Trip Report of a Visit to Botswana in May and June 2013

7/28/2019 Trip Report of a Visit to Botswana in May and June 2013

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Trip to Botswana in Mayand June 2013

Bill Cairns


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Introduction

Well it is silly to be under stress when you areretired, but that is what happened to Jill, andto a lesser extent me, in May 2013. Jill hasbeen having a heavy time in theCommunications Committee and with her

other duties on the Kokanje Council. I haveshared the Communications Committeestress to a certain extent: a lot of it has beencaused by one individual who is not very easyto get on with and who is pushing for his ownway.

So it seemed that a good break was calledfor. We decided on a trip to Botswana: first tothe Tuli Block (where we had never been) andthen on to Orapa to see Patrick and Grace.

Perhaps we would go on further I had anidea that we could enjoy some luxury visitingone of the lodges in the Delta perhaps.

Fortuitously, Go!Magazine had just had anarticle on the Tuli Block and spoke well of theMolema Camp site which is associated withthe Tuli Safari Lodge . We liked the sound ofthe place and booked ourselves there for afew days starting on Tuesday 28th May. (Wecould not leave earlier because Jill had a

Council meeting on the Monday. So it goes).

Tuesday 28th May 2013

We had already done most of the packing soit did not take us long to get under way in themorning. Still, it was dark and cold when wewoke up and it took us a bit of time and will

power to get up at 06h30 or so. We still had tohave breakfast and say goodbye to TannieBarbara next door and finish the packing andin the end we thought that we had done wellto be out of the gate at precisely 09h00.

Last year when we went away with theTarbotons, Michle was quite envious of all

the space that we had in the back of Juanita.Not this time she wouldn't have been envious:the inside of Juanita was packed to the roof.We did have some extras that we were takingfor Patrick and Grace but even so I did notunderstand where so much extra stuff hadcome from.

Our route. The GPS was off between Modimolle and Polokwane and again from the border to Modimolle - don'task me why.

Map drawn by http://www.gpsvisualizer.com

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We stopped in town to get some mutis that weneeded and then set off for the north on thelong drive to Platjan via Polokwane and

Alldays. It was not such a pleasant drive aswe were driving straight into the sun andalthough it had been a cold morning, it soonwarmed up into quite a hot day. We stopped

at Polokwane for a leg stretch and boughtsome sandwiches for lunch then we stoppedat Alldays to fill Juanita up and liked the lookof the little restaurant (called Delicious) thereand so we stopped and ate lunch there anddecided to keep our salmis for supper.Between Polokwane and Dendron there is areservoir on the left of the road and there wesaw a flight of Marabou storks rising on athermal. We have seen them in this same

place in the past and they are a magnificentsight when flying like that. They are theopposite on the ground possibly the ugliestbird there is.

We travelled a bit west from Alldays on the tarand then right towards the border on a sandydirt road to the Platjan Border Post. Theborder post is an attractive little place with afriendly immigration lady and a friendlypoliceman (who pointed out that we did not

have our license sticker on the windscreen,but didn't take the matter any further). Wewere through the South African side in about5 minutes, most of which was spent chattingto the staff.

We drove into Botswana over the LimpopoRiver and over a narrow 3m causeway whichwas definitely scary for someone like me who

gets scared of any height over a metre.Botswana immigration was equally casual andfriendly. I checked the book there and so farthat day there had been eight cars travellinginto Botswana and seven travelling the otherway. Not the busiest border post in the world.

We paid our 140 Pula to allow Juanita totravel on Botswana roads. The customs manasked to look inside Juanita, but took one lookat the baggage piled up to the roof of the

canopy and said, That's OK. He wascertainly not about to search that mess.

We drove on into Botswana on a very dry anddusty dirt road for about 5 km and met up withthe Transit Road, another dry and dusty dirtroad. The Transit Road goes south-east tonorth-west the length of the Tuli Block and it

provides access to all the concessions. About25 km along the Transit Road and back downtowards the Limpopo and the Molema Camp.

All this time we met no cars and saw nopeople although we did drive past oneresidence and we did see some cows.

The drive from the Transit Road to the camp

is more of a 4x4 track than a proper road andthere were signs that the road had beenwashed away in places. There were alsosigns that elephant and kudu had been downthe road before us. At last we saw the line ofNyala trees (looking strangely like pine treesfrom a distance) that indicated that we werearriving at the river and the camp.

The country is very similar to the area aroundMapungubwe (which is only 60 km or soaway). It is dry with small scrub bushes, stony

The causeway over the Limpopo. I get rather

nervous driving over a narrow causeway like this.

There is certainly no room for error.

A baobab growing in Molema. The picture

gives a good idea of what the countryside is

like: dry and nearly grassless.

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TheTuliBlock

First, some stuff from Wikipedia (the whole articleis worth reading):

Geography

The Tuli reaches from the northeast corner ofBotswana, where the Shashe and the LimpopoRivers meet, down to the Notwane River north ofOlifants Drift in the South West. The entireconservancy area, including the adjacent safari

area bordering the Tuli Circle, comprises about800,000 hectares. The Tuli Block is quite differentfrom anywhere else in Botswana. It is referred toas the Hardveld because of the rocky outcropsand the abundance of stones and pebbles of allshapes and sizes. The red sand of the Tuli area isan unforgettable trait, as well as the massivetrees that occur along the banks of theLimpopo.[3]

History

The Tuli has a fascinating frontier history becauseof its strategic position along the South Africanborder. Britain declared a protectorate over

Bechuanaland in 1885. A decade later ChiefKhama III ceded the area to the British SouthAfrica Company. The object was to make the thinstrip of rocky terrain a buffer against incursions bythe South African Boer farmers. It was also on thedirect route to Rhodesia where Cecil JohnRhodes intended to build his great railway fromthe Cape to Cairo.

Rhodes soon discovered that the terrain acrossseveral rivers, gorges and rocky outcrops wastotally unsuitable for building a railway so heshifted the line to today's route, which runs almostparallel but across the flat plains further to thewest. The BSAC built Fort Tuli to protect its landand cattle, but otherwise found little economicuse for the Tuli block. Hopes of finding gold in thearea were quickly dashed. So a decade later thecompany sold off its land to private commercialfarmers. They too soon found that the rugged,rocky terrain, with its rivers prone to flash floods,was unsuitable for anything but sparse livestockfarming.

After the World War the farmers realised that

more money could be made from the growingtourism market than direct farming. The Tuliblock is an area of outstanding natural beautywith majestic rocks, strange vegetation,abundant wildlife, a profusion of birds and arich archaeological heritage. This led thelandowners to convert almost the whole stripinto private game farms and reserves wheretourists could be given exclusive holidays.

Today the general public can only reallyaccess the Tuli block through the safaricompanies and these established farms andreserves. Otherwise private visitors arerestricted to the main road running the lengthof the block.

The North East Tuli Game Reserve, on theconfluence of the Limpopo and the Shasherivers, is the collective name for several privatelyowned game reserves including the Mashatu andTuli Game Reserves, covering all the land northof the Motloutse River. The whole area consistingof game reserves, hunting and conservation

concessions covers up to 300,000 ha and is thelargest privately owned game conservation areain Southern Africa. Mashatu Game Lodge has thelargest elephant population on private land.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuli_Block

We had never been to the Tuli Block before andactually knew very little about it. The January2013 edition of Go! Magazine had an articleabout the Tuli Block that mentioned the MolemaBush Camp as being one of the fewaccommodation options that was not a luxurysafari camp (usually priced at prices that start atR2000 per person per night sharing and continueup to US$2000 per night) and which are quiteoutside our price range.

We have been to South Africa's MapungubweNational Park a few times. Mapungubwe islocated where South Africa, Botswana andZimbabwe meet and the Botswana part is theeastern-most part of the Tuli Block. It turned out,as we had expected, that the countryside atMolema was very similar to that which we knewfrom Mapungubwe: dry, sandy, rocky, almost

desert-likecountry withfew treesexcept nextto watercourses and

even lessgrass.Occasionallythere aretracts ofmopane bush and there are a fair number ofacacia trees. Despite its semi-desert nature, thereis a lot of wildlife in the area. We did not see thatmany animals, but we did see the tracks andsigns that indicated that elephant, lion, leopard,kudu were all there hiding behind the limitedvegetation.

The Tuli Block is certainly remote. The closest

fuel or shops of any kind are at Alldays in SouthAfrica, about 50 km away from the border post atPlatjan. During our time at Molema we sawnobody except for Chris and Gerry the two campstaff although there was a certain amount ofactivity on the South African side of the Limpopo.

Apparently the SA Defence Force patrols theborder there.

The Go! maps of the Tuli Block

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koppies, some mopane(and of course,baobabs), and very littlegrass. The river has abelt of riverine forest onits banks: here the forestwas mostly magnificent

Nyala trees with somebig figs and someacacias. In between theriverine forest and the

dry shrublands were what looks almost like aplantation of orange trees. These turn out tobe what are known as Fever berries or Cottontrees (I cannot find it in my tree books) .

Actually from close up the leaves look verylike a mulberry tree.

We found our way to reception and were metby a very friendly dread-locked young mancalled Chris. Chris took P200 from us (forsome reason we had only paid for threenights instead of four) and showed us tocamp-site Number 4 which was to be our newhome.

Our camp was magnificent: it is very big andshaded by three huge Nyala trees we had

our own private ablution

block, two possible flatareas to pitch our tent(we rejected both of thembecause they were notquite big enough), astone table, a fire placeand a braai. The campsite is right on the edge

of the drop that goes down to the riveralthough thick bush stops any sight of theriver itself.

It did not take us long especially withenthusiastic if unskilled help from Chris topitch our tent. We relaxed for a bit and then lita camp fire using some firewood that we had

bought for P20 from Chris. What excellentfirewood it was too: it burned and burned and

our P20 worth of wood showed all the signs oflasting our whole stay.

A chap called Gerry arrived and introducedhimself. He told us that he was a local but hadtravelled far afield when he was young andhad worked underground at Western Deeps.He told us that he was a game guide and that

he could take us for a drive to show us somegame. We postponed our decision on that .

Chris

Gerry

The camp as the sun went down

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Wednesday 29th May 2013

We slept very well and only really woke up atabout 07h45. Even then we were in no hurryto get up and did it very slowly. Chris camearound to clean up the camp site at about08h30, but we had not breakfasted orshowered yet and he went away and cameback and went away again before he finallydid what he had to.

While Chris was doing his coming and going,we had a nice breakfast of bacon and eggsand mushrooms and tomato. Some thievingmonkeys arrived who wanted us to share ourbreakfast and stole some of our bread when

we wouldn't.

After cleaning up we finally set off for a driveabout 11h00. The Go!Magazine article hadwarned that there was not much game to beseen and we found out that we agreed: therewere some impala and some squirrels andtwo jackals and lots of signs that elephant had

been this way in the past 24 hours. Therewere some nice birds though: we had a greatsighting of an African hawk-eagle sitting in theriver talking to some Hadedahs.

The driving was not difficult 4x4 stuff, but wewere glad that we had a 4x4 all the same. Wedid chicken out of some really adventurousstuff that looked a bit hairy but did not seem to

go anywhere particularlyinteresting.

We only had a schematicmap of the area to followwhich turned out to be wildlyinaccurate. For some reasonwe ended up back on theTransit Road without havingmuch idea of how we gotthere. We did have enoughGPS equipment to be sure ofnot being lost (in the senseof not being able to get homeagain), but the GPSequipment did not help usget anywhere particular,especially as we did notknow where we wanted togo. Still, this was not a majorA massive donga created by Limpopo flood waters

African Hawk-eagle

Black-backed jackal. He didn't have any feet

so I cut off his body too.

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problem as we did not really care where wewent and so we just went where the road tookus. Getting back to the Transit road was a bitof a surprise, but we are not too old to enjoysurprises. In the end, we did get home safelywithout being altogether sure where we hadbeen.

As we came close to the camp, we met a pairof jackals who posed for us quite nicely andwe took some picture of them without theirfeet.

We had a pig-out on veggies for lunch. Asnormally happens when we go away camping,we unloaded the fridge at home of all thevegetables so that when we arrive atwherever we are going we have a stack ofbits and pieces of carrots, Brussels sprouts,

peppers and so on. So this time we decidedto get rid of them all in one shot and made avegetable curry (fortified by one chickenbreast). It was good and filling.

By the time we finished lunch it was gettingquite late and by the time we had had our wellearned afternoon lie down and drop-off it waslater still.

After a nice cup of tea we went for a walk

down to the Limpopo River. There was quite asteep path to the banks of the river, but thenthere was a broad beach of sand with a fairlysmall river in the middle. There are a fewacacias growing in the river bed itself,meaning that the river is seldom very high,and the riverine forest has some lovely big figtrees. For some reason there are no Fever

trees in this part of the world meaning that theElephant's Child must have met his crocodilea bit further north (there are plenty atMapungubwe). This morning we had seen a

small crocodile, but there were none here.Gerry had told us that the large crocodilesmove down stream at this time of the yearbecause the water gets too low for them. Sothe Elephant's Child must have visited thearea in summer.

We walked a little way south upstream

until we met a family of baboons foraging inthe river bank and decided not to disturbthem. So up the bank we climbed and foundourselves in camp site number 3, our next

door neighbour. There we met Chris and hada chat with him. We went on and checked outthe other two camp sites. Number 3 is huge,twice the size of ours, and could take fourtents comfortably. Numbers 1 and 2 aresmaller and a bit more uneven. We definitelyhad the best of the camp sites. (Well, we hadasked for it. Jill)

Baboons on the banks of the Limpopo. That is South Africa on the other side of the river. We decidednot to walk any closer.

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We walked on past reception and on a fewhundred meters to the chalets. They look verynice: double bedroom huts with an attachedbathroom. There is a shared kitchen area(with a big fridge: Chris had offered us us ofthe fridge if we wanted it). Then there is alarge communal deck which sort ofoverlooks the river. (Sort of because the

river is not that visible). We think we couldenjoy staying in the chalets if we were notcamping.

We walked back to our camp along the riverbank beach again. Once home, we had a nicecup of tea and Jill went for a ride on her bikeand I looked at the trees.

My new camera started giving strop. Whenwe were on our drive, I was trying to take apicture of the jackals and the camera juststopped working. We charged the batteryagain (although it had been fully chargedwhen we left home), but it only managed a

few more pictures before giving up again. Thiswas very disappointing as I had really beenlooking forward to taking lots of pictures.

It was indeed very fortunate that, at the lastmoment, I had decided to bring my old Kodak.Otherwise we would have been ratherpictureless.

There were a lot of birds around the camp.Lots of Meves's starlings everywhere with anoccasional Burchell's starling Natal francolinsmaking a racket all the time and coming intothe camp to beg a Crested barbet thatadopted us Red-billed hornbills were morecommon than the Yellow-billed. We had to beon our guard against monkeys who staged an

occasional raid on us.Unfortunately, I had broken mycatty before we left and had to relyon throwing stones at them.

It was rutting season for the impalaand we heard them grunting and

roaring all night long. The roaringwas not all impalas either: weheard lion in the far distance on thefirst night and Gerry told us that hehad heard a leopard at the chalets.I hope that he does not decide togive us a visit.

On the banks of the Limpopo On the banks of the Limpopo

On the banks of the Limpopo

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I don't mean that we were smart to take them.

I mean that the things are smart and that wetook them with us.

My New Camera

I bought a smart new Nikon P350 a month agoand this trip was to be its dbut in the wide world.

It is a great camera with some great features thatI felt that I just had to have a 42X zoomautomatic panorama GPS wait for smiles and soon.

I would have enjoyed the it much more if it hadnot stopped working on the first Wednesday. Thesymptoms were that it had run out of batterypower. I managed to recharge it and it workedagain for a bit. I charged it again in Orapa (whereI had mains power again I thought perhapscharging from the battery was the problem), but

again it collapsed after taking just a few pictures.When we got home again, I sent the battery backto the suppliers and ordered a new one. However,the new battery failed in the same way and so Idecided that it had to be the camera and not thebattery. So the camera also went off to thesupplier.

It is a sad story because it is a lovely camera.

Fortunately, at virtually the last minute as we weregetting ready to leave home, I decided to take my

old Kodak camera as a backup. I am glad that Idid that.

Jill's New Samsung S III Smart Phone

This really is a fancy toy that nobody should leavehome without. We put on Tracks4Africa (which isan App that has details of all roads in Africa) andthe Sasol Bird App before we left.

Tracks4Africa is great and has incredible detaillike all the little tracks through Molema. We didhave some trouble getting it to navigate for us (onthe way to Alldays it insisted that we should be

going via Musina and wanted us to turn right evenwhen we were 10 km away), but I suspect that theproblems were as much ours as its. We usedTracks4Africa to record all our trips, but there is aproblem there as well in that it does seem toarbitrarily turn itself off at times.

I did have my old GPS with me and still like it forits ease of use. Unfortunately it also decided tostop recording at times and there are parts of ourtrip unrecorded on either GPS device.

The Fridge

Earlier this year we decided that luxury campingdemands a fridge to ensure cold drinks and freshfood. So I bought a very larnie 20 l Englel fridgeand added a dual battery system to Juanita. Itcertainly made a tremendous difference to ourcomfort.

I am still not sure how to manage the fridge andhow long I can leave it running on the secondbattery. I decided that the sensible thing was to

turn it off when we went to bed and turn it onagain in the morning. This meant that thetemperature went up to about 9 overnight andthen went back again to its setting of 0 veryquickly.

The Compressor

We did a lot more off-road driving on this trip than

we have ever done before and we also started offvery heavily laden. This meant that we needed toinflate our tires quite high for long distancedriving, but then drop the pressure down for ouroff road stuff. We took along a pretty powerfulcompressor to pump the tires as well as a prettysmart pressure gauge (that works great to let airout of the tires as well). The compressor was

great and pumped the tires in a few minutes.

Juanita III

Our Mazda BT-50 4x4 was great. She dideverything that we could ask of her and neverseemed to struggle.

We have added to the basic vehicle: a dualbattery system means that we can run the fridgewe have an aluminium canopy with side access (agreat feature) we have installed drawers so there

is specific space for most of our gear (which canstay there from trip to trip) an extra 60 l fuel tankgives us a range of more than 1000 km of normaldriving (we did not do 1000 km of normal drivingat a stretch ever) and it is nice to be able to travelfar without worrying too much about fuel.

The only problem that we had was that shecertainly gets very heavy when we have loadedher up with food and camping gear (as well as afull tank of course). So she is expensive on petrol.

(She is Juanita III because she is the third inout series of bakkies. Juanita I was a 2x4 Coltsingle cab Juanita II was a 2x4 Colt doublecab Juanita III is a 4x4 Mazda double cab.They have all been great vehicles).

All the Clever Stuff WeTook With Us

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Thursday 30th May 2013

There were lots of noises outside during thenight again, some of which we had no ideawhat we were hearing. Chris and Gerry toldus in the morning that a pack of wild dogs hadcome through on the road about 100 metersaway from us. The bad news is that we neversaw the wild dogs and that the wild dogseffectively chased away all the impala.

We were up slowly again and Jill was in theshower when Chris came around to do histhing. The shower is not quite open but notquite notopen either. Chris went away againmost politely. A nice breakfast and then webooked Gerry for a game drive in theafternoon and decided to go on a game driveof our own in the morning.

A small tribe of banded mongoose came

through our camp in the morning and a pair ofduiker moved past: it was just like being inKokanje!

We were a bit more savvy this time aroundand knew a bit better where we were goingand so, instead of ending up on the TransitRoad, we managed to drive past the Koppie

along a little track that meandered through themopane bush. The track was, a bitsurprisingly I thought, on Tracks4Africa whichwe had loaded on Jill's Samsung smart-phoneand so driving was quite fun: the road was notthat easy to follow and sometimes seemed tovanish, but Jill was able to say, Veer right, orStraight ahead to keep us going in the rightdirection. We had to negotiate a couple ofproper 4x4 obstacles and so felt that we were

certainly getting our money's worth out ofJuanita.

There was very little game: impalas only andmost of the time only single male impalas.Only once did we see a small herd of femaleswith a male guarding his harem.

All in all it was a fun drive from a driving pointof view although not very rewarding from agame watching or even bird watching point ofview.

Back in camp we had a packet of Paneerbreyani rice with some chicken for lunch. Verynice although far too much.

I gave been impressed with the way our newcamping fridge has been doing. I have beenturning it off at night and the temperature has

risen to about 8, but it cools down again to 0very quickly once I connect it up again.

Unfortunately, one of the hooks that keeps itin place gave way while we were 4x4ing andthe fridge fell over. But it was still runninghappily and no harm seems to have beendone.

We had a little lie down again in the afternoonafter lunch and even dropped off for a weesleep.

Gerry came around about 16h00 in anordinary Toyota bakkie with some viewing

seats on the back. It was difficult to climb inand out but we were comfortable once in. Offwe went to try and find the wild dogs (whichwe didn't) and to see lions and elephant andother things, which we didn't either. Nocriticism of Gerry, but he was no better atfinding game than we were.

Another picture of the dry country away from the

river

Riverine forest

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At first we went further west than we hadbeen on our own and saw some interestingtrees and went over some more severe 4x4obstacles than we had attempted earlier. We

then retraced a lot of the tracks that we hadalready explored. At one stage Gerry got very

excited about some disturbed ground andsaid that it looked like a leopard had caughtsomething there. A bunch of Guinea fowl weremaking appropriate chatters to suggest thatthey too had witnessed something leopardlike. But the tracks went where we could notfollow and the excitement was soon over. We

did see some more impala and some morebanded mongoose.

We lit a big fire in the evening and even left itglowing when we went to sleep. (Not goodcamping practice I know, but there was nowind and, being in the middle of the riverineforest, there was nothing for the fire to burn ifit did escape). It is good wood and was stillgoing in the morning.

Friday 31st May 2013The idea was to do nothing all day and wemanaged to do that very well. Jill was notfeeling well in fact she started on some anti-biotics yesterday and so she felt mostly likesitting in her chair and reading her book whenshe was not lying down.

We got up at about 07h00. Chris seems tohave learned not to come too early, but Gerry

came around to get paid for the drive. It was abit expensive, but probably worth it.

I pottered around the camp and went for alittle walk by myself. I went around thecampsites looking at birds and then wandereddown to the river.

The river was lovely. I saw some birds that we

had heard but not seen including Fish eagleand Egyptian geese. I saw a Fork-taileddrongo that we had, surprisingly, not seen yet.

There was an elephant's track that had comedown from near the staff quarters and walkedalong down to the water. It was a very freshtrack and I think that I had only missed him by

an hour or two. I was quite happy to miss himactually I have had enough close encounterswith elephants to be happier when elephantsare over there and not over here. It is actuallyquite an experience to be alone in the bushand to know that there are big animals notvery far away.

We had the last of our chicken for lunch. Asusual I cooked far too much and had leftovers to worry about. A nice little lie down and

I slept but must have been in an awkwardposition because I woke with a sore back. Ithen tried to open a bottle of Vicks coughmedicine and managed to stab myself with a

Crested barbet

Elephant footprint

White-backed vulture

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knife as I tried to cut away the wrapping. Sowith Jill feeling low and me with a sore backand a stabbed finger (to say nothing of abroken thumb nail from Tuesday) we are a

sorry couple.I did go for a quick walk through the campsites to try and ease my back and it seemedto work.

Chris came around to check that we were OK.I asked him to come and help us strike campin the morning and he agreed.

Saturday 1st June 2013

Goodbye to Molema. We were up earlier thanusual and had a quick breakfast of a sort ofEggs Benedict. Chris came and helped withthe tent which speeded things up a lot and sowe were all packed up and gone by 09h00.Not too bad.

We enjoyed Molema although there is not anawful lot to do. The place is lovely and thecamp ground is very comfortable. I am notsure if we will ever be back again, but we hada very pleasanttime there. It isactually just thebreak that weneeded.

It was a long andnot very pleasantdrive toFrancistown. Longbecause althoughthe road is verygood (there is just5km or so alongthe Transit Roadbefore we turned

off to Bobonong),the speed limit is80 kph for most ofthe way to SelebePhikwe. Of course,Botswana driverspay no attention tospeed limits they

either drive at 40 kph or 140 kph regardless ofthe published limits but me, being a lawabider, tried to stick to the limit. I must admitthat there were many occasions when I wouldlook down and find that I was doing 100.

The other thing that made the drive a bitunpleasant was that we were driving straight

into the sun again.

So it was Molema to Bobonong withoutseeing as much as another car in eitherdirection. We needed a GPS to get through

Fig

Sunset in Molema - and goodbye to the Tuli Block!

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Bobonong because, in good African tradition,there are no sign posts to direct you throughthe town. It is quite a big town and there is animportant turn to be made half way through.Young Kate (the lady in the GPS English,female) led us through correctly but then, forsome reason, tried to take us to Serowe.

We met a funeral in Bobonong and werereminded that it was Saturday.

On through Selebe Phikwe and Serule toFrancistown. We had great ideas of stoppingat an Indian restaurant in Francistown: Patrickand Grace always boast about it. We alsothought that we could do some shoppingthere to replace some of the stuff that we hadeaten. We did not know where the restaurantwas and neither Patrick nor Grace answered

their phones or replied to SMSes. Perhaps wecould find it ourselves? Or ask? ButFrancistown is an impossible place. It isimpossible at any time of day on any day ofthe week, but this was lunch time on Saturdayand its impossibility reaches its zenith then.The road into Francistown (from the FirstCircle to the Second Circle) is one hugetraffic jam with cars moving at slower thanwalking pace. Taxis both kinds, combi taxis

and for hire taxis do the normal taxi thing ofdriving on the wrong side of the road andcutting in or driving on the verge and cuttingin. Not having seen another car, except forGerry's bakkie, for so long, the sudden surgeof traffic was quite a shock. This was as badas Joeys during rush hour.

We did dive into a shopping centre thinkingthat we could grab something to eat at theWimpy, but there was no parking. The aisleswere full of cars waiting for someone to driveaway and leave a vacant parking space. Sowe abandoned any idea of stopping inFrancistown and pushed on.

We had a reservation at Woodlands for thenight. Woodlands is a camp site with a fewchalets and some larnier accommodationlocated about 18 km north of Francistown. It isa popular stop over for people going north toChobe or Victoria Falls and it is alsoconvenient for Orapa as the Francistown Orapa road turns off very close to Woodlands.We found Woodlands without much difficulty,but found it completely deserted. Ring the

Bell, (a ding-dong bell, not an electric bell)said the sign and I rang it and rang it andhollered loudly but nobody came to help.

So we sat ourselves down in a picnic spot andhad a cool drink. Woodlands is a lovely place.The grass is green (quite something at thistime of the year in Botswana), there were lotsof birds, the place was tidy and clean.

Eventually Claudia appeared and we wentinto the office to register. Claudia looked atthe book but we were not in the book. Shechatted with someone on a two-way radio andthen vanished to find our booking. Orsomething. Eventually Evelyn appeared andEvelyn knew all about us. She showed us toour chalet and sold me some beer and wasfriendly and efficient.

I put chalet in quotes because in fact it isnothing more than a small hut with two beds.We shared the ablution block with thecampers not that there were any campers.There are no cooking facilities except for a

Chalet at Woodlands

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braai and no washing up facilities either. Wewere unfazed by all these limitations and hadcheese and crackers for lunch (at last) andcooked ourselves a nice supper of fried riceand chicken.

In between we had a lie down and went for awalk and found ourselves some nice newbirds.

A night watchman came and introducedhimself and told us that he would be on dutyall night. I did not find his presence goodnews. I had not thought that in Botswana wewould be where a night watchman wasnecessary. But I did remember that when weplayed bowls in Mafikeng some of the playersfrom Francistown had said that it was a high

crime area. So I decided to takethe matter seriously and lockedthe car.

A Moggie came and visited. Shewas a friendly grey cat who didnot beg, but just wantedcompany.

We had a good night's sleep. Itwas nice to be in a bed again(although our camping mattress isvery comfortable, it is on theground). Unfortunately the campground is so brightly lit that wehad to black out all the windowsto get it dark enough.

Sunday 2nd June 2013

I think that we both slept well although Jill isstill hacking and snorting.

We were up at 06h30 or so and had a quickbreakfast of toasties and crispies. I packedthe car for some reason all the stuff that hadcome all this way with us did not want to fit

back again and I had to shove and push.

We saw some more nice birds around thecamp including an unidentified robin. I did nothave my binos with me as any good birderwould have had. In fact I did not even havemy glasses on so it was not surprising that allI could say was that it was a robin. The bird

list suggested that it was probably a White-browed robin-chat (as opposed to a White-browed scrub-robin that looks nothing like it).There were herds of little birds including Bluewaxbills and Red-billed firefinches.

It is about 200 km from Francistown to Orapa.Most everything in Botswana is at least 200

km from the next place. And the 200 km tendsto be flat and uninteresting with goats anddonkeys. That is what the road fromFrancistown to Orapa is like. There is onlyone town of any significance (Borolong) and itis only of very minor significance. BeingBotswana, the speed limit does drop from 120kph to 80 kph every time there is a housevisible in the distance.

There was one poignant sighting of a bus

stopping to pick up a man, and a womanwatching him get on and then walking awayshowing very depressed body language. Jillstarted imagining this as the beginning of astory and started wondering how manychildren there were at home and other partsof her situation.

We arrived at the Orapa East gate just before11h00 and went straight to the Bowls Clubwhere Patrick was playing in a tournament.Grace saw us as we arrived and met us in theparking lot. It was good to see her after whatseems to be a long time. We managed to seeabout the last three ends: Patrick made onebrilliant shot for a win but still could not rescuehis team from defeat. While he was doingthat, we had a chat to Grace and some other

Woodlands: White-browed sparrow-weaver

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of our old friends from Orapa.

We joined the players for lunch a nice sort

of chicken pie thing. There were lots ofspeeches and prize givings (I suddenly foundmyself appointed official photographeralthough I have not received the royalties formy pictures yet) and the selectors announcedthe 16 players who had been chosen for theBotswana squad.

After all the excitement was over, we wenthome with Patrick and Grace and said hello tothe dogs. Ernie immediately recognised us as

members of his pack who had beenunaccountably missing for a day or a year(dogs are vague about time) Lexie took a fewminutes of barking at us longer. I lay downand had a well earned sleep. My tummystarted giving me strop and I decided that Ihad caught Jill's sickness but that it had gone

to my stomach.

Patrick concopted a great bobotie for supper,

but I am afraid that I could not eat much.

Monday 3rd June 2013

A day for chilling. We got up late - long afterGrace had gone off to work. A nice breakfastwith Patrick and then it was a matter of sortingourselves out after all our travels.

Connie was at work (with bad toothache poorlady) and did our washing for us. We needed

that we had accumulated dirty washingsince we left home. I did a lot of tidying up ofthe car which had got more and moredisorganised.

I also took a trip into town to fill up Juanita(P966.00!) and went and did some shoppingat the Orapa Spar. I was impressed with the

way that Spar had improved since we werelast in Orapa. Before, it was a very basic shopand I think that many people in Orapa took amonthly trip to Francistown to stock up. Butnow Spar has improved 100% and in manyways it has more choice than thesupermarkets in Modimolle. Among otherthings it has a very good selection of spicesand I think that I will have to stock up beforewe leave Orapa.

While in town, I went to the local cell phoneshop (Orapa has only one of most types of

shops: one petrol station, one supermarket,one cell shop ) I bought a Mascom SIMcard and P20 worth of air time. So we are notreliant on expensive roaming cell rates.

Patrick made us an excellent Musselmanchicken for supper.

The penultimate end and Patrick is right to look worried. The Botswana National Bowls Squad

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Tuesday 4th June 2013

I had a very bad night with my upset tummyacting up and a bad attack of insomnia. I wasstill awake at 01h00 and awake again at04h00. So I was obviously not feeling verychipper.

A lot of dithering around including washing alot of dishes. We decided to go to the Game

Park and it was quite late when we finally setoff. A 20 minute or so drive and a bit of redtape before we finally got into the reserve.First we drove to the conference centre andlooked at the little dam there. There were lotsof birds drinking there but we had troubleidentifying many of them: many of them wereLBJs out of breeding plumage and most of

them were over there rather than over here.But there was a lovely Grey heron on onebank and some Red-billed teals and a Black-winged stilt in the water.

My smart new camera, that I hadpainstakingly charged all yesterday, tookabout 10 pictures and then stopped working

again.

Impala, kudu and warthog all came to drinkand all in all it was good watching. But it wassurprisingly hot in the sun so we decided to

move on to the other water hole where wesaw some more nice birds including Kalahariscrub-robin, Grey-backed sparrow-lark (alifer!) and Yellow canary. There were moreimpala and also lots of springbuck. We set offaround the pan and met more springbuck, awildebees carcass (we did not see a live one!)

and a covey of giraffe. We saw a beautifulCrimson-breasted shrike.

We went all around the pan and suddenlythere were a lot of vultures soaring in the airand sitting next to the water. There seemed to

The Orapa Game Park

A view of the pan in the Orapa Game Reserve with the mine dumps in the distance.

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be both White-backed and White-facedvultures in the air and with then was a Martialeagle. On the ground with the vultures was aMarabou stork.

A nice visit to the reserve even if there wasnothing astounding to see.

We went to Spar again and then went andhad a nice lunch of cheese and rolls. I had agood sleep that I needed badly.

We watched some Championship Trophycricket in the afternoon: India went from 55 for5 to 308 for 6 against Australia. An excellentpartnership from Dhoni and Karthik. It is hardto see anyone beating India in thistournament.

At 17h00 Patrick and I went to play bowls. Iused Jill's father's bowls that Patrick inheritedand which I had used when I first startedplaying. Patrick, Barbara and I played againstMatlusi, Leigh and Peckie and won by lotsalthough the score did not reflect the fact thatmany of the heads were very close. The

green is not in good condition with biggrassless areas, but that does not explainwhy I did not play all that well.

My flu started getting a bit worse and I starteda sore throat at lunch time. I decided to starton a course of anti-biotics.

Wednesday 5th June 2013

I slept well which was a relief after the

previous night's insomnia. We were up about07h00 and Patrick suggested that we go off tothe Nature Reserve for breakfast. So weshoved stuff into Juanita and off we went.

Patrick said that the rhinos tend to congregateat a water hole for away on the eastern sideof the reserve. So we navigated(Tracks4Africa again) our way down smalltracks that wandered through the bush formuch further than I realised was possible in

the reserve: it is quite a lot larger than Iexpected. Eventually we arrived at the Kgakawater hole and had a nice picnic breakfastthere. There were a lot of birds again, butagain many of them were LBJs on the otherside of the dam. There were two Crimson-breasted shrikes that were quite friendly.Some impalas came to drink as did a pair of

hartebees and a single wildebees. I don'tthink that I have met a hartebees at groundlevel before and was amazed at how big theywere I think that I would only just come upto their shoulders.

It was a good breakfast of rice crispies andmuesli and stuff including some nice coffee

that we had brought with us. During breakfastwe wandered around looking at the tracks ofall the animals that had come to drink thismorning including what looked like a very bigrhino.

Patrick did his bushcraft thing and said thatthe rhino had gone that way and suggestedthat we drove that way to see if we could seehim. So we got into Juanita and drove nomore than 100 metres and found him.

This big rhino was obviously used to being

Impala and Red-billed oxpecker

Yellow-breasted canary at the water hole

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fed from the back of a bakkie and he was veryhappy to see us and expected us to give hima bale of lucerne. He was a big chap and invery good condition. Unfortunately, his smallhorn was broken (apparently when he wastransported here), but his big horn wasmagnificent and perhaps 1 m long.

We watched him for a long time and drove ona bit further but didn't see anything more. Sowe turned and came back and said hello toour rhino again. We drove back a differentway along one of the cut lines that divide thereserve into big rectangles. We saw a few

more animals including gemsbuck and zebra.

Back to the house about lunch time and thena very good sleep. I am feeling blocked upand heavy and Jill is still coughing all the time.

Roast chicken pieces for supper.

Thursday 6th June 2013I was not feeling too well all day and didmostly nothing. Jill did about the same.

We did see quite a lot of Grace. She camehome for morning tea and for lunch. I suppose

that the small mining town environmentmeans that it is not too difficult to nip homequickly. India and South Africa played in theChampions Trophy and South Africa wassoundly beaten.

Friday 7th June 2013

I had a good sleep after feeling coughy andheady and all blocked up. I ended updrugging myself with all sorts of mutis and soslept very well and soundly until 08h00 andeven then I had no great desire to wake up.

Where's the food then?

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Grace came home early because it was thefirst day of an inter-mine all sportscompetition. Because he does not work onthe mine, Patrick was not involved in thebowls and so it was a good opportunity to gooff to Lake Xau.

There was the normal, boring drive to Mopipiand then left at the Tax Collector's Tree.

Down the dirt road and take the second (orthird or fourth, it doesn't matter very much)track off to the right and bash through thebush and semi-desert following tracks atrandom, until you suddenly come over a riseand there is the great oasis of blue water andgreen trees. It is one of the great surprises of

driving through Africa.

This time we arrived further south than wehave in the past and were sort of in the middleof the lake systems. The lakes seemed to beall connected (which they have not alwaysbeen before), but the water was lower that itwas last time we were here. Apparently theBoteti river is not flowing at the moment.

Lots and lots of lovely birds. Right oppositewhere we arrived was a great swarm ofpelicans standing in companies anddiscussing the fishing industry. There werealso a pair of Wattled cranes, Glossy ibis,Grey-headed gull, Caspian tern, Black-wingedstilt. I identified a Fawn-coloured lark and Jill

confirmed its call on Sasol Birds onthe smart phone.

We set ourselves up for lunch therewith Patrick's smart shade andcooked some pork sausages on thegas cooker. Sausages and rolls andtomato sauce made a good lunch.

We had two visits: firstly a pack ofdogs came to check us out and theywere followed by two youngsters onhorses who waved at us. They werelovely dogs: ridgeback-like withoutthe ridges. Proper hunting dogs whowould probably make great pets. Notlong afterwards a chap came alongand caught one of the herd ofdonkeys that had surrounded us and

were roaring at each other. Heeventually rode off on the donkey: heA great swarm of pelicans and some cows

Crowned cranes

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was big and thedonkey was little, but Isuppose that it waswhat donkeys do. Thedonkey did not look asif it was suffering inany way.

After the good lunchwe went further southacross some mud flatstowards a mass offlamingoes that werefishing in the southernlake. The mud startedbeing a little soft aftera bit and so we parked and walked about 500m closer to the flamingoes. They were quite a

sight. I estimated that there were about 400 ofthem with their heads upside down in thewater. They were mostly Lesser flamingoes,but I did identify a few Greater flamingoes

among them. There werealso quite a few Spoonbillsin a little discussion groupof their own.

I had a chat with a chapwho had been fishing

there. He said that hecame from Mkoxana, avillage between Mopipiand Orapa and that theycame here often to catchfish. He had a few, notmany fish to take home. Igather that this was

subsistence fishing.

We admired the flamingoes and then set offfor home, but then saw a vulture coming toland next to a bush. Then we saw that therewas a Tawny eagle there too and soon

The man was big and the donkey was little ...

Flamingoes

Flamingoes

Vulture and Tawny eagle stand off

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another Tawny eagle and some more vulturesarrived. As we drove closer, we saw that therewas a black dog eating something under thebush. Eventually the dog had enough andtrotted away. The original vulture and one of

the Tawny eagles had a bit of a stand-offwhile the other vultures discussed the cricket.Nobody went closer to the bush I suppose itwas us keeping them away. I nipped out ofthe car to see what was under the bush and

there was a baby calf lying there. It lookedvery new-born and probably still-born.

We drove back via a way point on my GPS(TURN XAU) that I had made the last timewe were here but which I had forgotten about.

A nice braai for supper of some nice lambchops that I managed to eat without ill-effect.

Saturday 8th June 2013

A very quiet day hopefully recovering. Wewere up late and breakfast became brunchbecause Patrick and Grace took the dogs fora walk after they eventually surfaced. Whilethey were doing that I watched France beingbeaten by New Zealand in the first of theincoming tours to the Southern Hemisphere.

Eventually we had our good brunch and thenJill, Patrick and I drove down to do someshopping while Grace walked to get somemore clicks on her pedometer. When shearrived at Spar, she decided that she did nothave enough clicks and walked back again.Meanwhile we bought some drinks from thebottle store again there is only one bottlestore and was horrified at the prices of wine:about double in Pula what we pay in Rands

for the same bottle. Patrick had to explain tome that beer was just as expensive but that,regarding beer as a necessity, I had neverbothered to look how much it had cost.

We did quite a lot of shopping at Spar and ittook even longer because nobody knew whatthe price of radishes were.

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That was business for the day. The British andIrish Lions beat the Reds not veryconvincingly. It was a good game by the Redswho normally compete with the Stormers forbeing the most boring team in Super Rugby.South Africa beat the Italians by lots afterSamoa beat Scotland. Argentina, Samoa,

Scotland and South Africa are playing a fourteam series, which is an unusual way of doingthe incoming tours.

We watched the 1987 World Cup finalbetween France and New Zealand. It was agood game and fun to watch the game withthe old laws. Some of the old laws seem tohave worked better than the new ones,especially when it comes to set scrums.

Sunday 9th June 2013It was the sort of miserable day that makesOrapa's unpleasant days most unpleasant.There was a cold wind that made the sun veryinadequate and the only thing to do was tostay inside.

Grace was feeling miserable we must havepassed the flu on to her I am afraid. At least Iwas feeling much better and Jill is better

except for the cough.So we got up late and had poached eggs andstuff for breakfast. I cooked a nice beef curryfor lunch which we finally ate at about 15h00.

Other than that I played with my computer.Patrick and Grace gave us one of thosemake-it-yourself coffee table photo albums for

Christmas and I spent a lot of time making atable of contents so that we won't forget whowas who when we get to our dotage. Once I

had finished, Grace went through it too andadded details of stuff that I didn't know, likethe surnames of all her sisters.

We had a whisky tasting event in the eveningwith four of Patrick's collection: JohnnyWalker Red, Vat 69, Chivas Regal Brother'sBlend and Famous Grouse. We identified theVat 69 correctly and rated it last. After a lot ofto-ing and fro-ing we decided that the JohnnyWalker red was the best of the four. We had

the same winner last year (when the JohnnyWalker was up against some malts). We alsoagreed that there was not much in it and eventhe number 4, the Vat 69, was veryacceptable and drinkable.

Monday 10th June 2013

It was still cold and windy for most of the dayalthough not as unpleasant as yesterday. Wewere up a bit earlier than usual and had

breakfast as early as 08h30.I needed to get out and go for a walk and so Iput on some warm clothes and set off into thewilderness to the south of Patrick's house. Itwas not long before I was walking along asmall track, big enough for a vehicle butunused for a long time, that went straight offinto the distance in the middle of a mopaneforest. There were occasional signs thatsomething had happened here in the past like

blocks of concrete abandoned in the middle ofnowhere, but no indication of what it had beenused for. Being boring mopane bush, therewas not an awful lot to see although I didcome across one good bird tree with Priritbatis and Long-billed crombec.

I walked down this track for some time and it

A small track going nowhere in particularMopane autumn colours

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carried on straight into the far distance butshowed no signs of where it was actuallygoing. The mopane bush was not the most

interesting scenery and I realised that I hadleft the GPS behind it could have beenuseful if I had decided to wander off the trackinto the bush. I also realised that I had left mycell phone behind meaning that if I wasattacked by a savage duiker or bitten by arabid mamba I was out of contact with therescue squad. So I decided that my solitarywalk into nowhere was not the smartest anddecided to retrace my steps and try a different

route.

So I walked back to the start of that track andset off again on another broader, better usedone that took me to some houses due southof Patrick and Grace's house. I saw somemore good birds including a Hamerkop thatflew overhead. My route took me in a circle

and eventually I ended back at the house intime for a nice cup of tea.

We had nice hot dogs for lunch. South Africamanaged to beat Pakistan in the afternoon.

I went off to Spar to get the ingredients for ourspecial farewell meal which we will have thisevening (tomorrow being bowls). I boughtsome chicken breast and some frying steakand made two lots of satays. We had all thatwith some nice fried rice that Patrickconcocted up.

Tuesday 11th June 2013

Our last full day in Orapa and I had thoughtthat a farewell visit to the Nature Reservewould have been a good thing. The weather

had other ideas and it was the sort of day thatis specifically designed to be spent in one'sown house with one's own computer and all.Still, if I could not be in my own house beingin one of my children's houses was secondbest and we certainly had a good time withPatrick and Grace.

So it turned out to be another do-nothingmorning. We had a nice breakfast and thenplayed with our computers and I finished my

Evelyn Anthony book.

Patrick made us a nice corn chowder forlunch. In the afternoon we had a sleep anddid some packing although most everythingexcept for clothes is already in Juanita.

At 16h30 Patrick and I went off to play bowls.

We played a strange game that Patrick hadbrought back from Australia: you play with two

jacks and score on both of them. It makes forsome different tactics, but not that differentfrom normal bowls. Patrick, Peckie and IPlayed against Sticks (a very long thinMotswana), Barbara and Sticks's son who

was about 10 and who played some verygood and also some very bad bowls. Wewon by lots.

We went to the local Wimpy for supper.Patrick and I drove straight from bowls, Jilland Grace walked there after they hadfinished watching Master Chef Australia. TheWimpy service was pretty poor and Jill's(medium) lamb chops arrived nearly raw. Myhamburger was little more than acceptable.

Patrick's spare ribs were tough. Grace luckedout with some decent fish and chips.

Jill and I drove back and Patrick and Gracewalked.

Patrick, Lexie and Ernie

(note the fancy double lead!)

"Good Times" Grace's picture of her indolent parents-in-law and equally indolent dog

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Wednesday 12th June 2013

Our last morning in Orapa. So we started off,as usual, by getting up late and having a latebreakfast.

There was a bit of drama after breakfast. Iwas out at Juanita putting something in the

back when a huge female warthog camewalking down the road. I got excited andrushed inside to get my camera. At the samemoment as I came out of the front door again,the warthog crashed through the front gate toinvestigate the rubbish bins. Ernie heard thegate and rushed out of the door, pushing merudely aside, and set off after the warthogwho beat a retreat down the road. I shouted atJill to call Patrick, and we then had aprocession rushing down the road with the

warthog in front, then Ernie, then Lexie (whoturned when I called her but then decided thechase was too much fun) and lastly meshouting at the dogs who ignored mecompletely. The chase continued down theroad with alternately Ernie chasing thewarthog and the warthog chasing Ernie. I wasterrified that the warthog was going to connectwith Ernie and possibly hurt him badly, butErnie was faster than she was. (For those

who don't remember: Ernie is a chow andLexie a golden retriever. Jill)

Eventually Patrick arrived in his car. The dogspaid no attention to anyone, especially me,shouting at them, but obediently jumped intothe back of the car. I suppose that is the resultof habit! Patrick drove them home and I took

some pictures of the warthog who just startedgrazing as if nothing had happened.

A short walk with Patrick and Jill followingpretty much the second part of the sameroute that I had taken previously. A great

sighting of a Cape eagle-owl.

We had lunch, said goodbye to Patrick andGrace, and set off at about 13h30.

There is not much to say about the drive fromOrapa to the Khama Rhino sanctuary exceptthe normal things that one says about drivingthrough Botswana.

We arrived at about 13h20 and it took the nicelady about 20 minutes to calculate how much

we owed them. We had already paid for ouraccommodation but she had to add in Parkfees and car fees and some random fees acouple of times and came up with differentanswers. Then she realised we were there fortwo nights and not one and had to start again.We had to pay her P220 which became P185

The warthog after the fun - she decided that shewas now hungry

Giant eagle-owl

Our chalet at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary

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for a reason that I did not understand. Surelythey have two people staying for two nightsquite frequently and should not have to workout the price from first principles every time?

We bought a map of the reserve from theshop next door and then set off to find ourchalet. Down the road a bit and take the left

fork, drive for 2.5 km along an extremelysandy road and the chalet is on the left. Itturned out to be a very nice little one bedroombuilding with a built in bathroom, fridge andkettle. The only problem for us in the middleof winter was that it was nearly open to theelements: instead of a front wall above thedoor it had shade netting, and there were bigair vents all around. I suspect that it would benice and cool in summer.

The chalets are surrounded by hugemokongwa trees (Ricinodendron rautanenii,or the Manketti tree) which were bare ofleaves at this time of year. They look a littlelike baobabs with thick trunks which quicklyreduce into fairly spindly branches.

We did the minimum of unpacking and thenwent for a short drive up to the restaurantwhich is close to the gate. Except that wedecided to take another route and promptly

got lost and found ourselves driving along theboundary road which was not marked on ourmap. This would not have been a problem initself except that we found ourselves stuckbehind a number of Park employees whowere putting out a fire. Because the road wasvery narrow with high banks and because the

veld was extremely sandy, I ended up havingto reverse a few hundred metres back towhere I turned onto the boundary road bymistake.

Eventually we found the right road and drovethrough another very sandy road to therestaurant. Patrick and Grace had said that

they had enjoyed a good meal here and weenjoyed our meal too: Jill had a chicken stir-fry and I had a roast baby chicken. Therestaurant building is very nice and airy andthere is room to sit outside around aswimming pool. Most of these facilities werenot appreciated by us as it was pretty chilly.

There was some excitement when a blackrhino came walking through the restaurantgrounds pursued by two SUVs full of German

tourists. We learned from our waiter, Kobu,that it is the rhino that regularly comes anddrinks from the swimming pool. He said thatthe level of the pool dropped considerablywhen the rhino was thirsty.

We drove home in the dark and went to bedand read. We found an extra duvet in a boxand slept in our track suits and under ablanket and two duvets. We slept well.

Thursday 13th June 2013

We did not want to get up. It was warm in bedand not warm outside. So it took time to getup and breakfasted and out on to the road:we were only gone about 10h00.

While we were snuggling in bed, there was a

The Restaurant at the Rhino Sanctuary

OK - so they are not the best pictures that youhave ever seen of a black rhino. But they are the

best that I have ever taken ...

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scratching and a chewingcoming from the direction of ourfood. Something had chewed ahole in a packet and taken

some packets of sugar. A rat?No, it turned out be be arascally dishonest thieving squirrel that hadsnuck in through the gaps in the side of thebuilding and helped himself to our provisions.What is the difference between a rat and asquirrel? Marketing.

We set off for a fairly

long drive around thepark. We started offgoing back to therestaurant and then onto a bird hide where wesat for a long time.There were lots and lotsof birds not that manydifferent speciesperhaps, but lots in

numbers. Most of themwere Red-eyed bulbuls,but there were many small finches, guineafowl, doves of different denominations, and another lifer Shaft-tailed Whydah. Therewas a small raptor flying around terrorisingthe small birds although we did not see himactually attacking anything. We had a lot of

trouble seeing him well enough to identify

him: he was either flying flat out or hiding inthe middle of a bush. In the end we were fairlyconvinced that he was a small Sparrow-hawkand probably a juvenile. But when we gothome and showed the (pretty poor) picture toWarwick he had no doubt that it was amelanistic Gabar goshwawk.

There were two lovely male kudu drinkingfrom the dam when we arrived and they werefollowed by a steady procession of warthogs

and more kudu. The big excitement was twolovely young female white rhino who drankand drank and drank.

On from the hide and up to the big pan that isthe centre of the reserve. There were Bluewildebees chilling under some trees (it wasbeginning to get warm), zebra in the open,

From this picture, Warwick identified a

Gabar goshawk. I am not in his league.

All pictures taken at the water hole

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another white rhino with a half-grown calf,

impala. The most impressive sighting was aconvention of at least 100 vultures sitting andsunning themselves next to a waterhole in thepan. As far as we could see they were allWhite-faced vultures except for a solitaryLappet-faced and two Tawny eagles.

It was a good drive. We stopped at a verynice picnic spot next to the restaurant and hada late lunch there. We ate the rest of my halfchicken from last night: it had frozen solid in

the fridge and I had to warm it up in a fryingpan.

Back to the chalet and chilled for a bit andthen went around the camp sites for a littlewalk. We bumped into a beautiful female kuduwho looked at us for a long time beforebounding off for about 20 metres when she

decided she was now invisible and could lookat us some more. There were some dog-liketracks that we decided might well be Brownhyena.

We had locked everything away from thatvillainous squirrel when we left this morning.Unfortunately we locked the bread in a plastic

bread box and it had chewed a hole in thecorner and still managed to thieve somebread.

A light supper and into bed early again.

Friday 14th June 2013

The long drive home. We were up soon after06h00 with birds making a huge racketoutside. We had toasties for breakfast and

shared some of our cereal with a gang of Piedbabblers, Natal francolin, Glossy starlings,Yellow-billed hornbills and our squirrel whohad no guilty conscience at all. One of thehornbills discovered his reflection in theJuanita's windscreen and had quite a fightwith it.

A different chirping from the top of one of thebig mokongwa trees and there were twoMeyer's parrots having a love-in up there. A

third parrot on another tree joined in.

We were off about 09h00. It is a slow drive toSerowe with lots of 80 kph limits and thenthere is always lots of traffic to Palapye, thenthere is an easy drive to the border at Martin'sDrift except for the last section which isheavily pot-holed and where there are quite a

Vultures at the pan

Meyer's parrot

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lot of road works. I had decided on theMartin's Drift route rather than Stockpoortbecause by now I was quite tired of driving ondirt roads however good their condition.

No problems at the border except that I forgotthat I had to collect an exit permit fromBotswana customs. I can never remember the

order that you have to do things and what wehave to get from where when we go throughborders. The South African side was noproblem either: a bit of a queue atimmigration, but customs was a friendlyyoung lady who said, Welcome home! andthe policeman at the gate wanted to knowwhere we came from and said, You have along way to go so I won't keep you! I wish allgovernment officials were so friendly.

We drove on through Lephalale and thenstopped at Vaalwater for a nice lunch ofchicken schnitzel and fish and chips. Therewas a group of four women and one manhaving lunch there too. One of the womenwas changing the nappy of a poor littlemonkey when we arrived (and we could notpark because she had her car door blockingthe parking spot). The monkey then gotbanished into a tiny little cage and was

ignored for the rest of the lunch. I read aboutpet monkeys on the internet after that (I thinkthis is what is called a squirrel monkey) andam glad to see that more and more placesaround the world are banning them as pets.

Home about 15h00 and lots of unpacking todo.

This yellow-billed hornbill at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary had a good fight with his image in

Juanita's windscreen

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Production Note

I kept a manual diary using old fashioned pencil and paper while wewere travelling and used that as my notes to write this trip report whenwe were home again. I used Libre Office 3.5.7.2 on my Ubuntu 12.04computer to do the writing.

Our pictures (taken on the new Nikon P350, the old Kodak EasyshareZ980 or the even older Kodak Easyshare Z740) were fixed, cropped,enhanced and manipulated using Gimp 2.8.

I used Scribus 1.4.1 to lay out the text and pictures and to create thisPDF file. When creating the PDF, I deliberately reduced the images to80 dpi (the final product is big enough as it is!) This resolution is fine forlooking at the PDF on the screen but is not too good for printing. Itwould be easy to create a PDF file at a decent resolution.

Credits

These are given in the text where they apply, but to mention themagain: the trip map was generated using that fantastic web siteGPSVisualizer. The Tuli map comes from Go!Magazine January 2013and I have quoted from the Wikipedia article on the Tuli Block. Thepicture of Jill, Lexie and me was taken by Grace.

Links

My home page is www.cairnmarsh.co.za

We live in Kokanje in Limpopo and the web site there iswww.kokanjeaftreeoord.co.za

GPS Visualizer is at http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

Date post:	03-Apr-2018
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Trip Report of a Visit to Botswana in May and June 2013

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