(This was written on the 2nd but put on the computer and sent from Windhoek on the 11th. Confused? Don’t worry about it.)
All sorts of things are and have been happening, but we’ll give them to you in the order in which they occur.
On Monday 21st we had a flying visit from the Rob Pollocks en route to Etosha. It was really nice to see them, and we hope they enjoyed the rest of their all too short stay in Namibia. Without wishing to boast we would mention, in passing, that we ate as an hors d’oeuvre at supper that night, freshly caught tiger fish !!!!! – everyone was painfully polite about the bones. Actually we confess that Sean foul hooked the Ruddy thing. Tiger fish are abundant here and we’ve had some really respectable sizes on the hook, but after one or two they say “Up your’s Minogue” and spit the damn thing out.
On Wednesday we headed back to Mamili for a 5 day stay. There were a few people around when we arrived, but luckily we were able to lay claim to our original campsite at Lyadura on the Linyanti River. The others camped about 1 k away (far too close, but they didn’t really bother us.) This place is amazing. On the way to our camp on Wed. we drove in close proximity to a number of Elephants – some of them with babies of varying sizes. We had to stop a few times, and in one case do a couple of token reverses to appease a protective Mama – or Auntie.
After the Elephants, we drove around a large herd of Buffalo, after waiting for them to clear the bushes. We had seen the results of an encounter between a buffalo and a 3 ton truck in Tanzania, so decided to be polite.
We won’t bore you with a long list of sightings from our camp, save to say that we saw 18 different species of game including 4 of the Big 5 – no Rhino – and on Thursday morning watched a Leopard take out an Impala ram just opposite us. The Hippo were really chuffed to have us back and gathered every evening for a soiree of classical music before coming ashore for their meal. They seem particularly fond of Beethoven. One character’s favourite position was a few metres from Sean’s beer pool, but, although beers were retrieved with extreme caution, relationships remained cordial.
Hippo eyeing Sean’s beer store
HIPPO IN THE LAVATORY: ELEPHANTS IN THE KITCHEN: STORKS ON THE ROOF.
Sean’s usual routine in the morning was to get up just before dawn, do his bit for the East Caprivi Irrigation Scheme, kick the fire into life, and watch as the dawn light brought all our neighbours into view.
On Saturday morning, whilst doing the irrigation bit, there was an irate bellow, “Oi! Watch where you’re aiming that thing!” and an irate Hippo with a wet back went off muttering into the bush.
Sean called to Jean, telling her that the Hippos were ashore and to keep an eye open, when he noticed 2 very large dark shapes standing next to our kitchen bush, less than 5 metres from the tent.
“Oooo Hell (or words to that effect) Ellies, quick Jean get behind the Landy!”
Now some of you will be surprised to know that Jean is not always an obedient wife. In fact, she has the Pollock tendency toward an independent attitude (known as Pig Headedness).
Instead of doing the sensible thing and getting behind the Land Rover, Jean dived into the tent, grabbed her camera, and let off a Bloody Great Flash right under the noses of our Jumbo visitors. (After all that, the photo did not come out.)
Fortunately, they had got up on the right side of the bed that morning, and instead of clobbering her over the head – as she deserved – they ambled off across the river, muttering things like “Silly Sod. Typical tourist behaviour. Must be Americans. etc etc”
Elephants having just left our kitchen.
The attached photo (we hope it goes through as we seem to be having a hassle sending them off), – not a very good one because of the poor light – was taken by Sean after he got out from under the Land Rover (checking for a fuel leak.)
After all that excitement, about 20 minutes later, the sky darkened and about 50 Open Billed Stork descended on the trees above us and sat there for a good half hour.
Open Billed Storks.
What a start to the day!
Reluctantly, we left Mamili on Monday and would have been back at Ngepi by 15:00. In the middle of the Caprivi Strip, thankfully on good tarmac road, the engine started to hesitate and then petered out. At first, we thought it was fuel starvation, but, having opened the bonnet and poked and prodded in a most professional manner, we decided that we were fooling nobody, least of all the engine. Luckily the Rohr family from Escourt came upon us soon after and kindly towed us into Divundu where we found a bush mechanic. To cut a long story short, blocked fuel pipe was ruled out in favour of fuel pump failure, but having jury rigged another pump to the system, we found that this was not the problem either. It appeared that at least one of the push rods were bent, and this meant Big trouble with a capital S.
Communications here are not the best, and we spent most of Tuesday on the phone to F*******s – a complete dead loss and waste of time -, and the various Land Rover agents in Swakopmund and Windhoek. These latter being very professional and extremely helpful. Daughter Fiona, God bless her, started raising hell from the Durban end, and we believe our pal Rick J. was all set to mount a rescue expedition. It means a lot to have good friends. In any event, it seems that F*******s, apart from being less effective than a eunuch at an orgy, had omitted to tell us that there was a factory fault with the timing belt on our model Landy and that a conversion should have been done during one of our regular services. The Land Rover guys in Windhoek confirmed that from their computer records and also confirmed to us that the repairs and transport of the vehicle to Windhoek would be undertaken at Land Rover’s expense. As you can imagine things up to now had not looked too rosy, the nearest Land Rover agency was in Maun, about 400 k away, and in Namibia, Windhoek about 900 k away – which you must acknowledge is one Hell of a long push. Land Rover have organised that the Landy will be picked up by a S.A.Breweries truck.
We are writing this on Friday and have just learnt that the truck is still somewhere in Angola and the earliest it could be here is Monday afternoon – but who knows? We will then organise with a local road camp to load onto the truck and then follow it into Windhoek by bus or whatever. Thankfully, the caravan is still set up here at Ngepi which is quite a nice place to be stuck in, and the people here have proved to be very supportive. It also gives Sean more opportunity to practice his tiger fishing.
We will keep in touch when we can.