Week 1

Wednesday 20th April.

The adventure starts today...

We were up at 6am to get our bags packed into the tiny chartered overland bus, a Nomad company bus. We left at 7am sharp and were on our way to Namibia to pick up our truck. We had an almost smooth and quick border crossing from South Africa into Namibia in the afternoon, almost smooth because the grumpy immigration guy asked Alex if he was part of the crew, something Farron our driver had already told the man that he was the only employee but Alex thought by crew he meant 'team, family, group', so answered with "yeah I'm part of the crew". Nothing too drastic happened but it did take a little while for Alex and Farron to explain to the immigration guy what the confusion was.

We got to the Felix Unite campsite just over the Namibian border at 6.30pm, although we had to put our clocks back an hour so I guess it was really 7.30pm. Having only had short pee breaks and a lunch stop at petrol stations along the way we were all glad to strech our legs. Us newbies got a tent putting upping and a tent taking downing demonstration and then put up our own tents. We also got to finally meet our African Trails truck. It is so much bigger (abour twice the size) of the Nomad's truck and way more comfortable. We have pull down canvas blinds for windows so when it is open you can see everything and we have forward facing seats and inward facing seats, as well as a 'beach' at the back where some of the guys that have come down the west coast have camping chairs up there while we drive. It good to finally meet our home for the next 4 months.

While we were setting up our tents and finding the bar to buy a beer from the cook group started preparing dinner. Let me explain further... Everyone is put into groups of 3 or 4 people, Farron our driver selected the groups this time because he wanted a mix of oldies and newbies in every group as well as splitting up any couples/partners, but he said we can change them around after Victoris Falls in 2 weeks if we want. There are three jobs that need to be done on the truck:- Cooking: which means you are responsible for shopping for and preparing dinner and the following breakfast. Cleaning: which means you are responsble for doing the dishes after dinner and breakfast and loading everything back on the truck. And Security: when on security group it is your groups responsibility to ensure that when in public, say at a supermarket or petrol station, in a town or at a border crossing the truck is never left unattended. It is also the responsibility of the security group to hold the keys to the safe- which we call the 'toilet' so we can refer to it in public ("do you have the keys to the toilet?" sound much less tempting to thiefs than "do you have the keys to the safe?"), and finally when on security you need to ensure that the truck is all buttoned down and locked when everyone goes to bed at night.

Cook group made bangers and mash with baked beans as a sauce for dinner and I was on clean group with Wil and Lars so we did the dishes after dinner. After that Alex and I went back to the bar to have a nightcap and then made our way to our tent for our first night sleeping in the wild. All up we did 600 kilometers driving today.

Thursday 21st April.

The Amazing Race... through Namibia

We were awake at 4.30am and away at 5am. An ugly time of the morning, but we had a massive day of driving ahead of us. Farron explained at dinner last night that we want to fang it through Namibia to our camp site in Botswana so we could have more time there, rather than take it easier on drive days and having less time to do cool stuff at cool places. He also said that today would be the biggest drive day of the whole trip, western Africa included. Crikey. We didnt have breakfast straight away because it was so early so everyone piled onto the truck and fell back to sleep for a while and we stopped along the roadside for breakfast. Breakfast consists of a range of cereal and powdered milk, coffe and tea, sometimes tinned fruit and sometimes bread. It is the cooks groups responsibility to get the food out and clean groups responsibility to clean up afterwards. We had to start our antimalarials today but because we got up so early we didnt take it with food which gave us both a bit of a dodgy tummy for the next few hours. We stopped in a town in Namibia that had a Spars supermarket (Africas answer to Coles or Safeway) and were told to be back in 30mins but it was more like an hour because the cook groups for the next 4 nights had to shop, as well as everyone stocking up on munchy foods for the truck, lunches for the next couple of days, as well as alcohol. Wil, Lars and I are on cook group on Friday so we had to shop for that.

After finally getting moving again we drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. We pulled up at the Tropic of Capricorn sign at about 5pm for a photo op and Farron decided that rather than stop again further down the road we may as well have dinner there. So everything was pulled out of the truck and a small fire was started and cook group began preparing. We had tomatoes diced and marinated in a balsamic dressing and pasta. After a quick clean up by the clean group we were all back on the truck and ready to hit the road again. We knew that it was going to be a late night so Alex and I got our sleeping bags and climbed into them before getting comfy in our seats again, it made it a lot more cozy and easy to sleep especially after dark. After driving, and driving, and some more driving we finally pulled up on a soggy dirt road in the middle of nowhere to set up our first bush camp. By this time it was 11.15pm and everyone was well and truely buggered. We quickly got our tents up, setting them up in single file directly in front of the truck and went straight to bed. All up we did just shy of 1,000 kilometeres driving in one day. Holy crap. It was a long day.

Friday 22nd April.

Donkey Land (a.k.a. Botswana)

We woke up at 6am to have brekky and break down our tents so we could be on the road again by 7am. Everyone was still pretty buggered so most slept on the truck for a while. We reached the Botswana border at 9.15am and it was so busy no one could beleive it. We think the whole of Namibia was going into Botswana for Easter or something. We were through the border an hour and a half later and had to put our clocks forward an hour, making it 11.30am local time.

The difference in the landscape between Namibia and Botswana was instantly noticable. Namibia was very mountainous but very bare, sometimes passing huge sharp mountain ranges made of rock and grey sand as far as the eye could see for hours on end. But then it would change to lush green vegitation for a bit, then to grassy fields, then back to grey sand. There was also very noticable lack of people and animals in Namibia. The entire time we were driving through Namibia we would only see people and animals in the towns and surrounding areas, and I think we only passed 2 or 3 towns.

Botswana on the other hand is flat as far as the eye can see, we didnt see a single mountain. There are also plants, people and animals everywhere. People would be sitting on the side of the road hours from anywhere. And donkeys.... bloody donkeys. They are everywhere. They stand in the middle of the road and no matter how much Farron beeps the horn they only move at the very last moment, if at all, most of the time we have to slow down and go around them. There is also heaps of cows, goats and some horses just cruising around in the middle of nowhere crossing the road. We also saw some wildebeest and warthogs along the side of the road, not long after entering Botswana.

We got the camp site called Sedia Lodge at about 8.30pm and I was on cook group so I started that while Alex put our tent up. For dinner we cooked a spag bol sauce with heaps of vegies mixed through it and rice. It turned out really yummy but it did take ages and the rice was really hard to cook on a fire so it turned out to be really claggy. Apart from the 10pm dinner time and the claggy rice, it was really good though!
After dinner we had a game of beer darts for Eileen's 22nd birthday, where you sit in a circle with a can of beer in front of you and if your beer gets punctured you need to scull it. It was good fun, although a slow drinking game because you throw the dart one by one and with so many people playing, and darts rarely hitting the beers, the drinks were few and far between. This suited us though as we only had two beers and we also had to get up early again to head into the Okavango Delta. We ended up going to bed at about 1.30am.

Saturday 23rd April.

Bautiful Mokoro...

We were up at 6am and being on cook group I had to get the cereals, milk, tea and coffee out for everyone, while our resident fire starter Tony got the fire going. After brekky we had a bit of a rush getting our stuff together for the next 3 days because the only things we would have was what we could carry and this had to include water, cooking utensils, food, alcahol, tents, sleeping mats, chairs and bags and clothes. The transport utes were there to collect us at 8am and we left by 8.30am. Farron, Leigh, Sheri, Tony, Carroll and Jantet stayed behind at Sedia Lodge with the truck.

A short drive through the bush later and we were at the place where we got into the Mokoros and met our Pollers. The mokoro is a traditional canoe like boat that locals use to get through the delta. Originally mokoros were made out of wood, but it takes 80 years for a tree to grow big enough to carve a mokoro out of it and only 5-6 years for the mokoro to rot in the water, so not being very practical or environmentally friendly most mokoros are made out of fiberglass that looks like wood these days. All but two of ours were fiberglass. The pollers are the people thats stand at the back of the mokoro and push it along with a huge.... you guessed it.... pole made out of wood. Getting somewhat comfy in our mokoro, which hold two people plus bags we set off through the delta. It was so peaceful, there was no sound except for the periodic splashing of the poles in the water.

It was so beautiful being surrounded by water lillies and cruising through the tiny reed canals. ill never know how the polers find their way around these little canals, it looks litle a complete maze, but our poler George swore that they never get lost. Until we got lost... Well, George swears that we were taking a short-cut but the way was closed off by reeds. Whatever. We took a wrong turn. None of us minded getting to spend a little more time in the peaceful mokoros though. We hit land at 1.30pm and got to work unloading the mokoros and setting up our tents. We were given strict instructions not to leave the clearing in which we were setting up camp unless with a poler or a guide as this was a wild camp and we were not educated in how to handle ourselves if we were to come across a wild animal. We also had to be a toilet buddy with the person we were sharing a tent with so no matter what time of the night it was, if one got up to go to the dunny the other had to follow. The dunny by the way was a hole behind a tree on a path behind our tents. Five star indeed.

We had nothing planned until 5pm so Alex got his fishing gear together and we jumped into a mokoro with a poler who was also keen on fishing. He didnt catch anything but it was really nice sitting there in the sun, in the middle of the Okavango Delta. The poler, I think his name was Zero, had his fishing line on him but no worms so Alex gave him one of the plastic worms he has with him. The poler had never seen anything like it and was quite amused by it. We got back to camp with time for a quick siesta before our afternoon nature walk.

At 5pm we all piled back onto our mokoros and were taken to a nearby island. Once on the island we were split into three groups and each group had 2 guides. We walked for about 1.5hours learning about the local trees and bushes, spotting elephant and hippo poo and learning how to tell which one was which. We also learnt breifly what to do if we come across the animals of the Big 5 fame. I cant remember exactly (should have taken notes!) but for the most part running zig zag and climbing a tree seemed to be the way to go, unless it was a cheater and then your screwed no matter what.

Back at camp, cook group began preparing dinner which was pasta with a napoli sauce, it was plain but really really tasty. The rest of the night we sat around the camp fire with the guides and polers drinking red wine and swapping stories and went to bed in out tent without canvas on so we had the most spectacular view of the stars. What a life!

Sunday 24th April.

A day in the delta.

We were all woken up at 6am this morning for a big game walk, it had to be early so we could be back at camp before the sun got too hot. No time for anyone to have breakfast so we jumped in our mokoros and headed for a different island. We split up again into the same three groups as we had for the nature walk the day before and took off on our walking safari. We walked through a while through waist high grasses, water covered ground, palm tree patches, before coming to a vast grassy plaine. It wasnt too much longer after that that we saw a goup of 3 gigantic african elephants on the other side of the plaine. We stopped to look at them through cameras and binoculars, then we started moving closer to them. We got about 50 meters away from them and stopped to take it all on. They are so huge, you cant help but feel like a little ant in thier presence, yet they are so graceful and you can see the wisdom in thier eyes. We stayed with them for a while before moving on to see what else we could spot. Not long later we came across a heard of wildebeest, one of the Ugly 5 according to the guide. We also saw some pumba's (warthog) running around- quick little buggers they are- and then we came across a heard of zebra. we were standing admiring them and taking photos when a lonesome giraffe emerged from the trees. The giraffe walked with a limp as though it had been injured and Mr T, one of our giudes, said that is probably why it was alone and not with a heard. Spectacular to see, I felt like I was on some sort of Jurasic Park adventure walk.

By this stage it was 9.30am and starting to warm up so we started heading back to our mokoros... which were 1.5hours away. As much as it was a beautiful walk and a priceless experience walking with these animals, by the time we reached the mokoros I was about to loose my shit. A 4 hour walk in the Botswanian heat without food in our stomachs and not enough water to last us was perhaps not the best plan. We all collapsed into the mokoros and needless to say by the time we reached camp we were like a pack of wildebeest, grabbing any food we could lay our hands on. After eating and resting out legs we decided to go for a swim. So back into the mokoros for us. Almost everyone came for a swim in the swimming hole, and It was the highlight for me and Alex. The water was crystal clear, there were no reeds and it was the perfect tempurature. After a while people began leaving one by one until we were the last ones from our group there, and still in the water. I could have stayed there all day. It was amazing!

Eventually we decided to head back to camp and headed to our tent to have another siesta (have I mentioned yet how well this lifestyle suites me?!), waking up just in time for our 5pm sunset cruise. We were back in the mokoros and heading through the reed chanels to this really pretty clearing where we watched the sunset. Back at camp cook group started preparing dinner while the rest of us sat back and pondered how wonderful life is right now.

After a dinner of potato and soy meat curry the guides and polers performed for us around the fire with traditional singing and dancing. It was just fantastic, I couldnt get the smile off my face. After they finished thier performance we thought it only fair to all get up and embarrass ourselves. We performed a song that had the chorus of 'singing in the rain' in conjunction with movements of the 'simon says' game. They loved it and we all had a lot of fun.

Alex had been recording all of this on his ipod and plugged his ipod into the portable speakers Ben had brought and played it back to the guides and polers. They absolutley loved it! They had never heard themselves perform before and it wasnt too long before they were all crowding around us and the speakers listening and laughing. A magical moment we will never forget. One of the guides asked if we could put it on a disk and send it to him, we said absolutley, but it may take a few months to reach him. So as soon as we get to a computer with a cd burner on it we will be posting a copy to Action Jackson in Botswana.

Monday 25th April.

Flying High.

We were up at 6am again today so that we could pack up the camp site and get in the mokoros for our return trip. It took another 3 hours to get back to shore, reaching there about 10am. We said our thankyou's and goodbye's to the guides and polers and jumped into the utes that would take us back to Sedia Lodge. Once there we put our tents back up and went to the office to pay for our afternoon scenic flight over the Okavango Delta. It was a bit touch and go for a while with the person who was meant to make the booking for us failing to do so, also there were no seven seater planes left so we had to see if we could wrangle 3 five seater planes out of thin air (excuse the pun), you could only pay in visa or cash but couldnt sign for credit and no one knows thier pin numbers of the top of thier heads, and then there were one too many people so Felix dropped out so that Kate and Geoff could go on togther. But it all worked out in the end and in time for lunch. We headed to the bar to grab a burger and beer and finished that just in time to get on our truck and head out again. We left earlier so that we could stop at the supermarket and cook group could get dinner then we headed to the Maun International Airport.

After showing our passports to the company that do the scenic flights and going through an xray and metal detector we were walking across the runway to get into the plane. Alex got to ride shotgun with the pilot, which he was really excited about, Sheri and I sat behind him, and Kate and Geoff sat behind us.
The next hour was spent flying about 75 meters above the ground looking at the delta and its animals. We saw countless elephants, both single and in heards, doing elephanty things like walking through water, flapping thier ears and eating. We saw giraffe eating from the top of trees. And I was lucky enough to spot a hippo standing on the edge of the water! And we also saw lots of impala.

I had an image in my mind of what the delta would look like from the air and it was based soley on national geographic and the discovery chanel. I had expected it to be in a tree like shape, however it was not at all like that. It was random peices of land and water all joined by forests of reed and grass. It really was beautiful.

Landing at about 4pm we headed back to camp. Farron had decided that tongiht cook group wont run and instead we would all have a buffett dinner at the bar/restaurant paid for out of the local payment. Thanks Farron! After dinner of shredded beef, bq chicken, beetroot salad, chips and pap (an African staple food that is made of maize, has the texture of clag jelly and absolutley no flavour) most people went to bed and a few stayed up to drink.

James (jimmy; aussie), Ben (aussie), Yan (aussie), Felix (german), Eileen(canadian), Lars (norweigan) and us stayed up playing card drinking games. Alex went to bed at about midnight and I made it to bed at about 2.30am. It was a really fun night with lots of laughing and fun to be had.

Tuesday 26th April.

Bush camp.

We had a 'late start' this morning, not leaving Sedia Lodge until 8.30am. We hit the road and wanted to make it past the big town near the border of Zimbabwe called Francistown. We stopped for pee breaks and a lucnch break along the way but that was it until we found a dirt road up the back of the arse of the middle of nowhere and pulled over at about 8.30pm. I got about putting our tent up while Alex started cooking dinner with his cook group that had Andrea, Eileen and Jimmy also in it. They made a yummy spag bol for dinner, which was a good effort considering it rained constantly. I went to bed not long after dinner because I had a really sore throat and had bought a big fluffy proper pillow at a Spars supermarket and had to take it for a test run...

Wednseday 27th April.

Donkey is to Botswana what Crazy Money is to Zimbabwe.

We were up at 6am to have a quick brekky, pack down our tents and hit the road again. We got to the border of Zimbabwe at about 8.30am and had a smooth ride through, except for the two canadians who had to pay US$75 for thier visa. It was US$55 for UK and US$30 for americans, aussies, germans and norweigans. On the road again, we are heading for Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, which is the only place where we can get visas for Ethiopia from. We probably wont get there until 8pm tonight, or thereabouts, but are spending 3 nights in the one camp site called Boulder Creek Lodge. Looking forward to being able to catch up with things like washing and blog etc.

The first few hours in Zimbabwe we went through about 8 police checkpoints. There seemed to be one every 30-45 minutes or so. Farron has warned us that every police officer we see is looking for an excuse to rip us off by fining us for some bogus reason, and he has asked usnot to give them any reasons to, so sitting on the windowsill while driving and hanging out the window is out in Zimbabwe.

Farron went on to explain that every single person trying to change money for us into different currencies WILL rip us off, either by running with our money, giving us fake notes, or picking our pocket while doing the deal. So even though they might offer a much better exchange rate than the banks, dont use them. He also said to forget our plastic cards altogether in Zimbabwe. The local currency is a joke and so the currency used is US$, but at the first supermarket we stopped at I was given change in South African Rand, Botswana Pula, US Dollars, and one mystery coin, so apparently they will deal in anything other than Zimbabwe currency.

We have also been warned to watch ourselves and eachother in public places. Oppertunistic theft is the biggest problem, and Farron has said that if we make it all the way to Cairo without being mugged, stolen from, or pick-pocketed he would be surprised. He said to watch our personal space in public and that if anyone is walking close to us they are probably trying to steal from us, so he has told us to stop walking and stare at them until they walk away.

Although, as true as that all is, it doesn't change how nice the people are here. Everyone on the side of the road smiles and waves with such kindness and enthusiasm, it brings a smile to my face everytime. It has been making me think about the reception travellers get when they come to Australia, next time I see a bus of tourists drive past I'm going to smile and wave at them until my face hurts.