WEEK SEVEN

So Monday we were leaving our bush camp along the delta river to head back to Maun. We were meant to be getting up and packing away our tents at 530. However, from about 5am it was bucketing down so no one dared to get out of their tents! It got to about 630 and it was just lightly spitting so we sucked it up and cleared the campsite and made it back to Maun by 930. The whole morning was spent cleaning our very wet and muddy tents and our clothes. After lunch we then took an optional flight over the Delta which was fantastic. A few people went into little 172's (what I used to fly), while I was in a 8 sweater Air van. We took off from Maun international airport and stayed at just 500 ft for the whole flight which was great as we got a bird eyes view of all the animals. 

Tuesday we made it to the Greater Kalahair (Ghanzi) by lunch time. In the late afternoon, we took an optional exclusion to follow the local tribe the San Bushmen which was absolutely fascinating. These locals traditionally live strictly off the land and they take such good care of the land - they only ever take what they need from the land, nothing more. And whatever they do take, they use every single part of it, nothing goes to waste. They don't like to kill the wildlife but when they need to, they will do it respectfully and even explain to the animal why they needed to kill it - and again. They will eat and use every single part of the animal. So, we were met by a local botswanian who would act as a translator for the bushmen, as the bushmen only speak their native language. The translator took us out to met the family of 8 or so ; they were wearing just animal skin to cover the essentials. The grandmother of the family greeted us all in her local language, and then came around and individually shook our hands and asked for our names - this was very moving for many of us, as she looked deep into our eyes and her hand shake was so heartfelt. We had no idea what either of us was saying to each other, yet there was some strange connection when you looked at her. 
We spent about an hour with the family, following them as they dug out various plants and explained their uses. 
We were  told later that this tribe (like many throughout Africa) are close to extinction, thanks to settlement and government. The San Bushmen are now no longer allowed to hunt and kill a wildlife - they need a permit which the government will not give them! It is a real catch 22 in these kind of situations.. So many of us are all about animal protection, but we forget that there are still people like this tribe that still believe strongly in their traditions, yet can't practice them. These people now rely solely on these kind of guided walks for money, which they then use to go to the supermarket to by their meat! Crazy. 
After dinner, we were then given the opportunity to see some traditional San Bushmen dancing. It was quite interesting to watch, as the dancing they do around the bonfire puts many into some kind of trance. 

Wednesday was meant to be a pretty quiet boring day on the truck, crossing the Botswana-Namibia border. We left camp at 6 and had hoped to be at our HOTEL (first time since Zanzibar; over 2 weeks ago) by 3pm where we would be able to enjoy a huge pool, gym and wifi (which we hadn't had in about a week). We were also meant to be at 'Joe's beer house' at 7pm for dinner. We had been talking about this place for over 2 weeks as it served a lot of game meat; ostrich, crocodile, springbok, oryx and zebra! So, we were all very keen to get to Windhoek (capital of Namibia) to enjoy all these treats. 
Unfortunately, our day turned out VERY differently! We got to the border at 930. It took us over an hour to get through, which was unusual in itself. Our guide and truck driver were last to go through, and we're denied entry into Namibia because the visas they had were dated for 2011! Anyway, they got it sorted within an hour, so we were ready to physically cross the border by 1030..When Rob (our driver) started the truck and found that he couldn't change gear. What was thought to be a simple blocked pipe, turned out to be a huge mechanical problem. 8 hours later, 630pm (30 mins before our Joe's reservation :'() we were on our way.. Without our truck, without our driver! We had two private vans to drive us the 330km and to get us to Joe's by 11pm which was when the kitchen closed... We were seated at Joe's at 10.50pm! The relief and excitement of everyone of us was very very obvious! After such a crappy day, the big fat zebra steak went down an absolute treat! Unfortunately though, this did mean that we didn't get to spend much time in our lovely hotel, as we checked in at 1.30am. 

Thursday morning we had two trucks from another tour company come and pick us up in place of our truck that was still stuck at the border. We arrived into Waterberg Plateau Game Park in the late afternoon which gave us enough time to hike up to the top of Etjo Sandstone Plateau - a 50km long and 16km wide cliff-type thing that was 150m high. It gave us stunning views of miles and miles of Namibia. 

Friday we made it to Etosha National Park where after dinner we did our first night game drive which was an awesome experience. Our guide took us on a 3 hour ride through the park in open-air vehicles with just a handheld red torch. Within 5 minutes we were staring right at a large group of giraffes munching, sleeping and fighting! We headed towards to watering hole where we spent well over half an hour as we spotted the critically endangered black rhino. He was wandering around the waterhole and several times we had to turn off the light to avoid agitating him. He came within about 20m of our truck and stopped and stared at us several times. So we sat there in darkness for a couple of minutes, letting the rhino move around in peace. Then the guide shone the light to where the rhino was, and instead there was a huge male lion walking straight past our truck, within 10 metres of us! It was incredible. He headed to the water hole and spent a fair amount of time there before making his way back to where he came from - but not without a huge roaring performance ! It was an incredible, unforgettable night.
 
Xxx