From the moment we got back to Gigi in Livingstone, there was an annoying feeling we couldn't shake off.
Having a rat inside the car is very irritating in many different ways. The most obvious one is that it simply feels dirty. A rat hiding in the dashboard or under the hood, won't show itself during the day. There is no way to be 100% sure if it is still there, or whether you have lost it. It will only move at night when we are asleep, so the best way to find out is when there are fresh rat droppings or rat pee in the car. YUCK.
Another way to find out if the rat is still there, is when some of our stuff is being scratched or chewed on. Even then, it might just have checked the car and left again. There is no certainty, until it happens again. Only then will you know it has still been there all along. This uncertainty has had a heavier toll on our minds than anticipated. The fact that we had a rat in the car wouldn't necessarily be worth a blog post, or a diary entry. The impact it had on our minds and our trip, is another story.
Effectively, having the rat inside the car means a few things. Firstly, we perform the ritual of completely emptying the car twice a day. We check whether there are new rat droppings or rat pee, clean the car (even if there are no droppings or pee, it still makes for a good opportunity to keep Gigi clean), and then we put everything back. Secondly, it means making sure there are no loose items. Food has to be securely stored in our new trunk or some of the plastic boxes we bought along the way. All clothing or other items must be put inside closed bags as much as possible, so the rat cannot easily get them. Keeping the car clean and tidy does have its advantages. Unfortunately, this means we have to spend about two hours every day unpacking and then repacking the car.
The worst part, however, is the constant uncertainty about the stuff in the car. Every time we leave the car, whether it is to sleep, do groceries, eat, or go on an activity, in the back of our mind there is this gnawing feeling that the rat might have had its way with some of our stuff or worse, Gigi's wires. The thought of suddenly not being able to start because of the rat is probably the worst of all. Even the nicest activity loses some of its fun this way. We have had to throw away or mend several things already and are not looking forward to several months of having this.
Although we have had several days of not finding any rat activity in the cabin, we are still unsure if the rat might have left the car or not. The last time we found recent rat droppings and rat pee, was in Kasane. In Nata and Gweta we did not find anything and the rat smell hadn't returned. Every rat-ritual without finding an actual activity gave us additional hope that we might have lost the rat. At the same time, we were fully aware that although it might not move in the cabin anymore, it might still be in the dashboard. Every strange smells makes us think of rats. We are afraid that it has found a place where it feels safe and goes out of the car at night to forage. Every time we see something that might support this hypothesis, we look at each other and wonder. Might this have been 'our' rat?
We had thrown away a small piece of bread at Planet Baobab. The next day, it had been eaten from the dustbin and the plastic was torn. Might this have been 'our' rat?
There were also some droppings across the campgrounds (not necessarily our campsite). Was this 'our' rat?
Planet Baobab had several cats. Many of them would hang around our campsite and look to our car, under the hood and tried to get inside the car. Did they smell a rat?
Some of the stuff we hadn't used for a few days was scratched or chewed on, including one of the food containers. Was this new, or had this happened in Kasane?
Emma's towel, which had been hanging outside, smelled funny. Was this rat pee?
Then the final day at planet Baobab, we saw fresh droppings on the table at our campsite. This gave us some flashbacks and a strange feeling. Then we turned on our car and there it was...
A pungent rat smell from the A/C. Fortunately, it subsided after a minute, but it definitely smelled worse than it had done for the last few days. There were still no new droppings or pee in the car cabin, but this smell could almost only mean one thing, our rat was still very much hiding in our dashboard and we had not left it. Still we were not 100% sure, as there could have been other reasons. The heat might have strengthened the smell. The droppings around the camp might have been other rats and the cats might have just smelled the old smell that was still inside and under the hood. We didn't know.
We drove towards what was supposed to be one of the highlights of our trip, but the excitement had left us. We were silently thinking about how to get this rat out of our car. It weighed more on us than we wanted to admit, or than we wanted it to at all.
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