Was around 5 hours from Kasane to Francistown; asked the guy beside me how the road was before leaving, he told me there’s an hour of shit roads in the middle of the trip… turns out my definition of a “bad road” is drastically different from his (think I might have felt a bump or 2 in there somewhere). Managed to spot a real, truely wild elephant (ie. not in a park) en route, as well as a few ostrich.
Stopped in a tiny town called Nata for some food on the way; we were told previously that Nata has the highest percentage of people with HIV, I believe, in the world. Wow. The stats for HIV in Botswana are mind-blowing – average life expectancy is down from 70 (in the 1990’s) to around 33, and expected to be 27 by 2010. There’s barely more than a million people in a rather large country (they say the size of France?) and the population is now decreasing due to the disease. But you’d never believe it if you were here. I really don’t understand why Botswana and not other places – it’s certainly nothing to do with poor, desparate prostitutes trying to earn money (like we’ve seen in so many other places) – in fact I heard far fewer women are infected than men here… also seems to be linked to truck routes which Botswana definitely has many of, so maybe it’s the truckers bringing it in?? (though that requires prostitutes which we haven’t really seen much of here) I dunno…
We were told to not expect a lot of Francistown but somehow we managed to fill 3 days there. Found it pleasant that we could walk everywhere, even after dark. Lots of shopping so Jen went a little crazy replacing half her wardrobe (though most things, even at the fancy stores in the malls are half-price or less compared to home, so I suppose it’s a good place to do it). I got a haircut for $4 and the guy actually knew how to go beyond the shaver (although it’s a little military now me thinks). Great pizza, great Indian food, drinks at the ever so popular Hard Rock Cafe (though it was obviously not a real one… which is probably a good thing). Got talking to a drunk meat inspector at the pizza joint who wants to be my business partner buying a house in nearby Zimbabwe (actually, I asked him what he thought of the idea as Jonathon, the South African we had met was looking into doing it… seems smart since everyone’s leaving the country, though definitely a tad risky I’d say). On the last night we took a cab out to the fancy Marang Hotel by the “river” (or dry riverbed if you want to get specific) for sundowners, got tired of listening to a lady sing to kareoke tapes (albeit she did turn out to have a decent voice), so we headed to the smoke-filled hotel casino for a boo (there are casinos all over the place in Southern Africa), then cabbed ‘er back home.
We wanted to take the train south out of Francistown, getting off at Serowe (about halfway to the capital, Gaborone – pronounced “Haboron-ee” although most people refer to it as “Gabs”) but it turned out that the day train was cancelled and was now only a night train. So off to the bus station we went (which was okay as buses, bus stations and roads are now pretty much painless). Sat beside a nice lady whose kids went to school in N. America, and actually returned to Botswana when done (haven’t met too many people in Africa with kids that actually returned home after leaving!) In fact, most Botswanans we’ve met have done some sort of travelling outside of Africa which is great.
Got to Sorowe, swapped buses for the remaining 20kms out to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, arrived to the staff replacing the glass at the office as one of the rhinos had charged through it the previous day. Cool!!! Sanctuary is a community project, just over 1000 hectares big (or a 30km drive around it if you’re like me and don’t understand hectares), was started in the early 90’s with 4 rhinos and now has 32 white rhinos and 2 black rhinos. The 2 types are actually the same colour, white rhinos have a wider mouth which was somehow lost in translation to be white instead. Had to wait to get a lift to our chalet as it’s too dangerous to walk in the park (as well as charging rhinos, there are also leopards in the park). Chalet was quite rustic but in a beautiful spot, and with no one around and no way of leaving we found it quite enjoyable for the afternoon. Caught a lift to the lodge and back for dinner from one of the guides, after the sun went down, holy CRAP… did it get cold!! (possibly below 0C?) The cabin didn’t have heat, hotwater or electricity (beyond a dead car battery in the corner) so it was a chilly night (tried lighting all the lanterns for heat even…).
Up at 6am to track the rhinos… driver and guide were named Opey and Mopey respectively, got in the back of the open safari truck which was REALLY cold and after a very short drive found 2 different groups of rhinos. Kept going to look for some tracks as we were supposed to get out of the vehicle and track them on foot. Found some after about 15mins or so, made us sign some waivers (and promised nothing’s ever happened before 🙂 and off we went. After perhaps 30mins we found a couple just after the sun had risen… quite a different feeling not having the protection of a vehicle around us! (Mopey DID have a good sized rifle with him though) Rhinos are SO big – they’re the 2nd biggest land mammal next to elephants… so prehistoric looking. Just a few minutes before they left us and we headed back to the truck (incredibly disoriented… not sure how the guides knew where it was). Then took us to a pen where they temporarily keep rhinos sometimes (if sick, usually), Opey started calling “Lody… Lody…”, and can you believe that the rhino came to his name being called!?? Lody’s a 14-year old black rhino who was having a problem with his eye; he’s incredibly friendly (you can pet him even!)… so friendly that he’s a pain in the butt (always wants to get closer to people but ends up damaging cars, etc… he’s the one that broke the glass at the front). Acted like a puppy resting his head on the fence so we could pet him. Opey told us black rhinos are far more aggressive in the wild but when tame, are far more friendly.
After breakfast got dropped off at the road out front and waited for the next bus to Gaborone to pass by. Had originally planned on 2 nights at the sanctuary but didn’t bring enough money, so off we went…
Khama sanctuary chalet
Yep!
Early trek
Lody the rhino
Jen with Lody
More of Lody