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We departed from Glasgow Airport at about 6am on february 10th and flew to Amsterdam. From there we caught another plane to Johannesburg in South Africa. This plane journey was much longer than the first, the equivalent of a trans-atlantic flight, it took about ten hours in total. Myself and Donald didn't sleep a wink on the plane, we were far too excited about what was ahead of us. We were all absolutely knackered arriving in Johannesburg airport but we still had to go through customs before leaving the airport. We didnt realise how long it would take though, we were there queueing for over an hour to get through in the extremely hot, stuffy airport. Our Hotel for the night was quite a while away from the airport so we didnt arrive in our hotel till after midnight. We were all absolutely wiped out by this point and we all just went straight to bed. DAY 1 Was woken at 5am by knocking on my door. I had slept through my alarm and we were supposed to be setting off! That must have been the fastest i have ever got ready! I was packed and sitting in the minibus ready to go five minutes later. We would be traveling everywhere in this minibus for the next two weeks with our driver T.J. who would also act as a tour guide. I sat in the back of the bus so that I could stretch out across the seats and catch up on some lost sleep, i was soon to find that there was no chance of getting sleep on that bus though, the roads were full of pot holes and so it was a very bumpy ride. We spent most of today travelling. We had a lot of miles to cover before reaching Nata in the North of Botswana. We had to cross the border from S. Africa into Botswana, that was an experience in itself, the workers here were very serious looking and wasn't very far off from American Customs in that sense. What caught both mine and Donald's attention were these large insects that were to be seen all over the customs offices and outside. They were armoured crickets, huge, ugly insects. I didn't like the look of them at all. But this was to be an indicator of things to come! As we neared Nata we spotted a couple of elephants casually grazing at the roadside! It was surreal. I couldn't believe how big these animals were and how they happily continued grazing as we watched them. We reached our campsite for that night at tea time. We put our tents up as soon as we arrived as it was already getting dark. In africa the sun sets around seven o' clock in the evening and it does so very quickly. We had dinner there in the darkness along with another group that were to join us on the rest of the trip. We had to eat in the darkness as the light attracted little bugs called stink bugs that could fall in our food and if they fall into food, they give it a horrible taste. I was very wary of this and kept what I ate to a minimum just in case! As we were eating our food a guide from the campsite told us that there were lions spotted nearby at a dead elephant's carcass and we were asked if we wanted to go on a night game drive. We all jumped at the idea of seeing lions and all shouted yes! Off we went through the bushes in our safari trucks. We carried spotlights to help look out for lions' eyes in the darkness. We were searching for a couple of hours in the trucks, we unfotunately didnt spot any lions but we went to the elephant's carcass which was covered in maggots and i don't think i have ever smelt anything like it. It was absolutely disgusting, I was desperately trying to stop myself from throwing up! We also came across a live elephant in the bushes that night but it was scared off by us and disappeared out of sight in a matter of seconds. You wouldn't think that a creature of that size could move that fast but I assure you they most certainly can! DAY 2 An early start again today. Had to be all packed up and ready to leave just after six. We crossed the border today from Botswana into Zambia. We had to cross the Zambezi, a huge river which naturally creates a border in between 4 countries. We crossed it by ferry and although myself and Donald were very used to ferries from living on an island, the ones we are used to are far from what this ferry was. It was a small flat bottomed vessel, which could only take one lorry and a couple of cars at a time, we as passengers had to just stand on the ferry's deck as it made it's short journey across to Zambia. It was an extrordinary sight at each of these borders, there was so much hustle and bustle. There were hundreds of people carrying food and water containers and many other different things all waiting to cross. We were getting a lot of stares, probably because we looked so out of place and we also had a couple of cameras following us! After crossing into Zambia and getting our passports stamped, we headed for Livingston where we would be spending the next couple of nights. It was absolutely scorching today, we were all dripping with sweat and there was no way to esacpe from the heat. We arrived at about lunchtime and put up our tents. I must admit that i still hadn't got used to putting up my tent at this point plus I ended up getting one of the dodgy ones which had bent poles! After we were all set up, I went for a cold shower which was great after being out in temperatures nearing 40 degrees. On my return the boys were all watching a monkey which was hanging around the campsite. We followed it into a patch of trees that were beside our tents which was when Donald spotted a baby monkey and decided to go closer to get a better look, BIG MISTAKE! All we heard was a screech from one of the monkeys and a whole bunch appeared from the trees and charged at us! We ran as fast as we could away from them. I ran into my tent and quickly closed the door. My tent was under a tree and as I was inside the monkeys were up in the trees throwing fruit and twigs at my tent! It was very scary! Later that afternoon we went on a sunset cruise of the Zambezi. The large river that created Victoria falls, and the falls were actually just downsteam from where we were camping. We could see the spraof it on the cruise. Tha locals call it Mosi o Tunya which means the smoke that thunders. I really enjoyed the cruise and we met quite a few interesting people on it, some were out doing aid work and it was great to hear about the great work that they were doing but also very sad to hear how much disease and poverty are affecting the people in these countries. Day 3 We went on a helicopter ride over the falls today! It was absolutely fantastic! I had never been in a helicopter before and my what a great first ride it was! The view of the falls and the surrounding area from above was nothing short of amazing. We flew through the huge gorge of the river and it was like something out of an action film! Weaving our way round the bends of the gorge. We also went on a game drive in the nature reserve which wasn't too far away from the campsite. The game drive was great! We saw so many wild animals, we saw giraffes, impala, zebra, wart hogs, buffalo, a huge hippo and we also saw a black rhino up close! It was the only one left in the area and hard to spot apparently. But we were lucky enough to come across the park rangers who protect the animals in the park from pochers. They took us to the rhino and actually let us get out of our truck and walk up to the rhino. We were within touching distance of it and it didnt even flinch. I was very wary of the fact that a rhino was so close to us while myself and Donald were having our photo taken beside it, we actually had our backs to it while the photo was being taken as well. My heart must have been beating at ten times it's normal rate! I couldn't believe how close we were to this animal and how tame it was. It was clear the animal was used to seeing people. When we returned to the campsite, our new found friends were waiting for us.......THE MONKEYS! They were all lined up on the fence waiting as we came out of the truck. I was scared to go near them after the incident of the day before! We went on a united front and all four of us braved our way past them as they watched. It's very funny thinking back on it but at the time it was very scary! DAY 4 It was an early start today. We had to be up and ready at four to go to the elephant park which was close by. There we went on an elephant back ride! It was amazing! We had to climb up a sort of gangway of steps to get onto our elephants, that's how big they are! Myself and Donald went on a rather large elephant who's name was Mashumbi. The elephant ride took about an hour. It didn't feel that long at all though. We travelled through the whole of the elephant park and even crossed a river on the elephants, it was a fantastic experience. Each elephant had a guide on it and two passengers. The elephant's back was so wide that were basically doing the splits on their backs! It didnt bother me at the start but by the end of the ride my legs were pretty sore. After the elephent ride we were given the chance to feed the elephants. We fed them nuts, we had to hold our hands out flat and they sucked the nuts up through their trunks, it was a stange feeling! After visiting the elephants we went to Victoria Falls. As we pulled up to the falls we soon realised why the locals called it the smoke that thunders. The roar of the falls could be heard from far away. At the entrance to the falls there were rain ponchos for hire. We all got one but even those raincoats couldn't prepare us for what was ahead. There was a pathway running all along right across from the falls from which we could see the falls clearly, it was definitely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The force that the water falls at causes a lot of spray which can be seen from miles away. So you can imagine how the spray is going to affect the people viewing the falls! I'm sure you' ve all been out in heavy rain but that was something else! We got absolutely soaked! There's a bridge across from the falls as well and while we were crossing there was a river of water running down the bridge! Not only that, the mist and rain was so bad that we could hardly see where we were going. I couldn't stop laughing as I thought of someone else watching us doing this, we must have looked so stupid! At the exit to the falls there was a string of stalls all selling wooden crafts. They all sold more or less the same things and I have to admit that they were very good at their jobs as they managed to get me to buy quite a few things even though I had no intention of buying anything. After the stalls we set off on the road again to head to our next location, Chobe National Park. We had to cross the border back into Botswana. Today was absolutely roasting, I felt like I was going to melt in that minibus! The heat just left us exhausted all the time. We reached Chobe in time for dinner and the other group that were with us had just returned from a game drive as they had left Livingstone a lot earlier than us. They were all so excited, they had not only seen a lion but also saw it kill....twice!! I couldn't believe it! They even got pictures of it, they were fantastic! I really wanted to see a lion on the trip, if I could only see one animal while on the trip it would definitely be a lion. We were booked on the same game drive for the next morning and we couldn't wait, knowing that a lion was out there! Day 5 We set off on our game drive at 5am. I was so excited! We drove around for a few hours, and saw lots of different animals but no lions unfortunately. Myself and Donald were quite disappointed that we didnt see the lion. We were just on our way out of the park in the truck when the driver stopped suddenly and told us to stay quiet. We saw rustling in the trees and out came a herd of elephants! There were loads of them and they crossed the road right behind our truck, some of them actually stopped right beside me, I was sitting at the back of the truck on their side. My heart was seriously pounding at this point because I knew what these elephants were capable of. We were told a couple of nights ago that an elephant had actually killed someone at a campsite, it picked her up with its trunk, threw her about and then stamped on her repeatedly! I had this thought in my head for most of the time that the elephants were around us, but at the same time I was just so amazed by these animals. We packed up all our stuff as soon as we got back to the campsite ready to set off to our next campsite in Maun. The drive took a few hours. We stopped off in a supermarket in town to stock up for our stay in the wilderness which we'd be on in a night's time. Everything was so cheap! It would beat the likes of Tesco and Asda any day! That night as I was lying in my tent trying to get to sleep i heard a rustling sound in the corner. I quickly switched my torch on and in the beam of light was the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life!!! I screamed and scrambled out of my tent as quickly as i could! Did I mention that i'm scared of spiders? I don't even like the tiny ones we get back home, never mind this thing, so you can imagine how I reacted!! As I fled out of the tent I started frantically dusting myself off just in case it was on me!! The boys ran out of their tents to see what was happening and of course to laugh at me, which they did. Funnily enough they didn't offer to get rid of the spider though, they waited until two women from our group came to the rescue. I reluctantly got back in my tent after the spider had been removed but there was no way on earth I was going to sleep that night after that trauma. DAY 6 A huge military truck pulled up at the campsite early this morning to take us into the delta. We packed everything up and chucked it all into the truck with us. The truck dropped us off at the edge of the delta waterways where we met our guides, who'd be looking after us for the next few days. They were trained bushmen and mokoro polers. Mokoros are a sort of canoe native to the Delta. A boy named K.T. Introduced himself and told me that he' d be my guide and mokoro navigator for the next few days. Each guide packed the mokoros with our stuff and then we all set off, 2 to each mokoro plus the guide. We travelled in the mokoros to an island deep in the Delta, where we'd be staying. The mokoro journey was very relaxing, Ii loved it. When we were all settled with our tents up etc, we set off on a walk exploring the island. It was much larger than I thought it would be. We walked for a few hours but there was so much more of it still to be seen. Later that evening we went on a sunset mokoro cruise. We saw a crocodile (from a distance!) and also a pair of very large hippos. I didn't realise how dangerous they were till our guides told us that a lot more people are killed each year by hippos than they are by lions. Day 7 Today we were up at the crack of dawn for another safari walk. This one was a bit different to yesterday's, we saw a lot more animals and learnt a bit about them. We saw an elephant, a herd of giraffe and also a herd of zebra. The zebras passed right beside us, it was amazing seeing them so close, they are beautiful animals. We learnt that the Zebra are the national animal of Botwsana. The first president of the country who was black, married a white woman and he chose the zebra as a symbol of the uniting of the black and the white people. We also spotted some hyenas in the distance and our guides when asked what type they were, said it was brown hyenas, the harmless ones. But we were told back at the camp that we'd actually seen the dangerous spotted hyenas, the ones that will rip you to pieces! The guides probably just didn't want to alarm us but I didn't like being lied to. Later that afternoon we tried our hand at steering the mokoros. You stand at the end of the canoe and push it along using a long wooden pole. It's a lot harder than it looks, let me tell you! You really need strength in your arms and also good balance. I got the hang of it in the end and managed to stay dry unlike Donald who ended up spending more time in the water than he did in the mokoro! It was hilarious! As tonight was our last night on the island, the guides put on a night of fun round the campfire that night. We played a few games first then they sang for us and we did a bit of african dancing! It was great! We all had a fantastic night! Day 8 We packed up everything and headed back to Maun in the Mokoros this morning. Once again it was a very relaxing journey. Our time in the delta was great, I loved the relaxed atmosphere and it was good to stay in one place for longer than one night and being able to explore the place rather than rush through it. The huge army truck was waiting for as we reached the other side of the Delta, ready to take us back to the dreaded campsite in Maun where I had my close encounter with a spider. I couldn't wait to have a shower after 3 days out in that heat without a wash. So off I went for my shower straight after lunch. And I came out to find the boys waiting for me with the dishes, but had they soaked the pans at all? had they started on the dishes at all? NO! They waited until I was out of the shower so that they could go for showers while I did the dishes! Well there was no way I was putting up with this without saying anything! And I had a fallout with them. After I'd finished washing the extremely dirty dishes on my own, we went on a scenic plane ride over the Okavango Delta that afternoon. It was great seeing where we had been staying for the past few days from the air and we got to see lots of wild animals as well. The only problem with the trip was the plane, it had no air conditioning and it was a very hot day so we were absolutely boiling inside the tiny six seater plane! That evening the staff at the campsite cooked us a great 2 course meal and it was great. We all had a few drinks after dinner and got to know a bit more about each other. We all had a good night and some of us stayed up till the early hours of the morning. I wasn't one of them though, I had got into the routine of going to sleep early. Day 9 We travelled to the South of Botswana to the Khama rhino sanctuary today. Most of the day was spent on the road. When we finally reached the campsite we first noticed the lovely hotel and luxury cabins on site. Myself and Donald thought that we were getting a treat by actualy getting a bed to sleep in for one night since it was our second last night. Silly us! We passed there and of course ended up at another campsite and put up our tents for the last time. We went on a sunset game drive of the sanctuary that evening. Although it was a rhino sanctuary, there was a lot more than just rhinos there. We saw giraffes up close, ostriches, hippos, impala, zebra and warthog. It was great seeing so many rhino in the same place. We had only seen one up till this point. We had a couple of drinks at the hotel after the game drive, then headed back to our campsite to start on dinner. We sat up late tonight yacking away about our experience and the best bits of the trip. It felt good knowing it was the last night of sleeping in a tent and using public showers but at the same time it was sad thinking this was our last night as a group together and that the trip was drawing to an end so quickly. Day 10 We had everything packed up and ready to go early today to leave time for our goodbyes as we all went our seperate ways. It was sad saying goodbye to these people that we'd befriended because we'd probably never see them again. We took lots of group photos that morning before we set off as well. Before we knew it we were on the road to Johannesburg. We had to cross the border from Botswana into South Africa. We saw the huge crickets again but this time they didn't scare me at all funilly enough! We arrived at our travel lodge late that afternoon. It was great to have a bed finally and a proper shower and be able to actually blow dry my hair! We went out for dinner that night in the Nelson Mandela Square. The square is a huge complex that has lots of restaurants, bars, shops and also a cinema. We went to an african restaurant, it was fantastic inside, the interiors were all African, and there were people playing African instruments and also face painters, who painted African symbols onto your face. Myself, Donald and Niall had our faces painted. They did a really good job of it. The food in the restaurant was great too. Day 11 I had a long lie today for the first time in the whole trip. It was great! We explored some of the city today and returned to the Square to do some shopping. We had to kill time till seven that night so we thought we'd go watch a film at the cinema since it was in the building anyway. We spent the rest of the time sitting outside in the centre of the Square sipping some cold drinks and just taking in the atmosphere. We talked about the highlights of the trip and what we thought the best moments were. It was so hard just to pick one though! There were so many things that we all enjoyed about the trip! We left town later that night to head to the airport. I couldn't believe our trip was over already, it had gone past in a flash. Day 12 We were on the plane and our journey was over before we knew it. We were all feeling quite low on the plane home, knowing that we were coming back to the droury winter weather of Scotland after being in the sun and temperatures of over thirty degrees. We said our goodbyes in Glasgow and that was it, trip was over! We had done so much in a short space of time. The trip has left me desperate to go travelling. I have every intention of returning to Africa again in the near future and spending a bit more time in each destination. I'm determined to see wild lions. It was definitely a learning experience in Africa and one I will never forget. It's opened my eyes to some of Africa's key issues and to what real problems are. It's made me appreciate what I have and I'm so glad that I got to experience it. I would go back again tomorrow, given the chance. |
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