I drove down to Johannesburg South Africa to pick up the Scharmers from their 16 hour flight over the big blue pond. We spent the night at a backpackers before we drove north the following day. It was a quiet evening with good food and better conversation. I was so excited to see them I lost my cell phone and left a calling card in the pay phone. I lost my head in a sense. In the morning we drove into Botswana and picked up Katie in our rental car at the bus station. Our first true cultural stop was at the Bahurutse Cultural Village. This is a place where people can go and stay in traditional Setswana houses, eat traditional Setswana food and watch traditional dancing and culture.
Doris and Scott are looking onto a basket full of sorghum, which is one of the staple foods in Botswana. The old woman is wearing traditional cloths and jewellery and in the background you can see the Kgosi (chief) of the village.
Doris looks in on the morder and pestle stomping process of how they turn sorghum into a flower like meal. She soon after joined in on the stomping process.
After we were shown our room and the festivities had ended, we were shown to the dining area for our first truly traditional meal. From the far end where Doris is there was an English muffin like bread, followed by a maze meal mashed potato like dish, then a sorghum pourage followed by the vegetable of cooked bean leaves that Katie is dishing. The last on the table is a dish of cooked caterpillars. Yum! We washed it all down with a swig of traditional sorghum beer.
We slept in the traditional roundival hut and experienced a few leaks during a ravishing thunderstorm. No harm done and a good breakfast and a tour of the grounds gave us a nice start to a great day.
On our way to Salajwe we ran into a little road water but the rental car pushed on through with out once having to be pushed.
The Scharmers came bearing gifts and a lot of them at that. We couldn’t have been happier! Thank you thank you to all those involved in getting us Oreos, Cheez-its, cereal, beef jerky and much more!
Katie and I took the Scott and Doris on a tour of Salajwe. We stopped at the Primary school where the school head gave a tour and some children sang for my parents.
From the Primary school we went to the clinic where Katie showed what she does as a Peace Corps volunteer. We even got to see a 4 hour old new born baby. Very exciting. Here is Scott checking out all the medications in the back room of the clinic. After the clinic, we toured the Junior Secondary school, the day care and saw some of what the rest of Salajwe village looks like.
Here the Scharmers are with the Chief of Salajwe and his wife, who is Katie’s best friend at the clinic where she works as a cleaning lady. Dad with some kids in front of a cooking house. That night in Salajwe we had some other volunteers over, John and Sadie, to share a meal of pizza.
The next morning, we went on our first game drive through Khutse Game Reserve and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. It is a unique desert landscape of low trees and open grasslands.
One of my favorite parts of our trip was when we took a ride in a donkey cart. I think I pushed for it more than anyone but when else will we have the reason to ride around Salajwe village with a troop of 25 kids following us? Never, it was perfect.
Following a lovely visit to Salajwe, our home away from home, we drove further north to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. It’s a game park where we stayed overnight and went on a game drive. We toured the town nearby and went to their markets to see how an African Market is.
The first game we spotted were a group of Giraffe that were grazing the tree tops. But the Rhinos where what were so fantastic for me. An amazing endangered beast that we got to see with our bear eyes.
After another night at the Rhino Sanctuary, we drove further north to the border town of Kasane. This is the road that is long, rough, but occasionally full of wildlife.
We spent 3 nights at Chobe Safari Lodge. It is built right on the banks of the Chobe River and designed to impress ambassadors and national delegates from around the world. Our first night we ate at the buffet. Just to name the meat I ate, not to mention the sides and desserts I had; Kudu, Guinea Fowl, Impala, Crocodile, and warthog. Scrum-dilly-umptious! It was late so we settled into our fully equipped, permanent standing camp tents.
The following day had a trip to Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, scheduled for the morning. We meet with our guide, Lucky, who took us to the Botswana border and then through the Zimbabwe border. All without interruptions or incidents.
Once inside the park we got to see the huge volumes of water pouring over the 200 meter falls. It was beautiful. At one spot, danger point, on the trail the mist is so bad that it is constantly raining. We were a bit damp but the hot Zimbabwe weather quickly dried our happy selves.
Lucky took us to a 2,500 year old Baobab tree. The oldest in the area with a huge trunk, short branches and long thick sausage like seed pods. Everywhere we stopped, vendors would pop out of the bushes with crafts for us to buy. Everyone’s trying to make a buck, who can blame them.
Katie, mom and Lucky pose for a picture at Mama Africa, a restaurant that served traditional Zimbabwe food. I got dried beef in peanut butter sauce with peanut butter rice. Everything has peanut butter in it it seams. When everyone had eaten their fill, we went to the big craft market. 30 some stalls with handmade crafts. Each stall contained a sales man that could sell a box of sand to Bill Gates. With our arms full of crafts and gifts we took our van back to Chobe Safari Lodge. Our night was spent river side with cocktails, cards and a heavenly sunset.
Our last day in Kasane was spent leisurely. We had coffee overlooking the river, walked the shops around town, saw the local markets, visited a hollowed out tree that was used for an old jail, swam in the lodge pool, played cards, watched baboons steal food from the buffet, and waited for Lucky to arrive for the evening boat cruise.
Again we were blessed with another wonderful game viewing experience. The boat cruise unique in the fact that you can get so close to the animals in their natural habitat because they are habitualized to seeing boats day in and day out. It’s like you’re not even there because you are not seen as a treat.
That was the culmination of our trip. From Kasane, the following day, we drove 10 hours south to the capitol Gaborone. We slept deeply and continued our journey south the following day to Johannesburg South Africa. It was a sad time seeing them walk through to their gate to go back to America but Katie and I both knew that we would be seeing them soon. What a great trip!!
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