00pm, so we turn in for bed.

We were fast asleep fairly quickly as driving every day was quite exhausting, but at the same time very exciting as you never knew what was going to happen.  The noise of the bush at night comes alive and tends to sooth you to sleep, helped with the distant whooping of Hyena calls, but at 2.15 in the morning I woke instantly to the sound of crushing branches right behind our heads at the back of the tent.  I nudged Jo and whispered in an excited but rather anxious voice .......... 'Its the Elephant, ...... its back ........... its just crushed the branches behind the tent'.  Jo immediately woke and I quickly and as quietly as possible, un-zipped the inside window to reveal a huge black shadow walking silently right next to the tent.  Jo decided to grab a torch to shine out of the window, much to my horror! I quickly managed to turn it off before we attracted some attention! with various whispered expletives coming out as we grappled in the dark!  .................  It was exciting but the shear size of this animal and the fact that it was merely feet away from our tent was quite scary.  We had to be as quiet as possible as if it was a young bull, it could be very aggressive and our tent would be destroyed with one swift blow from its trunk.  We silently watched through the window as the elephant moved toward the edge of our pitch and ripped branches off trees, as if they were paper, one at a time, filling his stomach with supper.   This was such an experience and one we will never forget.  We watched and listened for about half an hour and he eventually moved away back into the bush  -  This was Jo's queue to go outside for a pee!! 

You can see the branches behind the tent where the elephant stood and my 'chair barricade' which wasn't going to help much!  -  Imogen is standing where the elephant came from behind the tent and across to graze on the trees.

The next morning we woke early and in the near distance was our midnight visitor, the Elephant, still finishing his supper. 

  

Never a dull moment!  We show the children our late night visitor and get the fire going for breakfast.  they befriend a not so shy yellow Hornbill, who has a damaged foot and he joins us for breakfast.

   

Third Bridge - certainly a place we would go back to.  There is so much wildlife here.

 

Day 144 - From Khwai to Moremi - Hippos, Mud Huts and Three Bridges!

                             
Khwai Community Area had been a great experience and totally at one with nature, it really was a sense of wild camping with no services whatsoever, so, basic to say the least, but that just added to the sense of adventure, literally camping in the bush at whatever spot you could find and the children became extremely good at digging holes for their toilet! Being on the banks of the River Khwai there was plenty of wildlife from Hippos to elephants, hyenas, crocodiles and plenty of lions, everything but 'The Bridge', so if you are looking for adventure I would certainly recommend it. The first thing you need which is essential in the bush is wood for a fire, essential for protection from curious animals, especially at night!  ....... Always make sure you have enough wood to keep the fire going.  As we very rarely bought wood, which is a much safer way of doing it, but can be expensive (and what you were supposed to do!?), we had to hunt to find it lying in the bush.  In Khwai, that was certainly a mini adventure in itself as you never knew what animal you might bump into on the search!   ......  and scorpions loved to make their homes in old wooden logs!  ................... just had to be a bit more careful. It became the first family task whenever we stopped at a camp and especially getting to a camp just before dusk, you needed to get the fire going pretty quickly.  It had been a great experience for us all and the children loved it. ................. We packed up clearing everything away with just the trace of our fire and on leaving the camp, we drove by the river and watched Hippo's for a while, which was amazing and the children at that age were quite happy to literally sit for hours quietly watching these animals, mesmerised as Hippo families waded through their watery home and a couple of young males decided to have a little spat.  Hippos (along with Buffalo) are certainly one of the most dangerous animals in the bush, as they will attack without really thinking about it ............. so always have to be wary of them.

We then continued along the bank to find a suitable place to try and cross the river in the Landy, which was fine but on many occasions it was necessary for one of us to walk across in front of the Landy first to make sure it wasn't too deep or we didn't drive off a ridge in the river and end up joining the Hippo's and Croc's!  - the walk across carried a few risks in itself, but everyone had sharp eyes!

We had met a lot of different people on the way and bumped into a French couple while watching the Hippos.  He had spent a lot of time in Africa as a photographer and neither could believe how far we had travelled with the children at such a young age, especially through Bhutan and Burma, but it had become clear with Jo and I early on, that as long as the children were with you, wherever that was, at the ages of 8, 9 and 12, they felt at home and at ease, so it was far easier than we had expected. However, living at close quarters with every one, 24/7, had its interesting elements from time to time, as when at home, with life being so busy, time with the children was always limited and you constantly found yourself chasing them to get up, eat your breakfast, get ready for school and when back from school it was supper time, bath time, time for bed and then the whole thing started all over again.  Being away for six months took all of this pre-organised motion away, the train had well and truly stopped, there were no time restrictions or organised places to be every hour of the day.  It was great and you began to see those little idiosyncrasies of each of your children that you had never noticed before, because you were too busy and time was short. They would be small things, such as the way they got themselves ready when they woke up and moments throughout the day when they sometimes just needed a bit of their own space and their own time.   Freddie certainly liked his own space more than the other two, so hours in the back of a Landrover sometimes took its toll and thoughts of feeding various children to the lions at certain points was sometimes a consideration!! but we all had our moments and learning to live with these was a learning curve for all of us.  Harry, Freddie and Imogen each took their teddy's with them, Imogen's being Ziggi, the cuddly zebra and there were frequent occasions when Imogen sometimes needed calming down, usually after she became tired and her two brothers would then love to wind her up! It sometimes came to the crunch decision, much to the amusement of the boys and it would usually diffuse the situation, where a cry from the driver, me!, being unable to take any more would shout 'Imogen', taking a quote out of  the movie 'Sharks Tale' .... 'If you don't calm down ......... Ziggy gets it!'  - Ziggy would then get suspended out of the window for a short spell and it seemed to bring results most of the time  -  followed by a lot of laughter.

We eventually found a good crossing point on the river, which appeared suitably shallow, having decided against a couple of previous crossing points and slowly worked our way through the slow flowing water to the opposite bank. We spotted a beautiful antelope, grazing on its own set against the green backdrop of the bush and then, with the benefit of the children's sharp animal spotting eyes, we came across a very elegant Saddle Billed Crane. It was huge and very majestic in its stance with its beautiful red and yellow collard bill.  

We were not supposed to be crossing Rivers in the Landy as we had no snorkel and Safari Drive had lost a couple of Landrovers in the past, with flooded engines where river crossings had been attempted.   However, needs must and as long as we made sure the water level remained no more than half way up the wheels and the 'wader' in front of the Landy didn't get eaten! .... we were ok. 

Local villagers at Moremi outside their mud and thatched home.

          

We head on to Moremi and it is a beautiful drive by the River Khwai, spotting plenty of elephants on the way and plenty of bird life and there are a few other river crossings required as we drive through, predominantly sand, heading for the North Gate of the Camp. We eventually find our way into the local village and Jo has a spare bag of food in the Landrover comprising sugar, flour, porridge and milk.  We stop at the local shop and there is a couple of elderly women and a small child by a mud and thatched hut.  We drive over and Jo gets out to talk to them and offers them the bag of food, which they gratefully accept and the children give a lolly pop to the young child.  We are soon joined by several other mothers and their children, who are curious and Jo then asks if she can take a look inside her home.  The matriarch is more than happy to show us inside and invites us all in through the open wooden door.  It houses her life within and provides a home and shelter for the family and it is great that our children get to experience these things as the whole house is probably smaller than one of their bedrooms back in the house we had just sold in England, quite an eye opener for all three children.  We ask if we can take some photos and show them the images on the camera of which they all find highly amusing, laughing as they see themselves in the picture on the screen.

We are soon on our way, passing the local shop, which is actually called 'the shopping centre', not as you might know one back in England, but clearly an important part of the village and soon cross a wooden bridge to North gate where we check in. 

             The Khwai Shopping Centre 

Finally we arrive at the North Gate Entrance.

 

                      

The Wet Bridge!

      

By the time we check in it is well past lunchtime, so we make use of the tables and chairs and grab some cheese and biscuits from the back of the Land rover.  A couple of 'more exclusive' Landrover safari's turn up and take the adjoining tables, complete with table cloths and prepared food but their guides come over for a chat one by one and are very friendly and we finish lunch and head out to find our tent pitch for the next few days at Third Bridge, some distance away.   We head out on more dirt roads deep into the Park and soon find ourselves coming round a bend and bumping into an elephant, as you do.  Always to be avoided where you can as you never know how calm it might, or might not, be.  

Fortunately this one was fairly oblivious to our interruption.   

We soon come across a wide stretch of water that we need to cross and have difficulty finding a suitable place, but eventually find a spot where the river is still quite wide.  Jo decides to walk across in front, welcoming the cool water on her feet, but not so sure about the crocodiles! ...... pointing out the shallow areas that I need to follow as there does appear to be a ridge to one side of the river which falls away steeply, which definitely needs to be avoided.   We continue and follow a sign directing us to 'the dry route' to Third Bridge as the Bridge for the 'wet' route is decidedly underwater! and after a quick detour to find some Hippo pools we eventually arrive at Camp at about 6.00pm, crossing the dry bridge!  ..........  Not long to go before dark, so need to get the tents up, the fire going and the food cooked! 

 

   

Day 143 - Three Lions, Twelve Elephants, One Honey Badger and Face to Face with a Lioness!

Day 143 - Three Lions, Twelve Elephants, One Honey Badger and Face to Face with a Lioness!                 

We wake at Suvuti for a 5.30am breakfast, the boys and I in one tent and Jo and Imogen in the other, but all the children are up and ready to go.  Jo was very cold in the night, as temperatures can plummet, so she is thinking twice about the game drive so KG escorts Imogen from her tent, to breakfast. We enjoy a good breakfast and get ready for the drive, then Jo appears who decided at the last minute to join us.   

It is still very cold, in fact freezing at 6.30am and KG starts up the truck and we head off, blankets provided, which the children snuggle into.  Jo is pleased she came out as shortly after turning down a narrow track we see a large heard of buffalo, grazing in the bush within a thin line of mist still laying in the cold air before the sunrise has had a chance to burn it off.   What a lovely early morning view.  

KG carries on with the drive and we soon spot an amazing site. Fred's keen eyes spot what looks like a male lion in the distance.  KG reverses up toward the river bank and we realise it is not one but three Male Lions walking right towards us, with purpose, probably 100m out, but something has alerted them to food.  

We then see a small group of buffalo that are separate from the main group with young and a small group of Tsessebe, again with young who soon become aware of the lions and make a quick exit.  The Male Lions just keep walking, in a line of three straight towards our truck, focused on the smell of potential breakfast, buffalo, who are now starting to make distress sounds and become fairly agitated, especially as they have young with them.  KG has radioed ahead and a couple of other trucks join us just as the three male lions amazingly walk right next to the trucks, within meters and then take a drink from the river before pondering their next move. They appear to be in no rush and rest in a nearby bush, allowing us to take some great photos, clearly keeping pace with the buffalo before deciding to make their move.

Snoozing with one eye on the prize!

   Taking a rest, but with one ear and one eye on buffalo breakfast, the three lions take an extended snooze.  We watch them for a while and the children are mesmerised at being so close to not one but three male lions and we then head back to camp, where we need to pack and be on our way.

We get back in time for another breakfast snack before packing up and heading off at about 9.40am to our next destination, Khwai, which is a community camp off the river, as basic and wild as it gets with no facilities what so ever! The children are going to love it!

Khwai is about 100km south of Savuti and we head out down the track where we saw the lions and amazingly they are still there. We are the only vehicle around and it looks like lethargy has got the better of the brothers, but probably getting plenty of sleep before they feed tonight.  We travel on for about an hour through the bush and the boys spot a small group of Elephants, some 200m off the track heading towards us. I decided to stop the land rover by a bush and reverse up, so that the land rover is completely visible to the elephants but next to the bush, but right on the animal track that the Elephants appear to be walking.  I switch off the engine and tell everybody to be completely silent as the small heard of Elephants get closer and closer.  They can clearly see the landrover and I assumed they would start to vere away, but no ............... they keep walking down the path straight towards us, not moving off the path at all.  .............. We could now see that it was a family with some young Elephants amongst the group.  This could get interesting, but the elephants seemed fairly calm by our presence.  ............  Ok, nobody make a sound, just keep very calm!  ..........  The elephants were now some 10m from the landrover and half of the group started to walk towards the rear of the landrover whilst the mother and young ones walked towards the bush, ..................... Imogen, my 8 year old, had stopped breathing by now, having recently shown her a newspaper article of a rogue bull elephant leaning on a car and then using its tusks to roll the car down into a ditch.  You could have heard a pin drop in the landy as the matriarch came passed the bush with her family and turned toward the landy, now some 3 metres away, flapping her ears and letting off a huge trumpet sound with her trunk ................ nobody moved an inch and the immortal words of 'play it cool Trigg, play it cool', came into my head as she said her piece and continued to walk passed the landrover with her troop! ...................... a sharp intake of breath came from Imogen as she remembered to breath and we all relaxed a little - I have never seen the children so quiet throughout the whole trip. What a fantastic moment to share.  All our hearts were pumping quite fiercely as being that close to them, there was no way we could have started the engine and tried to move, that would have had disastrous consequences.  The elephants were always aware of our presence and had no intention of diverting and just let us know that we had been an inconvenience.  Wow, two amazing encounters in one morning. ................ and they say things come in three's!  

Elephant video

The Landy was fairly quiet for a while following our elephant encounter as we made our way Mababe, which was the exit gate to Chobe, some 70km away from Savuti through deep sand, which meant it was going to take us some 4 hours to make the gate, including the game drive on the way.

We are all relieved to eventually reach the gate by about 3.00pm (we were supposed to have been out of the gate by 11.00am according to our permit, but managed to get away with it!), as the last hour of the journey we had seen virtually no wildlife, only dust, dust and more dust and Jo had helped out with a bit of the driving.  We then take a real off road short cut to join the road to Khwai, the community camping area by the river where we would spend our next night beneath canvas.  It really was just turn up and find a pitch anywhere, completely in the bush and just off the river bank where there were an abundance of Hippo's and Crocs.  Fantastic!.  .....................  and a little different to the New Forest in good old England!  

Imogen digging the WC

Some of the Overland Camping groups had set up a veritable 'homestead' in the trees but the overnight campers had to pitch somewhere nearer to the river, wherever looked cosy? ............. and obviously much closer to the Hippo's and Croc's! Khwai community area covers about 1800km of bush and has a very high concentration of predators, so it was going to be an interesting evening.  We had heard that there were a pride of 9 lions close by, so we needed to be alert and get a fire going very quickly as soon as we had found a place to put up the tent.     

I drove around for a while, just off the river bank, looking for a suitable area to pitch the tent and came across a suitable patch of open grass.  However, I noted another smaller patch, a little more secluded, some 20 meters away from the Landy and got out to check it over, telling everyone else to stay in the Landy until I came back.  I was walking towards the patch of long grass and noted an animal track in front of me, which for some reason I decided to follow.  As I stepped on the stubbly track, the short grass crunched under my feet and I remember immediately thinking, 'well that will scare anything away thats hiding!'  ..................... just as I finished that thought, I looked up to see a huge lioness, 5 meters away from me, startle and jump up from behind a bush.  It was as if everything from that moment now moved in slow motion. The lioness had awoken suddenly by the crunching of the grass and seemed to grow larger and larger as she stood to a full position, turning her head towards me and letting of a loud and deep roar as she grew larger. ................  I felt like Victor Meldrew! ' I don't believe it, its a bloody lion!' ......... A huge amount of information flashed through my head in a split second, calculating distances and probabilities as I stood motionless, assessing what she was going to do. I didn't move or make a sound and lucky for me I had disturbed her from her sleep which had put her on edge -  this fortunately caused her to turn and run into the bush in front of her, where another two lioness's were asleep in the sun and no sooner had she turned her back on me, I ran back to the Landy as fast as I could.  I got back to the Landy and opened the door and sat back in the seat, trying to make sense of what had just happened. It was quite a bizzarre moment as the children were having a bit of an argument and Jo was trying to calm them all down, none the wiser and I had just walked out in front of a lion! 

Having completed a Game Ranger course in South Africa 7 years earlier, I remember being constantly told , when you get out of the landrover always be aware that there could be a lion behind the bush! ........... in 1800km of bush, you just don't think it is going to be your bush! ............... but there she was ................ a strong lesson learned.  

Later having thought about the situation, it was extremely lucky that I had got out to check the pitch and chosen to walk on the stubble, as if we had simply pitched at the spot we had stopped, the next step would be for everyone to gather wood for the fire! ......... that would not have been good!

I drove the Landy a few hundred meters away and found another pitch, got some dry timber and lit a large fire as soon as possible and made the rule that nobody strays from between the fire and the landrover, as it was now getting dark. We ate a quick meal cooked over the fire and then Imogen, as cute as she is, piped up and said 'Daddy ......... I need a poo'.     Ahhh, I had dug the poo hole on the other side of the fire!  Right, ok we will have to be quick!  I grabbed a couple of torches and we found the nicely dug hole and while Imogen hovered over to do her business, I stood over her with two torches looking for the glowing green eyes of a lion or two!  'Quick Imogen .... as quick as you can'! 

It had been an eventful day and after getting the children into their tent up on the Landy roof, Jo and I were just getting in our tent on the ground when something was making a noise around the side of the Landy. Go and have a look she said as I took the torch and shone it on the ground ................ It was a Honey Badger!!  ............ the most feared animal of the bush! Feared by elephants, even feared by lions, as the honey badger will strike by attacking your testicles!  Elephants and lions have been known to bleed to death, having had their testicles firmly taken out.  ................. Bugger! This honey badger was making his way to our tent as I was desperately trying to shoo him away, whilst firmly holding on to my testicles, much to the amusement of the children peering out through their tent.  

The most feared animal of the bush!  The Honey Badger.

I had the pleasure of looking after a honey badger in the rehabilitation clinic mentioned previously, so knew them very well.  The one I looked after was 'friendly' as it had grown up with humans since a cub and had a problem with being unable to smell anything, therefore could never be released back into the wild.  I used to pick it up when it escaped, which was frequently, very smart animals, and it is a complete ball of muscle, with exceptionally sharp teeth, one of the strongest animals I have seen.

After negotiating his escape, we finally got some sleep, dozing to the sound of lions roaring in the distance and Hippo's munching their way through their nightly tonnage of grass on the river bank.    .....................  What a day! ............  Needless to say any pee requirements in the night were very close to home! 

Day 142. Deep Sand and Leopards.

Day 142.     Deep Sand and Leopards.

 Packing up this morning to head south to Savuti, one of Africa's best known big game reserves, which is still part of Chobe National Park, but the Park is not continuous so you have to exit the river section and re-enter 80km further south. Savuti is described as a place of enchantment, of beauty and boasts one of the greatest concentrations of animals in Southern Africa.
The Land Rover is nearly packed when Jo starts to get breakfast prepared, putting food on the table ..... but suddenly, as our backs are turned for no more than a second, a large Baboon appears from nowhere, snatches our whole loaf of bread from the table, still in the packet and scarpers, as quick as it arrived! Thieving Rotten Baboons! - The boys and I quickly set up chase, as this was the only bread we had, but soon realise we have very little chance of catching him! Baboons have an exceptional eye site and have colour vision in the same way we do, they need it to source ripened fruit and the pink colour of the rump of a female who is ready to mate. They will carefully sit there considering their plan of attack in detail and will move extremely quickly, as bold as can be, when the opportunity arises to make their strike. ......... Well whilst the baboons were having our breakfast we sat down and made do with what was left!  The children were quite shocked at how quickly and boldly the Baboons took the bread!   New security measures were required!


 Exiting Chobe National Park through the Ngoma Gate, we head out for a game drive and it is not long before we notice a Impala carcass high up in a tree, suspecting breakfast for a leopard who would probably be back later for seconds.









We also see plenty of Common Water Buck, with the tell tale white target on their back sides, looking as though they have just sat down on a freshly white painted toilet seat! Classified as the 'least threatened' species as a conservation status, with an estimated 200,000 in existence, they tend to live for about 18 years and emit a smelly, oily secretion from their shaggy brown -grey coats, thought to be their waterproofing, but it is so strong that it even deters predators!  A very sedate looking and gracious animal with widely spaced and gracefully curved back and up horns.  Harry found the 'toilet seat' bottom highly amusing.


 We also see plenty of African birds, Kudu and Elephants along the way. We continue down various tracks and decide to take an inland loop where we see more elephants and are heading back toward the exit gate, but signage is limited. We find a straight piece of track, quite wide that should take us back and we follow this for some time, only realising the reverse side of a sign as we drive passed it towards the end of the track, which reads; 'No Entry' - Police and Botswana Defence Force Vehicles Only!!  Bugger! we have done it again! 




With a little more acceleration and no obvious sounds of gun fire, the children breath a sigh of relief, as do I and we get through to the end of the track that brings us back on the National Park tarmac road, so it is an easy drive back to the Ngoma Gate.
 The drive from Ngoma gate to Ghoha gate is approximately 78km and is a very scenic drive on what starts out as a very smooth tarmac road, so unusually smooth and unexpected, that we even consider a stop for a coffee break, as we will make Ghoha in easy time. Thankfully we didn't, as the smooth tarmac road stopped at Kachikau ...... very suddenly! and immediately changes to deep sand for the next 41km! Driving that far through deep sand is exhausting as you need to concentrate on every yard! not matter what you do to the steering wheel, the tyres are going to follow the deep sand tracks that the wheels are currently in; it is like an unpredictable form of automated driving and the steering wheel is constantly slipping through your hands as the wheels find their own path! The last thing you want to do is stop as you might never get going again in the sand, so any pee stop needed to be at the top of a hill! ....... so plenty of; ...  'hold on kids we will stop soon!'



 Eventually, in one piece, we reach the Ghoha Gate and complete the necessary paperwork to enter and continue the next 29km down to Savuti, again we have deep sand tracks and the boys take it in turns to practice their 'off road' driving skills! - not bad for an 8 and 9 year old! - with me controlling the pedals of course (and the sand controlling the wheels!). The temperature is rising and it is beginning to get very hot and as most wildlife seems to be sheltering from the sun on the way through, we head out to Harvey's Pan, a large salt pan that comprises a number of waterholes that keep their rainwater for months. This is the area where Dereck and Beverley Joubert shot their DVD, 'Ultimate Enemies', capturing the rivalry between Elephant and Lion, driven together for their desperate need for water. It is also known as a great area for birding because of the shallow water at the edges of the pans and we have our hopes up for some animal sitings, but with the temperature rising we only see a lone Elephant and a few Giraffe, so soon head quickly across to Camp Savuti, a couple of kilometres further on. Our stay at Camp Savuti is in a tented lodge, which was originally going to be for two nights, but with a tight budget we only stayed for one night, so we arrive at about 1.30pm, in plenty of time to enjoy our stay, with a good wash and brush up from camping. We were greeted by the staff and shown to two tents where they were fairly insistent that a parent had to sleep in each tent, just in case unwanted visitors arrive in the night! and they provide us with plates to have our lunch and ask us to be ready for tea and cake at 3.00pm and a game drive at 3.30pm. ............. Great, we had no idea a game drive was included, as they we thought this was only part of the full board option, so happy to take a break from driving and be chauffeured to some wonderful sites. 'KG' is our guide for the drive and we are joined by a very nice Swiss couple form the camp. We had some great encounters on the game drive, seeing a large heard of about 700 Buffalo,



Elephants, Antelope and then much to everyones delight we spotted a Leopard, high up on a rocky outcrop, looking as though she was making her way down the rock face. We all sat and watched with eyes fixed on the rocks, but we lost her for a while and then suddenly she appeared in right front of the vehicle on the track. It was a fantastic siting, we watched her for as long as we could, but KG had to get back us back to camp fairly swiftly before the gate closed, so we watched and then headed off at speed.  The children were very excited about seeing the Leopard.

Leopards are such amazing creatures. Although they appear fairly sleek and lethargic, they are one of the most fearsome animals.   ..................  Some 7 years previous to this trip, I had been working in a rehabilitation clinic for injured animals in South Africa and I had been asked to go into the food pen to collect some dead chicks to feed to the injured Vultures. As I walked into the fenced pen, there was an enclosed holding pen within it, like a walled cell, with a large door, within which was a viewing hole with bars in, about 16 inches square. ........ In the holding pen was a 'wild' Leopard (in more ways than one!) who had just been captured as she had been spotted by locals on their farmland and was going to be shot unless the team picked her up within half an hour and rescued her, to move her to another area. She had literally just been captured and put in the holding pen before being moved.  I looked through the bars of the door as I could hear the Leopard painting loudly and anxiously from her frightening ordeal. She was sitting at the door, her face no more than 18 inches from mine, looking straight at me.  It was absolutely amazing. Knowing I had the protection of the door and bars, I stared through the opening and couldn't believe she was so close, not moving, staring right at me and panting heavily. I stood there in awe and looked right into her eyes and could feel her breath on my face.  Her head seemed huge and she was no longer the sleek almost lethargic wanderer, she was the strongest and most fearsome face I had ever seen, yet amazingly beautiful.
They say you should never stare into the eyes of a leopard and I can see why. I stared for what appeared to be ages, hearing the loud and fast panting of her breath ................ suddenly she jumped at the opening with such speed and power and let out a huge growl, frightening the living daylights out of me. The energy and strength that she showed in that split second was unreal and the Leopard is certainly an animal who's strength should never be underestimated. She would have torn me to shreds in seconds had there been no door! ........ her face is an image I will never forget and an animal I will always respect!

An animal not to be misjudged