Hello! Since our last update three weeks ago from Cape Town South Africa, we have travelled through Namibia and Botswana, with major destinations including the Orange River, Fish River Canyon, the Namib Desert, Swakopmund, Spitzkoppe, Etosha National Park, Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park.
HELENA AND TENT NUMBER 9: Africa is not set up for independent travel like Asia or South America, so we are completing the majority of our travel here on board our very own supermodel, a Dragoman overland truck named after the 80s supermodel Helena Christiansen. Helena is a hard working 23 year old Mercedes truck who is difficult to wake up in the mornings and can be a bit grumpy for a while once woken; however with the exception of a broken front suspension, a flat battery and getting stuck on a tight driveway entrance, she has served us well so far. Our accommodation while on board Helena is Tent Number 9, a cosy two person tent which we can now put up and take down at rapid speed, even in the dark. Many of our camping locations are extremely remote and we have been completely self sufficient or have had to make do with very basic amenities; having a hot shower has become a bit of a luxury.
ARTHUR MAN: Helena’s best feature is her chef, a cheeky Kenyan named Arthur. Arthur’s ability to turn nothing into something with the assistance of the on duty cook group (vegetable choppers and dishwashers) has meant that we have eaten a nutritious diet of both African and Western food. We have especially enjoyed his game meat BBQs of kudu, springbok and goat. As a teenager, Arthur made the Kenyan youth running squad and was only prevented from taking running further due to a lack of funding. As a result, Arthur has been extremely impressed with Rodney’s early morning runs, claiming him as a Kenyan and nicknaming him “Kenyan Man”, an honourable title. Arthur has also taken to calling Kirsty “disturbance”, for reasons unknown.
THE BEAUTIFUL GAME: Prior to coming to Africa, we were aware of the love that all Africans have for football. Our travels have reinforced this, with Rodney having many opportunities for impromptu games with football mad kids who don’t necessary understand English but understand how to make it known that they want to play. We have continued to enjoy being in Africa for the Football World Cup, especially celebrating New Zealand’s undefeated performance (well done lads), an achievement worthy of several blows on the vuvuzela (easier said than done). On that note, Kirsty’s childhood flute lessons have proved extremely valuable, while Rodney’s lack of musical ability has hampered his efforts. Please note, if Spain wins the final New Zealand will be the only unbeaten team at the World Cup. We would also like to take this opportunity to brag about our prediction on this blog posted prior to the World Cup that Spain and The Netherlands would play against each other in the final. Come on Spain!
THE BIG FIVE: No trip to Africa is complete without trying to spot the big five and all the other animals that Africa has wandering about. So far we have encountered four out of the big five, having spotted lions, elephants, buffalo's and rhinos; we are still on the lookout for a leopard. We have also seen hippopotamuses, giraffes (very uncoordinated and funny to watch drinking), cheetahs, zebras, warthogs, crocodiles, seals, monkeys as well as many species of antelopes and birds. Some of our most memorable moments have included poling a makoro in the Okavango Delta within metres of hippos, the huge array of wildlife at the night-time water hole at Etosha National Park and having cheetahs lick our arms at the cheetah sanctuary. Rodney was also particularly lucky early one morning while out running, when he was joined for several kilometres by a charismatic giraffe with a slightly better stride length than him.
GODS MUST BE CRAZY: Remember that movie where a Coke bottle falls from the sky and all the locals talk with a click while dressed in loin cloths? Well, we spent a day in that very village. While neither of us donned a loin cloth (to the disappointment of none of you, we are sure), the village kids were very funny, particularly enjoying being spun around, striking gangster poses and playing football.
SAND SAND AND MORE SAND: Swakopmund is Namibia’s answer to Queenstown but with sand instead of snow. As revenge for the photo on our blog posted in Nepal where Kirsty is falling off an elephant, we have included the following, of Rodney’s morning learning to sand board (at the time, Kirsty was on a catamaran cuddling seals and pelicans and eating 3 dozen oysters).
We are now in Livingstone, Zambia. Tomorrow we continue our overland trip north through Zambia and into Malawi and Tanzania. To say the internet is slow in Zambia would be an understatement so unfortunately we are not sure when we will be able to add our photos to Flickr but we will let you know.
Love Rodney and Kirsty.
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