Baobab Trees and Chobe National Park, Botswana

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Travel Spirit

Day 17 of my 35 day G Adventures African Overland Truck adventure began with an hour-long mokoro ride back from bush camping in the Okavango Delta. You can read about the amazing Delta here and here. After unloading our supplies and gear from the boats and loading it back onto our Overland Truck, we drove 3 hours to our campsite…Planet Baobab, near Chobe National Park. The bar/restaurant area is really nice. Check out the chandeliers – they’re made out of beer bottles…

The campsite is located close to the town of Gweta in Botswana and Chobe National Park. I did some laundry, got on the internet and took a few photos of the beautiful Baobab trees…

After setting up our tents, a few of us went for a swim. For 295 Botswana Pula ($37.00) we went on a sunset cruise in the park. It was amazing…

Chobe National Park was definitely one of my top three favorite experiences of the trip!

Okavango Delta – Beautiful Africa

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Travel Spirit

On day 16 of my 35 day G Adventures African Overland Truck adventure my group went for a three-hour walk in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. We were surprised to see so much wildlife! We saw Giraffe, wildebeest, warthog, elephant, antelope, zebra, and hippo. Here is a buffalo skull on the trail…

We didn’t eat breakfast before the hike, so we had brunch upon our return. Usually, our breakfasts consisted of instant coffee, cold cereals, bananas, sometimes yogurt, and granola or oatmeal were offered. If we had a long driving day in the overland truck, we would pack a sandwich and eat on the truck. Sometimes, when we were able to stop, we would have a pasta salad or something more substantial.

Here are a couple of photos of the women. I loved this girl’s shoes…

After a short nap and swim, I read some in my book, “The Last Rhinos”. We went for a mokoro boat ride to find wildlife and saw hippos. As the sun set, I knew it was a magical time…

Once we were gathered around the blazing campfire that evening, our Mokoro drivers (or polers…I’m not sure what they’re called), who also camped with us, sang native songs! One of the songs was “Beautiful Africa” and with each stanza, it changed to “Beautiful Hippos”, or “Beautiful Giraffe”, etc. They clapped their hands loudly to the beat! We decided to sing songs from our countries to them. There were three Americans and we sang…”Take me out to the Ballgame”!

The Okavango Delta is an area that is still pure and peaceful!

Journey by Mokoro to an Island in the Okavango Delta

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Travel Spirit

After picking up a bushman in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, that you can read about here, my G Adventures Overland Truck group left and drove 7 hours to the Island Safari Lodge in Maun. It was basically a stop-over before we loaded our supplies and camping gear for a two-day trip to camp in the bush on an island in the Okavango Delta. First, we loaded speedboats and traveled 45 minutes to an area with the Mokoros (dug-out canoes). The supplies were then loaded onto the Mokoros and off we went.

It was like an African version of being on a Gondola in Venice!

An hour later we arrived to our camping spot, unloaded and set up our tents. Bush camping is very basic – this was our toilet…

After working up a sweat, we went for a swim in the Delta. The water is very clean and cold…the locals scoop it up and drink straight from the Delta! The water lilies were gorgeous!

I took a short nap and then we went for an hour walk with the group and saw some hippos in the water! The Okavango Delta was one of the highlights for most of our group!

Picking up Bushman in Botswana

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Travel Spirit

With almost two weeks of my 35 day African Overland Truck adventure behind me, we were on the road again for 9 hours driving from the capital of Namibia—Windhoek—on our way across the border into Botswana to visit the San Bushmen. Upon arrival to Ghanzi, which is located on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, I decided to spend $5 to upgrade from my tent to a Bushman hut. It had electric and a bed with warm blankets! Oh…the things we take for granted!

After getting situated, I made my way to meet the group and to say hello to the indigenous San Bushman. I had brought a wand with bubbles to blow for children along the 8,000 km overland truck journey, and when our translator saw it, he took me by the hand over to the small group with their children and let me start blowing bubbles. No one took a photo of me with the bubbles…but here are some of the people.

At first I thought they had horrible body odor…but later found out that they rub a plant on themselves to ward off mosquitos!

Later, I wanted a photo with them. One of the fun things I do when traveling is pick up men…

I’m not sure he was enjoying it though!

Later that evening, for $10, we were treated to traditional dancing by the fire. There was a funny moment when the translator was giving us some history of a local tradition that is performed by girls when they start menstruating. I thought he said that they have to dance naked in front of the elder men of the tribe and was asking him more questions trying to clarify it. Everyone had a good laugh, but I still didn’t find out what really happens!

We all had a great time with the San Bushmen of Botswana!

Africa Overland Truck Experience with G Adventures

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Travel Spirit

Driving from Cape Town through S. Africa — Namibia — Botswana — Zambia — Malawi — Tanzania is A LOT of driving. G Adventures‘ 35 day Overland Truck trip has you in the truck for more than 140 hours…which is more than three full work weeks.

On the road in Namibia

So…to pass the time we came up with lots of games to play. I brought three beach balls to give to children, so we had a blast hitting it around the truck. Here’s Noreen (from Ireland). We played “Bee Bee, Bumble Bee, I see something you don’t see”. I made funny faces! We played rock, paper, scissors. I’d place a coin in my hand and have people guess which hand it was in. Or I’d think of a number and see who came closest. We played the telephone game once, but Michael (from Ohio) purposely twisted it so it was completely different! Here’s Michael…

We played Charades, card games, toss the coin and guess heads or tails, name as many countries as you can remember on each continent, stand up and try not to fall while traveling over bumpy roads, see what weird tricks we can do…like move one eye and keep the other one straight, double jointed tricks, etc. After running out of things, I came up with the game of placing an object on the table in the back of the truck and we’d guess how long it would take to bounce/fall off the table.

We did silhouette animals…

I finished an audio book on my I-Pod. I also bought a book called “The Last Rhinos” that was newly released and finished that. I just bought a book by Paul Theroux (sp?) called “Dark Star Safari”. It’s fun reading stories about the continent you’re on! Sometimes the roads are too bumpy to read a book though. We sleep, talk, eat, or do nothing!