(This is another extract from my diary of the month long camping trip a friend and I took, traveling through Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. It was intrepid, exciting and although we were hot, tired and dirty, most of the time, it was wonderful and certainly unforgettable)
You know you're in the wilderness when a hyena spends the night whooping and prowling around your camp site. Something is walking up and down outside our tent. It is either a hyena or a black backed jackal but we are not keen to investigate. We can also hear lions and elephants near by so, all in all, not much sleep tonight. A 5.30am breakfast, truck packed and we are off on safari at 7.30am. Shortly after leaving camp we pass a broken down safari truck. Three men are working on it and tell us they don't need our help so we sail past feeling smug. You know the saying -"pride comes before a fall"!
Above: All hands on deck to load the truck. It usually took about an hour
A couple of kilometres down the road our driver, Ike, notices problems with our truck. Water is gushing from the radiator. He fills a jerry can from a nearby water hole to top it up but it still gushes out. The men in our group are in their element and gather round to inspect the radiator only to find it has a huge hole in it, pierced, it seems, by a stick. Other safari trucks stop to offer help so that at one point there are 10 men gathered around but there is nothing they can do, we need a new radiator. Ike radios for help from Maun, the nearest town, 3 hours away, so we settle in for a long wait.
We spend the whole day sitting in the game reserve with wild animals not far away, fortunately for us they keep their distance. I don't know what we will do if lions decide we look tasty, thankfully they don't come near. We feel quite proud of ourselves - who would have thought we could be so brave and intrepid?
Our new radiator finally arrives 7 hours after we broke down and mechanics quickly install it, then we can finally set off for our next camp site 5 and a half hours away. We make a stop to collect great piles of firewood for cooking which means we spend the long trip with the wood under our feet and our knees up to our chins.
Ike spots some cheetahs in the distance so we bounce and rattle at speed across the countryside to view them. Two of these magnificent animals are resting on a mound. They are gorgeous with their distinctive facial markings, muscular, sinewy bodies and plush coats. We get within 5 metres of them and they look at us warily. Cheetahs are not known to attack humans but I still feel nervous when they stand up and pace around our open sided truck.
It is a very long trip to our next campsite but I don't mind. I thoroughly enjoy looking out over the burnished countryside as the sun sets and, as night falls, passing through tiny lantern lit villages where locals call out and wave to us. It is magical looking up at the millions of stars in the night sky, without city light pollution the African night skies are sensational.
Finally we reach our new camp site and it is hard work unpacking the truck and setting up our tents in the dark. Meanwhile our amazing cook, Mfana, prepares us a meal of boerewors sausages, maize pan, which look like mashed potato but is a kind of porridge, and tomato sauce. He is a magician, he can make even the simplest meals taste delicious, or maybe it is just that we are starving! We sit around the campfire chatting about our day and marveling at the fact that we actually sat in a game park for 7 hours, unprotected. When traveling it can be the things that don't go to plan they can sometimes make for the best memories.
Left: Mfana cooking our dinner over the fire
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