Africa Blog - part 1

It's been an interesting couple of weeks, as I go through the roughly 6000 photos I realise just how much we've seen and done in that time. I'm sitting here at 6.20pm in Gaborone, Botswana; the sun's down, it's dark outside and the peacocks have finally stopped screeching!

The trip started really well. The first day in South Africa my debit card was skimmed and my bank account drained of all money then frozen by the credit union. Great start to the holiday but fortunately Michael's account was untouched although he used the same ATM. I still kick myself because I knew something was wrong but i didn't want to offend anyone, so I let myself be scammed. I've learned my lesson! Joburg airport is a nightmare. Ostensibly they are improving it but there is construction everywhere, getting through immigration is painfully slow and the only security we saw was a very disinterested police officer at a desk.. unlike other major cities there were none anywhere near the ATMs, which should have set the alarm bells off. However we made it through and went to a really nice B&B in Joburg - they picked us up from the terminal. There is a high fence topped by a multi-strand electric fence and barred windows, back to base security and we're quite glad of it! The headlines in the paper the next morning told if the police breaking a gang who were kidnapping tourists from Joburg airport and murdering them. Maybe I was fortunate that I just had my card hijacked.

We were dropped back at the airport for the 2 hour flight across Botswana to Windhoek, in Namibia, flown by the self-proclaimed 'Captain Fantastic'! He reminded us to check for all personal posesions, as anything left behind would be divided up amongst the crew. LOL.

We stepped down onto the tarmac and it was like something out of another world - the landscape is different, the sky is not as blue as ours but it was a spectacularly beautiful day. We negotiated a price for a cab to take us to out hotel and off we went. It's a fair way out of town and took us about 1/2 an hour to get in. When we got to the hotel we got our first taste of African hotelery! There had been power shedding (strange euphemism - when there is not enough power they turn it off for a few hours...) and so the machine that did the room keys was, of course, not working. The security guard had to come with us and let us into the room, and when we went out later we had to come back and find him to let us back in. High security!! So we went out anyway and cruised up the main street - unfortunately being Sunday almost everything was closed, but we found a few straggling stalls that had obviously formed part of a street market.

We wandered until we found an internet cafe to email the credit union about my debit card, and then to a petrol station to buy some water! For dinner that night we ventured to La Marmite (emphasis on the e at the end, NOT like the marmite spread!). The LP guide had recommended this as the place to get wonderful North and West African cuisine, and I had a Cameroon curry and Michael chicken kebabs. With wine and soft drinks this came to about $23 Australian! Early night as, frankly, there was nothing else to do.

Next morning we were picked up by the Nomad truck, and apparently we were supposed to be at a different hotel, where the rest of the people on the trip had stayed, but thankfully they found us. There are only 9 others on the trip, plus a German translator who had left her Germans in Windhoek so was basically the off-sider to the cook for the rest of the trip.

We set off for the Buitepos border, about a 500km drive, where we enter Botswana. We stopped at Gobabis to get supplies, which gave us our first opportunity to really see an African town. The most fascinating, I thought, were the Herero women. The Herero belong to the Bantu group, wth about 240,000 members alive today. The majority of the Herero live in Namibia, with the remainder living in Botswana and Angola.

Herero women wear very long, flowing Victorian gowns over hooped petticoats and distinctive head dresses. Multiple layers of petticoats made from over 12 metres of material are voluminous. Apparently missionaries who were appalled by the Hereros` semi-nakedness introduced this style of dress in the 1800`s. Now the Hereros continue to wear these heavy garments and it has become their traditional dress. The dresses are generally hand-made by the Herero women, and are an important part of a young lady's "coming of age". It is considered a privilege to be allowed to put on and wear the Herero dress. The hat is supposed to symbolize the horns of the cape buffalo, one of the mightiest animals of southern Africa. The sleeves are designed to billow like an elephant's trunk.

We cross the border into Botswana. It's really a pretty laid back border crossing, as you can see....


We have plenty of time to get used to travelling in the truck. It's not too bad after you get used to it, rough but we are enthralled by the Kalahari that we are crossing. It's not a sandy empty desert like the Namib, but has lots of small trees and grass cover. As we pass into Botswana the landscape changes, and the number of goats and donkeys steadily increases.

We arrive in Ghanzi, at Tautona Lodge, just before sunset. Into the lodge and find our room is ok, single beds and a tiny bathroom but somewhere clean to sleep. We have a few minutes to clean up then back in the truck to go down to where the backpackers are camped to see some dancing from the Bushmen. They arrive in their 4WD and get changed then dance for us.

The San, who were formally know as the Bushmen, are indigenous to Botswana (and Namibia) and have lived here for over 30,000 years. It is said that the word San meant ‘wild people who can’t farm’, however historically they didn’t have a collective word for
themselves. Now they call themselves Ncoakhoe meaning ‘red people’. They were nomadic people – primarily hunter gathers, moving to where the food and water could be found. It is estimated that there are 55,000 San people left, with 60% of them living in Botswana and many examples of their cave drawing can be found dotted around.