MOZAMBIQUE
Suza - the wife beater?
We crossed into Mozambique in the evening and made our way towards Maputo, the capital city, which isn't far away. We stopped for some dinner in a small town called Boane and got chatting to the other people on our table. They were friendly and a trustworthy guy called Suza invited us to stay at his house. He seemed to think it was really cool to meet people from another country! He progressively became drunk but he and his 2 female friends were friendly. Suza's English was poor but his friend Florence (?), a policewoman, was almost fluent as she learned English to communicate with Doctors when in hospital in South Africa. We went back to Suza's place, which was quite a modern one-storey house with large garden, garage and driveway but no car and large fence surrounding the property. They clearly did all right for themselves. Unfortunately, Suza's Portuguese-speaking wife was less than friendly when we arrived but I don't know if that was personal or not. Suza did call her well in advance to say we were coming to stay. Suza and his wife had a blazing row with Rachel and myself stuck not knowing what to do. I did see Suza from a distance raise his hand as if to strike his wife and she put her hands over her head as if to soften the blow. Thankfully, he didn't hit. Not then anyway! We had a lovely big bed (which we then figured out was the children's bed!), own TV etc. Luxury for Mozambique!

The following morning, all seemed happier with Suza's wife (I should give her a pseudonym shouldn't I?) managing a smile for me and she spent an hour making us breakfast. We played with the very sweet children in the garden (aged 3 and 4). After a couple of hours or so, the blazing row started all over again with only Suza's wife raising her voice this time. But not just shouting; rather screaming and balling at the top of her voice. Suza was just quietly talking back. He did seem like a gentleman really to us but with her, I'm not convinced he always is. The children appeared largely unaffected by this, although the girl did run in at one point, then came running out smiling. After things went quiet, Rachel and I said we had to go, even if it did end uncomfortably. Suza was apologetic for the argument! Domestic violence is unfortunately rife in many parts of Africa. I don't think I've ever heard a woman shout at a man like this though...perhaps Suza's wife is the start of the African liberation movement? I hope she has some better tactics though!

Maputo - Africa's most Latin city?
Before long, we were in Maputo (once known as the city of "Prawns and Prostitutes") and stayed at a busy backpackers place. We talk a long walk through Maputo, attracting a lot of street vendors as we went. It didn't help that I actually did want some of the things that were on offer because then everyone assumes that you will then want to buy their stuff. As long as you make sure they know that you're the boss, they tend to behave and go in order (almost queueing up to sell you things). I stocked up on a few DVDs (all original of course), a Mozambican music CD to go with my collection (Thoby and I attempted to get one CD from each country but failed) and a model bicycle. I saw an awesome bike in Mali made from cut up Coke cans, sardine tins and so on, making it colourful and just very cool. This one was 2nd best. For me, that was big spending!

We continued our walk round by the seafront, which was a bit scabby. Around the city, most buildings are tall and concrete is dominant. The buildings looked very Communist - how I imagine buildings in East Germany, Russia or Eastern Europe. Incidentally, almost every street in Maputo seemed to be named after a Communist leader from around the world or have a Communist reference. This is a reflection of Mozambique's socialist past and no reflection on the current administration. In South Africa, many street names are still named after apartheid politicians. The Communist architecture somehow "does something for me". It gets me going ;-)

Quite a few people spoke English, which obviously reflects the fact that Mozambique is surrounded by English-speaking countries and hence the usefulness of learning English and in central Maputo, people are of a higher average education than in the rest of the country. I got chatting to a few people in Maputo, which was good. My presence (as a light-skinned person) didn't turn heads in Maputo as it does in many other places. OK, there are quite a few white people in some parts of the city but I found Mozambicans to be hard to surprise. They are also generally quite modest but once you start talking to them, they open up and are fun to be with. I make friends with two different guys about my age who wanted to improve their English. Many people learn English without any books and often without any formal education but "on the street". I find that impressive and it requires a lot of motivation and persistence but then circumstances in Africa so often provide the perfect motivation to learn! I bought the two guys concerned, Afonso and Fernando, a dictionary each to help them along their way :-)

More exploring led to us finding the main train station in Maputo, designed by Mr Eiffel and built under Portuguese rule. It is beautiful and the Mozambicans know it - they keep it well and use it still. I walked across the tracks and on a train standing at a platform, ready for the afternoon. Like Communist buildings, there is something quirky about African train stations that sparks something inside ;-) We visited the Museum of the Revolution, which detailed the fight against Portuguese rule in the 1970s (independence won in 1975 after the Portuguese Fascist government collapsed). The museum was in Portuguese but it was images told the story very well anyway. The independent countries (except South Africa and Zimbabwe still fighting for freedom and independence) bordering Mozambique harboured freedom fighters. Women were a key part of the fight. Samora Machel, the first President of Mozambique was thought to have be assassinated by the South African apartheid government as he was opposed to them, allowing ANC freedom fighters to group in Mozambique etc. Another interesting museum in Maputo is Nucleo de Arte, which is really a social project for former fighters in the civil war to use their guns and other weapons to make art. At the same time, they learn the artisitic skills to produce their own work to sell.

Corruption
Walking around town one time, we were called over my 2 policemen who no doubt spotted our lighter skins among a crowd of black people. I knew what they wanted. They talked to me, not to Rachel (prejudice no. 2), asked to see my papers, asked if the woman next to me was my sister or wife and then pushed us for US dollars. This is supposedly common in Maputo, although the 2 policemen we got were far from any good at getting money out of us (I've had experience of others!). The sad thing is, they didn't even look at my valid visa. They believed my expired visa from my previous visit was still valid. Waste of space!

Love of concrete + my cheap skate habits
I spent half an hour or so in Maputo's 2nd tallest building, a huge derelict towerblock that used to be a hotel. A photographer recommended it to me for some good pictures. We went there - it was just a concrete shell with a lot of dodgy staircases without sides and former corridors with sheer drops by the side of them. Unfortunately, the promised graffiti was not really there - only a few interesting things and not that exciting. Rachel was right to comment on my random sense of fun. We got our car washed for next to nothing down the road where the South Africans like to go in the Costa do Sol, saving us South African charges the next day before we were due to hand the car back. Yes, I am tight. Or maybe you can just say I like supporting the economy of the poor ;-) I remember Andreas's saying: "support the ladies' don't make the fat cats richer!". I also got things sewn and shoes repaired in the local market ;-) And my hair cut again for 75p to save the £8 charge back home in the UK!

Mozambique overview
We did visit some other places in Mozambique but didn't venture far. Namely, we went through the Maputo suburbs such as Benfica (very busy, typically "African", crowded roads, white minibuses driving recklessly etc) and to Marracuene, an old Portuguese village on estuary of the Limpopo river. Unfortunatley, this didn't provide so much of an overview of Mozambique but time is perhaps life's biggest enemy. I am told that places further north, namely Inhambane and Mozambique Island are very much worth a visit. For me, Maputo is probably in my top 5 cities in Africa. The Latin feel (including the music); lovely yet modest people and old Communist architecture are wonderful for me.

Mozambique - a success story
Mozambique, ended its civil war in 1992 and ever since, has had a fast growing economy and is considered to have good governance. It had a major set back with the serious floods of 2000 and 2001, flooding a quarter of the country and destroying major insfrastructure. Do you remember the woman giving birth in a tree live on TV? The helicopter could not get to her. She is still a national celebrity in Mozambique. The country is back on its feet again and is one of the countries that the West likes to focus on to show how poverty can be fought successfully. Gordon Brown (Chancellor/Finance Minister of the UK) who wants to the next UK Prime Minister, went to Mozambique in April to announce a huge boost in the UK's aid package to Mozambique, specifically to improve the education of the country. He chose Mozambique because of its successes and wants to show off his "human" credentials and show he supports a social, caring agenda.

One thing I remember about Mozambique: it was the only African country to donate money to the world financial response to the tsunami tragedy of 26 December 2004. It donated £250,000, which isn't a lot but perhaps appropriate for what it can afford. This was apparently in solidarity with what the world did for Mozambique when they needed help in 2000 and 2001. Sweet, don't you think?

Next drove back to South Africa.

Next day, we drove to Swaziland via some commercially forested areas. Crossing the border, the police took the chassis number of the car to check that it matched the registration plates, wasn't reported stolen and so on. Obviously, with crime being rife in South Africa, it's attractive for people to take stolen cars across the border. First stop in Swaliland was the small town of Nhlangano, which is surprisingly modern. Further reading told me that Swaziland is a middle income country (like South Africa, Morocco, Botswana, Namibia) and so poverty is not quite so rife. HIV though is perhaps more common in Swaziland than anywhere else in the world with one newspaper reporting in 2005 that 43% of Swazis are HIV+. In South Africa it's more like 19% and a huge economic problem as well as social problem. We stopped by the side of the road and walked up the hill to a village. Rachel and I went to the primary school and asked to look inside. In other parts of Africa, teachers are incredibly enthused to see Westerners visiting their needy school but hear, the teacher we saw was suspicious. She relunctantly allowed us in and seemed a little bitter. There were lots of text books scattered around the room, which was a good sign although I was surprised to learn that Swazis do not receive free primary education unless they are orphans. Poorer countries in Africa do manage to provide free primary education as, let's be honest, it's a priority!

We drove towards the heart of Swaziland via a road where we gave lots of lifts to hitchers and settled at a backpackers in the "royal Ezulwini valley". We visited the National Museum not far away and the nearby King Sobhuza II memorial. Both provided us with info on Swazi history and culture. The nearby stadium was hosting a school dance contest, which we went to take a quick look at. On the grassy car park, we chatted to a drunk taxi driver. He was being paid 18 pounds for the full day's hire and he was persuading me to have a beer (the young lads he was chauffering were drunk and on the look out for school girls for a bit of jiggy jiggy). I read in the newspapers that the Swazi Minister of Economy or Tourism or something like that was complaining that the police were fining too many motorists for drink-driving as not allowing people to drink and drive was reducing leisure revenue as fewer people want to go out for some fun if they can't drink and then drive home. Hmmm...have they heard of DES? (British will hopefully understand that).

We spent the afternoon in Mbabane, the capital city. It might as well have been in South Africa as it was modern, quite built up and there were clearly plenty of people with spare cash! We stayed the night in a friendly backpackers in Mlilwane wildlife sanctuary, saw a "traditional" dance and then drove around the sanctuary the following morning. It was pretty and has lots of antelopes, zebras, hippos etc. It allows for nice walks but we had no time for that! We spent lunchtime in Manzini (the largest city), which was bustling and much more African than Mbabane. In the afternoon, we went to the annual reed dance ceremony at the King's Palace. It is one of the two major cultural events in Swaziland each year and involved hundreds of colourfully-dressed women with tall reeds. Zulu women also attend and a few female tourists joined in! We were within 20 metres of the King of Swaziland and security was comically relaxed. One could run walk in front of or behind the King when he was seated and shoot him no problem. Clearly, Swaziland hasn't annoyed any country or radicals of any religious group lately so they need not worry! The King, mind you, has about 13 wives (his father had over 70 when he died) and a large number of cars including a $500,000 Daimler Chrysler Maybach 62. He did want to buy himself a jet for $45 million but that was shelved. Each of his wives gets a new palace built. So it's no wonder he gets criticised in the Western media when 4 in 10 people have HIV and many people are starving! This kind of press causes bad press on Africa as a whole as so many people think "oh yes, that must be happening every in Africa so what's the point of donating money to the poor?" I'm afraid it isn' t happening everywhere in Africa! The distribution of money in Swaziland was very odd even when the royals are discounted.

Then drove into Mozambique.

Arriving in Lesotho, the poverty was immediately striking. OK, not as bad as other parts of Africa but it seemed so African straight away. I think I was saying something nostalgic such as "oh Rachel, we're in Africa again". Houses were mostly concrete built but then it can get very cold in Lesotho as it has the highest low point on Earth of any country. Its lowest point is 1300m, i.e. higher than almost all of the UK. Ben Nevis is only 1395m or thereabouts. We stopped in the first town we came to, Mafeteng. Suddenly, there wasn't so much to buy for dinner, even in the Chinese-owned food shop we went in to. We walked around the housing areas, just as I would anywhere else in Africa and met people. This time, it was the children who entertained us. They were keen for their photo to be taken and had fun with seeing their picture on the digital camera.

We slowly made our way to Malealea, a place we knew of a well-run lodge that runs activities. On the way, we stopped to take a picture and suddenly lots of children came from nowhere, hence their nickname "pop-ups". This is not so unsual as "we were in Africa again" ;-) But Rachel was not used to this and their passionate pleas for sweets and money didn't bounce off her not-so-hardened skin and she found it hard to say no. For the first time, it is. Most tourists do give something or course ( e.g. a pen) but giving nothing but a smile is the most appropriate, which I will come to in my summary email. Whereas the people asking for money or whatever would normally be left way below me outside the truck, this time, the very sweet children had their noses pinned up on all of the windows around the car, which somehow made leaving them a little harder.

On the way to Malealea, we picked up our first hitchhiker - an elderly man who hardly knew where he was I'd say and didn't really speak English but his grandson (probably) told me where he wanted to go. We dropped him further down the road and then went off the tarred road towards Malealea Lodge. Here, as in most rural areas and some urban areas, most Basotho (meaning the people of Lesotho) were dressed in the traditional Basotho blanket, which looks like a rug wrapped around people. Ponies and horses are still commonly used, which is fairly unique in Africa. I have seen very few horses in Africa. Oxen pulling carts and sheep were also common. A lot of animals here for an African country! Driving towards the Lodge, we came to a peak, where there was a gap in the rock. The view was absolutely spectacular, hence it hance been dubbed "The Gates of Paradise". It's no surprise to me that I could find a picture on the web of this, which is pretty good considering most photos of views don't come out very well. Look at the top of this page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/novosad/page2/ It unfortunately shows you the view through the gates and cuts out the rocks that look like gates!

I was pleased to stay at Malealea Lodge for 2 nights in our own little hut (that amused Rachel). The Lodge is very much community-orientated with a local choir and a local band singing and playing music every night. They receive money from tips and sell their music. Children are asked to give tours of the village; older locals act as guides for pony trekking, walking tours etc. The workers at the Lodge have set up Malealea Development Trust. Over the years they have done some fabulous projects in the area.

[Aside for the few people who I think are interested in the area of child sponsorship...
The Lodge's website is comprehensive on what they offer a visitor and what they do for the area. The following is a link to interesting thoughts on child sponsorship, e.g. why you should check out the organisation (if applicable) via which you sponsor a child etc., what goes wrong sometimes with child sponsorship etc. The Lodge comments on problems they had with their own sponsorship scheme and how they operate it now. The interesting newspaper cartoon may be headed "why not to sponsor a child" but in the context of their website, it is highlighting the pitfalls. http://www.malealea.co.ls/development_scholarship.htm]

First morning there, Rachel went up to the nearest public phone at the Gates of Paradise pass, 5km away, to make a phone call to work for her seat choices (she's a trainee solicitor). The chickens in the metal shack and the calf running around outside amused her. Far cry from the people she was calling! We then went on a walk using Joseph, a school leaver we met the previous night, as our guide. We hiked down a pretty gorge, dodging the river running through it (normally dry at this time of the year). We stopped for lunch (beetroot chutney sandwiches...lol) at some cascades. Unfortunately, Rachel slipped into a deep rock pool as her short legs proved to be a disadvantage. She was not amused! Just as she started to dry off, a ladder which used to provide walkers with a dry route over the river had gone, which was unknown to Joseph. So we had to throw our shoes over to dry land and then slide off a rock into the river, which is shallow away from the rock pools. Hiking our of the gorge was almost a rock climb.

Leaving Malealea the following day, we were stopped by two policemen. They asked if they could have a lift to the main road. How can I refused? It's important to avoid them suddenly finding a fault with the car or something! We drove to Maseru, the capital city. Finding a place with unleaded petrol was not an easy task. LRP and diesel is what people in Lesotho are still mainly using...this tells you something about the vehicles in Lesotho! We walked around the centre a little, which was quite modern but modest and small. We drove along the South Africa - Lesotho border, passing through some attractive mountainous areas with alpine-like trees and cute villages. Then crossed back into South Africa.

NAMIBIA
Windhoek
First stop in Namibia: Windhoek, the capital city. Only stayed there a short time over Sunday lunchtime, nevertheless, I got a good impression of the place. It was something of a shock for us. It's modern, clean and developed. Yes, we have seen a progression of this since East Africa but this is the most modern yet. It has the first real KFC since Morocco (not so exciting), there are many white people living there (from the recent days of South African rule and from German colonialism long ago). There are a few old German colonial buildings and the city has a European feel. A large industrial estate in the suburbs was something new to us too!

Next brief stop was Okahandja, a town north of Windhoek (was an extended stop for diesel really) but what was interesting there was the congregation of women from one of Namibia's tribes, the Herero tribe. The German colonialists once tried to kill all Herero people - another genocide! Herero ladies, congregating, were dressed in traditional clothing with their colourful dresses (like a ball dress or something) and their strange hats ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4623516.stm scroll down for a picture - recommended viewing!)

Etosha National Park
Etosha National Park was our destination for 3 days, a large national park in Northern Namibia dominated by the Etosha Pan, a large area of grassland and salt pan where little can grow. We did several game drives and stayed in the rest camps in the park. It is undoubtedly one of Africa's best game parks and definitely one of the best value for money but driving around for hours on end staring out of a window and taking 20 photos of an elephant standing doing nothing just doesn't do much for me I'm afraid. The 1st time it was great but 2nd less good, 28th time a little dull. Sound spoilt now, I know but honesty is a virtue. Seeing animals in research or rescue centres or doing more than eating is really interesting. Walking with the lions for hours on end in Zimbabwe, for example, is something I much prefer to staring at lazy lions lying in the sun in a game park. My opinion is not particularly shared by others...some people never lost enthusiasm for game drives and were less enthusiastic about animals in a research centre for example that get wheeled out for show when tourists turn up!
On the viewing front, there is little to report other than managing to get past an irate elephant on one road that a load of cars had been attempting to pass for an hour! One afternoon, I decided to not go on a game drive and instead watch the world cup in the house of one of the rest camp workers. Unfortunately, people who did go saw the very elusive leopard rolling all over the road, which is very rare as they are shy. Not too mortified though...I'm sure there are leopards in London Zoo ;-)

Cheetah Park
Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park, I was more excited about. We saw 3 tame pet cheetahs before going on the cheetah feeding drive where huge chunks of donkey are thrown to each cheetah, one by one. The family used to be farmers from 1931 up until 1994. They became dismayed that farmers would kill cheetahs when they threatened livestock and nothing was being done to protect them so they converted their farm into a cheetah park and now promote cheetah conservation. There are just 7500 cheetahs left in the world of which 2500 are in Namibia. The Namibian government prohibits breeding and disallows exporting cheetahs despite some countries begging for cheetahs to be reintroduced to some of their national parks! Cheetahs are treated as pests under Namibian law and by Namibian farmers. The project is failing to promote wild cheetah population, which begs the question why they are still running the project. Apparently, they want to keep the captive cheetahs (albeit in a growing large fenced area) in case cheetahs ever do get wiped out in Namibia, which is possible given noone cares for them. For the keen: http://www.cheetahpark.com/
It was at Cheetah Park that the meat eaters ate kudu (a large antelope that can jump 4m into the air) for the first time - people rave about this meat. It is very tender and red and apparently has a distinctive taste.

More malaria
Next morning, we stopped in the tiny town of Kamanjab where Nick went to see the Dr about malaria. Yes...he had it. This is his 2nd time, making him case no. 3 of round 2 and case no. 18 overall I believe! I also think this is the end of my "malaria counter" as noone has had malaria since then as far as I know and almost everyone is home now.

While Nick was with the Doctor, we met some more Trans Africa people. There are quite a few couples or groups of people travelling across Africa depending on your viewpoint, normally with their own vehicle. We have met a handful. The ones we met have the following websites:
http://www.bigyellowmog.co.uk/ and another site I can't find. They had some interesting stories to tell us about their experiences, such as one Ghanaian-British traveller with them who used her Ghanaian passport to travel through Africa. She didn't have entry or exit stamps for Ghana for obvious reasons. The Angolan authorities thought that she had been up to no good because she had been with her friends for the whole time who did have Ghanaian entry and exit stamps. All of them were nearly denied entry to Angola for this.

Desert and rock carvings
From here, we went into desert territory once again, although this Northern part of the Namib desert has a lot of rock formations, which gave us some great scenery :-) There were a lot of huge hills that consisted of piles of huge boulders. They are natural but I can't explain how they would form. Through the desert were dirt roads that were very smooth, even in the rockiest of areas. We visited Twyfelfontein, which means "doubtful spring" dubbed this by a German settler who believed the 1 cubic metre of water each day originating at the spring was not enough to support life. How wrong he was! The area has thousands of 6-thousand year-old rock carvings. They helped the San bushmen of the time to get into a trance, develop their hunting techniques and to pass time.
It will interest some that the visitors' centre at Twyfelfontein is environmentally friendly, built from local stone, bones, waste oil drums. It's powered by solar energy and liquid petroleum gas. Interestingly, it cost just £120 per square metre as opposed to £400 per square metre for a standard building of that type.

Seals
From here, we headed through the desert towards the coast where the landscape changed to almost no vegetation at all on the flat open land of very poor soils. The temperature change there was sudden - dramatic change from hot to cold as we crossed the meeting point of the desert winds and prevailing cold ocean current. The soils become very salty as well as we drove in the far south of the famous Skeleton Coast towards the Cape Cross seal colony. The seals there are actually eared seals, which makes them sea lions. The several thousand of them on the beaches here live here because the Beguela current brings them much fish and seafood from the south. In fact, the seals eat 1.3 million tonnes of fish per year, which is 300,000 tonnes more than the Namibian and South African fishing industries put together. Government has tried to cull seals to favour the fishing industry but that just provides less competition for whales and other marine life who then grow in numbers, hence Japan's, Norway's and Iceland's strange reasons to continue whaling again and them paying poor African nations to support them in international negotiations! There is some market for seal products. Seal genitals are sold in Asia as aphrodisiacs; meat is sold to Taiwan and the skin is sold in Europe. The rest of the seal can be made into a proteinaceous sludge for cattle feed!
It was really cool to see the seals lollopping (lying) around, being noisy and very smelly. A lot of cubs were feeding off their mother's milk and the females were very aggressive towards other females to protect their cubs. One seal had a fising net stuck around her.

Swakopmund - SKYDIVING, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears
I hope not too much promised by that title! This is a section everyone can find interesting. Let me justify the title first. Swakopmund, a coastal city, is where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt chose to have their first baby. He or she (I forget) was born about a week or two before we were there so you may have seen Swakopmund in Hello magazine or something. Rumours are that Britney wants to go there too but she denies it. Maybe she wants to set her own trend?

After a wet night (the wind was coming from the sea overnight and brought moist fog, which soaked all of us who slept outside that night, including me), we arrived in Swakopmund on a cold, grey morning. First impressions were that it is a cold-feeling, tacky, artificial town trying to make itself like Las Vegas but failing. It quickly grew on me though and I realised it wasn't as I first found. There is actually a lot of old pretty German buildings, making it one of few places on the trip with cool architecture.

Swakopmund was also the first place where we stayed in a youth hostel. The camp site is far out of town and is known for crime apparently. The city was perhaps the first town where the majority of people were white. May seem shallow to even notice this but I write this to show the heritage of the place. There is a lot of German and Afrikaans around and I would often be spoken to in one of the two until I said "sorry?". It was also a place with a lot of Western shops. It was really a South African city. It was the first place with the South African chain store Mr Price...more than half of the truck bought new clothes to replace their clothes of the trip that progressed to the orphan bag! There is clearly a lot of spare income in the city with lots of shops, restaurants, cafes etc., many of which really are not aimed at tourists. It was a comfortable place to spend 4 days.

It was also the place for adrenaline activities. It's Namibia's answer to Victoria Falls!
1st thing for me: sandboarding. This involved walking up a big dune (surprisingly easy if you follow other people's footsteps) and sliding face down on a piece of flimsy piece plywood at speeds between 40 and 80 km/h. Some others did stand-up sandboarding that is like snowboarding but harder. All that was cool and the lie-down was very easy. That didn't stop a South African woman messing it up every time, spinning around as she went down or once, rolling down the dune for about 10 turns before she stopped. Paul had a bad accident on the very last dune when he requested to go extra fast so they gave him 2 boards and greased them really well. Unfortunately, it is also the dune with a lip in the middle, allowing you to leave the dune and fly in the air briefly. This meant he flew to a position where he was almost standing in mid-air, span and landed on his head. We wore helmets but this wasn't enough to stop him getting concussion to the extent he didn't even know he was in Africa.

2nd activity was quad biking. Sounds bad for the dunes. It is, although we stick to specific tracks to allow the wildlife to live in the other areas. Not so much to say here but it was a lot of fun making circles on the side of dunes at a 45 degree angle or going down steep sides and the like.

3rd activity for me was a sky dive. Not so sure how I ended up deciding to do this one. Wasn't pressure from anyone else. In fact, most chose not to do this. I was quite anxious about it beforehand as the 3.5 second freefall at Vic Falls was scary. The thought of a 30 second freefall here sounded horrifying. Myself, Matt, Amelia, Jason and Jamie (with his arm in plaster!!) all did tandem skydives. We went up in a light aircraft with a roller shutter for a door and only one seat (the pilot's). The rest had to sit on the floor next to the windows taped up with gaffer tape to stop them falling out. Still, I was taking my safest flight ever with a parachute attached to the guy I was attached to. Jumping out of a plane is not normal and it's hard to imagine what it's like beforehand. When on the plane (we all sat on the floor cramped up and the windows were attached by strong tape), I was quite chilled out, enjoying the views of the dunes, bays and the ocean for 30 minutes before the sliding door opened and Matt who had to go first edged around for a couple of minutes with a sheepish look on his face. Then it was my turn and I sat on the side straight away with my feet dangling out. After about a second (all the time it takes to concentrate on getting your position right), we were out and after about half a second, it was just fantastic...hard to describe what the free fall is like. You're hardly aware you are falling when the ground is so far away - you just feel the rush. Then when the chute is pulled, it's a pleasant 5 minute glide to the ground :-) Think I may have a taste for that now - oops! Speed for this activity: 220 km/h from 3300metres (10,000 feet).

Red sand dunes and desert
From Swakopmund, we headed to the area with Namibia's famous red runes. We saw sunrise on the imaginatively-named Dune 45 and spent more time at Soussusvlei, which is the highest dune here and I believe could be the highest dune in the world, at least the highest red dune. This area is beautiful.

We drove through the desert with a lot of attractive rocky mountains, grasslands and the occasional desert lodge for tourists to Fish River Canyon, the deepest canyon in Africa and 3rd deepest in the world I believe.

The last night was spent bush camping - our last ever bush camp! After an hour or so, we were approached by a vehicle. One can never know who this is so people approaching us understandably makes us wary. It turned out to be a couple from the US/Romania and their servants. The man was a Dr in Biology and the woman was apparently (he said) a figure skater he smuggled out of Romania in the Communist days to France on the gypsy trains. Whether this was true, who knows because the couple entertained us for about an hour. They weren't aware of the entertainment value though. They told us of biology that the rest of the world is unaware about such as:
1. A Sasquatch-like creature they are researching. They have seen its enormous footprints but have never seen the creature.
2. The "3-stepper" snake that takes 2 moves from first sight to biting a human to kill. More lethal than a black mamba, which is widely regarded as the world's most venomous snake. Another snake in their area is also more venomous than a black mamba, they say.
3. A mammal species that was reported to be extinct since 150 years but they have seen on their land.

Their eccentricity and more stories I forget made every line they spoke seem less and less believable but they kept us entertained.

Politics/History
Briefly, Namibia became a Germany colony in the 19th Century, South Africa seized it during World War I and ruled over Namibia or "South West Africa" under a League of Nations mandate. The UN eventually changed its policy to support Namibian independence, which was only achieved in 1990 after a long war within Namibia. South Africa gave Namibia independence on the basis that Cuba would withdraw its troops from Angola and South Africa would also do the same.

Now, Namibia is a stable country with economic growth. White migrants have stayed in Namibia and race relations are relatively good compared to its neighbour, South Africa. Land is now being bought from white settlers and given to landless natives.

That's it...nearly in South Africa and out of the malaria zone by this stage.

BOTSWANA
Crossing the border into Botswana was refreshingly easy, quick and efficient, although we did get our Zimbabwean eggs taken off us. Botswana is seriously paranoid about diseases coming into their country via food, especially meat. Eggs, we protested, are not one of the prohibited items on the sign but due to bird flu in Zim, they are now banned in Botswana. Of course, bird flu can't be transmitted by eggs but nevertheless, we're still in Africa...facts don't count for much in most parts. The officer was miffed that we gave them to a woman entering Zimbabwe rather than her. The veterinary officers don't have to buy much food as the confiscated food is conveniently not destroyed but eaten at home instead!

It was a short drive to Kasane, our 1st stop in Botswana. Jamie, while still in plaster for his broken wrist, managed to get a thorn stuck in his foot (we often walked bare foot or in flip flops). He spent forever trying to get it out. He got himself a Coke, took a sip of that without looking at the can (still concentrating on the thorn) and the wasp on top of the can stung him on his lip, which was already inflamed due to his horse accident. His reflex action was to wipe the wasp off his face, which he managed but ripped off the huge scab off his lip at the same time! Jamie is disaster-prone and this is rather typical for him!

Chobe National Park
Chobe is known for its huge elephant population, indeed, so large that limited culling takes place on an annual basis in Botswana, mainly done via hunting licence. Rich Westerners pay several thousand US dollars to come to shoot an elephant. If they don't kill it with the 1st shot, the ranger has to kill it fast to put it out of its misery/stop it endangering people so your thousands of dollars could kind of be wasted! The only lions in Africa known to kill elephants are at Chobe - they have adapted to this very abundant food source.

We took a late afternoon/sunset house boat cruise on the Chobe(?) river, watching the animals in and beside the river. We saw monitor lizards, fish eagles, hippos and lots of elephants, including babies and elephants courting in the water.

Kalahari desert and my birthday
The next day, 5 June, was my birthday :-) We left Kasane and took a long drive in the Kalahari desert. It doesn't seem like a desert whatsoever and there is not really any sand, just poor white soils that supported a lot of vegetation - sometimes just grasses; at other times trees, though there was little diversity. The road was very quiet. Botswana is a large country but very sparsely populated so you don't see many people! And noone can really survive in the desert by living a traditional way of life. Some of the few people we did see were the veterinary checkpoint officers. At the borders of every province, there would be veterinary officers inspecting our truck for dairy products and uncooked meat. As usual, we had to disinfect our shoes (including shoes not being worn). Botswana is particularly paranoid about foot and mouth disease. The government built a 3500km long fence long ago stretching across the country to prevent animals migrating between the two sides. Their thought was that if a foot and mouth disease outbreak did occur, it would be possible to confine it to half of the country only.

My birthday evening was spent at quite a cool and very cold bush camp. There was sufficient amounts of red wine and some friends cooked me a great birthday meal. Presents were: a big mushroom, a Swiss roll, apple crumble (yes, can make this on a camp fire!), runny custard and a pen. We're easily pleased and low cost on our truck :-)

Maun
Next stop was Maun, perhaps the largest town in Northern Botswana, population around 50,000. It is in the desert but has grown very much during the past decade due to the growth of tourism to the nearby Okavango Delta. In Maun, the modern and traditional rub shoulders - modern fast food joints, South African supermarkets and posh cars go past people transporting goods around town by donkey. Most people live in grey breeze block-built homes. Noticeable are the many immigrants in Maun from South Africa, Southern Asia and China, mostly owning businesses. Botswana has an economic policy that encourages foreign direct investment and it's easy to emigrate to Botswana if you are going to set up a business there.

Botwsana --> is doing well
Based on 2003 figures, Botswana has the highest GDP per capita (money per person) in Africa except Libya but then in Libya, all of the money is rested with those involved in the oil industry. In Botswana, money does filter to the poor, who benefit from good healthcare and education. The British were not very interested in their colony of Bechuanaland but they resisted requests for "ownership" from South Africa. Soon after independence in 1966, diamonds were discovered in Botswana. Successive stable and sensible governments have exploited this one and only resource that the country has to develop the economy, educate the population etc., hence the success of the country. Even today, Botswana has a very high economic growth rate. On the other hand, it is an expensive country in which to live, 1 in 3 are HIV positive, urbanisation is rapid and it has the 3rd highest population growth rate in the world (population now 1.7 million).

Okavango Delta
From Maun, I went to the Okavango Delta. The river Okavango has its source in Angola, passes through the Caprivi Strip of Namibia and used to empty into the Zambezi but shifts of tectonic plates long ago meant that the river now flows into the Kalahari desert and the water never makes it to the Ocean because the water is absorbed by the hot, dry desert. The Delta is very shallow and some unique biodiversity. Bptswana has a policy of high cost, low impact tourism - this means limiting the number of tourists but charging them a fortune. Many tourists obviously like the idea of not going to some tourist trap where there are another 10,000 people with cameras around you. The cheapest room at a Lodge in the Delta is $600. Prices up to $2000 are not uncommon. The government has also closed almost all of the roads leading to these isolated Lodges in the Delta, preventing too many people going to them and preventing locals setting up villages to rely on souvenir income etc. and also making the need to get to the Lodges by plane make the whole experience seem all the more exclusive, hence justifying the price. Maun Airport, unbelievably, is the busiest in Southern Africa. Johannesburg is probably the busiest airport otherwise. Maun Airport is full of light aircraft to fly tourists to their Lodges in the Delta. Thankfully, there is one part of the Delta that is still open to "budget" travellers. The budget way of visiting the Delta is to stay at a camp site in Maun and arrange the trip with a company there and then camp in the Delta. The experience still seemed quite exclusive as we saw almost noone for the 3 days we were there. Only 3 of us went to the Delta as everyone had run out of money/was prioritising it for something else. Andreas, Jason and I joined a group going on from the Africa Travel Co. truck, who turned out to be a great bunch of people.

Going to the Delta, we sat on the benches of an open truck, and got cold! We arrived at the "mokoro station" and met our guides and polers for the 3 days. A mokoro is a wooden canoe dug out of a sausage tree. We slowly glided through the calm water of the narrow channels of the Delta, feeling almost invisible as we were sheltered by the tall grasses and reeds by the side of the channels. Home was a wooded bush camp on an island. The polers had collected elephant bones and an elephant skull to adorn the area. Ras, our guide, took us on several bush walks during the 3 days, mainly in the morning and late afternoon. Ras was very serious when it came to wildlife and nature. We were on no jeep safari now. He wanted us to wear natural coloured clothes, walk in single file and not talk. Sounds like a military boot camp but he had a good manner and explained that the animals are not used to humans so we have to be very discrete. His knowledge and experience was soon apparent. He could recognise the prints of paws and hoofs and tell how fresh they were. The areas we walked suffered a bush fire 2 weeks previously so the area was not as it was, although not everywhere was burned. It created the area even more picturesque in a way. The animals had returned after initially running from the fires as they wouldn't have been able to live in other animals' territories for too long. We never encountered many animals - zebras, a giraffe, an elephant, baboons and mongeese will be the most recognisable names. We also has the privilege to see short-tailed eagles and red-billed quilla birds, small birds that would fly in groups of several hundred. They would fly together in synchrony, making jerk movements left, right, up and down. They would land together, eat briefly and then take off again and do the same thing. The frequent landing and taking off would creat a lot of noise and dust but it was fascinating to watch.

Ras was keen that unlike on jeep safaris I have done elsewhere, we don't disturb the animals. The aim is to not get the animals used to humans. This would mean that we would keep our distance. Ras and the polers really were fascinated by nature. They spent two hours once around a page in a "Birds of Southern Africa" encyclopaedia, teaching themselves about another species and discussing it in detail.

One afternoon that we went out poling on the mokoro, we approached hippos. I was trying to scare the girls, telling them that hippos are the animals that cause the most human deaths in Africa. The hippos were making a lot of weird noises, the polers were slowing us down and at a huge wave of water was heading our direction fast. The polers all simultaneously screamed for us to get out and were rocking the mokoro. Everyone ran out of the river onto land, only for the polers to burst into laughter for about 10 minutes. Very funny! This freaked out Marcella from California to such an extent that she went to select a tree that she could climb just in case a hippo did charge (and they're fast when they do). The hippos were warning us with the wave they created and noises not to get too close. We also tried poling, further away from the hippos! It's surprisingly difficult when compared to punting. The mekoro are lighter and smaller and less stable. 2 or 3 people fell in when trying to manoevre a mokoro, which is what the guides had been hoping for...they're easily amused!

Back at camp that day, we ate together. The Oasis $1 per day food budget looked awful when compared to the great stuff the Africa Travel Co. truck had. Their guide cooked for us. Veggie sausages for the vegetarians was quite a treat. There is no way we could ever afford that on our truck and there, of course, few places one can buy veggie stuff. I think we did well out of the deal to share food! The guides and polers sung and dance for us in the vening in a thankfully non-touristy, non-artificial way. They actually wanted to sing and then insisted we carry on once they'd run out!

End of Botswana
After being back in Maun, we headed out to Namibia through the Kalahari desert. After some time, we were on the Trans-Kalahari highway, which stretches from Johannesburg area in South Africa, to Gaborone in Botswana to Windhoek in Namibia.