Well, it appears that I have arrived back in civilization at last...gone are the drop toilets and red mud campsights. Welcome to clean, warm showers and nice grass to pitch the tents on. Actually there is still quite a bit of dust around and the random camp site with loads of ants that must be avoided (they bite). We spent five blissful days lazing around the town of Swakopmund (Swakop to those in the know) eating the most lovely game you could imagine. Had Kudu, Zebra, Springbock and my personal favorite, Oryx in a wine peppercorn sauce. It wasn't cheap by Namibian standards but by US standards we were getting a bloody good deal at around $10 for an appetizer and a huge piece of meat for the main. Swakopmund was just like being in a German seaside village - loads of good brown bread, sausages and weissbeer, which Jules and I managed to find and then consume loads of. On Thanksgiving, the two of us innocently stumbled upon the Brauhouse and thought, "gee, let's have a drink while we catch up in our journals". Four hours, four big HUGE weissbeers and a rump steak (each) later, we decided to consider ordering some apple strudel for dessert - that was until we saw the price of the beers and realized that they were $26 Nambian$ each (our rump steaks were the special of the day at $28 each). All we could do is laugh, comment on how fantastic the beer was (much better than the local stuff) and put it back into USD to realize the entire thing cost about $20USD each - not bad for a fab meal, four hours and great beer. Good way to celebrate Thanksgiving I think.
So after Swakop, we wandered on up to Etosha National Park (a little backwards in terms of travel as we are now heading back down). It is known for its fantastic night viewing at the wateringholes. We had one good watering hole night with two lionesses wandering around and drinking from the pool while the jackals ran around behind them and made whooping cries to warn the other animals. Nothing else came round that night, which really isn't all that suprising. The other two nights were fairly quiet with loads of springbock, frogs and a few wildebeest. The game drives were, again, fantastic. The scenery in the park is amazing with white salt pans in some areas and grassy plains in others (it is the beginning of the rainy season so a bit more green around than usual too). It was so beautiful to look at the zebra with the deep blue sky and white ground behing them. Loads of giraffe as well (always my fave). We saw another kill, a zebra this time, with about 9 lions eating off of it. Incredible as it was right on the side of the road. After that we stopped at a large watering hole and watched just about every animal you could imagine play in the water and roam the grasslands - we had lions, elephants, kudu, springbock, black faced impala, oryx and giraffe all in one go!
One baby elephant was having the time of his life playing with his trunk. It was like he had just discovered this thing hanging off of his face and was waving it around in the water and splashing everyone and running about with it flopping all of the place. I tried to capture the scene but well, couldn't quite get the camera to really get what I wanted...oh well.
Now we are off to Sesriem to do a bit more camping and climb up a massive dune for sunrise. Can't believe I only have two weeks left on the truck and then Jules and I are down the garden route for bit. Should be fun to see what mischief we can get up to.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
SPITZKOPPE and THE SKELETON COAST
The last two days before arriving here in Swakopmund were spent hiking in Spitzkoppe and camping on the beach at km 108 on the skeleton coast. Landscape here in Namibia on the coast is absolutely desolate. There is nothing out there and you can, even today, understand why it was such a terrible place for a ship to wreck. There is absolutely no drinkable water around and you are miles and miles and miles from any sort of civilization.
Spitzkoppe is an amazing rock cluster shooting out of the flat lands with some great rock climbing and hiking. Jules and I went on quite the venture and climbed up to a pace called Bushman’s Paradise at the top of the rocks. Not sure how much of a paradise I would have called it but I guess in the rainy season it could be quite lush and green in the little valley at the top of the hill. Here are a couple pixs of the rock and jules and I hanging out. Note the truck in the bottom right corner of the rock picture for a sense of scale.
Oh, also, you will have to drop down to the Mighty Zambezi section to read in order as I have posted this all in one go!
PS - that is jules in the photo w/me
PROMISE THEY WON’T EAT ME? – Cheetah Park
Never thought I’d be head butted by a cheetah, but well, I was…Now back in Namibia, we camped in a place near Etosha National Park, that is known for saving cheetahs from the hands of the farmers (they get killed for killing the cattle) and released back into a semi-wild setting where they are given hunks of meat but for the most part live as they would in the wild. They actually have two pens, one with three “tame” cheetahs and one with 18 wild cheetahs. Our visit to the tame cheetahs involved staying at least 2 meters away from them unless one of the family/owners was present and then we could pet them. The cheetahs seemed to know the drill and as soon as we entered the cage, which was actually just the fenced in area of the family’s front yard (a large one) they came purring on up and we crowded around. Only two showed up and apparently the third felt a little left out as he too decided to make his entrance by coming straight into the back of my legs, pushing them apart and walking right through. I think I was too in shock to really realize that I had a cheetah walking through my legs – it was just like an every day cat going for a stroll – well, one that was about 3 feet in height and with very sharp teeth. He didn’t seem to take much notice at all and tossed himself down next to the other two and began licking his owner’s hands. They did get a bit snappy toward the end after having several of us pet them and a few teeth were barred but no blood drawn. Someone had the bright idea of asking if the owners thought any of the three would kill them and the answer came back, “One, for sure would not, but the other two…who knows!” Glad we were out of the cage at that point.
Of course we also saw the wild cheetahs and did a feeding with them and they were spectacular. They make the strangest sound, like a cross between a purr and a bird trill, high and chirpy but with a deep throaty undertone. When we first entered the park, there was nothing and we were all looking out into the brush hoping for the first sign and before we knew it, they were coming out of every corner, loads of them walking down the road following the truck and coming for their nightly meal. Not sure what delicacies were tossed at them but they seemed to enjoy whatever it was and immediately jumped in. A few, probably the ones that ate well the night before, just paced around the truck and looked at us. Maybe they weren’t actually full but trying to figure out how to get us out of the truck for a fun little chase and feast. They still have all their instincts and are by no means tame as they had taken down and killed a Kudu the night before that had wandered a little too close to the fence – took down the fence too! In some ways, I think it is sad that they are not in the wild, but if they had stayed in the wild, they would have been dead already
THE BUSHMEN
The next day, it was off to visit the Bushmen. It all sounds quite exciting to head out into the bush and camp with a local tribe that uses the click language still but unfortunately I think there are very few of those left. In reality we turned off the main road at a sign posting that said “Come experience a living Bushman village – 6km” with an arrow. We bounced down the dirt and sand road for the 6km only to arrive at another sign posting that said “Wait for your guide here.” and had a list of activities that could be done while in the “bush”. We were greeted by two men and a woman wearing western clothes and told to wait. About 15 minutes later, the same three returned wearing various animal skins draped over their bodies and carrying bows, arrows and crudely fashioned axes. They then took us on a little tour of the bush and showed us the plants that they use for medicine and to eat. It was actually quite interesting but still felt very contrived given that after the tour of the bush, we were invited, for a $7 USD fee, to visit the “Nowadays Village”, which is really how they live. There was a selection of other activities we could watch them do (jewellery making, hunting, marriage ceremonies) that afternoon as well, but all with a fairly hefty price tag attached so we all opted to enjoy a lazy afternoon of relaxing.
Had a fun night of watching the bushmen dance, or really, watching them shake their butt cheeks at us – looked like Jello being furiously jiggled – and toasting marshmallows over the fire. Hoping to sleep under the stars that night, Jules (tent mate) and I fashioned a very crude cover out of tent poles and mosquito netting. Just our luck, it started to sprinkle around 3:00am and we were up, along with everyone else, sorting out how to stay dry. While the camp area rang with people hammering in pegs for their rain covers, Jules and I simply picked up our contraption and carried it under the awning pulled off of the truck that had been put up for shade earlier in the day and fell happily back to sleep.
BACK ON DRY LAND AND OFF TO THE BUSH
The next day, it was back to dry land through the same means as we arrived in the Delta, although reverse order (obviously). Back in our camp, we were treated to an amazing local dinner – a stew cooked in a big cast iron, pot bellied pot type thing with potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice and veggies – and dancing by the locals. The dancing was a bit awkward. Basically, the entire town turned our, babies included, with a couple of drunk buddies on the drums who pounded away while the women folk, and a few courageous men, danced out two by two and did a little shake. One was apparently so excited to come out and do the dancing that she forgot to take her blue rollers our of her hair.
All cozy in our little tents, we had quite a surprise that night when we felt drops coming through our back screen and moments later a flash of lightening following by thunder. It took a few seconds to click and then Jules and I were up and out hammering down the fly sheet in an effort to keep dry. This, of course, was also the night following a big laundry day and as we climbed back into the tent, we though, hmmm, might want to get the laundry down, and off we stumbled to retrieve our clothes before they received a second washing. Didn’t help much that my glasses were back in the tent and after walking about 30 feet it clicked that well, I could not see much of anything but large objects, one of which could very likely be one of the hippos that wandered through the camp on a regular basis. The thunder was one of the most amazing things I think I have ever heard. It really was “rolling thunder” and started way off in the distance slowly getting louder until it sounded like it was right on top of the tents. Now it is easy to understand how someone came up with that description.
All cozy in our little tents, we had quite a surprise that night when we felt drops coming through our back screen and moments later a flash of lightening following by thunder. It took a few seconds to click and then Jules and I were up and out hammering down the fly sheet in an effort to keep dry. This, of course, was also the night following a big laundry day and as we climbed back into the tent, we though, hmmm, might want to get the laundry down, and off we stumbled to retrieve our clothes before they received a second washing. Didn’t help much that my glasses were back in the tent and after walking about 30 feet it clicked that well, I could not see much of anything but large objects, one of which could very likely be one of the hippos that wandered through the camp on a regular basis. The thunder was one of the most amazing things I think I have ever heard. It really was “rolling thunder” and started way off in the distance slowly getting louder until it sounded like it was right on top of the tents. Now it is easy to understand how someone came up with that description.
TRUCKS, SPEEDBOATS, POLERS AND BACK
We departed Chobe and headed back into Namibia and down the Caprivi Strip, which is now quite safe but only four years ago was considered quite a war zone with mines on the side of the road (don’t stop and go for a pee too far off the side) and possibly buried in the elephant dung on the road. Once through the strip, we headed back into Botswana to go to the Okavango Delta. We started our little adventure early in the morning and boarded a large lorry that was kitted out with bench seats in the back and a tarp like cover to kept he sun off. We took this truck from the camp site, across the boarder and into Botswana. From there, we drove out into a very desolate area where we finally stopped at a camp site/hostel on a river. Here we boarded a flat bottomed speed boat similar to what you would find in the swamp areas of Florida and bounced around on that out into the various channels of the delta. It was absolutely fantastic ploughing through these channels with walls of papyrus on either side so dense that there was nothing to see beyond them but more green and more papyrus. The channels were often narrow and twisty and we wound our way around for an hour and a half until we reached a house boat. For all I know, they drove around in circles and dumped us at a house boat 500 yards from the camp. Can’t quite figure out how and when they knew to take each various channel. Saw loads of Fish Eagles (phenomenal bird) and herons and other smaller birds as well as a number of crocs lazing in the sand. Once at the house boat, we settled into our little cabins for an evening of relaxation. When I say “little” cabins, I truly mean LITTLE – there was about six inches between the narrow beds and about a foot at the end of them for our stuff. One wall was a sliding glass door and windows so we looked right out onto the channel. Personally, I was just thrilled to have a proper pillow and pillow case as I have been using a pillow from United’s business class for the past 10 weeks (not that it is bad but hell, double the size doesn’t hurt!). Before completely settling in, we went for a nice sunset cruise through more channels of papyrus and enjoyed a very decent bottle of wine and watched several more fish eagles take flight. All sorts of birds were perched in the reeds and various trees we passed and as we went by, they scattered about, littering the sky with their bodies and calls to each other. Had a fantastic pasta dinner out on the deck with gas lamps and looked up at the stars, which were uninterrupted by the usual lights from various human buildings. I don’t think I have even seen stars reflect off of water and it was one of the most gorgeous things. The river was flowing by quite quickly (with occasionally crocs) and the stars lights rippled in the gentle currents. We couldn’t even pick out Orion very well as there were too many stars in sky to find it. Words cannot describe how lovely it was. Then again, most nights out here have been quite lovely in regards to clear sky and unbelievable star gazing. Slept like a babe that night with the sliding door and windows open, a nice breeze coming through and mosquito nets protecting us from the incessant buzzing of those little buggers that never seem to sleep.
The next day, we again boarded our flat bottomed speed boats and headed off to a little land strip somewhere along the delta. From there, we boarded another open topped, flat bed, bench seated safari type jeep and were taken across a very bumpy road and through a small mud and stick hut town to the edge of another swamp/river area. Here we boarded canoe type boats known as Mokoro (Mekoro if it is plural). Traditionally, these boats were made from the trunks of sausage or ebony trees but because of population growth and the ability for these trees to grow back quickly enough, they have switched to using fibreglass Mekoro fashioned in the exact shape of the tree truck ones. It felt a bit Disneylandesque as we were ushered into our various Mekoro and introduced to the man (Poler), for they are all men, who would be pushing us through the swampy reeds. Jules and my Poler’s name was Pointer (still not sure where they come up with these names). Pointer was a fairly short, sinewy young man with a broad flat nose and flared nostrils, shiny eyes and a lovely faded burgundy women’s velvet hat (including small bow). I must say, at this point, that some of the clothes they manage to find and wear are more than interesting. I think the entire world’s hideously outdated and never to be worn again clothing gets shipped to Africa. It is not uncommon to see a woman walking down the street in the middle of the day going about her shopping errands with a basket of something on her head in a pale pink satin (cheap type) slip dress with yellow plastic shoes or silk, sparkly evening blouse with an African print cloth wrapped around her waist as a skirt. And, clearly, as you can see from above, it is also not uncommon for a man to show up in a ladies hat, or even shirt for that matter. Well, after that rather large tangent, I shall return to Pointer and his poling prowess as we moved through the reedy channels of the swamp. Once settled into our fairly unstable feeling Mekoro and our seats of old school chairs with the legs cut off, Pointer pushed us off shore. Pointer’s role, as a Poler, is to power and steer the boat. He does this by standing in the very back of the boat and pushing us along with a 7+ foot stick with a fork in the bottom. The fork helps to keep the pole steady if there are lots of sticks and things at the bottom that the pole would otherwise slid off.
After a short 10 minute pole through the reed channels, which seemed to be getting smaller and narrower as we went, we arrived at our next camp on an island type area. The camp was quite charming – everything was open roofed and enclosed only by bamboo walls. The bathroom was an enormous open area with showers and sinks placed amongst the tree trunks, using limbs as holders for the towels or shower heads. We were each given cabin tents with cots tucked back behind bamboo walls for privacy. Once settled we headed back out for a tour of the area in our Mekoro. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon laughing and joking with each other as we were pushed by our Polers through the lilies, which were EVERYWHERE, and papyrus. Loads of birds flying about and calling to each other, my favourite is called the Go-Away bird because when he called is sounds like “Blaaaahhhh” and is quite funny, and of course, the ever present hippos.
These hippos though, were particularly amusing, enclosed in their small pool in the middle of the reeds, popping up and down, blowing water at as and eyeing us sceptically unsure if this should advance and scare us off or if we were OK and could stay a bit longer. They would pop up one or two at a time, make a big show of blowing water, twitch their ears, eye us and then go down with an equally loud gurgle only to come up again a minute or so later as if to say, “Are you still here?” It is quite a different feeling to be in a small boat next to them than it is in the larger safari boats, or even the canoes we had on the Upper Zambezi. This time we had no motor or swift wide river to help get us away.
MORE ELEPHANTS AND HIPPOS
My body happy and healthy again after a few days of uncertainty, we arrived at a camp just outside Chobe National Park in Botswana. Did a game drive in the morning and a boat/river safari in the evening and yes, as you can see by the title, saw many more elephants and hippos. The morning drive was fairly tame – one leopard in a tree, a handful of Kudu, loads of elephants, a lioness sleeping under a tree, and, oddly enough, a hippo sleeping under a tree (he didn’t look too happy and was very much so out of his element). The elephants were hilarious as there were several young that kept running out across the road and the larger mothers would dash (can an elephant dash? I think probably not, so lets say saunter at a very fast pace) out into the road, look at us and flap their ears. One mid size one even came out into the road, made a little song and dance of it while the baby jogged across behind him and into the bush. Once the baby was clear, he carried on and let us pass through. Thus far, this was probably the least eventful drive we had but does one ever tire of looking at elephants? Not yet for me….The evening’s events were comprised of a sunset cruise down the river back into the park. Tons of hippos were playing about in the water and mock fighting as well as grunting and laughing at us. A couple of them even took on the challenge of chasing us off, which I found quite humorous as we were thousands of times bigger than them. However, it is quite an amazing sight to see hippos launch themselves out of the water with great force and charge at you while grunting and carrying on. I am sure that in their little minds, they were quite positive that they were chasing us off rather than us already heading off.
Had a bit of an issue the next morning when the septic tank decided to overflow and run into our camp site. Jules (Sus, my previous tent mate left after Vic Falls) and I were in a somewhat safe zone but decided it was a good move to pick up the tent and move it elsewhere in case the issue got worse. Not a pretty smell and certainly not a nice thing to have running under the tent. Funny thing was, later in the day, another overland truck came through and camped right on the nasty sewage run off (smell had gone by then) and apparently didn’t care even after we told them.
Had a bit of an issue the next morning when the septic tank decided to overflow and run into our camp site. Jules (Sus, my previous tent mate left after Vic Falls) and I were in a somewhat safe zone but decided it was a good move to pick up the tent and move it elsewhere in case the issue got worse. Not a pretty smell and certainly not a nice thing to have running under the tent. Funny thing was, later in the day, another overland truck came through and camped right on the nasty sewage run off (smell had gone by then) and apparently didn’t care even after we told them.
THE MIGHTY ZAMBEZI
Wow, what a river! Brilliant rapids as well as fab names for the rapids such as Oblivion, Terminator, Seventh Heaven and Devil’s Toilet Bowl to name a few. Most were class 4 and 5 but there were a few class 3 rapids, which seemed to be tacked on to the larger rapids as 11a, 11b and 11c if you looked at them from a number standpoint. Given that, I have no idea exactly how many rapids we did go over but the official number was 21 in a 28 km stretch of the river. After walking a very broken stairwell and slippery rock face down into the canyon, we put in just at the end of Victoria Falls. The falls are low this time of year so it makes it possible, otherwise we would have missed rapids #1-4. For the most part, we stayed in the boat and only flipped once. Thankfully the one flip we did was not in the Devil’s Toilet Bowl as it really did earn the name, which supposedly was from the whirlpool in the middle that sucked people under for a bit and then spat them out, but in reality, I believe it was from the nasty stench in the pooling water off to the right at the end of the rapid. Everything that had come down the river seemed to have pooled there. Our one flip was, of course, incredibly gracefully – Renee, who was up in front, toppled back into me, smacking me in the mouth and dumping me into Todd, who fell out with the two of us right on top of him. Renee and Todd managed to clear the boat while, after three attempts, I still found myself under the boat in a gurgling, foaming dark cave. It did get a bit unnerving after coming up the third time and not quite knowing when to open my mouth, getting half water and half air and discovering that I was still under the darn boat. Thankfully I have a well rafted father who was good enough to take me on several trips with him, so I kept my wits about me, continued to reach for the rope and pulled myself out and clear. Ahh, fresh air never felt so good, well, maybe it did after I had jumped my 70 meters into the gorge and realized that the rope was still holding me. To top it all off, we saw several crocs hanging out on the rocks as we rafted by so you felt none too safe just hanging out in the water. Story is that these crocs fall off of the falls at a very young age, survive the massive fall, rocks and churning water at the base of the falls and then end up pushed down river a bit where they survive on smaller fish and don’t quite grow up enough to bother with us humans. They really didn’t look that big so we all comforted ourselves with that story – what do we know anyway? Supposedly there has only ever been one death off of Vic Falls as well but each story I heard was different so that pretty much gives it away that there has definitely been more than one. We finished the day with a very healthy (read strenuous) hike back out of the gorge, beers, sodas and an awfully chilly ride back to Vic Falls in an open top safari truck. Needless to say my body was less than thrilled with me after the adrenaline rushing gorge swing jumps and a day of being tossed about a river followed by a cold, wet, ride back to town.
Had phenomenal rain showers and thunder storms that night and we all cowered in various people’s rooms, the bar or the truck until it passed. So with the nice fresh crispness of the rain still hanging in the air, I turned in early to let my poor body repair itself with a good nights sleep.
Had phenomenal rain showers and thunder storms that night and we all cowered in various people’s rooms, the bar or the truck until it passed. So with the nice fresh crispness of the rain still hanging in the air, I turned in early to let my poor body repair itself with a good nights sleep.
Friday, November 17, 2006
back from bush
just back from the bush and a camp in Okavango Delta, which was fab but which I will have to tell you all about when I have more than 15 minutes...though I would post a fun photo...
lv.steph
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
BIG FAT UPDATE
Address: #1 ENRIQUE, PIECE OF GRASS, SOMWHERE IN AFRICA
So, here we are again…I have a few minutes and a loaner computer so thought I would jot down a little note. I realize I have said very little to nothing at all about my day to day life here but have loaded up with all the fun stuff I am doing. Guess that is because most of what is going on is quite fun and exciting and even the little day to day stuff that goes on can be amusing. We have had a load of really early starts and by early morning, I mean 5:00am or 5:30am breakfast and 6:00am departures. Often it is for fun stuff like safaris balloon rides or early ferries to places like Zanzibar but that is not to say that we have not had our share of getting up early for long drive days that involve boarders that may or may not be difficult. In these cases, we are in the truck for around 14 hours and eat lunch while driving. Boarders thus far have been a breeze and no one has been arrested or thrown out (yet) – just the usual waiting in line, passing a few pleasantries with the attendant and then getting a stamp, often on page 36 when there is plenty of open space on several pages well before page 36.
Home is a little green military looking tent (Enrique) and Claudia (truck) and whatever flat spot we can find at our camp site to pitch the tent. My roommate, Susanna (Sus), and I share the tent and have plenty of space to spread out and poke each other in the middle of the night should either of us require a bathroom break when bush camping with the lions, leopards and hyena. The one time I did have to wake her up, we scoped out the area, scanned the tall grass behind the tent with the flashlight and well, shortly after returning to the tent, a hyena came and marked his territory right where I did. Chook and Colleen, our tent neighbors that night figured that it has started raining until they herd the sniffing around of the hyena. Last night we had an elephant stroll through the camp. Never managed to see him but certainly herd his footsteps, sniffing and munching on the trees. Sus swears she saw little beady eyes in the dark.
We have divided the 19 people on the truck into cook groups and we rotate through the groups so that each group has a day cooking. This basically means we help our cook with the cutting up of fruits and veggies and whatever other prep work he needs done and then that we help with all the pots and pans and putting away of condiments at the end of the evening. We are pretty particular about getting everything put away at night so that baboons, monkeys, hyenas, elephants etc. etc. don’t come and raid the food and garbage, although this has happened one or twice. Each person does his/her own dish and then after, we all do what is calling ‘flapping’ where we wave our plates, bowls, knives, forks and spoons wildly in the air to help them dry faster. I am sure some of us have lifted off a bit during one of the flapping frenzies. As we have come south, the time required to dry the plate has shortened considerably. We do get quite a few stares though as 19 of us stand there waving blue, orange, and white plates about in the sun and occasionally throw in a few lunges or bird type flaps instead of waving back and forth.
On the road, toilets are al fresco and often on the side of the road. I am surprised no one has taken a picture of us girls lined up behind the truck when we have to stop in areas with no bushes. It is probably a good thing that the locals don’t own cameras cause they are certainly interested in what us crazy mzungu are doing and tend to appear out of nowhere. We can literally stop in the middle of nowhere for lunch or a break – no homes, no people, long stretch of road ahead and behind and within two minutes of us getting off the truck we have an audience. They just seem to ooze out of the shrubs and trees wherever we stop. The most unnerving part about it all is that they just seem to sit there are stare at us and not say anything or ask for anything or want to interact in any way. Guess that is how the animals in the parks feel as we all come barrelling down on them in our safari trucks.
Evenings are often spent having beers, tea and whatever else is around in the camp site if we are in the bush (under the stars of course) or in the local camp bars, which thus far have been quite fun as we get a chance to talk to other overland groups that pass through. Meals have been quite good and tasty, although not good for the waist line as I am doing very little exercise. Breakfasts consist of bacon, eggs, toast, cereal, fruit and yogurt (obviously you don’t have to eat it all). Lunch is often sandwiches, which means it will be a VERY long time before I will want to have another sandwich. The meat product is often quite suspect but hell, it tastes OK and hasn’t gotten anyone sick yet so I’ll continue to eat it. Recently we have had a lot of leftovers for lunch, which means we make up pasta salads with the dressing and spaghetti Bolognese sandwiches. Dinner is often soup, followed by chicken or beef and loads of veggies, which we all love. Our chef, Charles, is quite capable and does wonders with the veggies on our little two burner propane stove.
So, there is the mundane piece of my life, now on to something a little more exciting for next time.
MAS ANIMALES – SOUTH LUANGWA NATINOAL PARK
When I last left you I believe I was in Malawi at the lake and desperately avoiding the bilharzia. From there, we moved into Zambia and went on the South Luangwa National Park to stay at a wilderness camp on one of the oxbows of the currently very dry river. It was fantastic! The camp site was wonderful, the pool, while small, quite refreshing and with a view out over the river and the bar facing out toward the river for some excellent wildlife viewings. We did a couple of game drives there, one in the morning and one in the evening. The morning drive was quite good as we saw a couple of lions having their breakfast on the beach by the river – buffalo this time – again, lovely crunching and cracking sounds as he attempted to dislocate and gnaw off the from leg of the beat. Of course we had to watch for a bit. At one point someone banged something and the lion looked up at us, face all red, just like he had done a poor job of applying lipstick that morning before heading out for the day. Not sure why we have not seen many lionesses with the kills. The night drive was focused a bit on finding a leopard as they are more nocturnal. A tour of the park brought us to about 100 elephants milling about in the open grassland and blocking our path up the road. Two little babies were having a go at attacking each other, head-butting at full charge to see who could knock who off their feet. It was gorgeous to just watch them wandering about and putting at the trees. We had a lovely sundowner on a bank above an open area and watched more elephants, giraffe and zebra while we drank ice cold beers and sodas and then started off into the night to find out leopard. Very strange feeling to be driving around in the dark, the spotlight the only thing shining ahead and dust swirling about the open top truck. We did find two leopards but to me, it was quite a sad and shocking experience. At one point we had one of them completely surrounded by trucks and lights and he couldn’t quite figure out which way to go. Many of the drivers were speeding around to get their clients a better look and in doing so scaring the leopards and also probably their prey. I wish we could have just sat and watched which really is what we were supposed to do. Our driver said that he was going to report a couple of the other drivers as they are told not to do that and all have guiding licences that can be revoked for poor behaviour. On the way out of the park we came across a sick lioness sitting in the middle of the road. She didn’t even move when the truck came up and we parked right along side of her. I could have reached down (it was quite an open truck) and patted her on the head, which I would have quite liked to do but would most likely have lost a hand in doing. When she looked up, my soul just ached. Her eyes had such sorrow and intelligence in them. I will never forget her face looking up and also the fear that at any moment she could decide to move and go for one of us.
We have pretty much all rated this camp as our best camp since we had elephants come for a visit two of the three nights – and by visit, I mean walking right outside and sniffing at our tents – a couple of great safaris, fantastic viewing bar and a last night when an assortment of animals decided to come of a visit at the watering holes – hippos, elephants, impala and giraffes.
TEA WITH ELEPHANTS
After S.Luangwa we headed on our way to the Kafue River where we would stop for a canoe trip down the Lower Zambezi River. On the way, however, Claudia decided to throw a few fits and this time, quite a large one. After two leaky tires in the morning we finally got on the road and were well on our way when BANG, hmmm, that didn’t sound good, lets pull over…ugh…broken axel….everybody off, lunch here! We spent about four hours on the side of a very inhospitable road, cowering in whatever shade we could while Jase and Lucy worked out what our next steps should be. Turns out we were basically sitting in a graveyard of overturned truck and on a runaway ditch so not only were we in bad shape with the truck, we were in bad shape for our safety. Jase went off to arrange transport and by 5:00 in the evening we were loaded into a flat bed lorry and taken the remaining two hours on to our camp for the canoe trip. We were up early the next morning and got ready to braver the croc and hippo infested waters. As it was two night and three days of camping we were all quite loaded down and low to the water, which is a bit discomforting considering the stories we had heard about people being pulled out of their canoes by a croc because they had an elbow hanging out. It was a beautiful three days and the big bonus was that no one was eaten by a croc or tipped by a hippo! We even got in a bit of swimming. In one place we had just passed a croc an then the guide said, OK, we stop here for a little splash. We all thought he was crazy but jumped in anyway and had a lovely time playing in the water and cooling down. There were tons of hippos about (which in my book is better than a croc) and you could look down the river and see elephants drinking and splashing about. In fact, we had lunch with about 40 elephants. Here we were happily preparing lunch and napping on the river bank when a row of elephants wandered through. We got a thorough checking out and then on they went. About two seconds later, another group came wandering through, checked us out and kept going. This went on for about 30 minutes and we all just stood there thinking, aren’t these guys a little too close? It was especially freaky when a couple big guys (or gals) stopped, looked, flapped their ears forward and took a step in our direction. Hmmmm, run into the water and brave the crocs and hippos or brave the elephant? Not sure which is the better choice…however, they kept going and all splashed off into the water and across the channel to the other side. It was quite a site watching 40 elephants climb down the banks and then wade across, their bodies gleaming.
At night we camped on the islands in the center of the river and listened to the hippos call back and forth to each other. They sound like they are right on top of you even though they are way down river. They grunted at us during the day as well, especially if we got a little too close. Maybe they are just laughing at us for being silly and canoeing down the river when it is so much nicer just to laze about in the river.
FREE FALL DOWN A GORGE 70 METERS? ARE YOU CRAZY?
In Vic Falls now after having a successful canoe trip with all limbs intact and Claudie fixed and ready to go again. We are here for a few days and a bit of adrenaline as they offer all sorts of crazy blood pumping activities. I am opting to do the rafting (have to see which one is better – the Nile or the Zambezi) and just did the Gorge Swing. I still can’t believe that just this morning I was jumping off of a 120 meter cliff down a gorge just below Victoria Falls with nothing but a couple of climbing harnesses on and two climbing ropes attached to me (70 meters is free fall). In fact, I did it three times and every time I screamed like you would not believe. On the first one I did a hand stand off, the second one I just jumped (called a pin drop) and the third one I decided to go off backwards. Falling off backwards was definitely the hardest one to start off with as you don’t trust just falling back off a ledge but the front forward really got me to let out a blood curdling scream. About ¾ of the way down you start to think (OK well you aren’t really thinking but your body sure as hell reacts) that the rope hasn’t caught yet and you are falling straight down into some nice big black rocks with no hope of even trying to hit the water (not that that would be much better if you did hit the water). I started off with a nice yell and as I kept falling and falling and falling my scream got more and more panicked, then the rope caught and I swung out over the water laughing and screaming “that was amazing!” And, it truly was. I think now I am ok with the sensation and won’t need to add a bungy jump or any other nutty fall to my list of activities, although some of my group swears they are going to get me sky diving in Namibia over the desert. It was fun watching the people jump as well, especially their facial expressions. They would start off with a look of absolute horror and within a couple of seconds (it was on 4 seconds to the bottom) be laughing and smiling and screaming with joy. There was lots of whooping and quite a few “Oh Shits” as people went crashing down.
The backward one was definitely my favourite as you get a better swing out of it at the end. All in all a fantastic morning and I am ready for a nap – too much excitement for my poor little body!
Tomorrow I am off for the rafting – something like 23 rapids of class 4 & 5. Should be a good day!
So, here we are again…I have a few minutes and a loaner computer so thought I would jot down a little note. I realize I have said very little to nothing at all about my day to day life here but have loaded up with all the fun stuff I am doing. Guess that is because most of what is going on is quite fun and exciting and even the little day to day stuff that goes on can be amusing. We have had a load of really early starts and by early morning, I mean 5:00am or 5:30am breakfast and 6:00am departures. Often it is for fun stuff like safaris balloon rides or early ferries to places like Zanzibar but that is not to say that we have not had our share of getting up early for long drive days that involve boarders that may or may not be difficult. In these cases, we are in the truck for around 14 hours and eat lunch while driving. Boarders thus far have been a breeze and no one has been arrested or thrown out (yet) – just the usual waiting in line, passing a few pleasantries with the attendant and then getting a stamp, often on page 36 when there is plenty of open space on several pages well before page 36.
Home is a little green military looking tent (Enrique) and Claudia (truck) and whatever flat spot we can find at our camp site to pitch the tent. My roommate, Susanna (Sus), and I share the tent and have plenty of space to spread out and poke each other in the middle of the night should either of us require a bathroom break when bush camping with the lions, leopards and hyena. The one time I did have to wake her up, we scoped out the area, scanned the tall grass behind the tent with the flashlight and well, shortly after returning to the tent, a hyena came and marked his territory right where I did. Chook and Colleen, our tent neighbors that night figured that it has started raining until they herd the sniffing around of the hyena. Last night we had an elephant stroll through the camp. Never managed to see him but certainly herd his footsteps, sniffing and munching on the trees. Sus swears she saw little beady eyes in the dark.
We have divided the 19 people on the truck into cook groups and we rotate through the groups so that each group has a day cooking. This basically means we help our cook with the cutting up of fruits and veggies and whatever other prep work he needs done and then that we help with all the pots and pans and putting away of condiments at the end of the evening. We are pretty particular about getting everything put away at night so that baboons, monkeys, hyenas, elephants etc. etc. don’t come and raid the food and garbage, although this has happened one or twice. Each person does his/her own dish and then after, we all do what is calling ‘flapping’ where we wave our plates, bowls, knives, forks and spoons wildly in the air to help them dry faster. I am sure some of us have lifted off a bit during one of the flapping frenzies. As we have come south, the time required to dry the plate has shortened considerably. We do get quite a few stares though as 19 of us stand there waving blue, orange, and white plates about in the sun and occasionally throw in a few lunges or bird type flaps instead of waving back and forth.
On the road, toilets are al fresco and often on the side of the road. I am surprised no one has taken a picture of us girls lined up behind the truck when we have to stop in areas with no bushes. It is probably a good thing that the locals don’t own cameras cause they are certainly interested in what us crazy mzungu are doing and tend to appear out of nowhere. We can literally stop in the middle of nowhere for lunch or a break – no homes, no people, long stretch of road ahead and behind and within two minutes of us getting off the truck we have an audience. They just seem to ooze out of the shrubs and trees wherever we stop. The most unnerving part about it all is that they just seem to sit there are stare at us and not say anything or ask for anything or want to interact in any way. Guess that is how the animals in the parks feel as we all come barrelling down on them in our safari trucks.
Evenings are often spent having beers, tea and whatever else is around in the camp site if we are in the bush (under the stars of course) or in the local camp bars, which thus far have been quite fun as we get a chance to talk to other overland groups that pass through. Meals have been quite good and tasty, although not good for the waist line as I am doing very little exercise. Breakfasts consist of bacon, eggs, toast, cereal, fruit and yogurt (obviously you don’t have to eat it all). Lunch is often sandwiches, which means it will be a VERY long time before I will want to have another sandwich. The meat product is often quite suspect but hell, it tastes OK and hasn’t gotten anyone sick yet so I’ll continue to eat it. Recently we have had a lot of leftovers for lunch, which means we make up pasta salads with the dressing and spaghetti Bolognese sandwiches. Dinner is often soup, followed by chicken or beef and loads of veggies, which we all love. Our chef, Charles, is quite capable and does wonders with the veggies on our little two burner propane stove.
So, there is the mundane piece of my life, now on to something a little more exciting for next time.
MAS ANIMALES – SOUTH LUANGWA NATINOAL PARK
When I last left you I believe I was in Malawi at the lake and desperately avoiding the bilharzia. From there, we moved into Zambia and went on the South Luangwa National Park to stay at a wilderness camp on one of the oxbows of the currently very dry river. It was fantastic! The camp site was wonderful, the pool, while small, quite refreshing and with a view out over the river and the bar facing out toward the river for some excellent wildlife viewings. We did a couple of game drives there, one in the morning and one in the evening. The morning drive was quite good as we saw a couple of lions having their breakfast on the beach by the river – buffalo this time – again, lovely crunching and cracking sounds as he attempted to dislocate and gnaw off the from leg of the beat. Of course we had to watch for a bit. At one point someone banged something and the lion looked up at us, face all red, just like he had done a poor job of applying lipstick that morning before heading out for the day. Not sure why we have not seen many lionesses with the kills. The night drive was focused a bit on finding a leopard as they are more nocturnal. A tour of the park brought us to about 100 elephants milling about in the open grassland and blocking our path up the road. Two little babies were having a go at attacking each other, head-butting at full charge to see who could knock who off their feet. It was gorgeous to just watch them wandering about and putting at the trees. We had a lovely sundowner on a bank above an open area and watched more elephants, giraffe and zebra while we drank ice cold beers and sodas and then started off into the night to find out leopard. Very strange feeling to be driving around in the dark, the spotlight the only thing shining ahead and dust swirling about the open top truck. We did find two leopards but to me, it was quite a sad and shocking experience. At one point we had one of them completely surrounded by trucks and lights and he couldn’t quite figure out which way to go. Many of the drivers were speeding around to get their clients a better look and in doing so scaring the leopards and also probably their prey. I wish we could have just sat and watched which really is what we were supposed to do. Our driver said that he was going to report a couple of the other drivers as they are told not to do that and all have guiding licences that can be revoked for poor behaviour. On the way out of the park we came across a sick lioness sitting in the middle of the road. She didn’t even move when the truck came up and we parked right along side of her. I could have reached down (it was quite an open truck) and patted her on the head, which I would have quite liked to do but would most likely have lost a hand in doing. When she looked up, my soul just ached. Her eyes had such sorrow and intelligence in them. I will never forget her face looking up and also the fear that at any moment she could decide to move and go for one of us.
We have pretty much all rated this camp as our best camp since we had elephants come for a visit two of the three nights – and by visit, I mean walking right outside and sniffing at our tents – a couple of great safaris, fantastic viewing bar and a last night when an assortment of animals decided to come of a visit at the watering holes – hippos, elephants, impala and giraffes.
TEA WITH ELEPHANTS
After S.Luangwa we headed on our way to the Kafue River where we would stop for a canoe trip down the Lower Zambezi River. On the way, however, Claudia decided to throw a few fits and this time, quite a large one. After two leaky tires in the morning we finally got on the road and were well on our way when BANG, hmmm, that didn’t sound good, lets pull over…ugh…broken axel….everybody off, lunch here! We spent about four hours on the side of a very inhospitable road, cowering in whatever shade we could while Jase and Lucy worked out what our next steps should be. Turns out we were basically sitting in a graveyard of overturned truck and on a runaway ditch so not only were we in bad shape with the truck, we were in bad shape for our safety. Jase went off to arrange transport and by 5:00 in the evening we were loaded into a flat bed lorry and taken the remaining two hours on to our camp for the canoe trip. We were up early the next morning and got ready to braver the croc and hippo infested waters. As it was two night and three days of camping we were all quite loaded down and low to the water, which is a bit discomforting considering the stories we had heard about people being pulled out of their canoes by a croc because they had an elbow hanging out. It was a beautiful three days and the big bonus was that no one was eaten by a croc or tipped by a hippo! We even got in a bit of swimming. In one place we had just passed a croc an then the guide said, OK, we stop here for a little splash. We all thought he was crazy but jumped in anyway and had a lovely time playing in the water and cooling down. There were tons of hippos about (which in my book is better than a croc) and you could look down the river and see elephants drinking and splashing about. In fact, we had lunch with about 40 elephants. Here we were happily preparing lunch and napping on the river bank when a row of elephants wandered through. We got a thorough checking out and then on they went. About two seconds later, another group came wandering through, checked us out and kept going. This went on for about 30 minutes and we all just stood there thinking, aren’t these guys a little too close? It was especially freaky when a couple big guys (or gals) stopped, looked, flapped their ears forward and took a step in our direction. Hmmmm, run into the water and brave the crocs and hippos or brave the elephant? Not sure which is the better choice…however, they kept going and all splashed off into the water and across the channel to the other side. It was quite a site watching 40 elephants climb down the banks and then wade across, their bodies gleaming.
At night we camped on the islands in the center of the river and listened to the hippos call back and forth to each other. They sound like they are right on top of you even though they are way down river. They grunted at us during the day as well, especially if we got a little too close. Maybe they are just laughing at us for being silly and canoeing down the river when it is so much nicer just to laze about in the river.
FREE FALL DOWN A GORGE 70 METERS? ARE YOU CRAZY?
In Vic Falls now after having a successful canoe trip with all limbs intact and Claudie fixed and ready to go again. We are here for a few days and a bit of adrenaline as they offer all sorts of crazy blood pumping activities. I am opting to do the rafting (have to see which one is better – the Nile or the Zambezi) and just did the Gorge Swing. I still can’t believe that just this morning I was jumping off of a 120 meter cliff down a gorge just below Victoria Falls with nothing but a couple of climbing harnesses on and two climbing ropes attached to me (70 meters is free fall). In fact, I did it three times and every time I screamed like you would not believe. On the first one I did a hand stand off, the second one I just jumped (called a pin drop) and the third one I decided to go off backwards. Falling off backwards was definitely the hardest one to start off with as you don’t trust just falling back off a ledge but the front forward really got me to let out a blood curdling scream. About ¾ of the way down you start to think (OK well you aren’t really thinking but your body sure as hell reacts) that the rope hasn’t caught yet and you are falling straight down into some nice big black rocks with no hope of even trying to hit the water (not that that would be much better if you did hit the water). I started off with a nice yell and as I kept falling and falling and falling my scream got more and more panicked, then the rope caught and I swung out over the water laughing and screaming “that was amazing!” And, it truly was. I think now I am ok with the sensation and won’t need to add a bungy jump or any other nutty fall to my list of activities, although some of my group swears they are going to get me sky diving in Namibia over the desert. It was fun watching the people jump as well, especially their facial expressions. They would start off with a look of absolute horror and within a couple of seconds (it was on 4 seconds to the bottom) be laughing and smiling and screaming with joy. There was lots of whooping and quite a few “Oh Shits” as people went crashing down.
The backward one was definitely my favourite as you get a better swing out of it at the end. All in all a fantastic morning and I am ready for a nap – too much excitement for my poor little body!
Tomorrow I am off for the rafting – something like 23 rapids of class 4 & 5. Should be a good day!
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