We left Okuti and flew to our final camp, Savute-Under-Canvas (SUC). The flight there was fine, a little bumpier than our first few flights but neither one of us felt at all ill.
We called SUC rustic compared to our first two camps. Here, we were in tents. Real tents, not enormous tents built onto wooden platforms with running water, but canvas tents laid down on the sand with no running water or electricity. We got to shower under a big canvas pouch filled with water with a spout on its bottom you could open or close to allow water to trickle out onto you. These pouches were filled with hot water in the evenings so we could shower before dinner. But no matter how many times we showered at SUC, we were always covered with dirt and sand. Our beds, which were the most comfortable beds of our entire trip, were also filled with dirt and sand. This was real camping.
SUC was manned by a staff of 8 men. Every four days, they packed up the entire camp and moved it a half mile or so away. They are only allowed to be set up in the national park if they only stay in one place for no more than 4 nights. The camp had 5 tents so it could hold a max of 10 guests at a time.
We also decided that SUC was our diet camp. There was no morning beverage brought to your tent, no hot breakfast, only one lunch and dinner option instead of a buffet of dishes, no sundowners, and no pre-dinner appetizers! We were grateful that we had packed a few granola bars for the trip because we ended up eating them here so our stomachs didn't eat themselves while we waited for dinner at 8pm, with our last meal being at brunch at 11am. Thankfully we had some New Zealanders with us here who brought beer on our evening drives so we could have some informal sundowners. After eating at least 4,000 calories per day at our previous two camps, this camp was definitely diet camp even though we were still probably eating 2,000 calories per day. On the bright side, SUC did have a well-stocked bar that was open all day long. So if you wanted to drink your afternoon siesta away, you were perfectly welcome to.
Oh yeah, and it was HOT while we were there. In the 90's every afternoon, with very few clouds in the sky, and there was no way to escape the heat. The tents heated up throughout the afternoon siesta so that you could not go into them without sweating. Which left you to sit outside at the dining table, which was under an awning, to try to stay cool. We tried to nap a few times one afternoon but it was too sweaty and not worth it. By the last afternoon we figured out that the best way to beat the heat was to take a cold shower. Even though our bucket shower was just a trickle of water, standing under it when it was colder than the air felt amazing. Having cold wet hair on a sweltering afternoon was the way to go.
At night, we would return from our evening game drives to a camp lit with lanterns hanging from poles outside of our tents, and lanterns all around the dinner table and the awning above it. It was beautiful. There would also be a fire in the middle of the tent area with chairs all around it so we could convene there for cocktails and conversation once we had showered. All of the candlelight made evenings the best time in the camp. We tried to capture some of the night lights around the dinner table:
The stars were also amazing at night. Since you're not near any cities in Botswana, there is never any light to interfere with the night skies. Although we did have a full moon or close-to-full moon for our entire stay there so that got in the way of being able to see all of the stars and constellations fully, but it was still way better than trying to view the night sky from Boston!
At SUC, the only activity was game drives. Compared to Okuti, the game here was slightly disappointing. We came from a place where we had just seen a pride of lions stalk a herd of buffalo ... and at SUC there was not a single lion to be found. Apparently they used to have lions, and all the guidebooks say that Savute is known for its lion population, but all the lions moved out over the past year or two and the guidebooks had not been updated to reflect that. And, we were in Savute during the dry season, and we witnessed firsthand the last waterhole in the area run dry. No worries though, the camps in Savute created manmade waterholes for all the elephants to drink out of; otherwise the elephants tear up the underground pipes that run water around the national park.
SUC did have a ridiculous amount of elephants. They were everywhere - and all males. They called them bachelor herds. The female elephants were smart enough to leave with their babies when water got scarce in the dry season but the men stay back and get thirsty for some reason. If you want to see a lot of elephants, SUC is the place to be. We also saw a baby leopard, in a tree, through a large amount of foliage. Its mother was out hunting and had left it in the tree. We went back the next day to check on it and its mom had come and taken it someplace else where it wouldn't be found by all the tourists. We also saw a few things here that we hadn't seen yet - like a cliffspringer and some Roan antelope (which I think are actually called Oryx). And there were some hills here! We hadn't seen hills in our other camps.
A lilacbreasted roller:
At night, different animals would be out and about than what you'd see during the day. Hyenas, honey badgers, genets, springhares, and hippos would be wandering around ... and all the big cats would be hunting too. In SUC, the honeybadgers made themselves well known. We were lucky enough to see a few of them one evening while on our way back from a game drive. They look like big skunks and are kind of cute. On our last night at the camp, in the middle of the night, there was a large crash from the kitchen followed by scurrying footsteps running by our tent through the leaves - honeybadgers. So cute! They'd get into the kitchen every night, as the kitchen is also just a canvas tent and easy to get into if you're a small hunger-motivated animal. The camp staff took great pains to leave the kitchen clean at night, but the badgers would come back every night anyway to see what they could scrape up.
The vegetation was markedly different in each of the 3 camps that we stayed in. In Kanana, it was flat and dry and open with a lot of tall grass and very few trees. In Okuti, there were many trees but they were not densely packed, which was neat. Everything there was also quite green and lush and not as dry. In Savute-Under-Canvas, everything was sandy and dusty and dry. There were a lot of bushes and short trees, about the height of a person or a little taller. And they were all starting to bloom in a very pale pink/purple color. It was quite subtle but very pretty. There were a few bigger trees that were blooming in bright yellow as well. Spring in Africa!
Kanana:
Okuti:
Savute:
We called SUC rustic compared to our first two camps. Here, we were in tents. Real tents, not enormous tents built onto wooden platforms with running water, but canvas tents laid down on the sand with no running water or electricity. We got to shower under a big canvas pouch filled with water with a spout on its bottom you could open or close to allow water to trickle out onto you. These pouches were filled with hot water in the evenings so we could shower before dinner. But no matter how many times we showered at SUC, we were always covered with dirt and sand. Our beds, which were the most comfortable beds of our entire trip, were also filled with dirt and sand. This was real camping.
SUC was manned by a staff of 8 men. Every four days, they packed up the entire camp and moved it a half mile or so away. They are only allowed to be set up in the national park if they only stay in one place for no more than 4 nights. The camp had 5 tents so it could hold a max of 10 guests at a time.
We also decided that SUC was our diet camp. There was no morning beverage brought to your tent, no hot breakfast, only one lunch and dinner option instead of a buffet of dishes, no sundowners, and no pre-dinner appetizers! We were grateful that we had packed a few granola bars for the trip because we ended up eating them here so our stomachs didn't eat themselves while we waited for dinner at 8pm, with our last meal being at brunch at 11am. Thankfully we had some New Zealanders with us here who brought beer on our evening drives so we could have some informal sundowners. After eating at least 4,000 calories per day at our previous two camps, this camp was definitely diet camp even though we were still probably eating 2,000 calories per day. On the bright side, SUC did have a well-stocked bar that was open all day long. So if you wanted to drink your afternoon siesta away, you were perfectly welcome to.
Oh yeah, and it was HOT while we were there. In the 90's every afternoon, with very few clouds in the sky, and there was no way to escape the heat. The tents heated up throughout the afternoon siesta so that you could not go into them without sweating. Which left you to sit outside at the dining table, which was under an awning, to try to stay cool. We tried to nap a few times one afternoon but it was too sweaty and not worth it. By the last afternoon we figured out that the best way to beat the heat was to take a cold shower. Even though our bucket shower was just a trickle of water, standing under it when it was colder than the air felt amazing. Having cold wet hair on a sweltering afternoon was the way to go.
At night, we would return from our evening game drives to a camp lit with lanterns hanging from poles outside of our tents, and lanterns all around the dinner table and the awning above it. It was beautiful. There would also be a fire in the middle of the tent area with chairs all around it so we could convene there for cocktails and conversation once we had showered. All of the candlelight made evenings the best time in the camp. We tried to capture some of the night lights around the dinner table:
The stars were also amazing at night. Since you're not near any cities in Botswana, there is never any light to interfere with the night skies. Although we did have a full moon or close-to-full moon for our entire stay there so that got in the way of being able to see all of the stars and constellations fully, but it was still way better than trying to view the night sky from Boston!
At SUC, the only activity was game drives. Compared to Okuti, the game here was slightly disappointing. We came from a place where we had just seen a pride of lions stalk a herd of buffalo ... and at SUC there was not a single lion to be found. Apparently they used to have lions, and all the guidebooks say that Savute is known for its lion population, but all the lions moved out over the past year or two and the guidebooks had not been updated to reflect that. And, we were in Savute during the dry season, and we witnessed firsthand the last waterhole in the area run dry. No worries though, the camps in Savute created manmade waterholes for all the elephants to drink out of; otherwise the elephants tear up the underground pipes that run water around the national park.
SUC did have a ridiculous amount of elephants. They were everywhere - and all males. They called them bachelor herds. The female elephants were smart enough to leave with their babies when water got scarce in the dry season but the men stay back and get thirsty for some reason. If you want to see a lot of elephants, SUC is the place to be. We also saw a baby leopard, in a tree, through a large amount of foliage. Its mother was out hunting and had left it in the tree. We went back the next day to check on it and its mom had come and taken it someplace else where it wouldn't be found by all the tourists. We also saw a few things here that we hadn't seen yet - like a cliffspringer and some Roan antelope (which I think are actually called Oryx). And there were some hills here! We hadn't seen hills in our other camps.
A lilacbreasted roller:
At night, different animals would be out and about than what you'd see during the day. Hyenas, honey badgers, genets, springhares, and hippos would be wandering around ... and all the big cats would be hunting too. In SUC, the honeybadgers made themselves well known. We were lucky enough to see a few of them one evening while on our way back from a game drive. They look like big skunks and are kind of cute. On our last night at the camp, in the middle of the night, there was a large crash from the kitchen followed by scurrying footsteps running by our tent through the leaves - honeybadgers. So cute! They'd get into the kitchen every night, as the kitchen is also just a canvas tent and easy to get into if you're a small hunger-motivated animal. The camp staff took great pains to leave the kitchen clean at night, but the badgers would come back every night anyway to see what they could scrape up.
The vegetation was markedly different in each of the 3 camps that we stayed in. In Kanana, it was flat and dry and open with a lot of tall grass and very few trees. In Okuti, there were many trees but they were not densely packed, which was neat. Everything there was also quite green and lush and not as dry. In Savute-Under-Canvas, everything was sandy and dusty and dry. There were a lot of bushes and short trees, about the height of a person or a little taller. And they were all starting to bloom in a very pale pink/purple color. It was quite subtle but very pretty. There were a few bigger trees that were blooming in bright yellow as well. Spring in Africa!
Kanana:
Okuti:
Savute:
No comments:
Post a Comment