Scorpions, Rental Cars and The Himba People !

We are in Namibia and have just returned to Swakopmund after a week through Etosha and up to Sesfontein and a little beyond.

We managed to catch a lift with a South African tour guide across from Maun (Botswana) to Windhoek (Namibia) saving ourselves 2 days of hitching. This area is one of the few spots in Africa where no buses run and travellers must resort to the thumb at the side of the road.

So back to Namibia. The rental car (2WD!) has held together remarkably well considering how Alex was driving and that 90% of the roads are dirt. The only casualty to date has been the rear number plate that we lost along a stretch of strictly 4x4 road near Ongongo. Fortunately a local had found it and came running down the road when we passed back past his hut an hour later. A bit of selotape later and we were off again! The only other hickup related to the Himba People. We had an amazing morning taking pictures of the local people up in Kaokoland, swapping sunnies and trading food and mealie meal for pictures. When it came time to leave one of the girls wanted a lift 30km down the road to visit friends. We obliged but wary of the mix of Cows fat and rewd ochre that they cover themselves in we politely asked her to sit on her blanket with the baby. It was only 20km down the road that Alex realised this was not such a good idea, the blanket was also orange! The backseat was covered in Himba stain which we would have found hilarious were it not for our hefty deposit on the car. That evening Alex came to the camp bar triumphant after managing to rub the Himba orange stains off the backseat with his hanky!. Oh so that only leaves the big black scary looking scorpion to explain. We nearlly ran the blighter over on our second day on the road. It was so big Alex swerved to miss it and we both chased it down to take pictures. Here are the resulting shots...







PS. Alex says if he ever decides to opt out he is going to go and live with these Himba girls in their village!

Rain and Reeds in Botswana

We have just endured 24hrs of non stop rain. The locals think the rains have arrived 2 weeks early as they are not due until mid November! We were on a 2 day Mokoro trip into the Okavango Delta. We had a nice sunny day being poled along through the reeds by our local guide. The mokoro is essentially an African version of a British punt where poler pushes along the boat with a long pole watching out for hippos and crocs along the way. We had an enjoyable 3hours of punting to get to our Island for the night and set up camp. The weather had been hot, October / November are the hottest months in the Delta, 46 degrees in the sun, but we were well aclimatised by now.
The rains began during the night and were welcomed as they masked the sound of the Hyena sniffing around our tents for any left over food. However when morning broke it was still raining. A 3hour dawn walking safari later it was still raining and we realised we were to have a cold and wet 3hour journey back to town. Alex didnt bring his rainjacket or anything warm, no one did, its the middle of summer. So we all froze and even had to use the silver emergency blanket that has lived in our pack since adventure racing days. All warmed up we now walk around camp with fleece and beanie on. It is freezing, all of 20 degrees!




The sunnglasses are to prevent the eye being poked out by the low level flying reeds.

Zambezi Swim Team

After visiting Victoria falls at low water and watching with envy the rafters far below getting ready we decided to splash out and book the full days rafting down the Zambezi. The falls were so low you could walk all the way from the Zambia side, across the top on the falls side to Livingstone Island at the border with Zim.

Sequence 1. Our first rapid and one man down! All Alex could do was laugh and hold on (front right)






Sequence 2. One of our many flips. We were unlucky to hit the big wall, apparently we missed the window to pass through (we were told at the time tthat we had a 50/50 chance of making it, but after the event the other guides corrected the odds to 90/10 against!). We ended up doing a lot of swimming / floating down rapids and earned the title swim team! Our brilliant guide picked some of the more adventurous lines. See if you can spot us gasping for breath....(Alex second from back, Amms far side)










We could not resist buying the photo CD and video, here is a snapshot. There were four rafts in total, 8 flips during the day (We flipped 4 times in total in 25 rapids, mainly on the class 5's) and there were only a few bruises to show for it....Apparently the Zambezi is one of the few forgiving rivers where you can flip and live to tell the tale as there are few rocks near the surface.

Lilongwe, Malawi to South Luangwa, Zambia

We've had a few eventful bus journeys to get aross from Malawi. The first involved an 8hr journey in Malawi with the bus breaking down 20km from its final destination. All the local africans stayed put on the bus and hoped someone would come and fix it! We thought better as it was by then getting dark so got off the bus and were lucky enough to get a lift on a passing Malawian police van! The Malawi police were very friendly (as usual in Malawi) and offered to drop us at a hotel of our choosing in Lilongwe. It was mothers day, a national holiday in Malawi, so they were in a jovial mood drinking while driving! They asked us for money for 'fuel' and chatted up a fellow mzungu to see if she would go out with him for dinner! Bless...

The following eventful bus trip was from Lilongwe across to Chipata in Zambia where we were lucky enough to catch the connecting local bus to Mfuwe in South Luangwa National Park. We got to Chipata at 10am and the bus was nearly full, only 2 spots left. Alex rushed off on a bicycle taxi to get money out of the ATM and when he returned we hopped on expecting to leave soon, as the conductor promised. 5hours later at 3pm the bus pulled out, 2 extra people had boarded in that 5hr wait!

But it was all worth it. Well not the first night, where because of the bus delay we arrived in Mfuwe at night and had to stay in a s'''le of a local place with no water, rat droppings on the bed and a tin roof above radiating all the days heat back into the torture chamber! And all this for 20 USD p night. We moved immediately the next day and took local advice to walk the 1km to Croc Valley camp...the best place we have stayed so far. Situated right aross the main dividing river and only 50m from the notional park boundary, we camped on grass, yes green grass!, for only 15usd. There was a hippo proof pool (no fence, just sloping sides that the hippos don't like), a bar, and 5 resident lions, 1 leopard, elephants and hippos in the bush and river bordering the camp, all free to roam across the campground. We were told by the South African owner to walk about at night carefully and stay in the tent if we heard any munching of grass sounds as this would be hippos enjoying the grass. He explained that it was like a zoo only you were camping inside the enclosure. And we had walked there...oops.

Chuffed at our find we joined a game drive aross the river and into the park proper. This involved sitting on an open top landy and driving around for a few hours while the sun set. Once the sun set and it got fully dark the guide turned on the lights and super car battery powered torch and swept left and right to try and pick out the eyes of the nocturnal hunting leopards and lions. Upon meeting another landy we were advised that a leopard had beeen spotted a few hundred metres ahead. So off we went. 10mins later with no sign of the leopard we heard a big hiss and stopped as we had a flat tyre! The guide asked us all to get OUT OF THE CAR! (nutter..) and just stand around while he changed the tyre. I (Alex) was sensible enough to stand with my back to the landy and keep lookout making sure I was not the furthest from the landy and therefore not the easiest target for predators. A good tactic I thought. Then noises came from the bush, hippo noises, and the guide nervously asked us to move to the other side of the landy. Amms was not fazed, bless, and carried on gossiping with the other travellers, while I again retreated to the inside of the group and waited for the attack! Fortunately nothing came for us and 5mins later we hopped back in and searched once again for the leopard.

The following drive was uneventful for the first 3.5hrs. We had given up seeing much and were driving back along the main road when Amms spotted movement to the left. The guide had'nt seen anything and we ushered him to stop. About 30m away a single lioness was jousting with a mother buffalo and its calf. The stand-off lasted about 10mins with both sides attacking until the lion eventually got the upper hand and grabbed the face of the mummy buffalo. She went down and the lion killed her by suffocating her mouth shut. We watched on in horror, the girls crying in the back and refusing to watch (except for Amms who was videoing it all, crazy African girl!, and shouting at me to take lots of pictures). The stupid calf stuck around to watch and eventually when the whole pride (16 lions with 3 cubs) turned up another lion chased the calf around the side of our vehicle (1m away)and down the road. She did'nt kill the calf but instead held it down and tried to teach the cubs how to kill by biting the neck. They failed miserably and the groans of the calf went on for 10mins, girls still crying in the back! We were the first on the scene and were very lucky to have seen such a spectacle, even if it was a bit heart breaking. Videos to come, but at 40mb they are too much for these Zambian computers.

Alex 'African correspondent' Head checking out.

Malawi

Well. Since you last heard from us we have:
- Sat next to a local vomiting violently on the ferry back to the mainland from Zanzibar
- Caught the Tazara 'Express' train from Dar Es Salaam to Mbeya that took 30hours, only 6hours behind schedule which is actually very good. We have heard it can take 4 days!
- Been refused access into the second internet cafe we tried to use in Tanzania! (is it cause I'm white!)
- Arrived in Malawi (phew!)
- Watched locals buy 2mx2m straw mats, fruit, torches, milk, meat, fish - in fact anything you could wish for from the window of a bus or train. We have been more conservative in our purchases, the boiled eggs with heaps of salt are good!

It is great to be out of Tanzania and in Malawi. The contrast between the two people couldnt be greater. On the one hand you have Tanzanians, who really don't want you in their country and resent tourists and on the other hand you have Malawis, a much poorer country whose people are open, friendly, HONEST!!, and will have a chat with a real interest to LEARN.... Yes there are the odd exceptions as there a the odd exceptions in Tanzania. We met a very nice Tanzanian on the train but Alex feels the majority of the T's have been tainted by the mass resort tourism and the huge amounts of money Mzungus throw around at the Serengeti safaris, on Kili (we are guilty of this one) and on the big exclusive resorts on Zanzibar (where the locals are not even employed but staff brought in from S.A or India to serve its clients).

Ok so enough ranting. Back to Malawi.
We like. Its a bit hot though.
After a few not so nice rooms in the small Malawian towns (pics to follow) we have found a beaut spot on the lake (Malawi that is) with great burgers, and simple wooden huts right to sleep in (actually its probably the nicest room we have stayed in since arriving in Africa). Amms spent yesterday afternoon on a boat trip to a nearby beach where we played games with the locals including the hop, skip, jump game (a version of beach long jump).

Zanzibar

Weve been chilling in Nungwi for a few days of beach inaction! Not cheap and a bit overrun with exclusive Italian resorts but nice turquiose waters, cool dhow sailing boats, fishermen and white sand so all good. We were lucky enough to experience the monthly full moon party yesterday at Kendwa Rocks. It was a bit of a novel experience, unlike thailand or asian parties it had an entry charge of 5USD pp and a BBQ fee of 15USD pp with security guards securing the perimeter fence! We were warned not to take any valuables and not to walk back! even the locals dont take their phones as they will be gone by morning. Security risks aside it was funny hanging around with the few trustworthy Maasai men who migrate to Zanzibar for the tourists in high season, and only in Africa could the DJ get away with mixing the Lion King theme (A wimoway) into the pop hit Poker Face! The dance floor was packed and the Maasai in their full length robes and sticks would groove away with the best of them, even asking our Canadian friend to dance. Apparently they are quite the players as the white Mzungus love their tall slender looks! go figure...But it was cool nonetheless, but not the kind of Maasai you expect after watching Bruce Parrys Tribe series!

Amms' thoughts on Tanzania

We have spent about equal time in Kenya and Tanzania now, and definitely our favourite is Kenya. The people there were so genuine and friendly whereas we feel an undercurrent of something here in Tanzania that we're not sure where we stand. There have been a few instances of fights happening when we get off a bus as taxi drivers/touts want to take us to their hotel. Also if you show interest in buying something and then decide not to make a purchase, people can sometimes turn a bit strange. Talking about Kenya here doesn't go down well either - probably because that country seems to be progressing more quickly than Tanzania which I think is being led by corrupt politicians. Anyway, enough of my ranting.