Botswana Safari Adventure
10 Of us set off at 4am to Devin & Debbie’s little piece of bush heaven. Dev has a family farm in Botswana, just across the SA border, 600km out of JHB. After a festive trip to the border we got our passports stamped and learned the river was flowing just a little too much. Dev’s dad having already had 3 vehicles washed away at this very spot so we decided to take the cable car. We offloaded enough equipment to last for 5 weeks and crossed the Limpopo River on an old rusty cable car. It was an experience that reminded us that we were certainly in Africa. On arrival at the camp we were greeted by Jerry & Catherine. They are two workers that live on the farm and took wonderful care of us during our stay. We awoke in the morning to coffee, they prepared our meals and popped hot water bottles into our beds at night.
The camp had the exact amount of luxuries to make us all feel comfortable but we were still roughing it out in the bush. Although we had no electricity we had lovely lanterns lit around the camp and a raging fire every evening. We’d wake up early in the morning and go for game drives, rest all day and then go for an afternoon drive to see the sun set across the valley. Our 5 rooms were the only lights in sight as there was nobody else on the land for as far as the eye could see.
We were blessed with many brilliant animal sightings. We saw hundreds of elephant, two sighting of lions, a pack of 15 hyena with cubs, eagles, spotted genets, jackals, eland and the usual’s like impala, wildebeest, kudu, baboons and zebra. A lot of the animals had babies and the elephant and hyena provided many hours of entertainment with their little ones. The animals at Kanda camp in Botswana seemed a lot calmer than some of the other parks I have been to. We often got exceptionally close to animals, like elephant, without them even flinching.
One evening while we were all sitting outside having a braai an impala with 1 horn ran frantically into camp. The guys tried to chase it but soon realised it was surrounded by hyena. This also meant so were we. We chased the poor impala as we did not want to see a kill in front of us. After much commotion and fierce debate we eventually hurtled the impala away to what we were assured would be a certain death. A few minutes later the injured impala returned sprinting throughout camp, running for its life being chase by the vicious hyena. The poor impala ran straight into the glass kitchen door and managed to escape from the hyena chasing behind it. It was horrifically exciting and got our adrenalin flowing. We never did see the one horned impala again so we are pretty certain that at some point in the evening nature may have taken its course.
The group we went down with was great and everyone got on well. It’s always interesting to watch couples interact. We spent all our time together and had many interesting conversations, especially after the Captain & red wine was flowing around the campfire in the evenings. We had some fierce Hitler style UNO games and a few of us took a walk with Dev the game ranger to explored nature at its richest. We put rib bones outside our door one evening and so we were was awoken with hyenas literally on the patio outside our door cackling away excitedly as if they’d just succeeded in killing a kudu bull. I awoke startled waiting for them to sneak in and grab my foot and pull me out of bed. So I literally slept with my torch in case I needed to hit a wild animal on the head.
I was truly reminded what a blessing it is to live on the doorstep of nature. To be able to have people that can set up camp, eat massive steaks and marshmallows on the fire and be able to sit on a land rover and ride amongst nature. Only in Africa can we go to sleep in the bush surrounded by animals calling or shower outdoors under the blue skies as the sun shines through the massive surrounding trees.
Africa is truly beautiful. Africa is a blessing. Africa will always be home.
