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Published: February 20th 2010
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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 were building the church told us when they went through the check stop on the road the police demanded $120 US per person. We didn’t have the same troubles as Chris seemed to know everyone.The border was backed up with semi upon semi, one company called Hakuna Matata. Ha! Some of the semis there have to wait 3 days to cross the border as
everything is so backed up, sometimes the semi in front of you breaks down and everyone in there is packed in so tight. We chatted with some of the semi drivers and showed them some Canadian money, they got a kick out of hockey and that we play on ice. They asked about our ''snow bears'' and in astonishment said, 'what do you wear outside?''. We boarded the boat (9 passenger) to cross the Zambezi and saw the smugglers hanging out in the reeds. They have a wooden canoe and wait for the guard to leave their post so they smuggle in petrol, etc. I saw once the guard left they came to shore and poured the petrol into small coke bottles to get through customs (which is just a stand on the side of the road). Canoeing is dangerous on the Zambezi due to the hippos (being highly territorial) and the crocs. If the smugglers get caught on land, they will spend 15 years in jail. Risky business people - kids, don't become a smuggler.
Our safari cheap picked us up and after we did the passports and customer deal, we were on our way. First stop of
the morning was a river cruise. We enjoyed it and saw some hippos fight, plenty of crocs and tons of birds. In the afternoon we head to Chobe National Park. In northwest Botswana, Chobe has one of the largest game concentration in Africa continent. By size, this is the third largest park of the country, after the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the Gemsbok National Park, and is the most diverse.The only animals the game reserve doesn't have is cheetah and rhino. Chobe also has a large elephant population - 90,000 elephants. Salani was our guide and we were spoiled with only two others joining us in a jeep big enough for 10 people. Because it is rainy season it is definitely harder to view animals as everything is so lush and the animals have plenty of drinking holes. We saw gazelles, springbok, deer, warthogs and their babes, baboons and their babies, plenty of hippos, vultures, crocs, lizards and a ton of birdlife - too many to name. On our way out we were disappointed for not seeing any cats or elephants. Then as luck would have it we spotted two elephants. One bull - he was huge. We had
to keep a big distance as it was close to mating season and they are highly aggressive.
It was time to head back to the border crossing and our boat. Chris had been waiting for us for over an hour but didn't seemed bothered by it. We drove back to Zambia and he told us about his business. He owns two taxis and partners with some of the lodges for doing transfers and taking tourists to the market, the real markets. He came back the next day to drop off some Zimbabwean money for us that we mentioned we were interested in- simply outstanding. Yes everyone, it is official, Ryan is now a trillionaire! Too bad the currency is worth nothing and the country has converted to US dollars. In fact we were told that some people from Zimbabwe were bringing garbage bags of Zim currency to the South African border and getting 20 Rand for it (roughly 25 cents). Today, Zimbabwe is governed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's administration, with President Robert Mugabe as Head of State. Mugabe has been in power since the country's long war for independence. Although initially during the 1980s his administration was credited
with improving the standard of living and the economy; his rule has been characterized by gross economic mismanagement, hyperinflation, and widespread reports of human rights abuses. The collapse of the nation's economy and widespread poverty and unemployment has increased support for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, which in late 2008 agreed to share power with Mugabe.
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Francoism
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So, people in Africa don't watch the Olympics?
Makes me realize how unimportant Canada losing to the USA is. Look at the beauty of the land in Africa. Wow.