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23rd april - 9th may

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Botswana

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 15:19:02

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that although, for your own safety, it is prohibited to leave your vehicle anywhere else, at an unfenced, unmanned picnic area it's suddenly fine. not that we're complaining. it's great to be able to get out of the car and enjoy the tranquility of the bush. and even a breakfast of muesli can seem fairly exciting when you have to keep looking over your shoulder to check that some fanged and ferocious killer isn't hoping for a somewhat meatier morning snack of their own.

botswana's parks are, in fact, legendary for their unfenced campsites, and with such dense game populations close encounters are common. the travellers grapevine is ripe with tales of lions drinking in the toilet blocks and elephants opening land rovers like tins to get at a carelessly stored piece of fruit. savuti is a campsite that is notorious for these type of slightly-too-close encounters. in the centre of chobe national park, right beside savuti marsh, the area is a favourite hangout of elephant and lions, amongst other things. it was there that we had booked to spend the night.

it was a long drive to savuti. disappointingly, a couple of hundred kilometres of it was through village land marooned in the middle of the park. and much of the rest was long sandy tracks that undulated nausiatingly. but as we approached savuti, the game began to appear again. dozens of elephants moved back and forth across our path, visiting the muddy sink-holes that had formed beside, and sometimes in the middle of, the track. the elephants were presumably quite accustomed to 4x4s and only moved aside to let us pass reluctantly. some of them trumpeting, flapping their ears or giving us a mock charge first. one particularly large bull seemed to take a dislike to us from about 100 ft, spreading his ears and begining a charge before we'd even got close. though we try normally to stand our ground (which is recommended) on this occasion claire persuaded me to put the landy into ...