Keith's travelogue

Dear All,

What a time it has been.

The tour of the sand dunes was with a very informative guide - a Sth African called Boesman who went by the name of "Bushman" due to his vast and intricate knowledge of the culture and traditions of the Bushamn culture. He was a bit like Les Hiddens - the Australian Bush Tucker Man.

He was previously with the Sth African desert forces and had learned tracking and many other desert survival skills. He was passing this on to us tourists to impress upon us how knowlegeable the Bushamn peoples were about their environment, and what their culture and daily life was like. It was a tough life and not one for me I'm afraid.

After the tour at the sand dunes we headed off to a bush camp on the way to Etosha National park, in the north of Namibia up near the border with Angola. This park is a great dried up lake bed after the rains, and apparrently the pan is viusible from space. The park has a number of waterholes near campsites which are floodlit at night, so being the dry seasons, the animals congregate around them. Here it is the tourists that are held behind the fences and the animals wander free, just going about their business.

It was a great game viewing experience with the water holes floodlit at night to allow game viewing. On the first night we saw a herd of about 30 elephants come in to drink their fill. It was incredible to see them from the largest male to the smallest baby, so close up (less than 10m at points) and almost silent apart from a few grunts, and communicating just by touching trunks, or so it seemed to us.

We also saw two black rhinos, giraffess, hyenas, and jackals, but the elephants won everyone's hearts. The next day on our game drive we were lucky enought to see a pride of 16 lions just lolling about at the end of the day near a soak. That's after some wildebeest, more giraffes, elephants, springbok, and impala. Better than any TV program.

After two nights at Etosha we headed south to the capital Windhoek, and then on to a Cheetah park were we were able to see Cheetahs, and pat a tame one. The owner of the park was a right "tosser", as the Brits say, who wouldn't sell me a Diet Coke "it's not a supermarket".

After that we headed straight east into the Kalihari desert and Botswana. The land here is very, very flat - Botswana is also home to the big African skies. While desert it was not sand dunes, so again there was an endless changing procession of different plants and landscapes so depsite a drive of 600km it wasn't boring to me. Although most of the rest of the truck were sleeping off their hangoberts from the dinner the night before. We had a meal at a German Beerhall. I had to wait tow hours for my food, and then it was cold so it was a bit of a let down as it was a game platter with ostrich, crocidle, zebra, kudu and chicken. Still it was cheap at around Aus $15.

In Botswana we headed up to the Okaango delta, apparently the only inland river delta in the world. The river comes from the mountains of Angola to the nrth, and heads inland not to the sdea. It hits the4 flat land at Okavango and just dissapates into the desert. But iut has lots of wildlife. We took a trup in traditional mokoro dug out canoes and camped overnight, with a game walk that afternoon, and another in the morning. Saw a few animals, but not as much as Etosha.

Much, much better was the flight over the delta in a small 5-seater. It had awesome views and a few swoops and dives and sharp banking turns to ensure we were all excited. WEe could see a lot more of the spread of the delta, and how green it was contrsted with the brown/grey of the desert. We flew over whole herds of zebra, buffalo, wildebeast and elehapnts and also was giraffe. Heartily recommend this flight if if you are in the area.

After this it was on to Chobe national park. This is possibly the highlight so far. Just enterring the park we had to stop the truck and let five bull elephants cross the road! They were so close. Then the next morning we went on an game drive at sunrinse. We saw all the usal animals byu now and then bunmped into a pride of lions stalking a herd of buffalo. Tghe male buffalos chased them offf. Then we came on three lionesses that were starting to eat a dead elephant. A bit gruesome but all part of the experience. Although we were less than 10meters from them they happily chomped away at the body. Incredible.

Later that afternoon we went on a game viewing cruise on the river and finally saw our hippos, and lots of them. They were basking and wallowing in the water, snorting grunting and farting shit (a warning signal apprarently!). There were elephants, crocodiles, a marine monitor lizard (sort of a swimming goanna), and lots of birds - the African fish eagle - a highlight for me, jacana, marabou storks, plovers, herons etc etc.

Aftetr that it was off to Zambia, crossing the "freedom bridge". This was the route taken by South Africans who were exiled during the aparthied years where they were finally in friendly states as the crossing is at the point were Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe join at the border.

In the afternoon we vistied the "smoke that thuinders" the famous Victoria Falls. A very inmpressive sitre as the water just pours into a cleft in the rock. Millions of litrres per minute. A stunning sight. Then it was off to camp to set up for lunch, and then that evening we had another sunset cruise as a sort of farewell evening to review the trip highlights and get drunk (but nit me).

Livingstone is a major transit point in the overland touring industry. The truck group starts splitting up at Livingstone. Some will go home from here, others will join a different truck going to Johannesburg, and new people will join our truck to head north to Nairobi.

So I have a couple of days here to chil out looking out over the mighty Zambezi river.