Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana

First we had to drive back to Zambia to pick up our damaged trailer. Zambia isn’t the most luxurious country in Africa.  We crossed into Zambia through Chriundu.  Zambia is the scam capital of the world. Beggars, con men and crooked officials on every corner. Every Zambian’s dream is to move to Haiti for a better life style.

 Zambia has more ferries than San Francisco (pun intended). I was getting tired of waiting for them to make repairs. It seems there is always something broken.

We passed through customs in 3 hours. Then we pushed on to Chipata.

We stopped to buy vegetables. Pepi went into the market while I guarded the car. A girl approached me and said “ Would you like to have sex with me?” I said how much? She said 50,000.00 Kwacha! WHAT!! Are you crazy? I’ll call the police. I’ll call your mother. Get the hell out of here. She left. Then I realized the exchange rate was over 5,000.00 to 1. She wanted about $9.35 USD.

Hey have you seen a girl about this tall hanging around here? No huh. I wonder where she ran off. Oh well, off to the bush.

During the evening four elephants raided our campsite. The female, a famous elephant (seen entering the lobby of a nearby hotel, walking down the hallway and entering the back courtyard to eat fruit from a tree and snatch a few treats from peoples plates in the restaurant along the way is her specialty.)

She headed for our tent right off. I ran to the tent. She put her head down as though she would push me aside. I stood my ground. She sniffed me with her trunk, sniffed the tent, then the car and then walked away. Close but no cigar!

The problem with South Luangwa Park is the TETSE flies. They drive you crazy. They carry a disease known as sleeping sickness it is mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm OH! Sorry I dozed off for a minute. It is really nasty. I think my yard boy has it. I catch him dozing off quite often. Anyway they are a pest.

Crossing into Botswana from Zambia is always full of surprises. We went to all the windows. Paid this stamp, that toll, that fee, etc, etc. We were just about finished when the customs officer said “Interpol wants to talk to you!” Interpol? I thought, I’ve finally made it to the big time. I’m going to be right up there with Charles Taylor, Radovan Karadzic, crimes against humanity, genocide, shit what do I do now. A little voice whispered in my ear “LIE”, it always works. That’s it I’ll just deny everything. I never had sexual relations with that women! (she wouldn’t take a credit card). OK! I did smoke a marijuana cigarette when I was in school but I didn’t inhale! I didn’t know she was 14. She looked almost 15 to me! 

Well maybe he’s not even in his office. I knocked lightly. A voice said “come in!”. Shit !!

I thought, just my luck. A big black Interpol officer said “where’s your vehicle clearance certificate?”

I said, my what? I never heard of one. He said, “if you don’t produce it you will have to wait 2 or 3 days until we check your car out to be sure it’s not stolen. 2 or 3 days!!! That little voice screamed, “Start lying”. I said listen, do I look like the kind on person that would steal a car (and get caught)? I support all kinds of black organizations. Why I belong to the ANC (African national congress), NAACP (national association for the advancement of colored people), the NFL (national football league), NBA (national basketball league, and MAD (mothers against drunk driving). I figured there must be a black mother somewhere that supports that.

I could see his eyes tearing. It might be the smoke in the room or maybe I was getting through to him. I said, give me a break. I’m a senior citizen and my girlfriend will be a senior citizen in 25 or 30 years. He said OK, OK, sign here but next time bring that document or you’ll be stuck here until your vehicle is cleared. I said OK! I took his pen and signed on the dotted line. Take this copy and give it to the guard. I said OK, and thanks a million. We headed for the door when I heard him yell WAIT! Where’s my pen? I said OH! Here it is, sorry about that. Damn, that was a nice pen. I lost mine in the bush a couple of days back. We left.

We drove into Botswana. This is a beautiful country. There is never a problem with customs. Polite people, plenty of animals, what a delight. We spent four nights in the Kalahari. Now that place is HOT in the summer. 100 to 130 degrees F. 

 

Everything was in the shade. Lions, Bat eared Foxes, Jackals, birds and me. Fortunately the nights are beautiful. Cool, clear and pretty. The sunsets are magnificent.

We did manage to find this den full of Bat Eared Foxes and their pups. We spent hours watching them hunt and play. The animals were plentiful in spite of the heat.

Plenty of Giraffes and other plains game. The heat causes some animals to be much more bold than they normally would be. Vegetation was minimal forcing some animals to find food where ever they could. This Steinbuck approached us within minutes and never left our camp site.

Some friends from Germany followed us into the Klaahari and camped out with us for a night.

After 3 nights we decided to head for The Khama Wildlife refuge. We needed to escape the heat. Khama was great. The rains had fallen in that area and all the babies were being born at the same time. It was great to see all the young calves running around and jumping in the air just showing off their newly learned acrobatics.

The Rhino were all over. Marking and patroling their  territory.

This old bull had fought many a fight. He was not intimidated by me at all.

This Impala was just trying to take it easy. The Oxpeckers took full advantage of this. Tearing out mouthfuls of hair to line their nests.The Impala finally took off into thick cover to escape the ever-pecking birds.

This wildebeast let us approach within feet of him. The cover was thick enough to make them feel as though they could disappear in a second.

We reached home 5,000 KM later. When we got home we learned we inherited a couple of African Pygmy Door Mice. They were just days old. They are very cute, but----they eat every two hours, 24 hours a day!!! Poor Pepi!

Next trip Namibia.