Mabuasehube 2012

Pandas in Africa 2012

Mabuasehube

Back to Botswana

It’s been just over a year since returning from our Sandton to Serengeti trip. At first it was unsettling to have to return to ‘normal’ life.  What I missed most was taking each day as it came: waking up in the morning and not knowing where we would be sleeping that night, finding passable routes and exciting places to visit and people to meet. The appreciation of finding a camp site with a warm, clean shower or eating freshly caught fish or the smell of braai bread fresh off the coals. However, before we knew it, it was back to work, sleeping in comfortable beds and all the trappings of city life. Not that it was all bad; it was great to be back with family and friends, drink wine out of bottles and have food and fuel readily available.

In the past year we have been to Cape Town and Franschhoek twice. Once to watch Robs play in a provincial waterpolo tournament and once to take our Indian exchange student, Chintz, to that part of our beautiful country. It also gave us a chance to catch up with Gareth and Kirst. We have also been to Olifants  River Game Reserve near Hoedspruit 4 times in the last year. The house there is like our second home and it’s great to be in the middle of the bush with the animals and watch them come down to drink in the Olifants River. 

In April Graeme turned 50 and refused to entertain any idea of any sort of celebration. Just the thought of it put it into the same category of going for a prostate examination. In order to avoid a chance surprise party he booked a week away with Robs and I (unfortunately Gareth couldn’t get leave and Kirst was not on UCT holidays). We spent a few days at Mapungubwe and a few days in the northern areas of the Kruger National Park.

The kingdom of Mapungubwe was a pre-colonial state in Southern Africa and is now a National Park and World Heritage Site. It is located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers and pins the point where Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa borders meet. It is definitely worth a visit. We stayed in very comfortable chalets and they had a great rock pool to cool off in. The area is red sand and it looks like God has taken clay and flung it onto the ground to make amazing mountain ranges. To top off the beauty it is filled with my favourite Baobab trees.

Our Preparations

You can’t camp with just anyone, if you want to go on a fun camping holiday. You need to really be able to get on with your fellow campers as they see you warts and all. Camping with our friends and neighbours, Tony and Al Purchase and their daughter Jen (Robs great friend since the girls were 3 years old) has always been fun and it has been too long since we last went on a trip together. We were excited that they would be joining us on, this last minute, trip to Mabuasehube in Botswana.

Having only secured the booking through a cancellation two weeks prior to setting off, we still had plenty of preparation time. Graeme was like a little boy, I think he spent the whole two weeks fiddling with the Discovery, checking camping gear and sorting out routes. We had a long way to go – one and a half days travelling for 4 days in the park and one and a half days back but for Tony and Graeme was going to be well worth it.

With Graeme and Tony  sorting out the camping side of things, Al and I, armed with our camping list headed off to Manny the Butcher, Pick n Pay and Woolworths, one thing was for sure, we were not going to starve.

23 August: Home to Springbokpan

We woke up to a 5 o’clock alarm, showered, finished off last minute packing and were waiting outside the Purchases’ house by 6:00. The only scary part of an otherwise fairly uneventful 700km trip was a huge truck that flipped in the middle of the road near Krugersdorp, fortunately it was on the opposite side of the road and didn’t hold us up.  

We headed west out of Johannesburg along the N14, past Ventersdorp, Coligny, Biesiesvlei, Sannieshof and stopped for breakfast just before Delareyville. We opted for a homemade packed breakfast along the way instead of our usual oily breakfast in some god forsaken little town that leaves you feeling nauseous for the next hour of the journey. The bacon and avo rolls, boiled eggs and sausages, washed down with cream sodas went down a real treat.

We encountered plenty of stop/go road works that slowed the journey down but eventually stopped in the bustling metropolis of Kuruman for fuel. Besides ‘Die Oog’, a natural spring this town has nothing of interest to offer. We passed Hotazel, a mining area and arrived at Springbokpan Guest House around 3:00. 

Having stayed on the cattle farm before, we knew the owners, and were given a warm Afrikaans welcome by Ans, the wife of the owner of the farm. Our accommodation was in Plettenburg type caravans but it was clean and comfortable.  The surrounding area  is mainly scrub bush, littered with rusty cabs of old trucks and we had ostriches pecking around us until sunset. 

Dinner was an experience, the dining room is filled with pictures of wild animals and the adjoining room is filled with trophy heads of wildlife of every description. They must have made the local taxidermist very rich. Our starters were rock hard tuna wraps but the good old boerekos main made up for it. We had the most delicious venison stew, pumpkin cakes, potato bake and ribbetjies. Desert was pineapple Cremora tart. Drinks; no G & T’s, no whiskey, off wine but there was rum and coke.  Then it was to bed for a good night’s rest.

24 August:  Mabuasehube  -  Mpayathutwa Pan

We woke to the sounds of the farm, barking dogs, cows and ostriches. After a farm breakfast we set off for McCarthy’s Rest Border Post about 6 km up the dirt road. As usual at these small border posts, if your papers are in order and you are friendly, there are no issues and it is a fairly quick and painless exercise. We had been concerned about crossing into Botswana with our meat and fresh produce, as this is regularly prohibited due to outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. As a precaution we took the meat out our fridge and hid it in the car, fortunately no checks were done and we stopped a few kilometres from the border to replace the beers with meat (much to Graeme and Tony’s disgust).

We stopped again about 6km later in Tshabong. The main reason was to try and change currency, not from S.A. Rand to Pula, but the Botswana Government had changed their Pula notes in the past year and so our notes were not being accepted. Having had no luck we set off on a good dirt road for the next 130km to the park gate. Thefirst 90 odd kilometres were on good roads and then we hit sand and the last 40km were slow, bumpy and we were prone to sliding from rutted path to rutted path. Along the way we saw gemsbok, springbok and hartebeest. It was also fascinating to see huge sociable weaver nests balancing on telephone poles. 

The ranger booking us in warned us that we needed to be aware of lions around the pan we were camping at. After booking in, we took a slow 20km drive to our first camp at Mpayathutwa Pan. Nearing the pan we saw herds of wildebeest and springbok.

On arrival at our campsite there were 2 vehicles parked under the trees in the only shady area. It was my ‘favourite’ - Afrikaans campers. From our experiences with these wannabe Voortrekkers in Namibia and Zambia last year I was immediately irritated and they didn’t let us down. Pa asked if we wanted to set up camp under the trees where they were parked - uh yes - we had booked the camp site and it was 38 degrees outside. They then proceeded to moan about the parks board for lack of water (as it turned out this is the only camp with water) for themselves and the animals. This is a desert area in the winter months and animals have been surviving here for hundreds of years before man arrived. Additionally we were aware that we would be lucky to have water in any camps and planned accordingly.

They then tried to scare us off by telling us about the lions in the area, in reality that is what we were here for – Graeme and Tony were going to go away extremely disappointed if we didn’t have lions in camp. Clearly seeing we were not going to be swayed into moving elsewhere the posy moved on and left us to set up camp.

About an hour later we had 3 tents erected, close to each other, food boxes unpacked and were sipping on beers and shandys. After a relaxing, very hot afternoon, we went for a short drive to a small waterhole on the pan. The girls took advantage of the freedom of being in this isolated area and sat on the roof rack of the car for the game drive. There were herds of wildebeest and springbok and plenty of birds but the highlight was a bataleur that landed and pranced around for photos.

Then it was back to the camp site and my favourite part of the day – sitting around the camp fire, with a drink, chatting about the day and watching the men braai. Tonight it was Tony braaing some delicious sirloin steaks. In South Africa men interfering with their mates braai is akin to sleeping with their wife, so Graeme backed off and watched. Unlike the women, Al and I happily cut up a salad in the open, wooden, A-Frame shelter. After dinner we finished it off with an Amarula nightcap – as always, life is kak in Africa.

 25 August:  Mpayathutwa Pan

Got to be honest, sometimes I do wonder what I see in this camping lark. With 2 inches of foam mattress between my bulk and a hard desert floor I had a very uncomfortable sleep. Added to that was the wind blowing around us and it sounded like we were sleeping in a plastic shopping bag. I woke stiff and sore to what promised to be another scorcher of a day in the high 30’s.

It’s amazing how good a cup of condensed milk coffee tastes first thing in the morning. I only ever have it in the bush and no matter how bad the night is, all is forgotten when the kettle of water boils on the fire and that first cup of coffee and rusks arrives.

Being fortunate to have the only camp site with water in the park; even if it is a cold shower, it is better than nothing. The ablutions are a long drop, scrubbed and cleaned by Al, Mr Muscle would have been proud of her efforts. I have an aversion to long drops and my preference is to find a far away tree and dig a hole. 

We then headed off for a drive around the pan; no sooner had we left camp when we saw ‘our friends’ from the previous day arrive at our camp. They snooped around, showered and took water – the cheek of some people.

It’s amazing how certain animals adapt to an environment with so little water. We saw herds of wildebeest, springbok, gemsbok, a pair of steenbok and bat eared foxes.

Then it was back to camp, besides reading, doing puzzles and playing board games there are always little creatures around keeping us occupied. Squirrels, mongoose, hornbills, spur fowl, shrikes and little scrub robins hang around for crumbs and tit bits - they are tame and highly entertaining.

Tonight it was Graeme’s turn to ‘braai’ and as we watched him put together one of his Panda potjies a strong cold wind blew in and brought some relief to the heat we were experiencing. Al and the girls had been sun tanning in their costumes, enjoying the respite from the Joburg winter.

Leaving the potjie to bubble away we set off for an afternoon drive to return to mayhem in the camp site, a jackal had decided to drag the dustbin and all its contents around the camp site, much to the delight of all the above mentioned critters, who were having a field day tearing everything apart looking for food. 

After clearing up we sat around the fire, G & T in hand and boy did the potjie smell great. It tasted just as good and after our Amarula night cap we headed off to our not so comfortable beds.

 26 August:  Mpayathutwa Pan to Lesholoago Pan

One thing about sleeping in a thin nylon tent in really close proximity to others you get to hear all the snoring, farting and rustle of sleeping bags. With the wind really pumping we had the added noise of tent billowing around us, it was strangely comforting and after a few pages of reading my book I was lulled to sleep.

I was awakened during the night to the sounds of lions roaring in the distance. My two favourite sounds of the bush are the plaintive cry of a fish eagle and call of the lion. We were woken up another 3 or 4 times with the lions roaring at various distances from us around the pan.

I woke at around 6:30 to a fairly chilly morning,  obviously the wind had cooled down the earth. I decided to snuggle in and read a few pages. A few minutes later I felt a poke in my back, surely this was a touch risqué, even for Graeme, after a second prod, I turned over to see him pointing to the mosquito netting that was the entrance to our tent and there was a lion staring at us. She was huge and more that covered the entrance. We both flew up to look out and get a better view. Robs tent was 3 feet in front of our entrance and besides the lion passing in front of us there were another 2 on either side of her tent. We had put our camping chairs in front of her tent in case of such a visit but the chairs had made no difference and they just walked through them. Graeme unzipped the netting about a third of way to take pictures. Both lions looked us in the eye, it was the most amazing and humbling feeling having these majestic creatures literally 2 metres away, looking you in the eye. They were probably assessing whether we were food or foe. One got up and in order to get past Robs tent, she fell against the side of the tent. Fortunately we had woken Robs up and told her to stay in the tent. There was less than 1mm of nylon separating us all from the pride. 

I looked out the back tent window netting and 2 young males were romping about in play, growling and jumping at each other. The pride of 6 then strolled up to the outdoor shower, some drank water by the outlet and others entered the reed structure. Tony left their tent to take pictures and this was Robs opening to run 20m to our car and climb onto the roof rack for a better view. I couldn’t miss out and followed her up, we watched them finish off and then amble down the road. This was the most amazing experience and one Tony and Graeme had dreamed about.

Morning coffee tasted even better as we excitedly chatted about our awesome experience.  Then it was time to pack up camp as we were spending the next 2 nights at Lesholoago Pan.  When you have been out in the bush for a while and move every few days you get the camp pack up down to a fine art and can be on the road in no time but it is an art and does take practice. We were also in no hurry, so we had left over potjie for breakfast, packed up tents and food boxes, filled Gerry cans with water, showered, packed the cars and we were on our way. We took a leisurely drive around various pans in the area and arrived at Lesholoago Pan around lunch time. It didn’t take us long to set up camp this time.

We are in a pleasant spot with a nice grove of thorn trees to pitch out tents under, the standard A-Frame structure and my favourite long drop. No showers and no water. We had biscuits and cheese for lunch, Tony went for a walk across the pan and the rest of us settled into a peaceful afternoon of watching the resident yellow mongoose, cape crows and crimson breasted shrikes forage around the area. On the pan the springbok and gemsbok grazed and wandered off to the nearby waterhole. As the sun started to set we heard thunder and the clouds in the distance gave us a really spectacular African sunset. Our nocturnal visitor was a beautiful Cape fox. After braaied chicken for dinner,  we headed off for an early night as the wind had blown up and we were much more comfortable tucked up in our tents.

 27 August:  Lesholoago Pan

I was woken by the wind howling around the tent and then drops of rain on the canvas and then the rain started. Rain in winter in the Kalahari Desert - who would believe this. Thankful for being warm and out the elements I snuggled down and went back to sleep. We woke to a beautiful pink haze as the sun attempted to appear over the horizon, it was quickly covered by clouds and a relentless cold wind brought a few more drops of rain.

After coffee it was shower time!! We have one of those portable showers - a big plastic bag that you fill with water and stick out in the sun to warm up and then hook it up on a tree and stand under the nozzle. That is the theory, in practice there was no sun, so Graeme par boiled some water to fill the bag and hooked it up on the reeds in the long drop structure. Not taking gravity into account with his ingenious plan meant I had to go down on my haunches in order to get water from the pipe leading from the bag; this left me at nose height with an extremely smelly long drop bowl. Was the warm shower worth nearly puking throughout the process?????

Good and clean and fresh we got together all the makings of a cook up for a good old English breakfast. Nothing beats the smell and taste of frying bacon and eggs in the bush. To work off breakfast we went for a drive around the various pans in the area. Besides an inquisitive meercat that popped in and out of its hole we saw nothing new. This is not an issue for me, I have no desire to rush around looking for the Big 5, just being in the bush is sole cleansing enough. Despite it being winter the bush between the pan areas was thick luscious grass in a beautiful harvest yellow colour, interspersed with trees and shrubs.

This evening Tony handed over the braai tongs to Graeme, who had been having withdrawal symptoms. We had another ‘terrible’ dinner – pork tenderloins, lamb chops, baked potatoes and salad, washed down with red wine. Our food has certainly made up for the lack of ablution facilities. After sitting around the camp fire, we headed off to our tent, on our last night in the bush, my inch of foam was finally starting to feel comfortable.

28 August:  Lesholoago Pan to Bray

We were woken by a howling wind. No lying in today, we had 260km of dirt road and a border crossing ahead of us. After a quick coffee and rusks we disassembled our camp site under a cloudy sky. Unlike us campers, the animals that usually scurried around us in the mornings had decided to sleep late and avoid the wind; finally a few unhappy yellow hornbills arrived to see us off.

It took us about an hour to reach the park gate and then it was a long trip to the border along deep sand roads. The only town we passed through was Kohkotse, if we had blinked we would have missed it. We arrived at the border at Bray around 2:00; it was again a painless crossing.

A few hundred metres into S.A. we arrived at Tapama Lodge. Panda, the travel agent, didn’t let us down. The green grass was an oasis in the sandy desert we had been living in. Our accommodation was in a comfortable face brick chalet with a heavenly cuddle puddle bath. Before we had a chance to unpack, the farm owners, Annamarie and Gerhardt had offered us drinks. We sat next to the pool under acacia trees and were soon enthralled by Dexter, a tame warthog and his companions, a baby zebra with his constant shadow, a black and white sheep and an Alsatian dog.

Once settled we went for a walk down the road to the general dealer, here you could buy anything from chicken feet to motor oil. We bought ice creams and takkies for R65.

We returned to Tapama for a relax and a long, hot and well deserved soak before drinks and dinner. Robs and Jen left their door open while they were chilling and before they knew it Dexter, the warthog, was cuddling on the bed with them. I love those little hotels where the dogs (usually Jack Russels or labs) come and sit at your feet or cuddle up around the fire, we had Dexter.  It’s not difficult to see why some of the farmers in these areas set up guesthouses. Besides it being added income, it is company for the farmers and their families and it’s fascinating to chat to these people about their lives and the area they live in.

29 August: Bray to Home 

We had an Afrikaans breakfast, including boerewors and left Tapama around 9:00 We filled up with fuel and pumped up our tyres (we had let air out to make travelling easier over the sand roads) in Bray and set off for the 600km trip home. 

The first 180km were on sand roads, we drove through villages with names like Tshidalmolomo and Masibi. There were only 2 or 3 cars but we encountered loads of sheep, goats, cows and donkeys. Eventually reaching the tar road we went through Mafikeng and onto Zeerust. From there it was a quick trip home through Magaliesburg, so we thought. Around Krugersdorp Graeme said  “I am so hot”, not sure in what manner to take this, I opted for “shame, are you not feeling well, do you want me to drive”.  It turned out it was the car overheating. Graeme opened the bonnet to find a huge slit in the water pipe. To most travellers this would have meant a tow truck but not for Panda, we carry enough spares to rebuild the Landy and one new water pipe and with help from Tony, we were on our way an hour later. 

Instead of going directly home we planned to make a detour to my dad’s house to see my brother and his family, who are out from Dubai on holiday. A quick drink turned into dinner and travel weary we eventually arrived home around 9:30.

30 August: Home

Last night we gave our animals a love, said “Hi” to a worried Lettie and went to bed. This morning was spent unpacking and cleaning. It’s a lot of work to spend 4 days in the middle of nowhere with no water, smelly long drops and a hard mattress on the ground. Was it worth it? Absolutely, if for nothing else, the experience with the lions was amazing.

However, Panda now owes me a holiday - one where we fly in, stay in a comfortable bed with hot and cold running everything, preferably overlooking a beautiful beach with palm trees and crystal blue sea.