BlackLOG: Botswana - Kings Pool camp

We reach the midway point of our trip and it was great to have fresh clothes* as we made our way to our third camp - Kings Pool. I believe the name is due to King Leopold of Sweden who honeymooned in the area in the mid 1900's. If I'm honest I was a little disappointed in the camp, compared to everywhere else it looked a bit tired. Our outside shower (doesn't everyone have an indoor and out door shower?) was spread liberally across our veranda.

* Although with my luggage now safely returned I felt like a pack animal and had a real fear, with all the extra weight, that the small planes we were using might struggle to take off. How embarrassing if we had ended up trundling between camps ....

I discovered the cause on our second night when I woke to hear loud noises emanating from the corner of our now trembling tent. I pulled back the window blind and shone my iPhone torch (fantastic invention) into the eyes of a huge wild elephant.....I decided there was nothing to do but go back to bed, working on the basis that if my world was about to end I might as well be comfortable....So this was why they asked you to stay in your rooms after dark, they weren't kidding when they said wild animals freely wandered through the camps....

I now know exactly how the 3 little pigs felt with the wolf at the door....(I wonder how the story would have gone if the pigs had built one of their houses from canvas?). By the way I'm not writing this blog from beyond the grave, our world didn't end in a trumpeting, ear flapping blur of wrinkly grey stampede** . Proving my soon to be patented ostrich defence mechanism, burying my head under the covers, is a real winner ....What do you mean kids have been doing this for years???

** Incidentally if you ever find yourself trampled to death by elephants, do your best to preserve their foot prints***, so that CSI Savannah have something to go on in order to catch the miscreant pachyderms and bring them to justice ...

*** An elephants footprint is just like our finger prints**** only a tad larger

**** With elephant numbers on the increase it can only be a matter of time before Apple release a Loxodonta***** Touch ID Iphone. It will come in a grey wrinkly finish and have a 7 metre screen.

***** This will be marketed as a Maximus for the Asian market and will come with much smaller speakers....Sorry for my pitiful attempts at the Latin based humour, I suspect rather like my English attempts it probably doesn't translate that well...

Considering the high levels of service we had received at our previous camps I'm sorry to say that some of the staff at Kings Pool proved to be a little underwhelming. One lunch time I waited for over an hour and still my order wasn't taken. In the end I had to go up to the chef and put in my order, very disappointing...

On more positive notes....

Our guide was excellent, possibly lacking a bit of a sense of humour (roughly translated he didn't really get my jokes, but to be fair not many people do), his tracking ability and knowledge of conservation was most impressive. The animals were plentiful and varied, I was just as excited to see my second wild leopard. A little briefer than our first encounter but this was a younger more attractive male. When we came across him he was perusing his lunch menu, which unfortunately for him took flight upon our arrival, running full pelt into the bush. Considering his obvious disappointment he was remarkably calm about our imposition and it was only the arrival of a second Land Rover that finally proved too much for him....

We also met some wonderful people i.e. they either got my sense of humour or were very adapt at faking it. Julie and Gil proved excellent travelling companions even if it was just for a brief moment in time. It was great to share a vehicle with them on a number of drives (keep that statement in mind if you ever get around to reading the final instalment - Abu camp) taking it in turns to sit in the front seats and generally enjoying swapping banter with fellow travellers.

It was at Kings Pool that I performed my most stupid act of the holiday

Mrs B handed me a little bottle of spray for refreshing tired eyes.... highly recommended for relieving dust filled eyes... The next time she handed it to me...

Me "Ouch that really stings"

Mrs B "Why are you spraying mouth wash into your eyes??"

Damn you manufacturers of similar-sized bottles designed for very different purposes...

That was almost as good as the quote from a Canadian woman who was admiring the wonderful star-filled African skies.... she came out with

"Oh my god honey this is almost as good as being at the planetarium"

I had to walk away and stifle my guffaws of laughter

A big thanks to Edward at Africa odyssey for sorting our booking out.

tune in next time for the final instalment at Abu camp...