For spring break I went on the 2-way travel Botswana/Vic Falls camping trip. It was the most fun and legit experience I’ve ever had. It was a ten-day trip that entailed a lot of travelling, getting dirty, camping, and laughing with friends. I loved it :)
September 3: On the first day we flew from Cape Town to Joburg. I was in the Lions group - led by George. We were a very international group, made up of Germans, Norwegians, Canadians, a Mexican, a South African, and Americans. From the Joburg airport we were introduced to our truck, Peter Tosh. We were warned by the driver Bevin not to call it a bus or van - but that it was a truck because it was not high-class luxury. It was made for bumpy roads and off-roading. Peter Tosh was definitely by no means a luxurious ride - we drove a lot of days on super bumpy roads, and my head got smashed into the window multiple times due to my trying to sleep as we drove over potholes. On the drive out of Joburg I saw my first safari animal, a dirty zebra standing all by his lonesome. After driving for about 6 hours we made it to the South Africa/Botswana border. But due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. one of the German’s passport was not working) it took us about 3 hours to get across the border. We ended up reaching our first campsite, Camp Itumela late in the nighttime.
September 4: Day two also constituted a lot of driving. We drove for the day and arrived at the campsite in the early afternoon. We hung out by the pool and later ate dinner. George busted out some songs on his guitar, and we sang Wonderwall. It was a fun day.
September 5: Day three we drove from our campsite and arrived in the Okavango Delta. From the town we loaded into a safari truck that took us to the actual Okavango swamp. From there we all loaded our stuff and ourselves into mikaro boats. The mikaro boats are carved out of wood, and are the primary means of delta transportation. Lorenza and I got by far the sketchiest mikaro, but the driver, Rasta, was really nice and didn’t tip us over. Our boat was made of wood and the bottom covered with straw. There were so many spiders in the boat and on me due to hours of travelling through the reeds. Needless to say, I got very accustomed to having large spiders crawling on me, and am no longer afraid of spiders. After an hour we arrived at the island where we were to camp for the next three days. We set up our tents, along with the local mikaro drivers who were to spend the next three days with us. After setting up the tents we took the mikaro’s out and went swimming in a clearing close to our campsite. I paddled a mikaro…it is a lot harder than it looks.
September 6/7: Day four and five blended together. We spend these days in the Okavango delta at our campsite. We went on multiple “game walks” where we saw absolutely no living animals. We saw lots of animal prints and bones, but because the water levels were so high, there weren’t as many animals on our islands. It was rather disappointing, but beautiful nonetheless. We rode in mikaro’s so much I got tired of it. These three days I was dirtier than I have ever been. We didn’t shower or bathe. It was intense, but really fun.
Memorable Delta experiences:
- getting mobbed by huge Delta spiders. Spiders on my face, in my hair, on my body. So gross.
- paddling around the Delta in mikaros
- swimming in murky Delta water, trying to wash my clothes in the water. They came out dirtier than when they went in.
- Hanging with people in my group, and making new friends
- trying to nap in the intense heat….not very successful
- looking at the starlight while watching fireflies and listening to a symphony composed by crickets and delta frogs.
- Curtis and George playing the guitar as we rode along in the mikaros
- laying in the mikaro as it glided along the delta water
- long truck trips - bad for sleeping/reading - but good for conversations
On day five we left the Delta and travelled to our halfway point - Planet Baobab. Planet Baobab was the nicest campsite I have ever been to. It was really fancy, with a gorgeous pool, and a snazzy camp bar. We had a lot of fun that night. I also took a shower on this day. It was the best shower I have ever taken; I have never felt so clean! The Baobab trees at the campsite were really cool. Baobabs have mystical associations in African society due to their unusual appearance. They can live thousands of years and grow to be huge.
September 8: On the sixth day we arrived in Chobe. At Chobe we saw all of the safari animals (besides the lions) that we had missed out on in the Delta. We went on a Namibia/Botswana game cruise late in the evening. It was a lot of fun and we saw elephants, zebras, crocodiles, buffalo, hippos, and baboons. I laughed a lot, our group was so much fun :)
September 9: On the seventh day we woke up early for an overland safari game drive in the morning. I saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, warthogs, baboons, buffalo, crocs, sable antelope, impala, roah antelope, hippos, waterbuck, and buffalos. Again we did not see any lions, but we did see tracks that they had left on the road. After the game drive we loaded Peter Tosh again and drove to Zambia. We crossed the Botswana/Zambia border via ferry. This entailed taking a barge across No Man’s Land. Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia all meet at the corner where the river flows, thus I can claim to being in four countries at once. Pretty cool. After crossing across No Man’s Land we drove to the Livingstone campsite in Vic Falls where we were to spend the remainder of our trip. The campsite was also really nice, with a great pool and bar. There were tons of monkeys at this campsite in the trees. In the evening we went to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I can see why it was one of the Seven Wonders. After walking around Vic Falls we went to the market where I bartered my way into getting a bracelet. I purchased it for 20R, which was a good deal. He wanted to trade me for other things though, and even asked for my hair. I told him that I would not trade my hair for a bracelet.
September 10: The eighth day was the most legit day of the trip. We went for a full day of river rafting down the Zambezi river. The Zambezi is the border line between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Our guide, Malvin, was pro status and explained to us about the river and the culture surrounding it. There were 25 rapids in total ranging from class three to class five. The class five rapids were so gnarly! We paddled into them, and the Malvin at the last second would yell down. At that point we would throw ourselves to the side of the raft, and cling onto the side rope with all of our might, to avoid being thrown out of the boat. The rapids were larger than me, and it was so freaking fun! I fell out of the raft on the first rapid, but after that I managed to stay in. Our raft didn’t tip over, because we were such superb rafters, but all of the other rafts did. The river was gorgeous as it wound through a large canyon. There were crocodiles that could be seen hanging out on the edge of the river. Malvin said that they ate fish, but nonetheless it was crazy to think that I could have been swimming with crocodiles. We jumped out of our raft a lot since it was so hot. One time we got out and jumped off a 20 ft rock - very fun! We wore life jackets and helmets while rafting. The life jackets were tighter than a corset to allow for us to be heaved into the raft via the jacket…not very comfortable. There was a lot of horsing around and pushing people off of rafts. It was by far the most fun experience of my trip, and I’m so glad I decided to do it!
September 11: On day nine I hung out at the pool in the morning with two other girls. We ordered cooked crocodile tail. It tasted like tough chicken fish. After the pool we went across the border to Zimbabwe to visit the markets. I bartered my way into a few touristy things. It was very hot and we had to rush back to the campsite for our dinner cruise. We were late so seven of us girls piled into a taxi to take us across No Man’s Land to reach the Zambia border. It was quite a feat piling all of us into the taxi. Zimbabwe was crazy because I used four different currencies in one day, haha. Needless to say, I was doing a lot of conversions in my head between the currencies. After coming back from the markets we went on our dinner cruise/booze cruise. It was super fun to cruise along the Zambezi river with friends that I had gotten to know so well over the past week. After the cruise we had a dance party and hung out at the bar until late in the night.
September 12: On the tenth day we travelled back to Cape Town. We drove to the international airport where we flew from Zambia to Joburg and then home. It was sad to have reached the end, but I was looking forward to showering and doing some laundry. This trip was by far the coolest thing that I have done yet in Africa and I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity to explore and meet some really rad people!
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