We are back in Gabs after 12 days of adventure. We've learned that expectations and reality do not always match up but in the end it doesn't matter because every experience is unique and in this case overwhelming and special.
So we arrived in Maun on October 31st and met up with Steve and his wife Maps. This was great, we all caught up from where we had left off, which was 2 years ago for me but 20 years ago for Rich. Steve is happily settled and Maps knew everyone in town so we had a real taste of Africa, with local food and some local night life.
After a a lovely night in a beautiful lodge, we set off with our guides and 2 support staff on safari. This is where the fun really started...some of it expected and some of it very unexpected and not always what we would have chosen. We visited 3 separate game reserves in the swamp area, Kwai, Savuti and Tchingapan. All were quite different and beautiful in their own way; Kwai had a variety of watery landscapes and some open areas, Savuti was less varied but we camped by the river which was lovely and Tchingapan was remote, very dry but lacking in other tourists, which was a treat.We were well looked after by the staff, who put up our tents, dug our loo and cooked delicious food on an open fire.Our guides were another story and by day 3 we had learned rather more about them than we had bargained for...professional boundaries were crossed quicker than we could say 'leopard at 3 o clock' and Rich and I found ourselves acting as both relationship counsellors and mental health practitioners as the situation unravelled- not helped by the quantities of gin, red wine and whisky consumed rapidly before our eyes.However as always this enhanced the overall experience, the non conventional approach to clients on safari meant that we saw far more than the average tourist and made the trip unique and more intimate ( perhaps sometimes too intimate. for comfort). A trip like this probably wouldn't be for everyone but it was probably the only trip Rich and I could have had.
So the wild life highlights were many and I have hundreds of photos and some rather nice footage of swimming elephants and mating lions. We saw loads of lions in all 3 locations, some we saw at night and then tracked them again in the morning, some were so close to our camp that we could hear them all night ( this was a positive experience!!). We saw wild dogs, hyenas with a kill, jackals catching doves, millions of elephants and loads of different exotic birds and eagles galore.We fished in the river and ate the bream we caught-I really enjoyed this and might even fish again when I get home, we drove up a sheer rocky hill to watch the sunset,we saw some rock paintings and learned all about trees. It was GREAT.
We ended our trip in Victoria Falls Zimbabwe, which was surprisingly different from Botswana. The Falls were magical and well worth the $30 fee. People are very poor in Zim and so we got lots of hassle from people trying to sell us stuff, Rich found this harder to cope with than me and so I was charged to send them on their way with one of my big smiles. It worked well and we had a good time and some lovely local food at Mama Africa's- well worth a visit.
We're off again on Thursday. A night in Pretoria and then a week or so in the Drakensberg mountains-I need some exercise!!!
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