Simon Thomsett

Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: May 04 2009 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

We finally left Maun after some work on the car and were heading towards the Okavango panhandle when the car gave up again. It seemed the problem hadn’t been resolved. We push-started several times but it started getting dark so we headed for a camp site that was a few km off the main road. But we only made it a few hundred metres before the floods stopped us from getting any further. A couple of innovative guys were there, cashing in on the tourists who could go no further. We parked on a hill so that we could start in the morning.

One of the guys there had his Mokoro (canoe) and offered to take us for a ride in the morning, for a fee. We concluded that we might as well see all these floodplains, so, early in the morning we went out and watched as the sun rose over the Okavango. As the area is a cattle area, we didn’t see much in the way of wildlife except a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl and a Fish Eagle. But it sure was pretty. On our return to mainland, we tried push-starting and pull-starting the car but to no avail. So we borrowed a battery from another car to start the Range Rover, returned the battery and were on our way. A couple of push starts later and we arrived at the campsite we had been aiming for the day before. There we spent the afternoon charging up the car batteries so that we could at least push as far as Rundu, across the border in Namibia, where we could find a mechanic.

The Okavango floods

Simon in a Mokoro

After a day in Rundu fixing the car, we went to Etosha National Park. What is usually a pan that fills with a few millimetres of water for a few days a year was an enormous lake where you couldn’t see the other side. We watched as a Giraffe did its gymnastic drinking. That night, we had just finished our meal and Simon was standing nearby when I noticed two Honey Badgers (Ratels) run past his legs. Simon noticed them too and we jumped for the cameras. We followed them as they went from one spot to another looking through the bins. It was quite a surprise!

Honey Badger under a truck

Tags: car trouble, etosha national park, okavango floods

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