Thanks Boulder - will always love you!!!

2 Years, Fab friends, Graduate degree, Fun in the mountains,  Buffalo and sooooo much more.

Thanks Boulder, My Cohort and Naroapa for an amazing ride and experiences.

Algoinquin Park Summer 2010

In the woods for a few days, yes we can live in 1 & 1/2 person tent in rain storm.

More crazy adventures - Horse on 4 day solo in Sept.

Back to India and off to Boulder

Hello all we are off again into the wild blue yonder. Heather to the East -INDIA and Brad is "heading west Young Man" to Boulder CO.

For Heather Two weeks in Thiruvannamalai located in the Hills of South India to finish a year of Yoga teacher training.


Brad is off to school for his Masters of Arts in Environmental Leadership at Naropa University Boulder.


More info as things unfold - be well and safe travels

B & H

We are Back safe and sound here is a sample of our photo's

Hello all - we are back safe and sound. Heather is working on the rest of our Africa blog entries, I've posted a few photo as may of you have been asking if were back and okay.

Cheers - more to come Brad

Happy Birthday!!

The wake up to go on the game walk was 6 am! Brad and I decided to skip the walk and sleeeep innnn…. Ahhhhh. We heard the group arrive back in camp around 7:30 and decided we had better get up. On emerging from the tent everyone burst into a rousing version of Happy Birthday for our very own Brad Brad Wong.

We found out that the group that had gone out on the walk got to see some hippos frolicking about but that was about it. Steph had stayed behind from the walk and had whipped up some super delicious fruit pancakes. Yum and thank goodness! I was getting a bit tired of cereal and white bread with medium fat spread. After everyone had eaten, cleaned up, packed up and loaded the makoros we were heading back to the poling station.

The days always seem to start with very pleasant weather, by noon you head into unbearable heat and then when the sun goes down it drops back into the pleasant zone. It can even get what you might consider chilly – usually around 3 am. Crazy place.

As we pole along, it is getting warm. Sabrina and Anna are learning tswana from their poler. I’m not sure if he’s teaching them dirty words or if its their accent that is making our poler, Lee, laugh so much.

Back at the depot and the same frenzy seemed to still be operating. The boats were unloaded and the truck loaded up with all our gear. Our driver had arrived with a cooler of beer, coke and water. It’s only 10:30 am but we’re pretty sure it’s afternoon somewhere. The drive back to our campsite takes an hour and a half and now it’s too hot to put up the tents. We just unload them and leave them sitting until it cools off later in the afternoon.

Everything that was taken into the delta has to be washed and sanitized. This is to take all the dust and dirt off as well as to make sure that no one gets sick. Once that is done we, you guessed it, head to the bar and swimming pool. Lunch was the usual luncheon meat, cheese, tomato and cucumber sandwiches. I can’t take it anymore… we eat fries and samosas in the bar. Everyone (except us) is taking the delta flight. We decided that we’d hang out and relax as well as save some dough. The flight takes you in a small five seater plane to look for animals in the delta.

We drove into town with the group a bit early to hit the internet, exchange dollars and pick up supplies. We stopped at Nando’s for a yummy chicken burger but didn’t manage to get enough time to get on the internet. We figured we’d do it later when the others were on their flight.
Back on the truck and a quick drive to the airport. We went to the upper lounge to watch them take off in their wee little planes. We headed across the street to find and internet café but it was closed! Tony was gone with Shangani to get something welded and the others won’t be back from their flight for an hour. No options, we head to the bar.

.... to be continued...

Ya, but it's a dry heat...

Wake up call? You guessed it… RFE!! (Really freaking early.) We are being taken out on a large open air truck with all our tents and gear for our night in the delta. We have to take our tents, a day pack, coolers with the food, utensils, the whole nine yards. I seemed a bit frantic and frenzied getting ready this morning. I mean really… is the delta going to go somewhere without us?

It was a warm evening and the morning is nice but it is promising to be Africa hot today. Everything is stacked and ready to go by the road. We dropped some clothes at the reception for laundry. It will be ready to be picked up when we get back. The truck arrives and the loading begins. The truck has a long middle bench seat so everyone sits facing out. All the gear piles under the seats, all the people pile on and we’re off. It is an hour and a half drive to the poling station. Some of the areas we drive have large numbers of trees that look like they’ve either been hit by lightening or there’s been a large windstorm. We found out later that they’ve actually been knocked down by elephants. We heard also that there is a real concern about the amount of deforestation that they are causing.

We arrived at the poling depot and it seemed like swarms of people and activity descended on the truck. I grabbed my pack and tried to stand out of the way. The makoros are flat bottom canoes that are about 12 to 16 feet long. They are traditionally made from the sausage tree (?) but some of them are made now from fibreglass. The fibreglass ones don’t leak as much. They are used on the shallow channels in the delta by the Tswana tribe to get around. Everyone was paired with a poler and the makoros were loaded up. We put our sleep pads down in the makoro and leaned against our day packs as we reclined in the low riding canoes. They are propelled by a poler who stands in the rear and pushes the boat forward with a long pole (also 12 to 16 feet long).

Our poler is Lee. He tells us that he is the fastest poler. They have races every year in the village and he is last year’s champion. We moved at a leisurely pace through the reeds for about an hour and a half to reach our campsite. There are narrow channels through the reeds from constant travel by the makoros. The water seems to be only about 4 or 5 feet deep in most places. It is so relaxing to be floating along, the peaceful rocking of the boat and gentle swishing sounds of the water and the quiet conversation amongst the polers as they guide the boats through the water. I started to drift off to sleep more than once. Plenty of bugs found their way into the boat and, since I was in the front, I got to deal with the myriad of cobwebs. Lee tells us that he is the oldest of his family and that he has 6 sisters and 3 brothers. That is one big family to support!

It’s starting to get really hot now as we head into the afternoon. We pole past a larger and deeper pool that is the home to several hippos. There are also smaller pools dotted with beautiful water lilies in full bloom. Lee picked one and gave it to us. We arrived at our campsite around 11:30 and set up the tents. It’s way too hot during the middle of the day to do much of anything really so we have free time until 3:30. We’ve been travelling at such a frenzied pace, always on the go that we hardly know what to do with ourselves! It is also now so hot that we don’t want to do anything. I can’t find anywhere comfortable to sit and there is very little shade to be found. There is a swimming hole close by that we walked over to but it was way too hot for me to get into the tent to even try to drag on my bathing suit. I walked to the swimming hole and just stood in the water up to my knees to cool off. The thermometer on the backpack says that the tent is 50C. We decided to take our packs out of the tent and put them in the shade so that everything would not melt! The reading in the shade is a mere 35C.

To distract themselves, several people had pulled out the sleeping pads and started playing cards. The polers taught them a card game that I just couldn’t quite get but seemed like it was entertaining.

At 3:30 we had to pour ourselves into long pants, socks, and shoes and climb into the makoros to head out onto a game walk. It was a quick 10 minutes or so away from camp. Once we reached our starting point, they split us into smaller groups and we headed off into the bush. Lee is our guide for the walk as well. We have Jeneen, Claire, Kerrie, Paul and Melissa in our group. We spotted hyena tracks, elephant tracks, a fish eagle (which looks remarkably like an American Bald Eagle), and several herons. If you ask me, we aren’t seeing many animals because its still too hot to be out and about. Much of the bush seems to have been burned down to a stubble. Lee told us that people burn back the brush when it gets too high so that they can see predators coming. It grows again in the rainy season. I guess that is why there is this constant low lying haze that we’ve noticed since entering Botswana.

After an hour of walking we came across a herd of Zebra. We managed to circle around them and get very close – only 10 to 15 metres. They were watching us, we were watching them watching us watching them… etc, etc… There were some wildebeest hanging on the fringe of the herd as well but they were a bit more skittish and we couldn’t get very close to them.

The termite mounds were up to 12 feet high and you could climb up on them to get a look around. Lee said that they took about eight years to get as tall as a man. We walked some more and saw a gigantic hippo skull. It was huge! I thought about it but it wouldn’t fit into my back pack unfortunately. As we walked towards the water a Reedbuck came charging out towards us trying to make a quick get away. We spotted some more zebras as we circled back around to the waiting makoros. The sun is starting to set as the other groups joined us back from their walk. The group that Darryl and Kat were reported being chased by a Cape Buffalo. That would have been scary! The temperature is finally starting to cool off to a comfortable sort of warm.

We’re the first into the makoros and Lee takes us to the hippo pond to watch the sun set. I was starting to get a bit nervous since I know that the hippo is the biggest killer of humans in Africa (yes, ahead of lions). I was also a bit nervous because the other makoros seemed to be taking a really long time to join us. We sat about ten minutes watching the hippos come up, blow water out of their nostrils like some surfacing whale blowhole and then disappear back under the water. The others finally arrived – I found out later that they had spotted some elephants just on the banks and had poled over to take a look. We sat quietly against the reeds watching the sun set like a giant dark orange ball as the hippos surfaced and sank on the other bank. As the sun got lower and lower, the hippos started to get closer and closer. There were four or so including a mama and baby. Of course, the gamble with all the surfacing and sinking is that you can’t see them and don’t know exactly where they are when they’re under the water. The sun dipped below the haze and it started to get dark. The hippos were looming closer and closer. One of the guides said “game over” which I took to mean that we’d been playing a game of African chicken with the hippos to see who’d blink first. I was definitely ready to go! I asked Lee if he could pole faster than a hippo could swim and he said no. Good enough reason for me to think it was time to go!

We were the last to leave and just as we were making our way into the shallower water into the reeds a very big hippo surfaced and opened its mouth showing us his teeth. OK… now I’m REALLY ready to go!!! We waited for one more surfacing to try and get that perfect shot but it was really time to go.

We escaped unharmed with a good story to tell. We headed back to camp for a traditional meal of maize (think polenta) and chukal-luka sauce. Yes, that’s really what it’s called. I hadn’t realized after 3 hours of searching for wild critters that I was famished! The sauce seems to be tomato based with lots of veggies in it. Ours had lots of yellow and green string beans. It must be the spice that makes it different from say and Italian tomato sauce.

That night we roasted marshmallows over the fire… well, we roasted the ones that didn’t melt into one great big sugary blob from the heat. The night was beautiful and clear, not too hot, not too cold, and we were cozy sitting around the campfire laughing and joking.
Did I mention that there are no facilities here? We are in the middle of the bush so the toilet is a hole that has been dug in the ground a little ways away from the tents. After night falls, you have to take your tent buddy to the toilet with you to watch for wild animals while you do your business. We didn’t see any that night but there was definitely no end of activity. The delta seemed noisier at night than during the day but I was tired and nothing was going to keep me awake!

Reality TV

It cooled off overnight but it was not as cold as it has been. I couldn’t find my fleece hat in the middle of the night so I ended up wrapping my scarf around my head and tying it under my chin. At 6:30 we got the wakee wakee wakee call. We wanted to get up and go on our walk while it was still cool but we had to have breakfast, break camp and clean up first. We’re getting fairly efficient at this packing and loading thing and can get it all done in an hour now.

Robert is our guide/translator for the San (Bushmen). The San speak in clicks and pops and it is strange to listen to. It is even harder to attempt to speak! We go on our walk with an older couple, three younger women and two young men. One of the women was carrying a baby on her back tied in a sling around her shoulders.

At our first stop, they gave us each a seed that looked remarkably like a pumpkin seed. They told us to put it under our tongues and started talking in the San language. A few moments after placing it under my tongue there was a startling snap accompanied by a few shouts of surprise from the group. The seeds turned out to be pods that broke open to release their seeds when enough moisture was present. They had quite the laugh at the crazy mzungus jumping about with seeds popping open in their mouths!

There was devils claw which is a good plant to treat arthritis as well as placing around your hut to deter wild animals and warn you of their approach (you know… because of the big nasty thorns that might stick in their paws). There were roots of plants for headaches, diarrhoea, stomach issues, teeth cleaning and even birth control. In the old days each couple could only have three children to limit the tribe size and the mouths to feed. They used this plant that acted as birth control for women who had already had her three children as well as for young women in the tribe who was really too young to be bearing children and would have had a difficult pregnancy. I’m assuming from this that they were sexually active perhaps before they should really have been bearing children. They even had a root that was used to abort a baby if there were problems.

One of the trees had a bulb that was dug up and was the size of a small melon. They used the side of a split branch to grate it and show how full of moisture it was by squeezing the pulp. They used the liquid to drink and even wash their hands. The older couple that was with us were born in the bush but these days the young ones are born in hospitals. The old woman has never been to a doctor and uses no western medicine. When she is ill, she has her husband make small cuts down her shoulder and rub in ground roots and crushed carbon from the fire. In the west we would call this cutting and self mutilation, here it is for healing. I guess if you don’t have syringes, you don’t have a lot of options.

The men started a fire by rubbing sticks together… very cliché. I do have to say though that it was the fastest I’ve ever seen a fire started without matches! The two hour walk was gone in a flash and we were back on the truck and hitting the road to Maun.

Botswana has had many issues and is quite paranoid about foot and mouth disease. There are check points at various places along highways to try and stop the movement of animal products across the country. This is an interesting tactic since the goats, cows, and wild animals do not have to pass through these check points as they wander rather randomly across the countryside. Being of the two legged variety of creatures, we do have to pass through the check points and are not supposed to have any meat or dairy with us. As we approach each stop, Steph signals us in back and we hide all the contraband in a locker until we get through the stop. Suddenly I’m having flashbacks to the chicken mafia in the Himalayas when they stole our chickens. The difference is that it’s hotter here.

Oh ya… it’s now finally hot! Yes, Africa hot!

At the second checkpoint, we all had to get out of the truck and squish our feet (with shoes on) into this wooden tray with a dirty looking wet towel in it. I guess it had disinfectant in it to try and stop the whole foot and mouth thing. We were also supposed to bring any “visible” footwear that was sitting out in the truck. If the shoes were in your locker, you could leave them. Now explain to me why this makes sense. They sprayed the tires of the truck, we climbed back on and were off with our contraband safely restored to the truck freezer.

We stopped in Maun around 1:15 pm to change money. The currency here is the Pula. We did some shopping and some internetting but it was too short a stop to get any blogging in. The notebook is filling up but I am sooo behind on blogging.

We arrived at Sittatunga and set up camp. It is so hot now that the chicken pie I ate from the shop is not having a great love affair with my stomach. We set up camp and … you guessed it… headed to the bar for shade and a cider. Maybe there’s a great conspiracy that the shade is mainly located in the bar area? We had to go back to the campsite to have our briefing regarding our bush camp in the delta. We are going to be taken into the delta by dugout canoe by dugout canoe and will be camping in the delta… somewhere on some dry patch of land.

After the briefing I decided I’d had enough and jumped in the pool. Whoa! That water was pretty darn cold! I was so hot and uncomfortable that I really didn’t care and like they always say “it’s fine once you get used to it”. It felt great to get the dust of the road off and just hang out for a bit.
Brad taught a yoga class before dinner to the gang. It’s so sandy that it had to be an all standing class. We had dinner and got our bags ready for our super 5:30 am wakeup call?!? We have to be ready to be picked up by 7 am by the truck taking us into the delta to the poling station. Brad will be celebrating his 50th in the delta!!

The Border

This is getting to be a habit now… we got up at 6:30 am to pack and load the truck. We ate breakfast in the bar – tea and crepes with cinnamon and sugar. How decadent! We hit the road around 7:30. We’re driving the Trans Kalahari Highway… just the name of it is impressive. There is lots of land, bush, trees, hills and the occasional warthog.

We stopped in a small town to pick up a few supplies and buy meat for dinner. The variety of people and tribes in the towns are fascinating. There were ladies in large full length gowns with full crinolines and headpieces. The dresses are a descendent of the Victorian era but they have been adapted and adopted by this particular tribe. They are very bright and colourful but don’t look all that cool or comfortable. These ladies are in strange contrast to the semi-nude Himba tribe with their red clay and then all the people just walking around in very western dress.

We are crossing the border into Botswana today. We stopped at a rest stop just before the border to eat lunch. It was pretty nice for a rest stop. It has small cabins, clean toilets, and a laundry area. I guess they get a lot of long distance truckers that use this on their way through. The border crossing was fairly uneventful… stamp to exit one country, drive through no man’s land, stamp to enter the next country and poof… you’re in!

We drove and drove and drove until we reached the Ghanzi Trail Blazers. It was a 10 minute drive from the highway into the camp itself. I guess they want you to feel like you’re in the bush instead of by the side of the highway. There was an option to “upgrade” from your regular tent into one of the thatch huts that were permanently onsite. The huts had cement floors and some had plug points but the idea of staying in a thatch hut with a thatch door versus a nice tent with a door I could zip closed just didn’t appeal to me… cot instead of sleep pad or not.

There was also an option to pay $10US to participate in a campfire with the Bushmen where you could watch them sing and dance. This seemed a bit too contrived for my liking and I wasn’t sure if we would actually get the cultural experience we hoped for or the Disney version. Tomorrow we go for a bush walk with members of the tribe so I didn’t feel like we’d miss out on anything.

It will be yet another early morning tomorrow. I’m starting to wonder if we’re actually on vacation! Guided tours are definitely a different pace than self tours. You don’t get to set your own agenda but you get to sit around the campfire until bedtime telling stories and having a laugh with your new found friends.

Don't forget to eat

Up at 5:30... move, move, move!!!
We needed to get on the road by 6:30 am. The cooking team had to get up at 5:15 to prep lunch for us since we'll be eating en route without stopping. We managed to get organized and loaded and hit the road at 6:45. I guess its hard to get 20 people fed and loaded that early!

We stopped at a watering hole on the way out but it was quiet. At the next were two male lions lying about but they weren't doing much and we were in a hurry so off we went.

I started to feel nauseous and decided to take a nap. I hadn't had much to eat that morning since we were so rushed and I had ended up taking my malaria tablet on an empty stomach. This was not a good idea but I was OK after about an hour or so.

We stopped in a small town to pick up supplies. There seemed to be guys selling those small carved nuts popping out of the woodwork everywhere! Sabrina took a photo of a young person from the Himba tribe. They were very interesting looking. They were naked from the waist up (males and females) and their skin was stained with the red clay that caked the braids in their hair. Apparently they use tourists taking photos as one of their sources of income. Sabrina got nabbed taking the photo and had to pay him/her. As we drove out of town we saw many of the same tribe sitting on a patch of grass. They threw rocks at the truck as several on the truck snapped photos on the way by. I guess this was their method of expressing their displeasure that the photos were like stealing from them (but not their souls).

As I mentioned earlier, because we were arriving at our next stop later in the afternoon we had packed ourselves a lunch while we were eating breakfast (which is why I had been distracted and hadn’t eaten enough breakfast!) We ate lunch enroute and reached Windhoek around 1:30 or so. We made a brief, 45 minute stop in town and had a chance to internet and look around a bit. So much pressure!! How can one create and type in such a short time span when the internet crawls along slower than drunken snails!?

We loaded back aboard and headed to the hostel we’ll be staying in tonight. It’s called the Cardboard box. We’re doubling up again… we have two rooms for eight, one room for six and one room for four. We manage to swing it so that Paul and Melissa are sharing the room for four with Brad and me. Paul is not really impressed with the hostel and truthfully, it’s not really much to write home about when you are accustomed to the western hotel/motel life. He and Melissa headed out to see what they could find in a hotel room. I decided that it was warm, the bed was pretty comfy and there were hot showers so I was pretty darn happy.

So we are staying at yet another hostel/campsite with yet another swimming pool and bar. This country/continent has it going on! We spend the afternoon at the bar relaxing and contemplating life. The gang is heading out to dinner at a place called Joe’s Beer House. We are told it is the most popular beer house in Africa (that’s gotta be impressive) and is well known for its game meats.

Dinner seemed to take awhile to arrive and the natives were getting restless so someone started a game of Chinese whispers (I always knew it as broken telephone but there you go.) Michael kept changing the outcome on purpose just to mess with us. It was very entertaining! Dinner was cold when it finally arrived but we were starving so we ate it anyway. I guess being the best beer house doesn’t make you the best restaurant. Brad, Kerrie and I all ordered something different so we could sample each other’s plates. We ordered Kudu, Zebra and Gemsbok steaks. I thought the Zebra was a bit tough… it may have been a bit overdone. The Kudu was good and the Gemsbok was excellent (very tender and delicious). Darryl ordered the Bushman’s Dinner which came with a shot of something that tasted kind of like Jagermeister. The shot circled the table so we could all take a sniff/sip and try to figure out what it was. It was very strong and burned on the way down. We never did figure out what it was.

Some of the crew stayed on past dinner to party a bit. Me? I was tired! We left around 10:30 and went to bed.

Crisis on the Savannah

Up at 6am, have breakfast, get organized, load onto the truck to go on the hunt in the park for whatever we can manage to find. We have to go early since the animals tend to hide in the shade and do nothing when it warms up. The first thing we see is a vulture in its nest. Many vultures are being killed these days accidentally by farmers who put out poisoned carcasses intended for predators. The vultures are the clean up crew and are usually the first to rip open a carcass so the smaller critters can get in... a very important part of the food chain!

Then the animals really get going. We see zebra, springbok, and guinea fowl on our way to our first watering hole. The first one is pretty quiet. On the way to the second we spot a giraffe. At the second watering hole we hit paydirt! Two lions, male and female just hanging out. A mating pair just relaxing in the morning sun. There are very clear signs everywhere telling people to remain inside their vehicles yet we see one guy out his car window sitting on the door trying to get a photo. This is not the African Lion Safari... this is AFRICA!! We've been told several stories of people doing this sort of thing and not noticing the lion that comes up behind them and hauls them out of their car in front of their wife and kids.

We move on and see wildebeest, more zebra and springbok than you can shake a stick at, oryx, kudu and impala. At the third watering hole we spot elephants, ostrich, more oryx, warthogs, springbok, impala and zebra. A very successful drive! We started to head back to camp for lunch and spot a rhino by the side of the road. He ran off at fairly high speed so there was no chance for a photo.

Lunch at the camp and relaxing since its now way to hot to do anything. This must by why siestas were invented. I decided to take a shower and remove a layer of dust.

At 3:30 or so we went on another drive to see what animals might emerge as the afternoon as the temperature starts to cool off. Brad decided to stay behind and continue relaxing. We spotted a cory bustartd and lots more of the usual four legged antelope type creatures. We drove out onto the salt pan. From a distance it looks like a huge ocean with islands and shorelines. It is whiteish and completely dried up from the floods in the rainy season. We got out of the truck here and walked around. It smelled like ocean and even tasted salty. We took some silly photos of people standing on each other's hands and then piled back into the truck. On the way to our next hole we spotted dik diks (yes, that's really what they are called) and more elephants. Our last watering hole is ducks, giraffes and the usual four legged suspects.

We flew back to the camp gate and slid in just under the wire at 5:30pm. Steph had cooked up bbq sausage, lamb chops, garlic potatoes, sweet corn bread and apple crumble! Yum! My learning from the game drive... never go out on a dusty drive with freshy washed WET hair... unless you feel like showering twice.

After dinner we walked to the watering hole to see what might happen by. We had been sitting for about 1/2 an hour when something in the corner caught my eye. A herd of elephants just glided into view. They were so quiet you couldn't hear them. They just seemed like big grey ghosts. There were atleast 20 or so in the end. Once they started slurping water, that was when you could hear them. We got to watch some interesting herd dynamics on who stands where, who gets the best spot, etc. The herds are all females and babies with one male usually. I also noticed that the elephants had their own stretch routine. I couldn't believe my eyes as they did a little hamstring, quads, IT bands, adductors, etc.. (of course, they would have different names but I don't have my elephant anatomy book with me). They were even doing a little side bending. I wished Peter had been there to witness it.

After the elephants floated back into the brush we waited another 15 minutes until we heard something approaching. A mom and baby rhino came out to get a drink. The baby was bigger than the one some of the others had seen previously but still a baby. It was now 9:45 and I was getting sleepy. We have yet another early morning tomorrow and one of our longest drives (600k) as we need to hit Windhoek by luch tomorrow.

It was still nice and warm when we went to bed and I only woke up once during the night. I dreamt I was snow skiing and trying to rush to the bottom but I couldn't remember how to slalom... weird man.

Rock On

Wakee came at 5:30 - bleh! It was a very cold evening. I took the long trek to the long drop toilets at 2:30 am - that was fun. I think I need a new battery for my headlamp.
We packed up quickly and will eat on the road. We have quite a bit of distance to cover (as usual) and the park we're going to has a very strict gate locking policy. If you miss the closing time, you get fined.

We stop briefly in a village of sorts to shop for stones. I bought a garnet, yellow floride anda green floride with amythst. Brad picked up a very nice tiger's eye. One of the women selling the stones whispered to Kerrie and asked her if we had any food for the children (two young boys looking cold and underdressed). She gave them some muesili bars, pens, paper and jumpers.

Our next stop was a small town for a drink, snack and top up. The landscape keeps changing from nothing to maybe a few bushes, sometimes rocks and trees, sometimes grass. You will catch a glimpse of people standing on the side of the road like they've emerged from no where.

A family of baboons crosses the road ahead, there are signs showing wart hog crossings and bridges that indicate rivers but all you see are long stretches of dry ground.

We did see 4 warthogs, lots of birds with interesting beaks, and Dik diks (deer like, all brown with really big ears). There is so much land and so little habitation.

We finally reach Etosha National Park entrance at the Anderson gate. We stop here for lunch. The campground with the gate closing policy is deep in the park. That is where we have to reach by dark.

In recognition of the next World Cup being in Africa, Acacia is sponsoring bringing soccer balls to villages on its overlanding routes. Our group purchased a soccer ball for $20US and gave it to the children that were gathered around when we reached the gate. Their parents work in the park and they live in a small village at the gate. They had great fun playing soccer and kicking the ball around. They also managed to give Claire and Kerrie new hairdo's and Jeneen was piled high with kids.

After lunch we headed into the park towards our camp (Halali). As soon as we drive through the gates we spot zebras, giraffes, lots of springbok and elephants just hanging out by the side of the road! COOL!!!

We stopped at our first watering hole and it was jammed with 24 elephants including babies. We drove on and spotted a lion sleeping under a bush. It was too far away for a photo. We drove on and saw more elephants, antelope, zebra, secretary bird, and the corey bustard... to name a few.
I guess the point of a wildlife reserve is for there to be lots of wildlife! Etosha is 20 thousand square km - lots of land to try and find some of the elusive critters.

We made it to camp by nightfall and set up. We are staying here for two nights. This is a seriously high end camp. There is a bar, nice swimming pool, a shop, lots of showers and toilets. Its very clean and tidy. Its also filled with campers hoping to see the "big 5" (elephant, lion, cape buffalo, leopard, rhino). There is also a watering hole (Moringa watering hole) near our campsite that has a viewing area and is lit at night so you can watch the animals all night if you want.

Brad and I strolled over to the watering hole after dinner. We had been sitting for 20 minutes or so when a rhino strolled in quite slow and non-chalantly out of the surrounding bush. We watched him for 15 minutes. Brad tried taking some photos but it was dark, the lighting is very orange and he was on the far side of the water so hard to capture. I started to get cold so we headed back to our tent. Tomorrow we do a game drive nice and early to see what we can see.

Octopus Garden

Up at 7:30 am. The bed wasn't quite as nice as the hotel but it was nice and warm. Breakfast was eggs, bacon and toast. What a civilized way to start the day.
The van picked us up at 8:15 and Lerece, Jim, Ryah, Mick and I headed off to our dolphin cruise. The morining is cool and foggy as we head back to Walvis Bay (where there were no flamingos yesterday). It takes 30 minutes or so to drive to the docks and while you could still see the fog hanging around the edges, the fogs magically lifted from the bay as we passed the half way point.

We're travelling on the Ocean Lady with another group of tourists. When we line up to go down the plank it seems like we all won't fit on the boat but in the end, there was plenty of room. Our guide is a young man with a good sense of humour. He motors us out into the bay and we receive our first visitor. A seal named Robbie. He's pretty big and he hops right up onto the rear gang and into the middle of the boat. Our guide feeds him fish (I guess Robbie knows the routine) while he tells us about this type of seal. We can pet him and have our photo taken. They look slimy but they are actually furry - the inner fur stays dry and only the outer fur gets wet and shields against the cold water.

Next a smaller baby seal and then a big seal named Spotty. Spotty didn't seem to want to leave. He just laid down in the middle of the boat like he was going to go to sleep. I think he's had too much to eat from all the other tour boats that have already been out on the bay. Our guide has to toss some fish off the back so Spotty will go after it and then take off at high speed so he can't keep up with us.

We come across an abandoned Russian cargo ship that seems to have been taken over by cormorants (you can smell it before you see it). Apparantly as soon as the ship reached the bay a few years ago, the company went bankrupt. The sailors had to live on the ship for two years until someone from Walvis Bay bought it for scrap and sent them home.

We headed out to the edge of the bay where there is a large seal colony. All there was besides the seals was a single lonely looking lighthouse to guide the ships into the bay. The seals here pretty much ignored us and continued playing and barking and generally splashing about. Our guide passed around glasses of brown sherry to warm us up and help us "see the dolphins".

News went out that some bottle nose dolphins had been spotted closer to shore so off we flew! You don't often see this type of dolphin so it was our lucky day. The dolphins were found close to the 'poop deck'... a large platform that is used to let birds to nest on so they can haul it in later to harvest the guano and sell it... who knew poo could be profitable!!

There were already 3 boats drifting about when we arrived. We spent some time trying to entice the 3 dolphins to swim in our wake and generally do those touristy things you always see in the promo videos. They weren't in the mood but I didn't really care - we got to see dolphins being dolphins.

We watched some men hauling in a large fishing net by hand. Our guide said it was full of sardines. The local birdlife seemed very interested in what was going on!

We motored back to the bay for champagne and snacks and floated about enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. Our guide was feeding Pelicans from the boat that would fly next to us and grab fish from his hand.

As we started to head back to the docks I noticed a seal swimming along side and leaping in and out of the water. It eventually pulled up behind us and somehow hauled itself up onto the boat (we were moving at a fairly good clip). It was Spotty again. We had to use the same tactic to get him off again and then took off for the docks.

We all loaded back into the van and made the trip back to Swakop to hook up with the waiting truck. After several glasses of champagne I was a bit sleepy so I snoozed the entire way back. At the hostel we loaded back into the truck and headed out.

We made a stop at the Cape Cross seal colony. There can be 80 to 100 thousand seals here at any one time. As you walked closer to the shoreline and the seals, the smell grew stronger and stronger. There is a walkway that you are asked to stay on as you walk up and down to view the colony. We also spotted a pack of black backed jackals skulking about. They definitely looked like they were well fed which I'm guessing is from the ample supply of baby seals. We also could see the remnants of one or two meals. If I could have picked up some bones for Michael or Peter (no, not Becker) I would have!

After a brief visit with the seals we were off to the truck and driving the 45 minute back track to the main highway. We are driving to Spitzkoppe.

As we were driving we noticed markers in the fields made of white sand bags which formed large squares. We were told that they were to mark plotlines for uranium prospecting. This country has a very rich mineral wealth. There are many stalls along the roadway with tables full of shiny stones for sale

When we reach Spitzkoppe we are struck by the unusual rock formations. There are large round mountains of stone and then sideways stacks like the Flatirons in Boulder. There are cave drawings nearby but we arrived at camp after dark and need to set up camp and eat dinner so we can't check them out.

We're camping at the base of a very large, very smooth rock. The family next to us seems unimpressed that an overlander truck has arrived and I'd say the dad was downright rude. The mother was shouting something in Afrikans that I'm pretty sure was not pleasant and a very poor example for their young daughter.

After dinner we sat around the campfire and talked into the evening. Tomorrow we head to Etosha for big game hunting.

Chillaxing

We spent the day hanging out in Swakopmund. We slept til 8 am (luxury!!) and ate breakfast at the hotel. A relaxing morning getting organized, checking out and heading back to the hostel. Paul and Melissa have gone skydiving so they won't be back until after lunch.

We strolled around town some more and Brad bought a new fleece jacket. Not that we need more fleece but its been cold, especially at night, and all of our fleece is at home. I got a nice tshirt and Brad also picked up a fleece scarf.

It seems everyone here is trying to sell those little carved nuts!

We headed back to the hostel for lunch - schnitzel, salad, roll, donut, juice, chocolate and a banana. Very good schnitzel!! I guess there's still quite a bit of German influence here.

We picked up our laundry and headed back out. Many of the shops are closed for two hours in the afternoon so there's not much to do but relax. I had spotted some nice loose cotton pants in a small local shop that I wanted to buy for when it gets really hot. I liked this shop partly because it used local artisans but also because some of the proceeds went to fund an African AIDS project.

how do you steer
a planet gone wrong
decisions made
success defined not for
good but goods
how many can you get
more than you and thats all that matters
forget your impact on the network of life you are bound to
atleast from your mountain of trinkets you will have the perfect view when the last tree falls

We head for dinner with the group again tonight. This time we're going to the Lighthouse located by the water. More game meats on the menu! I have prawns this time. Very filling.

To the sea

We're up early again (have I mentioned there is no sleeping late on this tour??), breakfast, pack up and a short drive to Walvis Bay. We have reached the ocean and it's excellent!

Walvis Bay often has flocks of flamingos but they have not arrived yet. We drive past some seriously high end beach front homes that look like they would be found closer to Miami than the Skeleton Coast.

This stretch of coastline is called the Skeleton Coast because it is a treacherous bit of shoreline and, if a ship grounded or wrecked, even if the sailors managed to survive and make it to shore they were met with a vast desert that stretched on for miles. It's likely that they would have had a quicker passing if they'd died in the wreck.

We drove on to Swakopmund where we'll be spending two nights in the Dune Hostel (located on Lebowski Drive... DUDE!!). We're booked to share a dorm room with Paul and Melissa. We'd all like a bit of a break so Brad and I book a night across the road in the Prinzessin Rupprecht Heim Hotel and Paul and Melissa will stay there on the second night. This will give us all a chance to have some alone time and relax in a nice hotel.

The hostel is nice enough and the bunk beds are a welcome break from the tents but the hotel is even better. The hotel is actually a retirement home with small buildings in the back nestled in the beautiful gardens. The main front building - where the hotel rooms are - was a German military hospital in the 20's. This means that the rooms are nicely spacious and the doors are big enough to wheel hospital beds through.

We headed back to the hostel for our Activity Briefing where we get to find out about all the fun things there are in town for us to spend more money on. There's sand surfing, sky diving, paragliding, township tours, quad bike riding, horseback riding and dolpin cruising. You name it, they've got it. Brad decided to take the next couple of days to relax and chill out. Me? I can't turn down the chance to go on a boat ride so I'm checking out the dolphins on Saturday morning.

We dropped off some laundry at the front desk and go for a stroll around town to check out the shops and cafes. This is very much a tourism driven town. Its filled with adventure stores, souvenir shops, bars and cafes. All the travel outfitting stores seem to be filled with clothing by Jeep and Bilabong. Weird.

We strolled down to the beach to take a photo (our hostel/hotel is only 3 doors up from the beachfront). We are immediately accosted by the local scam. A guy selling nuts that have a leather thong attached (key chain-ish). They are carved with giraffes, elephants, etc. He says hello and is friendly asking where you are from and what your name is. Of course, then he asks how you spell that - not very good English and all. If you tell him, he starts to carve your name in the nut with a small exacto blade to guilt you into buying it. I gave him an "H" and then realized what he was doing and told him to forget it. All I wanted was to take a photo of the waves but my camera battery took that exact opportunity to konk out. He kept talking away about his poor daughters and school fees and give you a good deal and how he carves them all himself and all the work involved and blah, blah, blah... of course, if I decided to buy one in the shops they would be much more expensive and he'd sell to me for ONLY 80N. We were ignoring him and then he said maybe he'd give me for only 40N. I said OK but I didn't want my name on it, I wanted his (as the artist and all). He agreed and started carving away. At one point he mumbled something about maybe charging me 50N since it was his name and I told him to forget it, the agreed price was 40N. The next day I saw them in the shops for 18N. Ah well, he scammed me for $3CAD - I think I'll live and maybe he'll have a slightly better day.

We went to a cafe and hung out, did a bit of internetting and met the group back at the hostel for our dinner out. We walked to Cafe Napolitana. They serve several game meats and seem pretty popular. We all ordered something different so we could share and try them all. We tried Ostrich, Oryx and Springbok. They were all very tender and (sorry to say) very delicious! The Springbok was the best.

Some people went out to a local pub to have a few drinks. We decided to go and enjoy our hotel room.

Red Desert Sand Racing

The 4:30 am wakee wakee WAKEE was very uncalled for but it sure got us moving. Jump out of bed, race to the toilets, brush teeth and hair and jump on the truck. The truck then raced to the gate and we sat waiting for it to open. It won't open until 5:15 am but we wanted to make sure we were one of the first in line to exit the camp. The other Acacia truck was there first but they cheated!!! Their truck drove to the gate with no one on it and then their group just walked out to the truck when they were ready.

The gate opened and the race across the desert begins! We were second to reach the dune and we all jumped out and started heading up and up and up. People were in some kind of crazy frenzied race to the top... some in boots, sandals, just socks and then me in bare feet. The sand is very soft and cold and red and we are climbing up the ridge line. Its about 150 metres high and the climb seemed easy but as you go it gets steeper and the sand is shifting around under your feet. The urgency seems to push people beyond what they would normally do. I took off a bit faster than I needed to and jogged 1/2 way up the hill. Now I remember why I hated hill work when I was training for marathons. I'm breathing quite hard and the air is very dry. We haven't even had breakfast yet!! I came to my senses and slowed down a bit. I passed an older gentleman who had to sit and rest as well as a woman who was wheezing terribly. I hoped she had her inhaler with her. I went to the top of the first ridge and sat down in the sand to rest.

Some people kept going further onto the next ridge but that would have involved going down a bit and up again so I decided my viewing spot was perfect. My feet were feeling a bit chilly now in the morning cool - I guess socks would have been a good idea.

A cheer went out as the first rays appeared on the horizon. We watched the sun peek up over the distant mountains and light up the sand dune. Well worth the climb. Lots of camera shutters going off as Kodak share prices rose with all the amatuer photographers hoping for that money shot. My feet were getting really cold now so I decided to head back down and get my socks and shoes on. I was totally unaware when a woman told me that my nose was bleeding. I guess it was the exertion and extremely dry, cold air. It stopped quite quickly and I seemed none the worse for wear.

I ran down the dune to the bottom... ah yes, I remember how much I like going downhill!! When I got to the bottom of the sand I knew my feet were pretty much frozen since I couldn't feel the gravel from the parking lot under my feet. I put my socks and shoes on and waited for the rest of the gang to descend. We had bacon, scrambled eggs and whole wheat bread for breakfast next to the dune. I collected some red sand in an old water bottle to add to our sand and stone collection at home.

After breakfast we drove into the bush in the back of an open pickup to meet our guide - Bushman (yes, that was his name). Bushman is barefoot and hasn't owned a pair of shoes for 10 years. He is married to a Japanese woman that he met on tour. When he flew to Japan to have the wedding he showed up at customs with no shoes on. I guess the customs guys were a bit amused. I also heard he had to wear shoes in the traditional Japanese ceremony but as far a anyone knows thats the only time he's worn shoes since he threw his last pair away.

The other Acacia group joined us as Bushman took us on a tour of the desert and dunes. This area is called Sossusvlei. Bushman took us in to show us the life in the desert and tell us about the plight of the original tribes of bushmen (San).

Apparantly there are only about 30,000 bushmen left and, due to intermarriage, there are none of the original bloodline left. They used to be short and more yellow skin (vs black). This skin colour helped them to hide behind bushes when they were hunting with their poison arrows. I guess when the blacks and whites were moving north from South Africa to the dunes in Namibia and the bushmen were first found they were classified as animals rather than humans. The worship the moon and they believe that when you die, you go to the moon. If you're good that is... if you are bad you turn into a jackal and if you were just grumpy all the time you turn into a dust devil. Who's to say who's right??

On our walk we got to see lots of small creatures managing to survive in the desert. We saw a mouse, lizards who bury themselves under the sand, spiders with trap doors, black beetles that collect liquid condensation in the ridges on their back that then runs into their mouths, a small green succulent plant that gives humans stomach problems but the Oryx can eat it and then humans can eat the Oryx, marigolds with small bulbs buried under the sand that are rather like potatoes and a small plant with dried buds that will open with a single drop of water. If it gets more water, it will release its seeds, if no more water comes, it closes back up again. This is to ensure that the seeds are not eaten by animals.

There are scorpions in the desert but, according to Bushman, they only come out when it is windy since the insects they eat will be grounded from flying around and they can find something to eat.

Bushman also tells us that the easiest way to climb a dune is to walk straight up the back (away from the sun) rather than up the ridgeline... which we had all just done! He said that going straight up was a shorter route... I think he may be right. He also said that the San owned pretty much nothing but a loin cloth. The desert gets cold at night so to stay warm they said all you needed was a full belly, to be very tired and not to think about it. To ensure they didn't think about the cold, they would tell each other stories to keep their minds off the cold.

After the bush walk we headed back to the truck and drove back to camp. We took down our tents, ate lunch and hit the road. Our next camp is in the middle of nowhere off a long stretch of highway. We drove around behind some large rocks and set up tents. This is our first bushcamp meaning its just us and our tents... no bar, pool, toilets, showers, etc... no worries, we have a shovel!

The rock formations are very cool and its so quiet as night falls. We go to bed early and listen for animal sounds.

Drive she said

6:30 am always seems to come really early. My hips ache, my nose is cold and I don't want to get up but we have to hit the road by 7:30 so I have no choice. We are driving 600 km today to make our next camp. Cereal, tea and some sort of banana flavour instant oats that look like pudding for breakfast (I decided not to try this). After loading up we were off almost on time.

Team Leopard has the day off today.

We saw baboons, 3 types of antelope (no horns, curly horns, straight horns), zebras, ostrich. We stopped for a bathroom break in the middle of a long stretch of highway - boys in front, girls in back. There weren't even any bushes - Africa doesn't really have what you might think of as a rest stop.

Driving and driving, hot and dry, tall yellow grass that grows in small patches but when you look across the horizon it fills in and looks like a solid field of tall soft grass that reaches all the way to the mountains. More antelope and ostrich - we make lots of stops for photos.

Lunch was at the side of the road near a huge tree that was almost overtaken with a huge nest built by Social Weaver birds. The nests can also house love birds and pygmy falcons.

We stopped in Bethanie to buy biltong which is dried meat like jerky. I bought some made with Oryx. A bit chewy and spicy but pretty good all in all.

Our next stop is Sesriem Canyon. Sesreim means 6 ox leather thongs which indicated how long a drop it was to lower a bucket into the canyon to draw out water. Its not very deep and we hiked to the bottom to look around. It's very dry right now and, like hiking in the Indian Himalayas, its all river rock cemented in sediment. I saw a Shiva rock but it was stuck and it was really too big for me to lug all over Africa.


We headed back to camp and set up the tents. I hit the showers. It was only a dribble but the water was hot so it was one of my best showers so far! We've hit the dry dusty desert and it was nice to wash away the day. Tomorrow's wake up is the insane hour of 4:30 am!! We have to get up early to race to Dune 45 to climb to the top in time to see the sun rise.

I could hear the jackals again in the distance. You can't leave anything outside your tent at night or they will steal it (Tony says they think they can eat it). Some people went to the bar for a drink but there's no way I'm staying up if I have to get up that early so I go to bed at 9pm. I've now started to put a Nalgene filled with hot water in the bottom of my sleeping bag to help keep me warm at night.

Yoga Nomads get their start...

We got to sleep in today... 7:30 AM! We're not leaving until later in the afternoon and some of the crew are going canoeing after breakfast.
Team Leopard is on washing up today so we get to clean up after breakfast. Brad is on Team Warthog and they are in charge of loading and unloading the truck. They don't rotate duties so he'll be doing that the entire trip.

The paddlers get driven up river to load into their canoes and paddle back down to the campsite. The rest of us just hang out and relax. They should be back around noon or so.
I took an excellent hot shower in a grass thatched hut where the I could see out over the volleyball court.

I decided a couple of days of sitting was getting to me so I decided to do some yoga. It turned into an impromptu yoga class on the grass with some of the team who had decided to hang around and relax. Anna, Tony, Nadine, Helen, and Michel all joined in. Everyone did great and Tony was laughing through the whole thing. Tony (our driver) is from Nairobi, Kenya and has 3 kids with the oldest only 6 years. He was so stiff... too much time behind the wheel!

I may have done too many chaturanga since my right shoulder started to act a bit funky.

The paddlers arrived around lunch time and we had hot dogs and tomato soup. A quick wash up and pack and we're off driving to the border. The Namibia side is right across the river... we could have swam there!

We drove the short distance to the border and started the process. First, you have to exit South Africa through their border checkpoint, then you have to enter Namibia. The time in between... I guess you are no where. At the Namibian side we had to fill out forms and stand in line to get checked in. It wasn't as slow as it could have been but it definitely was not speedy.

Our next camp in in Hobas. It has great scenery with mountains and plains that stretch out forever. We spotted some of our first wildlife - ostrich and little antelopes!!

We stopped along the roadway to look at some of the plantlife. Steph showed us a Quiver tree. Its from the aloe family and it has a fibrous core. The Bushmen used use the hollowed out branches to hold their arrows - thus the name Quiver. There are also many, many pencil bushes. Apparantly only rhinos can eat these and live. Steph tells us not to touch, smell, burn, eat or even get too close to these bushes. They are used to create strichnine poison. The Bushmen used to use it to tip their arrows for when they were hunting.

When we arrive at Hobas we whip up the tents and take off for Fish River Canyon to watch the sunset. The truck drops us at one of the lookout points and we walk back to the entrance for about 20 minutes along the ridgeline. Fishriver Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world (next to the Grand Canyon) and to say it was impressive is an understatement. Now I'll have to see the Grand Canyon so I can compare.

As we strolled back to the truck we took some great shots of the sunset. When we arrived, Steph had laid out a feast of crackers, cheese, smoked mussels, crisps, sweets, champagne... Once the sun dropped the wind picked up and it got chilly quite quickly.

We headed back to camp ot get our bags out and set up our bads. We weren't very hungry after all that so we had soup for dinner with bread and tea. The campfire was warm and toasty so I really didn't want to drag myself away to do the washing up... but I did. Tony was teaching me how to say things in Swahili: cool bananas = poakichizi kamandizi, thank you very much = asantasana.

The toilet is around 100 yards from our camp and it's cold. We went to bed around 9:30 since we have an early wake up tomorrow since we have a long drive. I go to bed with my silk sleep sheet, cotton sleep sheet, sleeping bag, fleece blanket, long johns, pjs, fleece hat and wool socks and I'm still cold! The camp we're in shuts the generators down at 10 pm so I had these visions of me having to get up in the middle of the night and not be able to find the toilets (or my way back to the tent). Luckily they leave the toilet lights on. Whew!!!

At one point in the night I thought I heard a wild animal in camp but it was only someone snoring. I could hear the jackals in the distance but I don't think they came into camp.

Did you say Scorpions?

I forgot the ground was so hard camping - even with a sleep pad. Steph was up at 6am to get breakfast out and hollered at 6:30 "GOOD MORNING SOUTH AFRICA! Wakee, Wakkee WAKEEEE!!!" I'm pretty sure everyone in the country was awake after that.

Brad went to take a shower but all the hot water was gone - he used the term "brisk" to describe it. Breakfast was cereal, fruit, yogurt, coffee and tea. We got to watch a beautiful sunrise over the mountains.

After breakfast a quick clean and pack up of the tents. We have to check under the tents when we're packing up in case a scorpion has decided it would be a nice place to sleep. Everything loaded into the truck and we're off at 8 am (only 30 minutes over schedule... we're getting better)! The truck had been making some funny noises and Tony had decided it needed looking after so we ended up waiting while they replaced the fan belt anyway. I strolled over to look at some birds who were building nests next to our camp. They are weaver birds and build nests that look like upsidedown straw baskets. Lots of chirping and activity! Steph said that the male builds the nest and if the female doesn't like it, he has to start over and build a new one.

The day is sunny and clear, a bit cool but really not all that bad.

do you ever wonder
why you wonder
wandering in wonder
wondering in wandering
what will you find?

We stopped in Sprinbok for a chance to stretch our legs and hit a bank machine. We stopped at the Super Spar for snacks and water. We've been driving for over 3 hours! We're not having lunch until late and we were a bit hungry so we had a Moroccan Chicken Pastie (no, not the kind you twirl in the girlie shows).

Springbok was named because there were once vast herds of, yep you guessed it, Springbok. Steph says that now you can only really see them in the game reserves and that they are protected.

Anna's ipod is hooked into the sound system and we're cruising along listening to an instrumentalist named Manuel or Ricardo or something Gabrielle. I like it. There is plenty of napping on the truck with these early wake up calls..

The land stretches on endlessly in all directions... so far that the clouds almost seem to sit on the earth. There are random piles of boulders like some giant has been stacking stones at the beach for fun. Then there is the steep sided valley cut through the rocks... not mountains really... just big rocky hills.

We arrive at the Orange River Bushwacker camp. Another nice camp site... bar, swimming in the river, HOT showers. Everything is grass thatched - rather rustic. There are two dogs here - Sam and Mamboza. Mamboza looks just like Arusha. I'm told that they are brother and sister (sooo cute!!!)

I'm on team leopard (full participation camping!) and our job today is to clean the truck after dinner. We have to keep it swept, tidy and the most important, keep the windows clean so we can spot the animals! Dinner was a pork spit. We had a great evening of drinking in the bar and listening to 80's music. The cider here is excellent - not too sweet. Some good wine, some good eats, tired and decided to get to bed.

Some of the more adventurous stayed up later into the evening playing Orange River Dare Jenga. It was very loud and went on very late... I heard some of the strange requests... wear a bikini all night, eat a moth... of course, if you didn't, you had to finish your drink (probably why it got so boisterous!) Fun yes... but I was too tired.

The Truck

The alarm went off at 6:30am and we were up up up!!! It's still quite chilly and it's cloudy as well... we're hoping it will warm up a bit (we're in Africa...right?)
We organized and packed the bags the previous evening so all we had to do was get dressed, grab the bags and head to the truck. We're hitting the road at 7:30 so we need to catch breakfast in the bar quickly.

Yogurt, honey, muesili and fruit in a parfait glass... how yummy!

The truck is quite the machine. (And it's a truck... not a bus or van or motor home... it's a truck - so says Steph, our guide). The bottom of the truck is all storage for tents, poles, washing up gear, tables, cooking gear, camp chairs, food, jeri cans with water, etc... With all that under truck storage, the first step up into the back of the truck is quite a doozy! Any shorter and I'd need a boost! Once you get into the passenger compartment, the rear wall of the truck is all lockers. Each locker will hold one person's luggage and can be locked with a small luggage lock. They're pretty roomy actually. Our info told us we would be able to fit only a 70L pack in each but I think Brad and I could fit both our luggage into one locker if we tried. Maybe its just because we don't tend to carry much. Behind the seats there is a battery powered freezer and two coolers for keeping cold stuff on ice. The truck has two by two bucket seats and nice big windows for photo taking. The bus seats about 24 people but there are only 20 on the tour so lots of room. The back two rows are set facing each other with a table between for card playing or whatever. This is where Brad and I end up sitting. The bus was pretty full when we got on so we just took the seats at the very back. Everything is loaded onto the truck but we're not leaving Cape Town just yet.

We load into two small vans and are going on a township tour. Our first stop is District 6 Museum. I know that if I'd thought about it that I would have realized how recent apartheid really was but I hadn't thought about it and somehow I couldn't fathom that it had actually taken place during my lifetime. I guess I thought that it had to have been something from a long time ago when people weren't so open minded and educated... or maybe that's my rose-coloured glasses view of the world. I guess if I think about it, that kind of thing is still going on even today and even in our own country. The world has a long way to go still... and that sucks.

District 6 was a mixed neighbourhood before apartheid. It was one of the areas where they removed all the "non-white" to the townships and then knocked most of the buildings down. People were segregated by colour. Blacks, coloured (not black and not white) and whites. Apparantly one of the very scientific tests they used to determine what ID card you carried was a pencil test. If they put a pencil in your hair and it fell out, you were white. If it did not fall out, you were not white.

Our guide for the tour was Richard and our driver was Titus. After the museum we headed into one of the townships where the people were relocated to once segregation started. He headed to Langa township which is the oldest of the townships. When we reached the township to walk around and into some of the homes, it started to pour down rain. There were a couple of different types of township housing. Families were put into small two room "houses" and young men were housed in more of a dormatory style apartment building. There were 4 bedrooms for each common room and there were 3 beds in each bedroom. These buildings only housed men and only those who were working in the hopes of controlling population growth.

At some point they decided to let men have their families with them in these buildings but they didn't give them any more space... so now you have entire families living in one bed in a room with potentially two other families. Richard said you could end up with upwards of 90 people sharing one common area. The spaces reminded me a bit of Delhi except it didn't smell as much.

It was pouring down rain so much that an old man invited us into his home to stay dry. He had two small crowded rooms and a TV was blaring away up on a shelf. When the vans arrived, we made a run for it to head off for lunch.

We had lunch at Moritz Meat... a local spot to catch some gossip and food. BBQ chicken, pork, something that looked and tasted like polenta, salsa and ginger beer. It was pretty good actually!

After lunch we visited one of the "illegal" townships. These were not the ones sanctioned by the government and originally they had no roads or power. The buildings are made from whatever they could find - old scrap lumber and tin mostly - and the floors are dirt. We got to enter one of the home to drink some homemade beer from a big tin bucket. They called it a Shabeen which they said was the Scottish word for an illegal drinking establishment. Cool! The beer was made from sorghum and something I didn't quite get and tasted rather sweetish. Kind of beery aftertaste but not as fizzy. It wasn't all that bad really but I don't think I could drink all that much of it.

Back to the vans who dropped us back at Shangani (the truck). We were off on our adventure. We stopped in a mall to pick up supplies... water, snacks, etc. We were shopping in something called a Pik'n'Pay which was rather like a big Walmart. We only had 40 minutes to get anything we wanted and get back to the truck. Melissa's bag was still missing from their flight and it was becoming a bit stressful so we decided that we should give them more time to find a camp store and get her some clothes. The weather is rainy quite cool and she didn't have that much with her on the flight and was only wearing sandals. We left around 3pm and drove to our first camp site.

We arrived at our first camp around 6:30 pm. It's called Highlander. Arusha the dog was the first to greet us - a damn cute little pit bull terrier. We set up camp in the dark and it was cold (around 10 C) but atleast its not raining! As soon as the tents were set up I dove into my long underwear, fleecy hat, vest, jacket AND socks!

The campground has toilets, showers and a bar! It's a small campsite really, seems like there are only two or so large plots for Overland trucks that come in. We are uphill to the toilets and Intrepid is downhill on this night.

Dinner was in the bar - chicken stew for meat eaters, roasted butternut squash for veggies. There was some great homemade bread and apple crumble for dessert. After dinner we had a wine tasting. Highlander is part of a wine co-op in South Africa. We ended up buying a couple of bottles... they were so cheap!!

Off to bed early - our wake up call is 6:30am.

Welcome to South Africa

Another overnight flight, another seat screw up from our original seat booking, and again with the lost meal selection... this time on Swiss Air (acting as a Star Alliance Partner with Air Canada).

In our decent over South Africa I was surprised by how much it looked like everywhere else... atleast from the air. There are fields being cultivated and there are buildings and roads. I'm not sure what I expected to see. Maybe its just a way to be reminded that the world isn't as different from place to place as we like to think.

We landed in Johannesburg (Jo'berg for short) and flew through border control. It was actually pretty similar to Zurich in the way it was organized. We were immediately spotted as tourists when we stepped out of the luggage area and a guy with a bright orange jumpsuit stenciled with PORTER asked us where we were going. We said "Cape Town" and he simply said "Follow me". We were a bit dazed I guess and started following him. It became apparent once our senses returned that we were going to have to pay him for his assistance. We got to the top of an escalator and he grabbed a cart to put our bags on. We stood there having a discussion of whether to put our bags on the cart or not long enough that he got sick of waiting for us and simply walked away.

We knew the general direction now to get to the local flight terminal and started off. We had to go outside and down a walkway and then we were there. It is actually quite a distance from the International terminal. It seems like every airport on the planet is under some sort of construction/renovation/improvement!!

When we walked into the terminal a man with a walkie talkie (I thought he was security) asked us where we were going and we told him. He took us to the check in desk (jumped the queue actually) and then asked us to give him $10US!!! By this time I was done with the silliness and told him he was crazy. I wouldn't pay that at home and he didn't even carry our bags! We gave him $4 and were done with him.

After we checked our luggage through to Cape Town and checked our boarding passes we simply hung out for a few hours waiting for our flight. We ate a meal at an American type steak house and relaxed. The flight to Cape Town was only a couple of hours and fairly uneventful.

Landing in Cape Town we picked up our bags and headed out into the main terminal. We were met by a friendly gentleman from the backpacker hostel we were staying in.

On the trip from the airport he gave us a bit of a tour, pointing out the Table Mountain and the harbour. It's quite a nice little port city actually. We also had our first glimpse of the tin shacks that form the unofficial townships. They are constructed with whatever is at hand and the floors in them are just dirt. Apparantly, there are now roads into them and they can get power. There are community taps to obtain water and there are community bucket toilets that are emptied by the city four times a week.

The hostel is really nice. It has a pool, a bar/restaurant and the rooms are small but clean. Being a coast town and winter is just ending, its fairly chilly here. In the evening the temperature dropped to around 15C or so with a fairly constant breeze. The hostel is courtyard style so the door to our room opens into the courtyard and you have to go outside to access the shower rooms and community toilets.

The predeparture meeting is in the TV room at the hostel. It looks like its going to be a full house. The crew: Paul and Melissa from Boulder Springs who are on their honeymoon
Claire and Jenine from London, both starting their final year of university
Michael and Ryah from Australia but live in UK right now and moving to HK
Sabrina from Mexico City but living in Madrid
Michel and Nadine brother and sister from Switzerland
Jim and Lerece from Australia who travel to get away from the kids for a bit Anna a travel agent from Scotland who lives in England
Kerrie a chef from Australia
Daryl and Kate from Brisbane, Australia
Wendy and Helen from the UK
Nicholas a former wine grower from New Zealand
Quite the bunch!!

The 6pm meeting was to review the itinerary do's, don'ts, questions and logistics and to make our local payment for the tour. We were soooo tired and hungry that I thought this meeting wouldn't end. It was hard to process everything that she was telling us but I'm pretty sure we got enough to get us through... and she'll keep reminding us as we go. Steph is our tour leader and Tony is our driver. Tony is from Kenya and quite a jokester.

The meeting ended at 8:30pm. We have to be at the truck (not bus, TRUCK) with our bags at 7am! EARLY!! We headed to the bar for a bowl of soup and toast and then off to bed.

The hostel rooms aren't really insulated but there is a radiant heater and the showers across the way were nice and warm. There is also a nice puffy duvet on the bed to help keep the cold at bay. Being dead tired didn't hurt either!

Sleep Walking

It seems like anyone can stroll into Zurich fairly easily. We checked through passport control very easily. They didn't ask a single question. Then we picked up our bags and went through the "nothing to declare" line and we were officially in Zurich!

We planned to take the train into the city and look around since our next flight was not unitl 10pm or so. The train arrives directly into the airport complex so it's an easy matter to lock our day packs into a locker and take the train into the city. Our mail packs are checked all the way through and (hopefully) will arrive in Jo'berg on time.

The train apparantly dropped us near the main drag where most tourists go to stroll up and down doing a bit of shopping. The city centre is old and there is construction and none of the streets seem to run at right angles so it takes us a bit to figure out where the heck we are compared to where we want to go. (I'm sure the fatigue had something to do with it.)

We stopped into a Movenpick for a small snack/breakfast. We had very yummy croissants and some tea. Our waiter told us which way to go and the best place to get a watch battery (Brad's watch is dying).

We did eventually find the main street and walked down to the waterfront. Very pretty park filled with tourists who had bought the train/boat ride combo deal. We opted for just the train ride. While Brad was getting his watch battery replaced (man there are alot of watches here... duh) I browsed around a bit. What did I spy with my little eye.... ORANGE TIGHTS!!!!! How cool is that!!!! Of course, I had to get them.

Our second order of business... after the coffee and croissants... was beer and chips on a patio. Great people watching on the avenue. We faded pretty quickly with a drink in us and decided to go back to the airport and find the dayrooms.

The dayrooms were located in what was likely the furthest point in the airport from anywhere. I think it took us 15 minutes to walk there from the main terminal (and there were moving sidewalks). We rented a room for what amounted to $10US per hour but, we just didn't care. We slept for 5 delicious hours in the pitch black of the dayroom. Ahhhh.....

When we got up, Brad even managed to catch up on some of his Olympic viewing in the TV room. After that we headed to our gate to catch flight number 2 of 3.

And They're Off...

Morning comes and we're packed and ready to go.
Brad goes to work in the morning to tie up some final loose ends and I head off to my BNI meeting.

The bags are waiting and yes... we managed to have time to double check the packing lists and are pretty sure we have everything we need.

Thankfully Boe is driving us to the airport so we don't need to try and figure out how to time the bus schedule to arrive on time. Now with international travel, it seems you have to almost arrive at the airport the day before your departure to check through on time.

We arrive at the airport around 3pm for our flight at 6pm. We're flying Scare Canada. They messed up our prebooked seating somehow and we end up in a three across and no exit aisle. Bleh. We discovered later that they also seem to have lost our special meal requests - they call this progress?

It's an overnight flight to Zurich and the entertainment system isn't working. Hmm.... what to do, what to do.... sleep you say? That would have been great. For some reason I can sleep anywhere except the middle seat on an overnight flight.

We landed in Zurich around 8am and strolled off the flight.

We're Leaving Already?!?!

Picture Sunday evening and we're leaving on Wednesday.
Brad has been packing and unpacking and repacking for weeks... I haven't even started.
We've just come off four days of intense information overload at the CanFitPro conference and I have to find time to get my packing organized!
Well.. sometimes the less time you have to think about it, the better it is.
Brad ensured I completed an initial "rapid pack" Sunday evening before I was allowed to crash into bed. No worries, what will I really need??

Calm before the storm

One week to Go, clothes, camping gear, supplies all over the floor - now the fun of fitting it all into the backpacks and keeping the weight to 25 lbs.

Heather has done it she is a RMT!!! (Registered Massage Therapist) and looking forward to the 5 weeks of travel and community work in Zambia.

See you in cyberspace we hope to have access 3-4 times during the trip in between the camping sections.

Bye for now from Horse and Dog - next entry from South Africa

Horse and Dog are off to Southwest Africa

Hello all:

Been some time since our last post, Heather has been busy with school and we have both been busy with the Yoga Studio. I finished the Authentic Leadership Certification program at Naropa, held down three different jobs over the last three months at the Y....

After many discussions and lost of dreaming we have finally planned our next adventure - we're off to the south west part of Africa! We leave Aug 20 and will return to T.O. Sept 29th.

38 days travelling overland,

camping,

and volunteering in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia here is out trip map:

We will be joining 10-14 others and spend five days participating in the Livingstone community volunteer program. During our stay we will have the opportunity to interact with children and other community members while assisting in local schools, building/refurbishment projects and sports development initiatives.

hope you can join us!

Peace

Heather (Horse) and Brad (Dog)