Tuesday 1st March,
2011
Our weekend at Moremi Game Reserve, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Well, do we write about..
· the thrill - on 2 occasions - of seeing two male lions
within 3m of our car, lying beside the rough track?….
· or does one mention roof-top camping near the hippo in
the pools at Xaxanaxa?….
· or should it be the sheer tension and excitement of
being bogged on a wet season muddy track for 2 hours, hoping to not be prey to
the wild animals?….
Moremi Game Reserve is both for wildlife watching and looking
after yourself when there’s little or no backup – and we enjoyed both! To enter the park and to self-drive is
fantastic – there are no fences between you and the wildlife – so you need to
know what you’re doing. On Saturday we
saw many impala, a few zebra, kudu and lechwe…plus oodles of unmistakable
evidence of the close proximity of heffalumps…but the high point was finding
lions beside the track on two separate occasions on Sunday! It was lovely to be so close to them, always
ensuring that the desert princess was aligned squarely between their fierce
jaws and the tour guide, of course!
Getting bogged was inevitable – after 2 hours of wrenching and
heaving on the high-lift jack in a mud-filled water hole we finally got pulled
out by some locals who led us from there to Xaxanaxa and showed us just how to
tackle these boggy tracks…just plow through the middle and don’t stop!
We tried our comfy tent on top of the bakkie canopy for the first
time and it worked well – keeping us dry and safe through the night - the first
of many intents nights for us on this trip!
Cooking a braai of boorevors and eye fillet over the open fire was fun
and attracted the attention of a snoopy legovan and some sitatunga…
Back in Maun we headed straight to the Bon Arivée bar to recount tales
of adventure, despair and passion to any who’d listen…hmmm…ever seen a busy bar
empty out in 10 seconds? Plebs….
