By Brendan Hamill-O’Neil from The University of Vermont
After days of blazing heat combined with midterms in mopane camp, we were all excited to drive out to the Makgadikgadi national park for a fall break of sorts. When we arrived at the front gates of the park, it was unlike anything else we have experienced in our time here in Botswana. The gates were grand and welcoming; akin to the gates of a large amusement park. After driving inside the park for about twenty minutes, I could easily see why this place is noted as a national park and a distinct area of tourism for many visiting the area. As the landscape opened, I was transported to a different planet where the land is dominated by grasses with just the occasional shrub and the even rarer tree that grew above five meters. I was in awe. The only natural wonder that I think might beat this immaculate world in terms of sheer amazement is the Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States. The ability to see for miles is something I have never been able to do before. Some of the other students were relating it to the great plains back home in Nebraska and South Dakota, and while I have never seen those before, they are on my short list of places to visit now.
After driving for about an hour and a half in the park, we reached our place of residence for the next four days; a small batch of tall Mopane trees named “Tree Island”. We were unpacking our belongings from the parade of vehicles we traveled in when Gabe and Domini (our instructors) called us together and told us they had an announcement to make. To our pleasant surprise, they announced that we would be competing in ‘the’ Olympic Games. We were randomly assigned to teams of three and had to compete in an array of different challenges and games that allowed us to earn points over the span of four days. We all eagerly agreed to the rules when Gabe then told us that the first challenge was to see who could set up a tent the fastest, and that we were to begin right now. My team rushed to a tent where we scrambled to set it up as fast as we could while still doing it properly; ultimately we finished in third. Luckily there were enough other games and challenges for us to make a comeback. After the tents got set up, we cooked and ate dinner, then were introduced to the second challenge. It consisted of three different card games played at once, one member from each of our teams would play either Texas hold ‘em’, Hearts, or Magic Rummy. Despite my poker playing skills at home, I came in dead last in the hold ’em’ game. I was feeling disappointed so I turned to my teammates to come in clutch, and they did; one came in first in the Hearts game and the other in second in the Magic Rummy scoring us eight very much needed points. Our card games were completed in the dark, so we went to bed shortly after, as we had to be up early for what seemed to be a new challenge.
We woke up the next day at seven o’clock and we were introduced to our next Olympic challenge; the pancake making competition. My team came in first place to little surprise as one of my teammates, Gwen, is an incredible cook. Her cooking crew meals have been a highlight of the trip. We put together silver dollar pancakes that were drizzled in homemade caramel, topped with ginger cookie crumb, and diced pear. After a long morning of pancake making and a longer time cleaning up the mess, our entourage of sixteen people piled into four cars and headed out to explore the national park.
We drove for an incredibly long time but it felt much shorter as we saw countless zebra and wildebeests running across the foliage barren land, along with some incredible salt pans. When we got back to camp, we were told of our next challenge, none other than the camp favorite game; a Spikeball tournament. After the tournament, we were told of our final two challenges that were to take place the next day, a funny picture contest and a game of bingo. For bingo we had to fill out a board with different things, whether it be stuff that we saw or funny stereotypical actions some other students or instructors do or say, for example see a hartebeest or an ostrich, or for Dix to say “super”. We accepted our final challenges and headed to bed.
We woke up on the third day and ate a significantly-less-carbohydrate-potent breakfast and once more loaded up into the four trucks and headed out for another game drive, this time we were in search of a large valley with a river at the basin of it. After another long drive we came to the valley only to find that because it is the dry season, the river was more of a stream with a few puddles, similar to tidal pools on an oceanic coast. Here I had some of the most fun I have had on this trip, when we began to throw herbivore poop at each other. Herbivore poop is safe to touch and handle and hardens in the blistering heat of southern Africa, making it prime for throwing at high velocity. As zebra (or piste yanaga in Setswana) poop and laughter filled the air Gabe turned the corner holding a massive load of elephant poop over his head. I heard a maniacal chuckle as I turned quick enough to dodge the warhead coming for me. Once we were all out of breath and our shoulders sore, we washed our hands and climbed back into the trucks, headed back to “Tree Island”. Here, we compared our bingo sheets and funny pictures where the winning team had recorded a thirty-five-minute-long video accidentally in Jack’s pocket. Cleaning up and starting to organize a little, we all went to bed at a reasonable hour before our drive back to Maun the next day.
I woke up with the sun and I was one of the first students to rise out of my tent. I joined Dix and Pabalelo out in the mud pan that was within walking distance of camp to take a few pictures and take in the beautiful landscape before we departed. After the three of us had taken pictures and enjoyed the view, other students and instructors began to walk down to share the natural beauty in front of us. However, us being a particularly goo-brained set of individuals, we quickly resorted to wrestling in the mud. What began as just Anna vs Colin soon became a brawl spanning upwards of ten people.
Wrestling in that salt pan is one of the highlights of this trip for me so far, and I will remember that for the rest of my life. After the wrestling had finished, we rinsed the shockingly stinging salt-mud mixture off our bodies, packed up camp and headed back to home base in Maun to restock on supplies before our next academic excursion.
As we drove out of Makgadikgadi and looked back on the great open pans and fields that surrounded us, it was nice to reflect on my short time here and enjoy the vastness I had never seen before. I hope to one day return, and I hope to win the next Great Makgadikgadi Olympics.
Team Floral Fauna 4 Life