We joined a guided tour in Windhoek, Namibia for the Botswana and Zambia part of our journey. There were 18 people on the tour, which was a big change from the other guided tour sections of our trip ( Bhutan, Kenya and Rwanda) where it was just the two of us. It was fun meeting a bunch of new and interesting people - mostly Canadians, but also a some Americans, English, Germans, Swiss, Australians and one Scot
The tour started in the Kalahari desert, where we were treated to dancing and singing by the local San tribe bushmen. Instead of applauding, the women ululate and the men growl like tigers. We kept doing this for the rest of our trip - it was hilarious!
The bushmen also took us for a walk through the bush and dug up different plants that were used for medicine and tanning hides. Listening to them talk was fascinating, since their language has lots of clicking sounds.
Next we did a scenic flight over the Okavango delta. The Okavango river flows south into the Kalahari desert and eventually just gets soaked up into the ground, making the area an excellent habitat for wildlife. Steve won the rock paper scissors with Jackie, so he got the front seat (a Cessna 206 Ivan!).
He was bucking himself in when the pilot said, "Um, I'm sorry sir, but you're in my seat!" Kind of funny - I guess old habits as a pilot die hard.
We did an overnight camping trip and were transported to the campsite island in Mokoros (dugouts) by some of the locals.
We got to try out poling the dug outs (WAY harder than it looks!) and went for a game walk after dinner.
We did see elephants and hippos from the dug outs, although our guides were keen to give them a wide berth. Dugouts are not very stable!
The next day was the highlight for us. We stayed at a resort called "elephant sands". It was in the middle of the desert, and contained an artificial watering hole. The region used to have several private game reserves, but they shut down, so now the next nearest water hole is 17 km away. There are 90,000 elephants in the region, and 200 to 300 visit this water hole every day. It was mind boggling! There were constantly 10 to 30 elephants at the watering hole, 24 hours a day. The owners of the resort were doing the best that they could to both accommodate the elephants and their paying guests, but these animals were both sly and determined to hunt down any source of water. A month before when the dry season was getting really intense, elephants walked onto the patio and drank the swimming pool i.e they completely emptied it!
The owners had a crew of workers who did repairs every morning on the damages the elephants wrought the night before. They would pull up water lines and knock over water tanks in their quest for quenching their thirst. One elephant knocked over a washroom, ripped the tank off the toilet and then took off into the desert with the toilet bowl. They have never found it!
The elephants were a constant source of entertainment. In the morning, one went back up onto the patio to check out the pool (very empty) until he got shooed away by one of the owners.
The next day we did a cruise on the Chobe River. Plenty of crocodiles, hippos, birds and ungulates.
Overall, a great tour - beautiful country, fun people and neither of us had to drive!
No comments:
Post a Comment