Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Flip-flop hungry hyenas and 'The smoke that... (chunders ?)'


A family reunion in Botswana and Zimbabwe

Imagine a series of waterfalls 1.7km long plummeting into a wide chasm with an intense volume of splashback so large it turns the vegetation 108 m above into rainforest and looks like a cloud of smoke kilometers away. Well there is such a place and it's called Victoria Falls, or 'Mosi-oa-Tunya' -- 'The Smoke that Thunders,' and there's a good reason why.

I visited these falls two weekends in a row (once with my Canadian friend from UB and the other with my family) and was wowed the first, stunned the second. Within the period of a just a week the volume of the falls had exponentially increased although high water season was only just starting.

   



When I went with Jen we took a horseback Safari through the national park at the top of the Zambezi surrounded by stunning scenery and followed it through with a more intensive activity the next day -- white water rafting with grade 5 rapids.


I had done the exact same white water rafting in 2010 (Zambia side),during which I swallowed so much Zambezi water and finished the trip extremely cold rendering myself sick enough to need a day trip to the doctor and a good-old-fashioned-drip.
Therefore, during our safety briefing (ie what to do when the boat flips/ you get flung out/ sucked under the water/ dragged along the river/ churned about) my main concern was really the water  quality-- sincerely hoping there were less nasties to make me sick that time.
But my 2nd rafting trip, despite swallowing gallons of water, ended trouble-free. I repeated a similar trip with my family, visitng the falls and doing rafting number 3 (only the boys joined me on this one). Within a week rafting was completely different with the change in water volume, some rapids becoming more dangerous and others actually losing intensity. Apart from being great fun, even for a 3rd time, the rafting seemed to end trouble free..... seemed...

With the members of out families that have 'real' jobs deciding to do a fancy Safari for a few days, my brother and I (the 'pov' ones) decided to continue with a rougher few-days in Zimbabwe down to the Great Zim Ruins. Joining forces with a random Afrikaaner (Cornilus) we befriended, we got the overnight train from V. Falls to Bulawayo, encountering (admittedly an almost-expected) attempted break-in to our compartment in the middle of the night.

The usual encounter. 400km and a good 15 hours later, we arrived in Bulwayo only to take another bus to Masvingo (which also left and arrived on "Africa" time) and yet another minibus from there to the ruins (meant to take an extra 20mins but took 1hr 20 mins...). By the time we got to the ruins it was dark and we settled into a chalet rather than camping as James was feeling sick. In the middle of the night I awoke to the sound of him chundering out his insides (forgive the mental image).The next day we were perplexed; I had eaten everything he did (which was nothing dodgey) and he hadn't been in the country long enough for it to be Malaria -- nor did he have a temperature.


Whilst he rested, I explored the lower ruins with Cornelius and later James gathered the strength to climb to the upper ruins. The ruins were constrctured with fractured rock and no mortar but withstood the test of time quite well, having been constructed in the 11th century. Admittedly I'm not much of a history buff, but they were great fun to explore and looked pretty awesome -- particularly as one of the few standing archeology sites in Africa.

As we travelled back toward Bots, James health fluctuated on and off between severe episodes of chunder and general weakness. After a bus trip where it seriously felt like the bus was going to fall apart, rattling severely at 100kph (James had to take anti-nausea tablets for this..) we hitched to Francistown (Bots) where we lodged for the night. After a light jog and a coffee with Amarula, I felt strangely nauseus and next I knew it was my turn to be sick. Each time I went back to bed that night the nausea would build -- in the end I pushed my doona into the bathroom and between oh-so-elegant stomach-emptying episodes, flopped back on it. Eventually I fell asleep there.

With a family-safari deadline though, we had to keep travelling. For comfort, we hitched to Maun and from there we flew into the heart of the Okavango Delta area/Moremi Game reserve to Chiefs Camp; an exclusive luxury camp. Our visit was largely made possible by having a sister as a Safari consultant...

If I thought my birthday weekend was awesome, Chiefs camp was even better. I'll let some of the photos speak; there was awesome wildlife (ie following a leopard so close -- stalking the stalker!), luxurious rooms, a pool, open bar, DELICIOUS food and lots of it and of course the family reunited. Mother, step-father, sister, sisters bf and friend, brother, brothers gf, other brother, anddd me.

Hyenas frequently patrolled the camp and you could hear their 'whooping' noises at night -- one night they stole Jaardus' (Clare's bf) Crocs flip-flops and ate every piece of it (yes, pure rubber) bar a piece the size of 5cents. They have insanely powerful jaws and digestive systems..

Even after Safari we hadn't had enough of the African bush and spent the next few days chilling in Maun, travelling on the boat and swimming in the delta. Christmas in Maun didn't feel like Christmas at all -a hearty lunch at the sunny Back-to-The-Bridge Backpackers leading into a night of revellery and much, much dancing Batswana style. Incidentally also the first Christmas the family had actually all been together since... a long while.
 

Ah... I'll miss the dancing.

When the day came to leave Botswana at last, it was almost surreal. I had popped in and out of the country so often, it didn't really feel like I was leaving at all. But there it was, my time in Botswana at the end and yet more goodbyes to be shared -- the worst part about travelling.

Next stop: Cape Town.

     

No comments:

Post a Comment