Botswana and Beyond

We spent a week in Bostwana enjoying the Okavango Delta and a whole lot of schnitzel. We stayed at Old Bridge Backpackers in Maun – a great laid back place with open air showers and toilets that you pull a rope across to signify that it is occupied. The owners were extremely helpful in organizing trips and there were 5 or 6 dogs to keep any animal lover satisfied. The drinks were cold and the conversation with other travellers interesting. One of our favourite places so far.

We took a scenic flight over the Delta on our second night in town at about 4:30pm. The light was beautiful and we were simply amazed at scenery. We saw a few animals from the air, but were more impressed with the channels and makoro routes through the reeds.

After a good nights sleep we decided to try our hand at basket weaving. Sadly our basket weaving skills are sub-par, but our coaster making skills are superb! The woman who was helping us out is one of the best basket weavers in the world, having won first prize at some big competition in the States. We were lucky she was there.

We also took a two hour walk through a local nature sanctuary and were able to see some zebras up close and personal rather than from a truck. The walk, however, was just a warm up to an amazing overnight makoro trip that we took through the Delta the next day.

We, and three other Canadians, packed up our camping gear and headed off into the middle of the Delta with three makoro pollers, some food and bug spray. We took a couple of nature walks and were given a safety lecture about what to do if we saw any of the Big Five animals charging at us. Basically it boiled down to run in a zig zag fashion and try to hide down wind, unless it was a lion coming after you, in which case we were to stand still and stare at it in the eye. Fortunately we only saw giraffes, zebras and hippos.  A few elephants came about 50 meters from our camp at night, but we couldn’t see them but we certainly heard them and saw their footprints the next day.

We are now in Livingstone, Zambia. We left Maun on Sunday and managed to make it to Livingstone in about 12 hours. The trip here was awful, but me made it in one piece. Imagine the TTC at rush hour, stuff about 50 more people on the car, no air-conditioning, a bumpy ride and stand for 4 hours – that was our bus trip for part of the way. We got across the border okay, and had to pay $50 US for a Visa.

We took a cab into town from the border post which turned into one of the more interesting, if not more scary moments on the trip. Part way into town the cab driver turned off the main highway onto some dirt road in the middle of nowhere. We weren’t sure what was happening, but as it turned out, there were police check points along the main highway that our driver had to avoid because his license had expired and the car would have been impounded had he been stopped. Nice. So we took a scenic hour long route through the back roads of Livingstone avoiding the cops.

We went to Victoria Falls yesterday which was simply amazing. There were baboons everywhere which kept Gillian happy.

We are leaving tomorrow for Lusaka and then off to Malawi.

We will post more photos when we find a suitable computer…

Gillian and Ian

Out of Africa and our minds

We crossed the Botswana border yesterday after three weeks in South Africa (really just Cape Town and surrounding area) and Namibia. We managed to hitchhike a ride at the border from two amazing South African guys all the way to Maun.

It turns out public transport is really thin or doesn’t exist on this route. We were crossing two very thinnly populated countries – and the least populated areas in those countries. Anyway, they had a sleeper van so we spent six hours lying in thier bed in the back – the most comfortable ride so far. And the cost was a few beers at our hotel at the end.

Here are some quick thoughts about the trip so far in South Africa and Namibia:

• SAFETY – Crime is pretty prevalent in the places we’ve visited. More serious than any other place we’ve visited. My second cousin in Cape Town had walls, electric fences and an alarm system at her house – and that seemed to be the norm at most places. Her daughter’s home has laser beams. We’ve been advised not to walk at night and have done so – catching cabs to and from restaurants when needed. In Swakopmund, Namibia, one of the tour vans was broken into while we were sandboarding. However, these criminals weren’t the sharpest since we were standing on a huge dune in the desert and could see for 10-15 km around us. So the head guide just called the local ATV company and provided directions to where the criminals were running so they could be rounded up. We found it interesting the ATV guys were called, and not the police.
• SUPPER – We’ve sampled a few local dishes – a few traditional braiis (bbqs) of lamb and sausage, and some pork schnitzel (Namibia was once a German colony).  But otherwise, we must admit most of our meals have been like back home, including Japanese, Thai and Italian.
• SUN – We enjoyed only sunny days in Namibia; however the temperature has been mild in the day and chilly at night. We actually had to buy blankets in Namibia’s capital because we froze in our tents (with two single beds) the night before. In Cape Town, we had a few nice days, but the last three were very wet. The rain came down so hard that water was gushing from manholes like fountains.
• SCENERY – The landscape has been pretty sparse with lots of shrubs, small trees and sand/sandy soil in Namibia. With the exception of the north area, the country doesn’t get a lot of rain.  There are some nasty thorn trees and bushes that have nabbed us a few times. The dunes is Soussesvlei and Swakopmund were amazing.
• SAFARI – We really enjoyed our first safari in Ethosa National Park. But we’ve also spotted giraffe, baboons, warthogs and springbok off the side of the highway while zipping past.
• SILLY – We went sandboarding in Swakopmund. This involved lying down on a piece of cardboard and flying down big sand dunes. Certainly not for the faint of heart. Gillian was the record holder in our group – clocking an impressive 70 km/h. She also took a hard landing at the end of one ride – bruising her chins and taking a good bite on her tongue.

Standing On The Atlantic Coast

We’ve arrived at the Atlantic coast in Swakopmund, Namibia and have two months to cross the African continent to reach Zanizabar, Tanzania on the Indian Ocean. (Yes, Cape Town is technically on the Atlantic side but I have no time for “facts”).

This city is pretty much in the middle of nowhere… just desert surrounds this tiny resort town. It took four hours in a local minivan to get here. My knees are still bruised after being jammed into the seat in front of me. We’re chilling out here for 4-5 days before making the Transvera (this is the real term for crossing a continent). Tonight we may go ATVing over the dunes before a nice sunset. Then we have some  sandboarding planned tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll have some sandpaper burns before I’m done.

We’ve cover a whole lotta miles in the past week while camping in Namibia. We spent some time in Sossusvlei and explored the biggest dunes in the world. The Dead Vlei (or valley of the dead) was pretty surreal. Lots of petrified trees with big dunes surrounding them. Then we did a three day safari in Etosha Wildlife Reserve and saw lots of animals including rhinos, giraffes, zebras and elephants.

Namibia is pretty empty – being only second to Mongolia in fewest number of people per square mile. So the long rides down the highway pass very little — just some petrol stations, groups of baboons and warthogs, the occasional town and lots of massive ant hills and shrubs.

Photos from Namibia

Hands up, this is a stick up

Huge dunes

Gillian freaking on a very steep climb

Thirsty tress. 600 years without water.

More huge dunes

South Africa photos

Reposting a few photos from South Africa. There were problems with the upload last week. Check out our flickr page on the right column for more.

Technical difficulties, new photos

Looks like the last couple posts with photos didn’t load properly and made a mess of the blog layout.

So I’m going to try again.

I’ve also posted a few dozens shots on my flickr page. Check out the first few down the right column of this page, then click on ‘more photos’ for the full monty.

Knackered in Namibia

What could be worse than a 20 hour bus ride up the southwest coast of Africa? How about an additional six hours due to delays. The bus arrived a few hours late at the Cape Town terminal. Then we got caught in some border silliness at 1am. This included two very slow Namabian custom agents for 120 people and getting an ‘extra special’ pat down by the South African border guards. Fortunately, we were able to get some sleep; although my knees are a tad sore from the ride. The sun coming up over the Namibian desert was quite cool.

As you can imagine, we’re a little tired today in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital. Our hostel bar and lounge is nice; however the only room they had left has a single bed, some shelves and barely any floor space. In fact, the bed blocks the door, so you can only get it open a third and then wedge yourself in. Since we are knackered, we decided to just deal with it for a night.

We’ve made arrangements to head off to tour the dunes (the biggest in the world) for three days then our first safari in Etosha National Park for three days. We’ll be camping and sleeping under the stars (well at least through the mesh in our tents) – which should be fun unless something tries to eat us.

Pictures to come soon. Having a little trouble with the uploading. I should have that figured out soon.

I&G

Cape Town Kicks Ass

As we head off to Namibia tomorrow morning, we offer you a few thoughts on our week in Cape Town. Monday we wandered the town getting our travel legs and trying to come to terms with the fact that we didn’t have to go to work – it wasn’t that hard.

Tuesday we woke up early and made our way to Robben Island to see where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner for 18 of the 27 years he was incarcerated. It was quite moving to be guided through the prison by an ex-political prisoner. Tuesday afternoon we headed up Table Mountain – an absolute must for anyone planning on visiting Cape Town, although an absolute don’t for anyone who hates heights.

Wednesday morning we took a tour of Langa Township – the closest Township to the city of Cape Town at a population of 250,000. We were unsure as to whether we wanted to participate in a tour like this one fearing that it would almost be like going on a human safari. We did feel a little intrusive, but what we learned from walking through this Township was tremendous. The poverty was heartbreaking and the warmth of the people and children was quite overwhelming…

Wednesday night was when our trip took a turn for the energetic and exciting. Ian’s second cousin Elizabeth picked us up from our hostel and has treated us to 4 days of good food, wine and crazy stories. She is quite honestly one of the most fascinating people we have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Thursday was terrible weather so we headed to the Museum and Planetarium. In the evening Elizabeth took us to dinner at her son Johnny’s house and then to a comedy festival where some of South Africa’s best comedians performed, including a friend of the family’s. We didn’t understand half the jokes, but laughed anyway.

Friday we left Elizabeth behind and headed to wine country. From 10am until 5pm we drank wine and brandy with Canadians, Aussies, Americans, some crazy drunk Dutch guy and a woman from New Zealand. We had a blast and Ian got blasted!

Today we had the most wonderful day driving along the coast line and coming face to face with African Penguins. Boulder Beach has a huge colony of penguins which anyone can come and visit in their natural habitat. We followed that with a trip to a theatre in Camp Bay to watch the musical Chess.

Tomorrow we leave for Namibia. The bus departs at 10am and we arrive in the capital Windhoek at 6am.

Smooches,

G & I