We wanted to get off fairly early again as we
hadn't asked anyone if we could camp on their lands and we thought we might get
the whole village surrounding us while we ate breakfast. Anyway, there was one
guy who arrived and just stood staring at our coffee making and cleaning up,
obviously fascinated by these "mlungus."
Still on dirt but the road had improved slightly;
we were now back on the old road and not on the temp road made by the Chinese
who are doing the tarring. They make these detour roads that run next to the
new ones but they have become so deteriorated it is almost impossible to drive
over 30 Ks an hour on them.
We travelled the 40 or so kilometers till we got
to the beginning of the Katavi reserve. (The only way you know you are there is
because the GPS goes green and there is a sign that says “don’t litter in the reserve.” Anyway we all stopped for a
pit stop and stretched our legs, when coming from the other direction is
another truck, same size as ours but this one is so slick and "larney" and looks
like it is German made. The driver stops next to us, hops out and greets us
like long lost friends and we stand in the middle of the road for about half an
hour looking at each other’s trucks and
examining everything from the water systems to the crockery. Oh boy this was
some truck, the cab was all in brown leather and looked like a Rolls Royce
inside and the back was a completely sealed box but with tiny windows which you
can't see out of. Inside was like a yacht without a speck of dust. Every cup
had its place and every plate properly secured and in draws like my new kitchen
at home, in fact probably even smarter. It even had a washing machine! All the girls "Oh"ed and "Ah"ed.
They were a Polish couple that got out of the truck looking clean and neat not
like us motley bunch of dirty South Africans. They looked at our truck, full of
dust and full of stuff all over the place and I think they thought those poor
people what a dreadful truck. Funny how different needs suit different people
as Ernest said he would hate that truck, you can only live inside it and those
tiny windows would drive him mad. No outside kitchen so all cooking had to be done
inside, so he sat outside on his deck chair and she did the cooking inside! You
might as well be in Sandton. Anyway even though he carried 600 liters as
against our 450 liters they never had our water purification system ... So
wheh!
Anyway we exchanged cards and moved on very
envious of his clean dust free existence. As we progressed into the reserve the
road just became worse and worse so we eventually found a turn into the reserve
itself and off we went on a proper game drive. We travelled along the edge of
the marsh for about 25 kilometers and saw an extraordinary amount of game. The
Katavi river at this time of the year is just a smallish river widening out
into big ponds but in the rainy season it bursts it's bank and becomes a huge
marsh area which stretches for about 30 miles long and 10 miles wide and even though the surrounding bush is
very dry and desolate in the winter, this plain is still green and lush. The
bird life was prolific, just hundreds of Storks, Marabou storks, Saddle billed
storks, Goliath herons, Pelicans, Fish Eagles and Ground Hornbills. The game is
just teaming on the plane, from Grevy's Zebras to reticulated Giraffe, Wildebeest,
Buffalo, Warthogs and Waterbuck. The most incredible thing though is the amount
of hippos in the pools and the river. At one stage there were so many hippos in
one pool, it just looked like huge rocks, one piled on top of the other. All
shining in the afternoon sun. There were also a lot of hippos out of the water
grazing on the grass.
We stopped for lunch, took out our chairs and
relaxed under the huge apple ring Acacia trees that line the edge of the marsh.
This is what we had driven hundreds of kilometers to see and it would have been
perfect except for the bloody Tsetse flies that are a real curse. Anyway we
sprayed ourselves with as much insect spray as we could and it did seem to help
a little. Then we headed off to the park headquarters to pay our entrance fees.
I don't know what rubs me up so much about these guys in their little huts that
demand so much money but do absolutely nothing about improving the park or the
facilities.... This is Africa!
He asked me how big the truck was so I said 4
tons (with my fingers crossed) so he said okay $ 40 per person $ 40 per car and
$ 200 for our truck. So I said no, then our truck was only 3 tons. So he said
it was still $ 200. That is per day and does not include the camping which was
another $ 210, so all in all it cost R 7000 for an afternoon game drive and one
night camping with cold water, Tintswalo Lodges looks cheap.
By this time I am literally blowing blue smoke
out of my ears, so I said I hope that included hot water at the campsite to
which he replied of course it did... Bloody liar. Anyway Ernest kept telling me
to keep my blood pressure down so I paid for the entrance and said we would
camp down the road outside the reserve where the fees would be $70. We sent
Steve and Kim off to look at the camp site and they came back and said it was a
no no so I had to eat crow and go back to pay the $210 for the cold showers.
Anyway when we arrived at the campsite there were
two giraffe eating from the tall trees in the camp plus there were clean
ablutions with plenty of cold water. So they sat me down in a chair with a cold
G&T and told me to calm down. I must admit it was a good campsite and we
spent a wonderful night around the fire, great dinner and great company. We
even had an elephant close by browsing away and taking no notice of our torches
shining in his eyes.
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