-Ralph Crawshaw-
Today we push on to our final destination of Pendjari
National Park. Our bush camp went well,
I slept well, we had no night visitors, it didn’t rain (just as well as we
didn’t have our tent raincoat on) and the day started at 6.30am. There had been a lot of condensation during
the night, but no rain, as things were a little wet, but we packed up our tents
and then got going with breakfast. Two
locals came over as we were preparing breakfast, so Zoe offered them a cup of
tea or coffee as we finished breakfast.
Bush camping is never as bad as you think it is going to be, and I even
embraced my experience fully and had to take a number 2 and did so, back at my
‘toilet’ (tree) where I had gone the previous day, and even though I could see
a local on the road watching the truck, I felt a little exposed as I finished
my business. Normally I don’t write
about my bowel movements on my blog, as nobody, NOBODY, want to read about that
stuff, but for me this is a milestone in my bush camping history and I am quite
proud of the fact that I did it and it is the first time in my tenting/camping
history. Yay me. So with the camp packed up after breakfast,
brushed teeth, a wet ones and deodorant shower we were back on the road again
at 8.10am
Three hours driving got us into a major town of Natitingou
and with good timing as Sam and Zoe didn’t think we would arrive here till the
afternoon. We were stopping here for a
food shop for the next 2 days and Cooking with Gas had to buy for dinner
tomorrow night and breakfast the following morning. We had a menu game plan of using the potatoes
in the food box, trying to locate some gravy mix and then match that up with
something else. We just wanted to try
and stay away from the pasta, as we have had that the last few nights and when
it is always mixed with tomato paste, it all starts to taste the same and we
wanted to do something a little different.
We found a small supermarket, which was heaven, even though it still had
limited stuff, it was a little varied in what we had seen to date and with a
small game change to our dinner menu, we ditched the potatoes and found 2
minute noodle packs and bough 12 of them, with tinned tomatoes and tinned corn
beef and tinned vegetables. At least it
was something different and we were happy with our dinner and just for a change
we got eggs and bread for scrambled eggs.
We were looking at doing pancakes, but neither Hadj or I knew how to
make them and when we asked Eve, she said we needed flour and there was none in
the shop, so we did try, but fell back to our original plan. Everyone loves eggs for breakfast right? The other bright side of the stop is that ice
was found!!! ICE! To keep our drinks cold, well at least for a
day in this heat, was a real treat and to have a cold ice coke when we pull
into camp this afternoon will be heaven.
While we were waiting for the last of the shoppers, there were a few
stalls selling some stuff, so Patti and I had a look and as usual I left with a
necklace and a small leather pouch for 5000CFA (10AUD) for both, which I
thought was pretty good until Duck rolled up with some material she had found
down the road. She is a little shopper
that Duckie.
12.30pm we were back on the road, fully loaded in the cooking
department for the next 2 days. We did a
roadside lunch at 1.30pm asking a service station if we could park and use the
shade of the tree as I swear it would have been in the high 30’s today. He agreed, and we carried everything under
the shade of the tree as Ring of Fire cooked a Benin omlette for lunch, which
really was a Spanish omelet come scrambled eggs with onion, tomato and some
peppers. The saying really is true that
it is 20C cooler in the shade and it takes a raging hot firey day like this to
actually appreciate the saying and also test its theory. When you are in that sun, even just walking
from the truck to the shade where we were set up, the sun has a punch to it and
you really could stand out there for too long before something went and it
makes you think about all the people you see in the fields as we drive past,
working in the midday sun or the ladies carrying their goods on their heads in
that heat. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it was
bad enough for us for an hour before we got back on the road, with all our windows
down and a cool breeze blowing in to refresh us all.
We turned off the main highway and after checking we had
the right road, I saw a sign that read Pendjari National Park 43km. We were nearly there and all of us were
hoping that where we were going to be camping for the 2 nights had facilities,
as we were now starting to feel a little crusty and the temperature had risen
considerable and I was guessing that it must have been in the high 30’s, like
36C at least. You especially feel the
heat and humidity the minute the truck stops.
When we are in motion, there is a wonderful breeze that comes in from
all the open windows, so yes a camp site with facilities would really be a
blessing. Even though 43km doesn’t sound
that far, the road, which was now a dirt road, was a little ‘patchy’ in places,
meaning that some of the road had eroded away from the rains that they have
been happening and at some spots, Sam had to get out of the truck to guide Zoe
across, and there were instances where there wasn’t much room between the
wheels of the truck and a 2-3m fall. I
am a little jumpy at the best of times with these sort of crossings, as is
Hardj who had a bad overlanding experience tilt on a previous trip, but I had
faith in Zoe and Sam, and would try and not look at how much room we had on the
‘skinny’ crossings. So in the end it
took us 1.5 hours to travel the 43km, getting us to the small village that we
had to pass through to get to our camp site that was going to be in the actual
national park.
As soon as we had pulled in someone came over to check
out what we were wanting to do and when we told them that we were heading to
the national park, they told us due to the rains, some of the bridges had been
washed away and that the truck would not fit/make it into the park. We would have to leave it and then do jeeps
to get in. Hmmmmm. Well this was a piece of news we weren’t
expecting. As it happens there is a
small tourism office in this small village, so we were all told to hang tight
while more information was gained and a new game plan put into effect. Some guys got off the truck to buy cool
drinks and have a look around, I decided to stay on the truck and even though I
was sweating my arse off in there, when the others came back with drinks they
said it was cooler in the truck than outside.
It really was a stinker, really, it was so HOT, and I can’t remember the
last time I actually felt that sweaty.
It has been that hot the last few days that we are starting to feel a
little lethargic and I have even fallen asleep on the truck which I never do,
and I think it is just the heat zapping all my energy. We got an update 20 minutes later that it was
confirmed that the truck would definitely not make it into the park, and Sam
and Zoe were going to head off on motorbikes to speak to a tour operator (jeep
owner) about hiring 2 jeeps tomorrow to get us in and around the park. So a further 20 minutes later and it seems
that luck is not on our side and we were told that Sam and Zoe had spoken to a
French couple, and they tried to access the park yesterday in a jeep and there
was a river that was flooded and it was too high for them to cross and they
didn’t even get into the main section of the park due to that. Luck was not with us. As we waited for the game plan updates, those
of us on the truck were saying that West Africa is not for the faint hearted,
especially after today, and I have to agree.
We also said that people who come and only do East Africa are soft, and
apologies to all my east African travel buddies, but compared to this trip, our
trip was a walk in the park, and nothing, nothing compares to this
experience. Then we deducted anything
south of Nairobi is a piece of cake!!
With all that said, I am setting my sights on my next trip and I think I
am going to do central Africa at the end of next year, and not even a day like
this has scared me off.
But as usual Sam and Zoe, when thrown a curve ball,
handle everything with ease and no stress and an hour later we had a new game
plan and a camp site to stay. The new
game plan was we now camped outside the national park and in the morning at
6am, we would be collected by 2 jeeps to take us into the national park. If the river was still too high to cross into
the main section of the park, there is a smaller circuit on ‘our’ side that we
could still do to try and spot some wildlife and then we would come back to
camp in the afternoon and there was a waterfall that we could walk to in the
afternoon to keep us busy. It was a
great plan B and the new camp was only a 5 minute drive away and they had
upgrade options at a cost of 2000CFA (4AUD) per person per night BUT there was
no running water, for the toilet or the shower and even knowing that all 7 of
us upgraded anyway. The upgrade
accommodation was in small rotunda huts, that always look bigger than what they
are from the inside and were named in after African animals in French. We were allocated Lion, and I think my French
is coming along as I knew that it meant lion in English! I’m getting quite smart aren’t I!!!! It was a little after 5pm when we all fell
out of the truck and we didn’t have to be back until 7pm to help unload for the
evenings meal, so with laptop and water in hand I went to one of common area
bungalows that had chairs and a table and set up there and to try and keep a
little cool. Have I mentioned just how
bloody hot it had been ALL day?
The camp site works on a generator which is not switched
on till 6.30pm, so we had to use our head torches inside or lion hut until the
power came on. Dinner was a simple yet
delicious fare of couscous that The Wannabes had whipped up and then it was
actually an early night for most people due to the long day and the early
morning start tomorrow. The generator
was switched off at 9.30pm and I blogged until 10.30pm via my head torch before
retiring to bed for the night. Ducky and
I are sharing a double bed yet again, but neither of us seem to be kickers or
move too much, so we are okay with this arrangement to keep us out of the tents
in this heat. Let’s see what tomorrow
brings and if we can access the Pendjari National Park in the morning.
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