Crossing the Gomoti

Last week I went out on Wednesday to find Bianca. She has been moving around in the area between the Gomoti and the Santantadibe. When we crossed, the water came up to the windscreen and came close to pouring in the windows. I managed to keep the vehicle moving, but there were several seconds where I thought we would get stuck. Needless to say, this was not an experience that I wanted to repeat, so we returned via the Morutshe gate, which is a longer way round, but much less river infested.

Before leaving camp, I had obtained the latest fix from the collar, taken earlier that morning. We drove down the road but failed to pick her up. I radio-ed Keren for a more recent fix, which turned out to be close to the road at the same time as we were driving it and tracking. I am concerned that the VHF has stopped working on that collar, as the point was less than a km from where I was tracking. We drove to the most recent fix and found fresh tracks and faeces. We started to follow the tracks as an alternative to using telemetry, but I drove over a small stick and then smelt a rather strong petrol scent. Upon investigation, I found that the pipe running out of my reserve tank and into my main tank had been damaged, so that petrol was coming out fairly rapidly. I managed to make a plan with a clamp so that the leaking stopped. However, I did not want to risk it happening again, particularly as most of the area is covered in mopane. I therefore headed for home with only 4 samples and no buffalo sightings. Louis and Duncan helped me all the next day to fix the problem, which has been sorted.

The next day I had to go to town to extend my waiver, which was done without incident. I spotted two chameleons mating in a tree at a friend's house in Maun, proving that there is wildlife in Maun as well!