By now it was afternoon and we still had over 800 km to travel. We made a quick stop by the PC office and discovered through google maps that we had just hiked 145 km (90 mi.), no wonder my feet were so sore! We got two quick hikes down to Tsumeb, about halfway to the capital. We headed to the gas station to try our luck finding a lift the rest of the way. The parable of the good Samaritan was not lost on our next lift; a Catholic priest and nun from Angola. We sat in the back seat of a brand new bakkie as they filled us up with food. Paka thoroughly impressed the priest with his Oshiwambo, "An American, who speaks Oshiwambo, unbelievable!" He bought us all cool drinks at the next gas station as well as some beers for himself. That's right, the priest was doing a little drinking and driving. The collar is not always a sign of good judgement, I learned. We thankfully arrived safe and sound in Windhoek and hit the hay at a backpackers.
Our next target was Ghanzi, the first big town in Botswana after the border. We got hike to Gobabis after waiting a good deal of the morning. After waiting an equal amount of time in Gobabis and a few dollars later, we had our lift to Ghanzi. We got to the border around dusk and rambled on to our destination at night. About 80 km out of Ghanzi I see sparks flying from the front left tire. I just start slowly saying, "Oh $h!t," over and over. We had lost a wheel, not just the tire, and were skidding on the braking disc. We screeched to a stop on the highway as my hands were still shaking. We helped to put on the spare with assistance from our headlamps. The driver let us stay at his house in return for helping him. Warm couches and free accommodation awaited us in Ghanzi.
Botswana has a lot of nice things going for it including a sensible transportation system. Imagine a plan where buses arrive and depart certain locations at specific times, a schedule if you will. Namibia just can't put one together. But thankfully, Botswana has one and we got a nice cheap bus to Maun and made our way to Old Bridge backpackers.
Early the next morning we boarded a boat and headed to where the mokoros and the local guides are. Mokoros are traditional canoes made from fig trees. In recent years, they have begun making them out of fiberglass from the famous Botswanan fiberglass trees.
For the next three days we journeyed into the Okavango delta. The Okavango river is unique in that it ends in the middle of Botswana, rather than a body of water. This floods a good portion of the country creating thousands of channels that can only be traversed in the mokoro. Reeds, water lilies, and grasses proliferate the water. The channels cut out thousands of mini islands which are inhabited by a variety of flora and fauna. Our first day consisted of this:
We basically sat in the mokoro as our guides propelled us through the reeds, deeper and deeper into the delta. It was quite a phase change from our last expedition. Since this involved no walking, we packed lots of great food into a cooler. We ate like kings on our trip; spicy bratwurst, steaks, and even beer!
The next morning we floated to a new island and went on a game walk. It appeared that most of the animals had headed further upstream by the time we arrived. We saw a pack of impala, plenty of birds, and footprints from every conceivable animal. We went to another island and had a fantastic lunch. Paka and I tried our hand at the mokoro during the afternoon.
During the evening game walk I let my imagination run wild since we were on the animals' home turf. I kept imagining creeping up on a lion that was feasting on a recent kill. Our eyes would lock and it would consider whether I would make a suitable dessert. It would look back down at its main course of impala and decide there wasn't enough meat on my bones to kill me. I would slowly step back while it continued to gorge. Nothing of that nature occurred on our walk, although we did see some zebra.
While we continually missed big game we did encounter a world full of small beauties.
The delta is a bird watchers paradise. I wish I had brought my big camera and telephoto lens. These were the best I could muster with my teeny camera.
Our last day in the delta was spent making our way back to civilization. On our way back we heard some hippos making a raucous although none were seen. Our guides told us that they stay in the smaller channels to avoid hippos. We went swimming in a croc/hippo-free area after lunch. After having spent the past two weeks next to bodies of water it was great to finally take a dip and practice some elementary backstroke. We returned to the backpackers before dark and cooked and amazing meal of steak, bratwurst, veggies, and rice.
The next day we squeezed two days of hitchhiking into one and made it all the way to Windhoek. For a quick recap we took a taxi, an SUV, a flatbed truck, and a lorry. In the morning we got picked up by a retired doctor who drove us to Otjiwarango in central Namibia. He talked Nate's ear off the whole way, I was thankful to sit in the back seat this time.
Ninety clicks east of Otjiwarango is the historic Waterberg plateau. This is where the Hereros made their final stand against the German Colonial forces in 1904. The Hereros retreated from the plateau and were chased into the Kalahari where many died. The plateau rises some 200m and takes a commanding view of the surrounding flat savannah. It's somewhat of a geological marvel and even has 200 million year old dinosaur tracks. During our four days of hiking, I pondered both its deep and recent histories. The 42km trail is maintained by Namibia Wildlife Resorts, which means it's extravagantly posh. There are shelters with water taps and flush toilets along the trail. That's better than what I have in the village!
We got a late start on the first day and then managed to go off on the wrong trail for a couple of hours. We eventually made it to the first campsite at dusk after regaining our bearings. Each day we hiked about 10 km which by now was a cake walk. We slept in and really enjoyed ourselves throughout the next few days.
The plateau forms a natural enclosure for wildlife, as they are not too prone for cliff jumping. There has been quite a successful rhino population growing on the plateau and we were dreaming of an encounter. However, dreams don't always come true and we were probably better off without our rhino encounter and all limbs intact. We did encounter lots of little antelope, like this little guy.
Over the next few days we encountered beautiful landscapes like these. They offered plenty of opportunities to explore and climb on all the rocks.
On our last day we heard screeches coming from just off the trail. After a little exploring we realized we were chasing a large group of bickering baboons. They always managed to stay a bit ahead of us avoiding my greedy little camera. Not far from there a stench like a three week old pastrami sandwich hit our nostrils. We had our first close encounter with some big game unfortunately, it was dead. As in he's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible! This is an ex-eland!
We finished the rest of our descent from the plateau carcass free. Thus ended our journey, twas a great three weeks with two great guys and one awesome donkey. See you next time I manage to sit down and type.
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