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Published: December 30th 2006
Thanks everyone for your comments, and Best Bod, this is one trip I would not do as a class trip - you are so right! The after effects of the rafting are interesting, I can still hear the roaring of the water as I went under and also feel that frightening moment of not knowing whether to breath or not. Water rushed at me from all directions, even my eyes seemed to fill up at times! However, I am glad that I did it!
Boxing Day saw us up early for a trip to Botswana, to the Game Park at Chobe. We travelled in an overlanders lorry - a bright red lorry with lovely amount of glass window and leg space. The trip was free becaue we were cheeky enough to ask for a lift - a bit cheaper than $40 for a one way journey - Liz you would be proud of me!!
At the border we crossed the river by raft, they seem not to have changed much since the days when dad used one to cross the Kafue river. It held one lorry at a time and just a few cars with lots of foot passengers. The queue was tremendously long, but we jumped it and went straight on, more cheek!!
We booked into Chobe Safari Lodge for several nights. This is the largest Lodge I have stayed in, there were lots of people camping and many thatched lodges to rent - if you have the neccessary hundreds of dollars!
Botswana immediately struck us as very friendly, there was no hastling to buy anything, in fact I don't think we were approached once. Everything seemed more organised, the agriculture was organised - into obvious fields and crops of maize and bananas. There were far fewer of the little road side shacks that sold small amounts of veg and fruit. The houses were also more permanent, there were very few of the thatched wooden and mud rondels. We also saw lorries that belonged to the District Council at Kasane.
The very modern police station had an interesting relic from the past - their jail used to be in the base of a baobab tree, their offices were in another. We are talking immense tree trunks here with a diameter of about 2-3 metres. I don't know how 'safe' they were, but the idea is fun!
There were some lovely small shops there and thankfully another that made the wonderful mango shakes. Ohh I am going to miss those on my return!! We ate out and also lit our own fires to barbeque our food. The baboons attacked our tent once and stole our food - including some olives in a glass jar together with the red wine we were going to drink with them..... Hmmm. There were very evil thoughts floating in the air that day!!
We took a lovely trip down the river to see the wildlife, a peaceful river trip! The bird life was superb, many of them quite like to pose for visitors, especially the giant kingfisher. He is about 30cm long and has a tremendous beak for catching fish. There was a lovely pool there and so of course we spent quite some time around it. We also did an early morning driving safari and saw quite a lot of game. Still no lions, I think they hide in the undergrowth at this time of year!
Today we travelled back to Livingstone, by minibuses this time. I tried to get the first woman minibus driver I have seen, but she had another job on and organised a friend to drive us. The journey of about 70Km cost us approxiamtely 3 pounds in money. They really do use their buses out here.
The tent is pitched again, I am just going to have another swim and relax. Oh life can be so hard!!
Happy New Year everyone, we shall celebrate it here, Paul and Estelle return to the UK tomorrow then we travel on to Namibia after New Year's Day. More mini buses!!
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Tami
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Peace & Quiet
Have you ever seen the movie Romancing The Stone? This is the kind of atmosphere I am picturing you in. I can't imagine doing it myself. Have you bought any souvenirs?