AFRICA TRAVELS (Part III)

Yes we should have posted before but you know what a hectic life we lead…..

A quick recap as we had just spent a fantastic couple of weeks in Northern Zimbabwe with our friends, Sarah, Tim, Jo, & Shula but now they had just been collected from our lodge in Victoria Falls to go to the airport and return back to the UK. As much we loved Zimbabwe it does have serious political problems and the main one for us was the inability to get cash. Zimbabwe uses the US Dollar but had blocked all international bank cards from withdrawing money from ATMs and once out of the main tourist place (Victoria Falls) many places were not accepting card payments due to themselves not being able to get cash. We had taken plenty of US$ with us and had enough for what we wanted to do we hoped, there was always the problem of if something went wrong with the car and also it would be obvious tourists would be carrying lots of cash around so it was security as well. In the end we decided that the risk was too great and we would be spending our money across the border in Botswana instead

Victoria Falls is only 60 kms from the border with Botswana so a quick drive and unusually an equally quick border crossing we were back in Kasane, the town we left in January after our Christmas trip. We knew where we wanted to go and that was back to Chobe, Savuti and Moremi amongst other places. Now we had a further problem in that these palces get booked up a year in advance and we wanted to go now. They are way out in the bush so it is not a good idea to just turn up so it was get the phone out and make calls. No luck at all, everywhere was fully booked so one last chance and we rang Andy Raggett of Drive Botswana. He had put together the Zimbabwe trip we had just finished and also several other trips that Jan and I had made in the previous few years, could he help. While waiting for a reply we took a trip into Chobe Park and a drive along the river.

Pied Kingfisher

Necking Giraffes

Young Elephant and a Spoonbill

Well a day later we were on our way doing the same trip we had made with the family at Christmas but in reverse. This time it was a blast down the road from Kasane to Nata and onto Planet Baobab for a night. I say blast, well we did get stopped for speeding just outside Pandamatenga but it was a fair cop as we were and the police car had video in it so very different from the countries that we had just been to. After a night stop it was onto Nxai Pan, one of my favourite places for photographs. The track up is about 35 kms to the pan but it is deep sand all the way. 

The track up to Nxai Pan

That drive takes around 2 hours. Nxai Pan is very dry and desolate but the single artificial waterhole attracts many animals and often predators. Sadly for us we could not find any predators at all but some great sunset photos of elephants and many other creatures. 

A few of the amazing sunset photo to be had at Nxai Pan

Martial Eagle and Ostrich

After a couple of days there it was back down the track then along the road for a short distance before turning of again along another deep sand track to Khumaga on the Boteti River. Here the river was flowing well with large herds of grazers all around. Lots of signs again of predators with many kills and carcases all along the river. Again we could not find any. Some really amazing scenes though with all the dust around.

Wildebeest

Pelicans in the Boteti River

Zebra in the river

Zebra and Wildebeest

Wildebeest in the dust

A large herd of Zebra drinking in the Boteti River

Aerial shot from the drone of the Boteti River area

We took the ferry out across the river which was an adventure in itself. When I say ferry it is an old pontoon that you have to drive through the water a little then drive up a ramp onto this narrow boat. The river was quite shallow and the boat takes 1 car. As we kept grounding all the time you have to keep shifting the car back then forwards to get over the shallow water. One you are near the far bank then boat driver stops and you drive of into the water to continue. 

Poling the ferry

waiting for the ferry to arrive

The next stop was the metropolis of Maun and a return to Maun Lodge for a night plus getting supplies and fuel for the trip onwards to Moremi.

After a few hours drive from Maun you arrive at South Gate, the entrance to Moremi National Park and the Okavango Delta. Our camp here for the night was going to be at Third Bridge, a place we had never stayed at but had been to many times. 

This is a blocked Third Bridge

The drive through the park was good with sightings of many birds and animals and the tracks not to bad but deep sand in places.  We checked in and found that we were in pitch no 9. The bad news for us was the pitch was already taken. It was a real shame as we had paid good money and these certainly had not but we didn’t care as we had a herd of elephant munching there way through Third Bridge and at that point they were at and around pitch 9. After an hour or so watching the 20 or so elephants including some very young ones they wandered far enough away so we could put up the tent and get sorted out ready to go for a drive that evening.   

Moremi is a magical place for animals and we were soon onto lion and much more. We were back at nightfall and cooking dinner round the open fire. We had to keep a careful watch out as the elephants were still around. Being out in the bush means you tend to get to bed early often before 9 but as you are up at 5 it is good. We were just falling asleep when there is a banging outside. We were in a ground tent and not the roof tent and apart from mosquito screens we had not closed the door or windows so we can see. We had left shoes outside and the banging was an elephant holding a shoe in its trunk and slapping it on the ground. She soon got fed up with that though and then started to feel the tent with her trunk. Now lying on the ground looking up at an elephant who is looking in at you through the mesh is a little nervy to say the least. When the Ellie went round the back of the tent I quickly unzipped the screen and dived out into the car with Jan. The ellie didn’t care it just carried on inspecting the tent then moved onto find things to eat. Our hearts were certainly beating hard so it took a while to get back to sleep.

Next day was pack up at Third Bridge then take the short drive to Khwai North Gate for two more nights in Moremi. We have been here several times and know are area where leopards seem to like. We managed to find the same leopard two days running, the first time just laying in the grass at the side of a track. There was only us with the leopard and we sat with her for an hour until we had to go to get back to the camp before it got too dark. The next morning we found her spying out the land ontop of a termite mound before she wandered of to hunt. Again we were the only ones until several safari trucks saw us and came over.

A Beautiful Leopard

She knows how beautiful she is

Surveying the scene from a termite mound

Off to stalk prey

Spoonbill at sunset

Rare Wattled Cranes

Playtime

At Khwai camp we had another nocturnal fright but this time around 3am when there was a lot of noise outside the tent. Again we were on the ground. This time it was a couple of Hyena playing with our tent bag that we had tucked under some stuff outside. I got out the tent to shoo them of but we now have to buy a new tent bag as the Hyena ran of with ours. It must have been a sight with Hyenas running with the tent bag and me chasing them to get them to drop it ll at 3am..

After a couple of nights it was a return to the bush roads and move on to Savuti. The drive we chose was the marsh road which is only accessible in the dry season. On the drive Zebra being born at Christmas. Savuti was busy with people and we were really pleased to come across a lioness on her own when there was just us. Very quickly more lionesses and a couple of big males arrived swiftly followed by dozens of safari trucks. We still managed some good photos before it got too busy though. 

The first lioness and all on our own

Once the pride joined then there were lots of safari trucks around

A Magnificent male lion

Our final drive was back through deep sand to Kasane where we intended to stay and get the ferry back across the Zambezi to Zambia the next morning. We decided that we had time and got the ferry back that afternoon and spent our final night of this trip back in Livingstone again at the Waterfront.

We had spent 6 weeks living in the truck and tents, been to 3 countries, had a great time with friends and driven some 8000 kms. It was a great trip.

We have been asked to do a blog on what Ndola is like here so hopefully we will do one in the next few weeks all about our "home" town so keep tuned in.

Please feel free to share this blog and comments are really welcome

Mike and Jan