Leaving the Delta
More hippos overnight, and another sunrise walk. We didn’t spot many animals this morning, but there were a few hippos heading back to the water after grazing on grasses on land overnight. We loaded the mokoros with all our things, being careful to make sure EVERYTHING we had taken in to the delta was also […]
Okavango Delta Bush Camp
During the night we were awakened by a hippo grunting and munching very close to our tent. It definitely discouraged getting up to go to the toilet-hole dug out behind the campsite. Our very-early-morning game walk demonstrated that even though we had been challenged in spotting animals on our previous walk, there were many, many nearby. The quantity […]
Mokoro
The delta trip began with an hour-or-so-long jeep ride to the delta. There was a bit of confusion and waiting around as other groups were returning to shore and polers (those local men and women with excellent balance who pushed the mokoros along with poles deep into the delta) were shuffling people and belongings. Our […]
Maun
After a lunch break in Nata (halfway between Kasane and Maun) and several more hoof and mouth inspections, we arrived in Maun to the Sedia Hotel, where we’d camp one night in preparation for our delta trip. The Sedia Hotel looked rather nice, with a restaurant, bar, reception are, and very decent pool. We’d decided […]
Hoof and Mouth: Botswana Border Crossing
A bright and early start Our two firestarters Donny and Rowan had volunteered for the one permanent position on our overland trip through Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. They were probably thinking it would enable them to avoid cooking and cleaning duties (the rotating teams). Of course, it didn’t hurt that “firestarter” sounded so […]
Livingstone Recovery
The market in downtown Livingstone is filled with woodcarvings of hippos, giraffe, warthogs, elephants, etc. They are lovely…but many are huge…and heavy, or fragile! How do people ever get them home? Some of the others had gone to the market with their T-shirts, shoes and things to trade for some of the carvings and other […]
Victoria Falls
Day 2. Rather than waste more time trying to get a status update on the lost luggage on a Sunday, we head to Victoria Falls. A 20,000 kwacha taxi ride got us to the front gates of this World Heritage Site. We visited the small visitor’s center, which displayed detailed information in a single room […]
Welcome to Livingstone
We’re not sure if Donny is cursed or if I’ve just been lucky, but his bag’s gone missing AGAIN! Thats 2 for 2. After losing hope the bag was just taking too long to be unloaded from the flight from Cape Town (via Johannesburg) we filled out the now-familiar forms with South African Airlines and […]
Namibia Nomad
We are leaving for a three week trek overland through Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and back to Cape Town. We ran around yesterday getting last minute supplies (sleeping bag and roll mat, cutlery, plate and mug, etc.) We had pretty much everything else we think we’ll need. Not having planned ahead for a trip like […]
Hoerikwaggo
The original inhabitants of the Cape – the Khoekhoen and San tribes – called Table Mountain Hoerikwaggo – “sea mountain,” and we had a beautiful hike to the top. The cloud that often surrounds it, otherwise known as the tablecloth, was nowhere to be seen as we started our trek. The route we took was through […]