After only a short drive in Zimbabwe, we hit what would be the first of many border crossings on this trip. Compared to South America, these crossings were much more lax. They were more concerned about your occupation and how much money you planned on spending than what you were bringing in.
Home sweet home. With a few modifications to increase airflow
It was only another short drive once in Botswana to our destination for the evening. The first order of business was to become acquainted with our tents. These tents were tall and wide with built in mosquito netting. We also received mats for the tents to give a little cushion. Those that had already been on tour with nomad were experts in setting up their tents. It took us a bit longer initially but was overall simple to set up.
Panorama of the Chobe river
Variety of wildlife spotted on the game drive
Elephant herd walking with their young
How a giraffe reaches the ground
After the camp was set up, we set off on our first activity which was more game driving, only this time in Chobe National Park. It's situated on the Chobe river so the scenery was completely different than our other drives. We piled into two 4x4s and set off. Our guide was OK but we got to see quite a bit. We got to see large herds of elephants roaming along the river. We'd seen elephants before but this setting made them very impressive. We also saw most of the Safari staples: zebra, giraffe and impala. We had our first encounter with a monitor lizard but the absolute highlight of the drive was the leopard. We almost didn't see it!! We were on our way out trying to beat the rain we could see in the distance when our guide slammed on the brakes and did a u-turn. The vehicle behind us had spotted the leopard in the bushes right by the road that we had just driven past!! It was an absolutely beautiful animal and cooperated with all the photo takers (though I really missed not having my giant lens!).
Leopard! 4/5 now complete
Not sure who is stalking who
We left on a great high after seeing the leopard and went straight into a river cruise along the Chobe to get a different perspective of the animals. We got to see some hippos, buffalo and a crocodile, but the highlight was a herd of elephants drinking and playing in the water. It would have been nice if we could have played in the water as it was very hot on the boat with minimal shade. The folding chairs in the boat started out well set up but quickly became a chaotic mess as people tried to avoid the sun.
Elephants relaxing at the water
Washing themselves off
Getting a drink
It was a great day to truly start the tour and we returned to camp for some dinner and our nightly edition of "The Norman Show" which covered the next day's activities and times. Since this was the season premiere, it ran a bit longer as he outlined how the tour was going to work.
The next morning we were roused from our sleep by the sound of rain! The intensity kept picking up and by the time we tried to take our tent down, we had a small stream running underneath. It was a chaotic morning of people scrambling to take their tents down in the train and mud (the rain stopped as soon as we left). In the chaos of all of this, someone fell and hurt their wrist. We all piled into Whitney and headed to town so the injured wrist could be tended to.
We got many different kinds of stops on the tour. Most were for fuel, shopping, lunch and the toilet. Sometimes it would just be a gas station, other times we would stop in small towns. And sometimes in the middle of nowhere, you'd just have to stop. If you needed one of those stops, you'd walk to the front, stick your head through the opening to the cab and tell Norman you needed a bushy bushy.
We had an extra long stop, while the injured family member (That's how Norman referred to the group) was being tended to so we did the natural thing you'd do in Africa: find the Cafe with wifi. Although in this case the wifi was a great help. Jess excused herself to use the toilet and about 5 minutes in, I got a message that simply read "Please can you rescue me from the toilet". Turns out the door stuck and there was no knob on the inside. After the daring rescue, we found out it was only a fractured wrist and we all set off for our evening destination. It was another border crossing as we stayed in Namibia along a thin strip of land that runs along the top of Botswana (the original intent was that it have Namibia access to the Indian ocean but it actually didn't). We got our wet tent unpacked and hoped it would dry overnight.We were located right on he river side up on a steep bank with warning sides for crocodiles. We were assured we were safe despite the doubts of our resident crocodile expert (the Australian). We awoke in the morning with all famil members still intact!
Our Okavango campsite
The bathroom "door"
Overlooking the delta
Fauna composition of grass and papyrus
Typical channel to navigate
The next day we were back in Botswana headed to the Okavango Delta. We split from our accommodated family members as their portion of this two night excursion was different (some members on the tour were in accommodations everywhere and the rest of us were camping). It was nice to have a dry tent and these had cots! We took an afternoon nature walk around the property and then set off for a boat cruise of this section of the delta. It was very cool scenery as it was a bit swamp like. We saw lots of birds and even a few crocodiles. We had an amazing dinner at the camp but had to make it an early night as the mosquitoes were quite vicious.
Our mokoros. These were fiberglass. Traditional ones were carved from trees.
The next day we took the boat once again and headed out to meet our guides for the day. Today we were traveling by mokoro. These were the old canoes that the tribes in the region would use to get around. They were driven with large poles, just like the gondolas of Venice though Venetians never had to worry about hippos!
A wild Jess sighting. Survival rates for these encounters are typically low.
Our mokoro train
Cutting though the reeds
It was a very cool experience to be at water level gliding through reeds. We only had one hippo scare as we stumbled upon one, but my mokoro was at the back (I was guarding the beer) so it was only terrifying for the first couple (Jess was in the first couple). We also spotted a few elephants in the distance. About halfway through our ride, the rain rolled in and was here to stay. We made it to another island where we were scheduled to take a walk and have a leisurely lunch, but we cut the walk short and all ate quickly. We were rained on the entire mokoro and boat ride back. At least we were we able to get a hot shower when we returned to camp. The pop up tent that provided shade at the bar quickly became a drying rack for everyone. When it came time for the sunset cruise, everyone turned it down because no one had anymore dry clothes if it rained again! Instead we all hung out under the cover with our wet clothes, had some libations and learned of our horoscopes thanks to South African Cosmo. After another filling dinner and excellent post-dinner conversation, we were off to bed, ready to re-unite with the rest of the group and Whitney tomorrow.
The next morning we set off towards Maun. It was a very easy day. Only a few hours of driving with a half full family and we reached out destination. It was a nice hotel with a campsite. We were able to lounge by the pool. At most every site we were at, the camping folks had an option to upgrade to accommodated. At this stop, there were a few that chose the option (we held out upgrading until the following night). They ended up with a chalet that quicky became the laundry house. Drying lines were running all over the place as people tried to dry their still wet clothes from the delta.
Explaining how a root was used to dye animal hide
One of their many useful plants
The next day we had an hour in the town of Maun while a small part of the group did a scenic flight. During this time, we stumbled into a Woolworth's food. It was the only time in Africa I would find 100% orange juice. Must of the time, it would be orange juice with an asterisk noting up to 50% of other juices. After the flight we set off towards the town of Ghanzi. This was our last night in Botswana. Since the upgrade was very affordable ($30), we upgraded to have back to back nights in accommodation (in bigger towns, we were all accommodated). In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to do a nature walk with some of the San people. They are a tribe which still has some members that still choose to live the ways of their ancestors. On the walk we learned how they would use different plants and roots in their everyday life. We had a very dramatic acting out of how a certain leaf would help cure diarrhea!! After our dinner, the San people then entertained us with their traditional dances. They had different dances for different events. They had dances for healing, hunting and celebration. The last dance included audience participation, but good luck finding the videos! After a comfortable nights rest, we said goodbye to Botswana.
Botswana was a lovely country. While the driving was a bit boring because the landscape was very flat, the areas of Chobe and the Okavango Delta were very unique and really great to see. The people we encountered were very friendly and always wanted to know if we were having a good time in their country. They were very proud of their country, which had never been colonized (it was only briefly a British protectorate) and really made for an awesome visit.
After a short flight, a long wait in immigration and a temporary scare when I was told I was on the restricted list (it transpired it was another Jessica on the list and I was let in the country) we arrived in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. This was to be the start of our three week overland truck camping adventure!
Before that, there was time for a surprise, early Valentine's Day sunset cruise down the Zambezi river which provides a border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. We boarded a boat with a group of 4 and a group of 15 on a work outing (which provided entertainment for everyone) and headed to the top deck for gin & tonics (very refreshing in the strong African sun) and to wildlife spot. We saw hippos swimming in the river and a selection of birds. As we got further down the river we could see the mist rising from Victoria Falls - it looked like smoke from an enormous fire. After a beautiful sunset it gradually became darker and we moved downstairs for a delicious 4 course dinner. It was made all the more atmospheric by the electric storm as we watched fork lightening shoot through the sky (it was far enough away that Nick was not concerned about the chance of a lightening strike, I was a little concerned!).
preparing to cruise down the Zambezi
the mist and clouds created by the falls
sunset and the storm clouds were starting to roll in
We were up bright and early the next morning to meet our tour group, but we were disappointed to find that only half the group was there as the others had made their own arrangements for the day. The plan for the day was visit Victoria Falls by ourselves and then optional activities.
The trip to the falls was amazing! They were at their fullest with water thundering down everywhere! There was so much water it was pushing spray in the air (the smoke we had seen the night before) and then it fell down like rain. Some people brought their waterproofs and others hired ponchos, we decided it was only water and we would tough it out! After Nick had wrung his t-shirt out twice along the way and our cameras started to suffer we started to wonder whether we had made a wise choice! However, even those with protective clothing looked fairly wet so it didn't make much difference! Visitors walk along a path with a number of viewing points along the way each viewing point manages to provide a totally different view of the falls. The final viewing point overlooks the old bridge that goes into Zambia and provides free movement between the countries for the many monkeys running along the underside! It was also an opportunity to watch people bungee jump off the top. The worst part was watching people being slowly dragged up once they had completed the jump! We had lunch at a cafe overlooking the gorge further down from the falls with live entertainment in the form of people on a giant swing and a zip wire over the river. Someone had the job of going down a wire to retrieve each zip wire rider.
a shot from every angle!
an overview of the falls
the Victorian bridge to Zambia
our view from lunch
After an unexpectedly relaxing evening at a local bar/restaurant with food and live music we were up early again the next day and the tour really did commence!
Our tour team for the next 19 days was Norman (group leader, Zimbabwean), Fadzai (driver, Zimbabwean), Riccardo (catering technician, South African) and Whitney (a large white van named after Whitney Houston). Whitney seated up to 26 people and came with a freezer and luggage lockers luggage at the back of the bus. Underneath the truck were more lockers which held tents, gas rings, cooking equipment and everything else we would need! It also had a strip light down the side and an awning to provide a food preparation shelter. The truck was run by Nomad the largest overland truck tour in Africa, they have over 45 trucks and we met several others along the way. The guides spend most of their time travelling through Africa with just a few days off at the end of each trip and those days didn't always fall when they were close to home.
Norman, Riccardo, Fadzai & Whitney - the dream team!
the many storage compartments
light and awning for food prep
the view from inside
a typical roadside lunch served from restaurant Whitney
We also met the other 13 people in our tour group which was made up of a range of ages (20 to 62 years) and nationalities with representatives from Canada, Iceland, Australia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Japan. We were the only UK and US representatives and the only couple, but there were a couple of pairs of friends travelling together. Everyone had their own itineraries, for most people, like us, the trip was part of a longer journey. A couple of people had already been travelling on similar trucks (all named after deceased singers) for 40 days with their journey starting in Uganda.
We were assigned our lockers and fortunately we were given mid row lockers away from the stairwell which made for easier access (however we would soon learn that you had to time your locker access carefully to avoid blocking the whole truck) and we received three between the two of us as our bags are on the large side! We all had small padlocks to secure our lockers which rattles against the metal locker doors as the truck lurched along the African roads resulting in an irritating banging noise.
the luggage lockers After some quick introductions weall found seats and we were off to Botswana!
We're back! After our 3 week overland trip, reliable internet has returned and we can start updating again!
After a relaxing and refreshing week in Mozambique, it was time to get back to it! We had a free weekend between our return to South Africa and our flight to Victoria Falls so we decided to do some game driving (or Safari). The area we went to was called Pilanesberg. It's only a couple of hours from Johannesburg. We stayed at a small lodge just outside the park in a private game reserve that had access to the larger, public park. The lodge only had 5 guest cabins and Friday night there were a total of 8 of us. Four people checked out on Saturday leaving only us and another couple the rest of the time.
What a start to the trip
We checked in and had a quick lunch, but before we could even depart, an elephant showed up at our lodge just outside the electric fence that surrounded our small property. What a way to start! We had knocked off one of the big 5 without even leaving the lodge! Seeing the big 5 is the goal of most safari-goers. It consists of leopard, lion, buffalo, elephant and rhino. It was then time for our first of four game drives. Our game drive leader, Vincent was great. He was very passionate and knowledgeable about the animals.
The rental camera in action. It was quite heavy!
When we had decided to book this, I knew the camera i was currently carrying would be woefully insufficient for game drives. Lucky for me, there were a few places in Johannesburg that would rent you a camera for your game drives. I was able to get very nice Canon 7D and pair it with an amazing 100mm - 400mm zoom lens. It was like having binoculars that take pictures. There was certainly a bit of lens envy from the other participants!
Just a few zebras from the dazzle
The two headed giraffe
The second of our big 5 sightings
Our first drive was very plentiful in terms of variety. There were lots of wildebeests and impala to be had (they are the main source of food for the predators). We managed to see 1 male Kudu drinking from a stream but took off before I could get my camera in focus. We managed a brief hyena sighting as well as it was stalking a pack of impala. There were also nice groups of giraffes and zebras as well as a small pack of rhinos and a few random elephants. It was a great way to start our weekend and we returned back to the lodge ready to go again!
A red billed hornbill just caught his lunch!
the lilac breasted roller. When it takes off, its wings are a beautiful shade of blue
Cheetahs!
Rhinos out in the plains
It was headed right towards us before walking along the side of our vehicle into the trees
The next morning we were ready to go at 5 am for our next drive. At this point, there was only myself, Jess, and another couple, Douglas and Verona in the lodge so it made for a nice small drive. Verona was an avid birdwatcher with a keen eye so in the moments between the larger animals, she was always pointing out the different birds of the park. This drive added to our animal count with a hippopotamus relaxing in a pond and the highlight of the morning drive, a group of cheetah roaming the plains. It’s a rare sighting as there were only 9 cheetah in the whole of the park! As we were watching the cheetah, the radio that the game drive leaders use to communicate with each other started blaring about a tao sighting. This meant a lion was spotted! The leaders all communicate with each other with the Twana terms for the animals (it’s the main language of Botswana, but as the park used to be part of Botswana, it’s what the majority of the locals around still spoke). By the time we got to the lion sighting, it had taken off into a bush and the only sign we could tell of it’s presence was a shaking section of the bush and the occasional tail. We waited around until we needed to start heading back but the lion didn’t quite want to make an appearance. We also caught three rhinos in the open plain with amazing light. On our way back though we were greeted by an elephant in the middle of the road. We stopped so as not to startle it and it ended up walking right past our vehicle!
After this great start to the morning, we settled into the typical game drive routine which was up early, drive, breakfast, nap, lunch, drive, dinner, sleep.
A happy eland
Baboons
The more wrinkles they have, the older the elephant
A herd of buffalo in the distance
A nursing impala
Our evening game was once again only the four of us, but the sightings continued to pile up. We picked up our 3rd of the big 5 with the sighting of a buffalo herd. We also saw baboons and some eland (a type of antelope similar to impala). We continued to see various giraffe, elephant and zebra as well. The different lodges on this private reserve had a small hut out in the park so we had a nice stop there for a beer and snacks while being surrounded by impala and discussing our plan of attack for our last game drive. Everyone was in agreement that we were going to go for the cats! We headed back and had a nice dinner with Verona and Douglas. The conversation could have gone much further into the evening but we had to be ready to leave at 4:30 am the next morning for our cat hunt!
Sunrise and the hunt is on!
Jess on the lookout
Hippos at breakfast
They seemed oblivious to each other
Pumba!
Impala and Zebra sharing the space
Sunday morning and the cat hunt was on. We were headed to the main park toady and got in right as it opened up. We got to see a beautiful sunrise but almost ran into a giraffe on our way to the park as it was standing in the road and it was still dark out! No sightings early on so we stopped for tea at a pond. There was some nice hippo action in the pond so we upgraded our hippo photos from our previous encounter. We got word of a leopard sighting and headed over to join the hunt. We joined up with some other vehicles to maximize our opportunity to see it again. We could see the tracks in the dirt but the leopard proved elusive and no group saw it. While we were waiting, it was a cool sight as we were at a watering hole that was currently home to a crocodile, rhino and giraffe. While the animals are fun to see in species groups, it’s also really cool to see multiple animals in the same environment. It turned out to be a relatively quiet morning in the park for most all the groups that were on drives. A little deflated we hadn’t see lions (or that leopard), we headed back to the lodge. Only a few minutes in, we got word on the radio that there were two lions that walked right past the entrance to our lodge!! We felt reinvigorated and hurried back to join the search. We took the long way back to see if we could catch a sight but it was not to be. However our keen eyes were able to spot some warthogs and a mongoose while looking for the lion. We returned for a filling breakfast before parting ways with the animal and headed back to Johannesburg.
Our lodge
Vehicles used on the game drives
This was my first ever game drive and I’ve got to say I was hooked! It was absolutely beautiful to see these animals in a large natural habitat (The park was fenced in, but it was massive). It was absolutely thrilling to spot an animal as you constantly scanned every tree and bush and blade of grass as you drove by looking for that one thing that looked out of place. I had many “lion” sightings of rocks. We have a few drives coming up on our overground tour and I can’t wait for those although I’ll miss having my giant lens and camera. I was amazed at the level of detail I could capture from a distance and the shots turned out amazing. Not all our time was spent taking photos. Sometimes you just had to sit back and take it all in what you were seeing and experiencing rather than just view it through the eye of a lens. We found a great balance and left wanting more!
