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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to save it, at least in the short run. There will always be people coming through here; this is right about where people started to “be” anywhere, as our distant cousins, lost in the fog of prehistory, gingerly dropped down from the trees and started walking around on two feet. Bringing people through armed with cameras instead of guns seems the best one can hope for. Being a tree-hugger from northern California requires that I feel slightly guilty for the privilege of flying halfway around the world to experience a distant and exotic locale. I do this very well. I come here anyway, thank God.

The morning sun climbed its way up into the sky, the air warmed, and it was time to move on toward the Savute Marsh. The final prompt was a call on the radio from Barnes, the camp crew manager, informing Alwyn that they were leaving Moremi and heading toward our next campsite, thus giving the crew a slight head start. This and the time in the afternoon that we’d spend game driving upon our arrival in Savute was their total allotted time get ahead of us and set up camp – about three hours in my estimation, maybe less.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. What about that road from Moremi to Chobe?

A tattered wooden sign nailed to an acacia tree saying “Main Road” with an arrow pointing straight up. A rutted track cut through the bush, sometimes with sand so deep that it brought to mind driving a four-wheel drive high in the Colorado Rockies in the dead of winter; only this was sand and we are in Africa (though it is the dead of winter).

It was about a five hour drive, including lunch, before arriving on the Savute and then proceeding with a two and-a-half hour game drive. The merciless road beat you down, made you dig within yourself to keep from slobbering all over your shirt, your head jerking forward in a fit of microsleep – Always, Alwyn drove on...

It would have been much worse had we not stopped under the ...