Wildcast

18th March 2000
As the heavy rains continued all night, luckily with us in camp, it was not too surprising to find the Sand river in front of camp, in flood.

In the last floods we lost the water pump that provides all our water to camp. I didn’t need this happening again, so when at first light I saw the river right up I nervously plunged into the flooded river. The danger of crocodiles and hippos was minor compared to the threatening waters. I jumped in upstream of where the pump was and soon got swept down in the current. Swimming across the current my feet took hold on the sand bank where the pump was situated, the flood waters now swirling around my neck. Finding the pump’s anchor rope, I pulled hoping to pull the pump out of the raging torrent of the mainstream, but the rope snapped. Diving down to where the pump was situated, I was immediately swept away in the mainstream, but luckily got caught up in an eddy and was able to swim to the bank.
If we run out of water it’ll just have to be back to bathing in the river for now. I won’t be braving those waters again for a while. We won’t be braving the roads either.