By this Author: OhnoBonobo

Ok, so it's been a while. I am currently at a B&B on the Indian Ocean in Wilderness South Africa. This afternoon I am off to check out a winery in Stellenbosch. I will spend a couple days in Cape Town and from there I will jump on a plane to Toronto via Amsterdam. I will write a final blog once I return home, a summory.

I am here in Botswana. In Maun, on the edge of the delta. Two days ago it was +40, it has been hoter than usual lately here for this time of year.
It is quite pricy here. I knew that. It is cheaper to venture out on a mokoro in the Eastern Delta.
But I chose to pay the big bucks and fly into the inner delta (the best place to be).
I only stayed one night at a camp.
I only saw one elephant. I understand it is all about luck.
I was content with seeing one elephant and a bunch of other game.
THAT WAS UNTIL I GOT BACK TO CAMP AND HEARD STORIES OF THE OTHER GROUPS ON MOKOROS WHO WERE SURROUNDED BY 200 ELEPHANTS!!!
I am back in Maun.
I have booked a flight back in to stay one night camping on one of the many islands out in the open.
The next night I will stay in a nice lodge and go out in a speedboat to cover more ground, (water).
WISH ME LUCK!!! : - )

I have FINALLY made it back to Victoria Falls/Livingston. I am staying at the Chiefs "Royal Lodge" which is nice, quiet and peaceful. I am back from Chipata, which is in the Eastern Province on the boarder of Malawi, and not too far from the boarder to Mozambique.

I attended a dinner where the President of Zambia, (His Excellency, The President of the Republic of Zambia, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa), and the President of Malawi were the guests of honour. There was a man at the dinner that kept making all these imitations of various Presidents, etc. Listening to his version of President Mwanawasa I thought he must be over doing it. No. If anything he did not do Mwanawasa justice, he was not SLOW ENOUGH! The Presidents were late for dinner. I was hungry. I was tired. Just listening to Mwanawasa speak was putting me to sleep although he seemed like a nice man. (He wore a bib at dinner)

The next morning we, (the Chief, the Prime Minister, the bodyguard, the Chiefs son, the Chiefs 3rd wife to be and I), attended the Kulamba ceremony. It was a ceremony to celebrate the Chewa people (tribe) that are split between Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. Many Chiefs were invited. Chief Mukuni wore his Traditional Lion Skin, the Prime Minister wore a Cheetah Skin and the 3rd wife to be and I wore similar traditional Mukuni village attire. The four of us were in the Chiefs/Chieftainess tent watching all the entertainment, mainly dancing. There were dancers from each of the 3 countries and they were all dressed up in elaborate costumes and masks.

Part of the ceremony included women who were half naked and had to dance to show that they were now on the market, able to marry. The dance was quite sexual, that was the point. One girl was even propped up on a two-foot board that a handful of men were holding over their heads and had to dance. This was to signify that she could "perform" under any circumstance.

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It's been 3 weeks since I started this blog. It took me 7-8 failed attempts to upload my photos. That took up a lot of time. The new photos are up. I will now give a brief summary as to what I have been up to.

After the Ceremony I just hung out with my friends and "cousins" in Livingston and Lusaka. I did a few more adventure activities that included an elephant ride (Zimbabwe), a helicopter ride, a sunset cruise, a trip to a crocodile farm, and a gorge swing (twice)(long storey).

I have been able to play with many reptiles thus far, most recently chameleons, baby crocodiles, snakes and lizards.

I also attended many village meetings with Chief Mukuni.

I had a difficult time escaping Zambia. Every time I planned to leave, something came up. I finally had to book a plane ticket to ensure that I had a set date for departure.

I am now in South Africa (Joburg)(Vereeniging)(Roshnee).
I have been here for almost a week. I have been very busy checking out the squatter camps (make-shift tin village that thousands of blacks call home), an old gold mine and a Lion and Rhino park (twice). I keep going back to play with the baby white lions, brown lions, bangle tigers, and a Cheetah. I have so much fun there. I have also befriended a baby hippo. I have video footage. The Hippo loves to be pet. It even tried to escape the enclosure when I was leaving. Too funny!

I am staying at a Muslim friends house. It is now Ramadan. They are fasting. I should, but I have chosen to do more of a Hindu fast. I eat fruits and drink water during the day. The mother is a really good cook. Every night when they break their fast, there is a whole table full of Indian delights!

I leave for Botswana tomorrow. After that I am off to Namibia.

Off to the Okavengo Delta!!!

A few days ago I went White Water Rafting in the Zambezi at Victoria Falls.
The night before I went I was talking to a girl at my hotel who had gone rafting that day. She said that everyone in her raft, including her, quit halfway through the day. They had communication problems because half of her boat only spoke Spanish and they flipped on every rapid. That was a great thought to put in my head.
I went rafting. My raft was half full of Italians who did not speak any English. What a great start. We cued up to go through the first rapid. A number 3 or 4 (6=too dangerous, only done by Kayaks). We lost the Italian at the front of the boat. I do not even know how he went out, I do not think he had any common sense. Our guide changed positions of a couple of us. He switched a big boy who was sitting in front of me to behind me. I was now behind the Italian who was STILL too shaken up to paddle (he was 28 years old). Great. I did not plan of flipping the raft and had to take action. The Italian in front of me, once he actually started paddling, would go forwards instead of backwards, stop paddling when the guide said to paddle hard, etc. I ended up hitting him in the back quickly to make him paddle quickly, giving him one good smack to get him to stop paddling, etc. It worked, we did not lose anyone else and we did not flip. The Italians and the big boy only booked a half day. There was only myself and an American girl left on our raft. After lunch we joined another raft. This one had flipped on almost every rapid. Half of their group members quit at lunch, they could not handle it.

The American girl and I thought we were about to have a hell of an afternoon. Once on the raft with these women we realized why they tipped so often. They did not paddle simultaneously; half the time they did not even paddle at all. We started barking out orders like drill Sargent's. It worked. We did not flip at all although the American girl did topple out of the raft but she did hang on, we did not have to fetch her. By the end of the day I really wanted to flip, maybe next time!! Rafting was too easy although I did earn a blister and I lost my voice.
The next day a rock climber guy at my camp went rafting with a bunch of his friends as a bachelor party adventure. One guy dislocated his shoulder and another broke his leg and had to be picked up by helicopter and flown back to South Africa. Do I still want to go back and flip the raft? You bet I do!!!

I went back up to Lusaka to attend a wedding Chezela. It was the Chezela for Mutinta, the sister of my friend Maston from back home. The party went on all night, until 5am. There were traditional drummers, many speeches and words of wisdom that were washed down with lots of drinks. When the bride to be was presented to the guests, she was dancing in a long line of women, covered by cloth so you could only see her feet and she was placed under a hut where she had to remain all night until 5am.

I have been going back and forth between Lusaka, Livingstone, Victoria Falls, Masokotwane village and Mukini village. I have attended football matches that some of my "cousins" were playing in on the dusty pitch and reading a lot. A couple nights ago I went to the Royal Livingstone to watch the sunset and sip my first glass of champagne since I have been here in Africa. It was really nice except for the "guests" who would throw a fit and anything they could get their hands on every time they saw a monkey on the deck. If you do not like the monkeys, get the hell out of Africa! Tomorrow morning I am off to the eastern Provence where I am going to attend some big meeting with Chiefs and Presidents. I hope there is lots of good food! : - )

I went to Cohara Bassa in Mozambique to go Tiger fishing. The water is part of the great Zambezi and was full of fish, fish eagles, hippos and crocodiles! Our boat got really close to the hippos and crocs!! We could even see lots of baboons on the riverbank. In order to catch a tiger fish, you have to use a chunk from another tiger fish as bait. They have a mouthful of GIANT teeth, (I kept a tooth from each fish that I caught).

So far in Zambia I have been to the Victoria Falls and a Zoological Park. The water at the top of the falls was a bit low. I climbed through the water and jumped up on a large rock meters from the drop! Exciting! There were also many baboons around. I saw a couple of them mate. They put on a display about 5 feet away from me!

While on a drive through Mosi-O-Tunya Zoological Game Park I saw my first RHINO since being here in Africa. We were able to get out of the 4X4 and walk within meters of him. He was very sad because his wife was slaughtered about 3 weeks ago by poachers. I think he is the only Rhino left in the park. There were many armed guards following his every move.