Rest of Botswana

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Rest of Botswana
Monday morning we go on an early safari to see a baobab tree which is about 1000 years old; they are difficult to date as they don't have rings of age in them. It has a huge trunk, and a wide spread of branches similar to an oak tree. As it's rained a little already the leaves are pretty green and there are some pale yellow flowers. The roots twine out of the ground, gnarled and twisted, pulling white rock up with them. It looks like the sort of tree that would have supernatural stories told about it, and would be inhabited by spirits that must be appeased. Folk tales tell how a disgruntled hyena, (isn't he always) planted the baobab upside down, as the branches do look like roots. The bark regenerates after damage with wrinkles and dimples, which adds to its likeness to elephant hide.
Going through a thicket of mapone trees makes up for me missing the autumn at home. The new leaves are just growing as the rains have begun, and are pinkish red, turning orangey-yellow before turning green. The leaves are slightly oily and glisten in the morning sunlight. In between these are acacias (thornbushes) with vicious looking thorns facing every which way and gleaming silver white.
We pass cattle and donkeys belonging to locals who take it in turns to be out here guarding the livestock and ploughing, before going back to the village.
We pick up a local villager who knows where the meerkats will be this morning. They have a whole network of burrows and work their way round the area, digging for scorpions and insects. We see some ground squirrels, who are of the same family and will sometimes share lookout duties and burrows with the meerkats, as they have the same predators, but don't compete for food - the squirrels are herbivores. They arch their long fluffy tails over their backs and use them as a parasol.
We find the meerkats, they are smaller than I realised, smaller than a grey squirrel, but as cute as I imagined. They stare at us, but as long as we move slowly they don't mind us. A dog far off by the trees spooks them and they all rush underground, but gradually come up and start digging again. I stand by their burrow and one stares at me, but doesn't mind my proximity. Another stands in the shade of my shadow, and watches out for predators.
We drive across the Makgadikgadi salt pan, which is part of the Kalahari desert, but only across the edge as our guide says we may sink into it, at this time of year.
It used to be a lake and though it fills up with water again in the rainy season it's too salty to drink, but salt tolerant plants grow along the edges, which enable the grazers to survive.
We see ostriches, (mainly males which are black; they sit on the nest at night, while females, who are brown sit on the nest in the daytime), zebras, and two secretary birds, which are one of the largest African birds. They are walking about on the ground, but we do see a vulture hovering up high.
Back to Gweta Lodge for brunch and then a local youth worker takes us on a walk to the local youth health clinic, library and primary school. The health clinic is specifically for young people who may feel more confident talking about health problems in an environment designed for them. There are posters on family planning, sexual health, abuse and Aids testing. They don't have FGM here.
The schooling seems in a lot better shape than Malawi; schooling is compulsory, and free up to and including university, as long as the grades are reached; and classes are only up to 40 in number. Six subjects are examined before the children move up, but in the class of year 4 we went in to, none was older than ten. The children are taught in English from the beginning, and certainly the two teachers we spoke to had a very good command of English.
As in Malawi the teachers are housed behind the school. The library is very swish. Brick built, with several computers, built by charity, but administered by the local community.
Leaving Gweta Lodge we drove to Maun, about 250 kms away, where we stocked up on what we'd need for the Delta trip (basically water and alcohol), then on to Sitatunga Camp, just on the southern edge of the Delta. It has a pool and a bar which i take advantage of as soon as we get there. (As you can tell I'm feeling a lot better and feel that I can brave some alcohol.)
The country is very sparsely populated; and most houses are small round clay brick built, and rendered in mud, and thatched. Some are square, built of branches and brush, then rendered. Often fenced round with a thicket of branches. Donkeys, cattle and goats are often grazing on the roadside verge, as fencing further in keeps the wild animals away. We see several ostriches, they are huge birds.
We have to pack a small overnight bag for the Delta trip, and leave the rest here till we return the following night.
The dinner is lovely, a Namibian dish similar to beef stroganoff, with three bean salad and cole slaw, so I hope to put back some of the weight I think I've lost. Hard to tell, but the full length mirror at Lusaka, told me I'm bonier than I was. We all go to bed after dinner, about 8.30, which seems ridiculously early now I'm back in the real world, but it's still a lot later than I was going to bed in the village.
Tuesday morning a 4x4 picks us up and we drove for an hour and a half to where we meet our mokoro canoe on the Okavango Delta. At first sight the area looks crowded, but the waters are so low at the moment that tour companies are at the same starting point instead of being spread out at three points. Originally these canoes would have been made of a hollowed out tree, but with the numbers needed now for the tourist trade they are made of fibreglass in order to preserve the trees. The five of us plus luggage are punted in the canoes for at least an hour up to our camping spot on one of the islands that are dotted round the delta. We see a hippo at one point but we stay in the shallow part of the channel and we're quite safe. Towards the end we had to wait while three elephants pulled up reeds from the water's edge. This is apparently one of the world's last true wildernesses.
We can swim in an old hippo pool which is now too shallow for hippos, but perfect for us to swim in or wallow and let the little fish nibble dry skin. Though very hot, it's very green. We sit in the shade after our cooling down wallow and wait for lunch. ‘This could be any where in Europe,’ I say looking at the reeds, grass and trees on the other side of the channel. ‘Not for me,’ said Christian, ‘From here I can see elephants.’ On the other side of the channel the elephants were back and close to the water’s edge.
We take a three hour evening walk and an early morning hour long walk. Giraffes Wildebeest, or wild beast as they call them here, or gnus (one of the ugly five, our guide informs us - the others being warthogs, baboons, hyenas and one other that I can't remember) impala, zebras (which are Botswana's national animal) and several elephants. We also see a leopard tortoise which makes a beeline for Christian, and stops between his legs. ‘Christian has good tortoise karma,’ explains Mariel, his wife, ‘He rescued a tortoise once who was in a rice bag in the water’. Certainly this tortoise felt very at ease with him.
The guide explained how termite mounds always lean towards the west as the termites work through the night and the east side dries quicker in the morning sun. Trees often grow put of termite mounds as the termites take down seeds which germinate in the rains. The tree can give the mound added strength which helps protect it from predators. There are often mounds with big holes where aardvarks have dug into them to eat the termites. Then other animals will use the hole as a nest. Humans will use the termite soil as brick material for building houses as it's very strong.
In the evening we're punted along to another island for some local traditional songs and dances. Each of our tents has an ensuite loo and shower at the back. Open to the sky there is a pit loo with a box and loo seat on top, and a shower bucket suspended from a tripod. The camp crew put warm water in it when we want a shower, and fed us really well from a wood fire with a tin box as an oven which can cook apple crumble, tortillas, a short of stew with a dumpling topper, cooked in a tin can, as well as a cooked breakfast.
After the morning walk we breakfast then set of back to the starting point to pick up our safari truck again and go back to the Sitatunga Lodge where we spent the previous night.
There's a pool and after three separate wallows in it I've decided it could be pleasant to be a hippo in the next life. It may be my last wallow on a warm climate till next year.
Tomorrow, (Thursday) we will have a long drive and go to a rhino sanctuary mid afternoon, and the following day will be another long drive to Johannesburg, and I fly home on Friday evening, arriving at Heathrow on Saturday morning.

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