A day in the park…
So, one of the most interesting environmental factors of the region is how the water system works. The Kwandu River headwaters are out of Angola, feed down through the middle of the Caprivi, turn into the Linyanti Swamp, and eventually the Chobe River (which forms the border between Namibia and Botswana). The whole system makes a L shape on the landscape which connects to the Zambezi River at the eastern tip of Caprivi. With that in mind, a group of us decided to go check out Mamili National Park which is a swampy area down in the bottom part of the Caprivi Strip where the Kwandu River flows (borders Botswana). We managed to get out of the lodge by 8:30 in two cars…a decent sized four wheel drive ISUZU headed by Binford and then Gordon (the owner of the lodge) drove his small little Tracker. Each truck had four people in it – Binford, Paul, Daniel and myself in one truck and Gordon, Narcisa, John, and Bill crammed into the other.
Narcisa needed to stop and do one interview at a lodge on the way down to the park so Daniel and I brought out laptops with us and studiously entered data while driving down. We reached the park around ten o’clock. The funny thing about these particular parks is that you have to go searching out the park offices – it’s not a simple pay to enter scheme. We came in the back way b/c the front way was too difficult with the amount of flooding that has occurred this year. The park we are visiting can be up to 80% covered by water during the rainy season. As such, we came across some bridges that needed crossing…these are not the lovely concrete/stone bridges that we all know and love…more like logs strung together with steel wire…or nothing at all. The first bridge we went across was the most sturdy…albeit it was also the longest. Gordon went across first in his baby Tracker and we followed in the ISUZU. Shortly thereafter there was another similar bridge that wasn’t too much of a pain. We then came up on another water channel that was a bit deeper although the water was clear for most of it. Getting down into and out of the channel was quite a steep drop off but after the Tracker managed to do it, it was hard for the ISUZU to turn its nose up at the crossing. We definitely sunk down a bit in soft sand and little water seeped into the bottom but no big deal – up we came on the other side and off we went on our African adventure.
We drove up to the park office and spoke to the park officials for awhile who were very friendly and helpful before we headed off to explore what the landscape looked like…which, by and by, is very different from the other areas we have been tromping around. The soil moisture in this park is a lot higher than the other areas and you can see a lot more green areas…the other thing you can see a lot of is wide expanses of grass areas with few trees and bushes – what I would think about when picturing an “African savanna.” We drove until we could drive no farther (stuck by a water channel that was not crossable) and had lunch right in the middle of a very large grassland – standing on top of a termite mound you could see grass all around and off in the distance was the tree line that bordered the water course that separated Botswana from Namibia.
After eating lunch we turned around and tried to find out way but were continually thwarted with unpassable river channels. We eventually turned around and started heading back…along the way we saw impala, elephant, buffalo, kudu…quite nice. We came up on the third of early water passages and off went the little tracker to do it’s thing. Then the ISUZU went off the steep, short incline into the water…almost immediately we were stuck with the nose down at an angle and the truck tilted to the right side. As soon as we dropped I felt a catch in my throat and reached down towards my boots…the funny thing about being in tense situations is the things I think about first…and the first thing I thought about was how I wanted my boots off if I had to get in the water….immediately on top of that thought was the amount of electronic equipment that was sitting between us in the backseat…figures the one day we bring our computers into the field…
As all these thoughts are racing through my head, I also noticed the water starting to seep into the car from Daniel’s side…he was like, okay water coming in, water to my ankles, water to my knees…c’mon, c’mon…meanwhile, I’m still fumbling with my damn shoes b/c it was so impt to get them off…but, of course struggling to even get them untied…meanwhile, Narcisa, Bill, and John are all wading into the water and everyone is like get out of the car and get the stuff out…I open my back side door only to see the water reaching the level of entry…I immediately took the plunge hoping it wasn’t so deep that I’d go under..thankfully, it was only waist deep…we started a train from poor Daniel stuck in the sinking truck handing me anything and everything important, me to Narcisa to Bill to whoever would take stuff to dry land. Paul, Daniel and I all scrambled out of the truck and then out of the water…I immediately grabbed my camera and turned around for a few shots…then decided maybe helping Binford as he continued sinking might be useful.
So everyone went back in the water (yes, wary eyes were looking around for the crocs) and got behind the tilted car with people standing in varying degrees of water depending on where they were and how tall….we all pushed while Binford accelerated but no luck…we then went around to the front of the truck and pushed back which was more successful…once back on the platform he had dropped off from, Binford was able to drive out of the water…yay!
Now we are all soaking wet from the waist down and standing around a car emptying itself of the massive amount of water that was collected in the cab and engine…while doing so, the alarm on the car short circuited and we had a lovely noise to contend with..the eventual solution to the alarm was to snip the wire to the horn…very technical I know but we could not find a driver’s manual. Decided during this time that the beers we had brought along would be best utilized if consumed. After getting most of the water out we headed off again..truck seemed to running fine, no alarm to contend with, and feeling good about the adventure. Came up on the baby wooden bridge and built Binford’s confidence back up by traversing across it with no problem. Came up on the big wooden bridge, watched the Tracker cross with no problem, got ready to go, and our truck died.
So, now I currently sit at the edge of Mamili National Park writing up my story…one reason why so long…have nothing else to do but twiddle my thumbs…i assume sometime tonight we will get help (Gordon went off in the little Tracker back to the lodge (hour away) for a bigger truck and some help. The guys (b/c I’m clueless and probably just in the way) have been tinkering with the engine since the engine died but to no avail. Think it’s connected to the silly short-circuited alarm system but can’t seem to fix the problem…ah well, just another day in Africa…
…the next day – just to top off the evening…George, the park manager, drove up while we were twiddling our thumbs and asked us if we were missing anything…and out from the back of his truck comes Binford’s backpack, complete with passport, airline tickets, etc….what a day…we did make it back to the lodge just after dark…Gordon came to our rescue with a reliable vehicle and a chest full of cold beer. Yay Gordon.