December 3 and 4 - Guma Camp - Okovango Delta - Botswana

Guma camp is a little piece of paradise in the Delta and was a sight for sore eyes!

  After the first two days’ hard push, it was just what we needed to get ourselves rested and organized. It always takes a few days into the trip to figure out where to find what, and where it actually should be. Then to find out what is missing and make lists of what’s needed from the next Checkers stop.

  The owners of Guma, Guy and Bev Lobjoy, are friends of ours from Ntseri days, and have built a really charming camp overlooking a huge lagoon which is a renowned fisherman's haven. Garrick is, of course, in his element and spent most of the first morning setting up his rods and fishing equipment, to be ready for the afternoon fishing trip. Guy pronounced Gee) put us in one of his bigger campsites. The poor man, I think he was totally surprised to see Hippo 1 and Hippo 2 (the little brother) arriving at the camp! He couldn't fit us into his normal campsites so we went into the campsite that accommodates his larger groups.

  The setting is absolutely beautiful! We couldn't quite see the water but we looked onto the reed beds with huge trees, giving much-needed shade, as it is very, very hot. The only challenge was that the shade was so deep that our solo panels didn't work, which meant we would have to run the cars every now and again to recharge our batteries.

  We had gone to sleep the night before and left the inverter on, which completely drained the batteries..... so we learn! Technically challenged oldies just don't know these things!

  We got brief messages from Mark; he was making slow progress on catching us up. He had done a patch job with new screws and mountains of duck tape, to fix the steering arm, a real "boer maak n plan", but he needed a welding machine to do a proper job, which they do have in the camp.

  A very excited Garrick, Aiden and Guy went off to do an afternoon’s fishing and we waited for Mark, Jacs and their kids to arrive. We wondered how Mark would do in the thick sand pulling a caravan. He arrived at about four thirty, quite rattled with his experience and just how lucky he had been. He pulled into the garage, filled up with petrol, and on his way out he tried to turn onto the road and the car went straight into the fence. He was only doing about five km’s per hour so no harm was done, but we all shudder to think what would have happened if he had been driving at 100kmph!

  Anyway, he had no trouble getting to the camp through the sand, and his arrival really hailed the beginning of the adventure for us, as a group. When Guy and the kids returned from their fishing trip, the kids were delighted to see each other! It is really heartwarming to see what great friends they all are. Luke was very proud of his war wounds, his jaw was still pretty swollen with one loose tooth, but still smiling. They do, however, miss Kodi who would have made the circle whole for them - next time! In no time Eve and Garrick, who are our big organizers, had a game going of building a fort out of palm fronds.

 Aiden was the only one that had caught a fish that afternoon, it was a tiger fish, of all things, and was about half a meter going on two ... All very exciting and new!

 Tracy woke us at about two in the morning. They had been woken up by the sound of fire and, being so high up on top of the Man-truck, they could see a glow through the bushes. Guy wanted to go and check it out to see that we weren't in any danger. So, the two of them left and came back about half an hour later. The locals had set fire to the islands in the river (poachers or careless fishermen) and it had been burning for a few days. It had now reached the land in front of the lodge. We didn't appear to be in any danger but the flames could jump the island and land on the mainland and creep up the reeds in front of the campsite. That would take a few days so we were all right for now. While out walking, Ernest had mentioned that he was sure they were safe from the hippos as they wouldn't come this close to the lodge... the next morning Bev said that they were really lucky, as the hippos love the lawn in front of the swimming pool, which was exactly where they were walking. Maybe they heard Guy and Ernest coming and ran!. During the day, Bev had told us about a hand-reared owl that they had let free and that was now around the lodge. She warned us that at night she (the owl) was attracted by the sound of children's voices and would swoop down and hit the kids on their heads, just to say hello. Well, she obviously thought that Guy and Ernest were children as she came down and slapped them on their head when they were out looking at the fire!

  The second day at the camp started off with an early morning fishing trip for the kids. The last thing I felt like doing was sitting on a boat with three or four hooks flying around. None of the children are experienced fishermen so the danger of getting a hook in the ear was a great possibility. Guy (apparently) caught quite a nice bream, and Aiden caught a smaller bream, while Tracy sat on Aiden’s fishing rod and broke it in half.... She is now banned from fishing trips. Anyway, when we asked for these apparent catches they told us that they had thrown them back in the water so there wasn't any actual proof that they had caught anything and, of course, everyone knows how fishermen lie!

  Jacs, Ernest and I spent our morning doing the sensible thing of relaxing and reading our books and phoning Rui to find out if all was okay at home.

  The afternoon was spent fixing the steering arm to Mark’s satisfaction and then we all went for a wonderful booze-cruise in the evening. We had some great bird viewing from the water, but the view that we got of the destruction caused by the fire was quite shocking. We found ourselves wishing for some rain to stop the whole slaughter.

  At this time of the year, all the birds are breeding and they build their nests in the reeds, so the loss of all the eggs or baby birds is quite devastating. Also all the little animals like tortoises and snakes cannot get away.

  Someone was obviously listening as we had some rain during the night which put out most of the fire. The trouble with that is the superstition of the locals who light the fire because they think God will bring the rain to put fires out, to save the animals.... Phew, you can't win with that one!

Until next time.