Southern Africa - Day 21 (Part 1)

Sunday, 2 February 2020 - Botswana

Breakfast at 8 a.m. No more elephants in sight, what a pity! I really can’t get enough of them. However, when we got to the main road, there they were at the side of the road! All 4 of them! Well, I don’t know if they were the same 4 as last night but it was as if they were there to bid me farewell and godspeed on my journey through Africa, through life. At least, that’s how I choose to see it. 

We stopped on the way to fuel up. The greeting here in Botswana is dumela - dumela-rae for boys and dumela-mafor girls. 

I’m feeling very emotional today, I think it’s that time of the month again. Once in a while it hits me hard, and I feel as if I’m having an out of body experience in that I am saying and doing things that I know I shouldn’t be saying and doing but I can’t seem to stop myself. I also feel so very useless, that I have failed everyone especially myself, and that I should do the universe a favour and just kill myself. These thoughts stop as soon as the period comes, I can’t seem to stop it 🙄. I better tread lightly lest I offend and regret. 

We also passed through a village called Pandamatenga, a small farming village, which produces mainly millet and sorghum which is then used to make the brown version of pap. Pap is usually made from maize; it is white and sometimes shaped into balls. I tried some yesterday at dinner; it is plain tasting just like white rice and has to be eaten with some gravy or sauce, the most common being onion and tomato sauce which I also tried yesterday. Not bad. I saw huge silos for storing these grain at the side of the road. 

Then we reached Kasane, in particular a place called Kazungula where the Chobe River meets the Zambezi River, and which is also the meeting of 4 countries: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. How cool! 

We reached our hotel, had lunch and some rest time. I walked around the hotel and saw many warthogs and monkeys just moving about freely in the hotel compound. I bought some souveniers and books at the shop in the hotel. I am spending way too much money, and ordinarily I wouldn’t care but this not earning business is making me feel uneasy but still I spend 🙄. 

At about 2.45 p.m. we went down to the Chobe River for a sunset cruise. The Chobe River originates from Angola, goes into the Zambezi River, and eventually into the Indian Ocean. 

The scenery was very nice, and we had good views of many animals and birds, including water bucks, impalas, hippos (hippos everywhere!), Nile Crocodiles, a greater kudu, giraffes, elephants (have I mentioned that I will never get enough of them??? 😍), more hippos with a baby 😍❤️, pukus (in the antelope family and only found along the Chobe River), the African data or snake bird, Egyptian geese, African Jacana, the lesser jacana (very rare), lapwings, marabou stork (the lightest stork although quite big), and the African Fish Eagle.

Although named the sunset cruise, we came back before the sunset (the cruise lasted for about 3 hours from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.) so Jette and I had a beer, chit chatted and watched the sunset. Then we walked to a nearby bank to withdraw money for tomorrow’s activity, and then back for dinner.

Southern Africa - Day 20

Saturday, 1 February 2020 - Botswana 

I can’t believe Southern Africa is coming to an end soon. All things stress related happens at home, the most pressing right now being finding a job. I am not looking forward to going home because it will be back to reality, and reality really bites 😭.

Today we head to the town of Nata, towards the North of Botswana. We had an option of driving out to the Makgadikgadi Pans in the afternoon. This is a vast salt pan just like the Etosha Pan (but smaller) and the breeding ground for myriads or birds such as the pelicans and flamingoes. But according to Clever it is not the breeding season now so maybe there will not be many birds there and what is left is just the salt pan. With that, none of us opted to go, with the result that we could sleep in and have a rather relaxing day.

We left at about 9 a.m. On the way we stopped to have lunch under a baobab tree. These trees can live up to 3,000 years and become really huge. The one we saw is medium sized. The seeds of the flowers can be eaten. Clever says that if you hug a baobab tree and make a wish it would come true. I did it of course. I’ll take any luck I can get. We’ll see whether it comes true. I did a bushy-bushy again as there were no toilets around. 

Then on to our home for the night, a place called Elephant Sands. It is a place where elephants come to drink water at a waterhole, and there are tents and chalets all around so that sometimes an elephant may walk right past your home to go get a drink. However when we got there, we were informed that since it had been raining the elephants have gone on vacation because now there are other places where they can find water to drink. What a blow! But I was still hopeful.

I sat outside my room with an eagle eye over the waterhole. And then he came! A lone male elephant. Coming to drink at the waterhole, about 20 m away! 😍😍😍 Many pictures and videos. Then I went to the bar area because from there it was even nearer to the elephants. The rest, including Clever, were there so I hung out there the whole afternoon drinking beer and watching the elephants. I saw 3 altogether. There was another guide there, Duncan from South Africa and I introduced myself as Sheila from Namibia and that I was Clever’s assistant and he actually believed me! 😂😂😂 Clever was laughing away.

Then dinner, and more elephants! I saw 4 elephants, all male, together at night and they were doing some kind of elephant dance. One takes 2 steps forward, another takes 2 steps back; then the other 2 do the same, and on and on 😁. It was really quite magical to see. I love elephants.

There are about 70,000 elephants in Botswana. It is now over-populated; thus hunting elephants has been allowed again under strict regulations, as they do cause a lot of damage to farms and plantations. I told Clever maybe instead of hunting, they could export some to Malaysia because back home, elephants are a protected species as their numbers are small and dwindling. If that ever happens, I think in a long, long time, they will evolve to become Asian elephants 😬. How fun to study evolution in action! 

At dinner Clever told me he told Duncan the truth. No wonder he was giving me the evil eye. Anyway I apologised and luckily it was accepted. Duncan says he will be in Johannesburg when I will be there and he offered to take me around for free. I’m not sure about this because nothing really is for free but I am worried about Johannesburg so we’ll see.

Still no sign of the missing sunglasses. I’m on its trail. 

Southern Africa - Day 19 (Part 3)

Friday, 31 January 2020 - Botswana

We also saw zebras, giraffes and wildebeests. The zebra is the national animal of Botswana, it’s in their coat of arms. Then we headed back to where the other guide, Julius was waiting with our packed lunches. Unfortunately there was no food for the guides and I thought this was not very nice. We all gave them some of our food so that we could all eat together. 

And then Carla the drama queen insisted she left some sunglasses behind and now it was missing, and she kept questioning poor Julius, to me it sounded like she was accusing him of stealing which I really didn’t like. What else can you infer from “you were the only one here and now it’s gone”? She went on and on until Emanuel, who had a bag with him, asked her to search it. I really felt very bad for him. The thing is, there is absolutely no place to hide it IF Julius did take it. He didn’t have any bag with  him, nothing on his clothes, and the mokoro is an open boat. Anyway I really didn’t think they took it. 

It occurred to me how dangerous it really was walking in the delta with dangerous animals around especially the sneaky buffaloes hiding in the bushes. Lions and leopards too but they were most probably asleep as they hunt at night. And we were totally dependent on our guides to see some animals but at the same time, to keep us safe. For a while our very lives were in their hands. And then to think that they stole sunglasses??? Doesn’t fit psychologically but who will listen to me?

I told Carla that it was only sunglasses after all and she could buy a new pair but then she went on about how they were special edition glasses and she couldn’t get the same one anymore bla bla bla and it really pissed me off because it is a luxury that she could afford whereas the guides could barely afford necessities. I told her that she shouldn’t accuse without evidence and she apologised to Julius but I think the damage had already been done. So the situation was quite tense and uncomfortable on the way back but I tried to lighten it by joking and chatting with Emanuel. I really felt so bad for them. By the way, all the information here about the animals and plants in the delta came from Emanuel, so knowledgable he is 😍!

Then back in the mokoro to go back to the poling station. There Jack and Carla filled out some kind of report about the missing sunglasses. I think this would get the guides into some kind of trouble I guess but what can I do. It’s out of my hands. Back on the safari but this time I refused to sit right at the back so I asked the driver whether I could sit in front with him. He is a bubbly man named Julius as well and very talkative so we chatted about him setting up his own tour company, the delta and the lack of rain, life in Botswana and many other things. Most importantly, less bumpier for me and easier to get in and out 😁.

Then back at the drop off point to wait for Clever and Taro. Jack and Carla bought beers for themselves as well as for Jette and I; guilty consciences perhaps? Then back to the lodge where I washed my clothes and my hair. On the river and in the delta we were in wide open spaces exposed directly to the sun so sticky, sweaty and burnt again I guess. 

Then dinner, I went early to the restaurant to have a beer (St Louis, of course 😁) and Clever and Taro were both there and I ended up telling them the incident about Carla. I know it’s not my story to tell and it could be considered gossip but I just felt so bad for the guides that I wanted them to have a voice because Carla would of course tell it from her point of view and the guides were not there to defend themselves, were they? But to my surprise she didn’t say anything to Clever and Taro so now I’m wondering whether I did the right thing after all.

For dinner I had pan-fried bream, a fresh water fish from the Thamalakane River, a tributary of the Okavango River. 

If only the damn sunglasses would turn up somewhere! 

Southern Africa - Day 19 (Part 2)

Friday, 31 January 2020 - Botswana 

Hippos are amphibians, and they have no real sweat glands. Instead, they secrete a thick, red substance from their pores known as "blood sweat," which sometimes makes it look pinkish (it is neither blood nor sweat). The blood sweat creates a layer of mucous that protects hippo skin from sunburn and keeps it moist. They are prone to dehydration, that’s why they spend most of the time in the water.

I asked Emanuel why the hippo is not in the Big 5 and why the Cape buffalo is. He explained that the the Big 5 are big animals that are difficult to hunt. Apparently where most animals will run for their lives when you try and hunt them, the Big 5 will run towards the danger and attack the attacker. And also, nobody really hunts hippos or giraffes 😅. Ok, now it starts to make sense. 

On the island I also saw palm trees, the fox tail sage, pretty pretty grass everywhere, eagles, storks, pelicans and herons. 

Then we continued in the mokoro until we reached another island; this is where we go on foot to look for animals. It’s quite cool; in Africa I’ve looked for animals whilst on a truck, on a plane, in a mokoro and now on foot! 😁The ground rule was to follow Emanuel in single file (animals get confused with this, they think it’s a big thing moving instead of seeing the individuals) and follow everything he says. One guide (Julius) stayed with our food, water and some other stuff the others wanted to leave behind, and all 4 of us followed Emanuel into the delta. 

There were plenty of termite mounds around, some even going up more than 2 metres!!! Termites, elephants and hippos are keystone species. A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance ie animals that make a difference to the ecosystem. Elephants and hippos clear new areas and create new pathways for other animals to move about; termite mounds are used by other animals as look out points (lions and cheetahs) or nests (birds). 

Then we saw a species of antelopes known as red lechwes (maybe this is what I saw in Ghanzi???), a warthog running in the distance and some Tsessebe which are the fastest antelopes in Africa (possibly the world). Unfortunately we could only see all these animals from a distance; when you try to go nearer they stare at you and when they think you’re in their space they run away. I don’t blame them. Plenty of predators around. 

Then I was walking with Emanuel with the others a bit behind, when suddenly he held my arm and said very quietly, “Buffalo. Don’t move.” There in the bushes, some 50 m away, was a Cape buffalo staring right at us. At that moment I experienced the fight or flight response. Adrenalin which made my heart beat faster, and I was ready to run for my life. Emanuel signalled to the others to slowly retreat, but we were still rooted to the spot. I whispered to him, “Run?” He said “Never run. Walk back slowly” and we did. And all the while the horrid buffalo was just staring right at us from within the bushes. Oh, that was really scary!!!

So let me tell you why Cape buffaloes are so difficult to hunt. First of all, they are always hiding in the bushes. When someone comes near, they attack with their horns and kill them. Quite sneaky if you ask me. The best thing to do when being chased by a Cape buffalo is to lie flat on the ground. Even then you’re not safe because they will stomp on you but at least you have a chance of surviving. But then, after they stomp on you and you are lying motionless, they will pee on you and then they wait. 

The reason they do this is because the pee makes you itch, and if you move to scratch the itch, they continue stomping on you until you’re dead. If a buffalo manages to escape a snare, they don’t run away but wait around there, hiding, because they know the person who put the snare there will eventually come back and then they attack! What an animal!! So now I can accept the Cape buffalo as one of the Big 5. Later I told Clever this and he asked me why I listened to Emanuel but not to him and I told him because Emanuel gave me a sensible answer whereas Clever just kept saying the buffalo is dangerous. He rolled his eyes 😂.

Southern Africa - Day 19 (Part 1)

Friday, 31 January 2020 - Botswana

Breakfast at 6.30 a.m. and at about 7 a.m. we headed out to the place which arranged day tours out to the delta. There we had to sit in a safari and as it was already full in front I had to sit right at the back which made for difficult climbing and horrible bumpiness when we went off road. I had trouble getting off the safari as well, because I had to come down backwards which is not my favourite thing to do. I prefer seeing where I’m going, thank you.

But anyway. We then reached what is called the poling station where the polers are. They are our guides for today. They were born and bred in the delta and now work as tour guides there; they will take us in a mokoro and then go around some of the islands. Here I had to pee in the bushes as there were no toilets around. Clever calls this ‘bushy-bushy’ 😁.

The mokoro is something like a sampan. In those days it was made of wood but due to deforestation, they are now made of fibre glass. In the times of the British they called it a ‘dug-out canoe’ but after independence they changed its name to the local language. It made me think, the people of yesteryears although separated by continents, cultures, language etc, thought alike because in Africa there is the mokoro and in Asia you have the sampan. 

Only 2 people can sit in the mokoro and the poler who is also our guide stood at the back with a long pole to steer the mokoro through the Okavango River (hence, poler and poling station). There has been no rain as expected (usually around September to March) so the river is running low and the delta is pretty dry. Unlike Etosha where it is good for it to be dry because you can then find the animals easily at waterholes, it is not good for the delta to be dry because then it is difficult to find animals as they wander around looking for water; and the delta is really vast, about 18,000 square km. If there is enough water there will be animals everywhere. How sad for me. When the river is full it can be anywhere between 3-6 metres deep. 

I shared the mokoro with Jette. Our guide’s name is Emanuel. No thanks to Clever and Taro I was scared to move lest the mokoro topple over and I drown in the Okavango River. Plus Emanuel is so skinny I wasn’t sure whether he could keep the balance of the mokoro with both me and Jette in it. But it wasn’t that bad and once you get used to it you even forget you’re on the water. The scenery was just breathtaking - the beauty and serenity of an intricate and serene system of lily covered and reed lined channels which opened up into beautiful lagoons.

I picked up a river snail and a clam and after photographing them, placed them right back into the river. There were many, many birds that I saw here; among others the African fish eagle, white egrets, a humming bird, the Great White Egret (the biggest egret here), herons, open bill storks which eat snails as their beaks are suitable to break the shell, African jacanas (longish beak to grab plants like water lilies), African datas, Goliath herons, a red bill hornbill (I never knew there were hornbills in Africa!), reed cormorants (black) and a white breasted cormorant.

Some of the plants I saw here were the bull rush grass, the common reed (very tall and can be used for construction eg to build huts), water lilies aplenty (so pretty 😍!), fox tail sage which grows on land (with a thick stem) and cross hair sage which grows in the water (the stem is hollow) which both look the same, and a variety of submerged plants which are weeds. Some of these plants act as a natural filter, making the water clear so that you can see the bottom of the river. The locals collect this water to drink.

I also saw small fishes, butterflies, dragonflies and other insects. Some noise in the distance which were hippos! We stopped on one of the islands and walked across it where we saw a pod of hippos swimming in a small lake on the island, but they refused to get out of the water. I saw a hippo skull and Emanuel says hippos do not have natural predators (although once in a while a lion gets them) so most likely this unlucky fellow injured himself and then couldn’t find his own food and eventually died 😔.

Southern Africa - Day 18 (Part 2)

Thursday, 30 January 2020 - Botswana

Another plant known as ‘eland bins’ (not sure of spelling) which is used for colour (you need to soak the stem for days) and another plant they call the mother-in-law’s tongue (not the same as ours) to make string. Once they have caught game for food, they use the string to tie them up and bring it to the village. 

Then breakfast, and off again to Maun which is a place near the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Delta is formed by the river Okavango flowing into the Kalahari desert instead of the ocean. 

On the way we passed a small town called Sehithwa which mainly does cattle farming, but there is a diamond mine nearby which also gives employment to the people in this town.

We reached out hotel and had lunch. We were supposed to meet at 3 p.m. to do a scenic flight over the Okavango Delta. I asked Rigmar for advice on whether it was worthwhile going on this scenic flight as I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go and she said go for it and I trust her so I signed up for it. But then at about 2 p.m. it started raining so heavily, almost like a storm! In Africa!!! I never expected this. Reminds me of the song Africa by Toto 😁. “I bless the rains down in Africa...”

I thought for sure the flight was going to be cancelled but Clever informed us that the airlines told us to wait a while to see if the rain stops. Finally at about 4 p.m. we were off to the airport to catch our flight. We had to go through security check (🤔). Our pilot was a very young girl; I am very impressed by her confidence and calmness in flying the Cessna. Oh, if only my eyes were ok I’d be flying too! With the Royal Malaysian Air Force 😔.

Anyway we flew over the Okavango Delta and I saw zebras, elephants, giraffes, impalas, wildebeests, the horrid Cape buffaloes, hippos in the water and many termite mounds/ant hills not sure which is which, but all were too far away to take pictures. But now I know how huge the delta really is! Oh, it’s vast! Unfortunately we couldn’t see the Okavango River itself because there was a storm in that area.

Then back to the hotel and I was chit chatting with some of the staff and everyone here seems to be happy. Botswana is a rather rich country and it is developing so unemployment is low and people can feed themselves, which makes the average person here a happy and satisfied citizen. How nice.

Then dinner, laundry, shower and sleep in anticipation for another long day tomorrow.

Southern Africa - Day 18 (Part 1)

Thursday, 30 January 2020 - Botswana

This morning we take a walk with bushmen into the Kalahari desert. We were supposed to do this yesterday but we arrived late so we did it this morning instead. 

Before the walk I did a walk of my own around the hotel grounds. I was hoping to see some animals but only birds around. Yesterday evening I saw a group of what I thought were deer but Clever laughed and said there are no deer in Africa. At first he thought it was a duiker (in the antelope family) but when I told him they were in a group, he said they are impalas. But I don’t think they were impalas because what I saw were all brown with skinny legs, really like deer. So in the end I dunno what the hell I saw 😅. 

Our guides were descendants of bushmen, who use the click language. Even among the bushmen there are different tribes with different languages. The bushmen are shortish, fairer skinned and have surprisingly small eyes like the Chinese. 

During the walk, we saw eland dung. The elands are big animals but they have small dung, which is good for fire. A blackthorn tree (looked more like a bush but apparently it can grow quite big) which fruit can be eaten. A brandy bush which berries can be eaten, and which leaves can be used to neutralise the poison of snakes, spiders and scorpions. There were small holes everywhere in the ground, these were scorpion nests. The bigger holes are the nests of dung beetles. But they are all sleeping now, they only become active at night. Then a buffalo thorn tree which berries can also be eaten. 

There are giraffes, elands, oryx, impalas, wildebeests and even lions here. Saw the holes dug by an aardvark to find ants. 

The bushmen showed us how to light a fire. You need dried grass, dried dung, a bigger stick where you make an indentation and put it over the dried grass and dung, and then a smaller stick to put into the bigger stick’s indentation and rub until there is smoke, then blow in the smoke and it becomes a fire! So cool! 

They use stones and animal bones to make weapons - walking sticks which can also be used as a weapon, spears, bows, the arrows are in a container made of tree trunk and the skin of animals. Animal skin is also used for clothes and bags. The poison of a certain type of beetle is sometimes used only on the arrows, not on the spears.