Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 15

“The journey not the arrival matters” T.S.Eliot(seems he might have been bitten by the travel as well as writing bug?).Now there is always something exhilarating about setting off on a new leg of a journey.There is the element of the unknown,new countryside to cast an eye over and who knows what awaits at the destination.But before getting anywhere in this World there is the little challenge of negotiating border posts.At the Mahembo border post we were effectively leaving Namibia behind and entering Botswana.This is probably the least busy border post anywhere on the planet and probably explains the friendly reception and hassle free stamping of passports and processing of bits of paper we experienced.An observation….the Botswana border posts are an absolute delight.They are clean,efficient and manned by friendly people who are genuinely excited to see people ... read more

Due to camera memory card issues I'm unable to load any photos. In the knowledge that people don't really want to be reading pages of solid prose I shall keep this blog posting short and succinct. Needless to say, however, lots has happened: I now have a bleached afro and no bike. I set out from Lilongwe with three of the lads and we had some really good days of cycling including my longest of the trip which was 130km in one day. Once in Zambia we did a good bit of camping and I really began to enjoy the routine of getting up early, cycling, eating and sleeping. In fact, one of the things I really noticed about the cycling was the appetite I developed. I was always hungry and always felt the need to ... read more

May 31st The temperatures are dropping each morning we head south, and this particular morning was one of the first that I actually noticed and heeded to the cold. It was also this morning that we had seven new faces added to the trip to Cape Town. There were three couples joining us down, firstly is Bridget and Paul, she’s from South Africa and he’s from New Zealand. They have a friend traveling with them and he is half English and half Welsh, hence the name Dafydd, pronounced Davith. Another couple is David and Kelly, from South Africa and New Zealand, basically the reverse of the aforementioned couple! Then there is the all English couple, Luke and Hayley. The new group was formed that morning while the Southbound Six drank tea and chatted amongst them. We ... read more

Hey all! Back again for the semi-shortened version of our safari in Botswana. I marked it as the Okavango Delta but we actually began in Kasane, our first night of camping in Savuti, then headed into Moremi which is kind of the tip of the Delta. From there we headed back into Savuti and then last two nights in Chobe. Nonetheless, this was an amazing experience despite totally roughing it in the bush. A maximum of 2 showers in six days, layers upon layers of insect repellent and sunscreen. A lot of beans and toast along with sandwiches galore - avoid the palony. :) But thru it all, my friends and I had a blast and dealt with all the uncertainties really well. We left our hostel in the morning and took a van over to ... read more

We are still adjusting to the time change. After not sleeping the night we got up for a 6 am start to do the border crossing from Botswana to Namibia via ferry. Chris, a local and the great guide, assisted us in getting to our border crossing and picked up. Along the way we enjoyed the country side with many neighboring villages. At one point we saw a family of 15 baboons on the road (the animals lay on the road here as the asphalt keeps them warm here). Just two minutes later we spotted a cyclist...Chris told us either the baboons would flee or attack. The border crossing was interesting. I think there were 5 other white people there. They have been working in Livingstone building another orphanage with a local church. There people that ... read more