Liuwa Plains National Park

After Ngonye Falls we drove to Kalabo. This is the entrance to the Liuwa Plains National Park. To get into the park we had to drive onto a pontoon. It held 2 cars at a time. Daddy, the driver of the other car and 2 other men pulled on the rope to make the pontoon cross the river. On the other side there was a a hill of deep sand. We got stuck. Lots of people tried to push us out, but Daddy aired down the tyres and we were ok.

We drove through sand to our campsite. In the ladies toilets there were lots of bats hanging from the roof! We had a big fire. Mummy and Daddy were amazed as only 3 people have stayed in the campsite all year!

The next day we drove through the park. First we saw a sausage tree. The seeds of the tree look like big fat sausages!

We saw lots of wildebeest. We didn’t see any cape buffalo or lions. There was lots of grass. That night Daddy pulled out lots of grass from under the car.

At the end of the park we got a bit lost. A village man jumped on the side of the car and helped us through the Luambimba river.The water was really deep! There were lots of overgrown trees and they kept breaking on top of the car. We went past lots of villages.

We did a wild camp that night and had another big fire. Then we drove to the Zambezi River. We took another pontoon, but this time no one had to pull a rope because it was powered by an engine. The pontoon was on the other side of the river so we had to sound our air horn to let them know we were there.

We were going to keep heading north, but Daddy found the fuel tank had broken. So we decided to turn around and go to Lusaka. It was a long way, and the road was wretched. There were lots of pot holes on the dirt roads and the tar roads. We slept outside a police checkpoint because the campground was closed. Daddy couldn’t open the back door so all we could have for dinner was cheese!

Then we drove to Lusaka through Kafue National Park. It was dark and we saw 2 spotted hyena. Mummy saw a snake that climbed up a tree.

Because we had cheese for dinner, Daddy bought me a pizza for lunch. It was delicious!

pizza

 

 

 

4

Zambia – Ngonye Falls

We spent our last night in Namibia at a campsite outside a Protea Hotel. It was on the bank of the Zambezi river. The river is very big. We were hoping to see hippos and crocodiles. We didn’t see any hippos, but we did see a crocodile floating down the river in the morning. Mummy thought it was a wooden log because it was so still and straight, but in the pirate telescope it was definitely a a crocodile!

IMG_0197

It took about 2 hours to get through the border. First we had to leave Namibia, then we drove into Zambia. It was crazy. There was nowhere to park and lots of people yelling. In the office there were lots of booths that Daddy needed to visit to get different papers. It was a bit boring.

Finally we were done and we were in Zambia! So we have a new flag on the car.

z flag

Then we drove to Ngonye Falls. We stayed at a community campsite. The guy lit a fire and heated water for us. Then he poured the water into a bucket with a shower nozzle on it. Mummy made us wash our feet as we were very dirty. We walked to the river but didn’t see any animals. We saw lots of prints though. There were lots of dolerite rocks and you could see where they had melted! The sand was really white.

We walked to the falls in the morning. The guy showed us where to go and we were glad he came or we would have got lost. We had to climb over lots of rocks.  At one bit you could hear water running underneath them. There were lots of waterfalls in the river. It was very pretty. He told us the river is very low because the rain had failed and all the farmers crops had died.

Then we kept driving north.

 

1

A long drive

It has been a while since I wrote a blog. After Etosha we did a long drive back to Swakopmund. We went there so we could do park run. On the way we stopped at a cool shop called Tikoloshe. The shop had heaps of wooden statues. There were lots of animals, my favourite was a huge crocodile, bigger than me!

In Swakopmund we did parkrun. I walked with Daddy and saw a flamingo flying past! Mummy and Genevieve ran ahead. It was good.

Then we drove over a very steep hill to go back to Windhoek. On the way Mummy was crocheting a toy giraffe, and then we saw giraffes! Later she was making a monkey and we sawy baboons! Now I want her to make a leopard or a rhino!

We went back to Urban Camp in Windhoek. We did that because Daddy needed car parts. The best thing we did in Windhoek is that Mummy took us to a second hand book shop. They had lots of fairy books and I chose ‘The Wishing Chair’.

Then we got up really really early and drove all the way from Windhoek back to our campsite at the Okovango River. All of the river camps were full though. We stayed there the next day and Daddy made the best chocolate cake. It even had icing. He tried tiger fishing, but didn’t catch any thing.

After that we drove along the strip but didn’t see any animals at all. We were heading to Zambia!

4

Etosha National Park

Yesterday we drove through the Etosha National Park. We got up very early and had to show our passports at the entrance. We needed the passports as ID, because there is a big problem with poaching rhino in the park.

I spotted a tall giraffe, right by the road, just inside the entrance. Then we saw lots more giraffes. They were very small and brown compared to the giraffes that we have seen.

First we went to the Goas water hole. We saw lots of antelope, mainly springbok, impala, kudu and oryx. We didn’t seen any eland though. We did see some of them plonking. This is when they jump with all four legs in the air. It looks very funny.

Then we went to the Etosha lookout. We drove right out onto the pan. It is a dried up lakebed. You could see nothing for miles and miles. It is very dry here. Namibia didn’t get rain when it was supposed to (Nov – Apr) and it is bad because there is no water to drink or grass for the animals to eat.

We saw lots of zebra and a mongoose.  We also saw some elephants standing very close to the road. Often they look like big rocks.

At one waterhole we saw jackals. We also saw lots of wildebeest.

We really wanted to see some predators. Everyone was looking in the trees for a leopard, but we didn’t see one. At the last waterhole we saw three lions. 2 male lions and 1 female. The lions were all sitting under the trees, waiting for dusk. Near the lions we saw some remains of some animals. Only the head and skin was left.

We drove through a campsite which had a waterhole next to it, and we saw an elephant having a drink. Then it sprayed watery mud over its back, sides and tummy like sunscreen. The other animals waited for the elephant to finish before they went back to the waterhole to drink.

I liked Etosha.

9

Bushmen

*** Updated with Eleanor’s favourite video 🙂 ***

*** This is another good blog for photos. Click the link if you are viewing on Facebook ***

Today we had a very interesting morning at the living museum of San Bushmen. Mummy asked, and the man told us there are 450 people living in the village. But only 70 work in the living museum.

IMG_9826

The first thing the man did was make a fire. He used 2 sticks, not matches! First he put some sand in a hole in the first stick lying on some dry grass. Then he put the second stick on top. Then he rubbed the stick between his hands. He had to call out to the Gods, to make the fire come. It sounded like “koo, koo”. He rubbed his hands very fast and after a while the grass started to smoke. He blew on the grass and got flames. He used this to light stome sticks. It looked hard work!

Then we went for a walk. On the walk we saw some plants that the Bushmen use for medicine. There were some that you made tea from the leaves and some that you used the bark and some that you used the roots. If you had a headache then they cut your head and rubbed the cut with the root of a tree! Whatever ached, you would cut and rub with the root! One of the trees was used by the Shaman to go into a trance. A Shaman is like a witch doctor.

On the walk he showed us his quiver, which was made from the root of an Acacia tree. He called it his Bushmen’s Wallet, because he kept all his important things in it. He showed us a tree where they get their poison for the arrows. The poison comes from the larvae of the ladybird. The larvae is like little caterpillars. He also showed us a snare where they catch guinea fowl.

IMG_9849

When we got back, Mummy, Genevieve and I helped make some ostrich egg shell jewellery. They used seeds as well as the ostrich shell. It was fun and I got to keep my bracelet. Daddy also bought me a matching necklace.

Then Daddy and I helped to make a bow. We had to scrape the bark off some wood. Then he tied string to it. We saw them make the string too, by scraping a reed with a knife. Then we got to shoot the bow. It was very hard. We pretended to be a hunting party chasing an antelope. There were 4 of us. If one missed then hopefully someone else would hit the target. Daddy and I were very noisy in our hiking boots, the bushmen had bare feet and were very stealthy. Daddy shot over the target and my arrow landed before the target. But the bushmen were very good. Then we had to search for our arrows. It was very hard!

After that the women sang us some songs. The first song was about friends and they held hands and looped around each other. The second song was my favourite and was about the rain. They were hopping and had one foot lifted up and made a square with 4 people. The last song had a man come and pretend to be the Shaman in a trance.

I enjoyed it, but I would not like to be a bushman. It would be a hard life, as you have to hunt all your food.

1