Yesterday at the end of the day, we had a small, but troublesome problem with the car. A short circuit broke our cigarette lighter, which we need to charge our GPS.  

We contact my dada, who had a sleepless night and already sent 2 people by bus.  After I tell her It's probably the fuse, she feels much better, and wants to call them back. Fortunately she does not...

Gege and I drive to the park entrance,  where we need to explain that we leave the park but will return.  They take our permit, and when we return we can ask it back. 

Just outside the gate we get a WhatsApp from the mechanic: they got a ride from the bus stop along the asphalt road, and are now at the gate! 

We return and talk our way back in. There we meet Moses and a mechanic.  The latter looks at the fuse, and I assume a quick replacement,  but things go differently. 

'He wants to understand the cause ' Moses explains, 'We do not just treat the fever. We check if the cause is maybe Malaria.'

The hood is opened up. To my surprise the air filter is removed. Below it, the alternator is not only removed, but the mechanic starts to open it up.

Impressed, Chruus and I watch this situation unfold, outside, on the gravel, all with a screwdriver, a volt meter and some plyers. 

A disk is removed from the alternator,  and connected to the battery, and with the screwdriver voltmeter he measures the for contact points. One does not function!

Deeply imppressed, we watch how he rewires it and puts the whole car back together: the radio works again !

We bring Moses and the mechanic back to the tarmac road, and we return to the park. 

The rest of the day we use to follow a (sometimes very poor) path along the river. We see lots of animals but I am most happy seeing several dikdiks. This is a tiny dear, about 30cm (1 foot) high. Supposedly the only mamal that does not need to drink water. It gets enough liquid from the vegetation.  Very cute. First time I saw it in detail was in the Smithonian Natural History museum - a lifetime ago. So nice that I finally see it in nature. Satisfying trip. 

In the evening we pass some water holes, where we see the great savanna animals congregate. 

At night we watch the stars. Amazing - several rings of the milky way. Blood red Mars, and peaceful Venus, and - it must be - Jupiter.  But, so strange, no stars that I know : no Big or Small Dipper, no polar star! No Orion or Cassiopeia.  These are strange stars to me. I should get to know them. Southern hemisphere.

The night is full of sounds, and when we point a flashlight,  we see ten, twenty,  thirty pairs of eyes lit up in the darkness. 

We are not alone...