"And how are you today?" asks the nice man as he climbs out of his Land Cruiser safari truck. These Botswanans are so polite! Every interaction begins with such a greeting. Normally, I'm all for niceties and chatting up the locals. Right now however, I'm standing calf deep in the middle of a swamp, next to our stranded truck trying to figure out how to get us out of the hole my tires dropped into. We left the South Africans less than an hour ago and we're already stranded! Amazingly, we've driven nearly an hour without seeing another vehicle yet within 30 seconds of our water stranding, up pulls a truck. "I've been better," I respond to the man. "You think you could give us a pull?" I have our tow rope out in an instant as our water saviour pulls his truck in front of ours. Quick with the bolts, back in the truck, a little tug and we're back on dry land. Whew! Close one...
Both paths through the short water crossing look the same distance, both have tire tracks going in an coming out. "How do you know which track to choose?" baby asks the nice man. "Oh, we drive on the left here so we tend to choose the path on the left," he replies matter-of-factly. That's great I think, but what do the people going in the other direction do?
As we put away the tow ropes and thank the guy who pulled us out, the convoy of South Africans pull up. "Nice day for a swim?" jokes Morgan. He knows immediately what's happened. "How do you know which path to take?" I ask Morgan. "You don't, but if you don't see somebody else go first, you could get out and walk it first," he says. Ahh, now that answer makes more sense.
So back into the South African convoy we pull. We're all on our way to Savuti in the Chobe National Park. Our new friends have been extremely welcoming and have invited us to come join them at their reserved Savuti Campsite. "Besides" jokes one of them, "it's probably safer for all of us if you don't stray too far!" They all have 2-way radios and have been cracking jokes for the last hour about the Americans not being able to spend 60 minutes alone without getting into trouble. We stop for a quick lunch along the way and the SA organizational prowess shows itself again. This is a group of 15 without us and in just 5 minutes, tables are out, tuna's on the table and everybody's eating. There's a group of bull elephants across a field and Morgan and Andy tell us that here, outside Moremi, people hunt the elephants so they tend to be a bit more on edge. We're keeping an eye out but they keep their distance. Within 15 minutes, we're back on the road. With the SA's delay getting out of Xakanaxa and our stranding we're now way behind schedule. We pull out and Andy waves me past into the number 4 position where he can keep an eye on us. Only later did I learn that their radio chatter decided we didn't have time for another American off-road episode.
We enter Chobe about 3:30pm but still have a long way to go to get to our camp at Savuti. Morgan convinces the gate guard that we'll drive fast and make it before dark. But midway up we decide to take the long way as the Sand Ridge road is, well, sandy. Darkness comes fast and the wind dies completely. We're driving on what seems like bumpy chalk and every vehicle throws up a huge cloud of dust. We're still #4 so if we get within 1km of the truck in front of us, it's as if we're driving in thick fog. We're very spread out and moving slow. It's way past dark now. The wind picks up and we're able to move closer. We bunch up, round a corner and out of nowhere, a cheetah chases a hare straight into Roy's truck. We think the hare chose the less painful path and purposely dove into Roy's tires. Roy's in the #2 spot so everyone behind has a great view of one very bewildered cheetah and one very dead hare. Too cool!
We drive on a bit and come across a big, proud male lion lying alongside the road. We shine our lights for a few seconds, then proceed on to camp arriving about 7:30pm. Of course, somebody is in the campsite Morgan had reserved. All is good though. Camp 7 which he had reserved is not on the river bed. He wants campsite 2 and takes the opportunity to negotiate what he really wants. After a bit of haggling and arranging, the campsite is up, the kids are cutting firewood and the adults are preparing dinner. Efficiency at it's finest! We do what we can to help set up but feel very much like we're taking advantage of this great hospitality. After dinner, we offer to do dishes but Debbie shoos us away saying dishes are kid's work. We pull out a bottle of wine, the group pulls out a case. And on it goes like this.
The next day, we're off on a game drive. Once again it's divide and conquer. Andy's leading Roy, while Clinton and I are following Morgan. Unlike Moremi, Chobe is very dry and very sandy. The only watering hole for miles is a man-fed pool where the animals go to drink. Despite our cheetah and lion the night before, Chobe turns out to be all about elephants. They rule the watering hole and there's always one or two nearby. We head out away from the watering hole in search of other game and five minutes out I'm stuck in the sand. It is so deep, the front of the car is buried nearly to the radiator. I pull out the traction mats but it's not enough so Morgan comes around to pull me out. Cameron, Morgan and Kim's son, explains that it's because we're in a Toyota while they're driving Land Rovers. Once again the radio chatter starts up. The 4 SA's trucks have now become "ARVs"... American Recovery Vehicles. I protest that it was one of them stranded the first time we met. Then later the same day when we got stuck after leaving them at lunch, we pulled ourselves out without help. And at the swamp crossing it was somebody else who rescued us. This was really the first time they officially rescued us. So we're tied at 1:1. My protests go nowhere. We're still the silly Americans who need looking after.
We spend two lovely days with our new friends at Savuti and are leaving them the next day to head to Linyanti, further north in the park. The Steinacker's are in Savuti and are also headed for Linyanti so we decide to drive up together in the morning. The South Africans are worried about letting us go but when I tell them we're driving up with our German friends, Cameron tells us, "You'll be OK. They have a Land Rover." For our last evening, we head out to the watering hole to watch the elephants and drink our sundowners, then head back to camp to enjoy one more lovely South African prepared meal while. once again, we do absolutely nothing. "God I hope the Germans can cook!" I joke...
The next morning, we say our goodbyes, promise to meet back up in Kasane in two days time and head off with the Steinackers. Our drive to Linyanti, while very sandy, is fairly uneventful. We arrive in Linyanti where there are three campsites. We greet the nice Swiss family in campsite 1 and settle ourselves in camp 2. We set up camp, break out lunch and marvel at the amazing views our camp has to offer. Linyanti lies on the northern edge of Chobe Natl Park on a beautiful river. Our campsite is riverfront and just behind us are hippo trails into the water. We're very remote so we're hoping for more great wildlife experiences for the night. MIdway through lunch, the ranger shows up, and tells us that, while we do have a reservation, we don't have one of the real campsites reserved. We need to move to the reserve campsite. We tell him we'll move after lunch but then decide we'll wait until someone actually shows up to claim campsite 2. After an hour or so, the Steinackers head out for an afternoon bush walk and within minutes, baby and I hear children shrieking and a man yelling. I jump in the truck to go rescue our friends, only to find the noises we're hearing are the local baboons reeking havoc. I'm amazed these blood curdling noises have come from the baboons. I happen to pass by the reserve camp on my rescue mission and see the site we're supposed to move to. It looks like a refugee camp. There are a dozen tents and as many trucks. No way we're moving here!
About 4pm, baby and I head off on a game drive and see another first. Off in the distance, we spot a single bull elephant. I take a quick look through the binocs, hand them to baby and ask her, "tell me how many legs you see on that elephant." Baby looks and says nothing for a few seconds. She looks again and say "Oh my god!" Yep, our first 5-legged elephant! Too far away for pictures, but trust me, I was even impressed and a little envious.
We drive a bit further and get stopped by the same ranger that told us we had to move... Shit. "We have a problem," he tells us. Great, we're getting kicked out of the park... Instead, he says, "Our truck is broken and we need to turn off our water pump which is 2km down the road." I smile and say, "We'd be happy to give you a ride." No truck means no kicking us out of campsite 2! So we keep our lovely view site, have a great night with the Steinackers, complete with Stockbrot by fire, then wake up the next morning and head for Kasane. On the way out, we decide that while Lanyanti was very sparse on wildlife, it was remote and beautiful and definately worth the drive.
As we reach the tarred road to Kasane, we're a bit sad to be leaving the bush for civilization, but after nearly four weeks in the truck and tent, it's nice to know we're heading for a resort and a nice dinner outing with our friends from South Africa... A perfect chance to get our laundry done, sleep in a cozy bed and clean out all the nooks and crannies. The last two weeks in Moremi and Chobe have been simply amazing. It's a good time to get back to reality and reflect on the amazing experience we've had over the last couple weeks.
SEE THE PHOTOS
