Botswana to Zambia

2008-03-26

Summary

- Okavango Delta campsite

- Mokoros deeper into Okavango Delta

- Game walk

- Cold shower

On Wednesday morning, we had brekky, then loaded out day packs onto the motorboats before jumping onboard ourselves; after signing another customary indemnity form like we get every other day. The motorboats took us through the Okavango channels for about an hour or so before we arrived at our drop-off point. We unloaded our gear and then loaded it onto the trucks that were waiting for us. The trucks took us to our Okavango campsite where the tents were already set up for us… brilliant We settled into our tents, getting out our sleeping bags etc, then we had an early lunch at about 11am. I wasn’t very hungry at this stage so didn’t have much for lunch as was the case with everyone else I think; the camp dogs must have ended up with the leftovers… yes there’s always camp dogs… it’s not a campsite unless there’s camp dogs!

Just after noon we headed off via truck to the mokoros (dug-out canoes) on the river bank at Xao. We noted that we were sitting right on top of the petrol container in the truck… the truck which had every part jiggling along the way with a speedo that didn’t work… in serious need of some maintenance. After signing another indemnity form we paired up and got a poler each before getting onto the mokoros. The poler stands at the rear of the mokoro and funnily enough… he holds a long wooden pole. The poler pushes the pole to the bottom of the river bed and pushes the mokoro along. We cruised through the reeds, spotting crickets and tiny frogs along the way; barely the size of a fingernail. We saw a bunch of monkeys in some trees making a lot of racket. This portion of the trip is definitely not for those who hate creepy crawlies; pushing through the reeds, we got covered in all sorts of spiders, bugs, seeds, and plant matter. We poled for about an hour and a half before stopping on an island.

We went for a short game walk on the island with the head polers (Tom and King George), although spotted no game. We found tracks and/or droppings of hippos, elephants, kudus, buffalo, and zebra. We checked out a sausage tree and tried some amarula from an amarula tree; a fruit used to make a popular alcoholic drink that tastes somewhat like Kahlua. Amarula is mixed with peppermint liqueur to make a Springbok shot (Amarula is the ingredient I couldn’t remember the name of in a previous post). By this point it was very hot, being about 2:30pm-3pm. We got back on the mokoros and poled back the way we’d come, except this time in much more heat and directly into the sun… my poor little nose got scorched! The leathery mats we were sitting on got extremely hot in the sun. Just before arriving back at our starting point, another group poled passed us in the other direction. It would have been much better going out at that time (about 4pm) when the heat was starting to die down and they would have had the sunset on the way back. Anyway, everyone was very hot and bothered after the pole back, so there was a bit of a rush to get on the truck that had a canopy over the seats. Skye and I ended up on the other uncovered truck, so continued to cook.

When we got back to the campsite Skye and I went and had showers, having finally figured out which one was mens and which was womens (was not written in English: Banna [mens] and Basadi [ladies]). No hot water in the shower; I’d grown accustomed to having hot showers again after leaving Tanzania. The cold shower was very refreshing anyway. We had dinner and chilled for a while before going to bed. The tents, even though they were setup for us, were not as good as the ones we normally have; smaller and more of a tarp material…. i.e. cheaper.

 

2008-03-27

Summary

- Seronga village walk

- Houseboat

- Bird watching

- South African Monopoly

After brekky on Thursday morning, we loaded our gear onto one truck and hopped onto another. The gear truck took our gear to the houseboat, while the us truck took us to Seronga village. We walked through the village learning about the ways of the Setswana people. We visited a local bakery, butcher, the interior of a round hut home, a doctor’s clinic, a kindergarten, a school, a store and a bar. Okay the last one was just so the alcos could get their booze and cigarettes. Most of the huts are mud huts with a thatched grass roof, thought there are some variations such as those using empty cans along with mud to build their hut walls or using straw/grass instead of mud. The kindergarten had the kids singing songs to us again. The school ‘visit’ was more of a drop- off-your-gifts-and-leave type visit. Everyone off-loaded their pens, pencils and other stationary to the school and kindergarten.

We walked to the point where we’d been dropped off by the motorboats the previous day. From here the motorboats took us to the houseboat. The two bathrooms at the front of the houseboat on the 2^nd floor had glass doors, so no chance of privacy for anyone showering or going to the loo in there. The other 3 bathrooms were adequately privatised though. JL (my nickname for John Lee) caught a catfish alongside the houseboat, which would have been close to a metre long (the catfish, not the houseboat… duh), before letting it go again. We also saw a tigerfish below the surface while watching from the houseboat. If you don’t know what a tigerfish is, google it and look at the teeth on those babies. If JL’s warning of crocs and hippos frequenting the river isn’t enough to keep you from swimming, sighting a tigerfish sure is! After lunch, we chilled for the early arvo. I nabbed up an FHM from the magazine pile, which was dubbed a ‘porno’… whatever! Nevertheless, the FHMs certainly did the rounds, with the girls reading through them as well… so hardly a porno people! There was an article in there about the “tree-man”, google it or youtube it and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

At 3pm we had the choice of 2 activities: fishing or bird watching. Skye and I had decided to do bird watching, whereas most of the group had chosen fishing. When the time came, Skye didn’t want to come anymore as it was so hot. About 8 ppl stayed behind on the houseboat and chilled while about 8 went fishing, which left 2 of us on the bird watching motorboat; David and myself… the 2 camera geeks Our guide/boat driver was ‘Silence’. Anyway, we spotted a bird or 2 shoot past, but not much to start with. The first decent sighting we had was actually of a croc. He didn’t hang around for long, a few seconds tops before diving into the water and disappearing from sight. Ok, so there are certainly crocs in these waters! We learnt a bit about the plants from Silence; including water chestnuts, papyrus, and day and night lilies. The day lily has smooth-edged circular lily pads and white flowers that are open during the day, whereas the night lily has jagged edged lily pads and yellow flowers that open during the night. We tried a papyrus root after pulling it from the river and cracking/peeling it open. It has a fibrous yet fluffy texture to it. Interestingly the papyrus and reeds are actually floating; they do not actually reach the bottom of the river. The river scenery was stunning, with the whole landscape being reflected in the river’s surface. We spotted a variety of birds including bee-eaters, jacanas, a darter, a hamerkop, an ibis and some sort of stork I think. We managed to spot a jacana with several babies running around on the lily pads. Silence gunned it a few times, which cooled things down considerably with the rush of wind; it was fun gliding sideways through the bends of the Okavango channels.

We got back to the houseboat about 6ish and watched as the sun set. The mozzies were REALLY bad, this is the most mozzies we’ve encountered. In the dining section even with the mosquito nets down, there were heaps of the little bastards buzzing around the table. At one stage there was a bat in the dining section as well. After dinner we cracked out the board games (after Skye and some of the others had played a hand of cheat/bullshit) and fired up a game of Monopoly. It was South African Monopoly so money was in Rand and all the properties and airports (not railway stations) were South African places. I was off to a dismal start, but managed to pick up Clifton (the Mayfair of South African monopoly). Anyway, by about 10pm everyone was tired and had had enough, so we packed it away and went to bed.

 

2008-03-28

Summary

- Namibia border crossing

- Swamp Stop

On Friday morning we had breakfast before loading our gear onto the motorboats and riding them back to the Sepupa campsite. Along the way we saw a hippo, for a whole second before it popped its head back beneath the surface, and a couple of crocs on the river banks, as well as a bunch of different birds flying overhead including an African fish eagle. When we jumped off the motorboats back at Sepupa, I spotted a snake in the water about a foot long; hippos, crocs, tigerfish and snakes… there’s no way you’d get me swimming in that river! Back on the truck we headed across the border back into Namibia. We spent pretty much the whole day on the truck, stopping off at a supermarket just before reaching our campsite to pick up some food/drink supplies.

We didn’t reach our Katimo Mulilo campsite, Swamp Stop, until quite late in the afternoon. There was building materials all over the place, with a lot of renovations going on. We set up our tents and there was no water at the time, so we watched as the sunset and then had dinner. After dinner the water was back on so I had a shower, before we chilled around the campfire; toasting a few marshmallows.

 

2008-03-29

Summary

- Botswana border crossing

- Kasane

- Chobe National Park; Sable, roan antelope, and so many elephants, baboons and hippos

On Saturday we had to cross back across the border into Botswana again. At the border crossing there was an abundance of baobab trees, a personal favourite of mine; these trees have massive rounded trunks and lots of characters. Being at a border crossing though, we were not allowed to photograph the trees unfortunately. We drove through Chobe National Park along the way and saw some elephants on the side of the road. We later saw sable and roan antelope, which we hadn’t seen previously (and I’d been really wanting to see a sable). When we reached the town of Kasane, we stopped off at the shops. The ATM line was huge, so I went to find an internet cafe while Skye lined up with the others from our group (as I didn’t need anymore money). It took me until the 4^th internet cafe until I found a wireless connection and that was a 10 minute walk away from where I started. By the time I checked Skye and my emails and updated the blog, and then walked back the others had gone from the ATM and the truck wasn’t there; there was still 15 mins until we were supposed to leave town. So I went to the supermarket to pick up some fruit and water, as well as some DVDs for backups. The supermarket was packed, so I lined up by the desk on the edge where the blank DVDs were in a cabinet. When I finally got to the front and asked the lady for a box of blank DVDs, she had to go find someone with a key to unlock the cabinet. When she got back about 5 mins later and unlocked the cabinet and I pointed out which ones I wanted, she asked how many I wanted. They were boxes of 10 so I just said 1 box and she replies “you want the whole box?!”…. “errrr, yes”. Apparently the norm is to buy one or two dvds, so she didn’t know how much she was supposed to charge me for a whole box… so she disappeared again. In the end she just charged me for buying 10 single DVDs, which was a bit more expensive than usual but I didn’t mind anyway. By this stage it was 10-15 mins after the truck was supposed to leave town. When I got out there, the truck was still there so I didn’t have a 3km walk ahead of me to the campsite luckily.

We arrived at Thebe River Safaris Lodge and setup our tents. 14 of our tour group booked on an optional afternoon game drive. We did our laundry, as did most of the others, and then had lunch. At 3pm we were ready for the game drive, but it turns out we weren’t leaving until 3:30pm. After waiting around we got on the open safari truck and drove into Chobe National Park. Clear skies; it was good safari weather! We saw some hornbills, like ‘Zazu’ in the Lion King, and hamerkops in the trees. We saw a couple of groups of elephants along the way, with a couple of bulls wrestling one another; one trumpeting as it stormed away. Then we came across a massive hoard of baboons. We sat watching the baboons for quite a while; there was so many of them and they were so active it was hard to know where to look; there were lots of young/baby baboons as well. We drove down to the river side where an elephant was down drinking from the river. We continued on, driving right alongside the river. At one point we were driving across an incline of about 30-35 degrees where everyone had to sit on the high side of the truck to make sure it didn’t roll. Just along the river a bit further, we saw hippos in the river. The hippos were not sitting there in the water with their heads poking up, like the hippos we’d seen in the Serengeti. These ones were wrestling with one another, much less boring than hippos usually are. There were heaps of small safari boats out on the river, which is what the guide told us we would be in for the sunset cruise the following night. We continued along the riverside, and an elephant came down to the riverside… followed by another few, followed by another few. There was several elephants (about 6 or 7) drinking from the river, including some very young ones.

We stayed for quite a while watching the elephants until the guide said we’d better turn back as the sun was starting to set and the park closes after sunset. We drove back past the hippos playing in the river, an elephant ran out in front of the truck, kicking up dust in front of the setting sun. We really had no choice but to stop and watch. Then another few elephants came out, then another few, and another few. There were more than 10 elephants right alongside the truck; drinking from the river, splashing their trunks in the water, throwing dust and/or mud over themselves. One of the elephants went into the water for a swim, then several others followed. The youngsters were wrestling one another in the water, there was also a very small baby elephant that was no more than a week old. The sun got lower and lower, so we were forced to edge around the elephants and continue on our way. We were stopped again by a bustard crossing the road. We watched the sunset as the truck made its way back to the gate. Closing time was 6:30pm and we made it there at about 6:32… just scraping through in time.

When we got back to the camp we heard that there had been some conflict between David and Skye (the other Skye) and David had walked off. I burnt off a DVD for Harley and Kathy to backup their photos and then we had dinner. I had a cold shower and backed up my own stuff before going to bed ready for another early morning. Shortly after going to bed I heard what sounded like an elephant trumpeting (in amongst the usual hippo sounds that could be heard throughout the night). I later heard 2 shots fired; whether they were related to the elephant or not, I have no idea.

 

2008-03-30

Summary

- Early morning Chobe game drive

- Kasane closed

- Sunset cruise

We were up before 5:30am on Sunday ready for the morning game drive. The same truck as we’d had the day before picked us up. I’d hoped we’d be split into smaller 4WD vehicles; which are faster, more manoeuvrable, quieter and smaller (less likely to scare off game), and generally give better viewing (with less people on board, there’s less people in the way); but we ended up in the same truck as the previous day. This morning’s game drive was targeting the big cats. We saw a spitting cobra dead on the side of the road (road kill) before entering the park. The start of the game drive was slow as the gates had only just opened so there was about 10 vehicles, so when the front one stopped and blocked the road, all other trucks had to stop as well with only the first few trucks being able to actually see the game. In the park we saw some kudu, impala, baboons again, jackals, and a variety of birds. We were often overtaken by the smaller 4WD vehicles; like I said the smaller vehicles are faster. We saw plenty of leopard and lion tracks in the dirt. Another truck in front of us turned around after hearing of a leopard siting, but our driver didn’t think the leopard would hang around long enough for us to get there and see it and he was convinced he knew where the lions were. We continued on, but saw no sign of lions, nor any sign of leopards.

We got back to camp just after 9:30am and had breakfast just after 10am. At 11am the crew was going into the town to stock up on supplies so anyone who wanted to go into town could get a ride with them. I had something I wanted to post, but being a Sunday the post office would be closed, so I wasn’t going to go. I figured I could go in and use an internet place and Skye could get some money out. When we got there pretty much everything was closed. No wireless internet available at the couple of internet cafes open (which were full) and Skye had left her passport locked up so wouldn’t be able to exchange money. We walked around then waited by the truck bored until they got back at 12:45.

Back at the campsite I played a game of scrabble (and got absolutely kaned) while Skye snoozed in the tent. I’d heard we were being picked up for the sunset cruise at 3:30pm, but the guy came at 3:10pm while I was in the loo, so I just about got left behind by the time I’d come out, grabbed my stuff and gone over to the pickup truck. We drove to the riverside and to our dismay we weren’t on the little safari boats we’d seen the day before… no we were on a huge boat; like a floating pontoon. We had to wait about 15 mins for another Geckos group of 24 to arrive, so then there was about 50 of us on this boat. The boat was so slow, with the safari boats whizzing past. We got to see kudu and impala drinking from the river as well as seeing a few crocs along the riverside. The boat went out towards the middle of the river where there was a pod of hippos. They weren’t as active as the ones we’d seen yesterday, generally just sitting there… not even a yawn. Out of nowhere, a bull hippo launched itself out of the water about a metre or so from the boat’s edge; about two thirds of its body must’ve breached the water! At this point I had my camera down in front of my stomach as I was just watching the pod of hippos; I managed to react in time to fire off a few shots, but unfortunately I was at full zoom so all I got was a close-up of hippo skin and splashing water; a shame, it would have made an awesome shot. I still can’t believe that the hippo got so far out of the water; I had no idea they could do that! The boat then started heading back as the sun set. We were a bit disappointed that we never got to see any elephants drinking from the river from front on (we’d seen them from behind/side last night), but like I said this big ass boat was just so slow it hadn’t reached the same point on the riverside that we’d gone to yesterday (where the herds of elephants were drinking); only the safari boats had reached that far.

When we got back to the campsite, we had dinner and then roasted marshmallows again; at least this time there were more/better sticks to use. Then off to bed for another early morning.

 

2008-03-31

Summary

- Zambia border crossing dramas

- Waterfront campsite

- Victoria Falls

- Markets

On Monday morning we had to be up before 5:30am again in order to try to beat the rush to the border. The border crossing between Botswana and Zambia is a river crossing undertaken by a ferry; 2 ferries to be precise however 1 was broken down. The other Geckos truck (the same group that had joined us on the boat cruise) had left at 4:30am or something! It wasn’t until we reached the border that we really understood the need for the early start; there were trucks lined up for kilometres! Thankfully since the Geckos truck is legally classified as a bus (although the crew doesn’t like to admit that it’s called a bus, they hate being called bus drivers) we were able to pass by the trucks to depart Botswana. There was then a queue for the ferry, which only started running at 7am. John-Lee managed to convince the guys at the ferry that we were with the other Geckos truck, so we drove down the queue and cut in where the other truck was and jumped out (the truck/bus cannot have any passengers when loaded onto the ferry). This caused a lot of uproar from the other drivers who were waiting to get onto the ferry. I think most of the arguing came from the truck drivers who were queued, however the Geckos BUS was not a truck, so they had nothing to argue against; there is a car/bus line and a truck line. There were guys threatening to lie in the road to prevent the Geckos BUS from getting onto the ferry. We took the opportunity to say bus as often as possible as we knew that John-Lee hated it being called a bus, but in this case he had to call it a bus. I felt sorry for Vincent, our driver, who was copping different instructions from different people as to where he needed to park and wait with the truck. We all hopped onto the ferry (except for Vincent) and crossed over the river hoping that the Geckos BUS would come on the next crossing. Note that it takes about 15-20 minutes for the ferry to load up and cross the river and unload, so a round trip rakes around 40 minutes. We queued and paid for our Zambia visas and then waited for the truck. I had to use the toilets there, which required payment of 10 Pula ($2) when there was no toilet paper and no water from the tap… exactly what am I paying for then?! Sure enough on the next ferry crossing, the Geckos BUS came and after waiting for the papers and everything to be approved for the vehicle, we left… by this stage I think it was approaching 10am.

We arrived at our Waterfront campsite where we decided to upgrade to a room; alas there were no rooms available, so we went back to setup the tents. The Geckos bus had gotten stuck in the dirt, where it’d given way… the rear right wheel now stuck in a ditch. It was then that we were informed that the tour did not end tomorrow, but the day after. The itineraries we had did not match John-Lee’s; ours said the tour finished tomorrow morning, so that’s when our flight out was booked for. Anyway, everyone else went off to the auditorium to watch the dvd on activities available; activities that could be done tomorrow, hence why we didn’t go as we were leaving tomorrow. Instead we finished putting up our tent… this would be our last time putting up the ‘Springbok’ tent. We had lunch at 11:30, then I prepared myself for the visit to Victoria Falls; just as well too. I put my camera in a plastic bag, and also did the same with my phone in my pocket. We then watched as Vincent manoeuvred the truck back out of the campsite; I must say I was very impressed with his performance… the camp really isn’t designed well for trucks.

We got to Victoria Falls just after 1pm; it was US$10 entry into the falls. The power of the falls was amazing; I had expected to get wet, but what I was expecting was nothing compared to what we experienced. The mist from the waterfall was thrown into the air, falling down on like rain. When crossing the bridge the ‘rain’ was at its strongest, I was absolutely drenched from head to toe. It was hard to actually see the falls; most of the time all you saw was white… just as if you were in the clouds. Every now and then the mist/water would partially clear for a few seconds giving a brief glimpse of the falls. My clothes were still drying the following morning!

We spent over an hour and a half at the falls before going to the markets just alongside the falls. We were supposed to leave at 3pm, but after going to one market stall I realised we wouldn’t get very far by 3pm as you can’t just look through a stall; the stall owner will pick up everything and tell you what it is and try to pass it to you to look at; so I told John-Lee we’d get a taxi back. We spent over an hour at the markets; trading some of our clothes as well as spending our money for souvenirs. I am glad I bought a few painting in Tanzania as the paintings I have seen here are in my opinion not as good. We caught a taxi back to the campsite.

When we got back everybody had left on a sunset cruise along the Upper Zambezi; US$45 for a meal and open bar on the boat. The fact that we were leaving tomorrow so wouldn’t be drinking much and that we didn’t have much US$ left, we’d decided we weren’t going on the cruise anyway. With nobody around our tents, the vervet monkeys had moved in. They were all around the tents, tearing open the garbage bag, trying to eat charcoal and rummaging through anything they found. One of the monkeys had lost a hand, only a bone stub remained. I shooed them off before they took all of the charcoal. We went down for dinner at the restaurant and enjoyed a nice meal. The guys got back from the cruise about 7ish, with Mark ralfing through the bar after having too much on the cruise; I think he had some potent drinks given to him to celebrate his upcoming birthday. After dinner we packed up most of our stuff and wrapped all our souvenirs to try to prevent any breakages.

 

 

2008-04-01

Summary

- Pack up

- Taxi to Livingstone airport; SAA flight late

- No ATMs in Johannesburg airport

- Flight to Cairo on EgyptAir

On Tuesday morning we had breakfast with most of the others form our group at 8am (with those who weren’t on activities already). We got our tour t-shirts and then packed up all our gear and took down our tent for the last time. We hung around chatting for a while until our taxi came at 11:30am. We farewelled everyone who was still left around, then got the taxi to Livingstone airport. We checked in at the airport, paid our departure taxes and then waited. Our flight at 1:15pm was delayed, the plane touched down about 1:25, so it took about another half hour until we started boarding… not that I was worried as we had 6.5 hours ahead of us waiting around at Johannesburg airport. The ‘lunch’ on the plane was the smallest lunch I have ever seen.

We got to Johannesburg just after 4pm. When we landed we transferred to a bus which took us to the airport terminal (a common happening on most of our flights). We lined up at the check-in desk but when we reached the front we were told that check-in for our flight did not open until 7pm. We thought we’d better change some money anyway since we required US$ for payment at the beginning of our Egypt tour. We queued at the Bureau Exchange but were told they could only get money out from a credit card; no way I’m paying for a cash advance. We looked for an ATM to get Rand out, which we could then exchange for US$. Nup… no ATM in the airport… unbelievable… I’d have thought an ATM would be the first thing you’d put in an airport terminal! We used the net for a while, then went back to check in. No queue, bonus. We asked for window seats away from the toilet. Back through security, we had dinner at one of the cafes/restaurants. We went and waited at our gate until boarding the plane at about 9:15pm; our flight departed on schedule at 9:45pm; the flight was pretty packed. No entertainment on board so the only option was to try to sleep.