Sun. 16th June ‘24
This morning, we have the last guided game drive of our trip. After this we just have a couple of days driving ourselves around Moremi before heading to Maun for the flights home. We know the routine by now with a 5:30 alarm and coffee arriving shortly after. With the early morning starts and the sun setting around 6pm – with the temperature falling rapidly after that – we have, essentially, shifted our body clocks another hour or two forward. It will be another thing to get used to when we return home.
We agree with Bonno that our first destination today is the bush where the lion cubs were staying yesterday. If Bonno has a plan beyond that he doesn’t say, but as we bounce along the twisty track we have other things to worry about – most notably staying warm and trying to find a way to brace ourselves without losing either the blankets in which we’ve wrapped ourselves, or the ‘bush baby’ hot water bottle.
It’s easy to see why people say that navigation is difficult in Botswana and Moremi, in particular. There are endless tracks going left and right and twisting round – sometimes the rising sun is behind us, other times it is in our faces. The paper map we have doesn’t really help and there are no signs or numbers on the roads. Here, we are relying on ‘Bonno GPS’ – and he never hesitates over which turn to take. When we are on our own, we have a tablet with the Maps.me app which seems to be nearly as good as Bonno GPS.
Sadly, the lions have moved on. We suspect that there were so many safari trucks there yesterday, some of them crushing through vegetation off the tracks, that the lioness decided to move her family elsewhere. Bonno decides that we should also go look somewhere else but doesn’t say where and we have no idea where we are headed. As we drive around, we see some landmarks that we recognise such as a scarred baobab tree, but no lions and not much else of interest.
Eventually, we get to a lake. It is beautiful and peaceful in the early morning light. I discover that I’m happier here than bouncing around aimlessly in Bonno’s safari truck. Quite possibly this is the onset of ‘end-of-trip-it is’. However, there are geese, ducks and other water birds splashing around and fish eagle soaring overhead as well as these three antelope looking very cute and demanding that their picture be taken. We snap away at the birds and the animals nearby and are quite content.
Bonno, however, wants to get on. He finds some lion tracks that look fresh (as verified by Janet) and we head off in that direction – but with the twists and turns in the road, who knows? Is this the plan? Is Bonno just hoping that we’ll call time and ask to head back? We had previously agreed not to have a coffee stop on the drive but to wait until our return to the lodge but that doesn’t stop the need to have a break to water the bush, so Bonno starts looking for a suitable location.
No sooner do we deprioritise the search for lions, than Janet shouts out “LION” (more restrained than her last spot). And there it is a male lion just sauntering along close to the road a minute or two later he is joined by his brother and then sister perhaps separated by a hundred yards. So much for our bathroom break as they all stop and settle down for a rest. We are so fortunate – to have found them; to have them to ourselves; and to have all 3 in view. Even better, one of them lies down in the sunshine not 20 yards away – almost too close for the long lenses on our cameras.
On our return to Okuti, it is time to check-out and move on – obviously, after that coffee that I was promised! The lions may have dispelled that end-of-trip feeling, but there is no getting away from the fact that we are moving on to our penultimate stay. Whilst we may not be in Mungo’s tent, we will be self-catering and other than a couple of cans of beans and some odds and ends, we have very little in the way of food to tide us over. Our last supermarket was a week ago and there is no way we could keep provisions fresh. At least we have asked for a lunch pack from Okuti and there is a ‘tuck shop’ at Third Bridge. I’m sure we’ll get by.
The road conditions have steadily worsened as we’ve driven down through Botswana and this trend continues now. It’s not just that there are ruts and we go through patches of deep sand – Mungo eats all of this up – it is where the ruts have peaks and troughs that are out of phase on each side. The left wheel goes up as the right goes down. Mungo just rolls from side to side and slow is the only way to go. Fortunately we only have 20km to cover today.
We’d previously been warned not to go over Fourth Bridge – it might be closed but it is definitely not safe – and when we got there we could see why. Too rickety even for Mungo. Fortunately, there was no water and other tracks to go round it and the Maps.me app on our tablet sorted us out so we are still only at one river forded on this trip. It was almost a surprise when there was a bridge at Third Bridge – with water underneath it. It didn’t look great but after seeing another car cross, Mungo made it without any problems.
Our Brandt’s Botswana guide and Veronica Roodt maps (thank you Safari Drive) say that there are plenty of tracks in the area and that we should go out and explore. After our underwhelming Okuti lunch pack that is exactly what we do. We’re now use the classic Janet & Dave strategy of ‘following our nose’ – when we come to a junction we do a quick “which way might be better” check and pick one of them. The tablet knows where we are and nowhere is very far so we can’t really get lost. Maybe this is just what Bonno was doing this morning?
Regardless, we potter around, stopping for photographs when we see something interesting. We also find that our bar for what is interesting is now very high – unless the zebras are riding bicycles or the elephants doing circus tricks (or have little babies) we’re just not interested. Instead, we concentrate on trying to find lakes or waterholes and look for the birdlife that might be there and are rewarded with this pink spoonbill and the pair of pelicans.
Over our gourmet meal of tinned tuna, boiled potatoes and baked beans that evening we contemplate the day. Was this morning’s lion find just luck or did Bonno have a plan? We’ll never know for sure, but we think this morning was a micro version of our whole trip – yes, we had a plan but also we have been so lucky in the things we’ve seen and done within that plan.