Jo'burg - Livingstone with Tristan

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We are on day 13 of our tour and now have a moment to fill you in on our happenings for the past fortnight (almost). Apologies for not updating you all sooner, but internet access is in short supply in this part of the world, and sloth like at best?!

We set off from Cape Town on 4th August on our tour. There were only 5 of us for the Cape Town - Jo’burg leg - we were joined by 3 very funny, young Aussie girls, who kept us entertained for the long drive days we had. The first day was a solid slog of driving - leaving Cape Town at about 8, stopping a couple of times through the day to pick up lunch, and grabbing pizzas before driving til about 11pm, where we pulled into a lay-by and slept in the truck. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best nights kip for James, who ‘slept’ sitting up on the seat - which meant that every time a truck came past on the highway with their lights on, he was blinded... So the tour was off to a glam start.

The next day we didn’t even get up when our driver Drew fired up the truck (who is known as Tristan) and kept on driving to Kimberley, the diamond mining mecca of South Africa. We set up camp and headed for the only “attraction” in the town - the Big Hole. Apparently the world’s largest hand-dug hole, they pulled out over 2 tonnes of diamonds before it was flooded during World War 1 when everyone was away fighting. The 5 of us were conned as we arrived - there was a terrible tram that as soon as likely suspects like us walk into their line of sight started ringing their bell yelling out they are just about to leave, jump on, we can get back for the tour.... naturally we did... only to be driven a few hundred metres around the back of the hole, and the tram then turned around and brought us back. 20 rand lighter each, a lesson was learned... oh well, it was pretty funny, and there wasn’t a lot more to do in Kimberley anyway.

Up early the next day and a full day driving to Johannesburg, where we arrived at dusk at our new home for the next 3 nights. It was a really lovely camping site called Amadala. In Jo’burg, we did a Soweto township tour, visited a museum dedicated to the Soweto uprising in which 600 people (mainly students, some as young as 13) were killed during demonstrations in the 70’s and we also visited the Apartheid museum. We didn’t mention earlier, but we had visited Robben Island in Cape Town when we were there. Seeing both the Apartheid museum and Robben Island you really get the feeling of the pride and passion that South Africans have. They are not embarrassed about their past, but would rather open people’s eyes to how the oppressed should never become the oppressors and the best solution is reconciliation. Most South Africans are aware that the process is a slow one but they are well under way, and in a few generations time, it is hoped that oppression on this scale will be a thing of the past.

The following day was lazy before the rest of our group arrived so on the road again towards Botswana. There were now 14 of us - a mixture of Aussies and Brits mainly, who are all really nice. We spent the whole day on the road, entering Botswana and spending another night sleeping in a lay-by, although this time there were too many of us to sleep on the truck, so we pitched tents by the side of the road on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Up at stupid o’clock, then drove on til the sun came up and had breakfast on the side of the road in the desert - and it was FREEZING!!!! Definitely the coldest breakfast we’ve had in a long time...

Maun was our next stop which we used as our base before heading into the Okanvango Delta for 2 nights. This is the largest inland river delta in the world ( 18,000 km2) and the water running through it is sourced from as far away as Angola. We were collected and driven a couple of hours into the Delta. The “road” was rather interesting in places as the Delta is experiencing the highest water level in recorded history (about 65 years). Many times we would have preferred to be in a boat, but our truck was rather resilient to the flooding and we made it without the need for the chest-waders. We were then loaded into Mokoros, which are the local boats, carved out of sausage trees which are propelled by someone standing in the back pushing us along with a pole, similar to punting. Our poler unfortunately drew the short straw - she was the teeniest, skinniest lady out of the group, and let’s face it, her cargo wasn’t light. She spent a bit of time in the water, lifting the Mokoro and pushing when we got bogged....

The 2 nights in the Delta involved 3 game walks, where we saw elephants, zebras, hippos, giraffes, wildebeest, ostrich, some little antelope thing I can’t remember the name of and a jackal. One of the highlights was on the second evening, we went for a Mokoro ride to watch the sunset. We had been sharing a ‘pool’ with a few hippos, and on our way back came across 4 elephants who were crossing the waterway just ahead of us, so we rested in the reeds and watched them cross about 40 metres in front of us.

After dinner that night our polers / guides sang a few local village songs and then asked us to respond in song. All the group could come up with was the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance (Hokey Cokey and the Birdy song to some). It seems our cultural pool was running a little shallow... but it was a good laugh, and everyone got involved.

On leaving the Delta via mokoro (with a couple more groundings) we took a 45 minute scenic flight over the Delta in a tiny aircraft. This was the best way to appreciate the vast scale of the Delta, and we quickly realised that we had only just scratched the surface. It was simply stunning - although the trip itself was a little bumpy and Megan lost a bit of the orange juice she’d had at lunch when we landed... but it was worth it!!

The day finished by driving a few hundred kilometres towards Chobe National Park (who knew this continent was so big?!). Up offensively early again the next day in order to get to Chobe in time for an evening game drive, which was sensational. Out for about 3 hours driving along the river, with Namibia on the other side. There were literally hundreds of elephants down at the water, drinking and bathing, and we were lucky enough to park up about 20 metres away from one elephant who had a mud bath in front of us. It was brilliant to watch him sort of sit down on the edge of this mud pool and wriggle his bum along the mud walls.
There were also loads of giraffes drinking and eating and we were fortunate to see two male giraffes having a fight, which would have to be the least violent, and most amusing fight we’ve ever seen. They stand end to end (top to tail) and take turns in bashing each other’s bums with their little horns. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, and it did look pretty ridiculous. There were also crocodiles, hippos, buffalo, water buck (a type of deer or antelope), Maribu Storks (big scavenger birds) and lots of excited people!!!

We camped the night, and were up at 5am, on the road by 5:30 and at the border with Zambia by 6. It was hilarious to see the organised chaos of the border crossing - the border itself only opened at 6am, so we were able to stamp out of Botswana without too much hassle but then we drove another 1km to the river where we were to ferry across to enter Zambia. We drove past about 50 trucks to jump the queue, then waited for the ferry to arrive. When it did, it was a free for all as all these trucks tried to barge their way onto the ferry - we managed to get onto the first crossing, and arrived in Zambia where we are now. Pith helmets at the ready we are now in Livingstone, where our first activity was a sunset booze cruise along the Zambezi. We again saw crocs, elephants and hippo’s, but we were very spoiled by one elephant who decided he no longer wanted to be on Long Island, so swam across the Zambezi right in front of our boat which was a spectacular sight. On a less soul-touching note, it was the first night the group went out on the toot together and 2.5 hours of free booze plus a BBQ turned into one very messy evening with plenty of animal impressions and ludicrous dancing which the locals found rather amusing.

We are now 2 weeks into our trip, and it is a genuinely eye opening experience, the scenery is stunning and the people we have met along the way are genuinely friendly and willing to help. Still a long way to go but we have had a great time so far. We hope this finds you all in fine fettle, and for those of you still interested in the fuzz, a razor has been used. Last night was a grubby goatee, and now we have the “pleasure” of the dirty sanchez....

PS - Sorry for only a few photo's - it's taken about an hour and a haf to upload these 4!! Will try again when we next touch civilisation..

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Comments

[sammy]

Deja Vu
James, This has been most interesting reading,you may remember we were going to Africa for our family holidays and have just returned from Zambia,Botswana and Mozambique.I think we must have crossed at the same border as you from Zambia to Botswana at a place called Kualunga.Plenty of chaos with the trucks on a ferry which would not have passed any classification society. The falls were fantastic and many good chances of getting wet,my heart stopped when three of our party bungie jumped of the bridge,fortunayely they all bounced back up. Sadly now back to work and please carry on enjoying your travels. Best Regards, Sammy.