Botswana: Moremi & Chobe Game Reserves

Wednesday February 25th: Botswana (this is a long one so patience required!)

Thankfully no rain but no wind either, and it was hot in the tents. Slept off and on, after all it is a little bit different to 32 years in BA where it was Sheraton, Hilton, Intercontinental etc. Where was that aircon switch again! 


We were definitely sharing the campground with some nocturnal animals, I could hear them moving about, but what were they. This is where it might not be a good idea to go to bed after a couple of cold beers and some wine because when nature calls, you have to get out there and join them. I was suddenly thinking of all those nature programmes where the lion waits silently and then jumps on his prey in a millisecond. That helped to hasten the whole process I can tell you. 

Up at 6.30 and there is no need for an alarm because everything wakes up with the sun and you know it. 


Animal sounds all around. It was lovely to be so at one with nature. Now, where’s the room service menu so we can order breakfast, oops, not fully awake just yet. Got the kettle on, stripped the tents, and repacked it all. No point having a shower before that because you’d need one immediately afterwards again so we decided to have that when everything was done. There was an ablution block nearby and it had excellent shower facilities, even hot water, courtesy of solar panels. 

Had our weetabix and about 4 cups of tea in the next hour, just relaxing and enjoying the peace and quiet. Oh, and great news, we found the lighter and gas refill in with the food, very well hidden! I was also taking some photos of a large baboon that was in the tree which we were camped under. 

After 5 minutes he suddenly came down and appeared to amble off. Then, a quick detour towards our table and I shouted a warning to John who was enjoying his tea. The baboon went right up to the table and grabbed a full box of Bewley tea bags. Now it’s war because we cannot let that go. John is wrestling with him and neither one will let go. I am running over and at that point he realised he was outnumbered and left the scene. This whole thing took about 5 seconds. They are so cunning.

Had a great shower and set off for North gate, a short distance away. 

We were meeting with a German couple, Andy & Ilona, who we’d met at the park office two days ago when buying our tickets.Did I already mention they're from Berlin. I don't think so.

They also wanted to drive to Savuti and had a rented Toyota Land Cruiser station wagon camper. These Land Cruisers are meant to be the best in the business for overland. It seemed prudent to travel together as the terrain was definitely going to be inhospitable so we arranged an 11am meet at the gate. 







They arrived at 1130, having already got stuck en route from Xakanaxa. We set off and as we had the winch, it was decided that they should go first. Then, if either of us got stuck, the positioning of the vehicles was correct for recovery. We were no more than 10 kms into the 76km drive when conditions started to deteriorate. Everywhere we turned it was water and mud. We really had no idea where the track was at times. We had the GPS with tracks 4 Africa loaded and as I mentioned earlier, it is a lifesaver in the bush because it is mapped for overlanders, by overlanders. Good as it is though, it had not mapped this area in detail.

As we entered a swampy marshy area, Andy followed a track away from the waterlogged road as it appeared to be a detour around the deep water. He was bogged down almost to his springs by the time he’d stopped. 

We stopped just behind him and walked to see them. Two very nervous people were sitting there, wondering if there might be a crane nearby that could possibly lift them out of this hole. We spent about three hours extracting that vehicle. The high lift jack that was supplied with their vehicle didn’t work properly, we had an issue with our winch which John sorted, (chief mechanic, remember). We tried to winch the cruiser out but it was buried too deep. 

So, it was raised by the high lift jack, slowly and laboriously due to it not working properly. Branches of trees lying around were gathered and packed underneath the wheels and we were ready for the third attempt. Meanwhile, the mother of all storms is brewing around us, thunder, lightning and heavy rain. Standing in a foot of water, gripping a metal lifting device seemed pretty risky just then, with lightning flashing all around.

Today was my day of driving as John did the whole day yesterday. John then got into the drivers seat of the landcruiser and after discussing tactics we were ready for the big pull. Don’t you just love it when a landrover rescues a Land Cruiser!  It's a common joke in Africa that when you spot a landrover, it usually has a pair of legs sticking out from under it, so always use a Toyota landcruiser instead. Not today! Using both vehicles gears, I was also operating the winch from within the disco, we gave everything we had in power. I was in diff lock and after getting the tensioning correct I just pulled with every horsepower the disco and winch had. John was in the cruiser giving it everything it had too. Out it came, reluctantly at first but suddenly we’re reversing out of this swamp at a very decent pace.

At this stage Andy & Ilona were ready to turn around and cancel Savuti but we persuaded them to stay with us. They'd tried this the previous year and also got stranded. Understandably, they were nervous. We found a different way around, walked the water to see how deep it was and got through ok. After that, we had to walk a couple of crossings first to see how deep it was, and how solid. If it was solid, the disco could easily go though at bonnet height but the cruiser, being petrol, could not. Thankfully, we never encountered anything that deep, it was more a sense of figuring out whether we were entering a track or a swamp.

Then, we were past the Savuti marsh, the worst part for flooding, and on our way in deep sand to Savuti. We eventually got there at 8.30 pm. That was 9 hours to travel 76 kms. Also, we were not supposed to drive at night in the park but at Mababe gate, about 40 kms from Savuti, they said it would be ok as long as we didn’t use our spotlights.

The tents were set up up again. I was feeling pretty nauseous and definitely had a tummy problem. The only thing we’d had since the weetabix was two cereal bars a few hours back. Of course we had been in swamp water for a few hours too. Trying to inflate the mattress was like trying to climb Mount Everest at that point for me so it was done in stages. Andy & Ilona cooked some pasta (we shared the one pitch in the campsite) and I ate a bit. John had worked up a real appetite by then so he had a second helping. Oh, how I envied him his appetite. By the time I retired to my tent I was feeling a lot better and went straight into a deep sleep.

At 2.45am I heard John outside my tent, asking if I had toilet paper. He had the bug too. He had an unsettled night and slept rather fitfully. We both think it must have been the swamp water (is that swamp fever then!) and somehow absorbed some of it. Cannot imagine a cereal bar doing that to us. By the way, we do have more than one toilet roll, the problem is that the immobiliser for the disco is only working on one set of keys and I happened to have them as I was the driver today.