Our African Camping Safari

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When our 4x4 Isuzu with our very own canvas chateau on top, was delivered to our guest house in Pretoria and I knew then that everything we had planned, talked and dreamed about for the last few years was really now about to come to true.

We were about to go camping in Africa----with the animals!!

While Ian and Hennie (the owner) got immediately into the mechanics etc etc I just stood there recalling all the wonderful memories of camping around Aus (and remembering my initial thoughts of snakes and spiders)and then began to get very excited about the next and last stage of our “1st taste of Africa” trip, camping out there with elephants, giraffes and cats etc etc …….!
Then suddenly I looked up at our bedroom on top and remembered why I had asked so many questions about this part of our adventures.
How was I going to get up that ladder? ------And more importantly how fast could I get up that ladder???
A year or more ago I had said to Ian when we had agreed to this stage of the journey,-- there’s only one request ---when I have to get up for a nightly pee, ”promise we will do it together”? He of course agreed, ---and answered------ “Yes, WE will always go together”!!!!!

I soon gathered my thoughts and began my important role of inspecting the kitchen and the supplied utensils, ----hmmmmm all pretty basic, but I had to remember it was only for 3 weeks. Fortunately we had a few bits and pieces of our own, from the last 3 weeks, so that helped to supplement the hire 4x4.

Our next day was spent stocking up with everything we would need for the next 3 weeks, an interesting exercise, in a country that is wheaned on red meat, but we had done a little research and with the help of Woolworths SA(gourmet in comparison to Aus.) and Spar we sorted a somewhat healthy and varied gourmand menu, plus a few bottles of wine and a bag of marshmallows for around the campfire, as you do!

Then on 18th September, with just one 29er, full of camping gear, 4 boxes full of food and 2 dozen bottles of South African wine, we pulled out of Pretoria, heading north east towards the border of Botswana.

As we drove along,---- just us, and of course the trusty GPS -Barb #3, with our little chateau on top, we did our usual --- “A high 5”( a private little symbol for us,--that we had done good, and all was well!!) we both felt really excited!---We were heading out to camp,---in the bush,----in AFRICA!!!!

By the time we reached the border crossing at Martins Drift we had teamed up with Tony and Nicola Park, the wonderful Sydney/SA couple who had encouraged, inspired and assisted us to get to this point, they in their Land Rover (of course) and their wonderful friends the delightful South African Oberholzer family, Riaan and Annelien, and their two beautiful children Leyla and Adriaan, also with their Land Rover (par excellence), and then Greg, an in between editor and Frank a historical novel (North and East) African author from Sydney who very quickly got titled “The Odd Couple”, most aptly as they certainly made us laugh as much as they did.

The border crossing all went well and then very quickly we were in a convoy on way to our first REAL bush camping in Africa, down by a river, --it felt sooo good!!!
Until someone mentioned spotting a “CLT” crocodile like thing, OMG, no more to drink for me, and I will not be needing to empty my bladder all night!!!---I’m sure, I’m sure??!!
Actually our first night in the canvas chateau, apart from the 3am very piercing sounds of hooting owls,---bought back all the wonderful memories of our camping trips around Aus, and it really assured us very quickly that we were doing the right thing, this was surely going to be one of those wonderful life experiences!

By morning Ian had figured out we had a battery problem, as our fridge and Appy were not working as they should, so we rang back to base and they suggested we replace it, great idea, except it was Sunday in Africa!

Our next destination,-- for the battery search and everything else that everyone had realized, after their first night, they either needed or had forgotten was Francistown, one of the larger towns in Botswana, enroute on the main road between Gaboronne, the capital, and Zimbabwe.
At Francistown we all pulled into the local “superstore”, ---piled out of our cars, happy to have a good stretch and trailed into the store, all did our shop, then out to the carpark for a quick sandwich stop. Ian and I then headed out in search of the elusive battery while the others headed to the local petrol station to do a top up, only to find that Tony and Nics back left tyre had been given a perforation, just enough to cause a flatty, probably somewhere up the road, wherever, where the supposed plan is for “The Perforators” to just happen to come by and of course, then to offer to be of help, but really the plan is to rob you.
But with the combination of Nic’s amazing hearing and spotting ability and then Tony being aware of the scheme, their plan was foiled.
Eventually after a lot of procedures we got our battery, all tanks were filled and the tyre replaced and it was on the road again to Nata for our second camp, here we were joined by Veronica and David ex Pommies now living in Hoedspruit SA, other friends of Nic and Tony’s.

Next day we drove north to the border crossing into Zimbabwe and then on to the famous Hwange National Park.
We were all greeted at the entry gate by Abiat, who sported the biggest and most welcoming smile ever.
Actually I think he was just so happy to see Tony and Nic, who have been going there for many years to do the Game count and then followed by all the troops that they had managed to gather into the Game Count community for 2010.
A slow game drive down to Robins Camp, which would become our home base for the next 4 nights, gave us sightings of Roan, Impalas and then topped off with a herd of male Sables.
Over the next 24 hours we got to meet many of the Robins camp animal count team members, inc Brett and Clare and Dennis and Annie from Melbourne
And of course Colin, who is the most wonderful Zimbabwean, who co-ordinated, organized and briefed all the people who had come to do the annual game count, out in the northern part of the park.

All up there were about 50 volunteers who had to be placed at the specific water holes, with a100% commitment and understanding of their responsibilities, throughout the 24 hour period.
And after a briefing and some good discussions with Colin, everyone was left with no doubt as to the value he placed on the count and all our input.

We were most delighted and excited when we Nic and Tony advised us we would be doing the count with David and Veronica at the Big Tom's hide, a hide with a long standing reputation for plenty of game visits over the 24 hours, we felt so lucky on both accounts.

Next morning at 10am we departed so we could take our time to get there and get set up and be absolutely ready for the 12noon start.
Our first few hours were spent just chatting, very quietly and getting to know each other and just getting a feel for the land lie, identifying (the big bonus) lots of bird life, using Davids trusty Sascol bird book and of course spotting and notating every thirsty animal visit, of which we had many—Impala’s, Roan, Hyenas, our very favorite Wort Hogs and even one Lion walked by, but then after the night shift, once the sun went down, on came the elephants----all 127 of them, it was amazing, they would just seem to come out of nowhere, up to 20 at a time, all shapes and sizes, but ever so quietly and then when their trunks hit the water, the swishing, slurping and shushing orchestra would begin, building frantically to a crescendo and then easing off into a to a soft lullaby before the matriarch would give her signal that it was time to move on.
An hour or so later out of nowhere would arrive the next herd.

At one departure, for whatever reason(that we will probably never know) when the herd (about 15 of them) all began to depart from the water hole,--- they all of a sudden, -- just froze in time,---- for about a minute they did not move,---and were all completely silent, there was not even a flap of an ear or move of a trunk, actually if it hadn’t been for Davids’ amazing Swarwoski binoculars we may have even thought they had gone!

The night got cold in parts and sometimes felt quite eerie, verging on quite spiritual, to think that here we were out in the wilderness of Zimbabwe Africa, on a full moon, counting wild animals.
Through the night we did lots of hugging and constantly would say to ourselves, this is one of the most amazing things we had both ever done in our lives, it was actually quite an emotional experience, must have been the full moon.
We feel very blessed to have had the opportunity---Thank you so much Tony and Nic for the invite, Big Tom and our team Dave and Veronica, it couldn’t have been better.

The following 2 nights we spent at the very special Masuma and Deetema picnic sites, with their abundant animal attracting water holes out front.
We also visited the old camps of Deka and Simantela, which have sadly all become quite run down due to lack of patronage, but are currently getting some restoration.
In it’s day Hwange, was one of the Grand Dames of National Parks in Africa, but due to the political unrest it is no longer on the tourist hit list.

Quite sad to see, as the game is there and it was here we had one of the most interesting animal experiences of our whole 2 1/2 months in Africa,----- when Greg and Frank came back to camp to tell us all that their was a pride of lions 13kms up the road on the right side, for Ian and I there was no need for a discussion, just how quickly, but safely could we get there? (Had to have our daily fix.)
Off we went, when we got there, there was a truck in the distance but basically we had the 3 boys all to ourselves about, only 30 metres away, got some great shots, then Riaan and Annelien arrived.We both were just enjoying the moment, when the guys in one of the truck(now 2 trucks)came over and said “We have been tracking these 3 for 13 years and 3 years ago the transmitting collar on the middle one became defunct and we have been searching for them since, so we are delighted to have found them and what we are about to do is dart the one with the collar on and when it is completely unconscious, which will take about 20 mins. we will then replace the collar, we will have approximately 7 minutes to complete the job once the dart has taken effect. And you are welcome to stay and watch if you would like”
Ian and I went high 5’s!!! We were going nowhere!!! What an unbelievable opportunity, couldn’t believe our luck??


The morning of the 26th we all headed out, Tony and Nic went directly on to our next camp at Chobe Safari Lodge, Kasane, Botswanna, and Greg, the Oberholzer's, David and Veronica and us headed up to do the tourist thing at Victoria Falls.
Frank had already headed up and from there was going on to Kenya with his partner Wendy (both from the Northern beaches!)
That afternoon Greg would pick up his new travel buddy, Colleen, a young lady from NSW, who was a big fan of Frank and Tony’s books, and it was her first trip to Africa, so we had no doubt she would be in seventh heaven, and that she was.

Our Vic falls day was just super, just to watch the volumes of water tumbling into the depths of the Batoka Gorge, however they were only running at about 50%, but we still had the experience of the pheromones and energy from the spray and it was amazing to get the perspective of the closeness of the Zambia side to Zimbabwe.

And we then took ourselves off for a little romantic lunch on the balcony, at the very famous Victoria Falls hotel.
Then a little drive around the town and a little family pressy shopping.

From there we drove onto the Zim/Bots border (with a surprising yummy ice cream machine!!), and then into little bustling town of Kasane and then down to the Lodge camping ground to set up camp.
Next day we ran around doing our chores, fueling the car, a little grocery top up, organizing our accom. for our trip on our own back to Pretoria and emails etc.

Later in the afternoon we were very lucky to get the last 2 tickets on the Sunset Chobe River cruise---- such a good idea, from the river we could see the only point where the 4 countries, Bots, Zim, Nambibia and Zambia all meet and of course the main reason for us taking the cruise,to see ---all the crocs scattered along the banks, a herd of elephants doing river crossings, --all joined together, assisting the little calves through the deeper parts of the water,---it was a magical sight and there was the Hippos, that kept popping their heads up for an eyeball or occasionally a big teeth showing and to top that all off was the sunset,---but over the water , yet another unparalleled African photo opportunity!!!!

Who knows what was going on under the water??

Then the next morn by 6.05am all seven 4x4’s headed out of the campground and drove towards the gates of The Chobe National Park, and from here, after the National Park meat inspections, all out of the vehicles to step in the Veterinary Foot and Mouth disease shoe disinfecting pads, and with our tyre pressures all adjusted, our 9.15 hour 4x4 convoy, on the single lane sand road, ----from Kasane to Khwai on the edge of The Okavango Delta------headed by our trusty and highly methodical leader Riaan and his co-pilot Annelien,---we began our Sub-Saharan 4 wheel driving expedition, to the blazing bright African sunrise!

It was a hard day in parts, requiring 100% concentration, often alongside swamp, wood and marsh lands, often having to all pull over to let other convoys go by in the other direction, average speed being 28.8 kph.
After 4 hrs 10mins driving time we had all achieved a successful river crossing at Savute, which was in perfect timing per our target and lunch break, this allowed all the Landy team to discuss the merits of their crossing in comparison to the Cruiser and the hired Ford’s and us all to have a good stretch.

Our Ipod playing Ben Morrison's and our bag of Chocy eclairs were a great help.

The 2 way Navstar radios were put to good use and were such a great help as we took our Leaders instruction along the way.

Many animals along the way including a carcass of an Elephant that had reached his 60th year - their sixth set of teeth wear out in the end and they can't get enough food and so ends their time and they become part of the circle of life with only the hide left eventually.

But when we pulled into our beautiful, large, Thorn tree shaded and completely unfenced camp, home base for the next 4 nights at the Mogotho Khwai conservancy, we all felt a great sense of achievement and relief that we had all arrived in one piece and in good time.

Next day we just chilled and read our Tony Park novels, such a good thing to do in the bush, in Africa.
By the way,--- while we were just sitting there reading, a few zebra’s, elephants and giraffes, just wandered by,------ !

The highlights of our 4 days was when David and Veronica had spotted a herd of Wild Dogs—all 17 of them, apparently this is a sighting to treasure, as they are very rare and endangered.
And then one morning when Ian and I went out on Safari we got to spend at least an hour having a very up close and personal with 2 lions, so entranced with them, I think we ended up going back to see them at least 3 times.
One very special Nikon down moment, was when one of them, less than 2 metres away, sat up and stared, literally, right into me ----eyeball to eyeball and I do think he was beginning to write his version of a human grocery list.
At that point, Ian wound up the window and we slowly drove off and I took a very deep breath!
It was a moment I will never forget!

We managed to have some quality time,just together and with some of our fellow convoy crew over these few days.

But as with all these trips, everything comes to an end and from here the group would begin to disband and head off towards there own destinations.

The Melbourneites were heading for Aus via Jossie.
The Oberholzers and Veronica and Dave, back home to Jossie.
And we with Tony and Nic and Colleen and Greg would have a night in Maun and then begin our week trip heading towards Sydney. It was time!

We enjoyed our day in Maun, another dusty little frontier Bots town, known as the tourist capital which lies on the southern fringes of the Delta we thought it had a good buzz about it.
Had a quiet last dinner then a good clean out of our chattels and any surplus food stores to Nic and Tony.
Then next morning with Greg and Colleen we took a 45 minute scenic flight over The Okavango Delta, known as the untouched interior of Africa, much of it where no man has ever traversed.
The Delta is situated within The Kalahari Basin and is often referred to as the Jewel in Botswana crown.
Bots has a small population of only 1.7 mill, but with 38% of their land being National Parks the most of it still unfenced allowing the animals to roam free, we actually thought with the Delta, Chobe NP and the Salt pans which we were still to visit, that the whole of Botswana was a jewel, we found the people, open, friendly, with big smiles and happy to be of help.

There was still plenty of water laying in the lagoons of the papyrus fringed Delta and from our flight we spotted plenty of game and endeavored to get a perspective of the enormity and unique ecosystem of the largest intact inland delta in the world.

After our flight we said our farewells to Greg and Colleen, did a high five and headed off on our own again towards home.
Our first stop was at the elusive and rather eclectic Planet Baobab, where these landmark massive 4,000 year old trees surround a resort, our booking was for 3 nights in the resort and one night out on the Makgadikgadi Salt Pan with a visit to see the inimitable Meerkats en route and that we did!!!
Planet B allowed us to lie around the thatched pool cabanas, have the luxury of all meals cooked etc etc it was a quite a treat, but our day/night quad biking to the salt pan, seeing the Meerkats were also special but the highlight of all was our night in the Kalahari desert ,sleeping in only our swags under the stars, surrounded by just miles and miles of white crystallized salt sand, which eventually fuses into the horizon.

Nothing but African Stars and Salt and us in a Swag-----and we slept like babies!!!

And to top it off Corrie drove Ian back to base on the quad bike and he can still walk!

From PB, passing by (and often swerving to miss) our last of roadside donkeys, herds of goats and cattle, it was a one night stopover at Palapye before we crossed the border back into South Africa (passing a troup of Baboons) and then 2 glorious nights in a safari tent in Marakele National Park, time to clean out the 4x4, preparing ourselves for that it was all coming to an end and we were going home.

This was a great little spot with the red colored Waterberg mountain range in the background, completely relaxing, and then with our safari tent overlooking the river, for the whole of the 2 days, the animals would just come to us, baboons, kudos, impalas and elephants and our very favorites the Wort Hogs.
And then after a few wines, we would just snuggle up and listen to the amazing sounds of Africa at night.
Our stop at Pretoria, allowed us just enough time to pop into Sandton, South Africa's newest and most up market shopping center, quite a showpiece and yet another quite contrasting slice of South Africa.

Next day we somehow managed to get ALL our belongings into our trusty 29er backpacks and then high 5’d on how well they and us had traveled for the last 3 1/2 months.

The highlights??-------How could we say,there have been so many!!! But, we both agree,------- it was definitely the trip of our life time and one day soon we will go back to Africa, we are hooked, we love the place, the people and most of all the animals!!!!

God bless and love to you all until we travel again and thanks for traveling along with us, we enjoyed your companionship as you commented or Emailed us along the way, C and I xxxx

P.S. Click on page 2 in the bar below for viewing all the photos.

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Comments

[Julie Blockley]

Fantastic
Wow what a trip. Hadn't had time to catch this last blog. Looked amazing - hard to settle back after that!!! Have to talk to you about the rooftop camper to find out how it worked for you.