No Fixed Abode: Into the wild

Mon 11 Jul 2016 - Mobile Safari Day 1: Moremi

For the next seven days we were booked on a mobile wild camping safari with Audi Camp.

Up and out early we split our possession between those that were staying with the car at Audi camp and those that were going with us. At 0800 we met our two companions for the week, Lets, the driver/guide and KB, the cook, slung our bags in the back of the open safari truck and set off with a large trailer in tow. We were going to be wild camping in the bush for five nights and had to be self sufficient so the back of the truck was rammed with coolers, large water containers and tubs of food.

The entrance to the Moremi reserve was 40km up a bumpy, sandy track and progress was steady but eventually we reached the entrance gate and filled in the now familiar tourist register. Lets explained the entrance proper was another 10 km but we may see some animals in this buffer zone and he did not let us down. The first large tree we passed had hole in the trunk with 3 owlets inside then after passing a few zebra and giraffe we suddenly came to halt and Lets called back that there were a couple of wild dogs, which are very rare to see, crossing our path. Leaping about excitedly for a better view more and more came from every direction and disappeared behind the same tree where, we presumed, an animal had been killed. This was soon confirmed as vultures appeared from nowhere, swooping out of the sky to land in the branches of a nearby dead tree. Before we left we counted at least 15 dogs, all the same mottled brown similar to a hyena with the physique of a skinny alsatian.

A short while later we stopped at a picnic area to eat our first camp meal - a massive salad all beautifully prepared at a clothed table with knives and forks and china. This was not roughing it by any means. As we chatted to the boys about what a great start the wild dogs had been we mentioned that the only big cat we hadn’t yet seen was the, difficult to see, leopard and with that Lets set off amongst the other guides for a chat and returned with a location where one had been seen.

Several km of windy bush track later we drew alongside a truck with film crew by a stand of trees and were told that they had seen a Leopard mother and cub disappear into the bush but the cub had seemed nervous. We waited for a while looking at a large warthog carcass draped across a branch high in one of the trees but saw nothing so we decided to set off for our camp. We had only gone a hundred metres when Glenn noticed the outline of a leopard moving in the long, golden and dry grass and yelled for Lets to stop. To our absolute joy the mother leopard was leading the cub right in front of us and back to the trees so we watched her pass then drove swiftly back to the trees to wait. Several minutes passed with no further sightings and we thought they must be lying in the grass somewhere when suddenly KB announced that the cub was climbing the tree. Our binoculars and camera trained swiftly to the trunk to watch the small cub, 2 weeks old by Lets’ reckoning, scramble up the tree and spend the next fifteen minutes gorging on the warthog. Once finished it slithered and slipped its way back down and disappeared to rejoin its mum in the grass.

Extremely happy we drove to our camp for many km until Lets pulled into a small clearing to look at an elephant. He then started revving the engine and when questioned revealed that he was trying to scare the elephant away as this was our campsite! The elephant took a few steps but continued munching on some leaves so Lets just pulled over and the boys started unloading the trailer and truck with the elephant looking on. We tentatively stepped out of the truck to watch the action when the elephant started to walk towards us. Lets instructed us to get back in the truck while he advanced towards the elephant clapping his hands and waving a stick, which seemed to do the trick as it wandered off. This is what you call ‘wild’ camping.

Before long camp was set, a fire lit and KB was busy preparing a scrumptious dinner for us all, which was taken beneath the stars at a lantern lit table listening to the snarls, growls and grunts of the bush, with Lets identifying distant lions and hippos from the ensemble of sounds. Over dinner we learned that Lets is a veteran guide of 26 years who started off as a level 1 mokoro poler, just like Damara from yesterday, and worked up as a level 2 at a lodge and then gained his level 3, which allows him to take mobile trips such as the one we were on. He is married with four children and can spend up to 12 weeks away on trips in the high season. KB is separated, a common state in Africa, and has two children and lives with his brother and sister.

After dinner we sat around the campfire exchanging stories until it was late enough (2100) for us to retire. Lets warned that animals would roam through the camp during the night but we would be safe as long as we stayed in our tents. In slight trepidation we retired to the chirps of crickets, snorts of hoppos and low baritone ‘ooohs’ of lions as we tried to get to sleep.

Campfire tale: Lets had just filled the camp shower container with water and told a German guest that the shower was ready. Just then a large elephant walked into camp, strolled over to the shower, reached his trunk into the container and began drinking the water. Lets was trying to call out to warn him of the elephant but the guest in return shouted that there was no water coming out of the shower head.