Bush Camp Exit and Umvuvu Camp Entry

February 11-12 – Bush Camp Exit and Umvuvu (hippo) Camp

We had a good sleep and no visitors from outside the camp; even the baboons slept the night. Go figure! Apparently, the only creature awake that had an impact on us, were ants. My ankles and feet were crawling with itch and judging by the red welts, I assumed ants had a good picnic. Out came the first aid kit and I applied both benedryl and cortate since I couldn't resist the temptation to dig my nails into the welts and scratch them. Once I had all my remedies out, Ed joined me to apply some benedryl on his ankles. The ants didn't like him as much as me so he got off on that one. Our wake up call was 6:00; time for a quick snack and then off for our three hour hike led by Tom.

At first the theme of the hike was flowers, insects and song birds. Then we started to stumble on fresh elephant dung and hippo dung. Hmmm, I thought, if I were to do some forward thinking, where would I go and what would I do if there was a need to find shelter from such animals. Since I really couldn't work through the thoughts and come up with reasonable answers, I decided to simply trust our guide. Surely he knew how to circumvent a problem. As we were examining a hole, apparently created by a warthog, guess what popped out of the hole; you got it! Fortunately the warthog was more afraid of the sight of humans and made a wild sudden dash in the opposite direction. Fortunate for us; there must not have been babies in the hole, or the scene may have taken a whole other picture. As we continued our walk, Tom told us to close our eyes and listen. NO WAY! An elephant on our pathway ahead of us. Okay, I wondered, how will he get us out of this one. Surprisingly, I didn't even feel scared! Tom was at the front of our line and his friend Steve was at the back. They exchanged words, which seemed to be the creation of a strategy to get by the elephant. Tom took account of the wind direction and we circled around so that we could get a close glimpse of the elephant without being detected and at the same time find our way back to camp. It was an amazing experience; not your average hike and I was very impressed by our guide's ability to think around the situation. When we arrived back at camp, Kioko had brunch ready for us; sausage curry, rice and veggies and maple, cinnamon fritters made onsite. Unbelieveable talent, and he won't give away any of his cooking secrets. Hahaha! After brunch we cleaned up and loaded the mocaros again for the journey back to the truck.

At the truck we scrambled to get some fresh (dry) clothes and necessary items to enjoy the shower promised at the next camp. We put our tents and mattress pads away as well. A real bed awaits us!!! We headed back out to the island through the reeds; this time to Umvuvu Camp. The camp was equiped with a refreshment station, showers, outdoor kitchen and tents with beds and sheets too! The shower was A for Awesome; no paint necessary on the roof since the shower had a sky view and the privacy was created by small bamboo sticks joined together to create for walls. Luxury is a relative term, indeed. We had some free time so Ed enjoyed a successful poling lesson through the reeds. Later we all played a game of Texas Hold 'Em. Good fun!

After dinner the game continued until it started to rain and we retreated to our tents. When I thought there would be time for some shut eye, nature had a different idea and guess what won in that duo! We slept for about 4 hours and then BBBOOOOMMM! Both Ed and I woke up screaming like 4 year olds. Then came the lightening; we couldn't see it flash, but heard the electrical searing through the atmosphere. This was a storm never to forget. Once fear turned to laughter, we fell asleep. A couple hours later, I heard waves splashing. This wasn't surprising since our tent was about 4 meters from the edge of the delta. Then again, there was no wind; no motor boats; what was causing the waves? Then I could hear the grunting of some very disgruntled hippos. I woke up Ed! He didn't believe me; thought I had some vivid imagination! I looked out with my flashlight convinced that there was a presence there, but couldn't see anything. I figured it was safer in bed so hid under the covers and put my earplugs in and escaped into sleep. The next morning we heard what happened. There was a full-on show about 4 tents down from us. About 10 hippos grazing in the reeds were interrupted by a passing croc with beady golden eyes moving very quickly. Gord, one of our buddies saw the golden eyes and the tail swishing as it slithered through the middle of the hippos. No wonder there were waves that I heard. MAYBE Ed will believe me next time.

After a good breakfast, we loaded up the mokaros one more time and headed back to the truck. We travelled the long journey back acrross the Botswana border and back into Namibia where we returned to camp on the Kavango River. We collected our laundry, did a little more wash, read our email and then the dark came; not much more to do than have dinner and sleep. The delta experience turned out to be an adventure indeed. We were soooo grateful that the violent thunder storm didn't happen the night in the bush camp and we were very fortunate that it didn't rain during the long journeys through the reeds in the mocaro. That would have been a whole other experience. It was a risk worth taking since there was a way of dealing with it if the worst happened; its called a bucket and a rainsuit. The only danger is getting lost in the reeds if the rain comes down too hard, but they woudn't have taken us into the reeds if the rain came down that hard. Its all good!

A kunna matata!