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Sierra Leone Part III – Tiwai Island: Christmas and Monkeys

10 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by Anita in Africa, Sierra Leone

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Animals, Camping, Christmas, Monkeys, Villages

Arriving by canoe on Tiwai Island

Tiwai Island is home to the densest population of primates in the world.  Red-tailed/black and white colobus monkeys, chimpanzees, and spider monkeys abound.  I was looking forward to a respite from the traffic heavy city to a totally natural environment that we had to get to by boat.

The drive, as is the case with any overland travel in Africa, was arduous.  For those of you unfamiliar with overland truck travel – we travel in a 4×4 overland truck that can accommodate up to 24 passengers and crew.  Everything we need to camp in the bush is on the truck: tents, stoves, utensils, gas, water jerry-cans, a fridge, plus we collect firewood as we go.  The passengers are divided up into group for truck jobs such as sweeping out the truck at the end of a long drive day; and we have cook groups made up of 4 persons who rotate to prepare meals on the road for the rest of the group.  Cook groups plan and organize shopping in local markets for gathering supplies for dinners, breakfasts and lunch; though sometimes we don’t get included meals which we would then purchase locally at restaurants – when we can find them.  West Africa, especially Guinea and rural Sierra Leone – see very few tourists.  Many villagers and especially children have never seen white people before.   As such, we are often greeted with the kind of enthusiasm that is reserved for celebrities.  Everyone waves at the truck – sometimes a local woman will start dancing with excitement and start shrieking with euphoria and spontaneous eruptions of applause are not uncommon.  It leaves one feeling both honored to be visiting such a remote location as well as providing a sense of privilege due to the lack of melanin in our skin that is quite uncomfortable to say the least.

Villagers greeting the truck

About half of the nights on the trip are spent camping in tents, and the other half is spent in local guesthouses/hotels which have ranged in quality from very basic to downright worse than camping.   In Guinea, for example, all of the hotels carry a double bed only – and since we all agreed to “share” – the women and the men are assigned a roommate and one is “forced” to make do sharing a bed or choosing the floor if that is too unsavory an experience.  This requirement has set off a number of problems within the group and tensions have surfaced resulting from fractions between certain members of the group not liking other members enough to sit next to them for a 10 hour long, hot, dusty truck journey – let alone a shared bed at night without so much as a fan for comfort.

Having said that, vast majority just accept it or choose to upgrade to their own room.

Building a fire at a Bush Camp on Christmas Day

Roads in this part of the world are notoriously bad and the further back in the truck one sits, the more one feels the impact – quite literally – of the bumps and potholes encountered along the way.  On bad road days, one really can’t nap or read a book – and so many hours are spent watching the countryside rolling by or engaging your fellow passengers in conversation.  Sometimes, conflicting desires between silent contemplation and conversation come to a head and a compromise is reluctantly found.  It can be quite a tiring and physically brutal way to travel.

I knew full well about these drawbacks – but the adventure and allure of traveling somewhere that other travelers rarely go was too appealing.  And so…off we headed to Tiwai Island.

We arrived a little late on schedule with the sun having already set.  Armed with just our daypacks for 2 nights, we boarded small power boats and set off from a jetty to the jungle island of Tiwai.  It was one of those moments when traveling where you can’t believe you’re in the middle of nowhere with the stars bright above you and nothing but nature and zero electricity awaiting you.  Crossing the mighty river you feel a bit like an ancient explorer and its very romantic.

On arrival, we set up tents under structured platforms and then enjoyed a very late dinner of bony fish and coconut flavored rice.  We would be enjoying a full day of structured activities and so I headed to bed at a reasonable hour.

Campground on Tiwai Island

Despite the oppressive heat of the day, I was glad for my 55 degree Fahrenheit rated sleeping bag and woken up in the night with a sense of chill in the air, I gladly crawled into my bag.  The inevitable “need to pee in the night” got me up around 3am and I walked to the bathrooms by headlamp listening to the sounds of the animals around me and my snoring fellow passengers.

The following morning was Christmas Eve and we gathered at 6:45am for a nature walk.  After about an hour of not seeing anything but hearing the crying calls of hornbills and monkeys, we finally saw a group of red colobus monkey effortlessly jumping from branch to branch in the canopy overhead.  We saw the white crested hornbill in its impressive display of winged flight and took some pictures of the giant trees that I’d only ever seen before in Cambodia, enmeshed with the temples at Angkor Wat.

After breakfast and some free time, four of us took a boat back to the mainland to enjoy a village tour which turned out to be fascinating.  Our guide explained that the 300-person village was primarily Muslim, but that they drank alcohol and were planning to celebrate Christmas.  We saw their school, vegetable gardens, how they grew rice and processed it, their beds with mattresses filled with grasses and dried leaves, the community water pump, as well as meeting and greeting with many adults and even greater masses of children who constantly harangued us for attention and photos – shrieking with excitement when we showed them the taken pictures on the camera screen.

Family with infant on Village Tour

Excited village children

While waiting for a canoe to take us back to the island – we had a good laugh when our guide excused himself to “make a call” for the boat to come.  He walked to the edge of the river and literally made a loud patterned cry, cupping his hands around his mouth.  We had all assumed he was going to call someone on his cellphone but we were mistaken!

Later that afternoon, during my favorite time of day – the “magic hour” – we went out on four person canoes to explore downriver.  There wasn’t much to see in terms of wildlife, but the atmosphere and cool breeze from the boat was definitely worth the $10 it cost for the two hour trip.

Canoe ride on Tiwai

Definitely one of the strangest places I’ve spent Christmas Eve – we gathered around the fire after dinner and sang Christmas carols and told stories about our personal Christmas traditions.  It was a fun evening – the highlight of which was listening to our 68-year old Spanish passenger Carme tell hilarious inebriated stories from her childhood when Spain was still under rule by Franco, lying to get a visa to enter the United States and refusing to serve a racist customer at her first job as a waitress in LA.   She has quite the personality and is easily the most loved member of the group.

Our Canadian tour leader, Sinead, came and announced that the villagers had invited us to spend Christmas morning and lunch with them.  It was an offer we could hardly refuse, despite concerns I had about any awkwardness that might result from two very different sets of people coming together to celebrate a common holiday which has widely differing expectations in terms of how it is recognized.

Children fascinated with my hair on Christmas Day

My fears turned out to be largely unsubstantiated and it was a delightful, if exhausting morning.  We were literally besieged with snotty nosed children all clamoring over the women in our group…some of us got groped, had our hair pulled and ten children grasping at our fingers looking to hold our hand as we headed off to the area designated for the party.

I found myself rather attached to a little girl who didn’t offer a single word and seemed to be very picked on by the other kids.  She seemed sad and in need of some affection so I sat with her for some time giving her some needed hugs.  At least she smiled when I did this.  Music was played and beer brought out – and those passengers who still felt rhythm in their feet got up and danced in the jungle with the villagers, united in the common celebration that Christmas still is – even if presents and holly, and mistletoe are absent.

Little girl on Village Tour

Quite exhausted but with filled hearts, we boarded the truck after finishing a delicious lunch of fried beignets and freshly cooked (and slaughtered in our honor) chicken.  We had a long drive in the direction of Makeni to complete – and since we were delayed in our journey, the plan was to find a new, good spot to bush camp for the night.

These plans made sense until you took into account that most open countryside is dense forest and/or tall grassland – not ideal for pitching tents to accommodate 22.  And we had our own Christmas dinner shopped for and to prepare for.

Jack taking pics of village kids

 

Late in the day, we pulled off the main highway at a number of promising looking locations that proved unsuitable upon further examination.  Being told there were several villages with flat ground up ahead on a dirt road, we took a 20 minute detour only to find a village all out and dressed to the nines celebrating Christmas in the open air of their local soccer field.  The entire crowd of at least a hundred came running up to the truck and started whooping and hollering in excitement at seeing us.  It became quite apparent that if we asked to “borrow” their soccer field for the night, we would be besieged with people utterly adamant in their curiosity to not give us a moment of peace.

So we pressed on as the sun began to set.

Kids playing on Christmas Day – Mike photobombs too…

After another ten minutes or so we came across a different villages’ soccer field with only a few individuals roaming around.  Their shocked faces turned to bemusement, suspicion and incredulity as our fearless leader asked if we might be able to pitch our tents in their field.  Trying to explain tents to Sierra Leoneans was rather difficult and we were asked several times what our “purpose” there was?  That we were just driving through West Africa on our way to Ghana did not seem at all plausible to these villagers, but they acquiesced and invited us to use their soccer field.

Little by little, as we poured out of the truck and began pitching our tents and preparing our evening meal, the villagers came out in growing numbers to witness the spectacle that was us.  Rarely have I felt so self-conscious, but by the time we served up the pit-roasted chicken and grilled stuffing to each other but a crowd of at least 50 were simply standing in awe of us and I got the strongest sense of what it felt like to be a chimp at the zoo.  The villagers didn’t grow bored and just kept watching us for what felt like hours as we moved on to dessert and whisky.  Of course we wanted to share our meal with them – but had we done so – we might have set off a mob with people all grabbing for food.  There wasn’t enough to feed both groups anyways, so we ate, as best we could under the ever so watchful eyes of our new neighbors.

Making Christmas Dinner with a crowd of onlookers

In setting up my tent that night I also got a little surprise of my own when I found two hapless lizards whom I had accidentally prematurely murdered when I rolled them up into my tent on Tiwai that morning.  Luckily for me, one of the Peters on the group was kind enough to extract and dispose of the poor things for me while I grimaced in disgust from a distance.

Ewwwww…..

And so, Christmas was had and enjoyed by all in a most unforgettable and strange way.  My second Christmas in Africa in three years.

Sierra Leone Part II – Peninsula Beaches

08 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by Anita in Africa, Sierra Leone

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Beaches, Camping

River No. 2 Beach, Freetown Peninsula

On the morning of the 20th we left for the 90 minute drive to the stunning beach at River No. 2, stopping en-route in one of the most frenetic markets I’ve ever experienced in Africa in a town called Waterloo.  In spaces where people are so closely packed that you have to squeeze your physical way through…mini vans arrive blasting their horns causing the already tightly packed crowds to jam ever more tightly together in the space created only on each side of the vehicle.   It was madness and I quickly made my way back to the truck after my only needed purchase of toothpaste.

Outdoor showers and bungalows on the beach

Stunning landscape and mountains jutting from the sea in Sierra Leone

The beach at River No. 2 was absolutely stunning.  It was clean and mostly trash-free with a string of bungalows lining the length of the beach where several of us also chose to pitch tents.  The next 3 days was spent in a blissful non-routine of sleeping in, having a very leisurely omelet breakfast (the leisure brought on by the length of time it takes to make food as much as our own sense of relaxation) swimming in the turquoise warm waters, chatting with new friends over beers, and dinners of grilled shrimp.  It was rather magical and a great way to begin a 48 day overland truck voyage.

Even Charlie joined us for some fun in the sun and rather reluctantly allowed the four of us ladies to convince him to actually go into the ocean.  Like many Africans, Charlie didn’t know how to swim and had spent most of his adult life living within a few minutes’ drive of this gorgeous beach without so much as setting a toe in it.  I was so proud of him (and us!!) for getting him to enjoy the water so much after much encouragement, that within a few hours he was jumping and body surfing the waves like a pro.

Charlie gets in the ocean with the ladies: Roni, Jack, and Kelly

First he was afraid, now he was jumping in the waves!

The Christmas holiday in Sierra Leone brings with it a party season and every Thursday-Saturday night, giant beach based parties are planned with loud music, dancing and partying.

On our second night on the tranquil beach, we were caught off guard seeing vans and people arriving to assemble a giant stage with even bigger speakers literally within a few feet of our accommodations.  In earnest requests with the manager, all 22 of us had the laborious task of moving to the south end of the beach so that we wouldn’t have to face brain-blasting music until 4am for the subsequent two nights.  We all wondered: why on earth wouldn’t management have simply informed us of the planned party when we checked in the day before?  As with many things in this part of the world – it appears that such matters do not occur to staff in the service industry because the tasks of the current day are all that consume their thoughts.

Stray dogs on the beach

In any case, I was sad when it was time to leave River No. 2 and head to the wildlife hotspot on Tiwai Island – a mere 10 hours’ drive away.

The Gorilla Loop Part I – Lake Naivasha

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Anita in Africa, Kenya

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Tags

Animals, Camping, Tours

Me on Lake Naivasha

Me on Lake Naivasha

I was sad to leave South Africa. This country had really gotten under my skin and I wished I had a little more time there. The two days of high level activity had left me very drained and also very sick, so I literally took the Baz Bus to Johannesburg and had them drop me off directly at an airport hostel.  I ate dinner at a posher hotel across the street (I ordered Malva pudding and hot custard for dinner…come on, I was sick, yar?) and then promptly went to sleep coughing and sneezing up a storm.

The following day saw me take a flight from Johannesburg back to Nairobi to begin the Gorilla Loop overland truck tour with the same company I did my 56 day Coast to Coast odyssey with, Oasis Overland.  I even had the same tour leader and driver as before. The day was arduous as my virus was now full blown and it ended up taking longer to drive to Karen Camp from Nairobi Kenyatta’s airport than the four hours flying time it took from Johannesburg. Apparently, torrential rains had caused some major flooding and road damage, so Smiley explained that the traffic had just been utterly horrendous. It was good to see Smiley again – he was the first person I met when I arrived here nearly 3 months ago and it was good to catch up. Since we were literally parked for much of the only 15 mile or so journey, we played good old rock ballads on the radio and I attempted to croak along in between coughing fits.

New crew on the bus including the wonderful Greg

New crew on the bus including the wonderful Greg

I briefly met my tour group before heading straight for the shower and after to find Pete and Tabby to get back in the truck and collect the things I’d had them drive back up to Nairobi with. I then re-organized my entire backpack for just what I’d need on this trip through Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda and put the rest into storage at the camp.

Our first stop on this journey was Lake Naivasha and on arrival at our campsite we were welcomed by a rare sighting of the mighty black and white Colubus monkey playing in the grass looking out over the lake and its mighty hippos that were honking behind the security fence.

That afternoon’s activities seemed mellow enough that I decided to haul my sorry sick ass along to them. They consisted of an hour’s boat ride on the lake where we saw lots of lovely colorful birds and some crazy men who were fishing not twenty meters from where five or six hippos were cavorting in the shallow water. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I was looking forward to the afternoon tea I was promised at the former home of the late Joy Adamson, author of the “Born Free” series of books about her life in Africa raising wild cats domestically that she then later tried to let back into the wild.

Well, it was a bit disappointing on both counts. First of all, the tea was not a high tea, it consisted of “get your own tea” and ginger cake and cookies. Which is all fine, I wasn’t that hungry as I was snivelling everywhere. After wandering around the house and it’s attached museum we were ushered into a viewing room where we watched the documentary on Joy Adamson’s life.

Crazy fishermen busy working not more than twenty meters from the hippos

Crazy fishermen busy working not more than twenty meters from the hippos

Well, I’ll have to do a little bit of my own research, but frankly, I was quite horrified by this woman. Firstly, she kept getting married and then falling in love with a second and subsequently third man, each time divorcing the poor bastard she’d married before “till I love someone else more than you.” Then, she got to live this charmed existence in Kenya, financially supported by whichever husband she happened to be with at the time, and spent her days painting flowers while World War II was raging back in Europe. Finally, after her husband shot a lion during a safari, they decided to bring the cubs home and raise them at their house as pets. This led to her lifelong passion for wild cats, studying them and learning how to rehabilitate them back in the wild, which she then, of course, monopolized on financially by writing books about it all.

Frankly, she was very lucky to be doing what she was doing at that time, because nowadays she’d be arrested for what she pulled. “Born Free?” Yeah – they were, until your husband shot their mother and then they had to live with you pawing at them and pulling their tails (which you can witness on the video multiple times) and becoming rich as a result. I found her to be a most disagreeable woman and found her legitimizing the domestication of these wild lions and leopards to be quite disgusting.

It is probably a reflection of how times have changed, and I’m sure her foundation has actually done a lot of good in terms of protecting the cats here in National Park. That being said, “ugh” – what a horrible woman.

Fish Eagle above Lake Naivasha

Fish Eagle above Lake Naivasha

The following day I was well and truly in need of some solid rest and so reluctantly turned down the opportunity to go to Hell’s Gate National Park and partake in the only biking safari in Africa, for the chance to try and get healthy again.
I was sad to miss out on that experience, especially since it sounded like a great workout too.

Instead, I had a lovely afternoon talking to Greg, one of the passengers on our truck, who at 75, was mightily impressive in all he had done in his life and all the vitality and energy he still showed for his continued adventures. I write this recollection with sadness, as Greg tragically died of a heart attack a few days later during our Gorilla trek in Bwinde Impenetrable National Forest.

Hippo strolling through camp

Hippo strolling through camp

He made quite a distinct impression on me, and in the short week or so our group knew him, he became well liked and a team favorite. He had the most amazing stories that would start off, giving just one example, like “Well, you know…I was working in Papua New Guinea when Saigon fell….” – and you’d just shake your head and marvel at him.
I was very saddened by his death, as we all were, and my heart goes out to his family.

Nothing else really exciting happened at Naivasha other than me feeling utterly sorry for myself, having a good cry and getting nicely drunk with two of the girls in the bar next door who kindly listened to my stories about how this trip was supposed to be mending my broken heart.

Which it wasn’t, but by now, has definitely started to.

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Namibia – Cheetahs, Tribal Nakedness, and Extreme Temperatures

18 Monday May 2015

Posted by Anita in Africa, Namibia

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Animals, Camping, Culture, Desert, Safari, Travel Days, Villages

View over the northern Namibian desert

View over the northern Namibian desert

We were on the road staying in a different bush camp each night for several days following Etosha and preceding our stop in Swakopmund – a luxurious four days that we’d get to enjoy the luxury of a dorm bed.  What was fast becoming apparent in Namibia was the difficulty of maintaining bodily comfort due to the excessive swings in ambient temperature each day.  Mornings waking up huddled in my 15 degree F sleeping bag were cold, breath creating its own fog on exhalation.  They required long pants, and fleece layers as well as my wooly hat.  However, by 10am we were often sweltering in the heat of the sun, the temperature starting to soar and then bake us through to sunset when it would turn around and plummet once again.

I came up with an ingenious routine of dressing in layers that could be easily peeled away – so I’d wear my shorts under my long pants, and my tank top underneath a t-shirt and long sleeved shirt and fleece on top, knowing that I could peel the clothes and stow them comfortably in my day bag.

There were times, however, when even this wasn’t adequate – such as during our drive south once we’d hit the western coast of Namibia, known as the skeleton coast, presumably because of the number of ships that had wrecked here as well as the number of skeletons that amass on the shores of the massively populated seal colonies.  Apparently, this area gets a lot of its wind currents from Antarctica, and on two separate days, the cold was so bitter that it sent all of us diving into our lockers to extract our sleeping bags which we proceeded to climb into, fully clothed, even as we sat on our chairs huddled together for collective warmth.

Stroking one of the "pet" cheetahs...not that I approved of the place

Stroking one of the “pet” cheetahs…not that I approved of the place

Namibia is covered with desert landscapes, but also incredibly beautiful rock formations, sand dunes, and miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches.  Our first stop after leaving Etosha National Park was the Petrified forest park where we endured blistering sun and temperatures for a thankfully short walk to view the petrified logs.  Later we were taken to a rather strange and somewhat disturbing “Cheetah Park” where the white Namibian owners had 3 cheetahs kept in a domestic capacity as pets, together with a group of “fenced in” cheetahs that they fed daily as part of their artificial cheetah safari.  Enquiring as to how they came to have cheetahs on their farm, the owner told a rather disturbing story, but didn’t seem to have any ethical issues with it himself.  He basically explained that cheetahs had been attacking and eating his cows, and that he’d taken to shooting them (around 10-15 years ago) but then one time, decided that he’d catch them instead using a trap.  After successfully trapping one female cheetah, it turned out she was pregnant, and so he decided to take the cubs away from their mother and keep them as pets, and later charge people to come to his home and have pictures taken with his cuddly friends.  Of course, he used slightly different verbiage – but this was the gist of it.

Creepy, right?

 

Pretty Cheetah

Pretty Cheetah

What made the place even more suspect was that we were later driven around what was essentially a penned in area of land where we observed maybe twenty cheetahs all waiting to be fed by the chunks of meat the driver would heave into the air.  Some of the cheetahs looked a little sickly, like they’d been physically harassed by the other cheetahs, and besides my obvious concern over their well being in this regard, I couldn’t shake the feeling that cheetahs really should be roaming free, hunting, and catching their own food.

 

Cheetahs, cheetahs, everywhere...but waiting to be fed?  please....

Cheetahs, cheetahs, everywhere…but waiting to be fed? please….

Hoping for a more authentic experience than the Cheetah park, we headed the next morning on a visit of a Himba tribal  village.  Many of the Himba people living in rural Namibia still live with their traditions and customs that are unavoidably startling and somewhat uncomfortable for us westerners to observe – especially when it is presented in this fashion of “come to our village and see our naked women, our huts, and our children presented to you as if they are exhibits in a museum.”  Except the exhibits are alive and you feel as though you’re violating their rights to privacy taking photos (which they encouraged us to) as if they’re lions in a game reserve.  Ultimately, however, the culture of the Himba people is so foreign and fascinating, that one feels compelled to go and see for oneself, and one can’t help but take photos and swallow the given discomfort that accompanies the experience.

 

Himba woman and her son - I love the village meets western clothing in this pic (see the baby's shoes)

Himba woman and her son – I love the village meets western clothing in this pic (see the baby’s shoes)

Young men of the Himba tribe have their three front lower teeth knocked out by their fathers when they are young teenagers.  We were informed that this both distinguishes their tribal roots and also aids in the pronunciation of their dialect.  Women are mostly naked, dressed in little more than leather strap-like skirts and elaborate beadwork about their necks and chest.  Most notable, however, is the habit of the women not to bathe – at all.  Instead, they keep “clean” through a combination of spreading Okra-based paint onto their skin (which gives them their rich rust-orange like color) and sitting in the huts and “smoking” themselves – which is exactly what it sounds like: sitting in an oxygen deprived hut directly in front of a fire and letting the smoke cleanse your body (though exactly how this happens I’m not sure.)

The men, apparently, wash as we do with soap and water.  Of course, I felt a natural revulsion for their sanitary practices, and I recognize how ethnocentric that stance is, but I’m ok with it.  Making it even more difficult to believe – the women also put copious amounts of okra onto their hair, creating these elaborate headdresses out of their own tresses that they then embellish at the ends with circular mounds of animal fur.

The seal colony on the Skeleton Coast

The seal colony on the Skeleton Coast

I found myself aching to ask how/what the women used during their menstrual cycles and whether they could use water during this time for their ablutions.  I was left, unfortunately, to wonder.

This visit had been a highlight for Andy, a beloved member of our group, who was also celebrating his 46th birthday on the same day.  There were the obvious jokes about getting to see naked women on his birthday.  Since we were facing a very long drive to our bush camp that evening, we all decided to stock up on some booze to go along with the game bbq dinner Tabitha had promised to make us that evening, as a treat.  Around 2pm in the afternoon, someone suggested we crack open the alcohol stash and make a party of the afternoon’s drive, and that was it.

Truck Party time.

Sunset and partying on the roof of our truck in our Bush Camp

Sunset and partying on the roof of our truck in our Bush Camp

Andy put on a rocking compilation of music and we were all soon singing along and dancing up and down the central walkway of the truck.  We just about managed to get out of the truck and scramble to dizzying high viewpoints as the truck stopped at scenic photo opps along the way, though the climbs got progressively more difficult the more libations we imbibed.

By the time we got to the absolutely stunning setting for our bush camp, it was already time for sunset and most of us were winding down from our “night” of drinking.  The meal that night was the most memorable of the whole trip – we ate Oryx or Gemsbok and it was quite possibly the most delicious meat I’ve ever put in my mouth.

By 8 o clock, Andy had collapsed asleep in his tent, so any further party plans were soon squished besides the few of us who decided to make a night of sleeping directly under the stars sans our tents.

Nicely recovered from what had been a “day of revelry” – we happily set off towards the skeleton coast, first re-tracing our route a few miles as two members of the group had lost articles of clothing and hats during the dancing and truck party the afternoon prior.  Half successful, we turned about and headed towards the aforementioned block of cold air that hit us a few hours later, promptly finding us inside our sleeping bags in due course.  We had a number of strange stops that day before our perhaps even more strange stop that night at our camp (that had showers!!) at Hettie’s Bay.  We visited an abandoned oil mining shaft in the desert, a shipwreck on the beach, several more cliff top view points, and most surprising of all – Cape Cross Seal Colony.

Never have I seen this many seals in one place.  It made the Galapagos look like a quiet vacation spot for seals by comparison.  There were literally thousands of them crowded on the beach as far as the eye could see, lots and lots of young pups all screeching for their mothers amongst the masses.  If you looked carefully, you could also spot lots of pups that hadn’t survived and their remaining skeletons littering the beach too.  Reading the interpretive signs that were on display, we were disturbed to read that during the summer months when the pups are born, thousands can perish on a given day if the wind dies down for an extended period of hours – offering no relief from the relentless heat that they are just too weak to survive.

Desert

Desert

The temperature dropped even further as we arrived in Hettie’s Bay – a very very strange and somewhat creepily deserted town that was home for the night.  As it was the birthday of another member of our group, I made my best effort to go out for a drink after dinner – and found myself in a pub that somewhat resembled one of the nasty run down pubs they have in Everett along the Aurora highway.  Except with really bad Afrikaans music playing.

Weird.

I was very happy to arrive in Swakopmund the next day, and the weird Germanness of the town was overlooked, for now, because of the prospect of sheets and a bed for the next re-humanizing four days.

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Okavango Delta – Botswana Unplugged

12 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by Anita in Africa, Botswana

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Animals, Camping, Safari

Sunset on the Delta

Sunset on the Delta

Arriving in Maun, we didn’t have much time to chill before we had to pack up for our 3 day/2night mini “break within a break” trip to the Okavango Delta.  The Delta is an huge expanse of land in Northern Botswana that is covered with fresh water that flows south from Angola, with huge areas of rivers and islands teeming with wildlife scattered throughout the region.

I was looking forward to having a smaller group dynamic as it turned out that only about 1/2 of the group wanted to go, the rest elected to stay in the campsite in Maun.  This was going to be very basic camping with no facilities, no electricity, no cooking facilities beyond a fire we made ourselves.  To get to the island where we’d be rough camping involved a very attractive aspect of the trip – sitting back in a Mokoro – a traditional wooden (now made primarily from synthetic materials) canoe that sits very low on the water and can be “driven” with a long wooden pole that is reminiscent of the methods used by gondoliers in Venice.

Cooking at our campfire

Cooking at our campfire

We drove about an half hour outside of Maun to a tiny rural village, where we were met by our Mokoro paddlers and camping “crew” and helped load the canoes with our equipment, food, and water for the stay.

The canoe ride out to the island lasted around two hours and was an almost hypnotically relaxing experience.  Just being able to lay back in the sun with legs outstretched and just watch the water glide by, covered in giant Lilly pads with frogs croaking and crickets chirping the only noise that broke the haunting silence.  It was lovely.

Heading downstream in the Mokoro

Heading downstream in the Mokoro

Upon arrival, we were told that our itinerary during our stay would involve early morning game “walks” where we would head into the interior of the island and try to spot Elephant, Zebra, Antelope, Wildebeest, and if we were very lucky, a big cat (though I wasn’t too sure how excited I would feel if I saw a lion wandering around when I was on foot) while the middle of the day would be taken as a giant siesta due to the extreme heat and humidity making it difficult to do anything active.

It was a very peaceful and refreshing two days spent in the Delta.  Without much to “do” when resting in camp, we were able to slow down our pace completely and fill the time with conversation in the group, playing games, reading, napping, and taking a swim in the “hopefully – “wait! What was that noise?!!” non-crocodile infested waters.  We even played a great game that relied heavily on charade-like skills and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Safari on foot - sometimes crossing to different islands

Safari on foot – sometimes crossing to different islands

The highlight for me was the late evenings.  We would cook our meals as a large group and eat all around our communal campfire.  Then we’d go out to the riverside and just bask in the glory of the un-illuminated night sky that shone brilliantly with thousands of stars, while simultaneously watching the flashing sparks of the lightning bugs that lit up the air nearer the ground with their glow.  Though difficult at times, we also tried to listen…intently listen – to the beautiful silence that accompanied the hum of the crickets (which Andy humorously dubbed to sound like clanking beer bottles) in the night sky.

Every now and then, the sounds of the crickets were poignantly interrupted with the low groans of the hippos standing nearby, or the laugh of a hyena.  It was eerie, and a little hair-raising, but deliciously exciting and adventuresome at the same time.

Froggy

Froggy

We walked for miles on our game walks and did manage to spot several different kinds of wildlife – elephants, zebra, wildebeest and giraffe among them.  Our guides were enthusiastic to explain anything we might want to know about the delta and how to keep safe when walking so close to these amazing creatures.  We were warned of the false charges that the elephants can make – exhorted to stand our ground, and not run, should one of them decide to.

On the last night, our crew entertained us with local songs and dances around the fire.  Then we played a nerve wracking game called ‘Chief” which by a process of elimination left only the quickest witted amongst us still standing at the conclusion.

Sun setting...

Sun setting…

By the time it was time to turn the mokoros around and head back to Maun, I felt like a more wound-down version of myself and like I’d formed a closer bond with the individuals who decided to come along.  We hadn’t partied, hadn’t sang music loudly till the wee hours of the morning, but we’d thoroughly appreciated the rest, return to nature, and peace that the Delta provided to us.

On arrival back in Maun, we were very grateful to have an hour or so to re-humanize with a shower, and try to check some email, though this turned out to be an exercise merely in frustration.  We were bush camping that evening as we headed out of Botswana in the direction of the Namibian border – which we would cross the following morning, which also just happened to be my birthday.

Climbing the Baobab Tree

Climbing the Baobab Tree

It’s not every birthday that you get to go to Namibia.  But I did.  Funnily enough, on a 56 day trip, it was only on my birthday that I overslept by accident – Maud’s alarm clock failing to wake us up in time for our 6am departure.  We still managed to eat, pack, take down the tent, and use the “facilities” (a hole that you had to dig with a shovel) in under 20 minutes!  The border crossing passed without any more incident than the final foot & mouth disease shoe-washing checkpoint – and two customs’ officers who failed to notice that it was my birthday upon stamping my passport.

It was a long drive day – but we were lucky enough to stop at a supermarket where I decided to buy ice and lots of goodies for myself to enjoy later that night in bush camp #2 – and technically, the 4th night of bush camping in a row.  I ate a donut and got myself custard to have as dessert after dinner.

Birthday celebrations

Birthday celebrations

...and Cake

…and Cake

Our campsite that evening was also unique in that it contained the largest Baobab tree in Namibia.  These trees are significant in that they look like they are “upside down” – meaning their branches appear as if they are, in fact, roots instead.  We had fun taking pics climbing the massive tree as the sun set.

Later, after dinner, we drank and danced to music – and I even sang a song for the group.  I got a birthday cake replete with candles that struggled to stay alight – but all in all – it was a lovely birthday celebration and I was grateful to have it here in the African bush.

It was, as it turned out, entirely ironic that when the party was finally getting going, around 10pm, we were sent to bed after a small scuffle broke out between two of the lads.  One of the few nights that I was in the mood to stay up drinking and dancing…and alas, it was not to be.  Funny how that works out, eh?

Elephants, Slow Fast Food and Soggy Tents

08 Friday May 2015

Posted by Anita in Africa, Botswana

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Tags

Animals, Camping, Safari

Elephants in Chobe

Elephants in Chobe

Vic Falls being our last stop in Zimbabwe, we headed off in the direction of our next stop, Chobe National Park in Botswana, close to the Angolan border. As usual, it was with mixed feelings that we acquiesced to returning to the truck, especially now that space for stretching out was in shorter supply, so when we pulled over for a late morning stop at Wimpy (which I haven’t eaten at since I was a small child and it was a hamburger chain in the UK) we were rallied by the prospect of fast food and free wifi (our group descends on free wifi like vultures on a carcass.)

However, this was not going to be a fast experience, and one member of my table was asked to show his receipt for a cheeseburger and coke a total of five times before he was served his food. It turned out to be quite entertaining watching the Wimpy staff come unglued at the prospect of serving so many of us in a short space of time. Finally with our steaming cups of coffee, iPads and iPhones out in abundance, it was like pulling candy from a baby when after only 20 minutes we were rallied, reluctantly, back to Twinga.

Arriving at the lodge/campsite in Chobe National Park, I set about getting my tent and stuff sorted in time for our included boating excursion to view wildlife on the Chobe River. It was very hot, and I was quite upset when I learned with only five minutes left before our pick-up, that there had been a swimming pool I could have had a dip in. Nevertheless, looking at the sky, I grabbed warm layers despite the baking heat, and headed to the truck that would take us to the boat.

Croc

Croc

Three Slovenian doctors were also on our transport and I quickly befriended one of them, Mikha, once we’d settled into chairs on the roof of the boat. I listened with keen interest as he spoke to me of his recently ended three-month volunteer experience as a physician at a trauma hospital in Zambia. Working with limited supplies and with an predominantly HIV-Positive patient pool, he said it had been an incredibly intense learning experience that left him very much in awe of the African doctors and their coping skills, as well as a profound realization for how cushy he’ll have it in comparison as a General Practitioner back in Europe. He said he had also grown very fond of the relaxed method of time keeping Africans employ, namely if a meeting was called to start at 8am, it might not actually begin until 930 when everyone felt like showing up.

The time spent viewing game on the river was very pleasant indeed, if blisteringly hot. The upper deck was occupied mainly by an Australian group who’d taken it upon themselves to bring an entire cooler of cold beer along. It absolutely killed me not being able to have one myself – though I did offer payment for one and was unfortunately, turned down.

Elephant

Elephant

A safari by boat is a much more relaxing experience than in a vehicle. The elephants were happily cavorting in the water, the hippos waddled in the mud, and the crocs stayed cool by keeping their mouths gaping open. Chobe is quite green and was altogether a very pleasant place to call home, if you were an animal (in my opinion, vastly superior surroundings to the harsh arid Serengeti).

We were further rewarded with an incredible sunset as we turned the boat around at the half way point. And then the darkening skies were further enhanced by a rush of storm clouds that began to rumble with thunder. The clouds almost looked like a tornado funnel as the wind picked up and lightning flashed across the sky. It was quite ominous and the temperature plummeted making me super grateful for having brought my warmer layers.

And then the rain fell. And fell.

Hippo at Chobe

Hippo at Chobe

By the time we ran back to the tents on the return journey, the campsite had turned into a sandy swamp. Everyone was running around desperately saving gear from getting wet, and securing rain flies on their tents. Then we all headed to the bar as the only dry refuge in the camp, where we greeted by a rare treat – beer on tap!

The following day was a super early start and it was quite miserable rolling up the wet tents in the soggy ground and getting away by 6am. We had another long drive today, this time to the town of Maun which would be our setting off point for a 3 day/2night trip to the Okavango Delta.

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anitagotravel

anitagotravel

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