Zambia World Wide

C5) The section between Rakops and Orapa

C5.1 Preparation for this trip.

On completing the Maun to Kasane section we stayed a few days at Rileys Hotel as we had to wait for the U.N. official who had returned to the U.K. If I remember correctly his name was Bob. It also gave us time to study the map received in the post indicating the proposed new road from Rakops to Orapa and I could also do outstanding telephone faults in Maun. On seeing the position of the proposed road I sent a radio message from the Agricultural depot to Mervin. I requested he contact Frans Du Toit (son of Du Toit’s mentioned on page 6) at Orapa as he got to know the area fairly well while building the canals leading to Mopipi Dam which De Beers had recently built to supply Orapa with water. Frans was one of those hardy characters. He could jump on a donkey that had not yet been ridden and all he had to hold on was its mane. Frans would only get off once the donkey was exhausted after trying every acrobatic trick to throw him off. Frans was to meet us at a camp site which if I remember correctly belonged to Hunters Africa which was close to Rakops. This camp site was used for tourists on photographic safaris in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. We had to fend for ourselves as the camp site was vacant at the time. Since we were not allowed to shoot in the area we had to rely on buying meat at Rakops.

C5.2 Close encounter with crocodiles.

On our way to the campsite we met the Camp Manager on his way to Maun. He told us that the ferry he uses to get to Rakops is on the other side of the Boteti River and informed us that there should be no problem in getting the ferry if someone was prepared to swim across the river. Once settled in at the camp we went looking for the ferry .We found the ferry and I had stripped down to my underpants ready to swim across. As I was about to dive in my foreman Ben Keruliman stopped me and pointed about 10metres to the right of the ferry and there was a least six crocodiles in the water. I got dressed without any prompting and we walked along the Boteti River until we saw someone on the other side from Rakops. Ben told them that we wanted to buy a goat and that we were staying in the campsite. Half an hour later they arrived with two goats. After much negotiating we bought one. Two nights later they were back with another goat. The goats cost us R5 apiece and in Francistown the labourers got R2 for the skins. Goat meat was preferred to mutton in Botswana.

C5.3 Starting our last section

From our camp site to Orapa was virgin territory as no vehicles had as yet covered this section. The next day we had to collect Frans on the Maun/Francistown road as prearranged. Once at the camp site Frans had a discussion in fluent Tswana with my labourers that were to accompany the U.N. officials to familiarize them with the area. We often lost each other. One night it was about 21H00 before the two U.N. officials could get to us as somehow they got hopelessly lost. We made use of the flare gun I had to attract their attention. When we saw their lights we would point our vehicle in their direction and keep our lights on. At times they were close to us but they had to backtrack as the route they had taken led to a dead end with either some stream or deep donga. There were so many spring-hares in this area that the reflection of the vehicle lights shining in their eyes gave you impression of a city in the distance. Many a time our vehicles got bogged down in collapsing tunnels made by them.