Botswana - 13 to 21 April 2007

Well folks, it's 3 countries down and 72 to go !!! We are still going strong and everything is on track. Some of the group are getting abit 'gatvol' of the long dusty deep sand and corrugated roads, but it's all part of the adventure. Instead of giving you information on what we've seen, I'm going to let you in on how we travel, what we do and some of the dynamics !! (Jo-Anne here reporting to you live from GR1 as we ride – and it nogal rhymes !!)

We have been travelling well together and it is so great to see the vehicles one behind each other when I look through my side mirror. All the time we spent planning this trip and talking about it has finally come to the fore, it's a great feeling !! We feel very blessed and proud that we are actually on the road and that things are progressing so well.

The vehicles are performing excellently. It handles the dirt roads, the deep sand tracks and holes in roads at the game parks with ease. We are so used to the tipping action already as the vehicle dances through the sand and tilts through the huge holes. No problems with tyres thus far, so Continental, thumbs up for the Conti Tracks !!! Dean has changed a tyre due to a cracked rim but had it fixed in Windhoek and all is well.

Basically, we lead the way. We are known as GR1, our vehicle has been named 'TIPPERDEE' (this name given in Mozambique already due to the tipping action of the vehicle). Eddie and Deidre are second, known as GR2 and vehicle named 'TANA' (their favourite NZ rugby player and also their teddy-bear who sits in the middle). Last it's Dean, known as GR3, vehicle not really officially named but we've decided to name it 'MY VAN'. This name has come from Troy , who, at the beginning of the trip was absolutely fixated with their van and referred to it constantly as 'MY VAN'. This happened all the time, whenever we saw him. So 'MY VAN' it is for Dean and Vanita.

Even though the GPS is in Dean's car, Gary prefers to lead based on his 4X4 experience, common sense, excellent sense of direction, confidence in driving, assessing situations, reading maps and his compass on his watch. It has worked well so far. He also sets the pace and we never exceed a speed limit of 100km ph. Me, being the IT person, have tried to accommodate some kind of GPS system for him in the vehicle, so everyday, I fold his map into a nice size square or rectangle, specifically on the area we will be travelling, and I stick that with prestik on the dashboard for easy reference. This way he doesn't have to open maps and spread them across the steering wheel while he's driving, just a mere glance and he can see exactly what is happening. He is BOMB happy with this concept !! We use the GPS in the game parks where all the roads are not marked on the maps and Dean takes the lead there.

Now for the vehicles !!! They are very comfortable and we've come to accept them as our homes. But if I measure it, it's like living out of the size of my en-suite bathroom !! Everything is squeezed in there, clothes, food, bathroom facilities (except a bath of course !!), kitchen, beds, DVD and driving all in one. At least we don't have to walk far to get anything. Thus far it's all been going very smoothly, with only minor problems that we've sorted out along the way.

But I'm sure we will surely get 'gatvol' of the endless cleaning of vans, laundry(with flies bugging you all the time while washing), making of and breaking up of the bed (with the little pieces of wood that must be fitted), the endless shouting at the kids for misbehaving (which happens VERY frequently), washing dishes in the sink smaller than the size of a laptop with a 2 burner right next to it, the constant sand on feet and bugs all over the lights, traipsing to the communal showers with washing equipment looking for hooks to hang your clothes up on. It is definitely not for the 'faint-hearted'. The vehicles need to be cleaned regularly as you can imagine, with all the sand that gets in as a result of feet, shoes and mostly kids, as does the bathroom, so I can hire my services as a domestic when I get back because I will be a pro at that. In fact all the women seem hell bent on this task just to keep our sanity. For those of you who know the TV program 'Desperate Housewives', we have a resident 'Bree Van der Kamp' with us when it comes to cleaning. That is Deidre, with Vanita following a close second and it feels like I am heading that way as well. (Actually I think Vanita has overtaken Deidre !!) But with all this said and done, I wouldn't wish to be anywhere else but where I am.

The people who are enjoying themselves the most on this trip so far are the children. They cannot wait to get out of the vehicles to play and all they want to do is play, play and more play. The dynamics of kids starts to get more involved as they are of different ages and different parenting techniques which can become quite stressful at times. But with clever management, it can be sorted out easily. So far, the youngest, Troy is still in the learning phase and is always upsetting the play of the older kids which causes a lot of endless crying. His crying we have named the Globeriders National Anthem and that happens on average about at least 6 to 8 times a day. This has luckily decreased already but I'm not sure what happens in the car while they are travelling.

The home-schooling is not coming along as I hoped it would be. Initially the plan was to drive for a maximum of 4 hours a day but it turns out that we are on the road almost the entire day. The plan was also to do the schooling for about 2 hours in the morning, but most mornings we are already on the road at 8am. One cannot do it in the car because the roads we travel are mostly off-road and bumpy and they cannot write. I cannot teach in the vehicle as well because the noise of the corrugated roads is sometimes too loud, so I try to fit in as much as I can when we can. Hopefully this will improve as well. Currently we do the times table with Jade who already knows it up until 12 and with Dane his bonds to 9, 10 and 11.

We've also decided not to use the global account money to buy food, pay for camping fees, vehicle repairs or anything that is specific to a particular vehicle or person. It is only used for fuel to a max of what Eddie's van can take and the rest out of private accounts. The reason for this is that individuals can save more because we are not equally spaced in the vehicles. We withdraw cash from the global account and distribute that equally amongst the cars, how you use that is up to your own discretion and that way one can save more instead of global shopping. This means that we also cook meals separately as well. All this is flexible of course !!

When we last left you, we were at Poppa Falls , our last stop in Namibia before crossing over Mohembo Gate into Botswana. After another friendly border exit and entry, our first point of interest in Botswana was the Tsodilo hills. In the flat topography of northern Botswana, these hills are visible from miles around and are home to thousands of the oldest cave paintings in Southern Africa as well as a sacred place for the locals to this day. It was yet another scorching day so we opted for the shorter half hour hike to see some of the paintings.

We left mid afternoon hoping to sleep over in Sepupa at one of the campsites alongside the Panhandle of the Okavango Delta. However due to heavy rains over the Dec and Jan period, all the campsites were flooded so we slept alongside the road. The next morning we cruised off to Maun. Maun is quite a bustling town in Northern Botswana and is the centre for excursions to the Okavango Delta, Chobe NP and the Nxai and Makgadikgadi Pans. We spent one night at a very nice camp called Audi before setting off to explore the Pans.

The following two days saw us bumping along yet again, as all the roads had been damaged by the rains, viewing wildlife in the Pans. For all of us it was quite an arduous journey and were all happy to return to Audi Camp for some R&R, as well as catching up with some laundry. After a couple of days in Maun and a day by GR1 to the Delta in an authentic mokoro, we headed off to the Delta again. Once again a jolting journey took us to the end of the Delta and into Moremi for our overnight stay at Xakanaxa camp. On our first afternoon we took an idyllic sunset cruise on a boat into the Delta. For some of us this was the highlight of the trip as it was an absolute majestic sight seeing birds and animals in that landscape with its lush green vegetation and a beautiful sunset.

That evening's events created quite a bit of laughter amongst the group the next day. As a joke, Waldo surrounded his tent that night with longish butternut-like looking pods which grow on nearby sausage trees, to create a bit of 'mut' to ward off animals as there were spoor all over and as we were camped right along the waters edge, the threat of crocodiles was also very real. At some point during the night, Waldo woke up convinced he was nudged by an animal through the canvas of his tent and that he could hear sounds. After unsuccessfully trying to get Eddy's attention by calling out to him, he decided to curl up as small as possible in the centre of the tent and to lie underneath the inflatable mattress as an additional form of protection. After a while the stress became too much and he again called out to Eddy, but Gary this time (frantically, as Jo Anne puts it) finally responded after searching for his flashlight, determined that there wasn't anything out there, which appeased Waldo somewhat and he was able to get some sleep thereafter. When leaving camp the next morning we sighted a bull elephant not even 100m from our campsite.

We have subsequently found out that the fruit of the sausage tree which Waldo surrounded his tent with as 'protection' is irresistible to all animals so instead of warding them off he was drawing them closer, so who knows there might have been some critter outside his tent that night. Thereafter, for the rest of the nights spent in game parks of Botswana, the vehicles were parked in a laager around the tent giving Waldo some peaceful sleep. The threat of wildlife in these parks is very real as on occasion we observed, from our camping stools, a Hyena walking past not 50m from where we were seated driving through thick sand we travelled north to Chobe National Park, staying at Savuti Camp amongst elephant footprints. Our time in the parks afforded us the opportunity of viewing many different species of wildlife such as antelope, elephant, giraffe, zebra, hippos and lion, as well as a snake or two. Of course the pesky monkeys and baboons were always in attendance.

Until next time ..... ciao for now !!