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Published: December 17th 2010
So on November 21st we said our good byes to the boys and boarded our short flight to Johannesburg to start our Intrepid trip (Southern Explorer, code UOQ for anyone with nothing else to do). We were met at the airport by our pre-booked (ridiculously expensive) taxi to Amadwala Lodge, about an hour away, our Intrepid meeting point. We were eased slowly into the camping with a night in a permanent tent with 2 single beds in quite a nice campsite with pool and bar. I resisted the urge to upgrade to a nice looking cabin.....not on the first night I thought.
That evening we met our group around the camp fire (luckily not the one which had another overland group with a girl and a guitar which could get quite annoying after a while I´m sure). Willie (pronounced Villie) was our tour leader......trying to work out who our driver was as our scheduled driver had some bad news and had to return home unfortunately. Then there were 13 others, 2 Swiss couples (Aline and Flo, Sandra and Severin), 2 Aussie couples (Jan and John, and daughter Amy and Mark), a young kiwi couple (Mei and Ben), an Aussie lass
Our first camp
Khama Rhino Sanctuarythat had been in England for 6 years (Jayne), a Vietnamese guy who´s lived in the US for 35 years (Kha), an a Norwegian guy (Hans). Quite a range of ages but all seemed harmless enough, its always weird starting these tours with complete strangers and wondering how annoying to us or annoyed by us they´re going to be!
So formalities out of the way (like deciding on who was going to look after the kitty, complete silence so I offered, more on that later) we had a good feed and went to bed early as the next day would be a ridiculously early 4.45am start.
There are more photos on my facebook page,
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=253725&id=655402889&l=2e30d60c7b On the road in the overland truck Not a good start as we were eventually the last people on the truck at 4.45am. Normally on tours, given my Patrick nagging, we´re normally the first ones on but early birds they all must be so no front seats for us! This morning was to be one of the first of many long drives on this trip. We stopped for breakfast at Wimpy, not to be the last meal at this chain,
Nasty scorpion
These are the sort of things I didn´t want in our tent! not bad though, before our border crossing into Botswana at Martins Drift. This was probably one of the quietest border crossings we have seen in our travels, and definitely the quickest even with 15 people! After a short stop for lunch we drove on and finally we arrived at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary at 3.30pm. Just in time to set up camp before our first game drive.
Now I was quite worried about the whole camping bit of this trip, more for the creepy crawlies that were around than comfort wise. I point blank refused to camp when we were in Australia given every little creature could probably kill you so we went for the campervan instead. No such options here though so tent it was. Actually the tents provided were pretty robust things, and after the first time of faffing around a bit, only took us 10 minutes or so to put up every day. As we´d find out soon enough they would withstand quite a bit of rain (unless they were sitting in a pool of water....more on that later), and were in pretty good shape to keep the creepy crawlies out, so I was happy enough
with it. And the little creatures weren´t really the ones we had to think about (more on that later too).
Khama Rhino Sanctuary This sanctuary was set up in 1989 changing a previous hunting area into a conservation area. As the name would suggest there were quite a few rhino in the sanctuary and we saw quite a lot of them, and up close especially towards the end of the game drive at a watering hole where we could get out of the truck and watch them wallow around in the mud. Very cool. We also saw giraffe, springboks, warthogs (with its babies, very cool animals!), wilderbeast, zebras, impalas and even a tortoise! A pretty good start to the game drives we thought. We retired for the evening around the campfire with the first of Willie´s fantastic meals. We definitely weren´t going to go hungry on this trip, as long as the dustbin Ben (Mei and Ben had actually won this trip through entering a competition with Katmandu, how cool is that!) didn´t eat it all first! We were pretty knackered after the early start so I think we were all in bed about 8.30!
Okavango Delta We had another early start the next day (in fact there were very few non early starts!) to drive north to Maun where we arrived just after lunch time. The campsite we were assigned was quite muddy but we didn´t think much of that until later.
Firstly Patrick and I chose to go on a flight over the Okavango Delta to see the area we would venture into tomorrow. The 45 minute flight was quite picturesque but nothing that exciting really although we did see big herds of buffalo from the air which was quite cool. When we got back to the campsite it started pouring it down, so we all convened in the bar. It kept raining for a while so Willie went to check on our tents, and on return reporting that "yes there´s a bit of water, I moved some of the tents but the rest will be ok". Mmmm we thought, so we went to check on the tents a few minutes later and decided that the swimming pool our tent was sitting in was probably not a good idea especially given the mattresses were actually getting wet, so the group pulled together and
moved pretty much all the remaining tents out of the puddles. This is when we realised Willie was a bit more of an outdoor person than the rest of us so probably wouldn´t have much sympathy for any pansy comments or actions regarding outdoorsiness (i.e. bugs, rain, hurricanes, tornados etc). It wasn´t particularly amusing at the time but I guess we survived, once our tent dried out a bit anyway.
The next morning was our journey into the Okavango Delta itself. The delta was a wetlands area formed by a river dividing into thousands of waterways (kind of like a swamp area), so the only mode of transport is the mokoro, traditionally dug from wood, but now fiberglass, well most of them anyway, pushed along by polers stood on the back. Some unlucky people got the traditional wood mokoros, which although sounding much more authentic were in dire need of replacement as they let in loads of water soaking all the gear on them! It was a lovely relaxing 90 minutes journey through the wetlands, once I got over the fear of capsizing, through the reeds and spotting birds and plants along the way. We even saw an elephant
Trying out the mokoro
At the swimming hole in the Okavango Delta as we got closer to camp which was very cool! Once we got to our assigned area (there were 4 other groups going in that day) we set up camp and had quite a bit of time to chill. We were near the swimming hole (actually just a wider section of one of the waterways) which was a little chilly to start with but quite nice in the very clear water. I had a go at poling in the mokoro which I was thoroughly rubbish at!
Then we set out on our first walkabout on the island opposite. This started with a chat from our guide about what to do when encountering the big five, which apparently were all present in this area except the leopard. Now this talk was a little disconcerting as you obviously do different things when encountering the different animals. I´m sorry, but if you have something charging you down are you really going to remember whether you´re supposed to stand still or run, look them in the eye or not, run zig zag through the bush or climb a tree? No, probably not. I just decided I would follow the guide and do what
The wet way out of the Okavango Delta
Poor Amy and Mark in the wooden mokoro on the left as their poler tried to scoop water out! he does and hope not to be trampled in the process! They are also not allowed to carry guns like they do in South Africa as the government reckon that would lead to more poaching. In any case after the chat it was a bit of an anti climax as we didn´t see much apart from zebra, albeit a load of them, and an elephant miles away. The walk was more about the plants around the area and what the locals used them for which although was very interesting was definitely not a patch on seeing animals!
The dinner that night certainly made up for it though being a very tasting braai steak, probably the best meal of the trip. This was followed in the morning (after another pretty uneventful early morning walk) by bacon, beans and french toast. Amazing what you, well Willie, can cook in the bush (ok with a litle help from gas and pans!). That night we were treated to some singing around the camp fire from our guides and mokoro polers. Pretty good stuff. It all fell a bit flat though when they then asked the group to get up and sing. Finally Mei
The great Baobab tree
Look at the size of Patrick compared to the tree! and Ben got up and gave us a rendition of a maori song from their school days which was very cute, and Hans followed with his national anthem. That was apparently it though! I certainly wasn´t going to start singing our national anthem anyway!
The next morning following the good breakfast it was time to pack up camp. Just in time for the rain to start falling and it seemed a little panic from the mokoro polers as I guess rain filling up canoes are probably not the greatest idea! We geared up in our ponchos and rain gear to receive a comment from Bear Grylls, sorry Willie, of "what have you got on, it´s only outdoor weather". Seriously too much time has been spent by him outside (on a side note Willie spent his nights slept either next to the camp fire or on top of the truck, only retreating into the truck if it rained).
So I spent the mokoro trip under an umbrella wishing for the rain to stop. Yep, don´t throw me into the jungle to spend a night anytime soon. Well at least everyone got wet this time apart from the people in
the wooden mokoros!
It did finally stop raining and we drove further north to Planet Baobab, quite a funky campsite half way between Okavango and our next destination Chobe. This campsite was in an area of Baobab trees which are very cool massive trees which could be straight out of Lord of the Rings. With the mattresses all hanging out to dry (they were used as seating on the mokoros) we chilled out for a bit before another great dinner, and unfortunately our turn to wash up. On these overland trips the idea is normally for the groups to shop, cook and clean up. Thankfully Willie stated from the beginning that he would do the shopping and cooking, which I think really made a difference to our trip as all the food was fantastic, I´m sure there would have been some dodgy meals if left to the group. But the washing up was down to the group which is thoroughly fair enough but completely my most detested house chore, so we were obviously the last to volunteer on this one! I do think though I did my fair share of packing up the van and campsite through the trip
(no contradictions on this one please!).
Chobe National Park and a very special day November 26. The most important day of the year. Yes, my birthday! Bit of a better day than last year which I think was spent travelling on a bus somewhere or other.
We left after breakfast to arrive at Chobe Safari Camp at lunchtime. This camp site was a bit posher than previous ones being set on the grounds of a beautiful recently refurbished lodge with nice pool, set right on the edge of the Chobe river. After more chilling time we boarded a small boat for a sunset cruise down the Chobe river. After sorting out the beer situation (they managed to put our beer guzzling group on the smaller boat when the majority of the beer was on the bigger boat with lots of non drinkers) we had a great cruise spotting loads of hippos and birds. However, the highlight of the cruise, if not our whole trip, was the herds of elephants that descended on the rivers edge for a drink and wallowing in the mud. There must of been about 150 elephants of all different sizes at the waters
edge, quite a sight to see and one which we won´t forget. Happy Birthday to me!
The evening ended with dinner and a couple of cakes in my honour which was very nice. Thanks all.
The next morning Patrick and I elected to do an optional game drive with the Aussies. This was a great morning drive where was saw more impala (these things are everywhere but very pretty antelope with very cute babies!), warthogs, baboons (lots of babies too), buffalo, hippos, waterbuck, more elephants and also vultures feasting on a poor baby elephant. Great drive.
Botswana/Zambia border That meant everyone else had a bit of a lie in, although the early morning start probably would have been a better idea in view of what happened next. So we headed for the Zambia border which involved crossing with a car ferry, which Mei immediately declared as not looking in the best condition. Oh what foresight. We went on a ferry without our truck to complete the formalities on the Zambian side, leaving our driver, Regani (probably completely wrong spelling there) to follow us over when he could get on one after the queue of trucks. About
an hour later waiting around in the sun we finally got word that our truck was in a bit of trouble. Apparently on the way over the ferry started lowering the ramp, as they normally do, and the hydraulic arm broke, with the ramp crashing down into the water nearly taking out the people standing on it as well as our truck which was teetering on the edge. Luckily the truck hung on but meant it was now stuck on the ferry with no ramp on one end to get off. They managed to get a couple of cars off the back ramp by joining 2 ferries together but behind our truck was a massive lorry which they decided would be too heavy to unload in this way. So the only thing for it was to fix the hydraulic arm. Well, as we wondered how many hours we were going to get stuck here Willie found us a restaurant to sit in for the afternoon. 4 hours later we were still sat in the restaurant wondering how much a taxi would be to Livingstone. But just as we were figuring out where best to pitch our tents our truck turned
up. Apparently after faffing around with the hydraulics for a while it was determined that the lorry would be able to get onto the other ferry and our truck was finally freed! Just as well as when we returned 2 days later they were still trying to fix the ferry! This definitely beat Willie´s previous records through this border extending it now to 5 and a half hours. Nice.
So this kerfuffle meant we were completely late to do anything in Livingstone that day and just had time to set up camp before meeting our new addition, Ashley, another Aussie, at dinner. Oh yeah and watch England lose abysmally to South Africa at the rugby, not good when you´re surrounded by South Africans.
Victoria Falls So just the previous day Willie had ´fessed up to tell us that actually the Zambian side of the falls would be completely dry at this time of year and we wouldn´t be able to see the Zimbabwe side of the falls from the Zambian view point. I guess this is something we should have probably researched before coming! This started a whole debate on how that could be possible given they
The Zambezi river
The spray is the Zimbabwe side of the Victoria Falls were on the same side of the void, involved diagrams in the sand etc, I think resulting in more confusion than anything else. So the recommendation was to do the helicopter ride over the falls to be able to see the Zim side, so that we did at 8am the next morning. It was definitely worth doing, even though it cost more than any other optional activity so far. The surrounding area is actually very flat, so its quite a sight seeing a massive river just drop into a chasm of water, albeit only on the Zim side!
Following this we headed straight for the Zambian view point as the 4 Aussies were leaving us this day and had to get back for the airport. There were a few streams of water on the Zambian side but nothing like the flow of water over the Zim side. However it was good to go to the view point to see the amazing vastness of the rock face, you could imagine the sight if there was water flowing anyway.
The rest of the day was spent working out the kitty, well actually Patrick working out the kitty as after volunteering
The Victoria Falls
The Zim side in the front and the dry Zambia side behind to keep track of it I hadn´t actually done anything! Gap Adventures actually now include the kitty in their overall payment which I think is a much better idea, although given Willie´s management of the grocery shopping and cooking we did actually get some money back which is always a bonus.
This was technically the end of the first week of the trip, which meant we said goodbye to the 4 Aussies, the Norwegian and one of the Swiss couples. More room in the truck for the long journeys but also meant we lost some of the amusement factor for the nights round the camp fire. I was glad we still had another week on the trip though, and I´ll write more in the next blog as I´m sure 90% of you have switched off by now!
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