We decided to drive back to Kasane in the morning to top up the supplies and the fuel. The Lady decided to drive the first leg, which was nice of her as I was tired from the long drives in the last days.
From Kasane we drove towards the Savuti camp through the western route. In the travel guides they mention about two routes, eastern route through the pans and the western one through the sands. Though the eastern route is shorter after the rains the region around the pans could be dangerous due to the possibility of clay on the tracks. That means there is a high chance that we may get stuck there. The western route is more sandy which could be more easier to drive after the rains. So we decided to go for the western route. Our real adventure starts here! I decided to use the time to punch in all the necessary co-ordinates of the route in my GPS to make sure that we are driving in the right direction.
Other than a few bulls along the route we didn’t see any appreciable amount of wildlife. There were some occasional trucks coming from the opposite direction, all drenched in mud, which gave us an approximate idea of what waits for us ahead. We reached the Savuti camp without much difficulty.
The campsite was an absolute beauty. Right in the middle of the woods on the banks of the Savuti channel. The “mysterious and legendary” Savuti channel which feeds the Savuti marsh started flowing again only 2009 after it stopped flowing in 1982. Nobody knows why it stopped flowing or why it started flowing again when it started flowing in the sixties after almost 80 years of dryness. I think we were purely lucky to camp in such a wonderful place.
A few hours after we reached our campsite, two bulls walked inside the camp area. The Savuti campsite has no fences like most of the campsites in Botswana NP. Only the ablution block has infrastructure to prevent ellies from destroying the water lines. So in effect the visitors camp at their own risk, which was fine with me. The family from our neighbouring campsite saw the bulls first and they informed us. The Lady and I walked over to their camp to have a closer look. I was not expecting the bulls to walk into the campsite as I was thinking that the bulls are on their way to the channel. But one of the bulls got curious and walked into our direction. That was a pretty unsettling scene. The Lady and I had been in a volunteer project with desert elephants before. So we had the basic training about what to do under such situations, though we never had been in such situations all alone before. But theory is one thing and practical is different when you are in front of a 6 ton ellie. I was telling the Lady to stay calm as I thought the ellie is under no stress, flapping his ears calmly, with the trunks lifted up trying to catch the scent. When I didn’t hear any response, I turned around to find that I am all alone and the others had moved back to the safety of the trucks rear. I didn’t feel like running away, I stood there, trusting my instincts, with no sudden movements and let the ellie know that I mean no harm. I don’t know how many minutes went by like that with both me and the bull looking at each other with less than 10 m between us. I have to admit it was a damn scary situation as for the ellies to see forward, and get any kind of binocular vision, it must raise its head and look down its nose, which can be very off –putting because it brings the tusks up into the fixed bayonet position. Luckily the ellie lost interest and walked back to the channel. I was relieved and happy. Because though it was scary, at the back of the mind I really enjoyed it. This is where I belong!!
We went for a drive towards the Savuti marsh afterwards. It felt like the game density is much less than what we saw in Chobe. Other than Zebra’s, wildebeest, impala’s and birds we didn’t come across any predators which was disappointing. Then to catch a glimpse of them one has to be extremely lucky and have to be at the right spot at the right time. And it was not our time obviously.
Today is Christmas day. Though it means nothing to me, I didn’t know what it means to the Lady. Though she said that she didn’t believe in God (she even teased me about my ‘peanut butter’ God when I said that I believe God is everywhere), I thought I could try to make some good food. Or so I thought!!! Again it turned out to be a disaster with the spice content though I was extra careful this time. Now I am really confused whether she can eat any spicy food at all?
She was still sick and at some times the cough was so much that it really hurt me to see her struggle. It reminded me of my father during his last days in the hospital. At one point he was coughing throughout day and night without even being able to catch some sleep. For a son to see his father struggle like that and feel totally helpless is beyond words! Somehow those images come to my mind more often than the good times that I spend with him. I looked into my medical kit to see if there is something there to help her. She seemed to have some kind of infection and the best medication could be some antibiotics. And I didn’t have any!!!
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