Loitering at Limpopo River

When Hamish makes a promise, he performs – 500 percent.
He promised Maud a slippry, slimy weekend at the banks of Limpopo river, and she got it.
We started this expotition on a sunny Saturday morning. First we drove from Mochudi to the massimo of Mma Mpo to bring her a big three-legged pot (size 20), pick up Mpo’s cousin Binno, and have a look at the lands. After admiring the maize, sorghum, beans, and melons Modioke invited us for a delicious sempe lunch. The boys of course had to practice shooting (windbuks) - why is it men want to kill everything which dares to move? It already started to drizzle…
We happily drove on to the Limpopo. First stop: a flooded piece of land near to the river, where a lot of cattle egrets and other birds were having a field day. It still rained a little bit. Second stop: a beautiful spot at the Limpopo, where some boys were fishing. We strolled along the riverbanks, enjoying the fine, sunny weather. Trying to cross the river to the South-African side, Binno sunk in the mud over his ankles, Mpo managed to get in till his thighs and Scoogie changed himself from a white to a brownish grey Jack Russell. We thought about camping right there, but decided to drive on to Olifantsdrift anyway.
The dirt road to the village was very good, the weather stayed fine, and even after Olifantsdrift village we hit only a few mud pools which looked like prone to get stuck in. The side Hamish picked to camp looked marvelous, a bit higher up, lots of trees for shade, and next to a dam in the river, which created nice fishing spots above and underneath the dam. There should be crocs and hippos, but even Mpo didn’t manage to spot one. While Hamish tried to walk the kids (3, 5, 11-ish and 13-ish) Bram and Maud started to build the camp, on a nice, barren spot. We were still in a cattle-area, which means you don’t want to camp in the cow-tick infested grass.
Our part of the camp looked ever so nicely when the sky went from blue to gray. We left the preparations for the cooking fire for what they were, dug out Hamish’s tent and managed to get it kind of upright before the rains started. Seriously. Within an hour we got our, slippry, slimy banks, a 500 percent (much like the Zeeland klei we know so well)! We could have done with a bit less convincing performance…
When the little ones finally stopped crying, the rain stopped also, so we had a happy campers evening in the mud.
Sunday after breakfast there was a break in the rain again, so the boys went fishing. Luckily we had an endless amount of peanut butter & bread with us, because they didn’t catch quite enough to feed the whole group. We even managed to pack up before it started raining again.
Maud & Bram rushed back to Gabs via Mochudi for a seldom occasion: Pietje would fly in from Maun, to sign for his new Dutch passport, and sleep over at our place. We didn’t expect to see him in Gabs, which he tries to avoid like the plague, and we won’t manage to get to Maun this year. It was very good to see him again, and when we brought him back to Seretse Khama Airport he revealed he would be in again half March to go to the clinic, so we’ll have another evening together at our house.