So you may have been wondering where we have been for the last month; well we have mainly been rattling around in the back of a truck driving through from South Africa to Namibia, Botswana and to Zambia where we are now.
We set off from Cape Town very early (this became a very common occurance over the following 3 weeks) and drove to the north of SA where we spent our last night in SA getting to know our group we made good pals with Regi, Joel, Joseph and Lucy who we were to spend alot (maybe too much) time with drinking and laughing. This was also our first night camping in the African Bush, but it wasn't really roughing it as we had mattresses and hot showers! Although we were kept awake by a SA 90's disco. The next day we crossed the border into Namibia which was pretty easy, we were suprised to notice that as soon as we crossed the border the temp instantly seem to shoot up to 41c. We drove onto our campsite next to Fish River Canyon, the worlds second largest canyon. We went to watch the sunset from the main viewpoint looking down over Hells Corner and enjoyed some cheese and wine; again not really roughing it. Mark won a bottle of wine after singing Danny Boy for the bus (the driver Conrad thought he was Irish for the first few days).
The next day which was New Years eve we drove up to Sesriem, and for the long drive we started to go a bit crazy by eating lots of Jelly Beans and had a massive balloon fight, which for a bunch of grown up people its pretty embarrasing how much we all enjoyed it! We had our own New Year party in the middle of the desert which was pretty cool and involved sampling drinks from all the different countries we were from including the obligitory Springbok (Nik you didnt tell us about having to drop your pants) and also some random Norwegian Fishermens Friend drink from Gunn Lillian and Henriette. Unfortunately the next day we had to get up at 4am to go and see the first sunrise of the new year from the top of a massive sand dune (dune 45) so after 2 hours sleep we started the long trek up for a rather cloudy sunrise! We did however then go and visit sossusvlei and dead vlei which is a salt and clay pan surrounded by sand dunes which was pretty cool. We all collapsed in the afternoon to try and escape from the 40+ temperatures and to recover from new years.
The next day we drove up to Swakopmund on a very bumpy road which led to one of the group iterally bouncing off his chair into the aisle. In Swakers we settled into our cosy a-frame with Joel and Joseph it was very much like the Waltons with the boys giggling like girls for most the night. The next day we went quad biking through the sand dunes which was pretty crazy and we got covered in sand; especially Mark after he fell off a couple times.
On the road again to Twyfelfontein to see the 2000 year old rock carvings of kudu, lions and even a penguin! The local people here speak to each other by making clicking sounds which was crazy. The temperature hit 46c and the place we were staying had no water to drink!!! We were treated to an evening of song and dance by the locals who sang hits such a "Toyota's a crazy car" and "Amarula" we even joined in for a bit of the dancing and singing (especially Victor and Joel).
The next day we drove up to Etosha National Park for a bit of game spotting (enroute we had some really good carrot cake). We drove to Okaukuejo inside the park and set up camp before heading off on an evening drive where we saw lots of giraffes, Impala, Springbok, Wilderbeest and Mr Jackal made his first of many appearances.There was also millions of bugs at the campsite including giant rhinocerous beetles which covered the bottom of the sinks; gross.
We got up super early the next day for an early morning game drive unfortunately we were an hour early for the park gates to open!!! Conrad got the time wrong. Rubbish. We saw loads of animals on this drive including a mummy and baby cheetah next to their kill, we saw loads of cute warthogs and millions of giraffes and zebras, oh and Mr Jackal popped along again and was even kind enough to help Regi put the rain cover on her tent in the middle of the night.
The next day we had a final game drive out of the park and were lucky enough to see a female lion wandering along, after leaving the park we drove to Waterberg Plateau which is just like Jurassic Park. We had a nice afternoon by the pool drinking Gin and Tonics (which of course is good for Malaria so we drank quite a few along the trip) and just living the life.
We drove the next day to Windhoek the capital of Namibia where Jane and Joseph had to run around changing money who then found Mark and Joel doing the laundry (but were actually relaxing drinking champagne in the laundromat with Gerry) grrr. We stayed in a hotel but unfortunately we had to say goodbye to a few people as they were finishing their trip here so we went out for a farewell dinner which involved in Mark singing on the bus with his new partner in crime Joel.
Feeling pretty rough and sad after leaving our pals especially Lucy we drove across the border into Botswana where instead of staying in a tent we slept in a bushmans hut which was cool, we also went on a walk with the bushmen who taught us lots about the plants in the area but where most happy when they were given cigarettes to smoke! In the evening they sang and danced for us and Regi and Jane got new husbands!
The next day we drove to Maun which is the entrance town to the Okavango Delta. We went on a tiny 6 seater plane (including the pilot) for a scenic flight over the delta and were able to see lots of elephants, hippos and giraffes from the air which was great although it was a pretty bumpy flight and we all felt a bit queasy afterwards. We then got all packed up for our death journey into the delta where we camped in the wilderness for two nights (no hot showers this time; not even a loo). We were canoed out on a mokoro canoe to an island which was checked for wild animals before we set up camp where we mainly sat around drinking wine out of a bag (thats how rough it was), went swimming in the watering hole (no crocs luckily) and going on long walks through the delta where we were so amazed to see elephants trundling past, such an amazing experience especially when you are just out for a walk, we also saw loads of giraffes running and were nearly stampeded by wilderbeest and zebras. We managed to escape the delta in one piece and returned to Maun then ventured off to Baobab (Ghanzi) for a night; it did totally rain but luckily a few of us had decided to sleep in a hut so we didnt get wet but other peoples tents floated away in the rain.
We drove on to Chobe the next day and all along the main road there were elephants just wandering about, when we arrived at Chobe we went on a sunset cruise and saw loads more elephants and loads of hippos we even ran one over on the boat, oh and we saw a few crocs.
The next day we crossed the border into Zambia which was again pretty straight forward and we drove on to Livingstone which is right next to Victoria Falls. We pitched our tents here for the last time and spent a couple days with the group which included as much as you can drink booze cruise (more gin and tonics). We said goodbye to most of the group which was pretty sad, but we had a couple more days with our pals Joseph and Joel, so we went to the falls with them and got totally soaked but had a good laugh, the falls are nuts especially as there was thunder and lighteneing when we were there. We were pretty sad when we said goodbye to the boys and miss them already. So to cheer ourselves up we went and did a walk with the lions which basically involved us going for a walk with two 14 month old female lions (Bisa and Bemba). It was awesome, Mark particularly enjoyed it as lions are his favourite, we even got to stroke them loads; cool. We also went to the croc park and saw some massive man eating crocs; the guy poked them with a stick which was scary, but we did hold some little baby ones which were cute.
We head on up to Lusaka in a couple of days so are just relaxing a bit here now.