Seba Camp (Day 2) - Botswana - 5th Sept 2013
We are woken at 6 am and I climb down from the big bed. There is a tray of tea on the verandah, the sun is rising over the water, a palette of pink and lilac and blue, the reeds reflect in dark shadows on the surface of the shining water. Monkeys are chattering, a chorus of birds are singing, this is an impossibly beautiful setting, if you saw it in a film you would have to say the director was bunging it on for effect.
Breakfast is deceptively simple, fresh sliced fruit, muesli, Bircher muesli, pastries, pancakes, cheeses and meats, and for me, gluten free pancakes and bread. How much more could anyone possibly want? All bar Huang of the Chinese contingency are here, once more in their suits, Huang has been 'nervous' perhaps after we attempted to dissuade her of the good heart theory. Tim said 'yes, they do like good hearts - they like to eat them'. Her life has been spent watching tv she told me last night her father in embassies around the world, 'tv and school is my life'. She says she wished she had my interesting life growing up in Africa, and living in Australia. This is her Big Step Out Into The World, her father has permitted her this trip in the company of his friends. She is 30 years old, and on A 24 Hour Speed Safari in the Okavango Delta. She expects to see everything, lion, hippo, leopard, giraffe, elephant, etc etc in quick succession, and is disappointed she hasn't, also intends to include a twenty minute Mokoro (canoe) ride, and just to ensure she has 'done Africa' a half hour boat ride, and all before 11 am. Considering they were asleep for seven of those 24 hours, they have done well, but they are not convinced, where are the lion? The whole 'this is not a zoo' conversation falls on deaf ears. They leave, waving cheerfully, looking much happier than the glum group that arrived yesterday. I have become fond of them, especially little Huang, and I hope she gets her visa for Zimbabwe, she so wants to see the Falls, as her Dad will permit her to go if it comes.
We jump into the Landie in search of the leopard once more. What a morning! Ten minutes later, we stop in the dusty road next to the tree we first saw the young male yesterday, and he is lying at the side of the road, with his sister a few feet away We are beside ourselves - this is impossible! Leopards are so hard to find, and this is our third sighting in 18 hours. A hyena is eating the leopard kill, keeping the babies away, and we hear it crunch through bones .... Suddenly it leaves, carrying a large leg in its powerful jaw, the way a family dog may carry a bone. This is unusual, says Speedy, as they are opportunistic and never leave a feed. The two babies walk tentatively towards the kill and the hyena rushes back snarling and barking, they flee to a safe distance. This is repeated, finally the hyena leaves. the little girl sees her opportunity and rushes in, rips what looks the liver, and runs right in front of us, carrying her prize and leaps ten feet into a tree with it, watchful for the hyena. The little boy walks carefully to carcass, and starts eating. Speedy moves the Landie right alongside him - and we sit and watch the spectacle, just four metres away. He is ripping great chunks of bloody meat from the beast, red sinew and strings of intestine hang from his mouth, his teeth are long and deadly and red, he crunches through bone, and sneezes twice. I feel nausea rise, and swallow hard. The mother appears, silently watching, and slowly circles the area, keeping her eye on the kids eating. The little girl has jumped out of the tree and joined him, and starts eating at the other end. Perhaps half an hour later, satiated, the boy rips off a kudu ear, and slinks off with it. The girl must think this is a good idea, as she rips off the other one, and disappears in the bush with it. I cannot believe what we are witnessing, this is unheard of, a once in a lifetime event - we spent the first 23 years of our lives here, and never saw anything like this, and certainly not this close.
We have more animals to see and could stay here all day, but we drag ourselves away. This sounds like a laundry list, but we see Tsessebe (in Setswana it means fast) antelope, giraffe, zebra, we travel through shallow water which gets deeper and deeper and many green reeds, there are termite mounds, birds galore, elephants, zebra, steenbok (the little one), a Bateleur eagle, Burchell starling, green wood Hoepoe, ( the laughing lady bird) slated egrets, brown snake eagle, a hammer kop (hammer head) bird, for obvious reasons - his nest is huge and can with up to 50 kgs - African dracona, white faced whistling ducks, fish eagles, great white egrets, lilac breasted rollers, and soooooo much more. We stop for morning tea mid morning, once again on the little table, and watch the ever changing African horizon, teeming with wildlife of all sorts. He tells us amazing stories, including one about a legendary man here called Randall Moore, but I shall read more about him, and tell you more. Responsible for, amongst many other achievements, the conservation and training of elephants, he sounds a real character. Heading back to camp, we spot five massive buffaloes, the dark one, called The African Kaffir Buffalo (that word is politically incorrect, but the animal still has the botanical name), who gallop away at speed through golden grass, and the ground trembles. A family of baboons with their babies clinging to their backs stroll by, they are on their way to another island apparently.
Ten minuts later, Tizzard and Tim are waiting at the gates of camp for us, iced cloths and smiles at the ready. Oh I could grow accustomed to this. Gerald declares he will stay here for a month. Lunch is served on the beach, under a canvas umbrella, beer and gin and tonic. Chicken kebabs, onion tartlets, paw paw and avocado salad, lettuce and onion, potato salad, cheeses, nuts served by Chance and Presh, short for Precious, you guessed. And she is, a styled wig, I suspect on her pretty head, a tiny body, and a smile as wide as her face. She hugs me and says she loves my blouse. There are monkies on the roof and a sweet bushbuck who live at the camp, and look just like a Baby Cham advert, for those old enough to know what that is.
Seba, the name of the camp, means 'Whisper'. Now that the Chinese contingency have left, we are alone, and I can see why it is called that.
Mafunyani' a famous elephant, the name means 'irritable', this is an elephant story I must tell you which Tim related last night.
Saturday in Seba
Things to add:
Porcupine tracks
Batoleer bird with red bill and feet
Water bottles
Blouse to Presh
Water bottles
Banking in plane stomach lurch
Game viewing or eating
Gerald gun remembering from childhood shooting bird
Donna and bwana and pica nun
At four, and after High Tea, at 3.30pm we leave on a Mokoro trip. What a day!!!!
Notes to add
We are the only ones here
Not thatch but tents
Large aardvarks hole
Family owned camp - quiet unassuming couple
Chinese take away
Escort to tent
I can smell rain when we drive in the water
Walking to lunch, a flurry of activity turns out to be banded mongoose. So pretty, like mongoose wearing zebra skins. There is a dead catfish floating on the water, and a submerged, 'very shy' says Speedy, crocodile close by A monitor lizard is trying to eat it, but cannot gain purchase in the water.
On the drive to our mokoros, we pass the spot where the leopards and their kill are, and see the little boy lying in the sand, there is plenty of meat left, they have covered it with sand to stop the smell drifting in the wind and inviting unwanted guests to their feast. They will stay close until the meat is finished. We see more impala, leaping high, zebras, the big nests of the Hammer Kop bird, slender mongoose, red lechwe, some antelope which are amphibian, can you believe that, who will submerge under water completely to hide, with just their nose above to breathe through. I am constantly fascinated Bly the ingenuity and intelligence of animals, how they have been created to adapt to their environs perfectly. Elephant tracks, just a while ago. he leans through the open door of the jeep, and describes animals, when they passed, their sex, if there are babies, as you and I would read a newspaper. This is a veritable panorama of wildlife - Pygmy geese, lesser jacana, African jacana, so graceful, so balanced, three fish eagles, and all this in a thirty minute drive.
We arrive to where the mokoros are pulled up on the beach, Boyusi has joined us, his name means 'lonely', and he is. He too is unmarried and says it is too expensive to take a wife, something that must be altering the culture of the country. He is our 'poler', a big strong man, who carefully washes the floor of the mokoros out with a mop dipped into the lagoon, and carefully arranges chairs and cushions. They are about four metres long and made of fibreglass, as the government refuses to cut down any more trees to make them in the traditional way. We climb in, it looks very shakey, but Speedy has reassured us 'you will not fall in', but Gerald is uncertain. Speedy takes off on his own, and Boyusi has Gerald and I with him, to pole through the water. It is thick with reeds, and very silent -'and here and there these reeds are broken down, into a pathway of sorts, which is where elephant traverse the water. It is not deep here, only a metre, the water is clean and clear, flowers like lotus float, and lily pads, it looks like a great place to cool off, especially as there is no bilharzia here, but that would be unwise, as there are crocs. It is teeming with birds of every kind.
We are thinking that this is not a trip to do with Marian, given our experience on the Shoalhaven River a couple of years ago, when she managed to capsize our canoe, advertised as 'uncapsizeable'.
I remember a dream I had last night. Aunts Mary was in it, hugging me, and I told her how young and well she looked, she had a bit of a tummy, but her face was hardly lined. There were many people who felt so familiar to me, and I felt very loved and welcomed, but they were faces not immediately recognisable. My cousin Bernice from Cape Town, I think, although it is sixty years since I saw her, and would not know what she looked like. And a man, with a gentle, square face, mid forties, with longish dark hair, I did not know him, yet I did. He held my face gently and said so tenderly, and these are not the exact words, i cannot recall them, but something like "All that nonsense is behind me now". I felt he was apologising for his behaviour in the past, and it was easy to forgive him. He was not a lover, perhaps a brother, or a friend, and I was happy to hear his words, and I have no explanation why. I thought perhaps this dream was a prophesy, that I might die today, and these people were preparing me, or greeting me, but I am happy to say I did not die today, the plane landed safely I am writing this in Linyanti Bush Camp in northern Botswana, whilst three women clean up a minor flood throughout our tent, caused by a blocked drain when I was showering.
But back to this morning. I hear the motor of the boat returning, and can see the movement of the reeds, Gerald returns triumphant having caught a red breasted tilapia, a fish he caught last in his teens. Both he and Speedy have bonded the way men do sharing a physical activity, Gerald's eyes are shining with happiness. Sadly we pack up our belongings, and start our farewells. Hailey's eyes are brimming with tears, she says 'I will miss you, you've become part of camp life, like the furniture!' Does she miss her Mum? No doubt, perhaps there are things of concern in her marriage, I wish I could help her, and I hold her sweet face in my hands and tell her what a precious soul she is. I have run out of superlatives to describe this place, and have written a full page of acknowledgements on their comments sheet. The staff line to hug and farewell us, I hug Tim and Hailey again, tears running down my cheeks, he says 'Perhaps we will come and use the king size room over line river and visit you'. I do hope so, these two have touched my soul. Hailey hands me a gin and tonic for the trip to the airport, and two lunch packs in brown bags. Speedy and Gerald are anxious about time, and we leave in a cloud of dust. I am unable to stop my tears, and let them flow. The plane has not arrived, Speedy travels the length of the strip to ensure there are no animals which may get in the way of the craft. The plane lands almost immediately, and bags are transferred. I tearfully give Speedy an Aussie band I am wearing in my wrist, and tell him he is now my adopted son in Botswana, he hugs me so tight my ribs crack, leaning up into the Landie where I am sitting, and asks me to keep in touch. His last words to us are 'Gerry, you won the competition!' I make a quick pee stop behind the Landie, using the only tissue in my pocket to mop up.
We are almost veterans of the small bush plane now, and barely have time to introduce ourselves before we take off. It is Mack Air, a Cessna 206, we have three take offs and landings today. It is fifteen minutes from here the Abu airstrip to Omdop, then a five minute flight to Vumbura, then 45 minutes to Saile, followed by a one and a half hour drive to Linyati Bush Camp. Gerald looks quite relaxed, we don't even ask the pilots age, but his name is Stuart, a brochure in the plane tells me he was born in 1990, and did his matric in 2008. He is 13 years younger than Josh, I work this out in a split second, and it doesn't concern me, these bush pilots are good.
Speedy's white teeth can be seen flashing in the shadow of a tree, and the pink palms of his hands are waving. I am crying so hard, my bag is two seats behind where I sit in the front seat, and I amusing the wee dampened tissue to blow my nose, and I don't even care. Thoughts are chasing through my mind, hard to distinguish, but gradually on the first flight from Abu to Omdop, they begin to take shape, of what this is all about.
In Omdop, we pick up a French couple for a five minute flight to Vumbura, can you believe, there is no road there, they have vast amount of luggage, and Stuart is performing the impossible, squeezing it all into a tiny cavity. Clearly they did not obey the small bag and 15 kgs rule. I feel quite smug.
The flights are seamless, the strips gleaming white in the land, a man in a vehicle keeping the strip clear of wildlife, we drop the French couple and are off again, the land changing swiftly from the Delta waterways to arid, barren land, treeless and inhospitable. For a while. Then it changes, arid one side, green delta and trees the other. Amazing. The Mighty Chobe river flows in a dark green snake, trees guarding its length.
We are met by Butler, our driver, who takes us to the banks of the river to eat our lunch packs, which we share with Butler. he says 'Moenye goroga re kgore' - don't ask me to say it, but it means 'all the good food arrives when the guests do' - kind of like the special cake your mom makes, but only when guests come. A huge and handsome Kudu is evicted from his shady resting spot under the tree to make space for us. He looks miffed, understandably. There are elephants traversing the river, and there is a column of men in camouflage gear walking close by, an interesting shot, Gerald raises the camera and I raise the binocs. 'Don't let them see your camera or binoculars', says Butler, 'they get angry'. Well, it's never a good idea to make a men with guns angry we figure, so we drop our equipment. They are searching for poachers, and we encourage that, there is perhaps a good use for a gun after all.
We are waiting for a plane which turns out to carry Anthony and Susan from Canada, they are going to Linyanti Ebony Camp, 300 m from ours, and we will share the Landie. We see many birds, including the swallow tailed bee eater, water buck, and a lone impala. 'What is the name of an impala on its own?' Butler asks. We shake our heads. 'A loser, cannot attract the girls ......'