Botswana – South Africa

Road trip Africa – Botswana

In 1985 I flew into Johanasburg. After several years of fishing in the Alaska Islands it was time for some sunshine. Our plane stopped over in London. That city is a trip in itself.

The weirdest thing to me was that the vendors had their magazines for sale out in the rain and they were getting wet. It didn’t seem to bother anyone – soggy magazines for sale. Man, the weather here sucked worse than in the Aleutians.

There had been some bombings at Harrods or somewhere and security was tight. I left my bag along the wall when going to the window to change some money and a detective came running gave me a good tongue lashing.

Kind of a new experience to me – to be worried about bombs. Back at the bed and breakfast a sweet girl from Hong Kong gave me her euro-rail pass because she was on her way home and wanted someone to get some use out of it. A quick trip to Scotland seemed like a good idea.

Just having just spent quite some time in remote places it was so cool to be able to talk to girls and and have a pleasant conversation.

Natalie was from France and though we did not speak each others language well I realized that I had been missing out on a lot of things in life the last couple years.

She was an beautiful and passionate woman. The French have a style and a way about them that I love. There is a God and he smiled down upon me that day.

Anyway back to Africa. Stopped over in Harari in Zimbabwe formerly known as Rhodesia. We passed over a few round huts and I figured that they put them there for the tourists and the real houses were somewhere else.

This was going to turn out ok. Then we landed in Johanesburg.

An Austin Mini was for sale in the paper so I bought it. After sorting out some problems with this little yellow car (with the help of a wonderful family, the Schlotvelt), we were off.

It definitely wasn’t the best choice of wheels but it turned out to be kind of an adventure.

One of the first stops was the Kimberly diamond mine. Miners have pulled some serious diamonds from that pit but it is pretty well taped out now. Lots of history there.

Capetown has to be one of the best cities in the world. I camped on the beach. Not very many people did that but I was a cheap charlie and it worked out ok.

The cape of Good Hope was scenic but the city itself was probably the nicest place I had ever been. The people were friendly and helpful and Capetown left a beautiful impression on me.

It might be a bit like the outback of Australia, he knew how to eat the prickly pear cactus after you rub the bristles off and all kinds of other weird stuff.

Passing through the Great Karoo I picked up an old hitchhiker named Eurasmus. He was an old wino but a barrel of laughs the whole way. He talked a lot about the country there.

He was a tough old buzzard and didn’t have any problem sleeping on the ground on a tarp. I grew rather fond of his endless tales.

The Kruger National Park of South Africa is said to be one of the best reserves in the area. There were fenced areas to camp in at night and it was a pleasant enough place.

Watching the giraffes lope along with the zebras running like mad to keep up was pretty cool but with my 20 dollar camera the pictures really didn’t capture the moment very well.

There were a lot of different animals and it was a good park but it seemed kind of confining, just too organized.

Time to head to Botswana! This is a fascinating country. The Kalahari , the Chobe along the Zambezi, the Okavonga, and the Makgadigadi pans.

They told me it hadn’t rained in 7 years but I told them not to worry because the rain follows me everywhere. Sure enough we got a pretty good rain that night. They couldn’t believe it, but still it was not enough as there was such a long period of drought.

Botswana is a truly amazing place. In Francistown there was a British trader that was reminiscent of the old Tarzan days. He had horns from a cape buffalo that were like no other.

They were magnificent. The buffalo now days are more like dairy cattle compared to this fellow. That buffalo could have crushed my car or any other like a tin can. That buffalo could have squashed a hummer! Man, it was big!

Somewhere over there in the museum or a hotel (this was over 20 years ago) they had an enormous elephant tusk with wire wrapped around it to hold it together. Once again this was such an enormous tusk it was more like a fallen log than a tusk.

Years of natural selection has made it more advantageous for elephants with short tusks (ie. they don’t get shot and live to reproduce) so I only saw live elephants with small tusks.

But there were large piles of elephant poop on the road that the trusty Mini had to avoid. A bright yellow splotch imbeded in a pile of poop would have been a pretty comical site.

Even though the Mini wasn’t the right car for it we headed across the pans out to the Okavonga swamps. That big Baobob tree was growing alongside the road and provided relief from the sun during the heat of the day.

Most drivers over there tended to find some shade in the heat of the day and rest for a couple of hours until it cooled down a bit. Not surprisingly the poor car kind of fell apart back there – flat tires, mechanical probs and the like.

A friendly tribesman allowed me to keep the car with him and I hitchhiked back to Johanessburg to get some parts.

It was a great trip but took a couple of weeks because I went through the Kalahari desert and there just wasn’t any traffic.

Two cattle trucks went by one day and it was becoming apparent that this wasn’t working.

A Canadian guy working there, Terry Volcano, suggested asking the chief if any vehicles were headed out any time in the next few days and get a lift with them.

If you know him, remind him of our 50 dollar bet about which mountain was taller. Kilimanjaro or Denali in Alaska. We also compared the free ranging herds of caribou in North America to the huge herds of wildebeests in the Ngorogoro.

He was a cool guy that was working on some kind of project out there and had an astounding collection of native artifacts. Real interesting man and a great help.

We set out early the next morning. That was one hot trip on the back of an open flatbed. Schoolgirls were standing at the front singing and we bounced along until noon and found some shade in a village to wait out the hottest part of the day.

I don’t remember how long that journey took but it was not overly pleasant. One time we stopped in the middle of the desert and I had to crawl under the truck to take advantage of the available shade, but there was no relief from that heat.

The closer to the front of the bed the less bumpy it was. We had a full load of passengers and picked up and dropped off people along the way. I was a bit sun stroked by the time we hit Gabarone and had to sleep for a couple of days to recover.

I hitchhiked back to JHB getting rides mostly from Africaners , a hardy breed of roughnecks. They were always a cheery lot and a lot of fun.

I got my supplies and hitchhiked back to the Okavonga with two tires and some spare parts under my arms. It must have been a strange sight especially when passing through Francistown which has a reputation for roughness.

I got there at night and didn’t know where to stay. I snuck into this cemetery off to the side of the road to camp. I didn’t think the locals would go in there at night and if they did it would really freak them out to have a white guy suddenly pop up. I must have still been sun stroked with that logic but it worked out ok.

Some time after leaving the Okavonaga I met up with Brian, a man raised in South Africa and was working on famine relief in the area. He was camped out along a dried up river bed. He invited me to tag along and see some more of the country.

This is where I met Mr. Mosi a fine man and friend from Botswana. He knew the back country well and helped Brian locate the villages and do a little translating.

Around that time a kiwi named Steve Deverel came ambling up the trail. He was wearing sandals made of recycled tires and was really a cool guy. He had traveled all around South Africa.

We hung around at the campsite along the river for a week or two. It was great to sit around the campfire and trade tales about our adventures.

By far the most interesting was Brian when he would talk about making raids into Angola for the South African Army. Some pretty heavy stuff. He had been around.

He introduced us to Kieth Poppleton probably one of the last of the government lion hunters.

Poppleton and his wife had a nice compound in the outback where they distributed supplies and had rooms for rent if I remember right.

He also had some great stories about Botswana. One of his men had gotten half his foot bit off by a lion. He was a tracker sitting on the hood of Mr. Poppletons landrover as they were tracking a problem lion.

Somehow the lion got shot but wasn’t quite dead yet and jumped up off balance and bit off half the guys foot. Mr. Popleton dispatched the lion shortly thereafter.

The guy never did get his foot back but was considered to be quite a hero by the locals. They were a great team, Mr. and Mrs. Poppleton. I wonder if they still live out there.

Brian was pretty heavily involved in food distribution because the long period of drought had caused hard times for the people.

It was fascinating to be able to go with him all over the outback delivering food and checking on the local groups out there. Mr. Mosi was invaluable also with his skills and knowledge.

One day Steve and I were having a cup of tea at the camp and decided to go up to the Chobe Forest along the Zambezi River along the northern border of Botswana. It was a nice place to spend a few days and then we could go over to the falls in Zimbabwe. Victoria falls. Lovely place.

For some reason the tourist facilities were closed at that time so we found a good place in the tall grass to make camp. There must have been a curfew or something because there were no tourists so we had the place all to ourselves. The sound the water makes is of pure power as it crashes over that ledge. If you stand directly across there is a tremendous updraft and a fine mist. Absolutely stunning.

There is now supposed to be a bungee jumping set up on the bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia. What a view. Fantastic.

We split up and Steve went back south and I went up into Zambia and over to Malawi. I last heard from him after he had traipsed across the Sudan and was trying to get a visa for Saudi Arabia.

He was a hearty traveler always with a smile on his face. He told me “When it really gets rough and everything is going very badly you just sit down and make up a cup of tea and relax. Take a look around and everything will be ok.” Really a memorable person.

Brian sent me a few notes over the years but we have lost contact too. He was such an interesting guy and really knew his way around in the bush. I learned a lot from him and am sure he is succeeding at whatever venture he is up to now.

Mr. Mosi. Who knows, he might be the president of Botswana by now.

…and Terry sent me that check for 50.00. yippie : )

Africa – Botswana