More from Suilvan...

had a spa day today....wash; vacuum and air in the tyres...something is clearly afoot.

One good thing - didn't get a waxing!!!

p.s: They are starting to load me...wonder where I'm going now

Close encounters of the Elephant kind...pt 1.

or our camping trip to the Nxai Pan....

After leaving Little Mokolodi, Claire and I headed north towards the town of Nata, which is the gateway to the salt pans of Botswana which are known throughout the world.

I learnt one thing during this day - Botswana is a BIG country; it's larger than France actually to get some kind of scale for European readers...we were also in Mo the landrover which limited our speed to around 100kmh.

The upshot is that it was getting towards dark when we arrived at Nata Lodge, where we had the idea of camping for the night. At this point, I started to feel rather guilty about not giving Claire a proper honeymoon (http://sitheclimber.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/seana-bhraighan-overnight-trip-with.html) so I decided to shell out on a night at the Lodge rather than camping...it also gave us more access to the showers etc at the Lodge.

The Lodge was actually pretty cheap given its luxury, and the food was really good as well. The only downside was that we couldn't get the fan to work so it was rather a warm night for us - and a productive one for the local mosquito's with lots of me to dine on...it seems that midges and mozzie's have the same liking to me  - at least the clarityn kept the itching down and meant I had no major reaction.

Driving north, we arrived at the entrance gate to the Nxai Pan, Fiona having done the necessary paperwork for us and booked us a camping spot. The next 38km of the drive was quite tricky, Claire drove it, on a bed of shifting sand which made progress very slow and painful. One advantage of this is that it allowed me to try and come to terms with the scale of the pans - the picture is just one of the examples I took.

Arriving at the 'Office' as the signposts called it, we had a chat with the very helpful rangers and drove off to find our campsite. The road surface improved markedly and I was able to drive without any real hazards. They also provided us with a map and directions to the one waterhole that was full of water - pumped in - and some of the dry ones that we could go and explore for ourselves.

The campsite was really well maintained - an 'ablution block' was in the middle and we had a single pitch to ourselves. There was an ash bowl for the braii and plenty of space. Rather alarmingly, there was some old elephant dung on the little path from our campsite to the ablution block, and some that wandered around the top of the campsite itself - at least we knew where to pitch the tent!!

Having pitched the tent we went for a drive in the afternoon light....off to the waterhole where we saw the first picture...We saw the Ellies at the waterhole; they were huge. All jokes apart, one of the bulls would have been 5 1/2m high if he was an inch.....Having never seen any kind of game outside of a zoo it was fascinating to see the Ellies, as well as the Zebra, Springbok and the bird-life that is all over the pans.

Gawping over we went back to the camp and Claire cooked a lovely supper - although we might remember to prick the gem squash next time to stop them exploding when cooked! Having had lots of Mazoe (a lovely orange squash) and water we found that the gas cooker was awfully slow when it came to making tea (we found out later that sand had blocked one of the jets); then it was time for bed.

This is actually more complex than it sounds - as it was very likely that Hyena's and Jackals would be around the campsite (we had heard them howling already once it got dark); along with the possibility of other animals. So, the food was packed away into an old vaccine case that Claire had, as well as some into a cool box which was put into the van - the vaccine case (which needed both of us to move it) stayed outside. We had some amazing solar powered lights that Howard had leant us and we now put on, as well as putting chairs and things around the camp. The logic behind this came from Claire with her experience of such things - Hyena's (our most likely visitor) don't like noise; so when they bang into the chair etc they go away...nice idea.

Around 3am we were woken by a strange sound. Listening from inside the tent it seemed that the Ellies were walking through the campsite. Despite their enormous size, they are actually incredibly careful how and when they step - so the chance of them stepping on the tent was next to nil, especially as we'd pitched it out of the way of their path. However, we hadn't moved the vaccine case out of the way and now one of the Ellies was trying to work out what it was! Luckily for us - he decided to move it gently rather than pick it up and hurl it anywhere, including onto the tent..Claire was rather more concerned about this than me - probably due to my lack of experience of Ellies in the wild....

Suilvan speaks again...

Hmmm.....a hive of activity again at the house....am I going away again (it'll be about time, I've been awfully bored just sat here whilst the humans galivant around). They brought me a few things at the weekend as well; which suggests I may get another run out.

A lovely day on Place Fell...

there was some vacillating this morning...we woke to a gorgeous Autumn day and were not sure what to do. A long walk would be obvious; however we wanted to not rush and it was debatable whether I could manage a long walk anyway after the 2 weeks of horrid cold/sinusitis...so we settled on Place Fell; a lovely wee(ish) hill just above Ullswater.  We have made worse choices.

The photo on the left was taken on the ascent and shows both the kind of day it was and the lovely colours that autumn brings to Cumbria. As we climbed steadily towards Boredale Hause it actually became necessary to remove a layer of clothing - frankly it was warmer than most of the 'summer' this year. From the top of the Hause it was another steady plod up to the summit - with a few more people than usual milling around. The views were excellent; with lovely views over the High Street and the Helvellyn and Fairfield ranges.

After a little lunch on top we started the descent. Some parts of this were muddy and actually a little slippery - and will be quite entertaining in the ice as there is a lot of surface water around which won't go before next year now. As can be seen, the day was crystal clear and the descent was another joy.

Arriving on the Lakeside Path, we had the 4 miles or so to tramp back to Patterdale. As can be seen from the pictures: http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739 the colours of the trees were amazing. I was actually starting to flag a little on the last km of the walk along the Lake - so clearly the choice was the right one....hopefully I'll get a good week in before we head to Belfast; after that to Scotland for a couple of days over half-term.

Botswana trip..

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739  is the place were some of the pictures from this amazing trip can be seen.


It was a long flight out to Johannesburg (we went via Amsterdam) and arriving into a driving rain storm did make one wonder why we had bothered - I can get driving rain storms in Cumbria no problem at all!!

After a few hours kip and a lovely breakfast at Mugg and Bean in Jo'burg airport - Claire assuring me that they wouldn't give us any food on the plane as it was only a 40 min flight - we eventually got on the plane (a saga in itself) and spent the next 30 mins trying to shovel in all the food they gave us - oh well....
                                                             

Typical scenery - on the drive to Little Mokolodi

This is typical of the scenery in Botswana, as it was the dry season, we had 1mm of rain during the whole of our 2 1/2 week stay! Gaborone is also a very interesting city, it is a new city 'created' to be the capital after Bots's became independent in 1966 - it has not got a 'centre' per se as most European cities do, it has several large shopping arcades (for want of better term) which have restraurants etc in them.

After a day and a half at Claire's parents house - resplendent with 3 dogs - nowhere near as badly behaved as I had been told - and with me being already covered in Mosquito bites! we set off for the trip to Little Mokolodi.

It is quite difficult to describe Little Mokolodi. It lies right on the bank of the Limpopo river (pictures are on the Photobox site) which also happens to be the border between Bots and S. Africa. The location is utterly idyllic and very quiet - it is owned by a school friend of Howard. The Limpopo also looked superb for swimming in - until a 7-8ft long crocodile drifted gently past - followed by some of his mates!! Maybe not then.

We had lovely dawn and evening walks at Little Mokolodi; night comes extremely fast in Botswana - even in summer it is dark by 7.30 and here it was dark by 6.30 - none of the endless evenings that we get in Britain. Darkness meant it was time to get the braii going (that is BBQ to us Brits) and Howard and Claire produced two fantastic meals for both nights we were there...we also got our wedding blessed on the shores of Limpopo which was lovely.

After two lovely days; the party split up. Howard and Fiona were returning to Gaborone whilst Claire and I headed north - to the famous Salt Pans.

Feeling a lot better...

Claire and I have just been for an expensive trip to Keswick - new running shoes for Claire, as we are both entered in a 10km road race in March (just south of Manchester); and some other kit. One of the things is a 30m 10mm rope which would be good for easy winter gullies/ridges and some of the summer classics as well..

I am starting to feel approaching normal - which is good after a pretty yukky fortnight. Hopefully we can get a good walk in tomorrow and do some stuff in Scotland over the half-term week (the week after next) - the snow has fallen up there but don't know whether or not it has settled yet..

Out of action for 2 weeks...

apart from the walk up Harter Fell in the last entry, I have done pretty much nothing for 2 weeks. I have been laid out with the worst cold I have ever had (aside from having full on flu a few years ago). It seems to be a mix of things - including sinusitis according to Claire - and there was no way I could do the race last weekend.

Frankly, even walking a few hundred metres has been hard work - however we are hopeful of getting a walk in on the Howgills this Sunday.

Harter Fell and Landrovers...

It was a lovely day on Sunday; so I was not at all impressed to wake up with a horrible sore throat and not feeling anywhere near 100% - I suspect the flight back from Botswana was the challenge (which I'll blog about in due course).

That being said, the day was too good to waste entirely so Claire and I decided to head up Harter Fell from Mardale Head. It is a lovely walk up a good path and does offer options for extensions onto High Street if I felt 'on it' later.

Morning in Autumn.

The weather can be seen from the picture above - a truly amazing day with very clear light. We were both looking forward to a lovely walk and were therefore not best pleased to see 4 motorbikes being unloaded from a trailer at the car-park; these idiots were going to try and ride them up the pass - despite a clear notice saying this is now verboten. [As an aside, two of the riders were clearly new to this and had to walk most of the way up]. By keeping a very slow (but steady) plod; I was able to get to the top of the Pass ok (and someway ahead of the bikes)  - with some stops for Claire (and I) to take photo's..

From the top of the Pass we turned up the final slopes of Harter Fell. Although about a mile on the ground the ascent is very well graded so I was able to make the top fine for an early lunch - and to admire the amazing views - complete with cloud inversion over the Eden Valley, where we live. This was obviously a good reason for some smugness, and for us both to take some more photo's, which are on the photobox site. 

Having had some christmas cake and cheese triangles we looked forward to a pleasant descent..so were VERY annoyed to find 3 landrovers parked at the top of the pass and 2 more attempting to climb up it. Aside from the minor detail of them blocking the path; who on earth let these 'people' up there in the first place? Checking on the UKHillwalking forum established that (despite the notice to the contrary) one can still apply for permits to do this kind of thing - and the damage it did to the path was considerable - however, I have written to the National Park to try and find some more information.

Once clear of the 4*4 idiots, and the diesel stench they left behind, the rest of the descent was lovely with the autumnal day unfolding in front of us.......the abiding memory of the walk was very good - shame about the idiots with their toys who decided to ruin lots of people's day.

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739 is where the photo's are