Tag Archives: Gaborone

Gnu Animals

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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

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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

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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

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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!