Travels with Kathryn

This was our first full day in Savuti and today was the day I made a real effort with the food and actually photographed everything that I ate – some of you will find this interesting I know.

I mentioned the concept of African time, well this morning Keith was fully embracing African time and was faffing about – we were all sat in the jeep ready and waiting, he turns up and then had to go back for his fleece. We finally set off 15 minutes late… However, it turns out that this was all for a good reason as we pulled out of camp, drove across the riverbed and then LIONS. Two lionesses and a tiny 2 month old baby on route to the rocks to hide from other males and to enjoy the shade.

Well, after that I assumed that would be all we would see for a while. Nope. We saw:

• Giraffes.
• Warthogs.
• MORE LIONS – so these (as those we saw earlier) are part of the Northern pride of some 35+ lions which are lead by a dominant male lion and his two brothers. I felt he would make a lovely throw rug.
• Tawny eagle (still a bird).
• Bateleur eagle.
• The president’s camp – this is the camp that was used by the 4th president of Botswana, now home to a mongoose family.
• Giraffes.
• Buffalo – we had commented on the fact that of the big 5, this was the only one we had not seen yet but should have done (note that there are no rhinos in Botswana outside specific reserves). Well, it is because they were all here! This was a heard of over 200.
• Steenbok.
• Nicely posed hornbill.

We then decided to drive across Savuti swamp. This is effectively a very exposed, currently very dry area – basically just dry grass which is too hard for anyone to chew. No animals hanging out here for obvious reasons! We finally spotted some banded mongoose on the other side which brought some momentary excitement.

Also note the lack of zebras, we had obviously become too used to seeing them and they do migrate to the north of Chobe which was evidently where they had all gone to.

However, we had a rare sighting on route back to camp – an elephant lying down sleeping (not dead!) who was happily snoring away, letting off what we termed “ele-farts”. In order to stay secure, he had dug one tusk into the ground and then quickly lept up and when awake and off he went.

Back to camp and it was laundry time. The guys will handwash larger items, but you are asked to do your own smalls. Obviously I came armed with my new scrubba wash bag, detergent sheets and washing line. I merrily washed our three smalls and hung them out along with the larger items we had given the team. I felt very efficient. Although never have I washed so many sludge coloured garments.

I also used this time to go on a tour of “backstage”. You can tell this is a team of professionals, there is an area set up of washing area with two large bowls, a fire for heating water and flame top cooking, another fire with a sealed metal box (with fire under and ontop of it) which is the oven used for making bread and cakes (how they do this I do not know), a second area with 2 ring hobs and a prep area with spices and oil. The truck is also a masterpiece in engineering with all the dry/kitchen stuff in labelled crates, and water tanks for drinking water and washing water. It is all very impressive.

A fabulous lunch was prepared in this space of lasagne, coleslaw and salad which I followed up with a nap.

Note that now the weather is hot (we’re talking high 30s) there is certainly a technique for enjoying a nap in a very hot tent. My technique was a cool shower (using the remains of last night’s shower water), wetting both me and my sarong, then wrapping myself in it and lying down for a sleep. I usually woke up when I dried, and would then re-dampen myself to sort things out (like today I colleted in all our laundry and folded it up/delivered it to the old people) and to dress back in one’s sludge ensemble.

After all that hard work, we would be served “high tea” in case we had suddenly become weak through lack of food. This always involved a cake (today’s was lemon), a fruit platter and a fruity iced tea. You can see why I was so impressed with the baking over an open fire when you look at that crumb structure!

After tea we headed out again, and:

• Giraffes.
• Kudus – I should use this as a moment to comment on the male’s horns. These are natural horns (i.e. they do not lose them annually) and grow a curve a year for age 1-4 then stop.
• Baobab tree – now we are in the National park you can only stop at official “stretching” points, and this was one. This particular tree is very popular with elephants (for its juicy fruit. It also gave us an opportunity to try the fruit which was very nice.
• Buffalo – note the ride-along ox pecker birds who deal with the ticks which attach themselves to larger animals.
• Giraffe.
• Roan antelope – this was our sighting. It is not that they are rare, they just like to hide in woody sections.
• African wild cat – this is a pointless animal if you ask me. It looks like a regular cat with a slightly longer tail and we saw it for all of 3 seconds before it lay hiding in the grass.
• Black backed jackal – still love jackals.
• Giraffe – drinking again, you can see this is an elderly giraffe (at the age of 30-35) as he has wrinkles.
• Elephant (only the second of the day).

There was then a “push” to a sighting of a leopard with cubs. This was a classic safari theme park ride experience (very Kilomanjaro safaris a la Disney) where we tried to zoom up a hill, but didn’t quite make it and had to reverse and try again – second time lucky! I was glad I wore my seatbelt. Quick aside, Issac spent a year working for Disney at the Animal Lodge (which is the hotel attached to Animal Kingdom) so maybe there was a light Disney inspiration going on.

Leopards located! A mother with one cub. Usually leopards have 3-4 cubs, but as they are a solitary animal there is no one to look after/watch the cubs when the mother goes off to hunt so they are easy prey. This was another experience of “other” jeeps, including people who did not seem to be enjoying their holiday – one jeep included a man main-lining bottles of beer, a man facing the wrong way with his filthy legs hanging over the edge and another woman wearing a hat with a mesh veil, knees up reading a book. What is the point of spending a not insignificant amount of money to go on safari and not even bother to look at the animals? We judged.

Back to camp for a shower – I have a note to say that I was getting much better at showering in the dark. It involved knowing where to angle my headtorch and wedge it into the rolled up back door. I am very impressive.

As we had our sundowning drink we were joined by elephants walking through the back of camp. An adult with two babies. I was very excited, and hoped they would pop into my tent, but it was not to be…

Dinner this evening was brocolli soup, roast chicken with brown rice, peas and glazed carrots. Pudding was a pear poached in wine and cinnamon which I rejected by telling the story of when Maurane LOST IT having been presented with a poached pear after a Game of Thrones themed banquet. I had a similar feeling.

So another excellent day. Looking back, Savuti was probably my favourite location – lots of excellent animal sightings and great scenery. The only slight let down was the minimal numbers of elephants, although they did come into camp which was a big bonus. I would hope for more tomorrow.