Africa - Botswana

Sun, August 14, 2011

After waking at the Ngepi camp in Namibia Sunday morning, we enjoyed a leisurely morning before packing up and hitching a ride from the Ngepi staff to a nearby gas station. That's where we'd be picked up by the shuttle provided by Mabaruli. Ewald joined us a short while after being dropped of. As our awesome guide he wanted to make see us off properly as well as ensure we were picked up by the right people. We waited around and then this nice passenger van pulled up. We said our good-byes to Ewald and piled into the Van. Once again we lucked out and had plenty of space. Our drivers were Forri and Nicola. We didn't get far before we had to say good-bye to Forri because he was unexpectedly called on for another driving assignment. On we went to Botswana...

We arrived to the Thebe Safari Lodge (Kasane, Botswana) in the afternoon. Kasane is the "gateway" to Chobe National Park. The unfortunate part in losing our guide is we no longer had transportation to go anywhere and all our activities were to take place on Monday. We had the rest of Sunday to fill. 

I, for one, was really excited to sprawl and lay out all my stuff in a room with beds and our own bathroom. Yay for hot showers! I was most excited about the lodge having laundry service. I had been wearing the same clothes over and over again. The prospect of clean clothes was very enticing.

The other ladies and I spent some down time napping and reading for part of the afternoon. Then we attempted to take a walk only to find that we really couldn't go anywhere because there were signs everywhere about not going near the river because of wild animals. Well, technically, the sign only warned us not to swim in the river and to not feed the wild animals.

Finally, we settled on hanging out in the bar/restaurant area, playing a card game called Phase 10 and having some beers. Well, the others had beer. I still can't stand the stuff. I just had Fanta, followed by water. I know, I'm a wild one! That took us right through dinner. It was nice to have time to sit and chat. We played cards and had dinner by candlelight via this "Future Lamp".

A Bit of Reflection

This seems like a good place to pause for some reflection (before I continue with any additional thrilling posts - ha ha).  Visiting Africa is good for the soul. Not only did I get to see all kinds of wildlife and gain more of an appreciation for the countries on this continent, but it really gave me time to remember how simple life really should be. We are the ones who make it complicated.

People in Namibia, Botswana and Zambia were so kind and friendly. Most everyone just wanted to talk with us and hear about our lives in the USA. They were also eager to teach us about anything we wanted to learn. The folks we met were concerned with clothing, food, and shelter. They weren't worried about whether their lawns were mowed, getting their kids to soccer practice or other trivial matters. It was humbling and a reminder of the importance of just LIVING LIFE. I find that I remind myself of this often, especially when I'm getting stressed out at work. It's just not that important - not in the big scheme of things.

Before I forget, based on our experience and our guide, Ewald, I'd highly recommend the 8 Day Bushman Delta Safari from Mabaruli African Safaris. You can learn more at www.mabaruli.com if you're interested. Later I'll talk about some tips when going on a safari that I've compiled based on my one experience. I bet you're just dying to read about that too.

What was also amazing about traveling from the southern part of Africa toward the north is witnessing the very distinct change in landscape. We went from flat, dry, brown, prairie-like land in Namibia to lush, green, and rich-with-foliage Zambia. Granted we only saw parts of each country (maybe my conclusion would be like someone visiting the USA and assuming MN's landscape is representative of the whole of the country), so what I saw could be attributed to that. Regardless, it was really cool to watch the transition as we traveled many, many miles (kilometers).

Africa - Namibia - Ngepi

Fri-Sat, Aug 12-13, 2011

We left Treesleeper early Fri morning and headed out for another ~500km drive. By this point we all got really good at rising with the sun, breaking down camp, quickly getting ready, packing up, eating breakfast and heading out. Too bad I can't get ready this fast for work! We were making our way north toward the Kavango River which is the panhandle of the Okavango Delta on the Namibian side. We were supposed to have a leisurely afternoon/evening at the Ngepi campsite. Well, things didn't exactly go as planned...

About halfway through the trip we stopped in the town of Rundu. It was nice to see strip malls and more modern things like cars, restaurants, banks, etc. It's amazing how familiar things make home not seem quite as far away. Did I mention I was getting homesick at this point (5 days after leaving)? Anyway, I was quite homesick and was especially missing my little girl. So, I was determined to find an Internet cafe to communicate with Mark and Keira. I did find one and headed there while the girls went to grab lunch. The good news was there was access to the Internet. The bad news was the keyboard was a little different so it was harder to type and the speed was SO SLOW - think dial-up. Coming from a place where waiting two seconds is two seconds too long, well, this drove me nuts. I was totally with the slower pace of life up until that moment. It's weird how that works. I definitely think technology is a blessing and a curse. Anyway, I was able to log on, read some messages from home and send a quick message to say I was alive and doing well.

After we got lunch and stopped by a grocery store (which was absolutely chaotic - think no rhyme or reason to queues, abandoned shopping carts in any location, a little bit of pushing and shoving) Anne and I headed to a bank to exchange money. That was a mistake. It took over an hour!! Turns out Fridays are paydays and because there is no such thing as direct deposit or even payroll checks, the whole town was there to submit their forms to get paid! I would've given up, except 20 minutes into the process the banker guy took my passport for ID. Well, I definitely wasn't leaving without my passport. So, we waited and waited and waited. Ewald came in and out to check on us and merely chuckled at our rising impatience. He did say it was the "African way" and to be patient. This wouldn't at all be acceptable in the U.S., but then again we are wound up pretty tightly aren't we?

We were a bit delayed getting back on the road, but were rolling along once again. We even stopped along the way to pass out oranges to people walking along the road, including a father and his son. I can't explain to you the appreciation and excitement they had in receiving a piece of fruit. Once again, I was humbled.

At some point along the way Ewald must've noticed that the truck was smoking because next thing I know, he has pulled over along the side of the road. Oh boy! The amazing thing was that Ewald was so calm. I can imagine several other people in this situation and am certain something like this would've put them in a crabby mood with some curse words thrown in for effect. Anyway, we couldn't do much to help so we exited the truck and waited at a shaded table to stay cool. It turned out to be the water pump. Luckily Ewald knew just enough. He used the water from the reserve tank under the trunk to keep the pump filled to cool the engine and we limped along the rest of the way to the Ngepi campsite. Thank goodness! We were getting worried about becoming sitting ducks along the side of the road. I was freaking out because I needed to use the facilities and had so far avoided squatting to do my business. I was determined not to break this streak of luck.

Our broken down truck

By the time we got to Ngepi it was near dusk. We set up camp, took quick showers and headed to the dining area for dinner. It was a delicious meal - a variation of Shepherd's pie, roasted sweet potatoes, and cheesy cauliflower with some sort of delicious cobbler for dessert. Mmm. Mmm. Good. I have to say that Ngepi was my favorite because the people were super nice, the scenery beautiful, but above all, the humor of the owners of the camp came through in all the clever signs that were all around.

These were literally the doors to the toilets

You had to be quick if you wanted a hot shower

I wish I could get this sign to post at work

I guess they weren't fans of President Bush

This was one of the coldest nights so far. I wore two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, a tank top, a long-sleeve shirt, a sweater, my Northface jacket, a winter hat and my gloves. This was in addition to my sleep sac and sleeping bag. It was a cold night...

The cold night turned into dawn and then it was Saturday. Our adventures on Saturday included taking a ride down the Kavango River in a Mokoro (aka Watu, aka flat-bottom canoe). I was not exactly comfortable with this. First of all, I can barely swim (I took about 5 lessons this past January). Second, I was really worried about tipping the Mokoro over. Third, I didn't have faith that the life jackets we were given would really help us out if we fell into a hippo and croc-infested river.

My expression completely captures my sentiments about getting in the Mokoro

Loaded up and ready to row, well, the guides were ready to row

It took awhile for me to really sit back and relax

Did I mention the hippo-infested water?

It was a fun ride down the river and included a hippo chasing us down, in addition to the croc that jumped into the river and scared the living daylights out of me. Yep. These are things I'll never forget.  I will never again see so many hippos at once.

Following our river ride we had a leisurely lunch at the bar/restaurant overlooking the river. I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with fries. Did I mention that there was a lot of "American" food? After lunch we hopped onto a different open-air truck with other tourists from Germany for a Game drive. Once again it was quite the adventure! We found ourselves stuck in some deep sand and got out to help push the truck out. Well, most of us got out.

Not sure why the lady stayed on the truck. She was added weight.

We also got to see many of the well-known Baobab trees, including the one below which was about 1,800 years old. Again, these are the trees that are hollow on the inside and a couple have been converted into a pub and a post office somewhere in South Africa - pretty cool huh?

After returning from our game drive we came back to find our semi-vacant campsite completely filled with tents that sprung up out of nowhere. It turns out a bunch of other tours had just arrived. The new arrivals made for some stiff competition when it came to use of the facilities including showers and toilets. However, nothing irked me more about these new arrivals than how loud they were late at night when we were all trying to get some sleep. After a cold, restless night we woke up to find that just as quickly as all the new tents had sprung up, they were gone as the tourists took off on their own planned adventures. 

And that concluded our time in the beautiful country of Namibia and our time together with Ewald. Because the truck needed a new part and the truck was irreparable without it, our tour company (Mabaruli) arranged for shuttle service to get us to Botswana and would be putting us up in a lodge. So, not only did our time in Namibia end, our time camping also ended. I personally was getting to like sleeping in the tent...sort of. Did I ever include a picture of our tents? Here they are. Nice and cozy.