Joining the GAP tour
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
1
9
23
Trip End
Jan 31, 2008
Ghanzi,
Botswana
Sunday, January 13, 2008
For the first evening, I meet join the group. Many of the people are finishing up a previous tour from Cape town and continuing on with my tour. The group is made up 14 people of Canadians, Americas, British, Swedish, and Finish decent with ages range from 18 to late 50's. Funny thing is that there are two older ladies who are from Vancouver!
The first night we head out for a "get to know ya" dinner at a local restaurant in Windhoek. Right from the get go, I know that I am going to have a good time with these people. The drinks are flowing, everyone is laughing and the food is good! After dinner we head to a local nightclub for some drinks and dancing. Many of the group head home, but 4 others and myself stay behind and whoop it up for a while. The DJ is playing American pop music mixed with African beats and the whole place is alive with dancing. Even I was up doing my "white boy shuffle" while all of locals danced around and some curious ones came and danced and talked with us. Finally around 3am we head back to the lodge for a bit of sleep before the long journey to the Kalahari.
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The 6am wake up came way too early. After a quick breakfast we packed up the truck and set out to Botswana. The vehicle used for these overland tours is a modified truck built to withstand the harsh terrain and to transport all of the people and equipment efficiently. With this you have to realize that they are not built for comfort. There is no air conditioning, the seats are not plush, and the ride is not smooth.
The journey across through Namibia is rather uneventful.
A friendly surdo
We stop every two hours for a break and then at noon we stop for a lunch. The problem was that when we reached the Botswana border, one of the Finnish girls realized that she can't find her passport. Steve, our guide makes some call and finds out the at she has left it at the lodge. They plead her case to the border officials but no go. She can not continue without a passport. The poor girl is crying her eyes out. Steve makes some more calls and arranges for her passport to be couriered to the border on Monday. The girl and her friend are left behind at hotel near the border to wait for the passport and they will have to catch up to us in two days. In the back of my mind I think that we will not be seeing these girls again.After a couple of hours of traveling along the Trans Kalahari Highway, our diver pulled over on the side of the road for a pee break. Thank god... I really had to go. So all of us head out of the truck and off to the side of the road to pee. Within 20 seconds starting, I felt a sharp prick feeling on my leg. I look down and there are thousands of big black ants crawling up my leg! Ahh! I hate ants! At the same time, I hear screams from the others. The ants are attacking everyone. I quickly finish up and run like hell for the road while trying to brush the ants off. Those little bastards are fast! I escape with a dozen or so bites and spend the next half our compulsively itching!
At around 6 pm we arrive at our destination, Ghanzi. The camp ground is actually quite civilized, with running water and showers. The company supplies tents, small mattresses and chairs. We are responsible for setting up our own tent, and also helping out with chores and cooking. There is defiantly no hand holding here.
Along with our guide, Steve, is a cook, Jeffrey. He is a young guy who has his chef's training, but doesn't like to be indoors, or wear shoes for that matter. Our meal last night was absolutely exquisite! We had chicken and other game meat, salad and an African dish called mille-pup. He cooks this all on the camp fire and there is more than enough food for everyone. I had no idea we would be eating so healthy. In Canada we usually have beans and wieners when camping!
After a short briefing about the next days travels, I head to my tent to sleep. At first I was a bit paranoid of animals outside my tent, but soon I drifted off to sleep.
