Home » Botswana » Jul 26, 2004 Savute Marsh, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Now is as good a time as any to introduce a word or two about our camp crew. They travel in an old Mercedes diesel truck, carrying all our supplies - tents, fuel, water, food, etc. At most, only three can ride in the cab of the truck, and possibly only two. The rest ride in the back, over the dusty, bumpy, bone-jarring roads. After that they proceed to set up four large tents, complete with a freshly dug pit toilet and bucket shower in the back of each; next is a dining tent, their own tents, and a “kitchen”. Then they’re off to gather fire wood and generally provide a seamless transition to our next camp. Let me tell you that it’s a very comforting sight after a hard day on the road to see camp all lit up, a lantern in front of each tent, a dozen or so hung around the dining tent, and a fire roaring ready to ward off the coming winter chill. We are well supported.

Jul 26, 2004 Savute Marsh, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Tom Schueneman
2006-03-27 15:41:37

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crew.

Camp was nearly struck by the time we left the Khwai River yesterday. We climbed aboard the trucks around seven to game drive until late morning before moving onto our next camp here at the Savute Marsh in Chobe National Park. The crew for Alwyn’s truck consisted of Jayne, Nancy, Dan, and I.

Our final game drive along the Khwai River offered a dizzying mixture of lion, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, hyena, hippo, jackal... It was as if everyone was coming out to say goodbye. The floodplain spread out like a stage, all the players acting out their drama, creating an overarching story that opened a small window into the workings of the natural world for observing humans still a little awe-struck from the night before. I kept going back to the notion I was taught in basic college physics of the how the observer alters the observed (during the brief period that my basic college physics course dealt with the unwieldy subject of quantum mechanics – all of it fascinating and only marginally understandable.) It doesn’t take a theoretical physicist to tell you that a consistent flow of humans, no matter how well meaning, rambling through the bush in large vehicles will have an effect on what is observed. We Americans generally sit fat and happy at the pinnacle of the food chain. It’s a good idea to at least know what it is we’re sitting on top of; to know what is threatened from existence by a perhaps brief age of human domination. So Jayne and I find ourselves ten thousand miles from home, observing, learning, and much better off for the experience. I hope that my presence here is a positive thing overall. No doubt for me it is, but for others as well, and for the animals and environment that we’ve come to experience. Spending time with Alwyn and Stanley gives me hope that my belief is well founded. They love the land and being in it. They do this for a living. Providing an economic incentive to protect the wilderness is the best way to save ...