Africa - Moremi Crossing

 August 31

I woke up today at 3AM and couldn’t get back to sleep. I finally got up at 6 to update this blog. Are you impressed Oishimas? We had to kill a few hours after checking out of Chobe Safari Lodge and had a milkshake for lunch by the river. Then it was off to the airport in Kasane for our flights to Moremi Crossing. With little in documentation, you just had to trust that everything would go as planned. It did, mostly. We had to take two planes. The first was a 12 seater Cessna. The second was a GA Airvan, a very small 4 seater, (plus pilot seats). My suitcase was considered too large for the cargo hold. I had the option of paying $500 US to get the bag on (return cost) or store my suitcase with the airline in Kasane until we got back in 4 days. I chose the cheap option of course. They did give me the opportunity to transfer some things from my suitcase to Jo’s bag. Luckily our bags were about half full because we knew there were weight restrictions on these flights. I took my toiletries, a spare shirt and shorts and foot ware, plus a jacket, which meant if I got really dirty, or it got very cold, I was in trouble with only shorts to wear. The first flight was 40 minutes and we landed in a strip of blacktop in the middle of nowhere with only a little open tent on the side. There a little 4 seater was waiting to fly us the last 15 minutes to Moremi, which is in the Okavango Delta. We had a young woman pilot and she did a fantastic job, landing so gently. We saw elephants, giraffes and various types of antelopes below. The land was very dry, with marks where rivers flowed during the wet season. The airstrip at Moremi was also just a strip of blacktop with a few tables on the side and our waiting safari Jeep. Everything went so smooth and we were driven to the camp which was 5 minutes away. The camp was along the river with a big open building housing the bar, restaurant, several lounging areas and a veranda along the front. it had a large thatched roof. Our accommodations consisted of a tent built on a wooden platform with two beds, toilet room, sink and outdoor shower. We had a small deck overlooking the river where at any given time, we could see impala, lechwe and reed bucks, (types of antelope) grazing along the banks, wart hogs rummaging in the mud, elephants, giraffes kudu, monitor lizards and many, many birds, often all at the same time. We did not hove outlets so could not charge our electrical items except in the main building, and there was no wi if anywhere. After dark we had to be escorted to our tents because of the wildlife that frequented the camp. 

We went on a game drive and saw three hyenas, a leopard and cub in a tree, a hyena den with hyenas and pups, and a serval we saw by spotlight after dark. Of course we had wine at sundown. We had a delicious dinner at 8PM after the drive. Dinner was buffet style. We also had access to as much wine, beer and soft drinks as we wanted any time. (All food and beverages were covered so we never had to worry about costs which was really nice. When we returned from our game drive, we were treated by the staff, who all sang a welcome song to us. Dinner was also always introduced very formally, addressing us as ladies and gentlemen, describing the three course meal and always stating that women should come up first. Following dinner tonight one of the guides shone his light across the river and called us over. They had spotted a aardwolf, a rare find. However it was gone before I could see it. All the guide had made up English names I believe. Our guide was Patrick and his assistant was Pats (also Patrick). 

September 1

We heard many strange sounds during the night, including hyenas near by. I was awake at 3:45AM, so our early wake up call of 5:30 was no big deal. Our day began with a continental breakfast at 6:00, game drive from 6:30 to 10:30 or so, and then a brunch, consisting of salads, meat and rice dishes, and eggs to order, with bacon and sausages. Our morning drive was very cool and windy most of the morning. We drove around, often barreling through unmarked terrain, over small bushes, etc. In search of animals. Today we came across red lechwe, an aquatic antelope, a few birds, zebra, giraffe and a brown snake eagle. Despite talk of lions and wild dogs, we did not see any. When we returned to camp, I was amazed at the sounds of birds everywhere. So many different songs. It kept me busy most of the time. We enjoyed time relaxing on the deck and showering outside until our evening game drive at 4PM, preceded by our daily high tea with coffee, tea, lemonade and cake or other sweets. At one time, looking out from the deck, I saw hornbills, red lechwe, impala, kudu, monitor lizard, and two giraffes. Our game outing tonight was a boat ride up river. We saw reed bucks, a white broad council, red lechwe, hippos, elephants, and two malachite kingfishers, beautifully coloured birds. We were in bed by 10 PM.

September 2

Today was special, to say the least. It was again a cold morning, and we wrapped ourselves in blankets in our open jeep for the first few hours. Our new assistant guide, Godfrey pointed out tracks in the sandy road, including aardvarks and elephants. I leaned over to see them. I generally record the names of many of the wildlife we see as a note on my iPhone. We were driving along when we spotted what Godfrey identified as tsessebe, an antelope we had not seen on this trip. I went for my phone in my coat pocket to make a note. It was gone. I checked around everywhere but to no avail. Finally I told Patrick I had lost my phone. I suspected that it had dropped out of my coat pocket when I leaned out of the side of the vehicles or while we drove through some bumpy areas. Patrick was very good about it. He began retracing our route slowly, looking along the side of the road. Meanwhile he radioed back to camp for someone to drive the road from the camp to where we were looking for the phone. I felt it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, especially with the high grass along the sides of the road. I also felt guilty because we had a fellow from India with us who was leaving this morning. He had been very pushy about getting this drive in before he had to leave. Now we were spending it looking for my phone. I did say more than one prayer for God to help us find it. But duty called. We were looking, and I was looking around because I was on the wrong side of the jeep to see anything, when I spotted a leopard sitting a ways off. I let everyone know where it was. This called off the phone search temporarily to pursue the leopard. We found it had a small cub with it, and we followed it. We got within 20 yards of it and got some amazing photos. Meanwhile we got a call that my phone had been found! Prayer answered! I got the phone back and assured everyone I would be keeping my jacket pockets zipped up. They also owed me a thank you because by retracing, we found the leopards. The rest of the drive produced the usual animals we now saw regularly, but nothing unusual.

That should have been the end of it. At lunch Jo wanted my Visa card to purchase a woven bowl. It was in my wallet. That afternoon we took the boat to an island where we went on a walk with two guides. The. Walk was uneventful except for a beautiful eagle owl we saw. Then we came across two old, ornery looking buffalo. They eyed us very closely from a distance. Buffalo can be unpredictable, and apparently they never do a rack charge. If they charge you, they are not stopping. I felt very uncomfortable as we skirted them and walked away. They never left their eyes off of us, but did not approach either. When we got back to our tent that night, we looked everywhere for my wallet. I checked everywhere, five times over. We repacked Jo’s suitcase (mine was in Kasane) but nothing turned up. I felt sick, since it included some money but more importantly, driver’s licence, MasterCard, bank cards, etc. At t breakfast the next morning I told Patrick about it. Again, the staff sprung into action. They searched all the furniture in the lodge in case it had fallen between cushions, even chairs I never sat in. Patrick searched the boat in case it fell on the floor, and I checked the ground where I had jumped out of the boat. Nothing. Patrick offered to have us redo the walk to see if it had fallen during the walk but I insisted that we not do that. I felt confident that it would not drop out of my pocket while just walking. We did do our game drive and when we returned, I wrote up a report describing my wallet, the time period I seemed to have lost it (after lunch when I gave Jo my Visa, which she still had). The manager of the lodge had sent someone to go to where we had gotten off the boat at the island we had walked and searched the beach. Nothing. Jo had bought a woven vase the day before, and had taken it to our tent in a bag, but had not paid for it because the Visa connection was not working. During lunch she went to the office with the vase to try again. She took out the vase and opened it, (it had a lid), and there was my wallet! The bag with the vase was the only place we had not searched because why would it be in there! Another prayer answered. I was beginning to feel like a real loser literally, for losing two important items in one day. 

September 3

Once again, I was up before the 5:30 wake up call. We were stuck in our tent for a little while because a very large elephant was right on the path in font of our tent, only a few feet away. We had to wait until it was coaxed to move on before Patrick could accompany us for the continental breakfast. We did a shorten game drive, again finding the mother leopard, who we followed for a time. We also came across many trees filled with vultures. Not sure what that was about. We returned early, at 9:30 for breakfast. While our eggs were being prepared, Patrick informed us that our plane was arriving early, and we had only 10 minutes before we had to leave. The bags were packed into the vehicle. We ate as much as we could before dashing off to meet the little 4 seater plane, to begin our journey back to Kasane. 

Everything went exactly as planned. We got on our little plane, flew to the next air strip where we again got off and onto the larger 12 seater for Kasane. There I reunited with my luggage and immediately saw a man with a sign for us. He drove us to the border with Zambia. We were the only ones in the nice new border building and in no time at all, were on our way. We arrived with over 3 hours to spare at the Livingstone airport. Apparently Livingstone is the only town in Zambia still using a British name. We checked in for our flight to the capital, Lusaka. I was worried my suitcase might again be considered too large but it was not a problem. We arrived in Lusaka and were immediately greeted by an employee of Wild Dog Lodge, where we were spending the night. He drove us there, a journey of 25 minutes, which included 3 police check stops, (we were waved through). The traffic was very heavy for a Saturday night at 8:30. We were struck by an area near our lodge where there were modern buildings, a modern shopping mall and recreation type buildings, and then a short distance further groups of people huddled around  fires and dilapidated box houses. Our lodge was secure. It was odd that our driver took our bags, brought us to our rooms without any explanation. He confirmed that he would pick us up at 5AM to bring us to the airport. We went to the pool area where a buffet dinner was being served. There was a table designated for us and we helped ourselves to a little dinner, since most of us were not hungry. Finally, the owner came by to greet us and said we could pay for our food and drink tonight before we go to bed, as we were leaving so early. She offered to have some coffee and food for us but we declined. Our rooms were nice and we hit the bed at about 11:00 o’clock.