Sunsets and Animals

Spring Break ’09! Part 2?

Pre.-S.: This is incredibly long, and some of it is likely more for my memories than your enjoyment, so sorry is its a bit tedious. You know how to skim, so do it!

Ah spring is in the air… at least it is here in South Africa! Hahaha to all those who are entering fall. Sorry that’s mean, fall is a nice time of year too. Well, the first quarter of the semester ended last week and we were given a week off. I signed up for a trip to Botswana and Victoria Falls a while ago that would fill up my break, and I was really thankful for this because it required no hard planning on my part. I just had to pay a large amount of money and roll with it. Actually, it was quite difficult for me to commit because the trip cost more money than I am used to spending on anything, but it turned out to be worth it in the end I think.

On Thursday, 3 Sept 2009 I was picked up from the Shoprite in Mowbray at 4:45 am on a Jammie bus that was full of the others that were on the trip. After collecting everyone, we headed to Cape Town International for a flight to Johannesburg. I had met about half the people that were in the group before, and got along with them, but I had not seen them for some time as I am bad at keeping in contact with people. It was good to catch up and share our excitement and expectation.

We went up the butt of the airplane.

Side: Airports in Southern Africa are definitely less paranoid about security than the U.S. You don’t have to worry about how much liquid you are carrying or take off your shoes or jacket or anything, which actually made flying a lot less stressful and more casual. It seemed more like a bus ride or something than a huge feat like it does back at home.

We landed in Joburg about 2 hours after takeoff, which gives you some idea of how large South Africa is. It is easy to forget when you are here that the country is quite large, and Cape Town is at the very Western tip. Our baggage was collected, and we were hustled off to the truck that we were going to spend the next ten days either in or around. We also met our driver, Arnold, and our chef, Albert. Jess was our guide/leader who is a 3^rd year student at Cape Town as well (in SA they say “as well” with the emphasis/accent on the “as” as opposed to the “well”. It’s funny). I was the first one on, and claimed what I thought was the best seat on the truck. The front area near the cab had two pairs of seats facing each other with a table in the middle, and then there are pairs of seats in about 5 rows that face towards the cab with an aisle between the pairs. I grabbed the right window seat of the first forward facing row before the opposite facing seats. I got more leg room, a place to rest my head, a good viewing position, and open area for games or conversation. After everyone settled in, we began to drive out of the airport and start towards Botswana.

Somewhere in northern South Africa

Johannesburg is a very industrial city, and looks like it is undergoing constant construction from the little bit that I was able to see. The soil there is very red, and the sky looked pretty hazy too. Construction workers in bright blue jumpsuits and hardhats, which is the basic uniform for all of these kinds of workers in South Africa it seems, were fixing roads, building bridges and overpasses, and doing lots of other big jobs. I wonder if this work is fueled by the pressure to have good infrastructure in time for the World Cup. The airport in Joburg, which was recently remodeled, is full of ads for the World Cup at every turn. South Africa is definitely excited for it; I just hope that they are ready and that it will go well.

Gauteng Province and Limpopo Province are the two areas that we drove through on our way to Botswana, and there is not much out there. We stopped a couple of times for water and snacks. One stop was in a town in South Africa that starts with an M, and we were supposed to get lunch there. I went into Pick N’ Pay, a grocery store, and got the “meal of the day” for 20 rand. It was spinach, carrots, rice, and chicken. I also got a bag of kumquats and shared them with some other people who had never had them before. I only knew about them from my roommate Debo back in Santa Cruz less than a year ago, and I think that everyone should try them at least once because they are an adventure for your mouth. So good. So the town with an M was mostly Afrikaans speaking, although there was quite a racial mix. It’s pretty hard to figure out the demographics here, which probably means I still don’t have a very good grasp of the country yet, which is understandable because the country is pretty big. Oh yeah and somewhere along here, we came across a young warthog that had been hit by a car. It wasn't too badly hurt, but couldn't walk. It was really sad, but there was nothing we could really do. I also saw a giraffe, kudu, and some other antelope type animals just on the side of the road in SA somewhere on the side of the road.

Somewhere else in northern SA

We finally got to the border of SA and Botswana (Bots for short) at twilight and filed in to the immigration place one by one to get our passports stamped. Out of SA, into no man’s land, and into Bots with no problems. Then we drove for a while in the early evening and made it to our first campsite at Itumela, Palapye Botswana. We split up into pairs for tent sharing, and proceeded to put up the tents. They were olive green and could easily fit at least 3-4 people, so there was plenty of room. The first time putting up the tents was quite difficult, because they are heavier than they look and we were not really paying too much attention to the demonstration given to us to understand how the poles were supposed to fit together. With some help from other people, Liz and I were able to pitch the tent and get all our stuff inside, and then head off to diner before too long. Dinner was held next to the bar area of the campsite. Yes, the campsite had a bar and pool, except the pool here was dry. Actually, every campsite we went to had at least one pool and a bar. This is very different from the camping I am used to in the States, but I guess it makes sense as most of these campsites are designed for overland tourism (which is what traveling in a big truck with all one’s supplies in it is called). This first night a meal was prepared for us by the campsite, and it was delicious. There was mealie pop, butternut squash, coleslaw, beef, salad, and tons of sauces. I have become a big fan of sweet chili sauce as a result of this trip. It goes with lots of things. After dinner, some people took showers and went to bed, but I went with a couple other campers to the bar to check it out. People who know me know that I am not a bar person, but I figured I would go anyway for social reasons. It turned out to be very interesting, because the bartender was an absolute nut. He was this white guy named Mike who was out-drinking all his customers and giving away shots and drinks like they were water. He owned the whole place so of course he could do whatever he wanted. He had a bunch of hats and wigs that he changed per his mood and his dog Robby kept humping people’s legs. It was a very weird and kinda surreal experience, especially considering that were in Botswana and that fact hadn’t really sunk in yet. There were definitely lots of laughs and it was a very interesting night.

We got up early the next morning (Friday 4 Sept) and had some tea, coffee, cereal, bread and rusks and packed up camp. If you don’t know what rusks are (I didn’t,) they are similar to biscotti in that you dip them in your drink or in milk for breakfast or a snack. My German housemate soaks them in tea and eats them like porridge. They come in lots of varieties and I am also becoming a fan. We got all our stuff on the truck and settled in for an all-day drive to Sitatunga, Maun, a town in Botswana near the Okavango Delta where we would camp for the night.

The drive took all day, and there was a lot of napping, reading, talking, card playing, and picture taking. We stopped for lunch at the side of the road for a bush pee and lunch break. This was our first opportunity to pee in nature without bathrooms, so it was a big step for some people. Lunch was simple sandwiches, and we were soon packing up and getting ready to go. One girl (Karen) was pulling down the window in the truck for ventilation, when all of a sudden it shattered. First major crisis of the trip, but good thing it was tempered glass so it was easily cleaned up. At least it was hot outside so the breeze coming in was not unwelcome. More driving, driving, driving until finally we pull into Maun. We are warned that this place is known for pick-pocketing, so we are supposed to be on high alert. We are given 100 pula (pula is the Bostwana currency, which is a little stronger than the rand) to buy at least 5 liters of water to take with us into the Delta and some snacks or gifts. Many of us headed into Shoprite, and Kasey and I weren’t feeling to snack options, so we got our water and heading back outside. The truck was not in the place where we left it, and we didn’t see anyone else in our group anywhere. We decided to walk over to where some other trucks and buses were to see if it moved over there, but it wasn’t. So here we are, two white girls carrying big jugs of water, wandering around, clearly confused. Not the best of situations, but we just decided to find a bathroom first and then hope to run into people on the way back.

Another interesting about the drive through Botswana that I don’t think I have mentioned is that we had to go through a bunch of checkpoints for foot and mouth disease. It is transmitted through cattle I guess, and we got through most of them without having to do anything. Once we had to get out and bring any loose shoes that were visible with us, and walk across a pad of disinfectant with our shoes. The truck had to drive through a shallow puddle of this disinfectant, and then we were on our way. Before we pulled up to any of these checkpoints, we hid all dairy products, including chocolate, because they could confiscate them. We were a little worried that they might search our truck that one time and find our meat, but they only found the bacon, which was okay because it was pork. The disinfectant looked really dirty, and probably didn’t really do much, but you never know.

Broken window incident

Voting ad in the middle of nowhere in Botswana

Some hut houses in Bots

Children waving to us

People waiting at a bus stop

We get to a Shell gas station and use the toilet (it seems like the US is the only place that calls a toilet a bathroom) and wander back towards Shoprite. We find another guy from our group looking confused, and then we finally group up with some other people. While waiting for others, I am supposed to guard some people’s stuff. This one guy walks up and is clearly about to grab a backpack, but I guess my stare-down drove him off. Jess informs us that the truck was at the window shop to get a replacement window, which turns out to be a piece of plastic actually. We pile back on the bus and are then taken to our next campsite. On the way, we pass by herds of cattle and goat that seem to wander anywhere they please. I wonder how the owners keep track of them or if they have a completely different system that I am unaware of. The campsite is very dry and sandy compared to the last one and there is a sign for a crocodile farm located somewhere close to us. We all pile out of the truck and set up camp, have lunch, hang by the pool for a bit, shower, and have dinner. As we are eating, we are briefed about the next couple days we will be spending in the Okavango Delta.

A middle-aged man who owns the campsite and organizes the tours gives the briefing. He tells us that the Delta is currently the fullest it has been since 1961 due to high rainfall this year, meaning that it will take three hours as opposed to one and a half to get to where we will be camping. The mode of transport is the mokoro, a canoe-like boat traditionally made from the sausage tree. There is no electricity or running water. We would be lucky to see animals, because the animals in the Delta are regarded as some of the last wild animals in Africa, meaning that they still don’t know what humans are exactly, and are easily frightened. Summer is actually the best time for animal sightings in the Delta, as only a few main channels have water, causing more animals to flock to these locations as opposed to being widely spread out. He didn’t want to “wee on our rainbow,” but he couldn’t guarantee any animal sightings. Despite that warning, all of us got extremely excited for the Delta because the reality had set in. Oh and the briefing guy also told us that in the morning he had gotten married, and congratulations and warm wishes were exchanged, and nothing inappropriate was said thankfully. After cleaning up, a few of the people from the group took some chairs and set up in a nice sandy stretch to stare up at the full moon. It was one of the brightest moons I have seen, and its rising was gorgeous as well as it was large and orange on the horizon, paralleling the bright deep red of the setting sun.

Sunset at the campsite before the Delta

Saturday morning (Sept 5) we rose early as usual, had breakfast, packed up, and then loaded all of the supplies we would be taking to the Delta on different trucks. We were only allowed to bring one daypack to the Delta, so we had to make sure we had everything we thought we would need, especially sunscreen and bugspray. The trucks we went in were open and we sat in a row facing out to the sides of the truck, which was great for me because it made my favorite truck pastime – waving to everyone we passed – easier and much more direct. Waving at people was fun because it made me happy, and I think some people did not expect the greeting and it kind of made them happy as well. I know the people living in the towns we passed through are used to tourists in overland trucks and probably did not care about our presence, but I still would like to think that instead of just staring at someone from a big truck, a personal gesture makes my presence less divided and separate. And it also gave me something to do when sitting in the truck got a bit tedious when everyone was napping. I am not a good napper on public transport. Not just because it is uncomfortable, but especially when traveling through someplace new, I always feel that I might miss seeing something interesting if I fall asleep.

The wind was a bit chilly, but it was good to breath in the fresh air. We drove for 15-20 minutes on a paved road through a town, and then turned on to a dirt/sand road for another hour or so. Along this road were many huts and small houses that seem to be the most common in the majority of rural Botswana. Francistown, one of the cities we passed earlier on on the trip, had houses and businesses that we are accustomed to in the U.S., but here there are only small, locally owned shops and businesses that are far distances from each other and are very specialized. There might be a hut for haircutting, and another place for meat. Every once in a while, there will be a table under a tree full of juices, fruit, and snacks for passersby. Many people walk long distances to get places. Sometimes there will be a person seemingly miles from any town or settlement, just walking along the road. It definitely is a different way of life. The houses, which are very small and look as though they are only one room, are commonly made of cinderblocks or mud and thatch. They have lots surrounding them, usually delineated by a spindly fence, with another building and a water supply, and an outhouse. There are many variations on this of course, but this is what I noticed the most. Some houses have a satellite dish for television, but most do not. Some also are painted bright colors, and others are very plain.

We finally arrived at the Delta, got out of the trucks, and applied a nice thick layer of sunscreen. The mokoro polers than took us by pairs and loaded our things into a mokoro and then packed us in too. They are called polers because the boat is pushed and navigated by a single, long, wooden pole, kind of like the gondolas in Venice. The mokoro I was in was a wooden one, which my poler, William, prefers because it is more stable than the fiberglass kind. The benefit of the fiberglass mokoro is that they last up to ten years, while the wooden ones last only 4-5. William would know what is best, because he is from the Delta and has been poling for tours for over 20 years. He is also an expert tracker and just a really cool guy. He is the strong, silent type, and when he says something you know he knows what he is talking about. Many of the other polers are young guys in their 20s, and they like to joke around a lot, especially with the girls. There are also a few old men, and they usually couldn’t speak English very well or chose not to interact as much. Women also poled, but it seems like they mainly carried goods like our tents and food rather than people. Sitting in the mokoro was comfortable, because we were lounging on our sleeping mats. I felt really bad for William and the other polers, because pushing all that weight with a stick for three hours cannot be easy. The polers also stand up the whole time, but they have the balance thing down and there were no flips. The wooden mokoros seem to sit much lower than the fiberglass ones, which was a little disconcerting at first, but then I got used to it. I sat in the front, and Liz sat behind me, with William at the back.

The Delta was amazing. A lot of times it does not look like you are traveling on water because there are so many reeds and grasses growing everywhere, making it hard to see the water. It felt like we were gliding through a field at times, and it was very relaxing. Some people took naps, but again, I didn’t want to miss anything. My trip to Africa has made me realize how important the visual is to me. I think in visual terms and always take note of color, lighting, framing, etc. Lilies grew in the deeper ponds, and many people reached out a hand as they glided by and plucked one and created a necklace by snapping the stem strategically. I often dipped my hands in the cool, clear water for refreshment. The water color is not completely clear, but has a yellowish tint to it. The water is actually very clean, as it has filtered through all the grasses of the Delta all the way from the source in Angola. The mokoro polers drink it, but we were not advised to because on a previous trip, two whole trucks of students got dysentery from drinking the Delta water. Hence the necessary purchase of the 5-liters of water in Maun. When looking down, one can see the clumps of algae and reed stems that lie beneath the surface, but in deep pools in becomes too dark, and the polers advised us to keep our hands in the boat, as hippos and crocs like to hang out in the deeper pools. My first animal sighting in the Delta on the mokoro trip, and it was an elephant on one of the islands. We paused to stand up in the boat to look at it from a distance, and it was a very surreal thing looking back. All my life I have seen these animals in the zoo, and here I am seeing them in their natural habitat, where they actually belong, and it still doesn’t really make sense.

First impressions of the Delta

We finally arrived at the campsite around noonish, and quickly set up our tents so we could have some lunch (lunch was always sandwiches I think). Then we had some time to hang out before we were to go on a game walk in the afternoon, so I talked with people for a while. That got kinda boring, so I went over to where the women were hanging out and making things out of reeds. The women make bracelets, bowls, and containers from reeds that they get from the Delta and dye different colors. One of the women started a bracelet for me, which I then continued to weave until I had to stop for the day to go on the game walk. The ages of the women ranged from 20 to 38, and they all sell their goods to supplement their income. The weaving of the bracelet was quite simple, and I think that I have done something similar before, but then again they gave me a simple design too. I bought the bracelet that I made (and that the women finished) the next day along with a more complex and colorful one. These same kind of bracelets are ubiquitous at the markets in Cape Town, but they are made from plastic instead of natural materials.

Water Lillies

For the game walk, we were told to wear neutral-colored clothing and long pants, and to get into groups of six. My guide’s name was Bobs, a young man in his twenties who was from the Delta as well. We also had another guide, but he did not speak much and I cannot remember his name. We walked in typical safari formation, which is a single file line with a guide at either end. There were 5 groups of us total, and we all split up on different routes to avoid scaring the animals. One thing I noticed right away at the start of our walk was how quickly the plant life changes. Our campsite was on one of the many islands in the Delta, but this one was quite large. Walking away from our campsite that was at the water’s edge, it immediately felt more dry and hot, and the plant became shorter and less green. There was a stretch of grassland, and then a stretch of dry land with short trees with reddish leaves. After going through this section, there was another open plain area, where we spotted our first substantial animals. There was a group of zebra hanging out with some wildebeest. Bobs told us that the two hang out because zebra have good sight and wildebeest have good hearing, so they help each other out to avoid predators. Side note: zebra are pronounced ze-bra here, not zee-bra, and I think it is because in Southern Africa they do not say the letter Z like “zee”, but they say “zed” – makes sense. We snuck up closer to them, and eventually they got spooked and ran away. Wildebeest are hilarious when they run by the way. Their upper bodies rock back and forth as they run because they aren’t flexible at all, and it is just so funny. After they were gone, we spotted a dead wildebeest on a mound that was near where the animals were grouped a little while ago. It was a dead wildebeest that was lying on its side, and apparently it was still warm. It died either of old age or of a disease, and the dirt around its feet was pushed away as it kicked when it died. It did not look dead because it just happened, so it was very odd seeing it just laying there. After our group (all girls) got sick of staring at the dead guy, we walked on to another section that had higher areas of grass. We didn’t really see much else except for a springbok running quickly past. After that, we returned to camp for dinner and chat, and then headed to bed not much later after that because we had another full day the next day.

Some of the guides/polers and the dead wildebeest

Termite mound at sunset

Docked mokoros and the African sun

On Sunday (6 Sept), we got up at 5 something in the morning for another game walk. Mornings are good times for animal viewings because they are active in the morning. I think we actually left for our walk at 6:10 am, and started off at a similar place as the previous day. Again we saw the group of zebra and wildebeest, and another group of zebra were calling to this group we were viewing a ways off. They don’t sound much like horses, but make some strange noises that I can’t transcribe here. They kinda sound like birds. Then we moved on and found a family of giraffes at the edge of another field, and crept over there. There was a large male, which is darker in color, and a baby and a lot of juveniles. We got pretty close and it was very cool because they would just stand and stare at us for a while like we were doing to them. Then we wandered around that area a bit, which was much greener and lusher as there was some water in that part as well. We saw some bones of a buffalo and the hoofs that remained. Then we walked up further and were determined to find some elephants. We saw some elephant bones that were about 5 years old, so they were quite weathered. Then a warthog comes trotting up, but stops dead in its tracks when it sees us, and then turns back. Then in the distance, an elephant! We head towards it, and it is a large male, eating some plants. Bobs won’t let us get too close, because the elephants here are known to charge people and we obviously don’t want that to happen. So we watch it for a while, and a bunch of zebra and wildebeest are hanging out behind us, but by this time, they are old news so we don’t pay much attention to them.

Zebra

Wildebeest

Baby g-raff!

Giraffe family

Buffalo bones

More zebra

Baobab and palm trees

We head away from the elephant and find the giraffes again, then see a baobab tree in the distance, and decide to walk over to it. At this point, it is 8:30 and we are supposed to be back in camp by 9, but we decide to go for it anyway, because honestly we don’t really have anything to do back at camp but hang out. So on the walk over to the tree, we see an ostrich running across the field, and then a jackal (not chasing the ostrich) run in the same area. Oh by the way that dead wildebeest from the night before is completely gone the next day. We make it over to the tree and it is pretty awesome. I had seen a bunch of these outside via truck window, but had never really been that close. They are pretty massive trees, and are important symbols in Africa. There are various legends about them, and they are often referred to as “upside-down trees” because it looks like the roots are sticking up in the air. One part of the tree was scratched open by elephant tusks, and Bobs told us that the bark used to be used as rope because the fibers were so strong. There was a large termite mound behind the tree, and it was strange because surrounding the tree was a bunch of low palm plants that we had to navigate through to get to the actual tree. There were also a few regular palm trees there, and as we walked back from the baobab, Bobs grabbed a hearty stick and flung it up towards the palm fronds. There was a bunch of what looked like small coconuts that showered down from the contact with the stick, and we gathered them up. They were about the size of a baseball, and were shiny and had a purple-brownish coloration. I asked what they were, and they are pine-nuts, not coconuts. We gathered about 10-12 of them, and Bobs took a smaller stick and tapped the outside of the palm nut, allowing for the thin shell covering to be picked off. Underneath the tan-colored edible part, which had the taste and consistency of bran cereal, except it was sweeter. It was pretty good in small amounts, but it is more of an acquired taste I am sure. The edible part was only a thin layer, and underneath is the seed, covered by stringy fibers. Elephants love to eat palm nuts, but they cannot digest the centers either, and so their poop contains the round inner circles. The seed is known as “vegetable ivory” and some of the polers took these and put them in the fire to soften them, and would carve the outsides with designs. Naturally everyone wanted one, but I really didn’t want them to spend all their time making me one, so I didn’t bother. Speaking of poop, it was absolutely everywhere, especially elephant poop. This makes sense because those things eat so much its ridiculous, and it doesn’t smell really because it is just plant matter. It’s amazing that such a big animal only eats vegetation.

As we walked back with our palm nuts, we came across a big group of baboons. They were all different ages, and there must have been about 15 of them. It was pretty strange walking through the area where they were, because sometimes we would come across one that didn’t know we were there, and it would immediately run away. It was a little like hide and seek or something, as the trees hid our presence pretty well. These baboons were definitely not like the ones at UCT, because these guys were wild and therefore a lot funnier. They behave a lot like humans in the way they sit and some of the gestures they make, and it is entertaining. We also saw some interesting birds on the walk, like the hornbill (Zazu from Lion King!) and the brown snake eagle, and some other smaller birds that I don’t know the names of but are apparently ones to look out for. Satisfied with our sightings, we headed back to camp for some hangout time. It grew rather hot, and some people decided to go swimming. So we hit up some polers to take us out to the choicest swimming spot (actually the safest one). I did not swim, but I did wade and dunk my head in the water because it was so cool and refreshing. Some people tried poling the mokoros, and were pretty good at it actually, though they said steering was the biggest challenge. I mainly chatted with the polers that didn’t swim. Mostly small talk about their jobs and life, and what they thought about Americans. They all think that Americans are all rich and they always say that they want to go and live there someday. They also try to hit on girls and ask if they could live with them in America. That is very common and even if you lie and say you are married they will persist and try to persuade you. It is pretty amusing, but it can get old pretty quickly. I was talking to one poler, Carl, who was working on a three-step program to become a full-fledged guide for tourists. He has been poling for about 3 years and is still on step one. He was born in the Delta, but has aspirations to travel around Southern Africa, and of course to come to America. I asked him if he liked dealing with all these tourists, and he said he did, and he doesn’t really get annoyed with them too much, which is amazing.

One of the many baboons

After swimming, we went to lunch, only to go back to the swimming hole a second time for a while. Then we got back to camp and talked and made bracelets, read, napped, etc, until 4:30 when we were taken out on the mokoros with the polers that brought us in to the campsite for a “sunset cruise”. Liz and I hopped in the mokoro with William, and we headed out to a hippo pool in the hopes that some of the animals would be there. Unfortunately, they weren’t there, but we hung out there for a while and talked with each other. William made me a little bracelet from the interior of a reed as we waited, and some other people made hats from lily pads. William told me that he lived in Tokyo, Japan for two years through the Botswanan government somehow. He wouldn’t tell me the details and didn’t want other people to hear about it. Apparently he doesn’t like the food though. His favorite food is spaghetti by the way. I was also taught some phrases that are common in Botswana, like “Dumela” which means “good morning” and that you address a woman as Mma, and a man as Rra (with a rolling R). Unfortunately I can’t remember the others, nor do I remember the language they originate from. After the disappointment of the hippo pool, we glided over to another pool area to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous and I took way too many pictures of it. Then we headed back to the campsite, had dinner, and roasted some marshmallows on the fire.

Waiting at the hippo pool

William

Campsite in the evening, facing inland

facing towards the channel

After dinner, the polers gathered together and sang songs/danced for us. All the polers know certain songs that they are supposed to perform for tourists. I had kind of forgotten up to then that we were tourists, because the trip hadn’t felt very touristy as we had hung out with the guides so much. The songs and dances were really fun, and in time it was our turn to perform for them. We felt inferior because we didn’t have any “cultural” songs and dances in the same way that they do, so we scrambled awkwardly for something that everyone knew. Of course, the first thing that came out was the national anthem, which was lame and the polers looked bored. Then we felt the need to add more to the embarrassment, and sang “I Will Survive,” “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” and “Lean On Me.” I might be forgetting some, but we also did the Macarena and the hokey pokey. Then we spent some time singing other songs to ourselves in other groups, until our chef Arnold wanted to sing the South African national anthem with Jess. The South African national anthem is a beautiful song, and incorporates three languages (I think), Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English. They sang another song with Mandela’s name that I don’t know the title of, and then we played some games. One involved poking a stick on the ground, and one was supposed to copy the method of the person who started the game. The trick was that you were supposed to clear your throat before poking the stick, and it took a long time for most of us to figure it out. Then we played a game in which one is supposed to turn a bowl full of water upside-down on the ground without spilling a drop. The trick to this is not to flip to bowl so that that bottom faces up as one might think, but to first bring the bowl up, then to the side, and then set it down (up-side-down). Then there was a game where we passed a fork around a circle, and the explanation might get confusing, so basically you try not to mess up what you say as the fork travels around the circle. Then we exchanged riddles, and then headed to bed.

Monday (7 Sept) we had the option of going on another quick game walk in the morning or sleeping in for an hour, and I decided that I am probably not going to be in the Okavango Delta ever again, and should probably take the opportunities given to me. We got up at the crack of dawn and headed out in one big group, and saw the sunrise along with some elephants and zebra and wildebeest. We headed back to camp, had a quick breakfast, and packed up camp fast and loaded the mokoros for our trip out. As we got closer to the unloading area, we passed by the other student groups that left on Saturday instead of Thursday like us. We briefly exchanged greetings and headed off our separate ways.

Morning game walk. Everyone taking photos of an elephant, but mine didn't come out very well

We pulled up to shore and unloaded, said goodbye to our guides and the other polers, and got back on trucks. We got cokes, beer, and water on the trip back to the campsite we had left from a few days prior, and chatted to each other and waved at the passersby. We were all pretty dirty and sunburned, but it was definitely an experience to remember, and was possibly the highlight of the trip. We got back to the campsite where we transferred our gear to our normal overland truck, had lunch, and some showers and headed off to our next campsite in Nata. We stopped in Maun briefly for people to purchase snacks, or mostly alcohol as it is common for people to drink on the boat ride that we would be going on in Chobe. I got an ice cream bar because it was so hot, and had no more pula to spend after that. The drive to Nata wasn’t too long, and around 5 we pulled into the campsite, which was called Planet Baobab. Obviously there were lots of baobab trees there, and the soil was sandy. We set up camp and then more people took showers (including myself). The campsite had really cool huts that were painted with bright designs, and the vibe of the campsite was chill and hip. Before dinner, some people headed to the bar for a couple of drinks. The bar was awesome. It had chandeliers made out of green beer bottles and a bunch of cow hide scoop chairs, and lots of photographs on the walls. We had a braai for dinner, with boerwors and lamb steak, yummy veggies and potatoes. This night the moon seemed slow to rise, which was excellent because it gave us more stars to look at. I headed over to the pool area where the lights were out, which made visability better. The Milky Way was clearly defined, and we could see thousands of stars that we haven’t been able to see in Cape Town. At the center of the sky to the left of the Milky Way, we found a ring of stars that we were fascinated by, and I have yet to Google it to see if it has a name. A few shooting stars were spotted, and then the moon began to rise so we headed to the bar again. We talked, shared stories, laughed, and had a generally good bar experience before heading back to camp for bed. As we got back to camp, one of the guys in our group started freaking out because he couldn’t find his backpack, and claimed that someone had stolen it. He tends to exaggerate sometimes, so I kind of brushed it off, but helped look for it anyway. Behind a tent was his backpack, which had been opened and tossed back there, but upon inspection, the only thing missing was his glasses, which didn’t make any sense. Later, his glasses were found further down the path in the dirt, and the whole ordeal remains a mystery.

Tuesday (8 Sept), we drove from Nata to Kasane, where Chobe National Park is located. The distance between the two towns is not that great, but it would take us twice as long as it should have because the roads in this stretch are in such poor condition. There were giant potholes and we had to drive more on the dirt that was on the side than on the actual road. Eventually however, we pulled in to the next campsite, which had experienced some flooding in the past year and was partially under construction. The look of this campsite was my least favorite, because it had too many buildings and was more dusty than sandy. After setting up tents, we had lunch, and during lunch, Kristen and I designed the trip t-shirts. The t-shirts included a map with our trip route laid out, the names of the people in our group, the flags of the places we visited, and other symbols of Africa like the big 5, mokoro boat, and elephant. We basically chose these things from set designs, and there was a lot of compromising because it is hard to please 20 people. These type of shirts that are trip-specific turned out to be everywhere at the campsites we stayed at. They are very common for people to get in overland trips. We would receive our shirts a few days later when we were in Zambia. Size and color options were chosen and the money was collected, and then we had to hurry to the campsite office to pay for an optional game drive that would take place the next morning.

Crappy roads make for bumpy (and I think fun) rides

Back at camp, we had a few minutes to prepare for the sunset cruise on the Chobe River, and some people got slightly dressed up and put makeup on, but I didn’t have time really. We all got on the boat, which was basically a floating, covered platform that had plastic chairs lined up in rows facing outwards. We sat down, and the boat driver told us that should try to keep quiet so as to not scare away the animals. He also told us that Namibia was right across the river, which was strange to think about. People began drinking and talking, and it became evident that the Americans onboard were going to be pretty obnoxious, confirming the stereotype. The water was very calm, and the ride was relaxing. We saw lots of baboons, kudu, impala, different types of birds, buffalo, crocodile, water monitors, and most excitingly, hippos! We pulled up close to them, and everyone was super excited. They hang out in families, and there is usually one male per group, and he is huge! The hippos were playing together in the water, and are curious animals, because sometimes they are cute, and other moments they are hideous and frightening. In the Delta, the guides consistently said that hippos were their least favorite animal. Hippos are actually one of the most deadly animals to humans on Earth, which might be surprising to some people. We also saw an elephant crossing the river to an island, which was one of the coolest things I have seen. Elephants are such massive animals, but they manage to pull off a grace that is mesmerizing. Some people in our group got tipsy by the end of the cruise, and the chairs were strewn everywhere. The sunset was amazingly beautiful, and the colors and the rippling of the water made the surface look like iridescent cellophane. There was a plume of smoke somewhere in the distance that turned purple as the sun set, adding to the magic of the surrealistic scenery.

Happy, happy hippos! They are cute here...

and scary/ugly here

crocodile

Fish eagle. Albert (the cook) saw my passport with the Bald eagle on it and thought it was this bird, the African Fish eagle. I can see why he thought that. Except these eagles have a very different call, and not as funny a name.

Maribou stork

Elephant trotting out of the channel

Heehee reminds me of the elephants in Jungle Book

Pretty

We got back to the campsite at dusk, had dinner, and then most people headed to the bar. I charged my camera battery at the bar over there because the plugs at the campsite were already full. I chatted some more with Arnold, the driver, and learned that he was from Zimbabwe, and is only 25 years old. He used to play rugby in Zim, and used to model in ads for a department store. He is normally a guide for tours for the Nomad travel company, but is just driving for our trip. He used to be a rafting guide on the Zambezi River before becoming a guide. One of the guys in our group was having a good time at the bar, and arguably had a little too much, and got into a little altercation with an Australian. He was behind the bar, serving drinks, and chatting with the Australian (who was already aggressive) and his wife in the corner of the bar. He had relieve himself, and decided that the bar corner was a good place to do so, and this would probably have gone unnoticed if the bar was not made of straw, causing the pee to get slightly on the Australian and his wife. The Aussie got really pissed about this, and tried to hit the guy in my group. Fortunately, there were others to hold them back, and the guy from my group was carried back to our campsite and put in his tent. I went back at this point, because I thought it might be awkward to remain at the bar. The guy in the tent was moaning and saying ridiculous things, and since my tent was across from his, I heard everything. It was amusing, and got even more so as people came back from the bar. His tent partner attempted to get in the tent, and was greeted by thrashing. Because of the noise, Jess attempted to get this scene under control, with little success. There were some words exchanged, some more yelling and tomfoolery, and somehow it settled down and people went to sleep.

Wednesday (9 Sept) we again got up early and got on a safari truck for our game drive. We first headed to a kill spot where the driver had seen a leopard the previous day. Unfortunately, there was nothing there, but on the way out there was a hyena that trotted by on my side of the truck. This truck was open at the sides and had a canopy at the top, and there were five rows of five people that faced towards the front of the truck. I was sitting in the second to last row on the far left hand side, and since the rows were tiered for better viewing, I was at a prime position to be hit in the face by branches. So even though I was tired, I quickly had to wake up in order to avoid being smacked in the face by sharps sticks. We then drove to the gates of Chobe National Park for the main part of our game drive. Chobe National Park has the highest concentration of elephants in the world (I am pretty sure), with numbers estimated from 45,000-60,000. There are set paths for the game drive in the park, and we started driving out on them. We saw some mountain zebra and warthogs at the first section, but what was most amazing to me was the sky. It was dotted with clouds that were high in the sky, which makes for the most amazing effects and colors. It was one of the most beautiful skies that I have ever seen. We then took another path that went towards along the water, which again was picturesque. We saw a lot of different bird species there, and any time we saw something new, we would stop for a while for pictures. I quickly got annoyed with this however, because the birds were a bit boring honestly. Then we headed up the hill for a while, and saw tons of impala. Then we came to a shrub area, where a lioness was hanging out. She slinked away into the brush before we could really get a good look at her however. I was getting concerned at this point that we weren’t going to see any elephants because it was near the end of our trip. We drive some more and saw some Cape buffalo and female kudu and headed back towards the gates. Then in the distance, we spotted a family of elephant walking on a hill in the distance. There were about 6 of them, and all the different possible ages seemed to be present. They were walking in a line towards the road we were driving on, and we met up with them a little ways up. They walked right in front of the truck, and again I realized how truly amazing these animals are. Then we drove on, and came across another (perhaps the same) lioness at the side of the road. She was facing downhill towards the water, where we could see a big pack of probably 50 elephants hanging out. We stared at her for a while, and she cared nothing about our presence. Then we drove back to the campsite, seeing various animals on the way.

I was soo obsessed with this sky. Clouds, I love you.

Pumba! So many references were made to The Lion King on this trip.

Oooh Aaah. Chobe National Park

Cape buffalo grazing

Elephant family in the distance...

and up close.

Female kudu. Their ears are huge! The males have awesome horns that can be almost two feet long and twist gracefully. They also taste like chicken, yum.

Lioness hanging out with elephant herd in the distance

We got back to the campsite later than planned, so we had to rush to pack up and head to the border post so we could cross into Zambia. Leaving Botswana was a quick process, as we just had to show our passports and get them stamped. Then we had to board a ferry to cross the river to take us to Zambia. Our truck and another cargo truck boarded the ferry with us. It wasn’t a ferry like those in SF or anything – it was all business. We unloaded and were told by Jess to wait in a shaded area while she got our passports situated for us. We sat there for at least an hour in the heat, talking to each other about random things and buying Cokes and Fantas from a guy trying to make extra cash. He waited for people to finish their drinks so he could take the bottles back for deposit. We were all getting extremely restless, until finally we were told we could go. We got back in the truck, and drove towards Victoria Falls! As we drove by, we passed by lots and lots of trucks carrying goods that were just stuck by the side of the road, waiting to get across which apparently can take several days to achieve.

Zambian border post building that we hung out to the right of for soo long.

My first impression of Zambia was that it was quaint. Along the road were charming hand painted signs advertising goods and services. The soil is very red and the plant life is sparse. Sparse in the sense that plants are dry and not leafy, but not sparse in the sense that there are few plants because the plant life was rather dense. There were some trees along the way that were of the some of the brightest green that I have seen in nature, and were in stark contrast to the subdued browns and grays of the accompanying shrubbery. In a couple hours time we made it to Livingstone where our campsite and Vic Falls is located. Our campsite was called The Waterfront, and was situated right next to the Zambezi River a few miles upstream from the falls. It had campsites and lodges (hotel pretty much), and an established bar and office/reception area that was very nice. We camped on grass for the first time, and were surrounded by palm trees and greenery. We set up our tents and as we had some lunch, we watched a presentation on the possible activities that we could do over the next two days. Options included tours of the falls, elephant rides, bunji jump/gorge swing/zip line, helicopter rides, micro-glider rides, volunteering, abseiling, jet boat riding, etc. The two activities I chose were the full day whitewater rafting in the Zambezi River and the lion encounter. These were quite pricy, but then again when I am going to get the chance to do either of these things again?

These trees are soo green.

Billboard in Livingstone. The guy on the left is an actual chief whose title is the "Lion King." Awesome

Another view of Livingstone

After signing up for our activities, we headed over to Victoria Falls. Right now it is spring, so the water level is not at its peak, but the falls were still absolutely breathtaking. Walking up to them I was so excited I was jumping up and down like a little kid. Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and is rightfully so in my opinion. The rocks that make up the falls are very jagged and sharp, and are a dark red in color. The water at the bottom was a jade green in places. A light mist filled the air from the water crashing over the rocks, but that is nothing compared to the wet season when it is basically raining down constantly because of the force of all that water. After viewing the front of the falls, we went to the top. Me and 3 other people were particularly eager, and rushed to get to the most epic viewpoints just as the sun was going down. A local man was showing us the safest ways to get to the very edge of the falls, and we literally looked down over the edge. It was absolutely amazing. The water was cool and clear, and there were small calm pools of water right next to where the cliff edge was. I wish we could have gone further, but it was getting dark and we had to run back over the rocks to rejoin the group.

At the entrance to Victoria Falls. The currency in Zambia in the Kwacha, and as you can see, 1USD = 4,800K. Crazy. Oh and that's their President.

No words.

Bridge over the Zambezi River that connects Zambia (left) to Zimbabwe (right).

Right

Left

More left

Even more left

Top edge of Falls

We got back to camp and paid for our activities in the office, then went to get dinner. Dinner was delicious as usual. Oh I should mention that chairs proved to be a big issue of contention a couple of times during this trip. We had camp folding chairs for everyone to sit in, but a couple broke or weren’t always in the best place, so it was important to keep a vigilant eye on your chair if you didn’t want it to get stolen. This was mostly a problem in the Delta, when we didn’t carry enough chairs in for everyone, causing a little bit of tension especially since the group was divided into two groups essentially, each group looking out only for its own members. It wasn’t a major problem, it was just sometimes a source of unease or awkwardness in camp. The chairs had a tiny, olive green seat and back and folded up completely flat so they could easily fit in one compartment of the truck. This discussion of chairs is relevant to this particular night; it is not coming completely out of nowhere. So as we are finishing up dinner, one of the girls in the group sits down with her plate of food, and gets her finger stuck in one of the folds of the chair. She realizes this as she is sitting down, and in order to avoid putting all her weight on the finger, tries to pry it out, ripping the fleshy part of the middle finger on her left hand almost completely off. She jumps up and says “I just ripped my finger in half!” and is holding her finger and running around. I pop up to check it out out of curiosity and concern. Yep, she did rip her finger. She was squeezing the fleshy pad of her finger that is hanging on by a narrow strip of skin to the rest of her finger, and is rapidly turning pale. I tell her she will be fine and keep my face in check, but in my mind I am thinking that this is really gross and looks pretty bad. Jess acts quickly and grabs a first aid kit and guides her to the office area to make a phone call to take her to a clinic. She is in shock, because she feels no pain. Another guy from the group and I keep her distracted by telling her funny stories about past injuries and embarrassing moments. Her finger is temporarily dressed with gauze and she sips sugar water as we wait for news on further treatment. She says she want sot vomit, but holds it together. I am actually very impressed at how she is handling things; I don’t know how I would have reacted. Finally a private clinic doctor’s office is contacted, and a cab is arranged to get there. All the cabs in Livingstone are a bright blue. Jess, the girl and I get in the cab and I keep her distracted with talk about Lord of The Rings, and light things like that. We pull up to the clinic, which is a small white building. There are lots of dogs barking close by, and one walks in front of us as we enter. The inside of the clinic looks like it is from the 1970s or something. It has large blue and pink floral patterned wallpaper that is bumpy to the touch on the walls and on the front of the reception counter. The trim of the place is a light seafoam turquoise color, with white ceilings. Fluorescent lighting flickers above the reception desk, and a slightly scummy fish tank sits on a table in front of the row of windows at the front of the clinic. Above the desk is a fuzzy television playing some random French film with the sound turned low. Several mismatched blue couches with tacky tiger print pillows lay below the windows, which have slat blinds turned open to reveal the blackness of the night. Lining the desk are wooden animal figures, and behind it stands an unfriendly receptionist. She tells us that the main doctor was not in, but his assistant was. She takes us down a dimly lit hallway that contains some random furniture into a room stark room that contains a small bed and sink to one side, and a desk with chairs to another. Across from this room in the hallway is a large wallpapered scene of a tropical junglescape that does not fit in well with the vibe of the clinic. The general aesthetic of this clinic reminds me of images from photo studios in Mombasa that I have studied in some of my art history classes. I actually like it for its imperfection and oddity.

We sit down and meet the assistant doctor and tell him what happened. There is no sense of urgency in this discussion, although we try to instill it. We then head to the surgery room, which is very clean, but is definitely not the symmetrical and uniform hospital surgery rooms that we might be used to. The tiles on the wall do not match up perfectly, and the patterns on the floor change for no reason. Next to the surgery room is a room full of furniture and random objects that have no place elsewhere in the clinic. The doctor takes off the temporary dressing and examines the wound. He injects a local anesthetic to her finger in several places so pain does not set in. He then proceeds to pull back the flap of skin repeatedly, releasing lots of blood in the process. He does this to clean it and examine it further, but it is hard to watch, yet I can’t turn away much. It was not a clean cut, but mushed up, kind of like ground beef. Jess has a harder time and needs to sit over at the wall because she began to feel lightheaded. Then the doctor says that he will cut off the flap of skin and stitch up the rest of it. We protest this, especially the girl because she obviously wants her finger to look as normal as possible. So we talk to him more and make it clear that we want to keep the flap of skin and make it look as best as we can. He first has to sew up the broken blood vessels underneath and then the top part. She will lose her fingernail, but a new one will grow back, and the cut wasn’t deep enough to go to the bone. She should retain feeling in her finger as well. The thread and needle used for the stitches is really small, and is the kind that will dissolve and does not need to be removed. As her finger is being sewn up, we talk to her more about our past injuries and our lives and things. Turns out semi-serious injuries can bring people a lot closer together! And turns out that I am not grossed out all that easily, because I did not feel queasy once. She did not cry once during this whole ordeal, which was amazing. After finishing, we went back to the other room for consultation. I asked the doctor what his name was because we had not been formally introduced really, and he said his name was Chinyama (I don’t know the proper spelling, but that’s what it sounded like), and that it means “Big Animal.” He told us that if we forgot it, we could just call him any type of large animal, like elephant. We somehow then got into a discussion on Obama, which everyone in Zambia likes. They find out we are American from our accents, and will just say “Obama!” to us. He also talks to us about how he doesn’t understand the “democracy” that Bush brought to Iraq, because it is an unjust democracy and a violent place. I am glad to be here (or anywhere abroad) post-Bush, because it is clear that he was not a popular guy hardly anywhere. Anyway, he gives her some anti-biotics and painkillers, and recommends a tetanus shot. The whole costs $100, which I don’t think is too bad. We return to the main lobby, which now has a few other people waiting in it. We pay at reception, get the prescription filled, and take a couple of steps to the left to the injection clinic. The girl seems to be more nervous about the shot than anything else, and we tease her about it a little. We return to the cab and get back to camp and head to bed, and I recall the events to some other people. The worst thing about her injury is that the sole activity she wanted to do on this trip was white water raft the Zambezi, but now she can’t. Plus, she loves to journal, but since she is left-handed and the injury is on her left middle finger, this proves to be difficult.

Thursday morning (10 Sept) is the day of rafting. The finger injury girl got a refund for the trip by the way, and spent the day at the falls again with some others and had a good time in case you were concerned. We met at 8 am at this auditorium building at the campsite where we were given breakfast and then given a safety briefing. We got our gear, which was an orange helmet, life vest, and paddle. We split up into groups of 7-8 and met our guides. Our guide was named Scott(y), and he was from Wales. He has traveled other places to teach rafting. He was quite sunburned and had long blonde hair that he let down when we went on our raft, and topped it off with a shiny gold helmet. We then boarded trucks that took us to the Victoria Falls entrance, and we had to hike down a gorge to get to the river below. The gorge was pretty steep, but the descent was gorgeous (gorge-ous haha) because the mist created almost a rainforest appearance down there. There were little streams that we had to wade through, and large black rocks that we had to navigate across. It took a good 20 minutes or so to get to the edge of the river, where we ditched our shoes, tightened up our life vests to an uncomfortable fit, and then jumped in the water from a 10-15 ft height into the water below and swam to our rafts. Jumping in was exhilarating, because the water was frothy and rushing by, and when you jumped in, you did not immediately resurface. It seemed to take a long time to come back up, and when you did, you had traveled further than you realized. We scrambled on the boat and struggled to pull everyone in, but we did rather quickly. We named our raft group the A-Team because earlier in the day we were talking about it for some reason (they are making a new A-Team movie. Why?). Before going down the river, we rearranged the raft according to strength of paddling, taught to paddle correctly, and were taught to “get down,” which was basically getting on our knees in the raft and holding on to the OS (Oh Shit!) line for dear life. The Zambezi has two class 5 rapids that we were going to go on, and several 3s and 4s. There is also one grade 6 rapid that we would have to walk around for safety reasons further on down the river. Rafting the Zambezi is only in a small window of the year, otherwise the river is too full. Still, the river was pretty wide and was 70-80 meters deep in some places. I was really sad that I couldn’t bring my camera, because the scenery was so interesting and different. The cliff faces were so shear and barren, and the rocks at the bottom were really black and huge. They looked like giant pieces of coal, and it was amazing to think that in the wet season they would be completely covered by water. The water color was kind of gray-green, but was clean too.

Anyway, we head out and encounter the first couple rapids without any problems. Some of the other rafts have already flipped, but we didn’t and we are feeling confident in our abilities. We even made it through a class 5 rapid without flipping. However, we were soon brought down a notch when we flipped on one rapid, and then again on another rapid. Thank fully we only flipped over those two times. It happened so fast that there was not much we could have done to prevent it, and it was a little scary when you did flip because it is hard to see what is coming up next, or you get hit in the face with some water or are pulled this way and that by a current. All during this, you are supposed to keep hold of the raft and your paddle, and look out for your fellow A-Teamers. It was especially difficult for me because I was wearing contacts, and the water would dislocate them, making it harder for me to see. We also had some rough rapids where some of us nearly fell out, and once a bunch of us ended up at the back of the boat before we even knew what was happening. After the semi-traumatic but exhilarating first 10 rapids, we stopped for a lunch break of sandwiches and apples and juice. The next part of the day was much easier, as the rapids were less intense and therefore there was little chance of flipping. In some ways the second half of the day was harder because it required more arm work as we had to paddle against the wind on long stretches of still water. Oh yeah and along the rocks the whole way down the river there had these small brown moth bugs that would cling to the rocks, and if you splashed them, they would fly all over the place. Some little birds would swop around to eat them, which was pretty cool too.

By the end of the trip, we were exhausted, and when we pulled on to the beach, it was a relief. We then walked in the fine white sand up to a cable car that would take us up and out of the gorge. The view going out this way was spectacular, and again, I wish I had my camera! We then got some water, soda, and beer, put our shoes back on, and got in the trucks again to go back. Our skin felt tight because the water dried out our skin, but unlike some others, I didn’t really get sunburned thank goodness. The next day I would have tons of bruises on my arms and legs however. They were all over, and people said it looked like I had an abusive boyfriend or something. The road we took to travel back took us through some rural villages that provided me with good waving opportunities, especially because this truck was open too and I was at the side again. The villages looked different from the ones in Bots, because there were fewer circular buildings here and the houses seemed to be more integrated as opposed to separated. The ground was also redder here too, making the look of the landscape different, and more straw fencing was used here. There were a lot of people outside hanging out, and children would come and run by the truck to say hi.

Oh yeah and there were tons of these monkeys in the campsite. Apparently, the males have very bright blues balls. look at the baybay!

We made it back to the campsite and ran into some of the others who did not go rafting at the bar. They went back to Victoria Falls and hung out there for a while earlier in the day, and had a pretty traumatic experience. They were lounging on the rocks at the top of the Falls where we had just been venturing the day before, when all of a sudden the water level begins to rise. Two girls became stuck on a rock near the edge of the cliffs, and some locals had to rescue them. They had to wade back from the edge of the falls in waist deep water back to safety. Apparently, a dam was let out further upstream with no warning given to those downstream. T.I.A. (This Is Africa) truly. Also, another thing about Zambia is that at least in Livingstone, there is only one good paved road, which connects all the touristy places, but even this road was under construction while we were there. The town, which is pretty well established, have dirt roads or crappy, potholed paved ones. This wouldn’t be too surprising except for the fact that this town basically exists on tourism, and you would think that good roads would be a priority. Anyway, everyone was exhausted after rafting, and after dinner we retired early for yet another early morning.

Friday (11 Sept) some of us met at the front office at 6:15am for the lion encounter. We got on a bus and were taken to the center and were greeted with tea and coffee. We then watched a DVD clip that explained the program for lion rehabilitation that happens at the center, which I am still a little confused about. They take lion cubs from their mothers at 3 weeks old, and put them into stage one, where they interact with humans. They are taken on walks in a nature reserve, which is supposed to help them in some way. Stage 2 places them in a larger, but controlled park area, where they are encouraged to use their natural hunting skills. They are placed into this stage when they are 2 years old. Stage 3 places them in an even larger park and are largely left to their own devices. Stage 4 places the lions in a national park, where they are supposed to reproduce and have truly wild cubs. We are involved in Stage 1, because we walk with the lions as tourists. I really don’t think walking with the lions helps them at all, I think it is just a marketing gimmick for the center to raise money, which is fine for me because either way it is pretty much win-win. We then met with our guides (one of whom was named Friday), and were split up into two groups to meet two different groups of lions. We were also each given a stick to use to point at the lion and say “no” to it in case it wanted to play with us or something, not to hit it with. The other group had two male and one female lion, and my group had two female lions. When we saw them they were lying down, being the lazy creatures they are. They sleep for up to 22 hours a day, and hunt at night because it is cooler. The silvery patch under their eyes is supposed to help them see by moonlight when they hunt. They black tuft on their tail is meant to be a guide for the cubs so that they can follow the pride. These are just some of the many facts the guides told us, and most of them I can’t remember. After watching them play a bit, we were allowed to pet them and take pictures with them. When it was my turn, I forgot about the camera and focused on petting the amazing, 18-month old lion that I was kneeling next to. They really are beautiful creatures, especially their eyes, which are rich golden amber. The fur was coarse, and swirled in different directions depending on the place on the lion’s body. After everyone was satisfied with their pictures, we began our walk. As we walked, the lions liked to wander off and be difficult, and the guides were often fetching them back. Then the guides told us that we could grab the tail and walk with one if we wanted. I was the first one to do so, and you literally go and grab the end of the tail and walk with the lion as if you were walking a dog by the tail. It was really strange and unnecessary, but I guess it was cool in a way. After we walked with them for a while, we turned back and then took some more pictures and petted them some more. One of the lionesses was shyer than the other, so we only petted one of them. Then we said goodbye, went back on the truck and headed back to camp.

Beautiful lionesses

Me literally "walking" a lion. Weird.

Yawn

Sleepy

We grabbed some sandwiches, and everyone gathered together to go to the markets in Zimbabwe, where we were told to bring items to trade for goods. I brought my empty 5-liter water bottle, some ballpoint pens, crappy (but new) disposable razors, and a t-shirt for trading. We first had to leave Zambia, so we got our passports stamped, walked across the bridge over the Zambezi, and then walked to the border post for Zim. On the way, guys were already trying to sell us little sculptures and bracelets and such, but of course we couldn’t commit yet because the Zim markets were supposed to be big. A visa to Zim cost $30, so we paid, got our passport stamped, and hopped in a taxi to go to the markets. When we got there, it looked like we were the only tourists. There were at least 50 stalls in the markets, and they were lined up and arranged in little groups.

I walked over to one of them and peered inside. There were tons of wooden animal sculptures, bowls, copper bracelets, masks, and other home décor. In front of the covered area of the stores was the stone sculptures and objects like soap dishes/ashtrays and the like. The stall owners all greet you warmly and encourage you to have a look and pick something out. When my water bottle was spotted, I was offered many things for it, but decided to hold out for the best offer. I didn’t see anything that stuck out immediately, so I slowly made my way around, but was attracting more attention than I wanted, but I guess that is because I was talking to the sellers too much probably. The first things I bought were two necklaces with lion teeth (supposedly) on them. I bartered down the price with my t-shirt and a few pens, and paid some amount of US dollars that I can no longer remember for them. I can hardly remember what I ended up paying for anything there, because it all runs together after a while, because people press you quite hard to buy, but I am getting ahead of myself. After getting the necklaces, I see this kudu horn that another guy in my group is looking at. It is about 2 feet long, and there is a hole in it that you can blow in to make a noise. It is pretty awesome, and I inquire about the price. The guy wants 500 rand for it. They take dollars and rand here, and some pula and kwacha, but sadly they do not even accept their own currency because it is essentially worthless. I tell him I would think about it and try to continue on through the market. I end up buying a giraffe hair bracelet and some little animal figurines, but want to find some fabric, so I head off to another section of the market. There are some buildings that I head into, and unlike the male-dominated place I was just in, it is only women here. They have some similar wooden items as the men, but also have lots of fabric to sell. I ask about them, and am immediately shown many options. About six women grab sections of cloth and open them up for me to choose from. This is a bit overwhelming, especially as they are all asking me to pick theirs. I take a moment to process this, and decide to focus on color groups to help me focus. I chose greenish, reddish, blueish, orangish, and black/whiteish cloths, and pay about 5 bucks each for them, which is probably more than they are worth, but then again they do need the money. I then pick up two necklaces somehow, and go back outside before I buy anything else. I stash all the goods in my backpack, which was really nice to have. I decide to try to talk down the price of the kudu horn, and after a lot of negotiating, I get it down to R250, which isn’t too bad. With my awesome horn, I am ready to leave, and look for some people in my group to head back with. However, I realize that I really want some Zim notes because it is just so tragic, and have to barter my pack of cards and a few hair ties along with a couple of dollars to get a few pieces of paper, but hey, now I am a trillionaire! At this point, there is a group of about six men around me, shoving little things in front of me to try to get me to buy them. I do my best to get them to back off, with little success. I spot some people from my group, and join them. They also have a flock around them naturally. Then a kid approaches me and tells me that he can wrap my horn for me for travel, and this is a good idea, especially because I have to cross a lot of borders in the next couple of days. More and more people crowd around, and now the people I was with are trying to ruch because they want to get back to the bridge to bunji jump. I do my best to hurry up the process, but this just adds to the stress and craziness. A kid keeps pestering me for money, this other guy keeps trying to sell me a leopard tooth that I have told him at least 10 times I don’t want to buy, and this other guy is trying to sell me a porcupine quill necklace. It is a little much, and I am relieved when they finally get the wrapping done. I push through the crowd and stuff myself in to the cab. I have no more pens, razors, t-shirt, and my money has gone down considerably. Oh and I gave away these crappy sunglasses to some kids, who seemed to really like them. It was definitely an experience, and got progressively more difficult in the end. One has to be focused to succeed there. I did pretty good I thought, and came away with some interesting things.

We crossed back into no man’s land and to the bridge with no problems, and walked to the bunji jump place at the center of the bridge. At this point, I had decided that I was not going to bunjo jump here, because if I was going to bunji jump, I would do it off of the tallest single span bridge in the world, which is 211m and is along the Garden Route in SA, about 6 hours from Cape Town. About 7 or so of the people from our group did it, and it was fun to watch the range of emotions that they experienced in such a short time. Fear, apprehension, exhilaration, joy in the span of 10 minutes. This jump was about 100m, and in a beautiful location. There was also a gorge swing, where you jump off the center of the bridge, free fall, catch and swing in the river gorge. There is a zip line too, which just takes you from one side of the gorge to bridge. People were still trying to sell us things on the bridge, but there was only a few of them, and they didn’t pester us too much. Once everyone was done, we went up to the company’s bar area, and watched the video and looked at the photos. It was pretty funny to watch everyone’s adrenaline fueled states of existence. After that, we crossed back into Zambia, got in taxis, and went back to The Waterfront.

That night we had a big dinner of various delicious veggies and bobotie (kind of like meatloaf). We also roasted some marshmallows. There were strawberry and chocolate flavored marshmallows, which were kind of gross. I noticed in the store this week that they have some very weird marshmallow falvors, like apple, grape, banana, etc. The best ones are the roasted coconut covered ones though, yumm. Then we were supposed to have a dance party in the amphitheater, but there was a miscommunication between Jess and the management, so instead of starting at 9, the party began at 6 and ended at 9. Lame. Oh yeah and the other two truck groups arrived earlier that day, and were coming back from Vic Falls as we came back from bunji. So we talked to them about all the things we had seen and done. We all made our way over to the bar and decided that if we couldn’t have a dance party at the amphitheater, we would take over the bar. We couldn’t really plug in an iPod, and the TV that was playing music channels wouldn’t turn up very loud and didn’t have the best music options. So that failed a bit, but we took it over in terms of numbers. We hung out at the pool, where some people were unavoidably pushed in, and on the lounge chairs and at tables. Since we had to leave at 11 tomorrow, our group stayed at the bar for a long time, enjoying our last night together. We sang songs, some people had a dance off, and of course we talked and laughed a lot too. Good times. Eventually we had to call it a night, and headed back to camp.

The next morning (Saturday, 12 Sept, Happy Birthday Vanessa!) was a slow wake up day, except that I couldn’t sleep in, because there was no point as once people were awake, there was noise that kept you awake. Some people had a rough night, not from alcohol, but because they had drank some water from a tap in Zimbabwe and got sick. They got dehydrated and felt terrible, and I felt terribly for them. I went with some people to the bar area for breakfast, which was a buffet. There was this large, gray, beefy cat that hung out with us, and it made me miss Cat, our wonderful house cat back at Charlton (we sometimes call him/her Kitty too). We then went back, packed up, and took a group photo outside the truck. Arnold, our driver had to leave the night before for some reason, so we had a different driver to take us to the airport. We got everyone on the truck with all our gear, and headed towards the Livingstone airport. We had a flight to Joburg and then one to Cape Town. I was worried that I might get in trouble for my horn, but it passed through security without problems. The flights were uneventful, except that leaving Zambia, we were sprayed with some aerosol can, which the SA government requires. It was probably some kind of disinfectant, because it kind of smelled like Lysol, and it was an unpleasant experience. We got back into Cape Town around 8 or 9, and were dropped off at our houses by bus.

On the way over to the bridge, we passed by some elephants by the side of the road. Another day in Zambia I guess. Oh yeah and this is the good road yay!

Crossing the bridge

Zim market

Joburg (it is also called Josie) by air. This is a crappy part

This is a nicer part I guess. Lots of houses with pools.

I came back with bruised arms, mosquito bites, random curios, great stories, memories, and some new friends. Definitely time well spent. This blog post took me forever, so I hope its appreciated. If anyone who was on the trip reads any part of this and wants to include something I left out/forgot, please don’t hesitate to contribute via the comments. Even if you were not there and want to say something, please do! It amuses me and gives me motivation to work on this and gives me some kind of mission when I answer your questions.