Blouberg

Another interesting plant.

A yellow masked weaver  bird.

An African hoopoe feeding chicks in the hollow in the tree.

Another camp.

A scorpion in a tree stump by our kitchen.

The home we visited...

Our hostess on the left and the spread.

A jam packed room.

Friday, October 20^th.

We woke up to a cloudy day, the first I can remember. We left camp at seven again and headed towards the next border. We are leaving Botswana (after one night) and entering South Africa. We drove to the border and all got off the bus to get our passports stamped at the exit of Botswana. Then we drove to the other side and got off again and lined up to get stamped into South Africa. I already have a three month visa from when I flew here to start this trip. So after a half hour wait I got stamped in. There was only one woman working at stamping. When we came out there had to be fifty people waiting. Timon had taken the extra Botswana Pula from anyone who had extra cash and changed it for us into South African Rand. I gave him almost 1200 pula and got 1500 rand.

We drove to a petrol station where they filled the truck and we bought a few drinks. Then we had a long drive into a really remote area. The last fifty kilometres was down a very bumpy rocky dirt road through a few little villages to the African Ivory Route campsite. We are the only people here, probably because no one else could find it.

While we set up camp, Enock prepared a spread for us to make sandwiches. After we ate we had a couple of hours to relax before the next activity. At 2:30 two guides from the campground came and took us for a short hike into the bush. It had been thundering for a while and about half way through our hike began to rain lightly, so we stopped at a watering hole and cut it short.

When we got back to camp the rain continued for an hour or so, but really didn't amount to much. Interesting though that the last time I had seen rain was when I left Johannesburg to go to Botswana and then it rained when I returned. While were waiting around we found a scorpion in a tree stump by our kitchen hut. I also photographed weaver birds and a hoopoe who was feeding young ones in a nest.

At 5:00 the two guides came back again and we all boarded the truck to return to the village. They took us to a local tavern where we were given a chance to try the local drink: distilled sorghum and maize. I had tried this before in Namibia and it was still awful, very sour and foul. We hung around there for an hour and then boarded the bus again to go to a local family's house. I was expecting something much more primitive based on the Intrepid notes, but it was in fact a nice, modern, clean house where our hostess lives with her mother, her six month old son and a couple of other women. They had prepared a feast for us: chicken legs, lamb stew, mashed potatoes, beet salad, coleslaw, and a couple of other local dishes including deep fried grubs. I had tried them in Namibia too, and declined this time. Dwayne didn't want them either, but most other people tried them, but didn't like them much.

Unfortunately the weather was a bit cool, windy and drizzly, and I think for that reason we ate inside the house instead of outside as they usually do. As a result the house was too crowded with the twenty of us for any of the family, except for the hostess, to eat with us. That was a shame. She told us she is just finishing her education to become a high school teacher.

We thanked the family and then drove back over the bumpy road in the dark, to our camp where there is no electricity or wi-fi. We arrived at 7:30 to our damp tents and most people retired for the night as there is nothing else to do in the dark. As we went to bed it rained lightly.