1/9/19
Yesterday was a very chill day, and so I decided again to skip the day’s diary. We left Elephant Sands fairly early in the morning and made our way over to the town of Maun. Once we got to the campsite, we had lunch and a few people went off to do a scenic flight. The rest of us could go into town to shop around and wait for the flights to finish, but I decided to stay back with a couple of people. A wise decision in the end as the town’s appeal had been greatly exaggerated apparently!
This morning, we were getting ready to head out to the Okavango Delta overnight. Armed with our day-packs, we hopped onto our ride for the morning. Our ride was an open-air truck, with the seats set out laterally facing outwards. No seat belts, no wind stop, and no sides of the truck to keep us safely in the vehicle: perfection!
The morning had already started off being cold, but with the open sides of the truck, we moved on to freezing. We all sat there squished like penguins, wrapped up in our hoodies as much as possible. Essentially a bunch of penguin eskimos. Fancy looking people.
On the way, we stopped briefly at a hotel to pick up food supplies that had been made ready for us. 3 massive crates placed at our feet, right in front of our seats. We were already poised against the sides of the truck to not fall off, but from this point the level of comfort for the lucky few sitting in front of the crates dramatically decreased with this new addition!
After a solid 2 hours – most of which on bumpy, sandy roads which made us hate life – we finally made it to the Delta “station”. Essentially it’s a hub of mukoros – a local canoe pushed around with a pole – to get everyone across the Okavango Delta to our camp. Each canoe could only take 2 people and a guide/poler, so we paired up and off we went.
The first 5 minutes were quite terrifying. The boat goes quite low into the water, we’re sitting with our bags between our legs and the guide is standing the back pushing the canoe around with a pole and trying to keep the balance. I was less than confident about the safety of my camera in my backpack, expecting us to tip over at any point and have to hold my bag high up above my head.
But I the end the ride was quite pleasant. Just over an hour of travelling along the delta through very tall reeds. It was a very pleasant trip, almost peaceful and relaxing, despite the constant threat of crocodiles, hippos and water snakes. Or worse: jumping spiders and frogs. I just knew if a frog jumped on the boat, I’d be swimming the rest of the way there!
The campsite we were staying at had our tents ready for us, complete with camp beds and a toilet in the back. Or rather a pit toilet in the back, and on-request bucket showers. Very luxurious. Unfortunately for us, we had to wait about 2 hours for lunch to be ready, which for a bunch of ravenous people was not an easy task. But well worth it in the end, as they served us a local dish which tasted fantastic.
We had a few hours to waste after lunch, so a few of our group members decided to try their hand at the mukoro manoeuvres. We were taken to a smaller and shallower part of the delta – you know, to avoid the hippos… – where I grabbed Vincent’s phone to take photos and went on to encourage our boys to pole around. To my disappointment, they did splendidly and did not fall in.
Around 16:30, we headed off to our game walk. Having done the walk at Lake Naivasha, this one turned out to be quite underwhelming as we walked a lot, on sand, to see only a couple of giraffes and zebras mainly, but from quite a distance. Our guide was keen on giving the fun facts of animal poo, picking up different poos one after the other and showing us the animal’s diet. Interesting stuff, but I was hoping very much that this guy would not be on the cooking team for dinner…
After the walk, we were offered a full 3 course dinner: soup, stew and dessert. I had hoped to get an early night of sleep, but we were called around the camp fire for some fun and games. The tour guides provided some singing and dancing, then started on a round of memory and reflex game – which I actually almost won, losing the tie-breaker in the end – and then some riddles. So much for an early night!
2/9/19
Vincent tried out the shower bucket in the morning, but the fear of running out of water right in the middle of the “soap” phase made me decide to skip it this time. We got up nice and early and were served a quick breakfast before packing up our stuff and heading back out to the delta and the mukoros.
From the edge of the riverbank, we could very clearly see no less than 3 hippos swimming around in the water which we were about to cross. I thought for sure we would be stranded and need to wait for them to leave, but instead we were each put back on to our mukoros and headed out, going along the sides of the pool until we reached the small canals and made our way back out. Needless to say that entire time, my eyes never left the hippo heads bobbing up and down in the centre of the water!
The ride back to shore was a lot more relaxed than it had been on the way out, and I took the risk of taking some photos along the way. Even though the wind made the water ripple and made our guide wobble a lot more. And despite the fully grown hippo we crossed along the way, which went from standing on the bank to sliding into the water and made the boats go a lot faster all of a sudden. After all, they do hold the title of the most human deaths by animal around here…
After about an hour, we made it back to the shoreline and hopped back onto the uncomfortable lateral-facing truck. This time, I got the crates under my feet and I confirm: the level of comfort drastically drops with that. By the time we had gone through the bumpy roads, highway, and bumpy roads again, my bum was completely numb and my back begging or mercy. So I was really excited to get the afternoon off to relax.
We didn’t have anything planned for the rest of the day, so we spent our time going back and forth between the bar and the pool. The highlight of the day was one of the cats roaming around the campsite which was very friendly and purred so loud it could be heard all around the campsite. Reminded me of my first cat actually. We were eventually served dinner at the restaurant, and I chose to catch up on the sleep I’d missed the night before by having an early night.
3/9/19
What a luxurious morning! We were able to sleep in till about 8:00 and were then awarded crepes for breakfast. Between 24 people having breakfast, more or less, it made for much fewer pieces than I had had with Pete before, but I suppose 2 crepes for breakfast is a good start. Especially when paired up with Nutella. I’ve now earned the nickname: Nutellodie.
We left the campsite at 10:00 and drove off towards our next stop in Ghanzi. Along the way we had to stop once again for the foot and mouth control. Once again walking out in the incredibly hot sun and walking on a wet cloth. Getting a little tired of this so I’m hoping Namibia doesn’t play this game as well.
Once in Ghanzi, we stopped to pick up snacks, drinks and help Justin with the full shopping for the next few days. Considering we have a full day drive coming up tomorrow and the day after, we desperately needed to stock up again. Plus it offered an opportunity to pick up some hot lunch, because quite frankly, I think I’m at my limit of how many ham/salad sandwiches I can eat.
We made it to the campsite around 15:30 or so and put up our tents in the sweltering heat of the Kalahari desert. We then spent some hours lounging by the bar for some cold drinks but before the internet was turned on. The joys of being out in the middle of nowhere: limited electricity…
At 17:30, we were met by our guide Robert and a small group of Kalahari bushman. These people are still following the ways of their traditional people and refusing as much modernity as possible. And for the first time, these definitely felt authentic. No Rolex, no smartphone, not even shoes or any knowledge of the English language – hence Robert acting as our tour guide.
This tour was absolutely fascinating. For starters, the language of these people is like nothing I had ever heard before, with a lot of guttural sounds and clicking their tongue as part of a sentence. They were dressed inn animal skins – mainly dik-dik skin – which they dye with a special root they dug out to show us. The aim of this being to camouflage them further and make the skins water resistant.
Our guide did the translation for us, but the people took turns in acting out full scenarios of what they were explaining to us. One guy showed us how they would have hunted back in the day, using poison on their arrows to wound their prey. This bit was easy enough to decipher, but when they started explaining their medicinal roots, it took some imagination and made for a lot of laughter. When a guy starts acting out diarrhoea in his own language you can do nothing but laugh really.
We were introduced to a root which is used for soap, and were given a demonstration with the water brought in one of the women’s water bottles: an ostrich egg with a root shoved into a small hole to keep the water in. They too were fascinated with us as some of the ladies were on their very first tour for foreigners. They were in particular intrigued with one of our guys’ calves, which are basically just rock-hard muscle, and started to tap them and grab them asking what he ate to get them so tough! Priceless!
Once back at the campsite, I chased Robert down to try to ask him some more questions about the bushman way of life which I found fascinating. The main interest was on how they survive, given that the government has forbidden them from hunting. Consequently they have been forced to do this sort of tour guiding to make money to purchase their meat instead of continuing their traditions.
Dinner tonight was Eland antelope steak, and boy oh boy was it good stuff! So good I went back for more and am very excited about the upcoming game meat experience we’ve booked ourselves into. About halfway through Justin’s explanation about Namibia, a few of us had to excuse ourselves to go watch the traditional dances of the bushmen.
The dances proved to be equally as interesting as the tour itself had been. Apparently they use medicinal dances as a last resort when their traditional medicine doesn’t work for the ailment the doctor is trying to fix, and dance from dusk until dawn. We were shown some of these dances, which are named usually after an animal and expressed in the moves. My favourite has to be the truffle dance, which goes through the motions of searching for truffles, finding and eating them, along with cracking them all over the floor to make new truffles for next year.
With the dances over, we went back to the tent and watch Michael try his hand at the astrophotography again. This time with amazing results! But no time to reflect on those for too long, we had an early morning departure the next day and needed all the sleep we could get before the long drive into Namibia.
Elodie's Travel Diary 