road cutting, spontaneous smorgasbord and mamba!

Happy belated 4th of July! Hope you enjoyed the day. Paul and I did eat hotdogs and baked beans in celebration but I was really missing buns for the hotdogs (bread selection is seriously limited here), watermelon and good corn on the cob (and of course family and friends to celebrate with!). No fireworks either, but I think I did hear a car backfire…that will have to do.

Last week we spent three days in Savute cutting a new road for the mobile safari sector. Paul mapped it using Google Earth and data on an old road that used to exist there and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the elephants had maintained it quite well. There is still a lot of standing water around from that unusual early June rain we had. The typical way we get up to Savute is not passable due to the mud and water. As such, the only way into the park is a rickety bridge over a river. I usually hold my breath as we go over these.

Once we arrived we easily located the start of the old road which was now being used as an elephant thoroughfare. As such, with some bush bashing and chain sawing some small Mopani trees we were able to clear a good section of it on the first day. My job, along with another safari company owner’s 11 year old son, was to watch out for elephants and other beasts that might be lurking in the bush. Perched up on the wheel well we shouted at the top of our lungs when we heard some angry elephants trumpeting nearby. The work crew (Paul, Stuart and Rian) came running! Later that same afternoon we spotted a herd of Cape buffalo, notoriously some of the meanest and most dangerous creatures out there. We were delayed a bit as we waited for the herd to get to a safe distance from our new road.


The next day we managed to clear the roughly 7 mile road by mid-day so we decide to go find some of the remote Zwei zwei camp sites that are often assigned to the mobile safari companies when the ones closer in are booked. The new road we put in will actually get mobile companies out to these sites much quicker. Zwei zwei was the area where I survived the elephant charge last year and there were plenty of elephants this year as well (but fortunately no charges).

The campsites were much farther out than we expected and we had to break for lunch and eat whatever “tin food” (a.k.a. canned food) was in our vehicles. We had an interesting spontaneous smorgasbord of butter beans, sweet corn, spaghetti in a can and this nasty meat stuff that resembles SPAM and actually lists “beef hearts” as one of the ingredients on the side of the can. I did not partake in that, but Paul loved it. Ick!

We camped for two nights and headed back to Maun on the third day. We were toasty warm at night this time as I brought the heaviest duvet we own and that seemed to do the trick. While the animal populations were quite thin, because of the abundance of water, we did see some beautiful kudu and on the way back another black mamba in the road. I say “another” because we saw one about a year and a half ago in the Transfrontier Park (between Botswana and South Africa) and I was really hoping that I would be able to say (to myself, students, anyone who worries about me over here), “I’ve only seen one black mamba in ten years.” But after this second sighting, I’ve now seen two in two years.

Noted as the deadliest snake in Africa, the mamba is an elegant snake who looks much like a mole snake or black rat snake (both completely harmless). This particular one was about 9 feet long and about half way across the road when it spotted us, lifted up the first half of his body, effortlessly reversed its direction so that one half was elevated about ten inches above the other half while it quickly retreated to the brush on the side of the road. It is hard to explain in words how this snake seems “different” from others. While others are slow and slithery, this one is powerful, lightening fast and elegant. He is noted for his ability to go from flat on the ground to straight up so that the two of you are looking eye to eye in seconds. We thought we might get to see that but no such luck. Still it was impressive and terrifying all at the same time.

PS: Also saw a honey badger running across the road in the park. These are pretty rare to see too and super vicious!