WILD ANIMALS AND DUST

WILD ANIMALS AND DUST

Well the Enterprise is relatively clean again after several hour’s work. We made the mistake yesterday afternoon of opening the rear window while driving on the tarred road to try and blow what dust there was right through the vehicle and away. Instead, the inch of dust on the top of the box which had accumulated in the last 3 days, whisked straight inside and made things 10 times worse. We were too tired to do anything about it when we arrived here so we chose a recommended hotel run by the French honorary Vice-Consul and booked an air conditioned room for clean bed, showers and hand washing clothes. The food is very good too.

Before we left Burkina Faso we filled up with diesel, gas and fresh water and Chris used the filling station pit to check everything underneath and tighten up a few ‘bits’ (shock absorbers I think).  It was a good journey leaving my favourite country so far, and BK had one more surprise in store: alongside the road we came across a large pond and standing up to her knees in the water was a very cute full grown elephant. She was drinking and bathing and every so often chasing a heron. We got out and stood by the pool watching her for some time at fairly close quarters. The area was the Reserve de Pama, not far from the border.

We arrived in Tanguieta (GMT +1 hour) just in time to find the Baobab Hotel for overnight parking. Benin hotel staff do not appear as friendly as everyone in BK, a little surly and sometimes slightly aggressive. As we were in the town of the Pendjari National Park HQ we visited the next morning and met the Tourism Chief who spoke English and explained the best route to and in the Park for the Enterprise ground clearance. It was a slow drive for the approx 50 km on a bumpy dirt road to the Park entrance, at least for us. Most other vehicles didn’t appear to worry about their suspension. We bought our tickets and paid for 1 night camping in the Park early afternoon and were pleasantly surprised by the good condition of the laterite piste. Apart from a broken down vehicle and a motorbike we saw no other people until we reached the camping site at Mare Yangouali (lake).  The camp was tucked away down a winding piste and we were surprised to be greeted by and English voice – Ant, one of the leader/drivers of a Dragoman truck tour. They were part way through a 10-week overland tour from Cameroun to Senegal, had left Nigeria earlier than planned and were passing a few days in the north of Benin. The truck was out on a game drive with most of the people and their tents were circled around their camp fire in the centre of the space, but they made room for us to drive to the end of the lake where hippos were grunting and snorting. It was pleasant to have English speaking company and their fire smoke lent an added atmosphere.

We were awake at dawn as the camp began to stir. One of the campers came to tell us that there were baboons in the trees right next to the camp, so we went out and met both the people and the furry friends. Chris took a short 360 degree video of the camp and the Enterprise’s position by the lake and was surprised by a baboon climbing down the tree right behind him! I gave a tour of the Enterprise to Barbara from North Wales and another lady from Hong Kong. We stayed on for the rest of the morning after Ant, Mike and the rest of the Drago team left, watching hippos and a very long crocodile gliding across the lake. Ant had been very helpful about travel in Nigeria. This was the only 4WD truck Drago have, set up for the desert.

We drove slowly to the north of the park seeing many antelope, lots more baboons, a big herd of buffalo and hundreds of interesting birds. We stopped a while beside a loop in the Penjari River with big hippos and a pied kingfisher, and again by Mare Sacree. We saw no elephant or lions and no tourists until we were close to the Pendjari Hotel. All were out looking for elephant – 1 French couple say they saw a family group of 13 close to where they passed us. There were lots of large vultures in the trees at the hotel, where we decided to stop and camp for the night. We freshened up with a shower and took our gin & tonic over to the hotel lounge area and ordered a 3-course dinner. The Manager told us we could not camp at the hotel as the Tourism Officer had told us, but driving in the park is prohibited after 7pm, so we had no option. They charged us an extortionate rate for parking. After we had eaten a very nice meal, we met a young couple from Posnan in Poland, who were also wanting to camp. Anna and Maciej had got married in Chad and had hoped to travel back to Poland through the Sahara. When their plans became impossible, they bought a small motorbike in Chad and are driving home through most of West Africa. 

We left the hotel parking at 7.30 the next morning. Chris had bought us a lovely locally painted colourful picture on canvas which I am very pleased with. We spent the whole day touring the park back the way we came the day before as we thought it was the best chance of seeing elephants or perhaps one of the lions which were known to be close to the Yangouali campsite. We stopped for breakfast and a snooze by the river and saw 2 Vervet monkeys as well as a lot of baboon flooding down from the trees. We were not desperate to see elephant as our lovely ‘private’ elephant viewing near Pama had been very special.  By late afternoon (4pm) we were back at Mare Bali closer to the Park entrance. There was a rickety wooden viewing platform, so we took a glass of beer to drink while watching the many antelope, a buffalo and lots of birds come to drink. It was the best time of day. I had not at first noticed the crocodiles just peeking out of the weed on the water’s edge just beneath us, and then I spotted 25 large crocs basking in the sun on the sand opposite. There were also a family of Patas monkeys playing on the beach and some lizards fighting on the platform.  Just before we had finished our beer, a very close guttural growling and roaring came from just alongside us – definitely a lion (confirmed by a guide next morning). My legs were like jelly by the time we reached the Enterprise. As it was too late by then to reach the park exit by 7pm we decided to spend the night (against orders!) on the brink of the lake. Apart from a lot of different birds, including fish eagle, saddle-billed storks, hadada ibis, hammerkop, cougals, waidas and more, not many animals came late to drink. We sat watching until it became too dark. Unfortunately there was only a thin crescent moon in the starlit sky.

We had a brief meal to avoid heating the Enterprise up by cooking (it had been 40C in the shade) and an early night.  Just as well as it was a very noisy night. We were woken several times by the lion roaring, once it sounded as if one was walking close to us, making a deep rumbling growling and grunting. I felt terrified even though I knew we would be quite safe, but it is that primitive fear of a fierce wild animal. We also heard elephants trumpeting not far off, a barking sound – probably antelope or baboon and the bellowing of bison. Not to mention the cicadas, frogs and night birds and the occasional splash of a croc. It was a pity it was too dark to see anything. We were sleeping with all our screened windows opened to keep cool, but it became so noisy we had to close them. It all went very quiet, even the crickets, when the lion had been vocal.

We again arose at dawn, but apart from 3 buffalo we saw no more mammals at the lake, so we had bit of a drive round in 2 directions and returned to the lake for breakfast. By then the first of several tourist vehicles started arriving, so we set off to leave for the 6 hour drive back to the paved road in Tanguieta and a further hour through the Atakora to Nati. We saw a large lorry on the first hill down an embankment. It had been loaded with baskets of tomatoes which were being unloaded on to the road. On our drive to the border on Sunday, the only oncoming traffic were a cavalcade of fuel tankers, trundling up from the ports in Benin to Burkina Faso. There were still a few yesterday.

We had to check out of our room by mid-day but I have continued with cleaning since then and I am typing this up in the shade of the rubber trees in the carpark with a very noisy African Grey parrot in a cage alongside. Chris has taken 2 bags of laundry to a Lavage/Pressing place in town and we will probably stay parked here tonight. Hotel laundry prices would have cost us a fortune. We have seen the airport on the way in – still incomplete but they do have a runway. Maybe we can fly close to Nati. There has been very little wind in the mornings since we have been here. We then hope to make a northern crossing into Togo through the Somba country of the Betamaribe people. Hope to update when we can.