We pack xmas day and set off for Rundu on the 26th, we have 700km to cover today, we arrive at Kaisosi lodge (well almost) when I realise perhaps my husband has been on tarmac road for too long today, he decides to "test" the swamp and as predicted he's stuck....
The distance to where my car is on solid ground is to far for the rope, I am not a happy camper at this stage, I go find help and a long story short and about 2 hours later the lodge owners at Kaisosi has got Ian out with a digger loader! Boys will be boys I suppose.....
We meet friends at Kaisosi joining us for the holiday, we have a great 1st night with great company and good food and at sunrise we set off for Kongola, we have only 400km to cover today but we do not know what access to Matota itself is like so we need to get going, it might be a long day!
More friends will be joining us today, they have been on a weeklong fishing trip and are coming from Katima bringing our boat with, the last couple of the group is about 3hours behind us. We all meet at Kaza-Kongola service station, a quick fill up of the boat fuel tank and we set off to Lianshulu lodge where we'll leave the cars and go by boat to Matota, we start the boat, It manages 100m down the Kwando and then nothing....we realise we never checked the new fuel tank and that it might've had water in! I call the manager of Lianshulu and he's kind enough to loan us a boat to at least get our luggage accross, luggage now en-route to Matota by boat now we just need to get there.
An alternative route would be a boat trip from the village to Matota it's alot shorter but the channel is narrow and the boat is small however sun is setting and somehow we need to get accross, We leave some vehicles behind and set off to Lianshulu Village, as we leave the lodge and close the gate I see Ian point, he's one vehicle infront of me and one of our guides Listar aswell as a friends son of 10yrs old is on the back of Ian's open pick-up....I look at where Ian is pointing and low and behold a pride of about 8 lions is a mere 10 meters away from Ian's vehicle, perhaps 30 meters or so from me looking straight at us. I see Listar jump infront of the boy....putting himself between the danger and the person he is there to protect and all of a sudden amongst all the panic and confusion (we were just totally unaware of them offloading and unpacking our vehicles here) I am so tremendously proud of him. He's done what he has been trained to do, he's calm and in control...he is a true guide.
We head to the village, we meet the friends that was behind at the turn off, we get to the village and the small boat is waiting, it's about half an hour to Matota via the channel, we load woman and children first, the channel is low, myself and a girlfriend get off and push time to time to get the boat through the narrow spots, the cool water is well received even though we keep an eye out for hippo's, we're in their channel afterall.
The boat returns to the village and we realise there's still to much luggage left, he has to do a luggage trip first, it's hot on the river bank waiting for the boat so the remainder of the group pop into the local shebeen for ice cold Black Label courts, finally the last of the group is on the boat, going through the channel in the dark when hippo's emerge for the nights feeding is scary and surreal all at the same time but soon we are all around the camp fire, welcome to Matota....
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