Food shopping is fun!
Should it be so difficult to find plain/salted potato chips in countries in southern Africa?
Botswana: baobabs, boat rides, and well endowed bushmen
Rock art at the Tsodilo Hills… supposedly 3,000 years old!
Apparently the San men consider themselves quite well endowed
My favorite trees anywhere: baobab trees!
They’re so fat and fun… I absolutely love them.
Flooding on the Zambezi River means many of our campsites have been totally flooded. Katje and Anders take a walk around the pool…
High water means more crocs, so we’re always on the lookout. Haven’t seen a croc in our camps yet. The hippos definitely come ashore at night for feeding and were very near on tents on a regular basis. A bit creepy to think they’re so dangerous and so close, but as long as you stay inside your tent, they don’t even know you’re there. Fun fact: hippos are responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other animal.
Roar!
Look at him… so cute and ferocious all at once!
Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia
I’ve been trying to update the blog regularly, so I apologize if I’m slow to respond to emails. Time at cafes always seems so limited…
Botswana came and went in just six days. We spent four days at the Okavango Delta relaxing at Swamp Stop, Sepupa. Nice hiking and tons of rock art at the Tsodilo Hills: Mountains of the Gods. It’s a sacred site of the bushmen/San people and has over 4,000 rock art drawings. They’re estimated to be 3,000 years old if you believe that. Pretty crazy. Also spent a relaxing day poolside/riverside while half the group decided to spend $160 each on a canoe trip. We opted to entertain ourselves and did Spa Day instead… we did our own pedicures and gave each other haircuts, and got crafty making necklaces, sewing, carvings, etc. Tons of fun to hang with our smaller group, relax by the river, read our books, swim in the pool, listen to music, and laugh tons.
After a night in the Caprivi Strip, our we crossed back into Botswana to visit Chobe National Park for even more game viewing. We opted for the boat trip here (only $40, includes park fee) and saw TONS of animals, hippos, elephants, eagles, crocs, birds, impala, kudu, and more. Easily the most impressive safari possible for your dollar! Super fun and so, so many animals! It was also our second to the last night with our truckload of new friends… and lots of bonding transpired in a very short time. More pictures to come eventually…
Currently… I’m in Zimbabwe having a great time. We’re at the pretty touristy Vic Falls area to see the world famous Victoria Falls. It’s the second biggest tourist site in Africa (after the pyramids of Giza in Egypt), but the streets are mostly empty and everyone we meet are local folks. Not too many whites/tourists around. A few groups of Japanese tourists in busses, but otherwise pretty quiet. I wasn’t expecting much of the falls, but was absolutely astounded when we finally saw/experienced them. The water crashes down over 100 meters, and then sprays back up. The spray up is so strong from so much water that it literally rains down on you. No mist here… it’s pours down on you like a thunder storm. All of my pictures of us are soaking wet liked drowned rats, and smiling ridiculously big smiles. Who knew it’d be so super fun?!
Last night was our last official night with the tour… a so-so dinner followed by a fun time dancing at the Wild Thing dance club! Yay dancing!! They played my two favorites from Kenya… Shakira followed by R Kelly’s Burn It Up! They also played lots of local Zim music and other random stuff to keep us on our toes. A very fun night.
This morning I got an hour long full body massage ($15!!) and said my goodbyes to our new friends. As Anders said, you’ve got to be sad today to say goodbye. On the bright side, I now have lots of offers for couches to stay on in Germany and Denmark!
Tomorrow we’ll head to Zambia with Brett to visit a village of a friend we made in Namibia… should be fun to get back to the rural setting that I had all year in Kenya. After that, Susie and I pass back into Zimbabwe to see more of the country, see the ruins (some of the only ruins in Africa), and then head onward to Mozambique. Not sure what we’ll see in Mozambique as the country is experiencing some massive flooding in parts. Safety will determine what to see, what to skip. It’s a former Portuguese colony so I’m looking forward to seeing the difference in food, language, culture. Might even get to practice some Spanish. Even though they speak Portuguese, Spanish is apparently easier than finding people who speak good English.
That’s all for me today. Hope you enjoy the pics posted recently! Many thanks to Dawne and Daryll, our new friends from Brooklyn, who were super generous with loaning me their laptop so I could edit pics for the blog. You really do meet the nicest people on the road.
Lots of love to everyone,
Cat