Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
Harriet Tubman
When the chance arose to go with part of the group for an overnight to Chobe National Park in Botswana, I decided to join the group (ever the one for yet another stamp in my passport). We were given Friday afternoon off, so we could head out early and get to the campsite before dark. Sleeping bags, tents, overnight bags and coolers of food were load onto the roof of one of the African Impact’s M’zungu buses.
With lunch devoured, we hopped back in and hit the road again, taking another hour to reach the border. I have heard and read many tales of the border hang ups for truckers, with these waits being what is thought to be one of the leading contributors to the HIV virus spreading so far so fast. I had read that truckers can spend weeks to months sitting at border crossing; but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to actually witness what this would look like! We traveled past miles and miles of semis parked along the side of the highway and I was truly gob-smacked, as they say in the UK.
The Kazungula Ferry is a pontoon ferry across the 400-metre-wide Zambezi River between Botswana and Zambia. It is one of the largest ferries ( hard o fathom, when we travel on such large ferries from here to the mainland) in south-central Africa, having a capacity of 70 tonnes. The service is provided by two motorized pontoons and operates between border posts at Kazungula, Zambia and Kazungula, Botswana. It links the Livingstone-Sesheke road (which connects to the Trans–Caprivi Highway at Katima Mulilo and forms part of the Walvis Bay Corridor) to the main north-south highway of Botswana through to South Africa, and also to the Kasane-Victoria Falls road through Zimbabwe. It serves the international road traffic of three countries directly (Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana) and of three more indirectly (Namibia, South Africa and DR Congo [this being the reason for so many trucks waiting]).
These little ferry boats could take one or 2 large semi’s or 1 semi and 2 small vans, plus numerous walk ons.
You would go through the customs office on this side of the river and get your stamp then get in line with the small vehicles and wait for the next boat. There was a large gate where the vehicles went through and people seemed to wander back and forth freely, which made me wonder how many actually went in to the custom office. The little ferry was something that reminded me of a trip when I was a child and Dad and Mom took us over to Denman and Hornby Islands. Dad had to drive the car up onto the boat over two planks laid down as a ramp. Mom wouldn’t’t ride in the car as Dad maneuvered the car onto the boat, so we kids decided to stay with Mom as it certainly looked a lot safer. The ferry we headed on to actually had a loading ramp, but it was raised and lowered by huge thick cables, that ran along the side of the boat, as you stood close by and children ran around near them as they pulled and chugged pulling the ramp up and down; me thinking, “oh lord, if one of these things should break, we’re all going to be decapitated!” In 2003 the ferry was the site of a disaster when a severely overloaded Zambian truck capsized one of the pontoons and 18 people drowned. Luckily for us, it was an uneventful ride, aside from worrying about sinking in croc infested waters or cables breaking, it was quite pleasant; looking out over the river and watching the Botswana border edge closer; even though through half the crossing it seemed we were heading further down river, going with the flow, before the little boat was able to break free of the current.
Botswana side of the landing
After walking off on the Botswana side we loaded ourselves back into the van and drove for about a kilometer before arriving at the Botswana customs building.
Receiving our passport stamps we then had to walk through a pan of disinfectant, while the van drove through a larger puddle of the stuff, as there seemed to be a fear of hoof and mouth/mad cow, I’m not sure what, being brought across with travelers.
We spotted the occasional giraffe, warthog and elephant along the way, and arrived with plenty of daylight left. We pulled into our campsite, unloaded the van, and then Yuyi and Sharon headed out for the nearest town to pick up provisions for our dinner that evening. Left to our own devices, we wandered around a bit, checking things out, when we heard the distinctive honking of a Hippo in the distance. Of course we all headed towards the river to see if we could spot the creature, not knowing at that time, how far the sound of a hippo call could carry. We didn’t’t spot it, but a near by camper told us he had seen one earlier and it had come up to graze near his campsite!
We headed back and discovered the communal washrooms/showers that we would be using (did I really want to get up and use that in the middle of the night, if Hippo’s roamed? I think not…a nearby bush would suffice, thank you very much).
Yuyi and Sharon arrived back and immediately set to getting the brai set up, while we set up our tents.
Rachel (a wonderful young woman from the UK, much traveled, and who was such a hoot, she would see some sight and then give over to the voice of David Attenborough, it was so funny!), Inge and I were to share one tent, the 4 boys had 2 and Sharon had a single, while poor Yuyi was relegated to sleep in the van (probably the most comfortable, now I think about it).
We then had a relaxing time, while our dinner was being cooked for; what service!
While on our earlier wanderings I, of course, spotted a kitty, oh happy day! Later while we sat around the camp fire eating, 2 more showed up, I was a happy camper. Christensen, the volunteer from Iceland, had quite the sense of humor (I grew to really like his company while at AI Livingstone) started calling the first of the cats Mr. Snuggles, so I asked him to name the other 2 which he decided to call Mr. Tinky and Mr. Happy Pants.
Mr. Happy Pants
After dinner we got a good bonfire going, roasted marshmallows, and warmed our toes;
then it was off to the sleeping bags, as we had an early morning start to our safari drive around the park.
This is a short little video, with the start being pretty funny (at least to me). The kids were sent off to find a picnic table for us and somehow as they were coming back with and I filming, I managed to set the video speed at 10X's. Looks like a Laurel and Hardy bit.
-Jawaharial Nehru
Just a couple of pictures of the beautiful birds and weird trees
This little video is just the wonderful sounds we woke up to in the morning.
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