what an amaaazing country!

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So here I am at the end of my time in the beautiful Botswana! BUT before i talk about THAT I'll finish off recounting my time in South Africa! When I last wrote i'd just arrived in Pretoria. SO on our first full day in Pretoria we went to the apartheid museum in Johannesburg (about 45mins from pretoria) which was a real eye-opener. I found it really interesting and I'm glad i went - there was sooo much to take in though! Need to spend a whole day there to really get to grips with everything. We didn't have that kind of time though as we went from here to visit Soweto (an acronym for 'south western townships') which was really cool. Much more built up than i thought it was going to be - there are something like 5 million inhabitants. We visited another museum here called the henry peiterson museum, which is named after the first child that was shot during the apartheid riots in the 80s. This place was even more moving than the first museum. We also drove up to Nelson mandela's ex wife's house, Winnie Mandela - she still lives there and it's all surrounded by security - and stopped on the only street in the world where 2 nobel priza winners have lived - Nelson Mandela's old house is there, and so is Desmond Tutu's - and he still lives there! Cool huh. On the way out of Soweto we visited a more shanty town area where we were shown around by a local and allowed in to look around a house made of corrugated iron where 5 sisters lived - probably orphans. They were really friendly. While walking down the sandy street we were surrounded by smiling children who climbed on our shoulders and held our hands. It was really amazing. So yeah that was a really cool day. Although i left my water bottle on the bus which was really annoying cos i had accumulated a good collection of dents and scratches. grr. Other memorable events in Pretoria....me and Laura toyed with the idea of getting tatoos but looking through the portfolio found none that really caught our eyes so left it - didnt want to get one for the sake of it and regret it! Also went to the cinema which was really cool! Saw Wild Hogs - very funny. And had a few cool nights out followed by fantastic veggie burgers at this burger place called steers. YUM.

SO we left Pretoria on the 19th April. The owner of Blue Chillie backpackers and his mate drove us to Botswana in 2 hired people carriers which was a bit luxury compared to usual!! It was quite a long journey and we stopped off at a campsite just for one night in a place called Palapye just over the border. We carried on the next day to get to our first 'proper' destination in Botswana, a place called planet baobab! As you might have guessed there were lots of Baobab trees here! This place was really cool - really ace decor! I became a hairdresser while at planet baobab - gave Rob's hair the trim of its life! Hehehehe i was quite surprised he trusted me going at his hair with a pair of scissors! But he asked me so how could I refuse? I did an alright job i think!!! ANYWAY from here, on the 21st April, we went to spend a night on the Makgadikgadi salt pans. They were like no other place on earth! Absolutely fantastic. The ride there was ace too - saw a 4000-5000 year old Baobab tree, and literally hundreds of migrating zebra! What a sight to see. The sunset over the pans was mindblowing and we had the best dinner in the world cooked for us by our two guides! And the sleeping situation was amazing! We slept in these really nice bed rolls - once rolled out they looked as clean and crisp as hotel beds and I had an amazing nights sleep! (apart from the small matter of having an annoying cough! So yeah we made sure our beds were facing towards where the sun would rise, so when i woke up I opened my eyes to the most spectacular - and first - sunset i've ever seen! We left shortly after sunrise and on our way back to planet baobab stopped to watch a whole load of meerkats! Which made Laura's day cos they're one of her favourite animals. They were so sweet.

We left planet baobab that day (22nd April) to head to a place called Sitatunga camp, right next door to a crocodile farm! This was next to a town called Maun, near the Okavango delta. From here we went on a 2 night trip to the delta - riding in dug out canoes (or mokoros). Riding in the Mokoros was soooo relaxing...I fell asleep...and proceeded to snore (in a ladylike fashion) which amused our poler! (I was in a mokoro with Laura). We also went on bush walks from our camp, and had a go at poling ourselves! Much much harder than it looks! On our last night here it was fantastic - the polers (about 6 or 7 i think there were) all sang and danced for us by the camp fire....then asked us to reciprocate! eek! We got them all involved in a mass rendition of the hokey cokey, and they were loving it! Dave's (the leader) dancing was priceless. I just can't put into words!! On the afternoon that we got back from the delta, the 25th, we took an amazing sunset flight in 5 seater plane! Saw loads of game including hippos out of water, herds of elephant and buffalo and what i decided was a pack of wild dogs but no one else saw so I can't prove it! But it was fantastic and the pilot did cool tricks like flying really really low, close to the ground, then suddenly zooming upwards - it was brilliant!

So the major thing we've done in the might Botswana is a 3 night safari We went from Moremi reserve to Sivuti, in the Chobe National park. The camp we were at for the first 2 nights had a real monkey infestation - they're supposedly a pest but i loved it! Apart from when one tried to eat me. That may be a slight exageration.....but it was scary all the same! But yeah this was an amazing safari and we saw loads of game - sadly no leaopards though! Despite spending a while tracking one and driving through the bush, craning our necks to look in all the trees. But hey can't get lucky all the time! After this safari we arrived at Thebe River overlander camp, where we are staying at the moment, and this morning we went on ANOTHER, one off game drive with Toff, one of our guides from the 3 nighter (who were really cool might i add). The highlight of this drive, which was in the more touristy part of the Chobe game reserve, was seeing a pride of lions. Now of course this was an amzing experience in itself, but what made it all the more memorable were the troops of Japanese tourist who rolled up wearing surgeon style face masks - they worry about germs alot - so funny! Got a good pic of them. They took pics of us as well. Wierd. There was also a joker with absolutely MASSIVE goggles on! Some people are veeery strange. Tourists. Who would have 'em. So yeah this afternoon at about 3 we're going on a sunset river safari which should be amazing! Then it's off to Zambia for the last leg of my time with Quest Overseas!

Until next time!!!!

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Comments

[Mervyn]

Good plan Carruthers
Those Japanese are mighty wise. Damned germs get everywhere and you can't be too careful. I suggest you do likewise and plug all orifices, cover all skin with lint bandages and sprinkle liberally with concentrated disinfectant.