Close calls, border crossings and puppy trauma

Hello all!

Last I wrote we were being bombarded (not physically, thank goodness) by animals. There were still more animal experiences to come...

Day 15/Aug 14

Today Shawna and I got up and packed up our tent perfectly, and fast. So fast that we were sitting an enjoying our tea and breakfast while we watched the others stumble out of their tents. Okay, we might have been a little smug. But we were so proud of ourselves since usually we were on the tail-end of the morning routine and not the other way around.

Speaking of camp routines, many of them center around food. Colin does the cooking mostly, and we assist when we can, but mostly, we help set up for the meals and we do all the dishes. We kind of do dishes in turns, since we only need about 3 people and there are 10 of us. I don't mind doing dishes at all but if you know me I am pretty picky about getting things properly clean. So you can imagine my dismay at watching other people do dishes poorly. Like, handing over a dish covered in soap to the dish-dryer, is not acceptable. Why aren't we rinsing, people?! I don't want to eat soap! And it made the tea towels filthy. I volunteered to do the washing every time it was my turn, so I know that I was eating off clean dishes one-third of the time. Sigh. T.I.A.

We had a mini-game drive to do today before we headed out of Etosha. I found it irritating/fascinating that other people on the tour would say things like "ya, ya, ya, we've already seen a giraffe/elephant/wildebeeste." We are in AFRICA, people! It didn't lose any novelty for me. I could watch them all day. I was constantly marveling at the power of these animals, and the precariousness of their lives. Thank goodness that Shawna and I were on the same page. :)

We still hadn't seen a leopard or a buffalo. We were told that leopards were really difficult to locate in the wild because they are solitary hunters, and Etosha didn't play host to buffalo. But, we were assured that although there are no guarantees, we'd see much more wildlife and definitely species that we hadn't seen yet. With that, we left Etosha.

As we were speeding down the highway at say, 90km/hr, we approached an intersection where some idiot driver decided to make a right turn in front of us (equivalent to our left turns at home) and we almost hit him. Colin couldn't swerve too much or the trailer would jackknife us and we'd be toast. Shawna was in the front seat for the whole show. I think it rattled everyone pretty good. Even when you are doing everything right, accidents can happen... we were lucky that day.

Sitting in the LandCruiser is not a really enjoyable experience anyways, considering we travel by road for hours and hours at a time. We sit on our behinds, and when we get a chance to stop at a gas station, well, it's gas station food. And gas station restrooms. We eat a lot of junk food. We don't get a lot of exercise. We are having the time of our lives mentally, emotionally, spiritually even! But physically I feel icky all the time. We stopped at a small store today and to save time, Colin got us pre-made sandwiches. Mine had about half a cup of mayonnaise in it, no exaggeration. It was not very good. But when you have nothing else to eat...

The German family who travel with us are picky eaters because they have to be; 3 out of 4 of them have Celiac disease. But they also do this weird thing where they hold the food item up their heart with their right hand, and hold their left hand straight out to the side. Someone else tries to push their left arm down while they try to resist. If they cannot resist the push, the food is bad and they won't eat it. If they can resist the push, the food is good enough to eat. What??!! Has anyone ever heard of this? Sounds a little cockamamie to me.

As we drive to our next destination we see so many roadside huts that are made into little villages with wooden fences all around them. We see women balancing big tubs or heavy bags on their heads with babies strapped to their backs. Everyone is in really bright-coloured clothing and adults sit around in the shade visiting while kids play soccer and wield sticks.

We stopped in a town called Rundu before heading to Kaisosi River Lodge. Shawna and I were excited because we had decided to upgrade to an actual room! No setting up tents for 2 nights! What a way to treat ourselves! Right? Well, it was okay. The woman at reception was really unhelpful and seemed to know nothing about the establishment she worked for. The room was okay, although the bathroom didn't come with soap, which we found to be particularly inconvenient.

Our whole group had dinner together at the restaurant, and we called it a night. We relaxed in our beds (a.k.a. not tents) and fell asleep to the sounds of the Kaisosi river!

Day 16/Aug 15th

Colin made us breakfast & lunch today and we prepared for our day of leisure. I suppose that if we had been really smart we would have gone jogging or done some calisthenics, but who are we kidding. We relaxed, and it seemed to be much-needed. All that sitting on our tushes really wore us out!

We managed to catch a ride into Rundu with Colin who was replenishing our groceries, and headed to a local internet cafe. It was a rather nice establishment, but we didn't get much time there before it closed. Alas, it would have been nice to catch up on all the stories/writing, but we do what we can when we can. :)

At this point I had taken about 1000 photos and switched to a new memory card. I think I may actually run out of space! There's so much here that is photography-worthy. I'll be sure to send links to photos once I get home. There's GOT to be one or two good ones, right?

Kaisosi River Lodge is home to 2 resident peacocks, which I don't believe are endemic to the area. They were, unfortunately, the best part of that place. That night we had dinner at the restaurant again, and spent some time watching the local news afterwards in the lounge. I realized that I really have no idea what's going on at home. Normally I don't watch the news, but being "plugged-in" means that I am usually in the know. I hope that everything is okay.

Tomorrow, we are back at it. Get ready for go-go-go.

Day 17/Aug 16th

They screwed up our bill upon check-out (of course) and we were delayed leaving, which makes everyone a little stressed. We've learned that being early or ahead of schedule is fantastic, and being late or behind schedule means we put up our tent in the dark or eat dinner in the dark. And dark also means cold. So, we want to be on time. :)

We were also slowed down by many goats on the road, who don't seem very respectful of our schedule. :P We'd honk at them but animals are unpredictable and we'd have to slow down long enough to make sure that they weren't going to suddenly change direction.

Today was an important day - a border crossing. We'd leave Namibia, and enter Botswana. Everything was going more or less as planned, until another wrench was thrown our way. At the Namibian border we discovered a fairly flat tire. Good thing Colin used to work as a mechanic. Out comes the jack, the spare, and we ate lunch while he worked to save time. Fried egg sandwiches which we fed much of to a sweet & gentle dog who accepted all donations happily. I never want a fried egg sandwich again, thankyouverymuch.

In order to get to our next site, the Guma Lagoon Camp, we had to 4x4 through sand dunes and rivers. It was sketchy at times but fun - I guess that's the essence of 4x4ing. :) We arrived at the camp and immediately wished we had saved our upgrade money for THIS place which seemed much nicer and well-organized compared to Kaisosi. Ah well. Shawna and I started setting up our tent while the others trotted off to their luxury cabins.

In the middle of the tent set-up, we heard a distressing cry from the resident puppy who was whining and cowering over in the grass just behind us. The owner was cursing and yelling, trying to get ahold of the dog. Turns out the puppy had found a fishing fly in the bushes and thought it a toy. It had become embedded in his lower lip. :( I heard the owner and another staff member trying to figure out how to get it out and I ran over to help, trying to fight back tears all the while. I had to hold the dog down while they pulled it out. Poor puppy!! I was so traumatized but an hour or so later the puppy was running around wagging his tail and totally oblivious to what he'd put me through. The owner thanked me for my help and we noted how there wasn't even any visible mark. He seemed to be totally fine. I should probably not be a vet for my next career. I'd need constant therapy.

We relaxed until dinner which Colin made for us and we ate in the dining room. A bonus about Guma Lodge is that we were able to use their kitchen to cook and their dishes & cutlery. And they had a staff that did all the cleaning, so no dishes for us to do! Yay! We sat around the campfire and even roasted marshmallows. How heavenly.

Tomorrow was going to be a fantastic day.

Until then,
xo
E!