After such a peaceful two days at Guma Camp, we were sad to leave Botswana, especially knowing that we were driving to our final night on safari. We left early in the morning to cross back in to Namibia. Again, the border crossing was a breeze, and we were on our way back to Mahango Game Reserve to do a morning game drive. We didn’t see any large animals, but saw a good amount of sable antelopes, springboeks, zebras, monkeys and warthogs.
The heat really got to all of us today. At one point, no one on the van could keep their eyes open except for Chad, who was watching a movie on his iPod. The rest of us were sleeping in weird positions, sweating in the extreme heat. I was scared out of my nap when Martin slammed on the brakes and screamed, “Elephant!!!” I cannot imagine the look on my face as I jumped out of my curled-up position on my seat, clutched the seat in front of me with both hands and braced for impact. Apparently the giraffe incident is still taking its toll on me, as I thought we were about to hit an elephant. Fortunately that wasn’t the case; Martin was merely pointing out a few elephants on the side of the road to us.
We pulled into Nambwa Camp in the late afternoon. Nambwa is a wild park with no fences, overlooking the Mashi River. Prior to setting up our tents, Martin had a talk with us to let us know about the animals we might see at camp that night…elephants, hippo, leopards and lions, among others. Everyone had been giving me a good amount of friendly teasing with regards to my nervousness about the animals at night. I was happy to see that it was everyone ELSE who recommended that we set up our tents on the game-viewing platforms, which were about 12 ft. up in the trees, instead of on the ground. I guess I was not the only one who had been nervous…just the most vocal!
It sounded like a great idea, until we noticed that our platform was in a “good” leopard tree…lots of shade, strong tree limbs with appropriate angles for bringing prey and lounging. When I asked Martin about it, though, he told me, as usual, “DON’T worry, Madame Jacki. The leopards will not bother you.” Ok, then. I noted that he did not deny that this was a good leopard tree. We did all say that we wanted to see a leopard so that we could cross the “big five” off our list, but this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
We had a great dinner prepared by Franc. Since he is in training, I think he was making an attempt at proving himself and he surely did! He presented us with a huge feast…pork chops, squash filled with corn, rice, baked beans and a delicious salad with feta. These men can cook! All the weight Matt and I thought we lost in Asia was definitely put back on (and then some, I think!) while we were on safari. We may have been “roughing it” in terms of accommodations, but certainly not with regards to food.
After dinner, we all enjoyed a few cocktails, took a “last night” video to interview our new friends, played desert island discs, talked about favorite movies and books, and just enjoyed each others’ company again before climbing up to our tents. We had a great night’s sleep, complete with the night sounds of the nearby animals, but no close encounters.
Tomorrow we’ll part ways with the Danes, Martin and Franc as our safari ends and we spend a few days in Livingstone.
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