Monday 29th July
An early morning walk. We went to the
waterhole, which had another enormous baobab nearby, and then followed tyre
tracks through the bush. We didn’t see anything spectacular, which is probably a
good thing, but it was a nice feeling to stretch our legs for a change. We also walked around the perimeter of Planet Baobab until my stomach decided that it was time for breakfast.
The rest of the morning was taken up with the drive to Elephant Sands (with a quick pause to take a photo of the giant aardvark outside Planet Baobab), which has a somewhat bleak-looking campsite with very little shade, but also has chalets, and a waterhole right next to the bar/restaurant. On the way we stopped at a small supermarket in Nata to buy bread– it seemed newly built and it appeared that while building it they had incorporated a “sound system”, which was blasting out music so loud that even standing next to each other we couldn’t hear the other one shout! We grabbed a loaf and a newspaper and exited quickly. At Elephant Sands there was a lot of sand - and an elephant in the waterhole as we arrived. As Sue’s tummy was (again) complaining that it was empty, we decided to eat at the bar with the
elephant just in front – we ordered chips for Sue as it was the only thing they offered
without wheat. Soon a lady arrived to announce “no potatoes today” so we had to
negotiate an omelette. After lunch Sue went to get a few bits from the truck – she seemed to have been gone for quite a while (a whole bottle of beer’s worth) – so when she returned saying that she’d “been chatting” it wasn’t too much of a surprise – she’d met Jim and Klaus – English and German respectively who were staying on the campsite and had invited us to move the truck next to their pitches, directly in front of the waterhole. We spent the whole of the rest of the afternoon chatting with them about Africa and particularly Zambia. It turns out that Klaus has spent years in Africa, owning a lodge/ campsite in northern Zambia. Jim is a regular visitor to Elephant Sands, and owns a nicely kitted-out South African Landcruiser. They’ve offered lots of advice/ideas for further north and we’re going to sit down with them with maps and pen/paper tomorrow to take
notes!
In the evening elephants started to arrive to drink, so we went back to the bar and sat by a blazing fire right next to where the elephants drink – looking up at these huge gentle (usually) animals as they got through gallons of water.
A potentially useful piece of advice from Jim and Klaus is that if you vacuum pack red meat, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Now where do we find a vacuum packing kit? (apparently you can buy them nowadays....)
An early morning walk. We went to the
waterhole, which had another enormous baobab nearby, and then followed tyre
tracks through the bush. We didn’t see anything spectacular, which is probably a
good thing, but it was a nice feeling to stretch our legs for a change. We also walked around the perimeter of Planet Baobab until my stomach decided that it was time for breakfast.
The rest of the morning was taken up with the drive to Elephant Sands (with a quick pause to take a photo of the giant aardvark outside Planet Baobab), which has a somewhat bleak-looking campsite with very little shade, but also has chalets, and a waterhole right next to the bar/restaurant. On the way we stopped at a small supermarket in Nata to buy bread– it seemed newly built and it appeared that while building it they had incorporated a “sound system”, which was blasting out music so loud that even standing next to each other we couldn’t hear the other one shout! We grabbed a loaf and a newspaper and exited quickly. At Elephant Sands there was a lot of sand - and an elephant in the waterhole as we arrived. As Sue’s tummy was (again) complaining that it was empty, we decided to eat at the bar with the
elephant just in front – we ordered chips for Sue as it was the only thing they offered
without wheat. Soon a lady arrived to announce “no potatoes today” so we had to
negotiate an omelette. After lunch Sue went to get a few bits from the truck – she seemed to have been gone for quite a while (a whole bottle of beer’s worth) – so when she returned saying that she’d “been chatting” it wasn’t too much of a surprise – she’d met Jim and Klaus – English and German respectively who were staying on the campsite and had invited us to move the truck next to their pitches, directly in front of the waterhole. We spent the whole of the rest of the afternoon chatting with them about Africa and particularly Zambia. It turns out that Klaus has spent years in Africa, owning a lodge/ campsite in northern Zambia. Jim is a regular visitor to Elephant Sands, and owns a nicely kitted-out South African Landcruiser. They’ve offered lots of advice/ideas for further north and we’re going to sit down with them with maps and pen/paper tomorrow to take
notes!
In the evening elephants started to arrive to drink, so we went back to the bar and sat by a blazing fire right next to where the elephants drink – looking up at these huge gentle (usually) animals as they got through gallons of water.
A potentially useful piece of advice from Jim and Klaus is that if you vacuum pack red meat, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Now where do we find a vacuum packing kit? (apparently you can buy them nowadays....)