I got back from Botswana on the 3rd and it was the best trip I've taken in Southern Africa. All the people on the trip-Jasen, Beth, Leah, Darcy, and myself-are Peace Corps volunteers.
Since a majority of the members of our trip live near Polokwane in Limpopo province, the 5 of us met at a former Peace Corps volunteer's house in Polokwane and spent the night before leaving on April 3rd. We left mid-morning on the 3rd for Camp Itumela in Palapye which was 300km from Polokwane not too far inside the border of Botswana. We had no choice but to stay there since the next stop was another 500km away.
In order to get to the camp we drove off of the main road, turned into a truck yard, drove behind a ware house and through a massive puddle; it looked like a horror movie where the camp ends up being abandoned and haunted by zombies. Fortunately it was a rather nice facility with an impressive bar and restaurant. The showers and toilet where outdoors. Both were situated inside a conch shell-shaped spiral rock wall and open to the sky. The entrances were blocked by swinging metal bars that were actually a pitchforks; those were definitely in the top 10 best facilities I've ever used.
We left early in the morning and dropped Darcy off at the bus station-since she was going on a separate trip with a tour group that left from Zimbabwe-and the four of us continued on to Maun, which was a 500km drive. We were driving through the Salt Pans and stopped at a gas station just to use the toilet and get some refreshments. I suggested that we fill up since we didn't know exactly how much further it was to Maun (the map suggested about 200km). Since the gas gauge was at half a tank, the drivers vetoed my suggestion and said it wasn't necessary; about 80 km later the needle had dropped down to an eighth of a tank.
We drove about another 20km and reached a sharp bend in the road with the needle sitting halfway through the red mark on E. There was a village at the bend and a beer store and a general store but no gas station. After talking with the locals for a while they agreed to give us 5 liters for 100 Pula (about 14 USD)-which was a 100% markup but there were no other options-and two beers. They said we wouldn't have made it the remaining 80km otherwise. They made it seem like they were doing us a huge favor by selling us that gas but I have a feeling that they filled the jug from a tanker truck full of gas sitting around the corner. They probably sell gas to tourists like us who were stranded and needed fuel quite often. In the end, I felt better about giving money to the locals than to a large station owner anyways.
We finally arrived at Maun at nightfall and stayed at Old Bridge Backpackers. This was a really cool backpacker overall with a nice bar, a nice camping area-cool and interesting showers and toilets again-that sat right on the Okavango Delta. We spent the night there and left early the next morning for a overnight makoro boat trip down the delta.
We boarded a motor boat on the delta at a dock at the backpacker and were taxied to the "Poler Village"; the village where the polers lived. We rolled up our pant legs and walked through the water to get to the shore where we were assigned boats and polers.
Makoro boats are hollowed-out tree trunks of the baobob tree. Many of the boats were made of fiberglass due to the trees becoming depleted plus fiberglass being cheaper and more durable. Leah and Beth were given a fiberglass boat while Jasen and I were given a traditional boat that was patched in two places by heavy plastic and tacks. Both were very unsteady and not for those who are prone to motion sickness.
The poler's job was to propel the boat through the water using a 10-foot pole (maybe that's where the expression "I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole" comes from). I felt a little guilty since we just sat all day long relaxing with all of our stuff while they stood and pushed us through the delta. Other than the occasional bird or small fish there was virtually no wildlife there. Steve, our poler explained that all of the animals were vacationing in Angola because of the large amounts of rain they were getting at the Delta.
We stopped for a swim and then made our way to our site where we pitched our tents. After eating a lunch of rusks, peanut butter and unrefrigerated processed cheese we went on an afternoon hike. There was still virtually no wildlife so I spent most of the time taking pictures of really impressive termite mounds. Everybody was making fun of me for it but they were actually very impressive and reminded me of the Cappadoccia region of Turkey. After an afternoon of hiking and not much wildlife sightings we returned to our campsite.
Steve started a fire using a very effective method I haven't seen before. He piled a bunch of kindling up and then instead of using leaves or newspaper, he melted a piece of plastic and dripped the burning pieces onto the kindling. In an impressively short period of time he had a cooking-sized fire prepared. We cooked soya mince and pasta for dinner which was surprisingly good. Soya mince is very popular and has a texture of finely ground beef with a flavored sauce although it doesn't contain any meat.
The next morning we went on another 3-hour hike. At the beginning we started out walking along a similar path as the day before and taking more pictures of termite mounds. They took us off the beaten path because they either found some signs of wildlife or were told of it and knew that we would be willing and interested to do that kind of hiking. After trudging through three swamps we discovered a herd of Cape Buffalo and also saw a family of warthogs in the swamp. Satisfied we returned to the campsite and packed up our things then went to the poler village-which we were allowed to walk into-and had a beer at Steve's uncle's tavern.
The houses were very different from my village. They were made of brick but were mostly round with grass roofs (like the rondavels). Interestingly, they had Coke cans stacked like bricks and surrounded with cement or plaster at the base. I'm not sure if this was purely aesthetic, cheaper than bricks, or actually made the wall stronger. Another significant difference was that there were no fences and weren't any burglar bars on the windows or doors. Most houses in my village-and in most of South Africa-have large fences that go all the way around them and burglar bars on all doors and windows. The lack of fences gave me a feeling that the people actually trusted one another. The people seemed happy with what they had and trusted that their neighbors wouldn't steal from them. The other explanation is that no one had anything worth stealing. Either way, it was a very nice village.
By the time the motor boat had arrived it was starting to rain. Jasen and I were the last ones into the boat so we got into the front of the boat; for some reason I thought we were in the back and we would be protected due to the boat hood. Soon after we left the shore it started pouring rain and Jasen and I were getting soaked; both Beth and Leah had raincoats and were partially protected from the rain by sitting behind us. There was one bonus to sitting in the front. As we sat there, traveling at 30 mph getting pelted by rain, we had direct access to the cooler full of beer and other beverages. After 3 beers and about 20 minutes we stopped at a dock that didn't belong to the backpacker since our boat was slightly larger and couldn't drive up to the dock at the backpacker. As we waited for 20 minutes for a safari truck-which was also an open vehicle-we were given two tequila shots and a beer for our troubles.
Upon return to the backpacker, the owner offered us their tents for the night since we got drenched. Their tents were large canvas house tents with extremely comfortable mattresses that were situated inside an ivy cave. Since we were exhausted from the trip we purchased some really good food from the bar and had some drinks.
The next day were were thinking about going on a game drive to the nearby game reserve but we needed to find at least 4 more people to go to decrease the cost; I was assigned to round up a few people. A Chinese girl who was an exchange student studying at Maun and a German woman who was traveling alone agreed to join us. I had to round up at least 2 more people from within the bar.
There were 5 major groups: two middle-aged women, a large group of young girls (18-21 years old), a group of three people about my age, a French couple playing pool, and a large group of people watching the soccer match. We had talked to the French couple on the makoro boat trip when we stopped to go swimming and they were leaving early the next morning so they didn't have any time. The people who were watching soccer were extremely engaged in the match and were all locals so there wasn't any interest from that group.
I wanted to talk to the two middle-aged women who were sitting at the bar next but I couldn't just approach them since there was the large group of young-looking girls (18-20yrs old) standing between me and them. I decided the talk to the girls to see if they were interested in joining us. I started talking to them asking them where they were from and what they were doing there but then a kind of creepy guy sitting at the bar near where they were standing made it very clear that they were with him and they weren't for the taking. He interrupted me and told me that one of the girls was his niece and the others were her friends. He said it in a very guarded way that suggested that I bad intentions and should just back off. I felt violated like I was being accused of being a creep. They were obviously out of the question and the two women weren't interested either.
The group of three young people (1 guy, 2 girls) turned out to be Botswana PCVs who were hanging out away from site for the weekend. In conversation I told them that I was about 2 hours outside Pretoria which is nice because I have a place to go and relax and get away from my village. I asked him if that was their local watering hole where they come to drink, relax, and get away from their village. The male volunteer condescended to me saying "This isn't local, it's 80 km from my site, we don't need to drink to have fun, and that's not what Peace Corps is supposed to be about". To think I almost bought him a drink as a kind gesture. Leah came over and talked to them after I pointed out that our group was PCVs from South Africa; she said that she was about ready to strangle the guy halfway through their conversation. I later talked to a Botswana volunteer who was in Pretoria for medical reasons and she said that a majority of Botswana PCVs don't like him either. Unsuccessful in finding additional people, we went to bed and chose not to go on the game drive the next morning.
We left early again and drove 600km to get to Kasane, a town that is on the border of Botswana and Zimbabwe. Along the way they had fences that divided certain section with cattle grates in the road; these were to keep the wildlife and cattle separated. Occasionally we had to stop at check points where they made everyone but the driver get out of the car and bring the contents of our trunk to a table for inspection while the driver drove through a water pool to cleanse the tires of any domestic animal feces. The driver-and only the driver-was asked to wash her shoes in a small pool with a brush in it; apparently the passengers weren't prone to stepping in cow manure. We made our way without incident and were lucky enough to see a herd of 30 or so elephants and drove up close and took a lot of great pictures.
We stayed at Kubu Lodge which had upper-scale bungalow accommodations as well as camping. We went and checked in at the main house and were given a campsite. To our disappointment, the camping was was more like a state park campsite where you had to bring your own cooking equipment than a backpacker campsite where there is a kitchen with cooking supplies that you prepare your own food in. We set up our tents and hung our clothes that were wet from the delta trip on the fences surrounding the site whose poles were made of pieces of tree branches. Since we didn't have any food to cook we went into town and found a restaurant called Martha's Kitchen that served traditional food and pizza. The owner was a fairly young and very ambitious woman who was from South Africa.
We returned to lodge and made arrangements for a morning game drive at Chobe National Park the next day. We were going to drink some of the beers that we had bought from the store but there was no ice in the cooler and none of the stores either had ice in stock or sold it at all so our beers were warm. I talked to the manager of the lodge to see if she had any ice. She said the ice machine was broken. I explained our dilemma and persuaded her to see if she could scrounge up some for me from what they had bought at the store. She returned with a half bag of ice which was the perfect amount.
The morning game drive was pretty slow at the start and we saw mostly birds, ferrets, and impala. In the last hour we were able to see giraffe, elephant, and a bunch of warthogs. On the way back, our driver took a detour over to where a leopard had been spotted (no pun intended) alongside the road. She was lazily sitting under some brush guarding a recent kill. Later we returned with our car to see if the leopard was still there. Jasen and I got out of the car and went up to the guardrail about 100m from where the leopard was. As we were looking for it, it charged out of the brush. A split second after almost shitting ourselves we sprinted back into the car to safety.
Since the game drive was so early, Beth and I were still tired and went to the tents to sleep while Jasen and Leah went and had tea at the lodge restaurant. About a half hour into my nap I woke up to a creepy animal noise. I had left the tent fly flap open to let the tent air out and a ferret was staring me straight in the eyes making a creepy squeaky noise. I scared him off and then looked out both sides of the tent and the entire site was swarming with them. It felt like it was an alien invasion and I was terrified that one would claw through the tent and attack me and scrape up my face. Without incident they eventually left.
We wanted to go on an afternoon boat cruise on the delta for game viewing so we went into town and found a place that offered them for much cheaper than our lodge was going to offer it to us. The place was a lodge right in the center of town which also had camping that was actually significantly cheaper and had cooking facilities and access to the same large bar and swimming pool that was used by the guests staying in the rooms and bungalows. We went on the cruise and stayed on the top deck with a group of three Afrikaners from South Africa who were avid bird watchers and and had been on many game drives. We had a much better view than the people on the lower level, had three expert birdwatchers identifying all of the birds for us, and also got to hear their opinions of the state of South Africa. We saw much more wildlife on the boat trip than the makoro boat trip including: monitor lizards, crocodiles, hippos, elephants, lions, and a myriad of birds.
After the boat cruise we went to the grocery store to pick up some more provisions: ice, bread, cheese, chips, and juice. Then we proceeded to Martha's Kitchen for dinner. She recognized us and let us move a table outside. Despite not having a liquor license, she provided us with glasses and we filled our beers at the car so we were allowed to drink them during dinner. Earlier, we had shopped around for ways to get to Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side and all of the shuttles and private taxis were really expensive. Martha suggested we cross the border on foot then hitchhike to the falls from the other side of the border. Since it wouldn't be safe to leave our car parked at the border we decided to see if the lodge would allow us to leave the car there and then we get a taxi to the border from there.
After returning to the lodge, Leah and I talked to the people at the front desk to see if we could leave the car there. They said we could just pack our stuff up and leave it in the side parking lot. We bought a phone card so we could call and make reservations in Vic Falls. The manager-who was a middle-aged woman-said we should avoid Shoestrings Backpackers like the plague. We proceeded to book a reservation there anyway since it had been recommended by other PCVs.
We returned to the campsite and went to take showers. I went to grab my pants off the fence to see if they were dry. It was dark and when I picked them up bugs started crawling up my arm and a few bit me. Ironically, termites had started to colonize my pants and build a mound. I brushed off the pants and then took them to the sink to hand-wash them. I took a shower then Jasen and I had a few more beers then went to bed.
The next morning I got up and Jasen and Leah were already over at the restaurant having tea while Beth laid in her tent reading. I decided to walk over and tell them that we were both ready to get going. I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on the nature trail that you're only supposed to go on with a guide due to the risk of getting attacked by an animal. I followed the trail markers and passed a treehouse until I reached a point where the trail was no longer clear. I backtracked to the treehouse and climbed up to figure out where I was. From the top I looked around in the direction I suspected the lodge was in but couldn't find it. I decided it would be best to try and follow the trail back. In signature David style, I ended up losing the trail and I saw the profile of what can only be described as either a yedi or man-bear-pig. Trembling, I kept walking and found an electric fence. I was debating trying to climb a tree and jump over "to safety" although I didn't really know what was on the other side. After coming to my senses I decided to try and find the trail again. I was extremely relieved when I stumbled upon what turned out to be the staff housing. I followed their roads which led me to the front gate; on the other side of the lodge! The lodge is sandwiched between the delta-with a large patch of green grass between the lodge and the delta-and the stone road leading straight to the gate. The lodge separates the campsites from the nature trail. I somehow managed to miss all of those key landmarks and end up on the nature trail on the other side. I'm still not quite sure how I did it but I arrived at the main house quite shook up.
We were going to pack up to leave but our tents were soaked so we didn't want to pack them up since they would mildew if left packed away for a whole day. Leah and Beth talked to the person at the front desk to see if they had a barn or shed or somewhere we could hang our tents so they would dry and not mold. They said they didn't have anything like that and we would have to pack them away. I went a few minutes later and talked to her and asked about a shed or barn and then a place where we could leave them set up; she initially said there were no other options than packing them away. In a last ditch effort, I proposed that we just leave them set up at the site and then take them down when we come back. She checked the reservations and the site wasn't being used that night so she let us leave them set up for free. We left the car at the lodge and the tents set up at the site; the only difference from the night before was that weren't in the tents, didn't make much sense to me but it worked out great for us. I also asked her about a taxi and she said there was a cheap taxi from the main road that would take us directly to the border crossing. For some reason, it was very easy for Jasen and I to charm all of the women working at the desk and they were very helpful and accommodating for us but were not that helpful to Beth and Leah and were at times terse and rude.
We consolidated our stuff into two bags and then caught the taxi to the border. When we were going through the border crossing we were hoping to hitch a ride with other people who had cars and were going to Vic Falls. As we were walking into customs, a large caravan of RVs filled with older British tourists pulled in. I talked to them for a while in hopes of getting a really awesome ride but they said their insurance didn't cover us in case of an accident so they wouldn't do it. It would have been awesome; instead, we hired a taxi that drove us from the border to the backpacker.
From the backpacker we walked over to Victoria Falls National Park and walked all the way along the path looking out at all of the viewing points. Having also seen the falls from the Zambian side, I would say that they are similar to Niagara Falls because the Zimbabwe side is much more impressive than the Zambian side as the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is much more impressive than the American side. After leaving the national park we walked across the bridge that spans the Zambian-Zimbabwe border watching the people bungee jump, bridge swing, and zip line off the bridge and across the canyon. We had a drink at the bar on the Zambian side and for the first time since last June I was given change in US dollars. I held it and then noticed that the US dollar has a different smell to it, a smell that I jokingly described as the smell of freedom. Holding the money in my hand evoked a strong memory of the joys of living in the US. After that moment of reflection, we finished our beers and fries-they actually called them french fries on the menu-we walked back across the bridge and went to the craft market.
The craft market reminded me of the market that I went to when I was in Jamaica with my family in high school. The people were really hassling you and trying to get you to come see their stuff. One really interesting thing was that they would try to get you to give them your clothes and other possessions in exchange for their handmade wooden or stone crafts. Since making the crafts cost next to nothing, clothes are expensive, and most tourists have too much clothing anyway, it makes a lot of sense that they were interested in our clothes. All of the vendors really liked my hat and the black Nike shirt I was wearing but I was unwilling to part with either. I didn't want to buy anything but I figured I'd try my had at haggling so I bought 4 hand-sculpted wooden animals for 25 Pula (3.50USD) down from 50 Pula. I am also now a Zimbabwaen trillionaire. I bought some of their old currency including a ten trillion and a fifty billion dollar bank note which are worthless to them.
While I was there I definitely got a sense that the people were very desperate there. There was a small girl (+/-3 years) who followed us for a block holding Leah's hand and saying something cute (not sure what it was) in hopes of getting some money. Once she reached a certain corner she turned around and went running back to where she first started walking with us. Her father or some other adult must have been watching her and that was the furthest point where he could still see her from where he was sitting. The people at the craft market also put a lot more effort into selling their crafts than I've seen at places where they sell crafts in South Africa.
Despite the warning from the manager of Kudu Lodge, we stayed at Shoestrings and although the lock was a little shoddy, the beds were pretty comfortable, they had a decent kitchen, eating area, bar, and selection of music playing. They also had two massive Great Danes that were very loving and friendly. I would stay there again.
We left early the next morning for the border. We were one of the few people at the border since it was early and it was a Saturday morning. We quickly got through immigration and asked if we could leave but then were told we needed to wait for the customs guy to come back. After a half hour of waiting, the customs guy walks out of a room and stretches and adjusts his pants as if he had just gotten up from reading the newspaper or taking a nap. He walks over to the desk and without looking at any of us takes a paper that we were given, puts two stamps on it, and then releases us; annoyed? Yes. Surprised? No.
We were back to Kudu Lodge, packed, and ready to leave by 9am which was good since we had a longer than 600km drive down a pothole-filled road. Along the way we had a few elephant sightings (we saw a large male elephant bathing in a watering hole), a group of 8 giraffes, and a herd of 20-30 zebra. Also, Leah got pulled over for speeding and we got a flat tire.
We were driving through a village area going 88 in a 60 (sometimes it is hard to tell where there is a village and it's easy to miss the speed limit signs) and Leah got pulled over. Surprisingly they had a radar gun attached to a digital camcorder so when the officer observes someone speeding she would run to the road and wave her hat at the driver who was passing to flag them down and get them to stop. She showed Leah the video, proving that she was in fact speeding then sent her over to a male officer to settle up the fine.
The officer told her it would be 600 Pula plus two times the number of km over the limit for a total fine of 656 Pula and could be paid in cash. She proceeded to tell him that she didn't have that kind of money on her. He then said that she would have to bring it to court on Monday but she said she couldn't because she was traveling. Then he said "okay, well I guess I have to put you in jail then". She explained how illogical that was too. This conversation went on for about 20 minutes with Leah defeating his demands with her logic. The end result was the ticket was dropped and she walked away without paying a cent, only giving him a smile. In Botswana they have very strict anti-corruption laws making it illegal to accept bribes.
On our way to Kasane, Beth hit a pothole pretty hard and afterwards the car felt off balance and I thought we had a flat tire. At a quick glance there wasn't any damage so I suggested that it might be a small puncture and a slow leak. After a few hundred kilometers of driving the tire was all but flat and we noticed that the rim was severely bent. We filled the tire up at every gas station we passed but about 150 km from Palapye in the middle of nowhere it was flat. We stopped at a bus stop as it was getting dark to change the tire. We had to take all of our stuff out of the trunk to access the spare tire and there were quite a few other people just standing around where we were. An odd thing was that we didn't feel threatened at all. In South Africa there would be a very high risk of at least a few of those people trying to steal the stuff you have spread out on the ground with or without a knife or gun. We successfully and without incident changed the tire.
We spent the night at Camp Itumela again and again had to drive through the large puddle so all of the tires got dirty. We cooked soya mince again and headed out at 8:00 the next morning in hopes of arriving in Polokwane by 11:00.
If you've ever rented a car on a budget, you try to disguise as much of the damage you have caused to the car as possible. Since we had driven through mud, the spare and the other three tires were dirty so we cleaned the side of the tire that would be visible when the rental agency checked for the spare tire upon returning it. We then pumped up the flat tire and put it back on the car. It definitely looked obvious that it was recently changed since the flat tire was extremely clean because we had driven through rain before we changed it and it was in the trunk when we drove through the mud at Camp Itumela. We dropped it off on Sunday and it was inspected on Monday and there were no additional charges so we apparently did an okay job of disguising it.
Things I noticed that were different about Botswana:
- I felt much safer there than in South Africa
- The racial tensions weren't as high (Botswana was never subject to an Apartheid-like system of oppression)
- There were very few fences around the homes unlike the fortresses that surround most homes in South Africa
- The infrastructure was far inferior to South Africa (Their main North-South road that was marked on the map as a major highway was a paved road that had more pot holes than any road (dirt or paved) in my village
- There were more animals traveling freely across the highway. It might be that the parts of South Africa that I've visited keep wildlife more contained but the largest animal I've seen outside of a national park or game reserve is a baboon
I had a blast on my trip and if given the chance I would do it again. Botswana is beautiful naturally and its people are very friendly which would make it a pleasant place to live. South Africa is currently the best model of a democracy in sub-Saharan Africa with the strongest economy and most resources. Here, I am helping uplift a people who I believe are in a country of movers and shakers and are potentially the movers and shakers of the future. As terrible as crime and racial tensions are in South Africa, and as stressful as things are, I am satisfied with my placement here.
