South Africa and Botswana (!!!!!!!)
(posted from Sedia Hotel Pool Bar, Maun, Botswana)
(This post covers 21 – 31 August, 2011)
----------------------
Wednesday, 31 August -
Today we decided to stay another night at the Sanctuary and use the day for planning. We spent the morning reading up on future destinations and around lunch time drove into Serowe. We were very lucky to find a guide and a policeman available during lunchtime to take us to the cemetary of the chiefs and to the Seretse Khama statue. Again, we were treated to wonderful hospitality and a detailed description of what we were seeing. The cemetary, for example, lies atop a hill overlooking the town of Serowe and the guide did a great job of pointing out the sights and explaining the layout of the various political divisions (the 'wards').
We also drove by the Kgotla, which is where the representatives of the people meet with the chief and the various 'uncles' who rule the tribe. As we drove by we saw them in session.
Afterwards we returned to the Sanctuary and did a game drive. We saw 7 rhinos, a mongoose, impala, springbok, four ostriches, woodbuck, hornbills, and a black-backed jackal. We encountered two rhinos blocking the road and had to retreat or risk a charge; their body language was very clear!
After dark we returned to campsite 7 and had a spaghetti dinner. We went to bed at 2130, very happy to be in Botswana.
------------------------
Tuesday, 30 August -
Today was a GREAT day. After breakfast and pack-up, we drove to the Malemi Pan waterhole to start our tour. The parade of wildlife just got better and better. We saw zebras, springbok, wildebeest, red hartebeest, an eagle, kudu, warthogs, rhinos, giraffes, ostriches, lechwe, a lizard of some type, yellow mongoose, eland, gemsbok, waterbuck, impala (and others!). WOW.
We spent the entire day touring the various game trails but the Malemi Pan was definitely the best.
Late in the day we had tea at the restaurant and then went back to the Malemi Pan for more. We then had supper of chicken livers and peri-peri sauce (a hot sauce).
Back at the campground we set up and sat around celebrating our incredible good luck to have seen so much at the Sanctuary.
--------------------------
Monday, 29 August -
This morning I bought a Botswana SIM card at the nearby gas station for my prepaid GSM phone I had bought in South Africa. Now I can use either the South Africa card of the Botswana card as best fits. We drove on toward the Khama Rhino Sanctuary near Serowe, about 150k north. In Serowe we had a super tour of the Serowe Museum by a very friendly guide named Kabo. Thank God we've been reading up on Botswana and knew the story of Seretse Khama and had some background on Serowe and the line of succession of the chiefs. The tour was so rich with information we could barely keep up as it was. If we had known nothing of Serowe, we'd have been lost. Good job, Kabo!
We then drove on to the nearby Khama Rhino Sanctuary and its campground. We arrived just a few minutes before dark but we're now comfortable with the set-up process so we didn't mind.
We spent the evening enjoying our beautiful (and quiet!) campsite and did a few small things like testing the satellite phone, charging up batteries, etc.
Note: We are basically following the 'Best of Botswana' itinerary from our outfitter but instead of having them book our reservations, we're winging it. We did not want to get locked into a schedule. Also, most reservations are non-refundable. If we were unlucky enough to have a vehicle breakdown we could very easily find ourselves with a long string of missed reservations for which we'd have to pay but could not use.
---------------------------
Sunday, 28 August -
Today we drove from our campsite near Pretoria to the Botswana border. We fueled up along the turnpike-like N1 and got our first introduction to rural African life after turning off onto the N11 toward Botswana. There were donkey carts half-on the road, goats and cattle in the roadway, and people walking everywhere. The villages are a mix of rondavels and more modern concrete-block construction, all very small compared to US homes. We're visiting in very early Spring so vegetation is dead (though we see a few buds starting to peek out). We have to be careful of our driving, both because we're not used to driving on the left side of the road and there are lots of people and animals right on the roadway-- far more than at home.
We reached the Botswana border around 1630 and had an easy crossing. The officials are polite and very helpful. They seem to think our attempts at saying a few Setswana words are hilarious.
After the crossing we stopped at a lodge and campground just the other side of the border. We had a whole section of the campground to ourselves. At Reception, we learned there was an internet connection and were told there was damage to homes in Pennsylvania due to Hurricane Irene. We spent a few minutes on email and learned from our neighbor that our house was fine though he had lost some trees in the 50-mile-an-hour winds and three inches of rain associated with Irene.
We ate at the lodge that evening and had a very good beef stew over rice and the best sugared squash we've ever had.
Before dark we had seen a waterbuck feeding along the Limpopo River and that night we heard hippos from our tent.
We also heard something stirring in the brush near us but we felt secure in our rooftop tent.
----------------------------
Saturday, 27 August -
This morning we looked up the nearest Outdoors Warehouse on the GPS and went in search of it in Pretoria. We were looking for a porta-potty. The outfitter supplied us with a 'bush toilet' but that's just a folding seat with a hole in it. I had expected we'd get a Thetford porta-pottie because I had seen them in the outfitter's catalog and just assumed that's what they'd supply. But the outfitter said they used to supply them but found them to be less-than-acceptable hygene-wise. That is indeed the case if you don't manage it properly or make mistakes in the dumping process. The GPS took us to the Brooklyn Mall. We never did find the Outdoors Warehouse there but did some more shopping at 'Game' for miscellaneous small items (12v splitter, 12v socket with battery clips, spare batteries, night-bottles for the tent, etc. We had a wonderful lunch at Bugatti Cafe... a newish chain of upscale restaurants here in South Africa.
Since we spent the greater part of the day at the mall, we decided we'd better not try to find a new campground tonight but rather would return the short distance to Fountain Valley. Unfortunately for us it was Saturday night and a special one at that. There was live music and a lot of it in the picnic area. The extra-heavy bass shook our tent walls till 0200 Sunday morning. For some reason I wasn't bothered much by it. I slept well until 0100, was awake an hour, then again slept very well.
---------------------------
Friday, 26 August -
This morning we had our guesthouse-breakfast (lots of choices and very good) then were picked up by the van for the hour's drive to the Bushlore offices where we'd be picking up our rental 4x4.
We spent the morning checking in and going through all the details associated with the truck rental-- agreements, payments, checklists, introductions to equipment, and lots and lots of questions.
We wrapped up by about noon and used the GPS to take us to a nearby mall to provision. We shopped for food, a prepaid cell phone, and pepper spray.
While Labashi finished up the food shopping I used our new cell phone to call campgrounds. I found one about an hour out of Johannesburg called 'Fountain Valley'.
We made it to Fountain Valley after a few wrong turns and arrived around 1800, just at dark. We picked a campsite and set up, then celebrated our arrival in Africa with a toast of “Amurula”, an Irish-cream-style drink which uses the fruit of the Marula tree (reportedly a favorite of elephants). It's very similar to Bailey's or St. Brendan's Irish Cream.
We thought we had it made in our campground but as the evening wore on we wondered why we were still hearing loud music. The music lasted until midnight and wasn't too bad with earplugs. But with the excitement of our arriving in South Africa, highway noise from the nearby road, and the music, we didn't get a lot of sleep. I remember seeing 3 am with no sleep but then crashed heavily.
----------------------------
Thursday, 25 August -
Our plane landed on time at O.R. Tambo International in Johannesburg. Our luggage came out very quickly and the passport check and customs check were very quick and easy. At the Information Desk we saw a guy holding a sign with our name and the logo of the guesthouse we selected for our first night in South Africa (SunRock Guesthouse).
We checked in to our room and by 1030 local we were sleeping. We caught about four hours of sleep, showered and started planning our next day.
That evening we had dinner-- a South African 'braai', or steak cookout, in the SunRock's 'lapa', a grass-roofed enclosed pavilion. We had a few glasses of wine and a truly excellent char-grilled steak with a superb mushroom sauce.
We were joined by a fellow guesthouse resident, Allan Perkins. He's an Englishman working as a non-desctructive-testing specialist at a Johannesburg power plant. He lives at the guesthouse for six months, goes home for a few weeks, then returns for another stint. He was great entertainment for our evening.
We turned in fairly early-- around 2100-- and read.
----------------------------
Wednesday, 24 August -
We arose at 0500 this morning and were on the road to Dulles by 0530. The trip was very quick and easy as was check-in with Jet Blue and the security check. By 0645 we were at our gate and ready for our 0815 flight. Next door was a Five Guys stand so we split a cheeseburger for breakfast (Ahh, comfort food!!).
Our Jet Blue flight to New York was ontime and very easy but at New York we hit a snag. We only had an hour between flights but had to take a shuttle the whole way around JFK to get to our stop, then go through the security line again. We made it to the gate ten minutes after boarding started but that worked out fine... we could walk right on. It all turned out fine-- we just didn't like not knowing whether we'd make it on time or not.
Our South African Airways flight to Johannesburg was to be a 15-hour one so we settled in and tried to imagine how we'd stay comfortable for so long. The Airbus 360-300 had good legroom and seat-back displays and the beverages and meals were included so there were no hassles there.
Not long after take-off and leveling out the crew came around and served us South African wines, then a good, filling meal. We were told a second meal (breakfast) would be served about two hours before landing.
We spent the time watching movies (I watched 'Paul' and 'Casablanca') and by reading. Every hour or so we'd get up for a stretch.
We had departed at 1130 (am) Eastern time and by midnight we were over the western coast of Africa at Namibia. With a time difference of six hours, that meant the sun was rising. Shortly thereafter the cabin lights came on and we were served a very good breakfast in preparation for our 0830 arrival in Johannesburg.
----------------------------
Tuesday, 23 August -
Today we drove to Labashi's brother's house in the Washington, DC area. We'll leave our car with them and catch a ride to the airport for our hop to New York and then the flight to Johannesburg.
As we drove south we were on US15 nearing Frederick, MD when we received a text from Maypo. “Did you feel the earthquake?” it said. My reply was “Hunh?”. About 40 minutes previous there had been a 5.8-magnitude earthquake centered around Mineral, VA. We hadn't noticed a thing.
We turned on the radio and listened to breathless descriptions of the damage to the National Cathedral and to the Tyson's Corners area. But we had no problems driving down 15 past Leesburg and on to Manassas.
We spent a fun evening with our friends and had a home-made spaghetti supper.
-----------------------------
Monday, 22 August -
Tomorrow's departure day. We continued refining our gear and going over checklists and doing the final packing.
------------------------------
Sunday, 21 August -
Now the packing starts for the Africa trip. We spent the day finalizing contents and making (and unmaking) decisions on what to take along. I spent an inordinate amount of time on cash and passport stashes. I had bought money belts, leg safe, sock safe, belt-loop stash, etc and needed to test each. The leg safe was a complete bust (the straps-around-the-calf thing just doesn't work for me) but the others seemed okay.
We also began packing our suitcases and it became clear I'd need another. I could load my stuff into the bags we have but I'd have to find a luggage cart to lug the stuff around. I'd rather not deal with that so we drove to the Wal-mart and I bought a bag with skateboard wheels and a long handle. That'll do just fine and could be used as carry-on luggage if I wanted.
***** END OF POST ********
(posted from Sedia Hotel Pool Bar, Maun, Botswana)
(This post covers 21 – 31 August, 2011)
----------------------
Wednesday, 31 August -
Today we decided to stay another night at the Sanctuary and use the day for planning. We spent the morning reading up on future destinations and around lunch time drove into Serowe. We were very lucky to find a guide and a policeman available during lunchtime to take us to the cemetary of the chiefs and to the Seretse Khama statue. Again, we were treated to wonderful hospitality and a detailed description of what we were seeing. The cemetary, for example, lies atop a hill overlooking the town of Serowe and the guide did a great job of pointing out the sights and explaining the layout of the various political divisions (the 'wards').
We also drove by the Kgotla, which is where the representatives of the people meet with the chief and the various 'uncles' who rule the tribe. As we drove by we saw them in session.
Afterwards we returned to the Sanctuary and did a game drive. We saw 7 rhinos, a mongoose, impala, springbok, four ostriches, woodbuck, hornbills, and a black-backed jackal. We encountered two rhinos blocking the road and had to retreat or risk a charge; their body language was very clear!
After dark we returned to campsite 7 and had a spaghetti dinner. We went to bed at 2130, very happy to be in Botswana.
------------------------
Tuesday, 30 August -
Today was a GREAT day. After breakfast and pack-up, we drove to the Malemi Pan waterhole to start our tour. The parade of wildlife just got better and better. We saw zebras, springbok, wildebeest, red hartebeest, an eagle, kudu, warthogs, rhinos, giraffes, ostriches, lechwe, a lizard of some type, yellow mongoose, eland, gemsbok, waterbuck, impala (and others!). WOW.
We spent the entire day touring the various game trails but the Malemi Pan was definitely the best.
Late in the day we had tea at the restaurant and then went back to the Malemi Pan for more. We then had supper of chicken livers and peri-peri sauce (a hot sauce).
Back at the campground we set up and sat around celebrating our incredible good luck to have seen so much at the Sanctuary.
--------------------------
Monday, 29 August -
This morning I bought a Botswana SIM card at the nearby gas station for my prepaid GSM phone I had bought in South Africa. Now I can use either the South Africa card of the Botswana card as best fits. We drove on toward the Khama Rhino Sanctuary near Serowe, about 150k north. In Serowe we had a super tour of the Serowe Museum by a very friendly guide named Kabo. Thank God we've been reading up on Botswana and knew the story of Seretse Khama and had some background on Serowe and the line of succession of the chiefs. The tour was so rich with information we could barely keep up as it was. If we had known nothing of Serowe, we'd have been lost. Good job, Kabo!
We then drove on to the nearby Khama Rhino Sanctuary and its campground. We arrived just a few minutes before dark but we're now comfortable with the set-up process so we didn't mind.
We spent the evening enjoying our beautiful (and quiet!) campsite and did a few small things like testing the satellite phone, charging up batteries, etc.
Note: We are basically following the 'Best of Botswana' itinerary from our outfitter but instead of having them book our reservations, we're winging it. We did not want to get locked into a schedule. Also, most reservations are non-refundable. If we were unlucky enough to have a vehicle breakdown we could very easily find ourselves with a long string of missed reservations for which we'd have to pay but could not use.
---------------------------
Sunday, 28 August -
Today we drove from our campsite near Pretoria to the Botswana border. We fueled up along the turnpike-like N1 and got our first introduction to rural African life after turning off onto the N11 toward Botswana. There were donkey carts half-on the road, goats and cattle in the roadway, and people walking everywhere. The villages are a mix of rondavels and more modern concrete-block construction, all very small compared to US homes. We're visiting in very early Spring so vegetation is dead (though we see a few buds starting to peek out). We have to be careful of our driving, both because we're not used to driving on the left side of the road and there are lots of people and animals right on the roadway-- far more than at home.
We reached the Botswana border around 1630 and had an easy crossing. The officials are polite and very helpful. They seem to think our attempts at saying a few Setswana words are hilarious.
After the crossing we stopped at a lodge and campground just the other side of the border. We had a whole section of the campground to ourselves. At Reception, we learned there was an internet connection and were told there was damage to homes in Pennsylvania due to Hurricane Irene. We spent a few minutes on email and learned from our neighbor that our house was fine though he had lost some trees in the 50-mile-an-hour winds and three inches of rain associated with Irene.
We ate at the lodge that evening and had a very good beef stew over rice and the best sugared squash we've ever had.
Before dark we had seen a waterbuck feeding along the Limpopo River and that night we heard hippos from our tent.
We also heard something stirring in the brush near us but we felt secure in our rooftop tent.
----------------------------
Saturday, 27 August -
This morning we looked up the nearest Outdoors Warehouse on the GPS and went in search of it in Pretoria. We were looking for a porta-potty. The outfitter supplied us with a 'bush toilet' but that's just a folding seat with a hole in it. I had expected we'd get a Thetford porta-pottie because I had seen them in the outfitter's catalog and just assumed that's what they'd supply. But the outfitter said they used to supply them but found them to be less-than-acceptable hygene-wise. That is indeed the case if you don't manage it properly or make mistakes in the dumping process. The GPS took us to the Brooklyn Mall. We never did find the Outdoors Warehouse there but did some more shopping at 'Game' for miscellaneous small items (12v splitter, 12v socket with battery clips, spare batteries, night-bottles for the tent, etc. We had a wonderful lunch at Bugatti Cafe... a newish chain of upscale restaurants here in South Africa.
Since we spent the greater part of the day at the mall, we decided we'd better not try to find a new campground tonight but rather would return the short distance to Fountain Valley. Unfortunately for us it was Saturday night and a special one at that. There was live music and a lot of it in the picnic area. The extra-heavy bass shook our tent walls till 0200 Sunday morning. For some reason I wasn't bothered much by it. I slept well until 0100, was awake an hour, then again slept very well.
---------------------------
Friday, 26 August -
This morning we had our guesthouse-breakfast (lots of choices and very good) then were picked up by the van for the hour's drive to the Bushlore offices where we'd be picking up our rental 4x4.
We spent the morning checking in and going through all the details associated with the truck rental-- agreements, payments, checklists, introductions to equipment, and lots and lots of questions.
We wrapped up by about noon and used the GPS to take us to a nearby mall to provision. We shopped for food, a prepaid cell phone, and pepper spray.
While Labashi finished up the food shopping I used our new cell phone to call campgrounds. I found one about an hour out of Johannesburg called 'Fountain Valley'.
We made it to Fountain Valley after a few wrong turns and arrived around 1800, just at dark. We picked a campsite and set up, then celebrated our arrival in Africa with a toast of “Amurula”, an Irish-cream-style drink which uses the fruit of the Marula tree (reportedly a favorite of elephants). It's very similar to Bailey's or St. Brendan's Irish Cream.
We thought we had it made in our campground but as the evening wore on we wondered why we were still hearing loud music. The music lasted until midnight and wasn't too bad with earplugs. But with the excitement of our arriving in South Africa, highway noise from the nearby road, and the music, we didn't get a lot of sleep. I remember seeing 3 am with no sleep but then crashed heavily.
----------------------------
Thursday, 25 August -
Our plane landed on time at O.R. Tambo International in Johannesburg. Our luggage came out very quickly and the passport check and customs check were very quick and easy. At the Information Desk we saw a guy holding a sign with our name and the logo of the guesthouse we selected for our first night in South Africa (SunRock Guesthouse).
We checked in to our room and by 1030 local we were sleeping. We caught about four hours of sleep, showered and started planning our next day.
That evening we had dinner-- a South African 'braai', or steak cookout, in the SunRock's 'lapa', a grass-roofed enclosed pavilion. We had a few glasses of wine and a truly excellent char-grilled steak with a superb mushroom sauce.
We were joined by a fellow guesthouse resident, Allan Perkins. He's an Englishman working as a non-desctructive-testing specialist at a Johannesburg power plant. He lives at the guesthouse for six months, goes home for a few weeks, then returns for another stint. He was great entertainment for our evening.
We turned in fairly early-- around 2100-- and read.
----------------------------
Wednesday, 24 August -
We arose at 0500 this morning and were on the road to Dulles by 0530. The trip was very quick and easy as was check-in with Jet Blue and the security check. By 0645 we were at our gate and ready for our 0815 flight. Next door was a Five Guys stand so we split a cheeseburger for breakfast (Ahh, comfort food!!).
Our Jet Blue flight to New York was ontime and very easy but at New York we hit a snag. We only had an hour between flights but had to take a shuttle the whole way around JFK to get to our stop, then go through the security line again. We made it to the gate ten minutes after boarding started but that worked out fine... we could walk right on. It all turned out fine-- we just didn't like not knowing whether we'd make it on time or not.
Our South African Airways flight to Johannesburg was to be a 15-hour one so we settled in and tried to imagine how we'd stay comfortable for so long. The Airbus 360-300 had good legroom and seat-back displays and the beverages and meals were included so there were no hassles there.
Not long after take-off and leveling out the crew came around and served us South African wines, then a good, filling meal. We were told a second meal (breakfast) would be served about two hours before landing.
We spent the time watching movies (I watched 'Paul' and 'Casablanca') and by reading. Every hour or so we'd get up for a stretch.
We had departed at 1130 (am) Eastern time and by midnight we were over the western coast of Africa at Namibia. With a time difference of six hours, that meant the sun was rising. Shortly thereafter the cabin lights came on and we were served a very good breakfast in preparation for our 0830 arrival in Johannesburg.
----------------------------
Tuesday, 23 August -
Today we drove to Labashi's brother's house in the Washington, DC area. We'll leave our car with them and catch a ride to the airport for our hop to New York and then the flight to Johannesburg.
As we drove south we were on US15 nearing Frederick, MD when we received a text from Maypo. “Did you feel the earthquake?” it said. My reply was “Hunh?”. About 40 minutes previous there had been a 5.8-magnitude earthquake centered around Mineral, VA. We hadn't noticed a thing.
We turned on the radio and listened to breathless descriptions of the damage to the National Cathedral and to the Tyson's Corners area. But we had no problems driving down 15 past Leesburg and on to Manassas.
We spent a fun evening with our friends and had a home-made spaghetti supper.
-----------------------------
Monday, 22 August -
Tomorrow's departure day. We continued refining our gear and going over checklists and doing the final packing.
------------------------------
Sunday, 21 August -
Now the packing starts for the Africa trip. We spent the day finalizing contents and making (and unmaking) decisions on what to take along. I spent an inordinate amount of time on cash and passport stashes. I had bought money belts, leg safe, sock safe, belt-loop stash, etc and needed to test each. The leg safe was a complete bust (the straps-around-the-calf thing just doesn't work for me) but the others seemed okay.
We also began packing our suitcases and it became clear I'd need another. I could load my stuff into the bags we have but I'd have to find a luggage cart to lug the stuff around. I'd rather not deal with that so we drove to the Wal-mart and I bought a bag with skateboard wheels and a long handle. That'll do just fine and could be used as carry-on luggage if I wanted.
***** END OF POST ********
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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