Team Francistown (Thomas, Iz, and I) spent this past weekend (July 8th-10th) exploring the Tuli Block in Eastern Botswana and this was something we had intended to do 2 weeks ago but couldn’t because we didn’t have a car. What attracted us to this sparsely populated area was the offer of night drives in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve. Night drives meant nocturnal animals and nocturnal animals meant leopards, bushbabies (Lesser Galago), porcupines, and a variety of other elusive species. Another attraction was the Limpopo River, which was the setting of Isabelle’s favorite bedtime story. Off to Tuli Block we went…
First, a little about Tuli. It’s a large swath of land that Chief Khama ceded to the British South Africa Company in the early 20th century. They found little use for the land and sold it off to private commercial farmers after World War 2. The farmers found that the land was so rough and rocky that they couldn’t really keep a lot of cattle on it and so in the 1960s converted the area into privately owned reserves to profit from the growing safari tourism industry. The unfenced North East Tuli Game Reserve is made up of a number of reserves but together is the largest privately owned reserve in Southern Africa. The farmers established luxury safari lodges on their land and these lodges exclusively run this area. We sought the assistance of the luxurious Tuli Safari Lodge (http://www.tulilodge.com/) for our night game drive but the place is wayyy too expensive for a bunch of university students so we arranged a campsite at Molema Bush Camp (http://www.molema.com/) which is also managed by Tuli Safari Lodge.
On a very cloudy Friday, we started our journey after work at 2:30 and headed towards Bobonong, which was 3 hours away (refer to the In Search of the Chief of Bobonong if you want to know where it is). At one point, we unfortunately found ourselves in a funeral procession on a single lane highway with atleast 15 cars ahead of us all going 60 kph on a 120 road. After Bobonong, there were no more fuelling stations and we, being cheap university students, decided that our half tank of fuel would be enough for the 90kmh to Tuli Block as well as the rest of the weekend. Dumb decision….
We reached the Molema Bush Camp turning in the Tuli Block at around 7:15PM after which we had 5km to go on dirt road to get to the actual place. It was pitch black and the bush around us was very dense and so we decided to go slowww and steady to get to our destination. So far, all our camping trips have been to places where there isn’t too much wildlife (Kubu Island), or the dangerous wildlife doesn’t enter the bush (Khama Rhino Sanctuary). Based on that, it was our expectation that Molema would be more of the same… We were so wrong…
About a kilometer along the path, we stumbled upon 3 or 4 young elephants and we all sort of just peed our pants in fright. Young elephants met mama elephants weren’t far and mama elephants meant a herd! Thomas was to the point where he chose to not look when I pointed at a newly discovered elephant in the bush just to the right of the car. We were 3 university students in a low sedan farr farrr away from any sort of civil comforts surrounded by a herd of elephants that seemed very intimidating in the dark. They gave us way and Thomas just darted through only to find numerous glittering eyes caught in the headlight. Thankfully they just turned out to be harmless impala, the natural feedstock of the large predators. We reached the Molema Bush Camp very on edge only to find that there was no gate or fence separating the wild from us. On one side of the bush was us, and on the other were the impalas (and other animals). It had taken us what felt like half an hour to cover 5km in a car…
Cecilia and Chris were the only staffers at the Molema Bush Camp, which consists of a number of campsites and 2 chalets all just a few meters away from the banks of the legendary Limpopo River. They were very accommodating and hospitable and kindly showed to our campsite after we had covered rules and regulations. In the darkness, we couldn’t really see much of the area but were able to acknowledge the presence of a large nyala tree that covered most of the campsite. Relieved at finally reaching our destination after a tense few hours, we quickly set about preparing dinner. Just as Thomas picked up the first piece of firewood to break it into more manageable pieces, a scorpion appeared by his foot. We admired it for all 30 seconds after which the critter became agitated and curled up its stinger ready to strike. For our safety, it was destroyed and buried.
Dinner consisted of bread with melted cheddar cheese, and cream of chicken soup, all prepared over a small fire and consumed without a spoon. As we ate dinner, we started hearing loud growling and groaning sounds from the bush but weren’t so afraid because the 2 other occupied campsites were still buzzing. About an hour later, when we were the only ones awake for miles and miles around, the sounds started to get quite terrifying and we decided to retreat to our tent and go to sleep. I fell asleep to the distant growls and yelps coming from the bush thinking that whatever was making those sounds wouldn’t dare venture close to us apex predators.
Probably 3 or 4 hours into my sleep, I was shoved awake by Thomas and Is who said they were hearing sounds just outside our tent. I didn’t hear anything, and so I just zoned them out and went to bed thinking that they were just being paranoid…
In the morning, I woke to an agitated Thomas who didn’t understand how I had slept through the night without hearing the sounds. The surprise to me came when we stepped out of our tent to discover baboon tracks all over our campsite and some very large hind leg prints less than a meter from our tent. It was determined that a troop of baboons had been making the sounds and had stopped at our campsite to explore. After further exploration of the campsite area, we found bushbuck tracks and about 15 meters away, fresh LEOPARD TRACKS!!!
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| Our campsite, shaded by a huge nyala tree and frequented by wildlife |
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| Young leopard tracks |
Breakfast consisted of baked beans and toast after which we headed to the banks of the Limpopo River about 20 meters from our campsite. The Limpopo River is the setting of a children’s short story by Rudyard Kipling called the “The Elephants Child” and it was a favorite of Is’ and hence our determination to get to it. We explored the bank and all the tracks on it and decided to head back using the “main” dirt road that connected all the campsites. A troop of baboons was encountered and out of pure fear, we dashed for the river, picking up sticks along the way to defend ourselves. Later in the day, Thomas described the feeling of being prey and that’s exactly what I was feeling. Although we were never in any real danger, a troop of baboons is capable of killing a leopard and all we had to defend ourselves was termite-infested twigs. It was terrifying.
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| On the banks of the Limpopo River |
Because we didn’t have a 4WD, we had to take a longer route to Tuli Safari Lodge for our game drive and that took us 2 painstaking hours to complete. The place itself was the epitome of safari luxury with tree hyrax, duikers, warthogs, and glossy ibis roaming watered grass gardens and lounges that must have cost a fortune to construct. That’s not the best description, but imagine a safari lodge where someone would go for an expensive honeymoon. That’s what this place was. Also, funny how that was the first time I had seen green grass in Botswana; in a luxury lodge surrounded by rough dry terrain.
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| Tuli Safri Lodge vehicles |
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| A shy steenbok we encountered on our way to Tuli |
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| Tree hyrax |
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| Large posturing male elephant. We were on an elevated safari vehicle and he stood taller than us. |
Other game included Burchell’s zebra, blue wildebeest, giraffes, eland (africa’s largest antelope species), steenbok, the kori bustard (africa’s largest flying bird. It looks like a pterodactyl on takeoff), ostrich, and porcupines.
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| Dirty Burchell's zebra |
But it was our first sighting of a cackle of spotted hyenas at their den that stole the day. It was already dark when they were spotted but we probably sat there for a good 20 minutes getting insight into the lives of these despised scavengers. The scene seemed to be that the older hyenas were going out for a hunt and a mama was telling her cub to stay put in a cave under the watchful eye of a baby sitter. As the larger hyenas left, the cub came out of the den and started yelping and so all the hyenas returned and that’s when we left.
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| Spotted Hyena den |
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| cub |
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| The smaller one was intrigued by his shadow |
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| The cub in the cave on the left and the babysitter on the right. |
By the time we returned to our campsite, our half tank of fuel had been reduced to 1 tiny bar just above the dreaded E for EMPTY. The closest gas station was in Bobonong about 100 km away and so we basically had to do that distance in 1 bar of fuel or get stuck in the middle of nowhere. Things were pretty tense. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our last meal of basmati rice and vegetable curry and hit the sack. We woke in the morning only to find that some other type of animal had been basically sniffing out Thomas as he slept and the tracks determined that it was a mongoose.
About a quarter of the way back to Bobonong, the fuel dial fell below the E and then went even lower, all the way down to the filliing station visual: That’s the lowest Ive ever seen a dial go. Thankfully our car served us well and made it all the way to Bobonong where we filled a quarter of the tank. By the time we got to Francistown, the dial was below E again. We basically spent the same amount on fuel as we did on renting the car. Ridiculous.
In the end, although we didn’t see any leopards or bushbabies, surprise elephant herds, a scorpion, elephant charges, and hyenas made this weekend well worth it. This coming weekend is a 4-day weekend and we will be enjoying our midsummer retreat where we discuss the successes and failures of the project thus far in the presence of the entire team. The location is Maun and the Okavango Delta so be ready for some insaneeeee pictures. For those of you who don’t know what the Okavango Delta is, watch the “Great Plains” or “Pole to Pole” episodes in the BBC Planet Earth series.
For an update on work related news, Isabelle and I started our job-profiling project to bring some structure and accountability to the organization. The organization also had their annual general meeting on Wednesday and it was quite the scene. Elections took place for the board members and more than 200 people turned up in the office yard to vote. In the end, the board members with the majority won in the most democratic manner: 2 candidates were running and each stood on opposing sides of the yard and people just picked which side to stand on. Heads were counted and the winning side hounded the opposition out of the yard. People then proceeded to cheer feverishly for about an hour after which it all fizzled out. And that’s how all AGMs should be conducted. Also, the midsummer report for QPID Projects should be completed by the end of this week and so if you’d like to know what QPID Ghana, and QPID Nunavut have been up to, let me know and Ill get you a copy. Stay tuned.
PS everyone should be looking into doing 67 minutes of good on July 18th to mark Nelson Mandela Day. More to follow on this.
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