Botswana and Beyond!
Phakawe
Safaris: Moremi
July
9 - July 12
DAY FOUR
through DAY EIGHT
In the truck, we headed toward Moremi, a national park. Good
roads up to a point, and then the asphalt ended and we had dust
and dirt. Then that ended and we just had ruts and then we entered
the national park. The other Phakawe tour following our same
route had stayed in the campground near the entrance, but we
were lucky. Alson and his trainee took us deep into Moremi to
a bush camp. We crossed third bridge and we set up camp in the
bush. There were giraffes in our campsite that we had to shoo
away. Well, they were close at any rate. With a hole for a toilet
and a bucket up a tree for a shower, we took off on a game drive.
Not to say we weren't civilized. We did have a toilet set up
over the hole with a lid I could keep open, just to drive the
women crazy!!! Ha!
Morning drives in the morning, then we'd take a break in the afternoon and I'd read this really depressing book about South African politics and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We'd cook from Phakawe's recipes and then we'd go to bed. Trying to sleep in the bush! Our tents were a little smaller than the ones we had for Crazy Kudu, but that wasn't the problem. The real problem was with the noises! Hippo's, Hyena, Lions, all of them could be just on the other side of the canvas of our tent! I worried about being stepped on by a careless elephant, but supposedly that doesn't happen, though later we would hear stories. So I would be sleeping, and then hear the low growl of a lion, and I would be wide awake, heart thumping. Going to the bathroom, we were told not to use the pit, but go right outside of our tent. You would have to shine the flashlight first, to make sure you don't surprise anything. So after looking around, Laura and I would go together, just to make sure one of us wasn't eaten while the other slept. And together, we could appear more daunting! Alson parked the truck near his tent, so he'd be able to get inside, in case anything happened. One of the most stressful parts was, we'd be around the fire, chatting, then Alson would stop talking, take his big flashlight, turn ever so slowly, and start scanning the bushes for eyes. Well, we'd stop talking as well and my heart would start thumping. Being in the bush was exhilarating!
What did we see, besides a lot of lilac-breasted rollers and blacksmith plovers? One night we were driving back and we stopped to look at a huge crocodile in a pond. Then April pointed over across the water to the other side of hill. We saw something moving, but it wasn't an ungulate, it was something else. Then Alson says, "That's a Wild Dog!" We chased on over and after it, but it was gone. It was getting late, and so we started back to camp and then an impala raced across the road, going a hundred miles an hour. Right on its heels was a wild dog! It was sleek, black, and wonderful. The African Wild Dog is very rare, and we got to see one hunting. We stayed around, looking for the wild dog, but it was in the chase. We drove on aways, and then right next to the road was another wild dog, and it looked at us, and then trotted off down the road. We were pretty excited, even Alson, but again, it was getting late and you are not supposed to be out of your camp after dark.
So we pressed on, passed some zebra, turned a corner, and then a truck across the way flashed its lights at us. Then we saw the first lion run out across the road. Then another. Then another. Thirteen lions were hunting, and we got to see them in the African twilight. Camera flashes, headlights, none of this bothers the lions, and so we tried to take pictures, and April was pretty scared, and I must say, as we turned around to drive up to the thirteen lions, and I didn't think that was a good idea. Thirteen lions, and these are big, big lions! After drinking in the sight of these big cats hunting, we drove a million miles an hour back to the camp, and then Alson began to regale us with stories about his past. One night, when he was new in the bush, he'd been left at camp one night while his clients went to Victoria Falls. That night, he was sleeping, when he woke up at ten o'clock to the sound of lions outside his tent. He looked out, and there were four big females and their cubs. The lion cubs played and wrestled, right next to his tent, so close to it that they would whack the canvas. For six hours, he listened to the lions, until they left, early that morning. He said we were safe in our tents, but after seeing the lions and hearing Alson's story, I barely slept that night!
Another morning, we were driving, and we were right near to where Alson knew where there was a leopard. Alson sat pondering in the truck, "There's a leopard around here." Then Kaga, his trainee, said, "Oh, you mean that leopard?" Right next to the road, with a fresh impala kill in his paws, there was a leopard in a tree. Mark's camera had run out of battery juice a few days before, we were looking for a battery (so were the very friendly South Africans we had met in the park), and he was saving power for a last picture with his camera. Well, we all started taking pictures. The side of the tree was red with blood, and the leopard had wedged the impala head in the crook of a tree, then leapt to another branch and began lick the blood off of its paws. It was a small leopard, but beautiful. We had him all to ourselves for fifteen minutes, but then when other cars came to look, the leopard was spooked off. They are very shy. Later, we came back and since it was a young leopard he hadn't properly wedged the impala in the tree so it had fallen. The next day, though, the impala was back in up the tree, partialy enated, and when we would return we saw evidence of the leopard's meals, if not the leopard itself. The leopard puts his kill up in a tree to protect it being stolen. Hyenas and lions can't climb trees and vultures can't see it in the tree. A leopard will take about 5 days to eat his kill.
Moremi
was beautiful and for Laura, it was one of the highpoints of
our whole Africa trip, if not our whole world trip. Our campsite
was great, and while most of the time the tour moves after two
nights, we were lucky enough to stay in the same spot four nights
in a row, and it was well worth it. Taking showers on the edge
of a great expanse was very Out of Africa, though I never washed
Laura's hair. And I just wrote about two of our game drive experiences,
but every day we saw something wonderful, and just the scenery
of Moremi is striking. However nice Moremi was, we soon scooted
off, heading for Chobe National Park.
Our fantastic bush camp in Moremi
Us about to cross Third Bridge
Collecting firewood for cooking
A pretty lake which was flooded due to the rains in Angola. We saw hippos here.
