I woke at 5:30 am – just in time to catch the first rays of a magnificent sunrise over the river. We camped at Shakawe River Lodge – a beautiful open air lodge with an excellent campground. It’s on the pricey side for camping at 125 pula (US $12) per person per night, but worth it for the amazing view of the river, the working sink and electrical plug at the campsite (recharge central), and the clean ablutions.
The ablutions provided some momentary entertainment because my rosy image of “luxurious hot showers” was somewhat compromised by the reality of the dribble that emerged from the shower head. However, with experience, I’ve realized that each shower has its own potential, and some are much better than others. I am grateful that there is water and I can access it.
We set the nets and drank coffee, so the day was off to a good start. Around 9 am, two fishermen stopped by in a mokoro (traditional dug-out canoe) to let us know they had caught a three-spotted tilapia. They knew that’s what we wanted from an earlier conversation on the river. And they gave it to us, which turned out to be a lucky break, since it was the only three spot we had all day.
We also caught two juvenile tiger fish, which have incredibly sharp teeth. Tigerfish are predators and popular sports fish. They are useful to us because predators are high on the food chain. If there are any metals contaminating the river, we are most likely to measure them in predators because metals bioaccumulate and biomagnify up the food chain. Besides, without the tigerfish in our catch for the day, our sampling expedition so far is a bit grim.
And so, already on day 1, having set and checked our nets three times, we arrive at our first dilemma of fieldwork. Having not caught anything close to what we need, we have to take stock and decide what to do. Do we stay here or move south? Do we have the right equipment? Are we fishing the right habitat? Is that a hippo?
That’s when the storm started. So by 4pm, we had to stop. We decided to stay here another night. There is a fishing camp next door, so we’ll go tomorrow to see what they are catching and where. Then we’ll decide if we move on or try again here.
We cheered ourselves up with tilapia and vegetable soup, inspired by my husband, from whom I have learned many things – and one of them is how to make soup.
Despite the rain in the bottom of my tent and the slightly soggy camping bed, I am enjoying being here, swatting mosquitoes and listening to hippos grunt in the river that swirls and gurgles past our camp. The video below shows the lights of the lodge, visible from our campsite – but listen to the night sounds!
My favorite part of the day was watching monkeys play in the campground. There were maybe 20 of them, including three mothers carrying infants. At one point I had to chase them away from our dissecting area where they had broken into a box of analytical glucose strips and were getting a little too close to my balance. I’ve done years of fieldwork, but monkeys running off with my stuff is definitely a first.
