Mon. 10th June ‘24
Well, we survived the night in our roof-tent in the unfenced camp. Janet claimed that she heard some animals during the night, but I had my earplugs in and didn’t hear anything. She did say though, that she wasn’t bothered by the prospect of lions being in the vicinity. I then confessed that I had a very brief view of a male lion in silhouette as he walked between us and the river. It was only a very brief view and there was no chance for me to point him out to Janet, let alone to take a picture. As he showed no interest in us, I decided that there was no point in letting Janet know until morning. When she confirmed that she’d probably have immediately moved into Mungo’s cab, I felt vindicated.
Caution being the better part of valour, we agree to break camp in our PJs before driving the 50m or so to the Ablution Block to wash and dress. Talking of caution, today is the drive that we have been warned about. We are driving SW, through Chobe National Park – which turns out to comprise several distinct sections and covers a very large area. The first section is to continue along parallel to the Chobe River to the Ngoma gate close by where we entered Botswana yesterday. This is a continuation of yesterday’s drive from Kasane but whereas yesterday we were frustrated by the lack of views out over the river, here we had them in abundance.
Also in abundance was the wildlife yet again. We kept having to stop and not just because we wanted to take more photographs, either of wildlife or even the trees and landscape like this big baobab tree. Sometimes the stop was because there were just a mass of animals in the road. With elephants, you just need to take a bit of care not to get between mother and baby, with antelope they are fair game and you can be sure they will get out of your way.
However, the large herd of buffalo just grazing at the vegetation on the side of the road called for a little more care. We’d been previously told that buffalo are bad tempered and although Mungo is big and solid, he will come off second best against a buffalo – so don’t provoke them. After waiting for a few minutes to see if they will move off of their own accord, Janet gets bored and decides it is time to make our way past them. Slowly does it and then we are through.
Once we were through the gate for this section of the park, we found that the half of the road down to the next checkpoint at Ghoha Gate was tarmac. Perhaps we had been oversold on the difficulties of driving in Botswana? Perhaps, even for the second half, given our experience over the last few days we’d be able to handle the dirt roads? Well, as it turns out, nope! We were less than 1km into the dirt road, when the sand turned deep and we got stuck. Even with low-range 4WD and diff-locks engaged we couldn’t make progress. Bother!
We’d just got out and started scratching our heads, getting out the shovel and the tyre tracks, when cars started coming from the other direction. It tuns out we were doubly fortunate. Firstly, there was an escape route around us for people who didn’t want to stop, but most people wanted to come and help. We are particularly indebted to one chap who left his wife in his Range Rover, and took charge not only of us but of all the other people milling around and trying to help. Apparently, the key is to lower the pressure in the tyres (to 1.5 bar) and engage the locks in the hubs for the front wheels.
With these changes to the setup, Mungo was transformed. Getting going (in low range) was straightforward, and keeping going was equally easy – just keep it in low range and if the sand gets deep, 3rd gear and keep the revs up. Mungo just ate up the sand and there was never a sense that we wouldn’t make it through. In the firmer parts we could even engage 5th gear, and we bumbled along at an average speed of maybe 30km/h. As the miles passed, confidence grew. You didn’t always get much warning before a patch of deep sand, but keep Mungo rolling, get him into 3rd and accelerate was always a good recipe.
Despite our stop, we were actually ahead of the schedule we set ourselves and in time to stop for lunch (and a well-deserved break for all 3 of us!) at Ghoha gate. We’ve broken the back of the drive and convinced ourselves that we can traverse these roads – what more excuse do we need in order to have a bite of lunch and a celebratory beer. A bit of cheek then from the hornbills to put on a show in the tree and then when I grab my camera, one hops out behind so Janet can get her revenge for all those times I’ve captured her taking a picture.
Whilst the rest of the road to Savuti campsite, where we’re staying for the next couple of nights isn’t necessarily any better, there is no stress or worry about whether we’ll make it. We even have time to take a small detour to a (dry) waterhole and come across a pair of jackals hanging around and waiting for something to happen.
We always knew that Mungo could cope with whatever conditions we came across, our doubts were always about our own ability. But now we know how to get the best out of him and how to use him properly. Just as we have learned how to setup our cameras so that they can take the pictures we want, so it is with Mighty Mungo. We’ve gone from ‘all the gear, but no idea’ to knowing how to use the tools that we have. What a difference that has made to our confidence as well as our ability. Thank you to the chap who stopped to help and showed us what we need to do – and also to his wife for being so happy to wait through it all!