Thursday, May 27, 2010

Botswana!

I’m back! After 16 days of travelling and living out of a backpack it’s nice to be home and sleeping in my bed. But it’s crazy to think that this is only my home for another 7 days. So below is my attempt at a relatively short summary of my week in Botswana...

I left Stellenbosch on the morning of May 11th and headed to Johannesburg with my friends Evan, Casey, Pablo, Chris, and Lydia. We ate at a delicious bakery near our backpackers, explored the huge mall down the street, and relaxed a bit. The next morning me, Evan, Casey, and Pablo were picked up at 6:15am and began our journey to Botswana. It took us 14 hours of driving to get to Elephant Sands in Nata where we ate dinner, pitched our tents in the dark, and spotted an elephant by the watering hole. More than half of those 14 driving hours were spent in Botswana, and the landscape remained the same the entire time. We drove through only 3 towns during that time and saw hundreds of donkeys, goats, and cows on the side of the road. Sometimes a small village of mud huts would appear, but the majority of the country is just vegetation.

When we woke up on day 2 we were lucky enough to see 4 wild dogs drinking and playing by the watering hole. They are really cool looking, kind of a cross between domestic dog and hyena. Once they scurried off and we’d eaten some breakfast we drove another 5 hours to Delta Rain in Maun. We pitched our tents, had lunch, visited the crocodile farm, took showers, ate dinner, and hung out at the bar. The next morning we packed up our things and hopped on an overland vehicle that drove us to the Okavango Delta. This is the biggest inland delta in the world and it's water comes down from Angola, Botswana's northern neighbor. After about 2 hours of driving out into what seemed like the middle of nowhere, we reached the water of the delta. A group of local men and women were there waiting for us with their mokoros, or dug out canoes. The ‘polers’ helped us load up the canoes and, using our mattress pads as seats, we all got comfortable in the little boats. These people are called ‘polers’ because they use a really long pole to navigate the mokoros through the shallow water. This 90 minute ride was one of the highlights of my entire vacation. After spotting some hippos in the water we arrived at our campsite. The ‘polers’ quickly built a fire, helped us pitch our tents, and dug a hole that would act as our toilet for the next 2 days.

While in the delta we went on four bush walks (just after dawn and just before dusk) where we saw zebras, impalas, wildebeest, hippos, and baboons. We also saw buffalo and zebra skulls, the entire skeleton of a giraffe, and tracks from hyenas and elephants. We spent the days hanging out at camp, practicing our own ‘poling’ skills, and bonding with our group. Besides us there were 2 Germans, 1 American, and 3 Canadians on our trip, along with our South African guide, David (sitting in the mokoro above), who was fabulous. He worked so hard driving us around and making delicious meals, and he speaks 9 of the 11 official languages in South Africa. In addition to David and our fellow tourists, the ‘polers’ camped with us and led the bush walks. The male ‘polers,’ Seven, Carlos, John, and Kevin, spoke English well despite Tswana being their native language. The four women didn’t speak English but they were friendly as well.

One night we went out in the mokoros for a sunset cruise around the delta which was beautiful. We were hoping to see some hippos out of the water during the cruise since we had been hearing their distinct noise all day and night, but we didn’t. They stay submerged in water, aside from their eyes and ears, from around 5am to about 8pm because their skin is too sensitive to be exposed to the sun. They make this noise that sounds almost like a cackling laugh and are extremely aggressive. It was neat to see them in the water, but I would have liked to see their full bodies because they’re absolutely huge (over 2 tons). You'll have to turn your head to see these hippos in the picture below because my computer won't let me rotate it

On day 5 of our trip we took the mokoros back to the mainland, then the overland vehicle back Delta Rain. After a much needed shower and nap we had a nice braai (barbeque) and got to bed early. The next morning we drove to Elephant Sands where we played some soccer, relaxed by the watering hole, and enjoyed our last night together as a group. Just before dinner a massive elephant came up and drank from the pool just 30 feet away from me. Later on another 2 came up to the pool while 13 others drank from the watering hole. We all went to sleep soon after dinner, but me, Evan, and our new friend Bob woke up around 2am because we heard a noise outside our tents. It didn’t take long for us to realize that an elephant was eating leaves off of the tree directly above our tents. We stayed up and listened until he silently walked away. It’s amazing that such a massive animal can move so quietly. The next morning, before we embarked on our 14 hour journey back to Joburg, we found elephant footprints a few feet away from our tents.

Thanks for reading and check back soon for an entry about the second half of my trip!

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