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After one aborted attempt at leaving Windhoek (the fuel sender unit started to leak meaning we had to do an abrupt about-turn and head to the garage!) we finally managed to leave town and head towards the Botswana border. We are now staying with our friends in Ghanzi again, before heading up to Maun tomorrow.
Had a rather random event when we were in Ghanzi. If you remember we stayed with this missionary family in northern Tanzania. When we were there Jesse told us about this chap he had met who was riding 3 horses from Botswana to Sudan and back again. This guy had also stayed with Jesse and his family. Jesse said that he had heard later on that the bloke had one of his horses shot by security forces and in demand for compensation the bloke had rode about 1500km east to camp outside the Prime Minister office in Dar until he got his compensation!
Anyway, we met this chap called Dave, who was a friend of Gavin’s and also staying with him in Ghanzi at the same time as us. We related this story to Dave because he had said that he had done a lot of ridding all over Africa and it turns out he was this legendary bloke who had one of his horses and shot and stayed with the missionary family. Scarily small world really.
17th March
Back in Maun now. We had a few (!) drinks with everyone last night and caught up with Andrew to get all the info on Zimbabwe as we are heading there next week. Andrew flew down to Jo’burg today and so this will be last time we see him until he either comes to the UK or we come back out here.
21st March
Not going to talk about the weekend at all. I’m just going to blot it from my memory. All I can say is that I’m glad I’m not at home as I wouldn’t be able to show my face. Anyway, we stayed on with Hannah for a few extra days, having lots of nice home cooked food before finally leaving Maun for the last night and heading into the central Kalahari Game Reserve. This is where we are now and it is beautiful. Very remote and unspoilt. It isn’t like you would imagine at all really. It is a lot of scrub vegetation with small bushes and trees etc. This is interspersed with huge open grassy plains and small copses of trees. For such a barren place there is a lot of game around, we’ve seen giraffe, wildebeest, gemsbok etc. Not seen any of the infamous lions yet though. Apparently they are very inquisitive and will often come right up to your fire at night! It seems to be a Hollywood myth that fires scare away animals. Unless they are actually on fire they don’t seem too bothered by it at all.
23rd March
Had an epic 500km run to Francistown today. Left CKGR at about 8am and saw a huge male lion on the way out. He wasn’t inquisitive in the slightest, more sleepy I would say. He was idly watching some springbok grazing about 30m’s away. Every so often we would raise himself into a crouching position as if he was about to pounce, then he would have second thoughts about the energy it would involve and would collapse back to the ground and go to sleep again.
Tomorrow we head into Zimbabwe. It’s sad leaving Botswana for the last time but I can safely say we will be back. Not on this trip though unfortunately.
