POM POM, SPACE, ANIMALS AND THE FALLS

22 and 23/10/2012

This was a trip which I had been looking forward to for donkey's years. A Safari in Botswana and then a visit to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Pierrette and I would be in three countries over ten days, starting off in Johannesburg in South Africa. The excitement had been building since we booked earlier this year. In my usual way, I was at the airport with bags of time to spare and would fly to Heathrow, join Pierrette and off we'd go.

The trip started out by being a catastrophe. It seemed that e-tickets could mean "0n a waiting list " for flights. As it happened the plane was also delayed for London. I finally got to Terminal 5 in Heathrow, after a philosophical rush. I have already had two Safaris cancelled in the past, so a third? Pierrette was waiting for me. Passengers were boarding the aircraft as I arrived. The trip was without incident. Arriving there were a few more hicks but we finally got to our hotel. Lunch with planes flying overhead, seemingly touching our heads as we sat beside the pool.

But these beauties didn't seem to suffer....

They were big

Then off to visit Jo'burg with Libbs a driver who had appeared miraculously when we needed one. A lot of money to see a flat, uninteresting city. Even the view from 50 flights up didn't make the place any more appealing.

Tomorrow we would be on our way to Botswana and the safari would begin.

On the 24/10 we left for Maun where we would be flown to another destination, the Okavango Delta.

«The Okavango Delta in Botswana is perhaps Africa’s ultimate safari destination. It is the world’s largest inland delta, a permanent swamp that covers over 15 000 km2. Often referred to as the ‘Jewel of the Kalahari’ the Okavango includes the Moremi Game Reserve and Chief’s Island, Africa’s most famous safari destinations.

The annual flood cycle of the Okavango Delta, surging 1200 km in approximately one month, creates a paradise renowned for some of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife. This has enabled the development of a safari industry that is perhaps the most imaginative on the continent. With the full spectrum of big game, amazing bird life and incredible scenery this is a safari destination unlike any other.»

The Moremi can either be accessed by air (light aircraft fly to the airstrips that service the lodges) or by road via Maun where we first landed. We heard later that the trip overland could take weeks even if only 80 odd kilometers away. The roads are bad at the best of times but I doubt if we could have survived in a 4x4 for more than a day.

The Plane trip across in a 6 seater with Ricardo. 500 metres up. Here at once the atmosphere took my breath away. The Delta, twisting and turning on the left, desert on the right. Far below, elephants could be seen. One? Two? I was excited. This was my country. I knew that I would feel at home.

Taking off

First look at the Delta

And a bit further on.....

Landing and waiting for us

Welcome

Our charming host

Landing on a sandy strip with nothing but a landrover to greet us. There was a Swiss couple in the plane joining us to go to the Pom Pom camp. A name you would not forget. Oz slang for the Brits....pompoms on hats but why on earth was this lodge called as such? We would learn that later.....We arrived to a welcome dance and singing from the staff. As charming as it was my heart sank a little. "Oh no", I said to myself, "this place is too beautiful for the usual tourist traps. Baloo came to greet us. Charm, handsome and laughing eyes with a warm voice which would seduce the most sceptical tourist. I fell under the charm.

It's not true ? An elephant came to greet us coming up to the lodge, turning into the hall, a bit of lunch and then out again. He was followed by a small deer. "House pets? " I enquired. Baloo smiled.

My first elephant

Came into say hello

eating was a preoccupation

And off for more elsewhere

Followed by a friend

We were taken over to our lodge which is quite out of this world. Even to the extent of a shower outside.

«The Camp is located on Pom Pom Island in a private concession situated in the heart of the Okavango Delta and on the head waters of the Xudum river system. The area lies on the western boundary of the Moremi Game Reserve and offers superb Okavango scenery and a true Okavango wilderness experience.» http://www.pompomcamp.com

Dining and living area

Looking at the front

My first disappointment was that there were more tourists than I expected. How on earth could we be alone ? My unsociable nature does not serve me well. Being a loner has its advantages as I close myself off to chatter and loud voices or different languages. Even if we were 8 in the 4x4 for our first outing, apart from Pierrette and our guide, I was alone. I repeat myself, but this is my country. Wild, dry, contrasted in different dresses of Green with flowers dotted here and there along with birds of so many different varieties And colours and calls. Baobabs galore, accacias..... Perhaps it was a tiny deer or Impala we saw first, then another and others with their Macdonald bottomed markings! We would soon become blasé seeing these svelte, nimble beauties dancing around us. They were everywhere. Despite taking them for granted and not jumping on the camera, they are delightful to watch, preened and silky. Their little teeth are soft and comb their coats leaving them impeccable. We would hear so many stories about animals and birds - unfortunately too many for my mind to retain.

View from fron of lodge and the hippo pool

Another view and a heron

Bush from our room

The list is long of what we did see.......
Blabla bird
Pied Kingfisher
Crested Barbet
Forked tailed DRONGO (love that word)
Bulbul, thrush,
Little Egret,
Sacred Ibis,
Egyptian Goose,
African Fish eagle,
Red Starlings, blue starlings and glossy ones too....
White backed vulture,
Helmeted Guinea Fowl,
Blacksmith lap wing plover,
Grey goawat bird,
Barn Owl,
Spoon Bill stork
Lilac breasted roller,
Marabout with pouch
Goaway birds,
Fish eagles

If Pierrette had not given me a little book on the COMMON birds in South Africa, I certainly would not have been able to remember more than the COMMON names of birds. There are more than 900 different species in the area....we may have seen 50 or a few moe than that?  Our reference book didn’t have many of the rarer varieties which we had seen or were to see.

Impala antilope, steenbok- a little one, GNU, Tsessebe, Leachwe, bigger ones.....
Vervet monkeys, Baboons, Gnu, Kudu, (a woodland Antelope), Water Buck...did we see all these the first day? I doubt it, but a week later I am a little confused by the number of animals and birds we saw and where we saw them. That does not matter.

Looking at me from the Pool

A wart hog

The Marabout seems to sit for ever

The Eigret hunts all the time

An all animals showed me their bottoms first off

Coming to look at us

Waiting for fish

I never got sick of such trees...

"Now who do you think they are darling? "

Looking back at us.....

And more bottoms

The Impala

An Ad. for MacDonals - the bottom I mean

Just to remind you, We are still in the Okavango delta - the Moremi game reserve.
Then there were the Termite mounds. Termites can be real pests. They chew through the wood in our homes, and can eat a home inside out, making it completely unlivable. The irony is that termites can build not just houses, but veritable cities of their own. These ‘cities’ house, feed and protect them with great efficiency, and with very little wastage. Termite mounds can be as high as 9 m (30 feet)The termite mounds in the delta, they were everywhere. Like sculptures, phallic at that: straight in full erection, bent, in pairs or just sculpted with faces peering out at you. They borrow trees to start their mound, kill them off and then as the years go by another tree takes its place. The termites keep on building for ...... Inquiring sentinels peer out to see what is going on in the outside world. The ground is rich around them which probably accounts for the diversity of colours, flowers and the nature itself.

Over 50 years old....

So many all alone...

24/25th
Zebras, girafes , monkeys, antilopes. Kudu, Leachwe, - elephants.......... But it was the nature and the bush which seduced me. Space, trees with trunks like sculptures, greens which seemed to change all the time. Dead trees on the ground. Had they been blown over by storms? Pulled down by elephants? Animal carcass. Huge, heads of elephants, giraffe, bones....I wanted to take a small one home but was told that nothing could leave the reserve. Here the animals live their own lives and are in no way protected by the camp staff.

Our first sunset at Pom Pom

Minutes later....

After the evening safari which was virtually void of animals back to our room for the first night in the bush. Pierrette pointed out that the Hippo was grunting in the pound outide. For the following days I continued to confuse hippos and rhinos. The latter we never saw. Little sleep this night... the cicadas were screaching and the sounds of the bush kept me in memory lane until well after 1am. Suddenly as if someone had announced "bedtime" everything went quiet. At 5-30 a cackle woke me up. It can't be a kookaburra? The bush was alive again with birds and nature waking up to another day.

This 4x4 went in another direction

We set off again.

There were more animals and birds to be seen before we arrived at the Delta. Here we were to take a Mekoro or flat boat which is and was used for transporting goods and animals. Mekoros are local dug out canoes that have been the most effective mode of travel within the delta since the early 1870s.

Mekoro

Titus poled the two of us on the Delta.

The others left first

Titus and Pierrette enjoying life

Like, Freedom, Titus and......

Then there is Limit, Freedom, and other names for the boys which are all simple and not easily forgetable. Yet, I seem to have forgotten many of them .

Silence lapped around us like the water. The rest of the group seemed lengths away. Even they had stopped talking and were taken in by the unforgettable scenery along with the swish of poles as we moved along. We stopped. But why? Then a few minutes later, Titus bedecked us both with Water Lily necklace - the necklace itself he had carved out with his knife. No trinkets could replace such a beautiful item which died like the images I left behind me on the Delta.

Tea and coffee on a small Island. Here Titus told us that the water lily flower roots are eaten. Elephant dung burnt to stave off moskitos and sage is used as well for the same reason. Baloo had also told us that many of their African remedies were far more effective on the indigenous races than anti-biotics. How I wish it was the same for us.

Back in the camp I met an Australian who confirmed that this country was like the space in Australia. I would never deny my roots but for someone who is a city dweller, this landscape is "mine". I feel at home here and even in 37° the heat does not bother me. One very big plus versus the Australian centre, there are no blowflies to whack off every second of the day and the moskito season had not begun.

The afternoon group changed and I was not sorry. I was asked to translate for a very sweet French couple and the others were the young Swiss couple we had flown over from Maun with. Our guide wanted to find a family of hyenas and their babies. The drive was long and very bumpy.

Matts ( our driver) had learnt about the hyenas earlier in the week and was intent on finding them. The 4x4 went right, left, up down. Were we lost I wondererd? He admitted to me later that he had gone to the right "at the Boabab tree and not left.....ten metres in the wrong direction .....!

Who are you?

I never get tired of trunks - a storm or an elephant?

Another mound

Elephants like this bark....

Have just had my facial

And I have my ears combed.....

Fortunately an elephant closed in on the 4x4 so that entertained us for a while but we were all beginning to get a bit tired of being bumped around when bingo, there they were. Two Mothers quite blissful to the outside world. Two cubs around 7 weeks playing cub games and the two others 6 months old were suckling their Mother. There was only one Mother as the other had gone off leaving her son to be cared for. The youngsters came over to take a look at their older cousins. Then all the imaginable and inimaginable pranks began. It was a wonderful moment. The hyenas scavage at night and drag their finds back for their kids to eat. Other animals regurgitate it and others again give birth And leave their babies to fend for themselves. Crocodiles for instance.

Who is that?

I'm six weeks old...or 7?

Back to sleep then....

Do they play games.....?

Do you play games?

Getting bored with games.....

And Mum sleeps on.....

The long drive back took a couple of hours but there was an Barn owl glaring down at us from a tree, an inquisitve tortoise and a baby alligator who stopped his swim in the river we drove over. Dinner?
Night had closed in with a remarkable black dress leaving behind a dazzling sunset.

Torch light on an inquisitive tortoise

Staring out into the night

A baby so we are not for dinner....

Before I went to bed a sound brought me out onto the terrace. An elephant was eating the trees around our cabin. He stopped then proceeded to our steps staring at me in the starlight. This was a little bit too close for comfort.

an early morning wake-up call

A little clean up before breakfast (taken from our balcony too)

Not much up here to eat

Sorry, I ate it during the night .....

26/10
The day. As Pierrette didn't remember until later in the morning I felt free and easy. Its so easy to lose track of time in the bush. Wasnt this why I had come to Africa to forget that such a birthday could count?

Today we were going for a walk. First encounter and no camera to tell the story, 46 small baboons and 15 babies crossing a man made bridge. A large male leading the way and another closing in the tribune ! One creature found some meat but lost it between the slats. After a little masturbation, he went under the bridge to pick up his find. The babies played like kids and the Mother's screamed like Mother's do.

We were taught how to build traps for birds and other animals and survive in the wilds. Build a fire with the incredibly hard sycamore wood and another very light wood to rub in producing the smoke. Told the stories of how the hippos were punished by God and now only able to eat grass after having devasted the world of all animal life and later, guzzling all the fish in the rivers. How to read tracks, games children played spitting tiny antilope dung like cherry stones (Pierrette tried ). The sausage trees which young men sort for their virility And sexual virtues..... Those sausages weigh anything up to 4 kilos or more. I wouldn’t choose to camp under such a tree! This country is erotic, sexual and the story tellers very descriptive!

A sausage tree - see it?

Pierrette also found the most beatiful skeleton 'mask" of some animal that looked like a cat. I cursed myself for not having the camera . We were three walking single file with our two guides ready to save us with a gun or bare hands if we were attacked. With all that we only saw two elephants from a distance. A water hog and of course course the antelopes. What I love is the country, the contrast, the Boabab dilapatated by the elephants leaving sculptures behind. These break the horizon.........

Back to the camp the baboon were busy and we were greeted by sweet little monkeys when returning after lunch for that short siesta. Camp life is hectic. Early rises and the birds make sure of that. On the road by 7 back for lunch at 11-30 And off again by 4!

The afternoon drive was totally different from those before. Real bush or perhaps more bush like. The marula trees which a famous local cocktail is made of. Water holes with Hippos and the lonely eigret, the marabout standing on one leg high in a tree with their rather obscene pouch hanging under their necks, more antilope, the Tsessebe which we hadn't seen before. "One of the ugly 5" said Matts our driver " And I'm the 6th" How could he be with a smile like that! Elephants, two males and one with his beauty mask.

Another statue

heads arising

Poor Baobab

And a new comer - a buffalo

Suddenly she was there, smiling at us and chewing away on acacia tree (a symbol of this country?) contemplating her view of those animals in the 4x4. Eyelashes we are jelous of, two tufts on her head which had just been blown dry.....Melle Giraffe.

Yum yum

You are disturbing my meal.....

I may have to look elsewhere....

I'm curious to know who you are

So do you like what you see?

Mytto will be sending me lucky beans which were smaller than lady birds. He found one for Pierrette but they didn't find another for me. The nicest birthday presents I could ever have received will be these and the tiny coconut seed which Pierrette found. These are long lasting reminders of wonderful moments spent here and will join my nature collection.

Mytto

Pom Pom (lodge) means slushy land and not the familiar Oz name for the English or a Pom Pom on a hat or anything else. This lodge in the Moremi region of the Delta was anything but that. We had the camp to ourselves on the last morning. Baloo the Bresilian manager speaking four or five languages has the right to success.

Now onto Chobe with a short flight over the Delta to Kansane........a ten minute flight we are told. More animals and another Park. More big cats as the hyenas are not there to scavage their food, but this has been magic for me as a first experience. Seeing isolated animals wondering around seemingly oblivious to their spectators coincides to my "being alone" and not living with the crowds.....I was sad to leave.

27/28th
It was not ten minutes to Chobe. We had two plane changes before finally arriving at our next destination an hour and a half later.

The different landscapes we flew over were dramatic. Green plains on one side, the Delta twisting around broken up my islands, then desert on the other. The first hour I was glued to the window of our six seater plane. A first stop and off again with equally dramatic scenery and totally différent. A 15 minute wait for the last plane but we were driven around a track to find a "tree comfort spot". Three women felt a little more comfortable after that. The runaway was clear of elephants or other visitors - we could leave.

Leaving Pom Pom

Our plane

From the Delta to Chobe

Looking for a "comfort stop"

Contrast

Elephants and....

Before we arrived we flew over herds and herds of elephants. We had been told ther are over 90.0000 in the region. We were looking at a couple of hundred. Even the pilot was impressed as he flew low to see them. I wonder how they like the noise of planes?

Arriving in Kasane was a shock to the system. A small town with some 40,000 inhabitants. We were back in civilisation. Worse perhaps an International AirPort is in the process of being built. We maybe lucky people seeing this country without the hundreds of tourists flooding it everday and more and more lodges being built. There seemed to be enough already and by the time we arrived at The Garden Lodge, I felt as if we were out of Africa and back into city tempo.

The lodge is certainly comfortable. www.thegardenlodge.com Wifi available but for me, no telephone or SMS connection. My so called "Free operator" apparently did not have contracts with small towns in the wilds! I could not have cared in the slightest.

"The Garden Lodge, in Kasane, on the banks of the Chobe River, in Botswana’s far north is 70 km from Victoria Falls, 16km from Kazungula (the meeting point of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia) and 300 km from the Okavango Delta. Chobe National Park, with its estimated 100 000 elephants, huge herds of buffalo and daily sightings of lion is only 2 km away".

The manager was a far cry from Baloo but the lodge itself appeared to be comfortable. Our room with a small terrace gave onto the main garden. (This is shown on their Internet home page). Moskito nets loomed ominously but none around ....however....the garden was fenced off. No way we could get out in the evening. Hippos had a habit of coming in and as they are such unpredictable animals we were told to stay within the limits of the lodge. Sure enough, in the evening, we had one such visitor. HE was called Margaret until they discovered it was a male. Mr Margaret.

In the tree in front of our room, Pierrette discovered a beautiful owl.

Before this though there was the boat trip on the Chobe river. Flat bottomed boats which wound their way around the different border, Swaziland, Nambidia, ..... Our guide needed to check in with the Police for contols, then we were on our way.

Our boat was a little smaller....

Elephants and more elephants, water Buffalo, Rams, new antilopes, bird life galore and crocodiles, not to forget the hippos and wart hogs too. We did this trip two days running and on both occasions the experience was totally different. The first evening the elephants crossed the river. Their procession is spectacular. The second evening we found them on the same bank and watched bath time, swim time along with their afternoon promenades with giraffe, birds, impala and other inhabitants. The crocodiles did not impress them at all. They did me. All again quite different. Even if they were at times hatching their eggs, with eyes closed and mouth wide open, they just didn't seem real. Like plastic toys. Very large ones. Sometimes one woke with a start and headed for the river. I could peer down the throat of another as the boat slowed down close to the bank. That would not be a nice end. How on earth boys dared to dive off into the river, I really don't know.

Waiting to pounce

I thought it was a Hippo

Antilopes everywhere

And so many birds too

Digging for goodies

See the birds?

A new bottom

Looking around at.....

He's a long way off

mr Majestic

Coming down to the Chobe river

Sun about to set

And we will cross the river now.....

All of us....

And more of us.....

A gentle push from Mum

And we are on our way

And as the sun sets

The colour changes......

The sun sets were different too. Not spectacular but turning the water yellow rather than changing the clouds to pink.

And of course the crocodiles cannot be forgotten.....

asleep ?

Not really....

Are you my dinner?

This is my size tree....

No-one seems concerned.....

at all....

we live together very well...

it's a long way down....

And they could come up.....

I'll just wait and see.....

and I will too....

in case you come over.....

In the morning we drove through the Chobe Park reserve. From what we had been told there would be hundreds of animals. There were not but again the scenery leaves me quite breathless. There were newcomers to our list . 6 lady lions with one young male. It was hot- very hot and trying to keep their eyes open was a tremendous effort.

Trying to stay awake

What's that???

You ?

Elephants come close, very close to the 4x4 as do all the animals. Except those CATs who looked more asleep than about to capture or devour an antilope.

So close and didn't move....

Being looked at again....

The lonely hippo close to the water hole in Chobe Park

Ground horn bill coming to say goodbye as we leave the park...

It was 39°

And even you look hot.....

Birds, eagles. It was the zoom on the camera which helped me to see them. I can't cope with binoculars and my own glasses so may have missed a lot. Somehow I dont think so. On our way back to the camp, two huge black birds stepped out from behind a tree. It was the nature and country which seduced me. Animals seemed secondary, but the elephants and giraffe will always have a special place in my heart. At times I felt as if I was the intruder - in such space, you can feel very small......

Tomorrow we leave for Victoria Falls.

Picked up promptly at 10-20 and off to the border which meant 15 minutes. The border between Zimbabwe and Botswana is a shack, with a lot of customs officers hanging around and two working. One noting everything down from the visa form and the other sticking the visas into your passport. We were extremely lucky that there was only one bus in front of us with 17 tourists. We only had 30 minutes to clear customs before being handed over to our driver who would drive us to the Falls. An hours drive along a bitumen road.

Zimbabwe-Botswana border

Looking the other way

The Kingdom hotel was grandiose and as we were visiting out of season so few guests. Our room gave onto the pool area and was delightful. A fast lunch and off to the Falls. We were controlled by security when leaving the hotel by the back entrance and then boys closed in with their goods to sell. This drove me mad but others had told us that there would be a lot of "pushing" in Zimbabwe. Consequently there is no desire to buy anything. That hassling puts me off completely and the little we did see on a large market the following day could have been bought on the local market on the Place Monge in Paris. And for less.....

The next surprise was trying to pay the 50$ entrance fee at the Falls - My credit card was refused. A sickening feeling in my stomach after the Norwegian Cruise incident. Paid cash and off we went. Next to Mr Livingston's statue. He discovered the Falls in 1855.

Born in Scotland, David Livingstone arrived in Africa in 1840 at the age of 27 as a missionary and physician. He spent most of the remainder of his life on the continent, his exploits making him the most famous explorer of the century. An encounter with a lion in 1843 cost Livingstone the use of his left arm. Undeterred, Livingstone continued his exploration of the African interior, particularly the Zambezi River area in 1852-1856. It was during this expedition that he became the first European to witness the magnificence of Victoria Falls

We had our first view.....quite obviously majestic.

Mr Livingstone's statue

Mist and rainbow ....

Looking at .....?

the Falls ?

There are 16 points along the walk to view them. As we were there in the afternoon the rainbows danced over the waters as they broke in rage over a rocky back drop. Sign posts along the way. We were getting to the main Falls And yet, where were we? I rushed Pierrette along in frustration . Where were the Victoria Falls? There was the bridge which crossed over to Zambia. There you could cross the Falls on foot, or bathe in the pools. My frustration was boiling so I asked a Park attendant lazing in the sun "where are the Falls?" "Turn left."...we had passed them. Of course not one of the hundreds of photos I had taken had alerted me. I was stupidly disappointed and then understood we were visiting in the low water volume season which started in September and went through until the end of the year. In fact water was at its lowest and had nothing to do with the picture postcards, documentaries or films I had seen. What seemed like metres and metres of bare rock and yes, there were the Falls, vaguely as I remembered them from photos. It took me quite a while to reconcile myself that this was something else. I gather in the high season, you are soaked, can hardly see the Falls themselves and photography is virtually impossible. I began to look differently. The bush around, trees, red fire balls amazing. The Devil's Cataract with a single Fall and foam, crashing waters along with the mist suddenly made me feel that it was worth it. This is lower that the rest of the Falls and it is here that the main volume of water is concentrated all year around. I began to slow down. I guess that Pierrette gave a sigh of relief.

Devil's cataract

And yes, The Falls

As you see them when the water is low

Now I understand what is happening

It couldn't be better displayed....

So this was it.....

the beauty of the fire balls captured me....

There had to be this picture of course.....

Whiter than white the following day

Rock walls which are asking you to dive....or me anyway

To cross a border and bungy jump

Walking back from the bridge

We would come back the following morning. Colours were different, mist seemed whiter and even if the rainbows were not there. The whole atmosphere had changed. White was whiter than white. Vermet monkeys were everywhere. We hadn't seen them the previous day.

Looking over at Livingstone where they walk across the Falls or bathe in the water

Early mornin light

And another view....

Pierrette hidden and watching

We could practically touch them

Cleaning time

Pierrette went off after lunch to say goodbye to the Falls. I was happy to wander around. A video was showing touristic photos of the site as we know it. I came to the conclusion that our photos were far more interesting. We had seen something else, something that most tourists do not see. I will not be back to fly over those waters in a helicopter, nor take a raft down the rapids and certainly not do any bungy jumping. I would like to have dunked myself in the pool on the Zambia side, but no, I wont be doing that either. The Falls were not what I expected. They were quite something else! How lucky we were too....so few tourists....

One more moment of pleasure. A fast visit to the Big Tree. 1000 to 1500 years old, 18 metres girth and 23 metres high. Flowering in September. Nothing like the Boabad I had seen in Australia and no elephants had torn the bark but human nature is destructive. Names had been carved in its trunk. A barrier now protects this beauty. Other trees around were massif too and sculptered trunks which draw you to caress and hug them.

The Big tree

Part of its trunk

Another tree which I hugged and said goodbye.....

The trip was drawing to an end. Back to Jo'burg and then to Paris. The organisation had been better than much I have experienced in Europe. I would recommend Rythm Africa any time. www.rythmafricatours.com . It may have been nicer to start with the Falls and finish in Pom Pom with the warmth and smiling faces of Baloo and his staff, not to mention the excitement of discovering that country. It was not to be that way and perhaps the way we did it was the best.