Day 13 – Kasanka, Zambia

We didn't have to cook breakfast this morning as we went to the restaurant and had a slap up full English breakfast. (Gosh dinner and breakfast I am being spoilt and could get used to it) No cooking, no washing up, oh boy a trip like this really makes you appreciate the comforts of home.

We set off at about 8am without Ken and Rouvierre, they hadn't arrived from their Kabwe stay yet so we decided just to push on and let them catch up with us. They are so much quicker than us so it was better for us to leave. We didn't have too far to go but we wanted to get into Kasanka early. Ernest and I had visited the park about 15 years ago and really loved it and we only had the afternoon and one day there so we wanted to make the most of it.

We had about 220 kilometers and then some 49 K’s inside the park till we reached the campsite. We were on the great North road and got behind a rather mad tanker driver who paved the way for us, he was obviously empty and was high tailing it back to Dar Es Salaam. Ernest figured that nobody would mess with him so we just sat on his tail and went like hell.

We arrived at about 12pm and when we signed in, the campsite that we wanted was apparently already occupied so they sent us to one way the other side of the park. Trying to navigate our way down this very narrow road between huge trees was quite harrowing. Again Ernest of course never slowed down so it was a case of " wow that was close" or Ernest's favorite when I said that he had missed some tree by inches his standard reply is "well I missed it didn't I". They obviously don't have many trucks our size in this park and when we arrived at the camp site we had about a foot deep of leaves and branches on the roof. When Ken and Rouvierre arrived they said we had left a whole heap of broken branches in the road behind us.

At one point we had to cross over a newly built bridge, it was very narrow and had huge rebar spikes sticking up along the edge of the bridge on either side. We had to cross with Steve directing Ernest and I kid you not we had a Max of 4 inches on either side or one of the spikes would have gone through the tire. My head was hanging out one side and Steve was on the bridge going, left, now right, now straight, little left etc. that was some good driving and good directing.

After navigating the bridge, we went for another kilometer and then the bush just closed in and there was no way we were going to get through, it was just too thick for the truck, so we got Kim to turn around and go back across the bridge and ask if we could camp at the campsite there, maybe we could squeeze in somewhere close by (which is where we were last time) as it turns out the best site was available right there and the Park warden arrived to help direct us in under the trees. We had to re-cross that dam bridge, inch by inch. We then camped under the most beautiful Red Mahogany trees that are absolutely huge and just so majestic, we estimated that they are at least 35 meters high and a huge canopy of beautiful red leaves.

The trouble seemed to be that the elephants had pushed down a few trees and so they had had to close down some of the other sites. The communications are not too good here so at the main gate they just thought the whole camp was closed. This park is run by a private trust and is not a national park. They rely totally on donations from overseas and so run on a very limited budget.

Kasanka is famous for its bat population. They arrive in the reserve in October and leave again for the DRC in January. Unfortunately there were none here at the moment, but when they do arrive there are apparently up to ten million of them that arrive and feed on the berries from the Water berry trees. Can you imagine seeing eight million bats, and they are the big fruit bats with a wing span of 800 mm, so it must be a sight to behold. There is a forest of about 440 hectares where they roost and then go out and feed over an area of 50 kilometers. They fly out high up at night and come back low obviously heavy after feeding. There is no guano around as they burn up everything that they consume.

 We settled in for the afternoon in the most delightful campsite overlooking the river and a huge thick reed bed that stretches for 100 meters and then opens out into large grassland where there are tons of Bushbuck and Puku out grazing in the soft evening light. That evening we had a special sighting of a Sitatonga and her baby, they are apparently often sighted in this spot. She came out onto the grassland; the baby played around for a bit and then disappeared again into the reeds.

These are such rare animals, very shy and they only come out in the evening and early morning, as soon as the sun hits their backs they disappear into the reeds and can't be seen. I was surprised at how dark and fluffy their coats are but that is because they spend a lot of time in the water.

The camp is really rustic, a long drop that is not easy to confront and a shower built of reeds, a concrete base and a bucket that the camp boys fill with hot water. Two great guys that sweep and keep the area clean, make the fires and keep up a supply of hot water which they ferry down from their camp which is about 50 meters up the road. They use their bicycle to carry the heavy buckets back and forth, good old Chinese bikes that you see everywhere in Africa. We did go for a short walk along the edge of the river as far as the bridge before it started to get dark.

We each threw a coin into the water and made our wishes which is, as I have said before a real Ernest fetish. The camp guys were a little upset with us and said we were not allowed to go wondering around as there are wild animals and we could get into trouble. I must admit we could hear the hippos grunting not far off so I suppose they were right and we did go quickly back to camp like good children especially as we didn't want another hippo chasing us again.

Until tomorrow, signing off!

PS More photos will be uploaded as soon as Fritz & Ronel gets back to South Africa.

Day 12 - Kafue, Zambia

More photos coming soon!

Rouvierre and Ken left early this morning to go and spend the night with her Nephew. She does not often get to see him so this was a good opportunity to have a little time with him. So we sent them off with a shopping list of all the fruit and veg that we needed them to stock up with - they bade a fond farewell to the guys that will be leaving tomorrow and off they went. We will meet up with them tomorrow on our way through Kabwe.

Today was a seriously lazy and quiet day. Fritz went off as usual to go and do his fishing. This time promising to bring back an edible fish. The rest of us had a good breakfast and then just sat around chatting and talking about some of our great experiences. Ronell got going with her packing as she had to move out of the truck and into Kobus and Sonja's car as they are traveling back to SA with them tomorrow.

Ernest then decided that we should all go for a walk along-side the river so after gathering everyone together off we set. We did it quietly as Patrick had told us we were not allowed to wonder off on our own but being the rebels we are we sneaked past the lodge and clambered over rocks etc along the side of the river. I was lagging back a bit because I was phoning Warwick to get Camlyn's progress in the SA snow skiing Championships that she was taking part in. What a contrast, here were Ernest and I walking along the African river in the sweltering heat looking out for wild animals like lion or leopard or hippos and she was  skiing down the mountain in snow and freezing cold. How bizarre is that!

Anyway I was trying to get what Warwick was saying as the Sat Phone was breaking up and I was losing the line at the same time as there was a real commotion going on around me to which I wasn't paying too much attention. Warwick was saying she's in......and I didn't know if she was in, injured or in first. Well it turned out she had won, and I am jumping up and down with excitement and joy when I found that everyone around me was also jumping around but for a different reason. 

Ronel had gone on ahead to find the path, had got down close to a little green patch next to the water and had not been paying attention to her surroundings, she had her attention on where the pathway is going and if us bunch of geriatrics could make it through. Well she just caught the movement of the hippo out of the corner of her eye as he came out of the water right next to her and started charging. She said that she was less than three meters away from this ten ton Tessa when she started to run and then when she looked back he was still coming. She tried to climb back up the large rock behind her, slipped and fell backwards into a big hole. All she could think about was that the hippo couldn't get to her in the hole but I am not so sure that was true. Anyway she hit her head on the way down but fortunately wasn't too badly hurt. Ernest, who was standing on top of this large rock said all he saw was Ronel's head popping over the top of the rock and then all of a sudden she disappeared again. Even though she was shouting hippo, he thought that a lion had got her and pulled her back down. He tried to get to her but Andria was standing between him and where Ronel had disappeared and Andria was just standing there in sort of a shock. Anyway as it happened the hippo wasn't too serious about pressing on with his attack - he obviously lost interest once Ronel disappeared down the hole so he wondered back to the grassy patch and started eating. By this time Ernest had retrieved Ronel and retreated back to where we had been standing safely out of reach.

Steve and I then crept back over the rock to see if we could see this naughty hippo and sure enough he had retreated back to his grassy patch and took no notice of us. Everyone else climbed down as well to admire our very large beautiful hippo who proceeded to take absolutely no notice of us what so ever.  We were all very weary however as he could re-start his charge at any time. We as humans do love pictures so we spent the next half hour taking photos of us all with the hippo in the background.....hell they are really big and he even gave us a display of opening his big mouth and showing us his teeth.

We then quietly crept back to the lodge, sat in the lounge and never told them about the hippo charge. Fritz was a little shaken when we told him. He chastised Ronel saying " the foooo.... thing could have killed you" talk about stating the obvious!

We spent a great evening around the fire, gave Ernest all his presents and sang his praises and happy birthday even though his birthday was only the next day. The others wanted to celebrate the event with him and tomorrow we will be at Forest Inn and they will hopefully get to Livingston.

I gave Ernest a very powerful torch so we can now see how many crocs are in that river and all the other stuff around us that we couldn't see before. Fritz will download some of the pictures in the next few days so we can share those with you.

Signing out!

Day 11 - Kafue, Zambia

My gosh it is hard to believe we have been going for ten days already and it is nearly time for our four guys to turn around and go home. We have now traveled 2635 kilometers and this is our third day in Kafue National Park and we will be staying one more day before we leave. We were only going to stay two days in this camp, Mayukuyu (try and say that one out loud), and then move up to McBride’s Camp for the other two, which is far north of us but still inside the Park, however Ernest learnt from other campers here when he was doing his scouting rounds that the road was so bad and the trees so thick and low that we would not have gotten through with the truck. So, we decided just to stay put and not move. It was a well-deserved few days of doing nothing but the activities of this park, after pushing up here and driving the 2000 odd Ks.

The four that joined for a short time, Sonja and Kobus and Ronell and Fritz, will turn around and head back for Lusaka the day after tomorrow and then back to SA via Vic falls. We on the other hand will keep heading north and will stop off in Kabwe where Rouvierre’s nephew works as a missionary. 

In the morning the guys that didn't go on our marathon game drive of last night, went on a game drive and the other 8 split up, four going on a boat trip this morning and four going this afternoon. The water level in the river is dropping and so they don't want too many on the boat at once even though it is a fairly big boat and can take about 10 people at a time.

The guys on the game drive drove for about a kilometer and saw a lion, and then another two Ks saw another two lions plus stacks of general game. The guys on the boat saw a leopard come down to the water to drink, then a lion so it looks like our very bad game drive of the night before was really an unusual thing..... Oh well, we saw one of the little five, they saw two of the big five, that is the luck of the draw. There are no Rhino in this park, they were shot out some time back as is the case in most of the African reserves other than SA which are now being put under huge pressure as you know; but they do apparently have lots of Elephants, lion, leopards and some Buffalo. The bush is pretty dry at the moment and the rainy season only starts in October. Our guide was telling us that the river drops so low that from next month the river, although still about 200 meters wide, will not be navigable by the end of the month.

Fritz, Ronel, Ernest and I did the evening run down the river; it was a wonderful relaxing activity even though we never saw lion or leopard. The river is about 200 meters wide and lined with Water-berry trees. The water has washed away the soil and exposed this network of a gnarled root system that almost looks prehistoric.  The river is full of hippos that bob up and down as you slowly chug past driven by Stanley - our tracker of the night before. Our guide was Harold (pronounced Errrrrrowl, or something like that quite unpronounceable) a guy with very sharp eyes who is constantly scanning for birds and animals. We went up a little tributary which is his birding spot only to be confronted by two mother hippos with fairly small babies on their backs, very cute as long as you don't get too close and as this part of the river was fairly narrow and our guide thought it prudent to withdraw and forsake seeing some of the birds he expected to show us- the Pels Fishing owl for one, so the four of us were not having much luck. Anyway we blamed it all on Fritz as all he was interested in was doing some fishing.

So the drinks stop was spent with a fishing line in the water with a worm on the hook. Fritz had convinced the camp helper to go get him some worms from somewhere. He did catch two little fish during the stop, the strangest looking fish, it was like a mini shark with a leopard print skin and they called it a squeaker. Apparently it has poisonous spikes so it had to be very carefully taken off the hook and thrown back into the river and during this entire process it did squeak like a baby’s’ squeaker toy. It was certainly aptly named.

The river has huge rocks in it and every now and again the prop would hit one of these underwater rocks and we would all cringe at the thought of the repairs. Of course the sun set over the water was the highlight of the cruise and a good compromise for not seeing too many animals. We are lucky that we are able to see game in the Manyeleti but we never see the sun setting from the river like that. It was a big round red ball the size of a soccer ball and the photos we got will tell the story of this beautiful peaceful scene.

We had a wonderful evening around the fire with Kobus singing on his guitar and all of us feeling a little nostalgic as the group will be splitting up in two days’ time and our time together is drawing to a close. 

However we still have a lot to look forward to and the ones that are leaving will follow our progress on the blog. 
Until tomorrow, good night over and out!

Day 10 - Kafue, Zambia

Last night as we arrived and started setting up camp, cooking dinner, putting the ground sheets down, putting the chairs out etc., Ernest was already on his rounds around the other camp sites to find out who was there, where they came from, what age were they and what was their philosophy in life. Anyone who knows Ernest will know I am telling the truth. He then arrives back and tells us all their life history while we are sitting around the fire.

One guy was only 60 and had just said “bugger it,” left his house for a year and has just been wondering around for the last two months. Another bunch next door to us, were a group of young kids on a missionary exchange from England. They had finished their stint in some Lusaka mission station and decided to come up to Kafue for a few days before heading home. They had very little to eat, in-fact onion and couscous, one plate between them and one little pot and a knife and a spoon. So we adopted some orphan Annie's there. There were some Swiss guys etc. etc. etc. Ernest always says that his basic purpose in life is an “Adventurer” but I think he has got it wrong, it is an “Entertainer.” So we all agreed we will compromise and call him an “Entertaining Adventurer.”

We had a great big Hippo right next to the back of the truck; he came visiting just as I decided to get some water out the back tap. I thought about it afterwards and realized that I could have just ducked under the back bumper if it had come for me but it really wasn't very interested in any of us and probably walks past this campsite every night at the same time.

Our dear Piza arrived early and took our piles of washing away with him, there was so much that he didn't reappear for the whole day, my gosh it was so meticulously washed and ironed I felt like I was back in Joburg. You have no idea how dirty everything gets out here, especially the dishcloths. Last night someone was drying with one of the unwashed ones and she just looked at it and said

"oh well just close your eyes and pretend it is brand sparking new and clean and who the hell know the difference.”

Ernest and I then went off to go find the owners of the campsite; we had got very muddled as we thought the owner was a friend of AK's. AK is a guide who is now working for us at Safari but spent years in this neck of the woods running fishing lodge on the Zambezi. We found the owner but his name was Patrick.  He is a local from Zambia who started the camp from the word dot (as he kept saying), he built the whole place himself and was very enthusiastic about his future plans - build this, change that, move this, what a delightful man with a very broad smile and a great sense of humor.

It appeared that AKs friend managed one of the other lodges so we took Kobus's car and off we went to try and track them down. The first lodge we went to was a very run down little place run by an old guy, who was practically blind, and his daughter.  On we moved, the second place we found, we hit the jackpot. Lynda had however gone to Lusaka for the day but Jacque was there, a good old Freestate boytjie. Ernest and I had camped at this lodge 12 years ago when we were here with Mark and Jacqui, now they no longer have campsites so that is obviously why we weren't booked in there as we thought we had been.

It hadn't changed much in 15 years except for their resident hippo, Bob, who wonders into the lodge when he is feeling lonely. He has apparently been doing this since he was four months old, he obviously had lost his mother and the lodge was a safe place for him away from predators etc.

We were all set for a game drive in the lodge vehicle in the afternoon. It is a real pain to put down the tents etc, much easier to go with their vehicle. We had to split up though as the game drive vehicle could only fit 8 and the boat could fit a Max of 4. So three went boating and 8 headed for the bush with Patrick as our guide. We had sent Fritz to check on the sundowner site - should we take our own drinks or were there drinks on the vehicle. He came back saying there were drinks but he didn't recommend the Gilby’s if we wanted a G&T as it tasted pretty weird. So we packed our own and climbed onto the oldest Land Cruiser that is still going on planet earth.

Oh my gosh it was a '80s something model but in great condition and obviously well loved by Patrick. The seats were the most uncomfortable ones I have ever sat in on a game drive and we would be shot in SA if we had that standard of cruiser but here it is totally acceptable and with three up per seat I felt a little like an egg sandwich with me the eggie in the middle and Ernest and Fritz the bread on either side--a pretty squashed sandwich at that.

When I asked Patrick when we would be back he said about 9.... Ha ha I thought he was joking!!!

Anyway off we set like a bunch of sandwiches and for the first half of the drive we had a wonderful time, we saw stacks of general game and interesting birds, we stopped at the most idealic spot for sundowners, overlooking the water and in view of about thirty hippos who just got closer and closer. They are very curious animals and really started to give us a wonderful display of opening their mouths and grunting.  The sunset was spectacular and out came Patrick with his drinks. Fritz says Ernest and I are too polite as I just couldn't pull out our own drinks so we had their Gilbys and tonic. Well there was either something very wrong with the Gilby’s (which Ken says they make from Bananas) or there was something very wrong with the tonic. Oh my god it was awful but that will teach us for trying to be polite.

Well the whole thing went downhill from there, we saw literally nothing from then on and he was not joking about the 9 o'clock bit. It got colder and colder, Stanley the tracker resorted to standing up to try and see over the long grass and after a while we were all sure he was fast asleep just swinging  the torch from side to side with a  mechanical arm. I don't even think he was turning his head, just swinging the light back and forth. Kobus and Sonja were huddled up in the front trying to cover themselves with blankets. Me as the egg sandwich was probably the best off as I had two warm bodies on either side of me.... And all we saw was an Elephant Shrew. My gosh it was a moment when we saw this little thing running down the road and he gave us quite a show too, what excitement we had seen one of the" little" five. To be fair you sometimes do get game drives like that when the game just disappears and it was no fault of our two guys in the front who were trying their best.

That night around the fire talking about our game drive was the highlight of the day, each guy giving their version of how they did on the drive and the elephant shrew! We were all convinced that the land cruiser was going to give up the ghost and my bum was so numb I couldn't even feel it by the time we got off the car. Amazing what you can find funny when you are so totally relaxed and on holiday.

We spent another night around the fire, the boys (men) singing and relaxing. We only got to bed at 11.30, our latest night yet after the long cold game drive. To be fair to Patrick he really tried to find us something and he has huge knowledge of the bush which even impressed Fritz.

We awarded the Blond bimbo award to Steve today. While we were sitting around the fire he excitedly showed two big round things to Fritz and asked him if they were vegetable Ivory. Fritz looked at it and said " no Steve those are the Avo pips that the girls through into the bush!!! He did have the grace to blush!

Signing off!

Day 9 – Kafue, Zambia

Rouvierre and Ken chose to take a room in the little lodge last night which turned out to be a wise choice, we were in the car park which had very bright lights so we felt we were sunbathing all night and on top of that we had some mozzies that got into our net and that is something that makes me a little neurotic especially when I am in Malaria city. There I was sitting up in the middle of the night trying to swat the dam things with Ernest going "oh for god sake not every mozzie carries malaria....” That is too much for me as then I wanted to throttle him too.

So morning arrived none too soon for me and I was very envious of Ken and Rouvierre and their mozzie net and comfortable bed. The first thing we had to do is go and find a bank to try and draw money as none of our ATM cards were working at the border plus I needed to get a card for my I-pad as my SA internet card was not working. That would mean I couldn't get any blogs through until we left Zambia in 10 days time. In addition the guys at our Green view lodge would not take Dollars or Rands or a credit card - only Kwatcha - so  Rouvierre, Kobus and I went off to town and the others had to stay put until we came back with the money, we could have made a run for it as there was no gate at the entrance but he would never have believed we would return and pay our bill.

We finally left at 8.30 and found a thing that looked like a bank where Kobus changed his dollars. The lady behind the counter got herself in a state as her machine wouldn't work so she had to write down every bill number and then had only 20 Kwatcha notes. Kobus's pockets were bulging with notes which put us off changing any more there, so Rouvierre and I decided to see if we could draw money out of our credit cards and were told the only banks that would do that would be Barclays or Standard National and they were at the circle wherever the hell that was.

Next stop was the MTN shop. We had to try and find someone who could either figure out how to get my internet card going or buy a new one from Zambia. Well that was harder than you would imagine as every second shop actually sells phone cards but nobody knows how to put it in the I-Pad or get it working. We eventually found what they call a service provider who sold us a card which we registered in Kobus' name as the two dumb blonds had forgotten to take their passports with us. I must say once we found this little guy in the " official MTN shop" then things started to go a bit smoother. They first had to register the new card, then cut it to fit the I-pad, then put airtime onto it. With each of these processes we had to take the card, put it in someone else's phone, then back into the I-pad then back to someone else's phone and after more than an hour I suddenly got connection and I could send the blog. “Eureka” we had connection again and hopefully cheaper than before.

Now to try and find a bank with an ATM that would accept our cards...in Mongu that is not an easy feat. First one had a queue of 17 people, second one didn't work, just blank, third one had a pair of hands in it. You get quite a shock when you walk up to put your card in and suddenly there are a pair of hands the other side of the glass. It was a little like candid camera where that hand kept picking up the phone every time it rang. We both got a hell of a fright and then of course got the giggles. So off to the next one which again wasn't working. Finally we decided to skip the ATM run and go for the bank.

First one had a queue of 20 people, all with huge bags of money to deposit in front of us, next one was even worse and then at last we found one with only 5 other people in it. Finally it was our turn and we handed over our dollars. The very young little girl on the other side said, "ID please" Rouvierre handed over her ID book. She said that she wanted a copy of her ID book, so we said go ahead and make one, she said "the photocopy machine she is broke". By this time we start to see the comedy of the whole thing so Rouvierre asked her where are we supposed to get a copy from. She said there was a cafe over the road where we could get a copy. So off we went over the road which is presently under construction and it was like trying to cross a building site with piles of sand and half done tar, only to find that the photocopier over the road " she is broke also."

They sent us around to the back of the building where there was a little hole in the wall where a guy had a little shop. On the walls were all these posters saying God is great and you are so lucky to be alive today and guess what? He had a photocopy machine. So Rouvierre made three copies just I case and off we went back to the bank. The little girl behind the counter, with not a smile on her face started to fill in the forms (forms are very important here and are meticulously filled in) she then went off and spoke to someone else, came back again and said she couldn't find the necessary information off Rouvierre's ID doc. Then she decided she didn't need ID, she needed a passport. This was no longer a comedy it was turning into a tragedy. So off we went to Kobus who was patiently sitting in the car waiting for us, hauled him off to the "god bless you shop" and got a copy of his Passport (he had been clever enough to bring his) by now it was well past 11am and the others at the campsite had thought we had been mugged and high jacked.

 

So after lots of paperwork we eventually changed the money we needed and we were off back to the camp. The rest of the gang were waiting for us but getting quite anxious as we still had a fair distance to go to get to our next campsite inside Kafue. We set off to try and find the museum which gives the story of the Barotse planes and the Lozi people, a history that Ernest was very anxious to pass on. We were told it was 6 Km’s down the road but couldn't find it so gave up, a bit too quickly I think, but we figured we could just tell them the story and leave the museum for another time.

The story of the Barotse planes and the Lozi people is that every year  sometime early in December when the rain from Angola comes down, the  Zambezi breaks it’s banks and floods the whole plane. The King who lives on the planes in winter then decides when his subjects may move onto higher ground around Mongu. He has his drummers drum out the signal and then moves himself dressed in his British Admiral uniform in a boat rowed by 100 paddlers. A very majestic affair. Years ago when Rhodes was trying to annex Africa for the British Empire, he had presented the Lozi King with an Admirals uniform from the British Navy. Every new king since then has been presented with a new Admirals uniform by the Queen of England (or whatever monarch is on the thrown at the time). This sort of keeps a close alliance between the Lozi and the Brits.  You can see each successive uniform on display in the museum, from the real ornate Nelson type uniform with the Nelson's tasseled hat down to what the admiral of the British Empire would wear today.

So, as I say we gave the Museum a miss and headed our noses towards Kafue. As always in Africa you never know what to expect, the roads so far have been excellent, even the dirt ones but this road was absolutely atrocious. It was so broken up and full of pot holes and bumps, the poor old truck literally took off two or three times. There were quite unexpected dips across the road which were difficult to see and we suddenly found ourselves sailing through the air.

I had not planned to stop for lunch as we should have been at Kafue at about two thirty so I thought we could just have a snack when we arrived and then an early dinner. However my husband kept on making remarks over the radio about how he enjoyed the great hamburgers at Mongu, “wise arse.” That of course got everyone thinking of their stomachs. Anyway the complaints about being hungry started to get quite loud by 3.30 so I eventually had to give up trying to make them all diet and we stopped on the side of the road for a snack. I always love watching these guys tuck into the food, large mounds of food literally disappear but then I suppose there are 6 very hungry men.

Eventually we arrived at the camp by 5pm, only to find that we were a day early and so couldn't get the camp site that we had book on the riverside, nevertheless they did fit us into a site a little back from the river which was also delightful. It is a really lovely place, great ablutions, a wonderful camp helper called Piza (like the Leaning Tower or the food) and a huge fire to make our evening special.

Tomorrow we will move onto the riverside and have a few restful days recovering from our long drives so far.

Until tomorrow!

Day 8 – Mongu, en-route to Kafue, Zambia

We woke early as we were aiming to get right through to Kafue by this evening. Had a quick breakfast and then a quick walk to the falls as Ernest and Ken hadn't seen them last night. Fritz arrived back from his early morning fishing trip with a beautiful Tiger fish.... This time he didn't throw it back as nobody believed him when he said he caught one yesterday.

He had walked a bit further than we had gone yesterday and had managed to get a whole different view of different cataracts of the falls, so we decided to follow his instructions and go a little further. Wow!  is all I can say, the falls are quite magnificent and there are apparently 5 different cataracts and we managed to see three. Looking at the falls made me think of the pictures that we have at Safari lodge painted by Thomas Baines. He was a 19th century painter that traveled Africa and one of our suites, in fact the Presidential Suite, is named after him. Looking at the mist rising from the falls and the haze that sits over the whole scene gives the same atmosphere that he has captured in his paintings.

 We got back to camp to find most of the clearing up had been done and after talking to the camp manager who told us there were some camp sites in Mongu, we decided to take the pressure off and go for Mongu today instead of trying to make it all the way through to Kafue. So we sent the rest of the group off to the same point to view the falls, with strict instructions not to swim in the river.... Who knows what these dumb a...ses will get up to!  Just for insurance we sent Fritz off with them to be their guide.

We also had to swop the batteries from our truck (a small spare one) to Ken’s car as his had conked and so his fridge wasn't working properly. That is the drinks fridge and absolutely ESSENTIAL, now that it is getting hot and we have caught the colonial fever of a G and T before dinner every night.

We eventually set off for the ferry which is about 10 Km down the road. We were warned it could be a bit of a slow process but we didn't bargain for just how slow it was. There was a bus in front of us which had to go first and then us. The river is about 500 meters wide and the old ferry has a real slow chug chug motor. Quite scary in fact especially watching them load the bus and seeing how unsteady it actually was. Oh well I suppose they do this every day and the operators look like they know what they are doing. The only thing they don't tell you is how many cars/busses/ trucks that they have dunked into the river. We looked but didn't see too many wrecks on the side of the river so it is a case of close your eyes and hold thumbs.

 

While we were waiting we blew up one of the soccer balls that we have brought up for when we come across kids. What a hit, Fritz and Steve landed up playing with the kids for at least 30 minutes. The look of sheer joy on their faces as they saw the ball and realize it was for them is just the most fantastic sight to see. These children have so little and one small thing that we take so for granted will bring joy for months to come. It is rather like the bottle in that movie  "The gods must be crazy" except this is something they can all play with, it's something that brings a team together as you can hardly play ball by yourself and enjoy it. They sure know what to do with it and maybe we have even spawned a famous soccer player of the future.

Eventually it was our turn to load onto the ferry, two cars, Kim and Kobus went up front then our big  “blunderbuss” and then they tried to get Ken onto the back but it just wouldn't fit so they had to wait for the next round. A round trip there and back takes about 40 minutes so it was a long wait and we eventually got away at about 1pm. Thank goodness we weren't trying for Kafue as we would never have made it before dark. Ernest has one very strict rule in Africa, NEVER drive after dark. While getting onto the ferry Rouvierre was driving their car! Oh my gosh she nearly backed into Ernest and then missed another car by inches with us all shouting at her. She had her fake cigarette in her mouth and looked like a real colonial princess. She was a real candidate for the blond bimbo of the week but she was piped by someone else who I will get to later.

Being on that ferry is quite an experience, there are two motors, one on either side of the boat. One of them blows out so much black smoke it looks like it will blow up any minute and the guy has to keep pouring water into the radiator which he scoops out of the river. Sonja was just saying she wondered what the contingency plan was if  the engine failed. I don't think they had one and the scary thing is that half a kilometer down the river is the falls. If the engine failed the best thing you could do would be to grab one of the few life jackets that are strapped to the railings, jump overboard and swim like hell and hope a croc didn't take you on the way to the shore if you made it before the falls. To hell with the cars, they would go over the falls and maybe you could retrieve some of your stuff at the other end but I doubt it. It was comforting to know that we were all fully insured.

Anyway needless to say we made it to the other side, drove off and had to wait out the next 40 minutes till Ken and Rouvierre arrived on the next run.

So eventually it was 1.30 before we could set off to see the main falls. We had brought Patrick over with us to guide us to the top of the largest of the cataracts which you could get to from the other side of the river. Thank goodness we took him as we would never have found them and as Ken said seeing them was pretty much the highlight of the tour so far.

We drove down this little track for ages, several times we wondered if we were even going in the right direction but Patrick urged us on till we went through a gate that had a big sign "Ngonya falls" we parked and started our long walk to the top of the falls through ankle deep water, over slippery rocks, through muddy sections and then through reeds that we couldn't see over. Several times we asked him how much further and he would say just around the corner. His corner was about half a kilometer but luckily we persisted as the falls were really something special far better than any of us expected.

Lava rock clearly visible

The scope of the falls was all of 400 meters wide and about fifty meters high. Apparently the second largest falls on the Zambezi, the largest being Vic falls for any dumb blonds out there. The force of the water going over was exhilarating and the spray that billowed up engulfed us where we were sitting on this wonderful volcanic rock that is all gnarled and misshapen. Unfortunately it is very difficult to capture the beauty of these falls on camera, it's just too broad for my camera lens and the force of the water just cannot be duplicated except through the human eye. Never the less our cameras were clicking at a huge rate and hopefully some of the pictures will be able to partly describe the scene.

Fritz arrived with his next Tiger fish for all of us to admire and again the cameras clicked away. He is completely in his element and poor Kim hasn't been able to get his hands on his fishing rod since we hit the potential fishing spots.

  

How you like them pearly whites?

Anyway time was marching on and we needed to get going if we were going to make Mongu by the evening. We also didn't have a specific camp site but the guy in charge of the last camp site assured us that there were several camp sites in Mongu which was a two hour drive away. Big mistake! Never trust a non-camper to tell you about camping sites.

 

We were guided to the first campsite... The instruction said "turn now" but that happened to be right through the middle of a local’s hut, first one scratched off the list of so called camp sites. Then about three km’s down the road there was a sign to another camp site.

We sent Ken down to look at it, looked like it was in the Barotse plain and looked promising. We always send Ken down first to judge if we can get the truck down there. The site was perfect but the road was too steep and sandy for the truck so that was strike two!  Now we all split up looking for somewhere here to stay. Ken and Rouvierre found something 15 K's out of town on their GPS so off they went to investigate. Kim and Steve found an old camp site but it was deserted and we couldn't get the truck there, we found a very large parking lot in-front of a very dodgy hotel and Ernest sent Fritz in there to negotiate with the guy to use his parking lot. He was fine with that in fact, delighted but it turned out to be a “brothel” and he said we can even use the rooms and his services if we like. Fritz bolted out of there quite fast saying he didn't think that would be the right place to stop. Oh dear! This is always Ernest's worst nightmare. So we decided to try and get through the chaos of town, it is the biggest mess you have ever seen and to navigate through in the truck was not exactly easy, and follow Ken and Rouvierre who were still trying to find their campsite.

We had lost contact on the radio as they were now too far out of town. We had just made it through town when Rouvierre came back on the radio to say "wild goose chase" there was simply nothing there. Just then we passed a place called Green view lodge and campsite. Yippee, it was my score this time as I spotted it. We turned around and drove in to find a very pleasant place where we could camp. The truck we had to leave on the parking lot overlooking a very pleasant green lawn. Shew as it was already getting dark and way over stopping time.

While sitting around after dinner Kim confessed to his blond bimbo moment of the day. He was in the office trying to negotiate the camping, rooms etc. for us when they asked him for his passport number. Being a bit flustered at this point because he couldn't remember it he rushed out to what he thought was his car. Sonja was sitting in the front driver’s seat and he thought what the hell is she doing in my car. He pulled open the door, pushed her legs away and tried to get his passport out from under the seat. Suddenly he realized he was in the wrong car. All this while Sonja was sitting in her car thinking Kim had gone completely mad. Now that is what you call different viewpoints... Who was the mad one! It is a matter of viewpoint is it not?

Finally we can relax, until tomorrow!

Day 7 – Ngoma falls, Zambia

As I write today's blog we are crossing the Zambezi on our way to ... Oooops we are going in the wrong direction! Just as well somebody is awake as we would have landed up at Vic falls instead of Kafue (that someone was Ernest.) So we have turned around and crossed the river again and thrown our coins in and made a wish. This is a real tradition with Ernest, he just can't go past a river or go near the sea without throwing in a coin and making a wish! So wishes were made and we are now facing the right direction.

The border post was a real test of just keeping everything together and not going effect of the obvious hassles of an African border post. The way out of Namibia was fairly quick, very busy post but as long as you didn't get agitated it went pretty smoothly. Zambia however was a little more of a test of confront. The passport guys were quick and efficient and after that it kind of fell apart, each window you had to go to demanded more money from us; money for insurance, road tax, "being there" tax and whatever else they can think of! Then the guy who you are supposed to pay slipped off for lunch just to add to the irritation and the final straw was the gate tax followed by the final papers check just to make sure you had paid all the right taxes. You just have to keep smiling and saying "no problem” or it takes twice as long.

In-between all of this you have the money changers who badger you all the time and having been caught more than once by these guys I tried to go to the bank to change Dollars into Zambian Kwacha. The first horror was to find that the Zambian Kwacha is worth double the Rand and secondly you stand in this long queue to be told when you get to the counter that they are not changing anymore dollars today and please please use the money changers outside (the illegal ones who work with the banks) I remember Mark trying to change money with these "money changers” in Zim. He told us he could handle these guy and landed up getting ripped off six love (we have never let him forget it as Mark is really smart and was so certain he would never have anyone rip him off) so I am always nervous of them pulling a fast one on me as I am not half as smart as my son. Anyway I got my money changed and it all appeared to go okay, hopefully when we spend the money nobody arrests us for trading in counterfeit money or something like that. 

We were up pretty early this morning but that still didn't guarantee an early start. Trying to kick starting 11 people is like trying to push a tank down the road with my little finger. Breakfast took a fair amount of time and all we did was boiled eggs and the girls had protein smoothies. Anyway just to pack up is a major exercise and we do pretty well on the whole to get away before 9. Of course we had to stop and blow up everyone's tires except ours as we never reduced our pressure in the deep sand like the others did. While we were doing this Fritz went off tracking (naturally) and he picked up some Cheetah tracks which means they even have them in this reserve! It really warrants another visit with a longer stay when we are not heading for Kenya.

We had our first mishap with the truck yesterday which I forgot to mention. There was a very nasty stump sticking out into the road that Ernest never saw and we connected with it on my side of the truck. After the initial loud bang Ernest asked what the hell that was, he looked in the rear view mirror and saw the outside kitchen door hanging open. Of course the first (and always, naturally) reaction was for him to shout at me for not having closed the kitchen. Now I remember very well that the last thing I did was to close the door! Anyway what had happened is that the stump had caught the door and literally bent the hinges back and opened it up. Oooooh what a disaster and at the same time SHEW I wasn't to blame!

Anyway we do have Mr. FIX ALL on board and when we got to camp, out came the high lift Jack and between Steve and Ken they had positioned the jack sideways and bent the whole thing back into place and voila, the kitchen door could close again and all was fixed. That was a close call as I would have hated to do the rest of the trip without a kitchen door closing.

Our second near disaster was that the toilet in the truck overflowed. Oh hell that was almost worse than no kitchen door. Now I can see it's going to be for emergency use only.

Once we were through the border post it was only another 60 or so kilometers till we reached our destination for the night, a place called Ngoma falls. We had a few detours as they are building a new road but on the whole it was plain sailing and we arrived well before nightfall. We unfortunately couldn't get the truck down to the camp site at the falls so they very kindly let us camp at the top behind the offices - second prize but at least a safe place to stay, cleared of all bush and big enough to fit all of our cars in.

It was a short walk to the falls from there so after setting up the camp we all changed into our costumes and set off down the path to the falls. One of the camp guards had told us there was a little pool away from the main river where we could swim which was safe from the crocs. We all (except Ernest, Ken and Rouvierre) set off in dribs and drabs taking the path that showed a brilliant view of three of the five apparent falls as the river is very wide at this point, it was the most beautiful sight, the light was perfect and I had forgotten my camera, so I quickly went back up to the camp to fetch it while the others went on to find the small pool where we could swim.  Fritz had already gone fishing so he was nowhere in sight.

By the time I got back, to my absolute horror I found our blond bimbos (they all got the award today) swimming right in the river itself! Oh my GOD, Sonja was up to her arms in the river and the rest of them had been frolicking around like school kids calling the crocs and saying "here we are come and have a snack.”  The crocs in this river are huge and you can get taken in an instant, luckily nobody was in for long enough as the water was pretty cold. Anyway I can tell you I was even colder thinking of what could have happened. It didn't so all’s well and we still have our 11 guys still fighting for the next award.

We had a wonderful evening around the fire, planning out tomorrow which is a hard drive via Mongu and then into Kafue.

Singing off, over and out!We had a wonderful evening around the fire, planning out tomorrow which is a hard drive via Mongu and then into Kafue.

Singing off, over and out!

Day 6 - Mudumu National Park, North - East Namibia

We woke up this morning in our great bush camp expecting to see some game guards asking us what we are doing camped by the river in the middle of nowhere but there was not a sign of anybody checking up on us. There is obviously very little park management as there is not even an entrance gate, just a sign that says " please report to Park headquarters" however we weren't complaining as it was so nice just being in the wild.

The hippos were back in the water snorting away and we had a leisurely breakfast before packing up to go and find our correct campsite. This park is one of the prettiest ones I have seen and reminded me so much of what Botswana used to be like when we were up there with our kids many years ago. I remember how utterly wild it was and Mark used to have to fix the water pumps in order for us to even get water, now of course our truck carries 450 liters of water and we had filled up all our tanks at Drotsky's so we certainly don't need water here.

The park has this wide river running through it which is the border between the Caprivi and Botswana. The Caprivi is such a strange strip of land that goes from the main body of land that is now Namibia and runs right across the top of Botswana. The old colonials thought it was a good idea to give South West Africa, as it was known in those days, access to the Zambezi river and so giving them access to (they thought ) the Indian Ocean. It was also very strategic piece of land used by the South African Government during the Angolan bush war and most of the anti-terrorist activities and skirmish took place right here. It was also totally devastated by hunting during that time which was done by the army itself particularly our own generals etc. Fritz was even telling us that the first real devastation of the Rhino took place here. Not sure who was killing the Rhino but it seems possible it was the soldiers stationed in this area. Now it has been turned back into a wildlife reserve and is one of the gems of Africa. The reserve is not big but it has a fair amount of game but more important it is completely wild and you see absolutely nobody, which makes it very special.

The area is very marshy so it must be quite a challenge during the rainy season and you can see where guys have got stuck and spent a fair amount of time digging themselves out of the mud....tell-tale branches churned into the now dried out black cotton soil. The trees are absolutely huge which is so unusual for an area with so many elephants, they usually push them all down but these are now just too big even for elephants to push down. I think the explanation for that might be that the elephants were more or less shot out during the war and that gave the trees a chance to grow into the size that you see today. Now that the Elephants have returned, coming across the river from Botswana, the trees are more or less established enough not to get destroyed by the large population that we saw yesterday.

We finally managed to get Kim's GPS onto the right program and the exact position of the campsite showed up. At least he has the complete set of maps for Africa on his GPS. After that it was pretty quick to find exactly where we should have been the night before, so we quickly set up camp this time in the right place, again on the edge of the lagoon/river and enjoyed a restful morning of reading and chatting and just doing nothing. The girls got their exercise mats out and did a workout and Fritz grabbed Kim's fishing rod and went fishing. He did catch a Tilapia and lost it and was stolen by something to either a croc or tiger.... But whatever it was it was biggggggg (fisherman big)

The afternoon was spent exploring the reserve, we saw Letchwe, plenty of Elephant and lots of Lion spoor. Fritz was all for walking into the bush and tracking them for us but we literally held him back as who knows what would happen if the game guards caught him.

We did drive right through the camp where the rangers live and there must have been at least 15 of them all kitted out in camouflage uniforms. They were very hard at work playing cards and sleeping at three on a Monday afternoon. They are a real hard working bunch that's for sure!

We camped right on the river bed so during dinner we had a visit from some very curious hippos, they came right up about 20 meters away, snorting and making very sure we knew they were there and that we were the unwelcome guests. We all just sat very still and eventually they swam off down the river. It was very exciting having them that close.  

Tomorrow we are off to Zambia to spend time on the Great Zambezi River.

Signing off, until tomorrow!

Day 5 - Mudumu National Park, Caprivi Region, North - East Namibia

It was a fairly early start to the day this morning; the sunrise was so spectacular, very red and bright. The monkeys were up with the sunrise making a nuisance of themselves before we even had a chance to get out of the tents; they upset the whole Tupperware of coffee and grabbed a packet of biscuits that Ernest had left on the table. Kim and Ernest spent at least half an hour chasing them and shooting them with Kim's kettie. It is quite amusing to watch two grown men running around after the little beggars and they just jump up out of reach and look down their noses at them shouting and waving their arms around... That is until one of them got hit with the marble from the kettie.

We had to leave by the latest 10 and after our lazy day yesterday it was quite difficult to get everyone motivated to move. The showers were so good; lots of hot water and clean ablution block so unlike what the rest of Africa is going to be.

Anyway as usual we set off late but we didn't have far to go, (we thought,) so there was no hurry. We bid our farewell to Jack and off we went heading for the boarder and into Namibia. Of course I was already fretting about the bloody meat control post but if I had thought logically why would they take the meat when we were about to leave the country, they only take it when you are entering.... Still fear is never logical is it?

The border post was a breeze, straight through but there was a foot and mouth control point where we had to get out of the car and stand on the poison mat again. This time Ronel was really on the ball and had her shoes ON and had put her feet on the mat and back into the car like a rabbit. She was determined not to get the blond bimbo award of the day.

We had our first stop at Papa falls which was just 20 kilometers into Namibia. Ernest and I remember stopping there with all our kids thirty years ago. Then it was just a picnic spot but now it is the site of a fairly posh lodge built and run by the locals. The falls were exactly how I remember them and I have old pictures of the kids and ourselves swimming down the "falls"- really just a little rapid.

We had the option of paying an entry fee of $40 per person or having lunch there so we opted for lunch... Big mistake as after an hour of waiting our order had still not appeared out of the kitchen. We eventually left the falls at about 2 o'clock still not too worried as according to Ernest it wasn't too far. We travelled alongside the wide Okavango for a while and saw some things that looked like Hippos. I radioed Kim's car to tell Andria that there were hippos as she had never see a hippo in the wild, and this resulted in our next blond bimbo award of the day. As I said  "Andria ” over the radio she sweetly said  “yes Gaye"  but she was sitting at the back of Kim's car and nowhere near the radio. Kim and Steve were laughing so much that they couldn't even talk to us and tell us what had happened. The last laugh was on me really though as the hippos turned out to be a couple of rocks in the middle of the river.

So we then set our noses for Mudumu and found to our dismay that it was already three o'clock and we still had about 140 kilometers to go. My GPS is just not functioning and I discovered that Marcel back at the office only downloaded the Maps for Africa for Mozambique which isn't much use to us where we are going. Ernest keeps saying that I am the blond bimbo as I don't know where I am going but I now have someone else to blame....Marcel you are the blond bimbo of the week!

We eventually arrived at the reserve at 4.30, rushed into the Park headquarters to pay and get allocated a campsite. It took us quite a while to just find anyone to pay and we were told we had camp site number two. She gave us a map and off we went. We entered what we thought was the reserve and promptly hit heavy sand and the truck went down deep into the sand. All I saw was Ernest saying " shit shit shit " and hitting all the buttons on the dashboard trying to find low range four wheel drive plus the diff locks, he found the right buttons and out we popped but I hadn't got on the radio quick enough to warn the others that we were in heavy sand and to put their cars into low range and Kim being right behind us went straight down to the axil in sand. To be fair he has never had any four x four experience so it was not surprising he got stuck. We managed to drive on a bit and stopped on hard ground to wait while the others dug Kim out of the sand.

This stop turned out to be a huge surprise where we saw an amazing sighting of about two hundred elephants. We also saw two herds of roan antelope, stacks of impala, zebra, and warthogs. Well after driving around for at least an hour and a half and getting very lost, we realized we had better find a nice place to camp for the night and to hell with finding our “campsite". There isn't a sign in the whole reserve and not having the correct program on our GPS we knew we weren't going to find the correct place before the sun went down. 

Ken found a beautiful site right on the river overlooking about 10 hippos all snorting and watching our antics with great curiosity. We knew we couldn't make a fire as we didn't want to attract any attention to our little illegal camp so we had to use the gas cookers to cook for the night. I had taken out the meat for a braai dinner and so now that we couldn't make a fire we had to compromise and improvise and we just had to make do with braaing on the gas skottel. To be honest we weren't sorry that we didn't find the camp site as we were in the most spectacular place, nice and level and totally away from any sign of civilization. It was just us, the hippos and the stars.

We took out a very special bottle of wine to celebrate our first night in the wild African bush. Fritz was very innovative as we haven't got a decanter for the wine so he decanted it into the kettle. It worked fantastically well and we had another evening to remember.

We offered for Fritz, Ronel, Steve and Andrea to sleep on top of the truck as we thought the hippos might come visiting and being on the ground might be a little scary but they were quite determined to sleep on the ground. The thought crossed my mind that the hippos might come visiting!

Signing off!

Day 4 - Shakawe, Botswana

Today was the lovely leisure day that we had all been looking forward to for the last few days. We all slept in late, in fact Kim and Ernest were sitting around the early morning fire for ages before the guys started crawling out of their tents.

It was a perfect morning, not too hot and not too cold, a really beautiful place to wake up in. As I said before the camp site is full of these huge trees, fig, Jakalsbessie and Knob thorn and we are right on the rivers edge. The sound of the hippos snorting in the distance certainly added to all our enjoyment of the place.

Yesterday Ronel had brought out her special mootie called Timjan Wonder juice. It is one of those natural Aloe and grape seed juice and is very good for constipation and also handles stiff joints plus plus plus... An old boere remedy. So as Steve was walking past very busy fiddling around with the truck and minding his own business, he casually asked Rouvierre what the stuff was that we were all talking about. She said he should try some so he very obligingly opened his mouth and down went a whole tablespoon full. Well he was the last one to crawl out of his tent looking very worse for wear this morning. He had spent his night running from his tent to the toilet, back to his tent and then back to the toilet. It made the poor man so sick but on the other hand it certainly handled his constipation. He won't be trying that stuff again in a hurry.

Breakfast was a real leisurely affair, no muesli for us today, special cooked breakfast- "full house" as they say in the lodge.

We needed to get a few things in town like fresh veggies and milk which we have been going through at a rapid rate, so we went to ask Jack how far away town was and if the shops were open on a Saturday Afternoon. Our vehicles were all out of action, we could not get the truck out of the campsite and the rest of the guys had their tents up and were feeling lazy about  packing them up so that we could drive to town. So Jack very kindly insisted that we take his car to do the shopping. Well that was an experience all on its own, it was like driving a rudderless sailing ship across the ocean and it wandered all over the road and had virtually no breaks at all and one shock was very obviously broken. And I thought the hippo was bad, shew our baby is steady as a rock compared to this wallowing 1982 Jeep Cherokee. On top of which we daren't hit a pot hole as I think the whole wheel would come off and we would land up doing a complete rebuild of his car all for the need of buying a few liters of milk. Fortunately we had taken Steve with us and as you know he can fix anything so that was comforting.

Shakawe is a bustling town with one "Choppies Supermarket", one bank, one service station and a Pep. My gosh, I couldn't find much in terms of veggies but we did get a few things to carry us for a few more days....fresh stuff of course as I haven't really dented the tins of stuff in the bottomless pit.

We came home to find that the monkeys of the camp have finally found our interesting and obviously abundant camp. They managed to open Ken and Rouvierre's boxes and even opened up her special muesli, what a tragedy as that was a great quick eat and go breakfast. Never mind everyone will now have to stick to the lodge muesli. You have to put away literally everything as they dart in and out to grab anything that is further than two feet away from you. I dropped one raw potato and before I could walk the half a meter to pick it up, the little beggar had darted in picked it up and was off into the trees with a dozen of his palls after him.

We had booked a sundowner cruise on the boat up the river, so at 15h35 we all set off for the main jetty to meet our guide and boat skipper...Ray. He was a local Shakawian who had lived all his life on the river. Unlike Tintswalo game drives we had to pack our own cooler box of drinks but it was still a great experience to go cruising up the river looking for birds, crocs and of course the elusive Sitatonga (otherwise known as the underwater buck) it is very rarely seen but they had seen them the day before so we thought we might get lucky. They had also seen a Pels fishing owl the day before which is what got Fritz's attention. Ernest and I had seen it once before and Fritz said he had seen it once but other than that it would be a new sighting.

Our little Ray really tried hard to show us these two rarities but I am afraid it wasn't our lucky day. There had been a fishing competition that day and Ray said that all the boating activity had frightened the Sitatonga away, the speeding boats had even scared the crocs away so we only saw one small one sunning himself on the bank of the river. However we did see African Skimmers, a very rare bird which got Fritz very excited and then our little Ray bought a fish from a local fisherman and first of all called the Fish eagle, then threw the fish into the water. It very obligingly swooped down in front of us and picked up the fish out of the water. I of course had forgotten my camera back in camp but Friz and Steve got beautiful pictures. Ray was very amusing in his description of different birds, he was always asking for our bionicks ( binoculars) and the plum colored starling was a plum colorful starling.

Andrea took the blond bimbo prize today as when we were all intently looking for the Pels fishing owl, she asked to see a picture of it so she knew what we were looking for. She took one look at the picture and said in a very loud and surprised voice that it looked just like an owl at which point we all nearly fell out of the boat laughing.

There is something so magical about that river, it is flowing fairly fast, about an average of 70 meters wide and lined with high reeds which flatten out now and again to reveal swampy grasslands. This is the river which flows into the delta and creates the Okavango swamps.

We decided to spoil ourselves in the evening and went to the lodge for dinner. It was great to sit in a little bit of luxury and at the end of dinner we didn't have to wash dishes, yippee. 

Till tomorrow!