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Sunday, October 28, 2007

Email to Friends: Dumela From Botswana and Namibia‏

Howzit?

I am alive and well and hanging out in Namibia waiting for a bus tomorrow night to take me to Livingstone, Zambia. I had to wait a bit, as buses only leave twice a week, and I heard I might be able to get a visa waiver by doing a little groundwork first.

Since I last wrote in Gaborone, I took the sleeper train to Francistown and then caught a public bus to Maun. Everyone laughed at me on the bus as I saw my first wildlife (an ostrich) standing by the side of the road and called it my budget safari. They then were kind enough to point out every donkey, horse, cow and goat for me and then laugh (there are a bagazillion of those wandering the "highway"). Stayed right outside the town of Maun in Matlepang (or something like that) at this awesome river lodge called Okavango River Lodge. I signed up for the dorms, but since they weren't full, they let me stay in my own chalet for the same price. Super friendly people that run it and work there.

I took a makoro boat day tour which is a little dugout canoe with two people and a poler. Neil, from the hotel, took us by motorboat out past the buffalo fence and we hopped into the dugout canoe to explore the Okavango Delta. Saw several elephants and herds of zebra, but no hippos (Neil later said that you really don't want to see hippos in a makoro). Ended up hanging out at the lodge way longer than I thought, as Maun was so relaxing and fun.

The bar has a great view of the river and had lots of locals who stopped by and it was a great place to learn tips and more about where to stay in other countries. They also offered up free or discounted spare seats on whatever they were doing (safaris if I wanted to ride along and help set up, scenic plane flights and such). Unfortunately, none of them worked with my "schedule". Watched South Africa win the World Cup Rugby game which led to many Springbok shots and lots of partying. Met a German entomologist who was doing research on the tse-tse fly nearby and ended up helping him and a few of his friends at the University of Botswana research lab down the road from the lodge.

Neil, the lodge manager/bartender or Colin from down the road took me out on the boat every afternoon for a few hours when they were picking up tourists from tours or water skiing. Neil and the owner Marie ended up offering me a job. They said I could stay for free and bartend. No real money, but if I wanted to hop on safaris or trips, they would pay for it. I seriously considered it, but I had heard of a great tour in Nambia that I wanted to check out and had been waiting around to see if I could catch a ride with someone. Finally found three guys (2 Austrians and a South African) driving across and hitched with them. They dropped me in Windhoek on Wednesday evening.

Took a three day camping tour of Sossusvlei, Namibia the next day. It was amazing. If you have ever seen the movie "The Cell", it is those red sand dunes in the middle of the desert that you can hike on the ridges of. Also filmed there is that shot of the kid playing with his sailboat amongst dead trees in white sand surrounded by red sand and blue sky. Early in the morning, you climb the dunes to watch the colors of the sand change to every hue of red you can imagine. It was also a full moon. so the camping was great. Saw springboks, oryx, MEERKATS!!! and the glowing eyes of jackals invading our camp.

And now just chilling out back in Windhoek and trying not to head back to Maun instead of volunteering :). Met some guys who are in law school here from Ethiopia and we were chatting about food (big surprise there) and they promised to bring me homemade lunch today! So I am off to get ready to grub. Oh, and almost forgot... saw the Tropic of Capricorn on the way out to Sossevlei. Far less celebrated than the Equator in Ecuador.

I will pick up a new SIM card for the phone in Zambia in the next few days and will email that out once I get the new number. Although, I guess the Botswana number didn't work for most of you (could have been how far I was out of town)

Love,
Betsy

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