Gray usually gets up a bit earlier than the girls, makes the fire and warms the kettle for coffee/ tea/Oats so Easy etc. When I emerged from the tent this morning, he was sitting at the table with a yellow bellied greenbul eating a rusk out of his hand and a laughing dove picking up crumbs at his feet.
Its move on day, so we had to pack up camp (we are getting pretty good this). We have our food packed into 3 black ammo boxes and our crockery & cutlery in a fourth. These boxes pack neatly into one another and are waterproof, so can be unpacked and left out; or so we thought, at Rundu we left them under the table on the grass, to discover there were tiny holes on the bottom and the ants had discovered this. All the food was well sealed and no harm was done. Since the ant episode we have made sure that the boxes are raised off the ground. At Nunda we had a wooden bench, perfect for the 4 boxes, so we thought, as Gray lifted the one box this morning, Robs squealed – under the box were these gross looking termites. We knocked them all off the box and it looked like they were eating rice (yep, it was the box containing tins, soups, pasta and rice). After a very hurried unpack to determine the damage, we discovered not even an ant in the box. Not sure what the rice looking stuff was but it was gross. The joys of camping.
We took an easy 100km trip up the main road, stopping to help a couple who had blown a tyre on their caravan. There were numerous “Beware of Elephant” signs and with good cause because there were eles browsing on the side of the main road.
Doris suddenly told us to take a right turn, a decision I queried as there were no signs to the Namushasha Camp we had booked into (there appear to be no detailed maps of this area). Doris, being the only female Graeme will take directions from, won. Off we set down a sand track into the most amazing bush; if I were an animal, this section of the Kwando River is where I would like to live. Soon we encountered a herd of ele, we had to be very cautious as there was no way of reversing back along the track with the trailer on. This was the first of 3 herds we came across, along with kudu, waterbuck, nyala, impala and baboons. There were numerous tracks to take, we opted for the low road which went along the river edge, it was beautiful, the waterways were filled with water lilies and teaming with bird life. After about an hour Doris informed us that we should return to the main road. Clearly her short cut hadn’t factored in a river crossing with no bridge. The next problem was to find a place to turn the Discovery, which has the worst turning circle of any car ever made, and a trailer, in the thick sand. Eventually we found a type of clearing near the river’s edge for our U-turn, only to get stuck on a tree stump; neither low range nor high range was going to move us. But never fear when ‘Camel Man’ is here. He whizzed around the bush gathering logs to pack around the tyres and we were free in 2 minutes. Robs and I directed him back to the track so as to avoid any further obstacles. Back on track, we found fresh lion spoor on the road (and we had been checking out for elephants). Gray thought this was a great practice run for the months ahead.
Two hours later we were back on the main road. The turn off to Namushasha - was a police block and 7km down the road. The dirt road to the entrance was like a national highway. We found a great camp site, with a large river front area (not great ablutions, but we would manage). As we were the only ones in the camp site, we chose an area near a lapa with a stunning view. We then went exploring round the area and found a deck overlooking the Kwando River to chill for a while. This river is gentler flowing than the Kavango River and surrounded by reeds and water lilies. The trees in this area are hundreds of years old and form umbrellas over the vegetation below allowing the light to permeate like little fairies.
We returned just before sunset to prepare dinner. We were in a mellow mood, enjoying the quietness of the sunset. All of a sudden 5 4x4’s with off road caravans arrived. With the camp site being a km long, one would have thought they would have found an area away from the only other campers, we certainly would have. This morning Garth, the owner of Nunda, an Afrikaans man who has travelled Africa extensively said ‘there is nothing worse than Afrikaans (he used the word Boere) campers, he was wrong Afrikaans caravaners can piss you off a whole lot more. They set up a laager around us, took over our camp fire and invaded our space completely. Graeme, being the absolute gentleman that he is, quietly moved our ‘living area’ to the other side of our tent and started a new fire (by now it was too dark to move away from them). Just as we settled ourselves with a drink, determined to get over the rudeness of people, they started up a generator and then proceeded shouting at each other to be heard over the din. So much for our quiet evening, listening to the sounds of Africa. This is by far the most irritated we have been so far this holiday. We can cope with bugs, termites, heat and hard beds but selfish caravaners are another story completely, now I know why they have such a bad reputation.
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