Off to Maun to fix the car
Trip Start
Jul 09, 2008
1
17
20
Trip End
Jul 30, 2008
Maun,
Botswana
Friday, July 25, 2008
As we were leaving we noticed four or five cars just outside camp. We knew we had to investigate as it looked interesting. We drew near and for a few moments couldn't see what they were all looking at. Then all of a sudden you could see perfectly camouflaged in the yellow grass a couple of lionesses and their respective cubs
Maun
. There must have been twelve in total. It was incredible watching the cubs as they played almost indistinguishable from the grass they lay in. We had done it, we had seen big cats at last! Finally we pulled ourselves away aware we had to get to the garage in Maun before it closed. We backed away not wanting to turn round as we knew our grating mud flap would send the lions racing for cover and we wouldn't have been too popular.We took the route via South Gate then onto the road to Maun where the sand was dreadful to drive, there was also the added hazard of large boulders and deep ruts. It looked as though they were doing road improvements but to be honest it felt like the exact opposite. We arrived in Maun at about 11.00 and made our way to the Land Rover Garage. Charles and his team were waiting for us and had sorted us within an hour and a half, not that there appeared to be any other work going on. There was however plenty of phone calls while we were there. Charles didn't get his hands dirty and left the work to one knowledgeable mechanic and another guy who appeared to know about as much as I did. There also appeared to be lots of female office staff all dressed in black leather jackets matching Charles' own. They managed to pull the remaining bodywork away from the tyre by tying it around one of the metal supports of the garage and fashioned us a new tube to replace the damaged power steering one.
Starving as we had made an early start and not had breakfast we headed into town in search of food. The boys had seen an advert for a burger bar called Bimbos where we ordered burgers and four large chips that turned out to be absolutely enormous. We couldn't even eat half and one plate probably would have been enough for all of us!
Maun itself is quite a large sprawling town with everything you would ever need to go into the bush. It is often the start for many and we smiled to see shiny Land Rovers and clean fresh faced adventurers just starting out, in direct contrast to us. We booked into Rileys Hotel and took a well earned hot shower. Rileys had an old world feel about it and apparently was found by Harry Riley back in 1910 and originally consisted of a couple of rondavels, although now it is owned by the Cresta Group.
Refreshed by our shower we decided to have a look around the town and I was on the lookout for souvenir shops for presents to take back home. We also ended up walking around the local market, not a market for tourists but one definitely for the locals and the boys bought some fake designer belts. I liked Maun you could just walk about and nobody pestered you at all.
That evening we took ourselves back up to the airport and had a lovely meal in the Buck and Hunter on the road parallel to the airstrip. It was a really friendly place with lots of atmosphere and the most amazing pizzas. It also seemed to be the meeting place for safari guides as almost everyone else there that evening appeared to be one.
