Tag Archives: Botswana

Half-Way Day!!! :D

Posted on by

Today, in honor of the half-way mark, we climbed Lion’s Head. Well, that wasn’t really in honor of, but we did it anyway.

So far we’ve visited seven countries in six months. My favorite place so far has been Thailand, but Upington—with its croc-free Orange River and good food—is a close second. Early next year we’ll head north to Dubai for a week then cross the Atlantic to spend three months in Argentina, Chile, and Peru. We’ll then fly back across the ocean to Morocco, where we’ll spend a month, followed by France, Switzerland, and Greece.

In Thailand, we got up close and personal with tigers and elephants. We enjoyed mochas in Bangkok and fried bananas at Doi Suthep, with green and sweet-and-sour curries in between. Then we experienced the Drama of the Indian Visas, which saw us fleeing Thailand as our visas there were about to expire. We chose Laos, just across the Mekong from rural eastern Thailand, and rode in the jumbos, ate ice cream at Swensen’s, and took a hike to a waterfall in the jungle.

We returned to Bangkok to pick up our visas really quickly before hopping on a plane to India. Because we were a week late, we didn’t spend much time in New Delhi—it was only a few hours before we rode a train to Agra, where we saw the Taj Mahal. Soon after we visited Jaipur, where we watched the Olympics, Jodhpur, where we visited a village and schools, and Jaisalmer, the fortress city and our starting point for a camel trek.

We returned to New Delhi and flew to Sydney two days later, where we spent a week freezing. We warmed up in Darwin before heading south to Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, and eventually Ayers Rock. From the rock we flew to Perth, drove up to Gnaraloo, then drove back down to Perth before jetting off to Johannesburg.

We drove up to Gaborone and eventually ended up in Namibia. In Etosha we saw a leopard and many, many elephants. We were in Swakopmund for my birthday, after which we made our way to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park where we saw our first cheetah and yet another leopard. We then visited Upington, where Ethan learned to waterski. After a night at Witsand, we visited Oom Dennis, Tannie Marietjie, Griet, and Dinky.

We finally made it to Kruger where we saw two leopards, six cheetahs, a bunch of lions, and many more elephants. Working our way down the coast, we jumped on the trampoline at The Haven, saw penguins at Boulders, and visited the southernmost point in Africa.

We’re now in Cape Town where we’ll be celebrating Christmas in five days. We’re also imagining our snowy home…

Ciao!

Here We Come…

Posted on by

We finally officially immigrated into the Republic of South Africa today, although we kept switching back and forth between South Africa and Botswana on the road today. We have a few more visa troubles, but these are relatively minor compared to the India troubles. (Thank goodness.)

Come Look Inside

Posted on by

I now invite you to turn off your cellular devices and any other noise-making electronics or young children. Cameras are allowed, but using the camera on your smartphone is not.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Chalet #1. There are two rooms. Walking through the front door you’ll see a double bed, and there is a cot to your left and a low mattress to your right. Also on your right, you can see a table with a hat, glasses, and a kettle on it. Beyond the wall the double bed is against are the bathroom and a closet. Now let’s do a U-turn and see what lies outside.

You’re now on the front porch of the plastic-walled raised cabin. To your right is a table, a bench, and an ashtray. That is the living room. On the ground in front of the living area is a tree with weavers’ nests. Return your view to straight ahead. You can see dirt and trees. Now go left and down five stairs. Go straight for about five meters, turn right for five meters more, then turn left and follow the stone-lined path for about 25 meters. Stop! You’re about to hit that table!

Turn right and pass the firepit. You’re now at a low brick wall. Follow the wall to the left to a bench. From this bench, you can see the waterhole that animals like rooibok, springbok, impala, elands, ostriches, wildebeest (or gnus as I like to call them), and many flying birds to visit. Keep going, past the metal crocodile and past the shallow pool. Go up the steps. Take a sharp right.

Oops! You just fell into the pool! Here’s a towel. Dry off and we’ll grab some rooibos tea from the restaurant. That’s right back down these steps and straight across the muddy path. Yes, it’s mud. In the Kalahari. That’s because those sprinklers are always on. Here, let’s sit down. The dogs are over there by the parking lot playing. Holly, the dog that looks like Sandy of Amble Inn B&B, is the wild one. However, it gets beaten by Candy, the dog that looks like Millie of Amble Inn B&B, in playfights.

I hope you enjoyed your tour. Thank you for choosing Reeder Tours.

Ciao!

Gnu Animals

Posted on by

Today I have seen four new animals. They are just-seen in the wild for only me because I, unlike Mom, Dad, and Ethan, had never before last week set foot on African soil. The four animals were ostriches, guinea fowl, gnus, and springbok.

Ostriches lined the Trans-Kgalagadi Highway today as we drove northwest. There were dozens, and after a while we stopped taking pictures. Most had the brown colorings of females, but there were some males, too.

Mom was the one who spotted the first guinea fowl on the side of the road. I saw the birds, too, and there are more here at Thakadu Bush Camp. These reminded Mom of the bowls Dad brought her from South Africa in 2009, which are colorful and have guinea fowl on them.

Another name for a gnu is wildebeest, which is the Afrikaans word. I always thought a gnu was sort of like a kangaroo or rodent. I had only heard of a gnu once, in a play when I was in fourth grade. The character Harriet was given a word in a spelling bee and told to spell it and use it in a sentence. Harriet said, “Gnu. G-N-U. Gnu. The new gnu knew.” That line has stuck with me ever since.

Springbok are smallish antelope. They were nervous and scattered when Dad got up to take pictures of them.

There were some other animals, too, just of the human sort at supper tonight. One woman claimed to be from Oregon.

Other humans were involved in today, too, as an entertaining call to the classmates of Ethan and I was made. Naturally the guys were all too shy to say hello to a girl.

The service was awful and we got cut off. That Orange network is very disappointing.

Ciao!

Cheerfully Chowing on Chicken

Posted on by

After breakfast at News Café, we drove out with Dad intending to climb Kgali Hill. We couldn’t find a road up, so instead we did a U-turn and took pictures. We stopped by Riverwalk for groceries, and then put the food away at our hotel. A few hours later, we emerged for rooibos tea at the President Hotel, which even has a Mma Ramotswe Tea Corner.

All of us had the same thing: rooibos tea and chocolate cake with cream. It was delicious, even though the chocolate cake got boring after a while. We looked around the African Mall for a Clicks, and then at the Westgate Mall, but there wasn’t one that was open. So we retreated to the cool of our room until six o’clock, when we went out to supper at Nando’s, the chicken restaurant. Ethan and I had burgers, and Mom and Dad shared a salad and chicken with Spanish rice.

It was delicious, and the chicken made me think of ‘partridge’ for the game of 20 Questions Ethan and I were playing. Sadly, Ethan guessed the name of the bird. But then I discovered his ‘okapi,’ leaving me the as-of-yet winner.

Ciao!

A Bout of Botswana

Posted on by

We’re mainly in Botswana because of Mma Ramotswe of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. In the fictitious series, detective Precious Ramotswe lives in a little house on Zebra Drive. We went looking for Zebra Drive, but the closest we found was Zebra Way. There are lots of animal street names here. We’re on Giraffe Crescent, off of Hippopotamus Road.

We visited one of Mma Ramotswe’s favorite places, the President Hotel, and took a look at the African Mall behind. Because it was high noon, we did not stop to have yummy rooibos tea at the hotel like the detective commonly does. We may return tomorrow at tea-time.

We eventually returned to our hotel and got wi-fi for 48 hours from the front desk. It was a relief to check email after a whopping twenty-four hours “off the grid.”

For supper, Mom persuaded us to visit Embassy, which is an Indian restaurant. We had ordinary curries and extraordinary garlic naan.

Ciao!

An African Adventure- 1

Posted on by

Within the last 36 hours, we have traveled through many towns, six time zones, three countries, two continents, and one land border crossing.

Where are we now? Peermont Mondior, Gaborone, Botswana, Africa.

We had supper in Perth, filled the rental car with fuel, and left it with Avis at the Perth International Airport. At the airport, we checked in, lounged in the Qantas Departures Lounge drinking lemonade and eating olives, and finally got on our flight behind all the tired little kiddies and their parents.

We took off after midnight and landed twelve hours later. Along the way, the girl across the aisle from Dad and I got motion sick, I watched Glee and Modern Family, and all of us tried to sleep.

After going through customs, immigrations, and the motions of getting a rental car, I got in the front seat, Dad got in on the right, and Mom and Ethan chilled in the back. We eventually left Johannesburg proper about a half hour (or so) later. We stopped to buy snacks at a grocery store along the way. Tom Bodett entertained us up until the Botswana-South Africa border.

We  parked. Got out. Took out the passports. Entered the building. Entered our vehicle’s registration number so that Botswana could be sure that we weren’t stealing it. Walked down the hall. Left the building. Got in the car. Drove in to No-Man’s-Land, between the border stations.

The stress level got higher as we couldn’t find all that we needed to declare to enter Botswana. Finally Ethan and Dad went back, and when they returned, all was well. We got to our hotel, got a SIM for Dad’s phone at the mall, bought take-out pizza and milk shakes, and ate supper here. Yum!

Ciao!