Stuck in the Mud at a 45 Degree Angle or Lost in a Mopani Forest While Angry Elephants Trumpet: Tales from Our Christmas-New Year’s Adventures of 2013

Hope your 2014 is off to a good start! We traveled for almost two weeks over the “festive season” and, by the title of this entry, you can tell that we had some pretty exciting adventures. We spent the first half of our trip in the hot and steamy Mkgadikgadi Pans at a campsite called Tree Island. We stayed here last Christmas and found it quite peaceful and a nice retreat, so we decided to go back again this year. Rarely do we camp in the same place for five nights and it was very restful. We spend our days watching the zebra migration, spotting interesting birds (saw my first Africa green pigeon – what a beauty!), getting some driving lessons (one of my New Year’s resolutions is to improve my giant Land Cruiser driving skills, remember back in the States I drive a tiny VW bug!), and trying to stay cool while swinging in the hammock and reading. Fortunately, Santa did find us and Christmas day was occupied with playing a trivia game my sister sent us that only proved that my husband is a lot smarter than me (except when it comes to an American cultural references, where he is…useless! In the end, I think we’d make a great “team”).

Zebra Migration at Mkgadikgadi Pans

Tree Island Camp Site

Santa Found Us in the Bush

African Green Pigeon

One of our favorite days on this leg of the trip was spent watching elephants frolic in the waters of the Boteti River near Kumaga and play in mud holes to stay cool. With temperatures in the high 90s, it seemed like all the elephants in the area were headed down to the river for a drink or a dip. Down on their knees, spraying mud on their backs, rolling around trying to cover as much of their massive bodies as possible, dunking each other in the river like kids playing in a pool – it is hard not to see joy in their actions! We spent hours just watching them “play” (On a couple of occasions, the time spent was not of our own choosing as elephants came down from up on the ridge toward the river both in front of us and behind us. We had to wait until they cleared out in order to drive through). There was a spirit of Christmas in the air as elephants and cows (from outside the park boundaries) intermingled to create a peaceable kingdom.

A Peaceable Kingdom: Elephants and Cows Together

Animals Marching Two by Two

We should have known the rain was coming when we saw the “animals marching two by two”. After a brief stopover in Maun for a couple of days to restock, we headed north toward the Linyanti, Savuti and Chobe areas. This part of the trip was somewhat of a “Busman’s Holiday” (did you know that term? Because I didn’t but Paul tells me it is a vacation during which one engages in activity that is similar to one’s usual work). Paul needed to map some new road networks and stretch points in the parks for his maps.

Our first night we camped at the staff village up in Linyanti (a section on the Western side of the Chobe National Park that I hadn’t been to before). We needed to map the new water front routes around the Linyanti Swamps. And, as you might image, “swamps” bring all types of challenges including a mosquito population that was so tenacious that they even persisted in the heat of the day and the pouring rain. At night we didn’t even go outside for fear of their attack. Despite our best efforts with bug spray, it will be amazing if we don’t malaria! One night as we hunkered down in the tent, we could hear a hippo grazing nearby. Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp like some incessant mowing machine that didn’t even take a moment to chew the content of its full mouth before swallowing. At one point, Paul grabbed his glasses to see if he could see how close he was to the tent (it sounded VERY close) and the chomping stopped instantly! We didn’t breathe. If he got frightened and charged the tent, we were goners.  We left that location after one night!

Throughout the trip we encountered stranded and sometimes terrified tourists challenged by the extreme road conditions. With water water everywhere we towed stuck tourists out of mud holes, followed a broken down camper being towed by another vehicle to make sure they made it out of the park and even had to winch ourselves out of a tricky spot at one point in time! The roads from Linyanti to Savuti was especially bad, not only because of the amount of rain water, but because elephants had had a field day digging in those roads and their damage was impossible to see until you landed in it. 

On one such occasion we had our two left wheels attempting to maintain solid ground out of the water, while our two right wheels navigated the depths of the flooded road. A Land Cruiser can tilt quite a lot without flipping over and it always makes me nervous (Paul routinely asks, “How’s your tilt-o-meter?” when we find ourselves perched at an uncomfortable angle).  We are trundling along when BAM we hit an elephant hole and get stuck. No forward movement, no backward movement – we are stuck!! The vehicle is tilted at a 45 degree angle and, since Paul’s door is literally hitting the earth, we have to crawl out of my door which now is at the “top” of the vehicle (Did I mention that on our two days back in Maun I managed to throw out my back trying to straddle a mud puddle while opening up the impossibly heavy gate to the ostrich farm and am now on pain medication while climbing out of the vehicle? Just adds to the excitement). Fortunately, we have a winch mounted on the front of the vehicle. We tie it around a small tree, Paul climbs back in the vehicle and I stay outside to operate the handheld device that reels the wire back in thus pulling the vehicle towards the tree and out of the mud. I start winching, he starts driving and we manage to get the stuck vehicle righted and we’re back on our way (so sad to report I don’t have a picture of that but I was a little busy. I promise to do better next time).

Super wet roads in Savuti

Camping in the Bird Hide

We spend a couple of nights, including New Year’s Eve, camped out in the bird hide of a relatively new lodge in Savuti called Ghoha Hills. We ring in the New Year serenaded by a deafening chorus of frogs (I’m not kidding you. It is so loud we have to raise our voices to hear each other!).  By day we map their newly established and highly overgrown roads (with all this rain, all the new roads they cut the previous dry season are almost undetectable). Much of the time we have a staff person with us to “show” us the roads (since they are nearly impossible to identify). We venture out one late afternoon alone to get the final road before we depart the next day. We’re feeling pretty confident as we’ve actually acquired some skills at “undiscernible road identification” (the trick is to not look at the ground but at the brush to the side of where the road should be, if you see a space wide enough for a vehicle between the bushes, it MAY be the road). Paul moves trees the elephants have knocked over into the “road” and we’re doing pretty well until we lose the road in an open field and all that stands before us is wall to wall Mopani forest. 

Bush Break

 

Clearing trees from the road

In a situation like this one can follow an elephant trail (a single lane path used routinely by elephants) but, perhaps surprisingly, elephants are narrower than our vehicle and they can squeeze through spaces the vehicle cannot. We struggle to find clearings in the forest we can get through. 

We have a GPS and can see where we are and where the road we are trying to get to is, but we can’t find a way to get there. In my mind, I’m making a plan for staying the night here, as the sun is starting to go down and it will really be impossible to find our way out in the dark. We have come too far to turn around and go back. “We’ll be OK,” I tell myself. “We’ve got wine and food in the fridge. And I can sleep curled up in a ball in the back of the vehicle (not advisable by back specialists, I’m sure, but I can do it!).” But just when I think we’ve got it under control, we encounter a herd of unhappy elephants and they start trumpeting, standing tall (stretching to their full height and width with ears out), and shaking their heads (a rough shake of the ears to signal they are NOT happy with our presence). We retreat as quickly as one can in a Mopani forest only to bump into another unpleasant group of elephants. They are everywhere and they are not happy! (What happened to those frolicking friendly elephants we watched at the Boteti River?). The elephants up this end of the park are on edge. Some suggest it is because poachers coming in from Namibia (we are very near to the Caprivi Strip) are active in this area and the elephants see vehicles as a potential threat. Miraculously we “bush bash” our way out, eventually finding the road near Quarry Hill and ultimately (after a long very wet drive up from Savuti) make it back to the comfort of our bird hide and frog chorus. Phew!

The rest of our trip is spent in Chobe (where we see a beautiful pride of three adult and six young lions on a kill) and Kasane (where we have a lovely meal at an Indian restaurant). Unfortunately, somewhere along the way (according to the Center for Disease Control website within the last one to three weeks) we’ve picked up a case of giardia and I am sicker than sick (what we call “the twirls” since this best describes the action you engage in trying to determine which end of your body has the highest priority over the toilet – not fun!) which delays our return to Maun by a day (there is NO WAY I could get in car).

Ultimately we get back home safely. Paul gets sick when we return (then drops a 20 liter jerry can full of fuel on his toe!) and we are now both on medication that seems to be helping the giardia situation. Did I mention, “Africa is not for sissies”? Oh yeah, that was the last entry. Hope you’ve enjoyed (from a distance) some tales of our Christmas-New Year’s adventures of 2013!

Flame Lily

Africa is not for sissies!

We are snuggled into our bed, cozy under our summer duvet with the air conditioner blasting cold air to counteract the hot Botswana night when, all of a sudden, the little red light switch on the wall indicating the hot water tank is on, goes out, the face of my cell phone lights up indicating the power charging it has fluctuated and the previously functioning air conditioner lets out a small puff of air like a dying dragon on its last leg. Crap! It’s going to be one hot night without the AC. As I lie there processing what has happened a mosquito (hopefully not carrying malaria) does a flyby near my ear. Africa is not for sissies!

The craziness of my return to Botswana begins last Wednesday when I call Paul to see how his fourteen hour drive from Maun to Johannesburg to pick me up on Friday is progressing. Over the BANG, BANG, BANG of what I learn is a malfunctioning CV joint (whatever the heck that is…in my world your CV, or your curriculum vitae, is the electronic or paper evidence of all you’ve accomplished in your academic career), he explains the situation. He is diverting to Gaborone, the capital city, to drop the vehicle off at the Subaru dealer and get a rental car to carry on with this journey that is…if he makes it…he’s still 80 km outside of the city.

I continue packing and grading and organizing things for what will be my three month absence (I’m on sabbatical in the spring) all the while trying to think of a plan on how to get from the airport to the hotel if he can’t make it to Johannesburg. Fortunately, with a little help from some friends in Gabs he manages to drop the vehicle off, pick up the rental car and carry on his way. By the time I arrive on Friday he’s managed to go to the dentist for a cleaning (that’s right, he drives 14 hours to get his teeth cleaned), pick up lots of supplies for his mapping business, and settle into the hotel we’ll be in for a couple of nights until we start heading back to Botswana.

Unfortunately, the part needed to fix the Subaru is unavailable in all of Botswana and it needs to be ordered. At first they explain that, “it will be available in mid-January” (no I am not kidding…they suggest it will take over a month to get the part we need!). With a little cajoling from Paul they make a plan to have it shipped up on Friday or Monday from Johannesburg. We call on Saturday and, since it did not arrive on Friday, they can’t even start making the repair until the beginning of the week. We stay another night in Johannesburg…do some shopping, eat at a couple of decent restaurants, try to sleep off my jet lag and begin our trek north on Sunday.

Sunday morning, before leaving, we need to get some cash (Rand) in order to pay tolls and buy fuel (they don’t take credit cards in South Africa at fuel stations only “fuel cards”??). We go to a largely closed mall to find an ATM (most of the stores are closed in honor of Nelson Mandela’s funeral – can you imagine this in the US? 10 days until Christmas and you close your business out of respect?). The ATMs are a little hard to find. We manage to locate one that has 2 kiosks. A man stands at one and we go to the other only to see some sort of computer language that looks like it is rebooting itself. We’re a little confused but the man, who has apparently just used the other ATM, says his was working. We move over and try to use that one. When we try to insert our card it seems to jam in the slot. Paul pulls it out and tries again. Something is not right. I don’t like this guy hanging around and I say to Paul, “Let’s try another ATM.”

The man who has just used the machine insists that it just worked and advises us to reposition the card a bit. The hair on the back of my neck is standing up and I say AGAIN, “Let’s try another machine.” “No, no,” the guy insists, “this one was just working. Let me help you.” I say, “Paul, let’s go to another machine.” At which point the guy moves in to help Paul insert his card, then steps away. As Paul is typing in his PIN the guy is looking over our shoulders. I try to move around to block his view but he is quite tall. When the machine doesn’t seem to process his request, he attempts to eject his card. Paul tries again to eject the card. I explain, “We’ve just been scammed. That guy palmed your card.” Did I mention that Africa is not for sissies?

By the time we process what has just happened, the guy is long gone. We immediately call Paul’s bank and shut the card down. We learn later that he’s managed to get the equivalent of $500 USD out of the account before we do so (we’re currently disputing the charges…maybe they’ll be reimbursed). I love Africa. I love Africa.

Seething, we begin the drive back to Botswana. It takes about 5 hours to drive to Gaborone where we settle into our next hotel until the car is fixed. We spend the next couple of days foraging for food (it’s hard to believe we can’t find a decent restaurant in the capital of the country), buying some clothes (I’m running out and had planned to be back in Maun by now where my African wardrobe exists), and watching news footage on Nelson Mandela’s funeral (we even went to the movies and saw “The Long Walk to Freedom”). We try to forgive the ATM thief but fail.

We also take the opportunity to visit a friend from Maun in the hospital. Sadly he is quite sick and while he is at the “best” private hospital available, the ICU is sparse. Additionally, they are threatening to “pull the plug”, so to speak, if he can’t pay in advance for his care - he has no medical insurance (and I thought the US was bad…but at least there they will treat you, then bill you into bankruptcy, but at least you’re alive).

By Tuesday late morning we get word the car is fixed. We pack up and hit the road for the nine hour drive back to Maun. While I would have preferred to drive halfway and stay somewhere OR leave early the next morning, Paul insists on driving the entire way. It is not that 9 hours is too long to drive in one stretch but rather, the minute the sun goes down the drive is deadly (and exceeds my tolerance level). For those of you living in the developed world, it is a bit hard to explain. First, there are no street lights outside of urban areas in all of Botswana (and those in the urban areas have been installed in the last 3 years of so). Second, roads are thoroughfares for all types of creatures – man and beast, alike. Potential road hazards include donkeys (often standing still smack in the middle of the road; Paul and I joke that they are “doing maths” as they seriously look like they’re stumped by something perplexing), goats (they are the smart ones and quickly move out of the way of a beeping car), cows (“dumber than a cow” might be a way to explain their behavior) and horses. Oh yeah, the people…did I mention the people? At times you’ll find them walking very close to the edge of the road typically wearing dark clothing. It is totally stressful and we spend the last hour and a half squinting through bug guts on the windscreen look for dark shadows on the very dark road. I hate it.

Since I’m here writing you know we’ve arrived safely (fortunately). We spent yesterday in the office trying to catch up on a week’s worth of emails and starting to plan for our camping trip over the Christmas holiday (we leave Saturday). This morning when we left the house we noticed that two of our spare tires (one on a safari vehicle and one on the trailer) are…gone! That’s right stolen out of our yard right off the vehicles (which would require tools and probably transport to get them off of the ostrich farm, the Land Cruiser ones are too heavy to carry). Ugh…did I mention that Africa is not for sissies??

sometimes a story by a campfire can change your life

                                                                                                                      

  “So…what would happen if the moon went so far out that it was lost from the gravitational pull of the earth?”

This was a question Paul fielded last Friday night when he did a star show for some local school kids. Paul provided free use of our 7 passenger safari vehicle and the show and our friend provided bedrolls, chairs, food and coordination for an overnight stay in Nxai Pan. Nine kids, ages 11 to 12, spent a night sleeping out under the stars on the pan on what was one of the chilliest nights we’ve had so far this winter. You heard that right, out under the stars…not in tents! It was one of our best star shows yet with lots of enthusiasm and challenging questions.

As we drove home on Saturday, we wondered…what impact does a trip like this have on a person? Does it make them appreciate nature more? Realize that, if we don’t protect our small little planet, who will? Help them to navigate South by using the Southern Cross if they’re ever lost (and in the Southern hemisphere, of course)? Do the stories Paul tells have any impact at all on the audiences he speaks to?

Strangely enough, on Sunday, at the monthly market held at Motsana we ran into a young man who reminded us of the power of a story and the importance that such a trip to the bush can have in someone’s life. Stationed at a fold out table selling hats and shirts with “Rhino Knights” written on them, we find three enthusiastic people traveling around Southern Africa educating people about environmental issues and saving the rhinos. As their webpage explains, they are on a “10,000 KM global awareness and survey campaign by foot and bicycle around Southern Africa for rhino.” Within seconds of standing at the table the young man extends his hand to Paul and says, “Paul Sheller, you changed my life ten years ago!”

Fumbling for a name, Paul stammers, as the guy explains that he was on a trip to Botswana a decade ago and somehow met up with Paul who ended up taking him out into the bush. One night, around a fire, Paul explained that while South Africans and other travelers typically have huge roaring fires in the bush, the Bushmen always had small compact fires – sufficient enough for cooking and warmth but sensitive to the limited resource of their environment. Paul regularly tells clients stories of his time with the Bushmen and the many life lessons he learned along the way.

A common theme of these stories contrasts how Westerners are often trying to find ways to adapt the environment to their way of life, while Bushmen adapted their way of life to the environment. The young man explained that this one story really stuck with him and when he returned home he decided to dedicate his life to educating others about conservation. I guess that answers our question about if a story around a campfire or trip to the bush can impact someone’s life…

For as long as I’ve been coming to Africa (about seven years now), I’ve wanted to share this part of my life with some of my people from back home. So this year, in honor of my sister’s 50^th birthday, and inspired by a safari Paul guided in January (where a grandmother sponsored a trip for her grandson and friend), I decided to bite the bullet, forgo the kitchen renovation I was thinking about, and fly my sister and her two daughters (now ages 21 and 24) to Africa to see what life on this side of the pond was all about.

Since making the decision I have been planning for months. Finding the most affordable airplane tickets (not really a possibility during a peak travel month like July), searching for a little guest house to stay at in South Africa before we headed off on safari in Botswana, organizing an itinerary that allowed them to see some of the diversity of Botswana without driving a million miles in a day, finding a cook and camp helper to make sure they were well fed and cared for while in the bush, booking reservations at campsites and national parks, packing up equipment (tents, chairs, table, gazebo, toilet and shower tent, stretchers, bedding, etc.)…there’s a lot that goes into planning a two week trip to Botswana!

As the time grew nearer to their arrival I got more and more excited but also more and more nervous about how everything would go. How would they handle: the 17-hour flight from Atlanta? the cold winter nights in a tent? the possibility of animals in camp? showering outside (probably only every other day)? using a pit latrine? the long (bumpy) rides in the safari vehicle? unplugging from the smartphones, Google and Facebook for two weeks? And what about all the other things that have become so “normal” to me I don’t even think to worry about them anymore????

Overall, I would say the trip was a success! One of the best parts of it was spending almost two full weeks unplugged, in the bush, with my sister Kelley and nieces Nikki and Becca (when’s the last time you really “unplugged”? you should try it – I highly recommended it). We celebrated our first night with a champagne toast (an appropriate honor for their first crossing of the equator!), stayed at a little bed and breakfast about an hour outside of Johannesburg and headed off to Botswana the next morning. Say good by to wifi, the bush here we come!

Our safari started with a couple of nights at Khama Rhino Sanctuary where my family got to experience Paul’s bush skills in action when we had to help out an overland vehicle stuck in the sand (on more than one occasion) by winching them out with our vehicle. By the second time, I think their clients wanted to join our safari!! After the long drive from South Africa we got into camp just in time to experience our first Botswana sunset with proper “sundowners” (drinks and snacks at sundown). This became a nightly ritual for the remainder of our trip. 

Rhinos at Khama Rhino Sanctuary

Our first sundowners at Khama

 After the rhino sanctuary our trip proceeded from desert (two nights at Central Kahalari Game Reserve) to pans (two nights a Nxai Pan) to delta (three nights on the Khwai River across from the Moremi Game Reserve). Our days were spent driving from one location to the next (where my family engaged in what we called “extreme knitting” as my sister taught her two daughters to knit in the back of the safari vehicle) and, when in camp, doing game drives. We had some amazing sightings include: a brown hyena in the Central Kalahari, cheetah (both in CKGR and Nxai Pan) and wild dog pups (who had finally surfaced from their den up near Khwai) and the spotted hyena pups (who were starting to show their spots and lose their dark solid color coat of infancy).

Becca and Nikki on a cold morning in camp

Welcome to CKGR!

Shadow fun at Deception Valley, CKGR

Climbing in the baobab trees at Nxai Pan

 We also saw lots of birds, enjoyed amazing Botswana’s blue skies (and a very unusual thunderstorm in the Kalahari) as well as lots of zebra, elephants, giraffe, kudu, impala, warthogs and more. On their final day in the bush we went on a mokoro boat ride to give them some sense of what the delta looks like from water level. 

lilac breasted roller

Owl at dusk, Khwai River

mokoro trip on the Khwai River

mokoro polers

mokoros from the back seat

 Our evenings started with fabulous sunsets (and sundowners), continued on with delicious dinners (formally announced by our cook, “Tonight we will be having…”) and chats, singing and even some puppetry around the campfire at night (My sister had traveled with a hand puppet from my nieces childhood that I hadn't seen in years. "The baby" entertained Becca for hours when she was little and almost brought us all to tears around the fire when I brought her back to life - rapping, working out, singing and performing a one baby show!) . When in areas where it was possible, we did some night drives with my nieces taking turns using the large red spot light to look for creatures at night. We say tons of zebra, impala and an occasional bush baby too! 

Our dining area

Us with our camp cook and helper

Sun setting in camp at Nxai Pan

Becca and Nikki with sundowners in CKGR

Sunset over the Kalahari

Our closest encounter with animal life occurred our last night in camp when a hungry hyena made her way into our camp exploring for food. We first spotted her when she came around a bush not too far from where our dinner table was set up. Ever eat dinner while watching for a hyena? After dinner, my oldest niece calmly stated, “hey, there’s a hyena over there under the trailer.” Sure enough there she was shoulder deep, head submerged in an ash pit (with some dish water gravy)– yum! Great news is…no one panicked (and no one was eaten)! In fact, no one was harmed by any of the amazing animals we saw (and heard!).

Curious elephant in Khwai

pod of hippos

angry hippo

large herd of buffalo

 We spent our last night at the ostrich farm where they all camped out in our little house, showered in our outdoor shower and said hi to the ostriches. Our friend Mike joined us for dinner outside by the fire and a star show with Paul’s telescope. The final morning, they packed their bags, did a little shopping in town for gifts for the people back home before we put them back on the plane to return to their normal lives.

It was so great to show them a little bit of my life over here. The birds, the bushes, the animal behaviors, our ostrich neighbors, how to work the outdoor shower and keep the pit latrine from getting too smelly. I suspect this will be a once in a lifetime trip for them and I sure hope that perhaps a story by a campfire might change their lives too.