December 12, 13 and 14 – Kafue, Mkushi - Zambia

After we had spent an extra day looking for 'diamonds,' and we had done our walk to the falls, we decided to drive straight from Ngonye Falls to Kafue.  We knew it was going to be a long drive, but  we thought it was better to push through and not stop in Mongu, which is very un-interesting, dirty and probably full of malaria. So we planned to leave early with just cereal for breakfast and push through till lunch time. As usual our intended departure was 8 and we pulled out of the campsite at 9am, not too bad, a definite improvement.

We got to Mongu quite quickly, the road was good and not too much traffic but the clouds were gathering and we could see big rains were coming but we had plenty of time, so we thought! I must say, I always love approaching these African towns and reading all the names above the shops. They dream up, ‘Be free restaurant and bottlestore,’ ‘The reality pub and grill’ and ‘The Lord’s peaceful restaurant,’ with two tables and six chairs.

We arrived fairly early so we thought we should just try and show the kids the Barotse Museum. What we didn't know was that it was 30 kilometers in the opposite direction and when we got there it was so bad that the kids basically learnt nothing. By now the heavens had opened up and it was absolutely pouring with rain, they had no lights in the museum so they couldn't see anything. The "Losi” people have such an interesting culture and history and we thought that the kids might learn some of it at the museum but unfortunately the old colonial days have long since gone and history is unimportant to these guys now so nothing of the old culture and records remain. Anyway they did see the old Admirals uniform which the queen of England had given to the Barotse King since Cecil John Rhode's time. So every time there was a new king, he gets a new Admirals uniform, epaulets, hat with all the tassels, braid and all. Then this king wears this uniform when he brings his people in from the flood plains in a boat paddled by 100 paddlers. Now that is a ceremony that I would have loved to have witnessed.

 

Now after driving for at least an hour on the most appalling road, and saw nothing, we had some fairly grumpy adults, never mind the children, we turned our sights towards Kafue. The most difficult thing on this trip is to get Tracy out of the town. She is a very inquisitive person and likes to get involved with everyone. I really love her attitude as it is one of involvement. She shy's away from nothing and just loves talking to the local people, finding out about their lives, their history and culture. A little like Ernest, but on steroids. It is wonderful except when you are in a hurry, it's pouring with rain and we still have 5 hours left to travel. She still wanted to see the inside of some little shop that 'looks' interesting. We all left town and headed down the worst road we have ever traveled in Africa, in the pouring rain and left poor Guy to try and pull her away out of the shops. She did buy some delicious locally baked bread I must admit.

When a road in Africa becomes more pothole than a sand road, it is horrific to travel on. Everyone is weaving all over the road and every now and then the whole road is a pothole with bits of jagged tar sticking out that makes you bounce all over the place. Every now and then there is a hand written sign that says "slow down.”  Well the first one we came across Ernest said 'wonder why they say slow down’ not taking his foot off the accelerator, which he finds very hard to do.  I swear he has lead in his shoes so he just can't lift his foot of the pedal.

Anyway, when he hit the first bump, things started falling out the cupboard which had popped open, hit the second one and we bounced higher and we got showered with more goodies and the third bump put the final touch on the fiasco. By this time, the cupboards were bare and the floor was piled high with the contents. It was then left to me, bouncing and weaving in the back to try and put everything back again. I managed to stuff back the goods back into the cupboards so now, God knows, ‘what is where’ because I don't have a clue anymore trying to stay

organized. Mark described it as a little like being on a pogo stick. Needless to say the next sign was dually heeded and I was madly phoning Tracy to warn her as that big hippo would not have stayed on the road if they didn't slow down.

The road to Kafue seemed endless with Mark way ahead of us and needless to say Tracy and Guy way behind us. We reached our Kafue camp site at about 5.30pm, just in time to set up camp and get dinner started before the Hippos came out the water to visit.  We were camped right on the edge of the river so the first things that came out even before the chairs were the fishing rods.

Mark put a table on its side about three meters from the water’s edge and made the kids stand behind that and cast in from there. Quite an ingenious way of keeping them safe from the crocs.

The one thing that I always find interesting about these trips is what hard work it is. The driving is exceptionally stressful, the skill needed to keep that vehicle moving forward safely and covering the huge distances that needs to be covered, with a small margin for error because of other bad driving and shocking conditions of the other vehicles on the road. The roads are so narrow and the trucks are so huge that I often feel like those comic book characters that go flat and then pop themselves out again.

Then there is the cooking, washing dishes, washing clothes and keeping the children entertained and fed is what we girls are constantly busy with, just writing about it is exhausting. You wake up in the morning and think about what to wear and then realize that if you wear something clean then you have to wash the one item you wore yesterday. Enie, meanie, miny, mo, I think I will just wear the dirty one again! Then next long camp site stay over,  will have long washing lines full of clothes.

Trips like this are exceptionally tough but they do create lasting memories. It sure forces you to confront and overcome barriers that you have never had to confronted before and it broadens your view of life.

In the morning we found out one of the reasons why Guy and Tracy were so long on the road the day before. When the heavens opened they found that the hippo had one huge leak between the cab and the body. It was so bad that Tracy had to sit with a Tupperware bucket over her head as the rain was just pouring and right over her- and just to add insult to injury it was all black water, obviously from the perished rubber between the cab and the body. These things you only find out when you get caught in a heavy downpour. So between storms that would rush up onto the roof of the cab, try and dry it, then seal with silicone and then the next storm would hit and in would come the rain again. Then they cut up a rain sheet and stuck it on with duck tape for the next storms. No wonder they took so long and all the while we were blanking Tracy's shopping spree's.

Kafue Camp Site

Our rest day at Kafue was very needed, just to give your internal organs a chance to settle down after all the jarring and jumping from pothole to pothole. Most of the day was taken up with the Christmas present activity. Guy and Tracy and the boys set up camp in the next door campsite and started their creations. Mark and Jacqui set up their little workshop and I started with mine. Ernest read his book as he can’t think what to make for his secret Santa and I guess he was looking for some inspiration or for one of the woman to give him a bright idea. So it was a very productive day with chopping and chipping and drilling and screwing and sanding and a little fishing in between. Luke and Garrick were fishing (behind the table) supervised by Ernest. Garrick said to Ernest ‘Gampie’ look at that croc, which was sitting quietly about six meters away (thank god for the table). Ernest said ‘don't be ridiculous Garrick, that is a log.”  "No Gamps, it's a croc, watch,’ and with that, Garrick picked up a huge clay clod and threw it and hit the croc right on the head. It flew up in the air, tail slashing around and swam off very fast now that his cover was blown. There was one very surprised Gampie, never too old to learn from the grand kids. That night we were visited by an Elephant who broke branches all around us, a very disgruntled hippo who didn't like the elephant in his territory so went running off very noisily into the water in protest and a band the lions roaring very close. This always makes life interesting. Day 13, and time for our next big loooong haul right across Zambia. We left Kafue early as we knew we had a drive of about 700 kilometer. As we drove onto the main road there were 11 wild dogs lying by the side of the road, so unexpected and a great farewell to Kafue. I thought there was no game left in that place, how wrong I was. We covered the first 300km’s with ease and then hit Lusaka! Oh my gosh, how anybody lives there is a miracle. You just go crunch in that traffic. It took us over an hour just to drive through the place, we didn't even try to stop and buy anything, just tried to navigate through some of the pot holes, missing the big trucks, who are all intent on driving you off the road, the pedestrians who just walk, or the peddlers all over the road trying to sell you anything from earphones to fruit to suitcases. Once out of town we were on ‘the great North road.” The road of the big trucks where Mark remarked that it is the only corrugated tar road with a middle monochy that he has driven on,literally!  This is what happens to a country with a non-functioning rail system. Huge overloaded trucks that just chow up the road. This is what we have to look forward to in SA in the near future now that our newly bought locomotives by the ANC government don't fit under the bridges. We found our much talked about coffee shop outside Kabwe but it was very disappointing, no beautiful carrot cake or cream scones! We still had a long way to go so we made Ernest swallow his cap pachinko and move on. Guy and Tracy had tracked down an old friend of Guy’s, who had a farm just the other side of Forest Inn where we were scheduled to stay. So we had a quick change in plan and we were heading to their farm to spend the evening with them. His Farm Manager was away and we could use their house as a base, nice to have a good clean bathroom and we would have dinner with them. This saved us girls a bit of work.  Poor Jaqs, could take a break from those endless dirty dishes.

 What a wonderful evening we spent with Mark and Fiona. They have four kids ages from 12 to 19, who were all home for the holidays and had a great time entertaining our lot. Mark and Fiona have had a very tough and demanding life. They started off as farmers in Zim - that just about says it all. After their third generation farm was stolen by our Uncle Bob (Mugabe) and his friends, they moved to Mozambique and worked as farm managers. A pretty tough time, then they heard that there were farming opportunities available in Zambia so they moved up to Mkushi, where he has a farm of about 250 hectares plus another three somewhere else. These farms are leased from some colored folks who are too lazy to farm so are only too pleased to sign long leases with farmers who pay them for the land. They really struggled at first, living in a very basic home with no glass in the Windows but have plowed all their capital back into the farm which is now turning around and paying off. Fiona is an artist so her home has paintings and clever bits of art making it really quaint.  Mark grows seed maize that is non GMO (all GMO foods are banned in Zambia, at least they have got that right). But it still seems to be a constant battle to stay on the land as the president here likes to take advice, or should I say used to take advice from our friend Bob and is constantly hassling the farmers. So we had an evening with lots of chatting, lots of exchanging of ideas and laughter. There is lots of Malaria here, in fact Fiona actually had malaria and was busy treating herself. They really take it in their stride and all of them including the kids have had it many, many times. We of course were so sprayed up and buttoned up to our necks and thick socks and boots in the heat, they certainly were casual about it all. After a lovely evening, we all retired pretty clean and exhausted! Until next time, good night!

December 8,9,10 and 11 - Mudumu, Caprivi Strip, Ngonye Falls, Zambia

We spent the day at Mudumu, under the shade of some huge Jacalberry trees. Eve took the lead and had all the kids making Christmas decorations to hang in the trees around us, when we stop for our Christmas break. The boys soon got bored with that and started fishing in the river. They could not go too close to the water’s edge as there are huge crocs in the river and fortunately they are as scared of those brutes as the grown up's are. It didn't take long for them to catch a Barber, yuk they are horrible things with those long whiskers. They are also very clever fish and like mozzies I am sure that they have big brains, anyway this one certainly was very clever, it swam straight for the branches of a fallen tree and so try as they may they couldn't reel him in. They eventually had to cut the line and let him free so there is a Barber swimming around the Kwando river with a hook in its mouth which will eventually land up in some crocodiles stomach! Would be interesting to follow the trail of that hook!

We went for a game drive in the afternoon, saw a bit of game but mostly just enjoyed seeing the terrains of this part of the world. That evening some other guys arrived at the camp site...oops!  A group of five guys from Hoedspruit of all places. We had only booked in for a night and then decided to stay so we were cheating. They very gracefully accepted our misdemeanor and just shared the campsite, it really was a big piece of Africa lawn and we all fitted without a problem, so we all swapped names, beers, stories and enjoyed the African sunset together.

Next day it was time for the painful task of packing up and moving off again. Ernest and I were ready first so we went off to pay for the campsite after our little illegal stay over and we said that we would meet the rest of them on the main road. Well, we waited and waited and waited, we radioed, radioed and radioed and just as we had decided to go back and find them, they came trundling down the road. As I said before we have got to practice this packing up thing a bit more but this time they had an additional problem. Guy went to empty their porto-pottie and as he threw the stuff down the long drop, the lid as well...not good! Oh dear, that was a disaster, but he had a plan to retrieve it with the fishing rod. As he was returning to his car to get the fishing rod he passed Mark on the way to the long drop with his porto-pottie. He had heard Guy’s swearing about this disaster. Mark asked Guy, if he needed help and Guy said, ‘no problem it's all sorted.”

Mark thought he meant that he had retrieved the lid so he proceeded to empty all the contents of his pottie into the long drop. Now the screw top was irretrievable! And you can't easily buy a lid for a Porto-pottie up here. “Eish” now that's a problem. Oh boy did we laugh!

The drive though the Caprivi was a very pleasant surprise. We have never seen such orderly and beautiful built African villages before. Each family group of huts has a reed fence built around it which are, absolutely perfectly constructed, straight on top and not one piece of rubbish or plastic bag lying around. Very neat schools with sports grounds that were perfectly kept. This was truly a pleasure to see.

Katimo Malilo is quite a bustling little town with a big supermarket and hardware store for us to buy some stuff for our urgent repairs like lids for porto-potties and Valcro to restore our Mozzie nets, filling up gas bottles which Ernest had not done in SA. He thought that you purchased gas bottles full! Now that is being blond, don't you agree especially that this is the second time he has made the same mistake!

Off to the border crossing now. The Namibian side was a breeze except when we tried to go through the last police check and they found that we went through the border post when we entered Namibia and never paid the road tax, “oops” we had to go back to immigration and pay the road tax, now we were the ones holding every one up for a change.

Oh boy, then we hit the Zambian border post which took us well over an hour to get through. They have so many forms to fill in and so many taxes to pay and so many queues to stand in and the locals who are really very polite do know how to slip in to the front of the line, very politely of course!

Seriously, I really do enjoy the Zambian people especially the money changes at the border posts. But they are sharp and fast, look like hip hop dancers doing a 'deal' and you can really get caught if you don't keep your wits about you and are not sharper than they are. They were on their phones and constantly checking the exchange rates and bargaining with everyone that comes through. I remember in the old days it was very illegal to change money with these guys but now nobody seems to bother about them anymore, in fact the officials actually send you out to exchange currency.

Mark was up and away and got through almost half an hour before us. Don't know how he was so fast! Anyway he waited for us about five kilometers out of town and phoned us a few times to find out why we were taking so long. He put his phone down onto the Dodge back when he was getting cool drinks out for the kids and forgot to pick it up. So that was the end of his phone, he drove off and only figured out ten minutes later that he had forgotten it on the back of the truck so he has now donated it to somebody in Zambia.

We eventually caught up with him after our border ordeal and headed for Ngonye falls. Last time we were there we stayed at the community center as we couldn't get down to the camp site on the river because the Hippo couldn't get past the trees and Ernest wasn't going to start any deforestation project at this point. This time I thought to hell with that we would give it a try, we started to walk it with Guy following up slowly cutting trees as he went. When we finally reached the bottom after at least half an hour walk, we realized that we would never get the truck all the way down plus it was full of mozzies and it would have been an awful campsite, so we had to do a quick turn around and walk/run back up fast in front of Guy. He was too far down and couldn't  turn to get out again, all this activities at 36C plus!  Too late he was right behind us! We then sent Mark off to check out another campsite down the road and got a very welcome radio call from him to say that the place was great and we must come over there.

By now it had started to rain and we had all the kids in our little hippo, all saying, ‘Granny what have you got to eat,’ so we were feeding them with chips and junk while the moms and dads weren't around, a thing that grandparents do to keep the grandkids happy.

Sometimes in Africa you come across little tucked away hidden gems and this is what Mark had found. A South African couple had moved up to Zambia on contracted to build the Zambian/Angolan border post. They had bought a property on the Zambezi river and created the cutest little lodge/camping spot. We unfortunately couldn't all park together as the actual sites weren't big enough but we each had a little clearing and we used our van as the central cooking area. It was called ‘Whispering Sands’ and you could see exactly why. The campsites all overlooked these huge white dunes with the Zambezi river on the other side. As you walked over the sand dunes they actually squeaked, hence the name whispering sands. He had a sign on the road saying ‘Whispering Sands’ and ‘Koue Bier’ so no question about it, where he was from!

We had been messing around (cutting trees and fighting through border posts) that we decided to just eat at the ‘Restaurant.’ The owners, Eddie and Jeanette are from Pretoria so we figured she must know how to cook a good old hearty meal and we were right, she had schnitzels for the kids and the most delicious oxtail for us. Guy ate so much I swear I thought he was going to pop! Doesn't say much for my cooking!

 

We decided to stay put, so the next day let the kids, particularly Garrick enjoy some fishing.  Eddie took him down to the river and showed him where to go fish. Well, he reeled in a huge tiger fish and it was the biggest one that even his dad had ever caught. Seriously it was huge!

After that the kids were hooked, never mind the fish being hooks. We just couldn't tear Garrick, Guy and Luke away from that water. There are apparently 3 to 4 locals a month taken by crocodiles, so us girls were a bit paranoid about the boys especially the younger ones staying well away from the water’s edge.

Anyway while Guy, Mark and Garrick were fishing, the other kids started picking up the small shiny crystals on the beach and came rushing to show us their ‘diamonds.’ I must say they looked just like the diamonds that we saw at the Kimberley museum but really we didn't take too much notice until Luke and Eve later came running to our small hippo as I was cooking dinner, just beside themselves with excitement. Eddie had bought a little stone analysis machine and when he ran the light over the stones, the light went red which meant that they were diamonds. Oh my gosh, they had about 16 each in their packets that had all shown a clear red. Eve was already counting up her millions and spending it at great speed in her imagination.

The excitement was palatable. They all wanted to go straight down to the beach and collect more ‘diamonds’ but of course by then it was nearly dark and the hippos were out of the water so it would have been rather dangerous on the beach. We planned to leave the next morning but the allure of diamonds was too great and Eve with her negotiating powers over her father managed to persuade Mark that we definitely needed another day to get more diamonds and at this rate he will be able to retire right away. So the itinerary got shifted around and the kids were on the beach at six the next morning collecting crystals. I now understand the diamond rush at Kimberley, the allure of those little stones are irresistible. Anyway, Eddie said that he has a friend who is a diamond expert and he was coming around later in the afternoon to re-asses the stones as he didn't think his little machine was too accurate. After exhausting the collection activity we managed to get the kids off the beach and we went for a short ride in Guy’s Hippo and then a longish walk to the actual falls. We had seen them a few years ago and felt it was worth the time to go back there again.

They are the second biggest falls in Zambia, the first being Victoria falls, and really worth seeing. It was a hot day so the mist from the falls really cooled us down. When we got back to the camp we all waited for the ‘diamond expert’ to arrive. Finally he arrived and very quickly loomed through all the stones and dashed everyone's expectations of a rich and happy future. Oh my, what a letdown for the kids, no diamonds, not even one. Eddies machine was a complete dud and obviously couldn't really tell if they were diamonds or not!

We had very deflated children for all of half an hour and the swimming pool became the favored activity, they soon forgot about the stones and we forgot about our plans to buy the campsite with it’s non-existent diamonds. We spent the next few hours watching the TV with baited breath to see if Zuma was in or out! They even had a TV in their little pub! Then we had a G&T to celebrate the outcome of the voting – Zuma, head of the ANC party. Not Champagne mind you as Ace and David M, was not the results that we, or I am sure Cyril Ramaposa were hoping for.

Signing out for now!

The Zambezi River Basin

December 5 and 6 - Shakawe - Caprivi Strip

We planned to leave early for Shakawe, a drive of about 120 kilometers. We thought we should get an early start so that we could have a bit of time at Shakawe, which lies at the top of the swamps, on the Okavango river. Yeah right, an early start!

  I think we eventually drove out of the camp at about 11AM. We need to have a bit more practice at this packing up activity; oh my gosh, this lot is worse than any team we have brought up before! Admittedly kids don't make the job any easier, and in fact sometimes they make the whole process go backwards. In all fairness Mark had to pack up his whole van plus the awning which was a bit of a learning process. I guess we can only improve but at this rate we won't get further than Zambia.

  The trip out of Guma was one that Mark will not live down for a while. He took a little short cut (to try and beat us) and went down in very thick sand, even with his super duper Dodge. Eventually, after a lot of revving and going backwards and forwards, we managed to persuade him to let Guy pull him out... I think he would have eventually got himself out on his own, but time was not on his side and we needed to reach our destination before nightfall. The man truck just popped him out of the sand like a cork and we were off again, making sure that we kept away from anymore thick deep sand.

  The main road up to Shakawe was, as usual, full of those huge craters (potholes) in the middle of the road and this time there were always three to four donkeys or cows drinking out of the craters, which were full of water from the rain the night before... Only in Africa. This time Ernest had no choice other than to slow down – when a donkey is drinking he ain't going anywhere.

  We arrived at the camp site at Drotsky's well after 3PM and had to make our way down a narrow road to get to the chosen campsite. The last time we were here we had to cut down branches and a few trees to get there; we were hoping that they would have kept the road open but there has been significant growth in the vegetation since then and we had to repeat the process again. We even had to pay some local guys to actually chop a whole tree down. Guy had managed to slip past it without doing too much damage but he was certainly not going to get out – it was a case of cutting the tree or spending the rest of the holiday at Shakawe, and the tree came off second best.

Phew and all this time it is hot, really hot, about 36 degrees!

  We all headed for the swimming pool to cool off and then relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful campsite with huge 100 year old trees. The kids soon had their motor bike track set out with jumps and all the right sounds from their miniature bikes. We tried to get the kids to bed early but that doesn't ever seem to work.

Again we tried to get an early start. We had about 280 kilometers to do this time and judging from yesterday's performance we’d have to push. The kids spent some time chasing off the monkeys which, through many years of practice, have become very adept at stealing food from the campsite.

  Ernest and I decided to go ahead of the bunch, to do a bit of shopping at Shakawe, which might save a bit of time because once you get Guy and Mark in a shop it takes a long time to get them out! Well, we went with a list and got half the stuff! Shakawe is not a bustling metropolis and just to find the hardware shop takes a mountain of time. We went to the service station in town. Eish... No Diesel! Any other service station ... Eh, nooooo. This was a bit of a problem as we didn't have enough fuel. We were about to leave for Popa Falls and then the border in the hopes that we would find fuel there when Guy radio’d that he was at the other fuel station in town where there was diesel! Oh well, that is Africa – not sure if the attendant didn't know of another fuel station – which is highly unlikely – or he didn't want us to know that there was a competing service station, or the most likely: he just doesn't speak English.

  We eventually left Shakawe after Mark spent some time driving around the two shops in town trying to find Christmas crackers for Eve. Oh boy, as I said a bunch of self-determined stubborn kids. The only way to get through this is to relax and go with the flow. We thought the golden oldies were bad but this lot takes the cake.

  The Namibia border post was a dream! In and out in about 30 minutes and then off to Muduma, a reserve that sits on the Kwando river in the Caprivi strip. It is really a lovely small "big five" reserve that few people know about, so it’s quite easy to get into any of their camp sites.

  We had spent an hour or so shopping at a community craft shop in Kongola, a little Namibian town. The little lady didn't know what hit her when we all walked into her shop! I think she is used to dealing with one customer at a time but when she had four adults and five children all buying things, she went into overwhelm. She painstakingly wrote down every item that we bought which took an awfully long time. I think everyone was shopping for little things that they can use to make our Christmas presents that we have to create.

  At a family dinner that we had a few days before we left on the trip, we all pulled a name out of a hat and whoever's name you got is the person that you have to make the present for. I think it’s going to be a bit chaotic as half of them have forgotten who they drew out, so Tracy is going to have to be the ombudsman and give everyone their name again, or someone is going to get two or three presents and others will get nothing.

  The other part of the present thing is that you have to write a poem about the person that you have made the present for. Ernest and I took Garrick and Aiden to school just before they broke up and Ernest asked the boys what their poems were (they, by the way, remembered who they were making the present for) Their poems were so funny and so appropriate for their intended recipients, that we knew exactly who they were talking about! So not all is lost!

  We finally made it to our 'number one' campsite, a huge clearing in the bush, beautifully-lawned and overlooking the river. Quite beautiful!

  In no time we had seven or eight hippos right in front of the camp. They are very curious animals who are attracted by the voices of the children and they proceeded to bob up and down making their typical honking noise and showing us their huge teeth, as if to say "don't mess with me!" We settled down to enjoy what we love most about Africa: the noises of the wild, a beautiful sunset and a G&T. (well for some of us, all the kids put up their noses up at our G&T; Coca-Cola blows their hair back. 

Next entry will be after Christmas. Merry Christmas to everyone following us on this journey! 

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December 3 and 4 - Guma Camp - Okovango Delta - Botswana

Guma camp is a little piece of paradise in the Delta and was a sight for sore eyes!

  After the first two days’ hard push, it was just what we needed to get ourselves rested and organized. It always takes a few days into the trip to figure out where to find what, and where it actually should be. Then to find out what is missing and make lists of what’s needed from the next Checkers stop.

  The owners of Guma, Guy and Bev Lobjoy, are friends of ours from Ntseri days, and have built a really charming camp overlooking a huge lagoon which is a renowned fisherman's haven. Garrick is, of course, in his element and spent most of the first morning setting up his rods and fishing equipment, to be ready for the afternoon fishing trip. Guy pronounced Gee) put us in one of his bigger campsites. The poor man, I think he was totally surprised to see Hippo 1 and Hippo 2 (the little brother) arriving at the camp! He couldn't fit us into his normal campsites so we went into the campsite that accommodates his larger groups.

  The setting is absolutely beautiful! We couldn't quite see the water but we looked onto the reed beds with huge trees, giving much-needed shade, as it is very, very hot. The only challenge was that the shade was so deep that our solo panels didn't work, which meant we would have to run the cars every now and again to recharge our batteries.

  We had gone to sleep the night before and left the inverter on, which completely drained the batteries..... so we learn! Technically challenged oldies just don't know these things!

  We got brief messages from Mark; he was making slow progress on catching us up. He had done a patch job with new screws and mountains of duck tape, to fix the steering arm, a real "boer maak n plan", but he needed a welding machine to do a proper job, which they do have in the camp.

  A very excited Garrick, Aiden and Guy went off to do an afternoon’s fishing and we waited for Mark, Jacs and their kids to arrive. We wondered how Mark would do in the thick sand pulling a caravan. He arrived at about four thirty, quite rattled with his experience and just how lucky he had been. He pulled into the garage, filled up with petrol, and on his way out he tried to turn onto the road and the car went straight into the fence. He was only doing about five km’s per hour so no harm was done, but we all shudder to think what would have happened if he had been driving at 100kmph!

  Anyway, he had no trouble getting to the camp through the sand, and his arrival really hailed the beginning of the adventure for us, as a group. When Guy and the kids returned from their fishing trip, the kids were delighted to see each other! It is really heartwarming to see what great friends they all are. Luke was very proud of his war wounds, his jaw was still pretty swollen with one loose tooth, but still smiling. They do, however, miss Kodi who would have made the circle whole for them - next time! In no time Eve and Garrick, who are our big organizers, had a game going of building a fort out of palm fronds.

 Aiden was the only one that had caught a fish that afternoon, it was a tiger fish, of all things, and was about half a meter going on two ... All very exciting and new!

 Tracy woke us at about two in the morning. They had been woken up by the sound of fire and, being so high up on top of the Man-truck, they could see a glow through the bushes. Guy wanted to go and check it out to see that we weren't in any danger. So, the two of them left and came back about half an hour later. The locals had set fire to the islands in the river (poachers or careless fishermen) and it had been burning for a few days. It had now reached the land in front of the lodge. We didn't appear to be in any danger but the flames could jump the island and land on the mainland and creep up the reeds in front of the campsite. That would take a few days so we were all right for now. While out walking, Ernest had mentioned that he was sure they were safe from the hippos as they wouldn't come this close to the lodge... the next morning Bev said that they were really lucky, as the hippos love the lawn in front of the swimming pool, which was exactly where they were walking. Maybe they heard Guy and Ernest coming and ran!. During the day, Bev had told us about a hand-reared owl that they had let free and that was now around the lodge. She warned us that at night she (the owl) was attracted by the sound of children's voices and would swoop down and hit the kids on their heads, just to say hello. Well, she obviously thought that Guy and Ernest were children as she came down and slapped them on their head when they were out looking at the fire!

  The second day at the camp started off with an early morning fishing trip for the kids. The last thing I felt like doing was sitting on a boat with three or four hooks flying around. None of the children are experienced fishermen so the danger of getting a hook in the ear was a great possibility. Guy (apparently) caught quite a nice bream, and Aiden caught a smaller bream, while Tracy sat on Aiden’s fishing rod and broke it in half.... She is now banned from fishing trips. Anyway, when we asked for these apparent catches they told us that they had thrown them back in the water so there wasn't any actual proof that they had caught anything and, of course, everyone knows how fishermen lie!

  Jacs, Ernest and I spent our morning doing the sensible thing of relaxing and reading our books and phoning Rui to find out if all was okay at home.

  The afternoon was spent fixing the steering arm to Mark’s satisfaction and then we all went for a wonderful booze-cruise in the evening. We had some great bird viewing from the water, but the view that we got of the destruction caused by the fire was quite shocking. We found ourselves wishing for some rain to stop the whole slaughter.

  At this time of the year, all the birds are breeding and they build their nests in the reeds, so the loss of all the eggs or baby birds is quite devastating. Also all the little animals like tortoises and snakes cannot get away.

  Someone was obviously listening as we had some rain during the night which put out most of the fire. The trouble with that is the superstition of the locals who light the fire because they think God will bring the rain to put fires out, to save the animals.... Phew, you can't win with that one!

Until next time.

December 2 - Botswana

Again, it was another long haul to get up to the top of Botswana. It is always a difficult decision as to whether we should break the journey up into smaller bite-size pieces or just bite the bullet and get the worst part over with. With kids it's always difficult, but nowadays there is the added assistance of the iPad which keeps them entertained for hours on end, and stops them from becoming bored. They call it Zombie-land but hell who cares? It's better than bored, bickering children.

  For us there is no such luxury! We have to confront that road, kilometer after kilometer, so we have to find things of interest. It is quite fascinating what you end up noticing about the environment, like the wonderful yellow flowering trees that you see at this time of the year and the clouds of white butterflies that seem to appear out of nowhere. There are patches of farming areas around Ghanzi, which are lush and have the biggest, fattest cows that you have ever seen; and then areas that are completely overgrazed with a huge herd of thin, starving cattle and hundreds of goats that run aimlessly across the road, trying to find the remaining tufts of green grass.

  Ernest described to me his trip that he did on a motorbike 38 years ago. In those days there was no tar road, only a 'two-spoor' dirt track that was hard, compacted ground in some places and soft sand in others. He said they came off their bikes many, many times, as it was impossible to judge when it was suddenly sandy and the bike would dig in. Eventually, they learnt to read the road and a slight change is color in the sand meant trouble.

  A large part of my day was taken up trying to kill the remaining mosquitoes that were still in the car from the night before. I swear those horrible pesky things are just one big brain. They knew exactly where my hand was going to land and avoided my every effort to get rid of them, so we were destined to arrive at Guma with still at least 20 mosquitos flying right under my nose and taunting me.

  The last 100 kilometers of the road to Guma was horrific. The potholes are like craters and you have to ride on and off the road all the time. It is rather like being on a rollercoaster. Guy was luckier than us, as he can ride right over some of the holes but we had to zig zag for nearly 80 kilometers.

  The turn off to Guma was well marked and the first 3 kilometers was a wide, beautifully-graded road and was fantastic, but after that we hit a two-spoor road and then the fun began!

  We had been warned that the road was very sandy, but Ernest, who fancies himself as a fundi when it comes to sand, thought he was just going to sail through. Ah ha, what arrogance! Within the first kilometer, we went down and stuck nicely. I must give him his due: he went into reverse, low range, foot flat and we popped right out. Then we stopped and let our tire pressure down to 2 bar and we sailed through the  rest of the way. The big truck had no trouble at all – it certainly is a mean machine when it comes to rough conditions.

  Apart from the sand, the drive to the camp is quite spectacular. The camp is on the western side of the Okavango swamps and looks like the terrain on Chiefs Island. You drive across these colossal, dry flood plains with short grass, and clumps of thick forests that looks like the queen's park with manicured lawns and forests. Absolutely beautiful! The two boys, Garrick and Aiden, sat on the roof of the big truck and enjoyed the ride. They had to dive down the hatch a few times when Guy was going through the forest but their little heads popped up again as soon as the danger was past. Garrick didn't make it down in time on one occasion,  and nearly got hung out to dry on a huge thorn tree. They managed to pull a big sausage seed off of a sausage tree, and just generally had a ball.

  The bird life in Botswana is spectacular! Tracy says that they saw Lilac-breasted Rollers, a Kori Bustard, Coucals, Woodland Kingfishers, Ostrich with tiny babies, a Lille bee-eater and plenty of water birds. The plains are also full of fat cattle, so there are obviously no predators, but we saw a lot of elephant dung, so they must wander in and out of the area.

  Mark unfortunately didn't fare too well, his steering arm broke on the way up so he spent some time welding it at Kang and never made it to Ghanzi to overnight there. We only expect him to catch us up late tomorrow. No problem! Guma is such a great place that we have decided to stay an extra day anyway.

Back home we are already been missed

Sky is waiting

December 1 - The Adventure Starts

 The Start of the African Legacy Adventure of the CORBETT Family

By Gaye Corbett

  Ernest and I have been dreaming and planning an African Adventure with our grandchildren for years and at last the Adventure has begun.

  As grandparents, we often look at what is an important legacy to leave your family when you have gone – is it money? Is it possessions? Is it knowledge? Is it wealth? I suppose it is all of those, but the most important to us is the love of life: developing the thing that blows your hair back, the thing that makes you excited to get up in the morning; and how do you do that? By experiencing life, by getting out there, by seeing how other people live, by getting involved with nature and, most importantly, by contributing to your group and others.

  So at the top of that list of experiences is what we call "an African adventure." You have to contribute, you have to experience life and you have to keep your wits about you or you will land up in a spot of bother which one way or another you will have to get yourself out of.

  Of course, these adventures are what blows our hair back! It is rough, tough and full of the unexpected and we hope that they catch this bug from us and go on to experience many more such adventures, with or without us.

The perfect crystal clear morning

Home for the next few weeks

Gaye and Ernest Corbett

The Henley's

So OFF we go!

Day 1

  We had our first hiccup on Friday. While trying to get her caravan packed up, Jacqui opened up a side flap and Luke happened to be standing right under it. It unfortunately opened with a jolt and landed on his head, pinning his head between the hard flap and the wheel. Oh my gosh, he was really quite badly hurt. A panicked trip to the doctor established no broken bones or serious damage. He just looked horrifically battered and bruised. However, the doctor did advise that he not travel for 24 hours so they could monitor him for concussion. This meant that they would leave a day after us and have to catch us up.

  Well, that is never a problem for Mark, as the first two days involved long distances and I knew Mark was not looking forward to having to drive with us in our slow hippo cars. He has a Dodge, which is sleek, fast and befitting the racing driver that he is. I also know it was a bit of a relief for him as he’d been trying to finish all his projects before embarking on the trip and he never has enough time for that. This unexpected delay bought him those few extra hours that he needed. We plan to spend two days at Guma Lodge so that would give him time to catch us up.

  Our day started very early at 5 o'clock! We’ve been looking forward to this for months so we didn't even need an alarm to get us up and going. Our scheduled departure time was for 6 o'clock but the Henley family was a little more difficult to get going. Tracy, who is the driving force in that family, had been up packing and doing her last business things until very early in the morning, so she wasn't much of a driving force that day. We eventually moved out at 7 o'clock and headed for Zeerust, where we had arranged to stop for breakfast.

  We ceremoniously drove out of the gate and turned right, drove down the road turned the corner and waited for Guy and Tracy. They didn't come, and didn't come, so we called on the radios and they didn't answer; something must be wrong! Eventually we used the cell phone only to find that they had turned left (which was the correct way to go, by the way) and were already on the Krugersdorp highway… Ooooops! The first miss! We learnt two things: a) someone's radio is not working and b) we need to stick together! Fortunately, our hippo is quite a bit quicker than Guy's one so we caught them up pretty quickly.

  Ernest had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that our radios were working. He had had them all serviced and made sure that they all talked to each other. Rudi had spent many hours installing them, but somewhere between all of that we couldn't talk to each other! Modern equipment is such an incredible advancement, yet such a curse when it goes wrong and for a bunch of technically challenged dummies, it becomes very frustrating. The radios are a vital piece of equipment on a trip like this and they’re a great safety net when you have three cars that need to be coordinated.

  We are all such a bunch of self-determined, stubborn individuals that we all tend to go in different directions if we aren't kept in tight formation and that control is achieved by this little thing called the radio. So I moaned at my poor henpecked husband for at least half an hour about the fact that he obviously Norbert-tested them after installation, until I decided 'we are on holiday, and to hell with it.’ Thank God for cell phones; they are a great backup, even in Botswana.

  As I said, the first day is always a long haul; Joburg to Kang is approximately a 10 hour drive and most of the way is a dead-straight boring road. We are lucky in South Africa because all our main roads are fenced, but in Botswana there are no fences so there are cattle and goats all over the place. The verges are fortunately very wide and the grass always quite manicured, but that attracts all the grazers and for some reason the grass is always greener on the other side, so the goats keep crossing the road, followed closely by the cattle.

Ernest, as you may know, doesn't slow down for anything so I spend my time pressing the non-existent brake pedal on my side of the car. We twice unceremoniously left the road... Once because the car in front of us, who could brake quickly, stopped for a cow that Ernest had not seen. We were a little close to him and as our hippo does not stop as quickly, Ernest decided to cross in front of the oncoming traffic, which had thankfully slowed down because of the cow, and we careened straight onto the side of the road and went bumping down the open field next to the road. We missed a few trees and managed to turn before we hit the fence that happened to 'existence' just at that point.

  Ernest then geared down, turned the hippo’s nose towards the road, back up onto the tar and we were off without missing a beat… Except the beating of my heart, which definitely missed a few beats. I must admit I was very impressed at the springs on the hippo, and at my husband’s quick thinking.

  The second roadside detour happened when a cow decided to cross the road, got 10 steps in, had a 'senior moment' and couldn't remember where she wanted to go. That time we had fortunately slowed down a little (emphasis on ‘a little’) and we passed her on the inside. Again, it was a bumpy road with a slope that makes you feel like you are surfing down one of those waves and you just know you are going to hit that sand at the bottom of the wave. Well, fortunately I don’t have a brake pedal on my side of the car, as I would have hit it and we would have turned over. Ernest’s name is 'Put Foot' and that worked for him.

  When you sit in the car for three hours looking at a straight road, you starting thinking about all the things you have forgotten to bring. I swear we have everything including the kitchen sink but even after spending two days pushing loaded trollies around the supermarket, there are still things that I have forgotten. I suddenly remembered the eggs, how on earth could I have forgotten all the eggs? Fortunately there are little towns all the way up to Botswana, and would you believe it, they all have a Shoprite or a Checkers. However, to get in and out of them is a nightmare. They were all packed with shoppers so I’m glad I was only buying eggs and not my usual trolley-load.

  We arrived at our previously-booked lodge, 'The Kalahari Rest, at just before 6PM. A little later than expected, but then breakfast, petrol and supermarket stops had taken their toll. The little lodge / campsite was delightful. We took a chalet for the bath and the toilet but slept in the trucks as there were swarms of mosquitos in the chalet. Apparently there is no malaria there (we hope) as we got hundreds of mosquitos inside the car and inside our nets, and we were bitten to hell. It made us realize that we have to be a lot more careful as we go further North, as the malaria risk increases.

  We decided to eat at The Kalahari Rest restaurant… a mistake, as the food was a bit dodgy and poor Tracy landed up eating a very meager salad for supper – good for the figure! But anyway, it saved hauling out all the cooking stuff. The owner of the lodge has-hand reared a Wildebeest, which wonders around the lodge, into the reception, into the bar and stands over your dinner table waiting for her food. Oh my gosh, you get the biggest fright as this beast comes walking up to you and tries to get you to scratch her head. She actually placed her head right onto my front and every time I stepped back she would take another step forward. I didn't know what to do – scream and run or push her away. When we realized that she is completely placid and hasn't harmed anyone, we all relaxed and just enjoyed the moment of being so close to nature.