Riding through the bush on horseback was an amazing experience. We didn't see as much game as I had hoped, but it was neat being in such close touch with nature. When more game are around, the practice is to just let the horses wander freely. The grazing horse appears much like a zebra to the other animals, allowing you to get much closer than in a truck. And I am told the lucky ones will sometimes get to gallop along with a herd of zebras or antelope.
The first game we saw were a small herd of antelope and zebras at a small watering hole. We watched them for about 5 minutes before they stampeded. What an amazing sound. We were maybe 500 yard away yet we still felt the earth tremble, the thunder of the herds rolling through the air. It is no exaggeration, it really does thunder. And the antelope leaping through the air, maybe as much as ten feet off the ground. Jumping and flying, fleeing away from us. High and graceful, bouncing and sprinting and bounding across the grass, glowing a rich cherry-brown in the morning light.
We trotted on, and watched some wildebeest frolicking on the plain. A herd of pickup football overenergized jocks. Charging each other, moving together left then right, galloping around kicking their back legs striking out at the ghosts chasing them. Their long tails spinning like clock hands at each leap.
As nice as it is here, and as much fun we've had riding across the wilds, we will move on after lunch. PJ and Barney admit that we will likely see more wildlife in Moremi, that it really is a great treasure. And hopefully there is a bag waiting for me at the Maun airport.
Didn't see as much wildlife driving back to Maun as we did driving up to the horse camp. We split up in Maun. Peter dropped me at the airport to retrieve my bag while he went to buy a real plastic cooler that wouldn't disintegrate as we drove along. After I grabbed my bag, I posted some cards and bought some more. We made a quick run through the grocery, had a quick hamburger, and refueled the truck. The gas station had ice cream, which was a real treat. Africa really isn't that far from the rest of the world, at least not this remote part of Africa.
We were back on the road in the late afternoon. We driving to the South Gate campsite in Moremi game reserve. We once again made it into camp just after dark. Along the way we were held up by a herd of elephant crossing the road. It wouldn't be the last time.
Today was spent exploring Moremi. It is a rather small park, but there are so many meandering trails wondering through the bush that we could have spent a week here and still missed some things. The place is teeming with antelope, we have actually started dreading seeing them. They are everywhere. But we have also seen more giraffe, hippos, a few elephant, wildebeest, and warthogs. Since we're traveling on our own, with no group to set the pace, we've found a few other animals that are just as interesting as the famous ones. Creatures like foxes and mongoose.
An amazing trio of giraffes graced us today. Two of them were necking like teenagers. They would actually wrap their elongated necks around each other, quite a site. The became bored with us after a while and loped away. It is amazing how fast the giraffe are. The move so fast, but because their legs are so long it looks like their are moving in slow motion. Tonight we camp at North Gate. We arrive in the afternoon and set up camp. We take a late evening drive to gather firewood in a wonderful thunderstorm. The rain pouring through the heavens onto the hot skillet of the earth. The evening is cool and pleasant, the retreating storm clouds framing a gorgeous sunset. We grill kabobs and enjoy ice cold drinks from the new cooler. I mix up some rum and cokes. Peter grabs his favorite guava juice and with the rum improvises a guava daiquiri. About once a year life blesses you with a perfect day - this could have been it.
We awake to an amazing purple and orange sunrise, right outside our tent. Today is a big day for us. We need to cover several hundred kilometers between North Gate and our next campsite of Serondella in the Chobe game reserve. We get off to an early start. We drive east out of the park and start looking for the next road where we will turn north. We come to an intersection that looks good. Intersection being a relative term for us. There is a trail that looks well used, so we figure that must be it. We turn and press forward. There is a wall of short trees and shrubs on either side of the road. We see an occasional elephant poking its head above the bush. The anti-poaching programs of Botswana have been particularly successful. The army patrols the country, and shoots poachers on site. End of problem. The new problem is that the elephants are becoming overpopulated. The herds eat everything in their path, and have a penchant for destroying trees. The land we are driving through is testimony to the elephants hunger for green. We drive on. I think we have been driving for more than an hour and a half. Peter glances at the GPS, and points out that we have been driving an amazingly straight course. I haven't been checking the maps, since I've been at the wheel. My concentration has been pointed at avoiding holes the elephants have dug and piles they have left behind. We stop in the middle of the road (there isn't anywhere else to stop) and I unroll the map. Indeed we have been driving a very straight path. I get out of the truck to stretch my legs. The road unfurls itself in an undulating wave, a straight line of a wave stretching ahead and behind us. I reference the GPS coordinates on the map. We are at a point a little more than halfway between the road we turned off of, and the road we want the be on. Where we are now isn't exactly a road, according to the map. We are on a cut line. Something of a supposed fire break and a shortcut between two places. The line cuts south from where we were to the road heading north. Peter and I decide that we've come this far, we might as well push ahead to our destined road. The monotony of the bush had practically hypnotized us, taking us farther from our destined camp.
We drive on, finally coming to the wider road we had been aiming for. There is actually a concrete marker here, pointing us in the right direction. A road sign in the bush. After another couple of hours, we hear a diesel engine on the horizon. Soon we are upon three guys chopping trees. We seem to be in the middle of nowhere. They are very excited to see us. We ask if we are on the road to Chobe. They point quickly in the direction we are going. They don't speak english, but do keep saying tobacco and sweets. I guess there aren't many 7-11s in the bush, so Peter grabs the candy bag and I grab my pack of smokes. Wide smiles grow across their sweaty faces. I open the cigarettes and offer them some. His strong black hand grasps the open box. Whoa, I say, I need some for myself you know. I give them about half a pack and a light. They seem real happy. We move on, and a few miles later pass through a small village. A few kids, a few goats, a few huts, not much else. This is the Africa I had expected, and now was seeing for the first time in the three weeks I've been here. I guess I have been brainwashed with pictures of starvation and famine, corrupted by Marlin Perkins and Sally Struthers.
A few more miles past the village and we are crossing into Chobe. The ranger is a really nice guy, and we flip through the log and see who has passed through here before us. The logs are lots of fun, seeing all the people from all the world who have crossed through here. We give the ranger a Coke from the cooler. He is really touched, not so much because it's a Coke, but because it's a cold one. For a boy from snowy Minnesota, it is had to imagine these people who have never seen the white blanket shrouding the land.
We are driving now through the Mababe Depression, the flattest bottom of this ancient lake. From one end of the earth to another, the sandy ground is only broken by low bushes scrubbing an existence from the dry land. A lone tree, long dead, stands above it all. An individual, like us all, who conquered the land only to be beaten down in the end by natures fury. The Gcoha hills arise suddenly from the land, perhaps once an ancient island arising out of an inland sea. Glowing red rocks tower above the flat land, trees flourishing in their shade. Strangely, they seem out of place. A reminder that at one time God gave form to the world, that the land arose from the oceans, that life arises from the dusty land we have come through.
A heard again blocks our travel. This time it is not elephants, but buffalo. They charge across the road in twos and threes. As soon as we start forward to pass, more of the black cows dart out of the forest. Their calves stumble and fall through the deep sandy banks of the river of road. It took close to 15 minutes for them all to file through.
We drive on through the forested park, and leave briefly as the road follows the banks of the Chobe river. The road widens, becomes hard-pack instead of sand, and villages pass every ten miles or so. Pavement soon appears, and we are at the crossroads of Ngoma. Here is the Buffalo Ridge Camp, where we will stay tomorrow night. The Chobe spreads wide below us, Namibia on the far bank. We turn and head east again for Kasane.
We refuel in Kasane and restock the cooler with more ice. The Chobe park here follows the banks of the Chobe river, and is home to the largest population of elephants in the world, as well as an amazing concentration of other wildlife. Which means there is also an amazing concentration of tourists. Peter and I are anxious to set up camp, and we meander our way past large trucks carrying clean looking safari suited folks gawking at an elephant and some antelope. Further up we pause and have a herd of giraffe all to ourselves. Our decision to go it alone in again affirmed. We set up camp at Serondella, enjoy a long cool shower, and spend the rest of the night trying to find a peaceful sleep amongst screaming kids and partying Afrikaners illegally camping at the site. We miss the howling screams of a leopard scared hyena which awoke us in the middle of the night at the horse safari.
Our new woodcutting friends. A Batswana Paul Bunyan?
