Botswana

The past 6 days have been... interesting.
Botswana was the first country we entered where we heard people speaking a foreign language more often, as Afrikaans is usually the language used in Namibia too. But you can see that it has an up-and-coming economy, and that the government puts a lot of money into programs fighting aids (40% of its budget in 2001). There are about 11-15 different tribes here but the main language is Tsetwana.
The main events here have been going into the Okavango Delta and Chobe national park.
We went into the Okavango in Mokoros, which i felt very unstable in both others didn't seem to mind. The weather has finally gotten relentlessly hot, being pleasant in the evenings, but mid 30's from 10 onwards. In the delta we did a few walks, where we saw zebra, elephants, kudu, impala etc. You can tell that they're a lot wilder because they are so scared of humans! And then at night we did a "cruise" to see some hippos and probably the most beautifully bright red sunset i've ever seen. Our polers (2 people to a mokoro and 1 person poling) danced for us in the evening and to reciprocate we did sumemr loving by grease (very poorly), a camp skit which they loved and the macarena!
However, on the way back, when we were on the truck from the mokoros back to camp (not our usual one, but one of the delta rain, the company that organized it for us) we managed to get bogged down in the mud. No phone reception and no luck pushing, another company's truck drove past. They tried so hard to pull our's out, that they got stuck too!!!
Finally, one of the locals picked us up on his 4x4 (without our gear) (he had a fresh goat's head in the back might i add) and we managed to get on another truck belonging to delta rain, and just about made it back in time to catch the scenic flight across the delta.
We did a 45 minute fight over like 1/4 of it, and it made me appreciate how vast the whole thing was!
The next day was an early start, but as if tension in camp was high enough, we didn't leave early enough! Our trip leader had trouble getting signal, and therefore we were 15 minutes late for our sunset cruise on the Chobe river! We managed to get on the boat at another jetty but we were not happy with our trip leader's organizational skills. Lots of complaining!
That night we went for a late night swim (circumstances remain undisclosed) and we saw this massive heard of elephants crossing like 500m away from us! It was so scary but impressive! We were trying to be as quite as possible not to attract them but the jack russel managed to scare 2 of them off :)
The next day tension was still riding high, we weren't happy at all about one person's behaviour as well as the trip leader's so our chobe overnight was probably the best money spent ever. Chobe is probably my favorite park out of all of them so far, and we saw a leopard! The camping was like 5* colonial-esque, being waited on and we had beds in tents! Didn't see very much in the morning, sadly enough.

So now we're in Zimbabwe, losing 6 of our team, though we're going rafting on the zambezi tomorrow and a bungee jump awaits on sunday! Exciting!!!

Off to the Okavango Delta

Last week was amazing! One of the reasons i came to Africa!
And this could only mean... Animals!
We left Swakopmund and went to Spitzkoppe, which has also been called the Matterhorn of Africa. It was pretty hot out there - no water available at all! But at least the night hacve gotten warmer and i'm comfortable enough in pjs and my sleeping bag without liner. The days are very hot - low 30's, and wind-less so the only breeze we egt is when the truxck is driving.
In spitzkoppe we had a punch party which was done with the fines collected for calling the truck a 'bus', which got most people quite drunk, leading to a lot of sleepy heads on the next morning drive (including yours truly). We went to a cheetah park which was A-MAZING! the people had 3 tame cheetahs which we got to pet, and then we went out to see the 'wild' ones get fed donkey meat, and then we saw some babies. It was so adorable! Alex, if you're reading this, you would've loved it!
And from thereon we went to Etosha National Park, where we did one afternoon game drive and the whole of the next day. We saw a black and a white rhino, lots of elephants, giraffes, zebras, springbok, kudu, hartebeest, ostrich, warthog, jackals, and german tourists. But i went all snap-happy and already have over 1000 pictures! Namibia is absolutely beautiful!! I would highly recommend it. Very poor though, it's mostly arid desert and has about 2million people. Which is why Botswana will be a massive contrast - it has the fastest growing economy in the world over the last 40 years due to booming diamond trade.
I can't seem to upload any pictures, so i'll probably add a lot at Victoria falls in about a week.
Hope everyone's well!
Love love

In Swakopmund

We are now a week into the trip!
The weather is finally looking up. It was pretty wet in cape town, and further up into the Namib desert pretty warm, high 20's, but in the evening it is absoultely freezing! I've been layered up to the max, but last night was pretty good. The camp sites have all been really good so far - warm water and some even have had swimming pools. The driving isn't too bad, max of like 5 hours a day, so they're typically action-packed, but the roads can be pretty bumpy! we have lots of space in the truck, luckily, because there's space for 29, and we're only with 16. We're losing 6 people tomorrow so for the next 2 weeks up to Victoria Falls we'll only be with 10.

Africa is beautfiul. I've seen many gorgeous sunsets, and as much as they look the same after a while i still love to watch. I was going to put some pictures up but i can't use the USB cable here! It's not as cheap as SE Asia or S America, but thepeople are all very friendly. The cook is amzing, so i might actually gain weight on the trip! We've had some amazing lasagna ad then yesterday we had kudu!

We've been pretty busy so far. I went for a canoeing trip on Orange River, which was beautiful. Then later we had a day off but we climed about 100m to catch the sunset. Then yesterday we went on a walk in the Sossusvlei in Namibia, which is all desert and dunes. Going to go quadbiking in the desert on sunday. We're here for another 2 days, so it's a nice bed and some relax time for me!
The wildlife is stunning, opbviously! Lots of springbok and ostrich along the road,a nd we also saw a few oryx.

The people in the group are really cooL! There's a group of 6 americans who are doing a semester in cape town, and they're leaving us tomorrow. The rest of us get along really well, there's a few australians and some brits mainly. We're only just getting to know each other better so from now on many more drinking parties and fun nights a coming!

This has now become a very long post, and i'm kind of sickly (stuffy nose, sore throat) so that's all for now!
Lots of love.

xxx

Cape Town to Springbok

So this is the first time i can get internet. There was a big stormin CApe Town on saturday evening so everything was down.
The journey into S. Africa was good, though i had an hour's delay with BA because of damage to the luggage compartment.
Cape Town is pretty cool, it really doesn't feel like AFrica. It's veery modern and it has lotsof shops. They're obsessed with surf clothes! I guess it makes sense it being on the coast and all. There's a waterfront with lots of malls and shops lik ethe body shop, and nando's everywhere. I went there with this random maltese/italianh couple i met on the street, they were really nice! It was very cold though and lots of rain. Then i met the people in my group, who're pretty cool. IT's s small group, 16 of us, from all over, UK, oz, kiwis, spain.
We left on sunday morning and the highlight may have been seeing babboons cross the road, randomly! Pretty cool, for someone like me not used to that. I've also seen some lone impalas grazing.
We got to the first camp site in the cold and rain, and did some wine tasting there! Was v. nice, fromthe birdlife co-op, the 3rd biggest producer inteh s. hemisphere apparently. Bought some rooibos-infused vermouth, because they don't export it.
Didn't get much sleep last night because the cook got slightly drunk and fell off a ledge hurting himself badly. He's currently in hospital, but he gave us a good fright because he was asking for help, opening up tents and we thought he was a randombegger!
Oh well, am now off closer to orange river to do some canoeing tomorrow.
Will be in swakopmund in about 5 days, will report back then!