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Published: September 3rd 2010
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The first thing we had done when we arrived in Maun was to try and book an overland safari through the Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park. As it turned out it had been a mistake not to do this earlier, as all safaris scheduled for the next couple of weeks were either already full or exorbitantly expensive. After a bit of hunting around we decided to rent both a guide and a car ourselves and leave flyers at all the local hostels asking for people to join us to bring down the price. This we did and headed off on our mokoro trip, hoping to come back to Maun and find lots of other travellers eager to come along. After 3 days in the Okavango Delta we returned to Maun to find that noone had expressed any interest, apart from another couple of Aussies, who weren't ready to leave for a few more days. Kelly had agreed to come along, but was still a bit hesitant about the cost. With only a day to go before we were scheduled to leave one of the managers of the hostel we were staying at came up to us and informed us
that the people we had booked the safari with had found us someone cheaper to run the trip, which seemed odd, but we weren't complaining as it was a really good deal and it meant that Kelly would definitely join us. Excitedly we met with the guy, who was supposed to be running this new safari. His name: Custard. We talked about itinerary, confirmed the price and agreed to meet him later in the day to pay a deposit. I just quickly wanted to confirm with the original operator that Custard would now be taking us, a mere formality. Of course they had never heard of Custard and we were left wondering for the next few hours, whether this guy was trying to scam us or not. In the end and after much fretting we decided that Custard had seemed like a good guy and there had been some miscommunication, went off to buy enough food for the three of us for five days and met up with Custard in the afternoon to pay the deposit and leave all the food in his truck. We tried to cheerfully ignore the fact that he had to leave the motor running when
Custard
Notice the efficiently packed safari vehicle in the background. parking, because he was afraid of not being able to start it again. "It's a really good deal.", we kept telling ourselves.
The next morning we got up bright and early and were ready at 8am for Custard to pick us up. At 9am we decided to give him a call and see where he was. "Just a small problem with the truck. Am going to pick up a part and then come and get you. Will be there in half an hour." "Cool, no worries, see you then." Around 10.30am we called him again. Kelly, being the trooper she is, took over the phone duties. "Just filling up petrol now. Will be there in half an hour." "You sure now? Because last time you said half an hour as well. Just be honest and tell us how long you'll be." "No really, I'll be there in half an hour." "Hmmm, right, ok." Around midday we called him again. No answer. Text message. No answer. Call. No answer. 2pm. 3pm. No answer. At this point we were thinking that we needed to accept the fact that we'd been scammed and that he had taken off with our money and our
food. We were already debating whether to call the cops now or tomorrow. At 4.30pm his truck rolled into our backpacker lodge. "I'm ready, let's go." After much debate about the definition of half an hour and the merits of driving into a game reserve at night time (officially not allowed), we took our food of his truck, wrote down his licence plate number and agreed to give him one last shot to pick us up the next morning.
Unbelievably when Custard came to pick us up the next day he was only one hour late. Maybe we would get to go on safari after all. Along with another traveller, Claudia from Germany, we headed towards Moremi with much anticipation and excitement. The truck only broke down a few times that first day, causing us to have to push-start it. At one point the truck stopped near a cheetah, which we had disturbed while munching on its kill, lying less than 20 metres away! Another safari truck came past and offered to give us a push, but only ended up tearing out one of the lights on our truck with its bumper bar. So we got out of the truck
once more, the cheetah still lying nearby. Just as we were getting ready to push, an angry ranger rocked up, thinking that our guide had let us out of the truck to view the cheetah up close. Once we explained our predicament he and his scantily clad girlfriend helped us push start the truck. It was all very surreal to say the least. With more push-starts being required the next morning, we spent the lunchtime of the second day hunting down Custard's guide-buddies in the park until we found one that was able to fix the truck once and for all. The rest of the safari went by fairly smoothly until the last day when the truck got bogged in the sand twice, noxious fumes came from underneath the engine, nearly choking us as we pushed from behind, one of our tents fell off the back and Custard had to crawl through the window into the driver's seat, as the driverside door had finally decided to stop opening, causing him to utter: "This safari is a f.....g disaster." Not to mention Kelly getting attacked in the middle of the night by a honey badger, losing her phone and discovering that
her Botswana visa was about to expire, which meant we had to drive to the nearest town to get an extension. Then there was me getting hit in the eye by some insect, the pain making me convulse like an epileptic. And have I mentioned the rotten meat, because Custard forgot to buy ice? I must say however, he turned out to be the nicest fellow and very knowledgeable on all things wildlife.
In the end we probably had the best safari anyone could ask for. On the first day, before even entering the park proper, Kam spotted a leopard, a rare animal to catch sight of. We saw several lions, the aforementioned cheetah and a jackal. One morning we woke up to a pack of wild dogs running through our campsite chasing impala. Another morning a herd of buffaloes came by. In the evenings, a genet (sort of a cross between a cat and a possum) would come to visit us. One night, the honey badger tore through our rubbish bags and made a big mess in the truck. And of course we saw all the usual animals (usual for Africa anyway): elephants, zebras, giraffes, baboons, warthogs, crocodiles, snakes,
lots of antelopes, stacks of birds and the biggest killer in the African animal kingdom, the hippo. Yep, you heard right, hippos kill more humans than any other animal in Africa. Hard to believe, but those buggers are vicious. Don't get between a hippo and water or a hippo mum and its baby! Anyway, from the safety of our safari vehicle, they looked rather lazy and tame. We topped off the experience with a couple of gin and tonics on a sunset boat cruise at the end of the last day.
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after our little chat last night, I had to check for the blog first thing this morning. Surviving all this you 2 can conquer just about anything. It's raining once again, great. We are back to stage 2 water restrictions. Dam levels up to 68%. The country is looking green again.