Chobe National Park, Botswana

Went on an excellent morning game drive here as soon as we arrived. The park was full of dead trees, reaching up eerily above the bushy smaller trees and scrub. Botswana has a non-culling policy, so the growing elephant population has done great damage. But as our guide said, "nature will take care of it."

Not surprisingly, we saw lots of elephants. Also kudu and a sable and a baby crocodile. There were marshall eagles and fish eagles and lots of pretty little birds I can't name. The Chobe river is still in flood, so there was plenty of water to add variety to the scenic wonders of the park. It was hard to tell which was the river and what was just flood-plain, but in amongst it all were some distant crocs and hippos.

In the afternoon we returned to the park for a game cruise. Again there was lots to see and oodles of lush scenery to soak up. Most of all there were elephants. Hundreds of them. All along the bank we saw groups coming down to drink from the river. Adults tried to shield babies. Babies suddenly shot off in a wobbly galloping toddle. And gradually the golden tones of sunset gave everything a wonderful warm glow.

A fabulous day. (Yes, another one!) A beautiful park, with so much to see. Only limits of time stop me waxing on...

Back at the campsite, I spent a very pleasant evening with a dashing (well, rather appealing) Afrikaaner called Willie :) Do all these Afrikaaners look as if they're warming up on the touchline and about to spring into action, or is it just the ones I've been meeting?

This 'ere truck

For those of you who've been emailing and leaving comments requesting more info on the truck and its inmates, here we go...

L to R: Marina, Nick, Phill

Phill, otherwise known as Sargeant Smutt, is really good company. And not always smutty.

A typical interior scene, featuring Denise, Aaron, Marina, Nick

Nick with his trusty guitar. He claims not to remember the night he serenaded me in Vic Falls.

The Truck.

Those of you who have been paying attention will know where and when this was taken. Also featuring Mckenzie modelling a classy camp chair and Sam cooking, with Steve trying to look useful in the background.

The driver.

That's him on the left. Sorry, Chris, not your best look.

Chris is our driver / guide / cook and all round good guy. Good company and really passionate and knowledgable about Africa.

A clearer, but not necessarily better, view of Sam. Another all round good guy. Guaranteed to say exactly what he thinks. Likely to remove his clothes when inebriated.

Steve. Another nice guy. Wow, the truck must be full of them! Something of a hidden gem I think, this one.

Tanya

Tanya had a certain something with her royal wave. Sweet girl, from Costa Rica. Lusted after by every male on the trip. Sadly she hopped off in Vic Falls.

Nick again. Well, really he deserves an entry of his own, but I don't want him to get ideas. Nick is a fabulous guy. "So nice," as he would say. Interesting to talk to and really interested in everyone he meets. Can usually be found surrounded by children or learning the latest local language or arranging to meet supermarket shelf-stackers in downtown bars. He's full of enthusiasm for everything: "I wish I had a trunk - I'd swing it about," or "Wow.. it's like I've got magic in my fingertips!" Plans to start med school and I reckon he'll make a lovely doctor. As long as he remembers to treat people after chatting to them...

To be continued...

Vic Falls revisted

Went back to the falls the next day. It couldn't possibly have the magic that it had when experienced on my own, but it was still awesome and we had a good time. The wind must have changed, as it wasn't nearly so wet. Although sitting at danger point still had a saturing effect.

We stayed in town for a few days. Went out for a couple of good meals - warthog, impala, crocodile and ostrich all went down very well.

Lots of our group went bungee jumping, and again I longed to jump. But too late in the day. Hey, ho, maybe next time - I should be back at Vic Falls in a couple of months.

The whole group booked on to a sunset cruise (for sunset, read booze), which was only mildly scenic, but great fun nonetheless. It all got more exciting when the engines failed and we drifted helplessly downstream towards the thundering falls. No, not really. So we made our own, strange, entertainment.

The evening carried on in a beery vein when we got back to the campsite. Lots of people decided to go swimming, but I chose to sit and sip quietly. Then noticed Nick and Sam striding purposefully towards me - I just had time to rip off my shorts and shirt before being hurled into the pool. Fun and games in the pool, then later back in the bar... more fun and games. 'Truth or dare' soon became 'truth or truth', though I don't think anyone was called upon to reveal anything we didn't already know. Hugs and kisses were freely given by the lovely boys. Sam appeared naked, clutching his shorts and shirt and asking if anyone had seen his clothes. Or was that another night? Then there was the evening in the truck with Nick and his guitar...

There were a few green faces as the boys poured themselves onto the truck in the morning.

So we left Vic Falls, a place of rapture by day and partying by night, and headed for Botswana.

Vic Falls Photos

Managed to take a few photos in the drier places on my return visit, though none of them do justice to the falls. No words nor pictures can capture what I saw and felt.

Victoria Falls

When I saw Victoria Falls, I cried.

It is the most spectacular sight I have ever seen. It's staggering.

The trail leads to numerous viewpoints, each wetter than the last. Some were dryish, some just sprayed you with a fine mist, but some were beyond belief. The spray fell like rain - as heavy as anything a Malaysian storm can throw at you - but from all directions - above, below, this side, that side. Rivers of water ran down my back and stomach, into my shorts. It smacked me in the face and under my chin. I ran through it, stood in it, held out my arms to embrace it, and laughed.

The falls are on the opposite side of the gorge from the trails and there was really only one place where I could see the river below. The water must only have been halfway down its fall when it met the spray coming up.

At Danger Point there is no fence, and I lay on the rock with my head hanging over the edge, into the gorge. My face was battered by a gravity-defying power-shower. There was nothing to see - a total whiteout - but it was fantastic to be there, to hear it and feel it and be part of it.

In other places I stood and gazed, hypnotized by the water till I wanted to fall with it.

A small horde of Chinese tourists juggled optimistically with a hopeless combination of umbrellas, ponchos and cameras. One dear lady kept determinedly tucking me under her umbrella. And before I knew it they were all taking turns to pose with me for photos. They were a sweet crowd, but I was glad when eventually I made my escape.

Another trail led to a point where you could see the Zambezi bridge and the gorge beyond the falls - a view interrupted every few minutes by someone plummeting down from the bridge attached to a large rubber band. For the first time ever, I wanted to bungee jump, just for the sensation of leaping into the gorge which had been tugging at me all morning.

In a dry sunny spot at Livingstone's feet, I sat and steamed. Soon I was dry enough to go and get wet again. And so the day wore on. Finally leaving, it felt all wrong to turn my back and go.

The Road Ahead

Driving through Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, I've started to get a sense of the vastness and varied beauty of this mighty continent. Watching the road reach out ahead, I found myself wanting to run towards each receding horizon.

Chris had a simple (so obvious!) solution, which didn't actually involve throwing me off the truck and driving away. Set off early in the morning, then walk till the truck catches up. So today I did that. And at the lunch stop I did it again. With an idiot grin on my face each step of the way.

Matobo National Park

We had a wonderful guide, Brian, for this trip out to the park. He was knowledgable, interesting and enthusiastic.

Almost as soon as we'd entered the park, we spotted two white rhinos grazing. We hopped out of the little open truck thingy and gradually approached them. For ten, maybe fifteen minutes, we stood and watched them from just a few metres away, while Brian told us in hushed tones all that anyone could possibly want to know about rhinos.

We checked out a spring and nearby found a recently killed zebra, its blood still wet on its wounds. Almost certainly the loser of a young males' fight.

The park was beautiful. The sky was a huge, improbable blue, with not a cloud to be seen.Sitting by the lake at lunchtime, I could smell the hot earth.

We also visited caves to see bushman rock paintings (of disputed age). Again, it was great to have a good guide to explain them, although I'm not really sure that so many references to large buttocks were strictly necessary.

The second cave site involved a walk through a truly impressive rocky landscape. After seeing the paintings, we headed up to the top of a hill - well, a huge lump of rock - where I slunk off from the group for a much needed dose of solitude. The scenery took my breath away, and made my heart ache for this wounded country.

Bulawayo

Bulawayo struck me as a charming town, with its wide streets, flowering shrubs, bits of colonial architecture and local bustle.

Visited Chipengali animal orphanage, which is apparently a kosher orphanage. Good close-up viewing of leopards and lions etc. A bit too close maybe for those who got sprayed by one of the lions.

Some pics from Chipengali:

Antelope Park

We drove from Great Zimbabwe into the sunset, to Antelope Park, near Gweru. This seemed like quite an upmarket resort - and a circus.

A member of staff came to give us a briefing on all the activities on offer: walking with lions, hunting with lions, lion cub viewing, elephant riding, elephant swimming, elephant training... I'm surprised they didn't have seals balancing balls on their noses.

As my fellow truckies eagerly signed up, my heart sank. This wasn't the Africa I had come to see and I didn't want a part of it. I managed to stay out of arguments about how I felt about what they were doing, and spent a pleasant day reading and doing exciting things like some washing.

The park claims to be running a captive breeding programme aimed at releasing lions into the wild. In twenty years they haven't yet released one, though apparently they hope to do so soon. Whether their lions end up in zoos or being 'hunted' by rich tourists who like shooting semi-tame animals isn't quite clear. I certainly can't see how a life of playing with humans is going to prepare a lion for the wild.

Still, it was nice to camp on the banks of a crocodile-infested river. And to make use of the swishest ablutions block in Africa.

Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe is indeed great. Dating from the 13th Century, it is "the greatest medieval structure in sub-saharan Africa". It gave its name to Zimbabwe and it's fascinating place. Its dry-stone walls seem barely battered by time. Goods from Arabia and China were found there, along with the famous soapstone birds - one of which graces the national flag.

Nick posing in front of the scene on the 10,000 dollar note.

Photos

As you may have noticed, I'm still having trouble with photos, this time with the uploading. Watch this space...

Harare

For some absurd reason my head was constantly singing "Harare" to the tune of "Valare". Well, Dad's version of the tune of Valare, as it's the only one I know. It was unexcitingly like any other city, and penniless as we were, we felt we had exhausted it's charms in an hour.

At the Zimbabwean border this morning, we had taken the exchange desk by surprise by trying to change some money. The poor chap behind the counter looked quite befuddled and had to call reinforcements to turn computers on, unlock money boxes and find receipt books. Not surprising really at Z$250 to US$1. Later that day we got a rate of 13,000. Today (a week later) it is up to 20,000. The idea was to change a little so that we'd have at least one official receipt as the 'parallel' rate is illegal. How this is meant to work beats me - a small bottle of water cost US$52 at the offical rate! I thought there might be some complicated economic reason why this dual system works, but I'm assured that it's because "Uncle Bob lives in cloud cuckoo land". No doubt Simon will be able to furnish me with a good explanation if there is one.

We also took the good (but possibly in-bred) folk at our campsite by surprise, due to a communications error. I guess Harare isn't really on the tourist trail these days, but they turned on the water and rushed off into town to buy beers and snacks and whatever else you need to stock a bar and generally made us feel welcome. And found us some Zim dollars, so much fun was had clutching six and a half million dollars before divvying it up.

If you don't hear from me again, it's because Uncle Bob has read my blog...

Mozambique

This was the second best sign I spotted in Blantyre. My favourite was painted on a supermarket wall:

WE SELL:
EDIBLE GROCERIES
INEDIBLE GROCERIES

- I can't remember what else they sold, and unfortunately didn't have time to get a photo.

We left Blantyre and headed for the border. We only had to sit around at the Mozambique post for a couple of hours, which is apparently quite good. Plenty of time for lunch while our visas were being processed.

We pulled off the road to set up camp for the night, just before the sun sank, sending the flat-topped acacia trees and yellowing long grass into scenic silhouette. The sky was clear and I gazed at the stars till my neck ached. Sat round a roaring bonfire and it was hard - so hard - to tear myself away to go to sleep. Could happily have stayed up all night. I wish we had more bushcamps - you only need a beer and a shower every now and then, after all. Although the air was cooler, the groundsheet was still warm to touch from the hot dry soil beneath and I slept bagless with the tent open, until woken by a group of people trying to drive a donkey cart through our camp - we were blocking their path, but their chatter didn't sound angry.

A shame not to have seen more of Mozambique, rather than just drive across it. Next time, next time...

Lake Malawi

Spent four days in one place! Kande Beach campsite, on the shore of Lake Malawi, by the village of Mbambo. This has been a real highlight of the trip, due to plenty of (very enjoyable) interaction with the local villagers.

Just a couple of minutes' walk from the campsite there was a row of craft stalls where all sorts of things, but mostly Malawi chairs, were being carved and sold. Many of our group spent a long time negotiating prices (to their delight these often included items to barter - literally the shirt off your back), and specifying the designs they would like carved into their chairs. All of this business was conducted sitting in the craft huts, in between being taught to play bao. Since I wasn't buying chairs, I played a lot of bao and had the chance to talk to lots of people and photograph adorable children.

On our second day in Mbambo, we set off early to buy dinner. It was curled up cutely looking at us when we first met it, and tied to a huge stake by the time we eventually got it back to camp. The pig roasted slowly over the fire all day. I took a break or two from tending it (actually sitting around watching Chris do the man-with-big-fire thing) now and then for a swim in the lake. Bilharzia? We play with fear! As the afternoon wore on, it seemed appropriate to finish preparing the punch by chucking a few bottles of pop into the pot where the fruit had been soaking in spirits all day. Then it seemed appropriate to taste it... Suffice to say a good time and lots of pig was had by all. And a very revealing game of 'I have never'.

The lake is beautiful. The only problem was that I kept calling it the sea. It's huge. Waves lap up on the sandy beach... great for swimming and no sticky saltiness!

Another day we played a football match - our truck against the village. I explained that I can't play football, but that made no difference - I was there in the starting line-up. Successfully made contact with the ball, ooh, maybe once. My embarrassing uselessness didn't seem to matter and certainly didn't stop it being great fun. That evening we went for a meal at a villager's house - great to try some local food. After dinner the massed choir of Mbambo's children sang and danced for us and soon had us up dancing and singing too.

On our last night in that campsite I went off to my tent for an early night and a good read. Soon the wind was getting up so I went out to do some re-pegging as the tent started to shudder and sway - not easy to get a firm fix in the sand. Could hear distant thunder and rain was starting to spatter. Was back inside, firmly in the middle of the tent away from potential leaks when the storm hit. It felt tremendous - howling winds making the tent flap and billow and shake, drips coming in... began to wonder whether the tent would last the night - and whose I would run to when mine collapased!

Left that campsite this morning and drove all day to reach Blantyre.

Hope to add photos to this before you see it, but will publish anyway as after tomorrow there will be no internet again for a while.

Everything going pretty well. No bad side-effects from the larium (don't think erotic dreams about my fellow travellers count). Every day think to myself how pleased I am that I had my eyes done. Having clean clothes feels like a luxury... It's a good life.

A step-by-step guide to roast pork

Tanzania to Malawi

Entered Malawi at Karongwe, followed the lake South, left it to go over the hills before reaching Nkhata Bay. Now in Blantyre. From here will go into Mozambique, crossing the Zambezi before bush camping near the Zimbabwe border. From there we head to Harare.

Click on map to go to larger enlargable version. I hope.