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Published: April 14th 2007
Fortunately, I didn't have exactly concrete plans this time around, contrary to last year's military-precision schedule for which I was mercilessly teased in some quarters, and in contravention of a recently-heard edict from a Very Serious Traveller: "Always travel with a Purpose". Rather I had "aspirations" as I outlined in my last blog, but some of them were, shall I say, mandatorily rearranged by the weather. Yes, I may be 6,000 miles away from the UK, but I'm still at the mercy of the weather and therefore obliged to talk about it.
But first, an update of what's (hopefully) going to happen next: yes, I have a Plan... well, just a little one, the output of this last week's serious agonising. No, I don't expect any of you to sympathise for a second. The subject of this "serious agonising" was "What I shall I do with the next couple of weeks?" What a luxury to be able to juggle a wide range of ideas in this manner, although, honestly, the process gave me a sleepless night or six (the not-insignificant quantities of alcohol that my generous South African hosts have been pouring down my throat in the last week
has had nothing to do with it...).
Anyway, to the consternation of my mother who hadn't realised quite how many options I was considering when I told her I didn't know where I was going to be in the next few weeks - i.e., that this uncertainty encompassed one or more of at least five countries in southern Africa, excluding South Africa itself (my self-imposed constraints being that the destination had to be within either 4 hours' or GBPxx's worth of flying time of Johannesburg airport) - I'm off to Malawi tomorrow for a fortnight or so. As you do. Then it's back for a couple of weeks in Kaokoland with the elephants - weather permitting, of course, as it hasn't so far this year - before meeting Colin back here in Jo'burg and heading off to the Mozambique shore of Lake Malawi/Lago Niassa for a couple of weeks R&R. (Yes, I know there are those of you who think that my entire life these days comprises R&R, but Colin will certainly need the break!) So there you have it.
Of course, I still have to pack. I'm leaving here in less than eight hours' time and I'm
all too conscious that I haven't blogged in six weeks or so, with the exception of the just-circulated Windhoek/photo-blog, of course. At least you can heave a sigh of relief that I will therefore be prevented from giving you a blow-by-blow account of the aforementioned six weeks. Curiously, one reason why, despite access to excellent computer and internet facilities in the last week, I haven't managed to blog has been that I've been doing Legal Work. Scary, I know, but thanks to my friends at the Cheetah Conservation Fund for ensuring that I keep my hand in, at least in terms of remembering how to format legal documents and use Microsoft Word's track changes function!
To characterise the last six weeks: lots of kilometres and stunning amounts of countryside; lots of water - both in the form of precipitation and flooding to a near-record extent (Namibia's main wet season is extremely late this year); and a reasonable number of animals, including some "new" ones and some new behaviours. Oh, and a few elephants, though not the scheduled ones.
The kilometres racked up included:
- previous haunts in Namibia: Africat, Etosha, Ongava and the Cheetah Conservation Fund, largely
to introduce Namibian wildlife to Patricia McDonald, a great friend of my mother's and my own, who didn't hesitate to point out, when we were asked, that she'd known me since the day I was born - literally;
- new-to-me areas of Namibia: Hobatere game reserve, the Ruacana Falls on the Kunene River, Ovamboland (aka the most populous part of Namibia), Rundu and the Popa Falls on the Kavango River, the Caprivi Strip, and Namibia's remotest town, Katima Mulilo;
- a token bit of Angola... well, just a couple of steps over what passes for the border at Ruacana - a far cry from the bureaucratic hoops and logistical hiccups of my trip there last year; and
- a few thousand kilometres of Botswana, most of which I had not travelled - or, to be honest, couldn't remember travelling - during my last trip there in 1999. We crossed the swollen Chobe River at Ngoma Bridge, and then drove through Chobe National Park to Kasane, before heading through the delightfully-named Pandamatenga, and on to Nata, Maun and Ghanzi, before crossing back into Namibia near Gobabis.
All in all, I reckon I travelled close on 7,000 kilometres
a bustle of porcupine
(at the night hide at Okonjima)between 13 March and 4 April, and was behind the wheel for the majority of it, road-testing a gorgeous 2000 diesel Hilux: I felt as if I could have driven from the Cape to Cairo, and from Dakar to Nairobi... always assuming a few politically iffy bits of Africa could have sorted themselves out for me.
I visited Hobatere with Keith Leggett in an unsuccessful effort to locate the elephants in this area which he has collared, largely for the purpose of comparing their behaviour to those in the desert of Kaokoland. This meant, of course, that we (well, Keith) knew the Right People, and I was delighted to be taken out for a night drive by Steve Braine, the owner of the Lodge. No, this was not a simple night-time game drive. Steve had work to do: catching a frog for one of his surprisingly extensive snake collection (out of respect for the squeamish, I won't go into the details of the prey's consumption, but it was an education), and ringing birds. Steve is one of the greatest experts on birds in southern Africa and it was a privilege to be out with him. You might have thought
that it'd be tricky to catch small birds at night, but Steve made it look as easy as picking up litter.
All in all, it was a night of "firsts" for me:
- my first sighting of a Cape fox (as opposed to its spoor, which I have often seen, particularly in the morning at Sossusvlei and in Kaokoland when it looks as if the foxes - pretty much like those in south-east London - have been having a party on the dunes all night);
- my first sighting of an African wildcat. Curiously, a week later I found a nearly perfect one on the side of the road. It must have been hit only in the previous couple of hours: although already rigor-ed, it had not yet been discovered by any scavengers;
- my first conscious sighting - and holding - of a Stark's lark, one of Steve's target species that night. At 19g, it really did feel as light as a feather in my hand;
- my first close-up look at a double-banded courser, a bird that I had seen a few times in the past year, but usually only as it was
black rhino at Okaukuejo waterhole
(with apologies for the atmospherically fuzzy quality / Impressionist style of the photograph) scuttling away, off to a far more important engagement than simply standing around for its admirers;
- my first view of a snake consuming its prey, viz a grass snake and the aforementioned frog. OK, I said I wouldn't go into details, but it was fascinating as the frog seemed to expand itself to an impossible extent for the small snake to contemplate swallowing... Sorry, was that too much information?! (I'm really hoping for Brownie points with my nephew Angus for this sighting, though!) The next day, I watched a professional at work: one of Steve's puff adders swallowing a rat. That's got to be near the top of the list of sights that I did not ever expect to experience in my life: looking down a snake's gullet as it "yawned" repeatedly in an attempt to re-hinge its lower jaw after finishing its lunch; and
- my first close-up view of a live scorpion (I've been lucky not - yet - to have met one accidentally on my travels). Fortunately, this one was also behind glass in Steve's collection. Having met a guy earlier that evening who'd had part of his thumb amputated as the result of
mountain zebra
distinctive because their strips reach their ankles, but don't go round their middles a scorpion sting that had been being badly treated first time around, this was a species which I continue to hold in extremely cautious respect.
Patricia's trip also turned up some "firsts" for me, although more in connection with new behaviours witnessed, rather than new animals:
- mating giraffes: admittedly, they were pretty slow about it, simply entwining their necks around each other. Slightly alarmingly, I'm convinced that the first one to do any mounting was the female. Pushy woman!
- black rhino in large numbers and small sizes! Patricia and I were charmed to see no fewer than five black rhino turn up at Ongava Lodge's water hole while we were having dinner the first night - and which we could watch without interrupting our own meal - and then, the next night, a 4-month old calf was amongst those making an appearance below us;
- lionesses drinking: yes, Ongava turned up trumps on this one too!
- a mostly-black (melanistic) zebra. For all the world, it looked as if it had put a sweater on over its striped pyjamas as it came down to drink at the Okaukuejo waterhole in Etosha!
-
un-shy black-faced impala. I remember having a hopeless time last year trying to photograph the distinctive face of these indigenous impala. This time, we found a small herd drinking from a muddy puddle on a little-frequented road in Etosha and they were perfectly happy for me to take their photographs, "full frontal" and all.
Since completing the round-Namibia/Botswana marathon - for which, thanks to Keith Leggett for wanting put his new Hilux through a serious road-test himself after kindly letting me
an oshana in Ovamboland
These shallow indentations form distinctive water features during the rains. use it for the first couple of weeks of his ownership - I've been chilling out in South Africa... nearly literally, thanks to the gradual onset of autumn here. I spent the Easter weekend in a fog of food, drink, sleep and lengthy dog-walks in Zinkwazi Beach, about 100km north of Durban. On Tuesday, my generous host kindly drive me back to Johannesburg via the scenic route, through Ladysmith, around Majuba Hill (time to dig out your Boer War textbooks!) and through a little-frequented part of the Drakensberg Mountains. For the last few days, I've been battling with the internet to sort out the next couple of weeks (no, I know I'm not going to get any sympathy!!) and finishing CCF's legal work.
Now to get back on the road and explore a New Country... I'm really excited!
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