Katavi NP - Tanzania

What a night, at 2am we were awoken by a group of Ele's trumpeting close to camp, the Lion, Hyena and Hippo were all calling as well, something was afoot but what? Then unbelievably it started to rain, the first rain the area had seen since at least May, so that was why the game was feeling frisky.

Sadly it didn't last long but still it was quite a shower and it must have felt great to the long suffering animals in this time of drought.

We went back to sleep but were awoken again around 3am by the Lions calling again, this time close to our left. They were answered by more Lions further off to our right then two very loud calls went off right in front of us. We looked out the tent but it was much too dark to see anything, but we guessed the calls were coming from the Donga about 30 yards away. The lions kept calling all night so we opened up the fly screen so we could look out, now the roof tent was completely open at the front not something we would have done if we had been in the ground tent.

Sure enough as it got light a Lioness walked out of the Donga and as she walked past she began to scent mark the ground in front of us. At one point she stopped to stare at our camp for quite a while, clearly not fazed at all by our presence. 

It was a lovely sunrise so after a quick cup of tea we went out early and within a few minutes found nine Lions very close to our camp lying asleep in the shade, clearly all the activity of the previous night had knackered them as well as us!

Some Buffalo came wandering along but not even this stirred the Lions, a little further on three more Lions came out of the bush then we came across Heron with his lady friend, the fat knacker was still in the mood for love and wanted to be alone!

We carried on to the other side of the Donga, this morning the place was teeming with game, Topi, Buffalo, Giraffe, Zebra, Hippo, Impala & Elephant all milling about, last night's shower had certainly helped. 

As we drove back to camp we suddenly heard a strange noise from Rupert, we stopped and checked but nothing seemed amiss so we carried on. At the ranger camp we filled our Jerry can but there was still no sign of Phillip, which was a bit annoying as we were due to leave early the next day so it was getting tight to pay him.

As we passed the spot where the nine Lions were a few hours earlier we now found they had increased to 10, two large adult Males, one sub adult male and the rest females or cubs of varying ages, this did not include the three others plus Heron and his squeeze, so quite a pride.

Arriving at our camp we surprised a troop of Vervet monkeys who had been mooching about, fearing the worse we were relieved to find nothing missing or damaged. As we ate brunch we again had a constant flow of game walking past, the Giraffe in particular were very curious, stopping to stare. The afternoon became hotter and very sticky, perhaps we were in for more rain so as usual we showered using our solar shower before going out for our game drive.

Passing by the ranger camp we found Phillip was back at last, we warned him we would be leaving early the next day and would like to pay our bill, he would work it out while we were  on our drive and we would settle up on our return.

First we went back to see how the Lions were doing, most had wandered off by now but one male and a few females were still slobbed out next to a few measly puddles of water, probably the best way for them to keep cool. We watched for awhile then a game viewer from one of the exclusive tented camps arrived so we decided to leave them to it, they would probably be gone by the time we came back anyway.

We headed up the valley to photograph some Giraffes drinking from a small waterhole, it's not often you catch them drinking as it's when they are at their most vulnerable spreading their legs to drink so they are at their most nervous when the least noise or movement will disturb them.

After this we headed off to cross the Donga higher up but on the way we suddenly heard the strange noise coming again from Rupert.  Again we stopped but couldn't find anything obviously wrong, the engine was running ok and there were no warning lights, the noise had ceased but I didn't like it, so we decided to turn back.

When we reached the Lions again the other game viewer had disappeared but as it was almost Dusk we decided not to stop but go straight back to camp. The sound had not re-occurred but just as we neared the ranger camp we suddenly lost the power steering and the charging warning light came on - shit I immediately knew what this meant, the drive belt must have snapped or come loose somehow.

Luckily we managed to limp into the ranger camp where in the gathering gloom we looked in the engine. The drive belt is sometimes called the serpentine belt presumably because of the way it snakes in and out of the pulleys at the front of the engine. It was now almost dark but I could see the belt had indeed come off the bottom pulley.

Just then Phillip came over to see what the problem was, he knew nothing about cars so he shouted for his Fundi (Kiswahili for expert) and an old boy who spoke no English appeared. I explained that the belt needed re-fitting but as it was too late now I would take a look at first light. Luckily our campsite was only a few minutes away so even though it was a struggle we should manage to get there

First thing was to pay our bill, three nights camping without any facilities came to US$420 @ $140 per night we were beginning to realise visiting East Africa's Game Parks was going to be a lot more expensive than in the South! 

Before heading off we decided to fill a Jerry with water, as we were doing this we suddenly realised two Lioness sitting on the other side of the Donga were watching us, they were then joined by a big male and all three started to walk towards us but they were disturbed by the noise from the rangers so they sat down again.

It was dark when we pulled into camp, first job as usual was to light the fire, candles and lamps. The Lions were calling in unison a couple of times, very close by, but then it all went quiet, this is when it gets nerve wracking when you know so many are close but you don't know where.

Once again there were many Hippo grazing close by, then at 8.15pm we shone the spotlight out just in time to spot a Lioness disappearing into the bush. We didn't know if the others were following or had already passed by, what was worrying is she  hadn't made a sound or been wary of us at all so we built up the fire and opened both doors on Rupert just in case.

All this excitement meant we didn't sit down to dinner until nearly 9pm, while eating a Spotted Genet (small cat) came mooching around the edge of camp and we spotted the eyes of a bushbaby in a tree, what with the Hippo in the bushes nearby it felt as if we were in the middle of The Jungle Book.  

We rose at first light, if we were to leave today and reach Mbeya before dark then we needed everything to run smoothly. First thing was to take a look at the drive belt, although the belt had come off its pulleys on the face of it it looked ok. However, after putting the belt back on and starting Rupert almost immediately it flew off the pulleys again, we tried a new belt but with the same result!

At first I couldn't see what was wrong, the belt wouldn't stay on the pulleys long enough to see anything, but I knew there must be something wrong with one of the pulleys but which, the belt was coming off the bottom pulley but that seemed ok?

The drive belt on the 300 TDI engine is tensioned automatically by use of a tensioner pulley, when I checked this I found while it turned alright it was wobbling slightly in and out, it wasn't much but enough to throw the belt out of alignment, unexpectedly the bearing inside the wheel must have gone.

This was serious, shit it was a disaster, here we were with a truck full of spare parts including at least four spare belts but no spare tensioner or bearings and we were 200 km from the nearest town and that town Subawanga was a one horse dorp, the chances of getting a spare tensioner there was slim to nil. The only place we knew for sure were we could get one was Mbeya but that was over 350 miles, a hard full days drive away.

It was academic anyway as there was no one in Katavi who would be prepared or able to go to that extreme, we were in deep trouble. First thing was to warn Phillip that we could not leave, Rupert was totally immobilised so there was only one thing for it Lions or no Lions we would have to walk the five minutes to the ranger camp.

Luckily Phillip was around so we explained the problem, he called for his Fundi again and they came back with us to take a look. The old guy took a look, shook his head and started muttering in Swahili to Phillip, most of it was unintelligible but the word "bearing" was clearly mentioned.

It's at times like this that you need a bit of luck and we have to say every time on this trip when we have hit a tricky situation something or someone has come to our aid.

This proved to be the case once again as Phillip explained by an unbelievable quirk of fate that a few days before he had been stranded in the bush a day and a night when his Landrover had broken down with exactly the same problem. That explained why we hadn't seen him around, the important thing was the problem would be fresh in the minds of the powers to be so they would better understand what part was needed.

Phillip would radio the park headquarters workshops and ask for help. He would also warn the Park Warden that we were unable to leave as planned so they would not charge us for the extra time in the park, which we thought was very decent of him.

All we could do was wait, at least we were comfortable and I was very relieved that the bearing had gone now rather than whilst we were on the road back as that would have been a nightmare in such a remote area. Sue was just chuffed that she would have another day in the park with the Lions!

During the day Phillip came over a few times to ask questions about what type of engine Rupert had etc etc, he said they didn't have another spare tensioner at the workshops so they were going to have to send someone to Mpanda, which is the nearest town going Northwards towards the border with Burundi, to see if they could find one there.

It is in these situations that it pays to have a Landy, a lot of African villages may have only one vehicle, but it will usually be a battered old Landy, and being very poor the Africans are great bush mechanics able to improvise parts out of virtually nothing, if we had been in a Toyota Landcruiser it would probably have been much harder if not impossible to get a part out here.

We waited in camp, we knew a mechanic from Sitalike was going to Mpanda but it would take him a day to get there and back and we didn't know if he would be successful in finding a tensioner so we would be here for at least one more night maybe more. We had plenty of food, water and beer but we were low on other drinks like coke and squash and worse of all tonic for our G&Ts!

As the Lions were still very close game viewers from the private tented camps were swinging by our camp to show them to their clients. One from Chada Camp was driven by a young white Zimbabwean called Ed. We had bumped into each other a couple of times while we were out on drives and he had been very friendly. Now as he passed and saw Rupert's bonnet up and me messing about inside he asked if we were alright. 

We explained about the tensioner and he said he would visit Peter Fox owner of Fox's camp as he was a big Landy fan and unlike Chada which used Landcruisers he may have a spare part we could have, the great thing about people in Africa is how much they are prepared to help when your in trouble. He was driving a couple of Dutch guys to the Airstrip to catch their flight out but promised to return later, at the very least we thought we would ask him if he could bring us some tonic water.

All through the day we had a constant stream of game wandering past our camp and even through it. Ele's in particular were coming in right into camp so we needed to stay alert. We needed to walk past them and a load of Hippos to get some more water from the ranger camp which was tricky to say the least.

By 4pm it was very hot indeed, we wanted to have our showers but a couple of game viewers were parked up on the other side of the Donga looking across to the game on our side. Our solar shower is basically a plastic bag fitted with a tap and rose. The bag takes about 20 litres of water and is black on one side which when laid out in the Sun heats the water to very hot within 2 -3 hrs. Once ready you hang it from a convenient branch while you stand under, its very good but as we didn't  have shower curtains we needed the game viewers to bugger off.

We then realise what they were looking at, on our side of the Donga no more than 50 - 60  yards away were a group of Lions lying in the shade under some Palm trees. They must have been there all day while we had been moving about the camp or sitting reading. Through our binoculars we could see the people in the game viewers kept looking first at the Lions then at us probably amazed we were walking about our camp without a care with them so close by. 

In the end, regardless of the game viewers and Lions, we decided to have our showers, through our bino's we could see two of the Lions were watching us as the people in the game viewers were watching them watching us!  Then just as Sue started her shower Phillip arrived with the Fundi and a bunch of guys from Sitalike, they had brought a tensioner for Rupert, it was 5pm, less than 24 hours since our breakdown!

As Sue was naked with just a few bushes for cover I had to ask them to come back later. Showers over Phillip and co returned and we fitted the replacement tensioner, the part was well used but functional and hey what the hell, it was amazing they got one at all, especially out here and it only cost £50 when a new one in UK was around £36. The main thing was we were mobile again and could leave in the morning.

As we were fitting the tensioner Ed the guide from Chada camp turned up again with two tourists, he apologised that he had not managed to see Peter Fox but one of their drivers had rolled a vehicle that morning so he had been tied up. Like us he was amazed that the rangers had come up with a replacement at all never mind within 24 hours. Just before leaving he asked Sue if she would like to go with them to see the Lions up close one last time, Sue of course jumped at the chance leaving me with Phillip and the guys.

When she reached the Lions Sue could see our camp very clearly and she noticed that once Phillip and the others had left and I was moving around on my own three of the Lionesses were very interested in my movements so they decide it best if she came back to keep me company!

Everyone left and we were on our own again, just us and at least 10 Lions. The great thing about Africa, at least outside of RSA and Namibia, is if you choose to camp amongst wildlife then the powers to be leave you to your own devices, you take your chances and its down to you to ensure you don't get attacked, no one else, you take responsibility for your own actions. This is possibly the hardest thing to get over to our friends who are  used to living in the Nanny state that is Britain today.

As darkness fell we decided to hold off cooking until we felt fairly sure the Lions had moved off. There was much calling around us and with the spot we picked out all 10 Lions had moved to less than 50 yards away! They weird thing was when you hear them  calling you tend to think of them as being alert, on the move; not this lot they were lying in various groups amongst the dips and hollows, looking for all the world as if they were asleep. It would go quiet for a while then one would roar from one group and a few yards away another would answer, neither bothering to lift their heads, very strange.

For the next three hours we sat by the fire nibbling on crisps and drinking G & T after G & T, stopping every now and then to shine the spot to check all the Lions were present and correct.

People may think we were mad but it's strange, as you become accustomed to camping alone in the bush you become comfortable with the risk, hooked on it even. However, we are never foolhardy, we always keep Rupert's doors open, just in case we have to make a quick dive for cover and we carry our pepper spray and have a panga close by.

We were just thinking everything was under control as we stood at the front of Rupert shining the spot out to count the Lions when suddenly out of the corner of our eye, a sudden movement and a huge male Lion just slowly ambled out from behind Rupert walking towards the other Lions who remained to all intents and purposes as if they were all asleep.

Shit.. the male was less than 20 feet away, the closest we have ever come to one on foot without having an armed guard. What threw us most was we had not heard a thing and we thought we had accounted for all the Male Lions thinking there were just three, this guy we hadn't seen before, which made us now think how many more were there?

We will never know how long he had been behind Rupert, but we were mightily grateful that he totally blanked us and on reaching the others just flopped down and immediately went to sleep.

The Hippo's continued to graze on the sparse grass just beyond our camp, they didn't appeared at all bothered by the Lions and the Lions seemed equally disinterested in them. Then as if by telepathy one by one the Lions got up stretched and slowly wandered off into the bush behind us.   

Apart from the odd Hyena call some way off it had all gone quiet even the Hippos had stopped calling, we had another drink straining every muscle to hear but nothing. Even though we had a big fire going after the episode with the male Lion we stayed close to Rupert just in case.

Just as we were starting to think that was it for the night we shone the spotlight out again and were shocked to find all the Lions had returned to their old spots! As soon as they realised we had spotted them they started calling again, most unusual, it was time we climbed up into the relative safety of the roof tent but sleep we could not!

Throughout the night the Lions kept roaring, one male who we recognised as Heron came over to our camp, we had the spot up in the tent with us and as we watched him in its light we caught a White Tailed Mongoose going about his business. At the same instant the Mongoose realised Heron was there and froze, then as Heron walked past him the Mongoose headed off as fast as he could go.

As it got light a Giraffe came down to drink at the Donga, the Lions were lying all down in the dips but she seem to realise something wasn't right as she kept looking around, the Lions  spotted her and some started stalking keeping as low to the ground as possible. Suddenly she bolted, amazingly right through the Lions, five Lioness gave chase, one even managed to jump at her rear end but she's was too quick and she escaped.

We had hardly slept a wink and yet we still faced the arduous all day journey back to Mbeya so we had to start breaking camp with the Lions still  in full view but thankfully sleeping however the excitement had not finished just yet. A Hippo with her baby calf came meandering along the Donga, as she clocked one of the males Lions she scurried past him but right into the path of three young Lionesses who were relaxing nearby down in the Donga.

We feared the worse but we then heard a snort from the Hippo and the three Lionesses came rushing out of the Donga rather miffed at being disturbed but a Hippo with young is not to be messed with lightly.

It was starting to heat up so in unison the Lions got up from lying out in open and slowly walked off into the bush, as we left camp for the last time we drove over to the spot to see if we could see them but they had simply melted away, it was just after 9am it had certainly been a night to remember. 

We stopped at the rangers camp to bid Phillip and the others goodbye. Phillip had been a great ambassador for the Tanzanian National Parks Authority and Katavi had been quite simply fantastic, Africa as it used to be and possibly the best park we have ever visited, we promised ourselves we would definitely return someday soon.

For now our priority was to get back to Mbeya in one piece, after so little sleep I wasn't looking forward at all to the 8-10 hour journey back to Mbeya, not just because most of it is over bone shattering roads but because I was worried about Rupert and whether the tensioner would hold up.

As it was we had only gone about 40 miles when we started to hear a knocking sound, with all the rattles and bangs going on due to the rough road it was tricky to distinguish normal knocking noises to one more sinister. We stopped and checked but couldn't find what was causing the noise, the rear shock absorber which had broken free from its mounting on the way to Katavi seemed favourite but that was ok.

We carried on but the road was so bad with mile upon mile of severe corrugations and potholes that the knocking noise got worse, it was midday, over 40^oC and we still had over 200 miles to go so we could not afford this problem. We stopped again and as I was checking underneath I saw the problem, one of the turrets protecting a front shock absorber had virtually come away completely from its mounting.

The turret is secured to the frame by about six heavy duty bolts, four had sheared and the other two were about to go, by rights we should have removed the turret completely but that would mean removing the protective plate inside the wing and the  coolant reservoir inside the engine which in turn may have meant draining the system, this would all take time, time we didn't have.

We decided to try and lash down the turret as best we could with wire and carry on as best we could, within the hour the wire securing the turret had snapped so we had to replace it, within another hour it had snapped again, this was going to be a long hard day.   

We eventually limped into Subawanga at 6pm, it had taken us nine hours to do the 130 miles from Katavi and we still had about 200 miles to go to Mbeya. At Subawanga we picked up  fuel and cold cokes, at this time of day the town was buzzing as everyone was out on the streets enjoying the cool of the evening after the heat of the day.

It was getting dark quickly and if the place had had anywhere half decent to stay we would have gladly taken it but as it was Subawanga is not that sort of place so like it or not we had to press on. We phoned Francis at Utengule to warn him we were on our way back but at this rate we would not be there until 2 or 3am!

Francis to his credit told us they had prepared our cottage for us and he would arrange for someone to meet us no matter what time we arrived. This was very re-assuring at least we knew once we got to Mbeya we could have a shower and flop into bed.

The rest of the journey was a living nightmare, imagine driving about 140 miles in the absolute pitch dark over deserted dirt tracks which are more pothole than road. We were desperate to reach Tunduma where the tar road to Mbeya starts but the corrugations over the last 30 odd miles were so bad it finished the turret off so it had broken free completely and one strut holding the water tank had also snapped.

The turret was bashing hell out of the wing but we were too tired to care, we just wanted to get to Mbeya ASAP, the road seemed never ending so we were very relieved to reach Tunduma still mobile, it was 1.30am, we had been on the road for 16 hours and still had 70 miles to go but at least we were now on tar.

At 3.30am we reached Utengule, the guard let us in through the gate and another guard was waiting for us at the cottage with the keys. The place was much bigger than we thought, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a huge living/dining room but after a cup of tea, hot showers we didn't care as we collapsed into bed, it was 5am!