Day 22 Botswana , Namibia & Zambia

Today was my last early morning wake up, other than the plane home, that is. We were on the road by 7 AM and headed north. It was a combination of paved as well as gravel.

By 8 AM we were at the Namibian border crossing. Each time you come to a border between countries, you must get your passport stamped at the office of the country you are leaving. Then you get back in the vehicle, drive a few hundred yards, get out again and visit the immigration office of the country you are arriving at. We did this 6 times today!

Namibia has a long narrow section extending into the north end of Botswana and this is where we drove for much of the day. The countryside seemed similar to Botswana, but we noticed that the huts were built in a square style rather than Botswana’s round shape.

I read and slept and read and slept. Perhaps I missed villages and towns, but Namibia seemed to be more sparsely populated. We stopped at service stations a couple of times to use the toilets and buy some snacks, but we didn’t feel like our business was wanted. For lunch we had sandwiches which had been prepared for us on the houseboat, and we ate in transit.

We went through a few national parks, stopped to wet our feet at hoof and mouth disease control centers, and drove and drove. The day was a long, tedious one.

We got to the boat crossing into Zambia in good time but were delayed there a bit while we changed vehicles.

By the time we got to our hotel in Livingstone it was 5 PM – a 10 hour day. The whole group met for supper one last time and we shared our favorite experience for each of the days.

We ended the evening with a shot of amarula, a traditional drink made in South Africa from the fruit of the marula tree.

It’s been an amazing three weeks!

Day 21 Botswana - Tsodilo Hills & Bird Watching

You would think that being on holiday on a houseboat on the Okavango Delta, one would be able to sleep in but no. Our guides like getting up early. The generator started at 6 AM and that was our wake-up call. There was hot water for a morning shower too! Breakfast was at 6:30 and we were on the 15 seater speed boat by 7 AM.

Our destination was the Tsodilo Hills. After a 10 minute boat ride, we had 30 k’s of pavement, then 40 k’s on rough gravel. When we reached the gates of Tsodilo, there was another 5 kilometers of even rougher roads after which I reached for my Ibuprophen.

Tsodilo Hills is a World Heritage Site (since 2001) with the richest concentration of San Rock Paintings in the world. It has been inhabited for about 30,000 years and home to more than 4,000 San Bushman paintings.  A guide took us on a walking trail around what is known as the female mountain.

We saw about 25-30 of the paintings as well as some caves where the San people slept and used as living quarters. The rocks were quite beautiful, even the ones without paintings because of their natural coloring.

The paintings were red and done with a combination of blood, animal fat and urine. Yikes! Who concocted that recipe?! Remarkably they have lasted for 3,000 years. Newer, white paintings have been done over top of some of the older ones.

After our hour and a half walk we went thru their museum, then headed to a place in the village where women sell crafts. Anton, our guide, suggested we patronize them because selling crafts is their primary source of income. We drove through the village and down a road to a fenced group of traditional buildings. Very soon, several women were there with some blankets and proceeded to display their crafts.

There were lots of beautiful necklaces and I purchased 2 of them as well as a keychain. It is made from coconut and an elephant, giraffe, acacia tree and an aboriginal hunter carved into it.

Soon more women came and many children gathered around. Someone asked for permission to take a photo and when it was granted, I followed suit. One little girl in particular, was not camera shy at all and managed to be in every one of my photos! I always show the photo to my subjects after shooting and they were tickled pink! I would have liked to stay longer but it we had to go.

We stopped in Shakawe at a grocery store for some snacks then went back to our houseboat via speedboat for lunch. After lunch, the houseboat headed back to where we first started from. At 4PM we got on board the speedboat once again for a bird watching excursion.

We saw a good variety of birds as well as crocodiles and hippos in the water.

With a moving boat and flighty birds, it was difficult to get good clear photos.

Oh well. I enjoyed the warm breeze, the peace and quiet, and the beautiful blue of the water and sky.

Although our guides said it was guinea fowl, supper was chicken I think. It is a warm evening but I expect it will cool off during the night again.

Day 20 - Shakawe Houseboat

We left Maun at 8:30 AM and headed north along black top. Today we have a nice van instead of our open safari vehicle. What comfort compared to other days. There were plenty of potholes but at least there was no wind blowing in my face and I was able to read my Kindle and snooze.

It was a long drive – about 5.5 hours. We had to stop to clean our shoes at a ‘Hoof and Mouth’ checkpoint again. And we had to stop and/or slow down at least a dozen times for animals crossing the road. They weren’t exciting sightings like giraffe or elephants, but cattle, mules, goats and horses. I thought we were going to hit some on occasion but we didn’t of course.

We arrived at our destination, Shakawe, at 2 PM and boarded our accommodation for the next 2 nights. We are travelling by houseboat down the Okavango Delta. The water where we flew over yesterday would have been impossible to navigate with a large craft. Further north, the channels are much wider and deeper. Our group of 9 plus 2 guides are only guests on this houseboat, which goes by the name of ‘Kabbo’.

After we put our stuff in our cabins we were served a nice lunch of spaghetti, meat sauce and salad. Another gal and I went for walk nearby before the boat took off but there really wasn’t much to see. On shore, there was a wooden canoe which I was hoping we were going to use but they have a larger craft for excursions. I sat in the canoe anyway, just for the experience.

Around 3:30 we left where we were moored and headed out at an easy pace. The grass along the banks is incredibly tall, perhaps 10-12 feet. There are quite a few birds in and around the water of course. We also saw crocodiles and even elephants.

I was in the middle of a great story on my Kindle and anxious to continue, so I found a quiet spot at the rear of the boat. It was most enjoyable sitting in the shade with a glass of wine. However when the sun came around, the heat in combination with the wine, made me quite sleepy so I lay down for a nap.

I was woken up by my roommate who came to tell me the sun was setting. It was beautiful and clear. We’ve noticed how perfectly blue the skies are here in Botswana, particularly in the Maun area. We have moored for the night and the mosquitoes and bugs are out in full force.

Supper was some kind of steak, noodles, veggies and a delicious coleslaw. It is very dark out there and much to our surprise we have an early morning tomorrow. It’s not 9 PM yet and many have gone to bed. I’m headed there soon. This is so not me!