Over the hills and far away

12 December 2011

Settling down. Most of my friends have given up on the idea of my doing this and instead have begun to advise me to find someone with as much wanderlust as I have, as if that would fulfill the societal obligation of ‘settling down’ in at least the coupling part of the equation.  It’s a good idea – in theory.  Because trying to date someone when you know either you or he will be moving on soon is difficult to do, especially without sounding psycho and needy:

“Hey, so, I know we just met an hour ago, and today I’m heading back here and you’re heading back there, but, um…wanna jump into a long-distance relationship?”

“Uh…(I would anticipate a long silence here)…uh…(if he’s nice, he’s probably thinking of how to break it to me gently that I’m completely insane)…uh…”

Exactly. So, although I know my friends want me to be happily coupled while moving around the world, it’s just not going to work out.

Plus, the non-coupled me finds it quite lovely to be able to say, “I want to go to Botswana tomorrow” and know that I can. And will. Which is exactly what I did the night I came back to the hostel in Livingstone after walking around the Zambian bush with lions all afternoon.

At 7:00 the next morning, I was sitting in a van with five other people (1 from the U.S.,  1 from the UK, 1 from the Netherlands, and 2 from Japan), being driven to the border between Zambia and Botswana. Going from Zambia to Botswana is fantastic for a few reasons. First, it’s crossing a border, and I get a little thrill every time I set foot in a new country. Second, the border crossing at this location is done by boat. In Zambia first, zip across the Zambezi River, and then set foot in Botswana. And finally, this is the area where four countries meet: Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. Although there is no actual legal quadripoint, it’s pretty satisfying to be in a boat on the Zambezi and have the driver point out the landmass of each of the four countries.

The boat to cross the Zambezi River between Zambia and Botswana

Once on land in Botswana, our guide whisks us through immigration quickly – we don’t even have to wait in line. We pile into a safari jeep and get driven to a little café that seems like it could have been in the US: Led Zepplin is playing on the stereo, and coffee and muffins await us. We eat and then walk a short distance to the boat that we take for our river safari. 

 We immediately begin to see flocks of birds, birds perched on trees along the banks, and lots of hippos which are of course still much loved by me. They're just so big and cute (and vegetarian!). And I think I like anything that is related to whales. Plus, random hippo fact: hippos can hold their breath for 5 minutes underwater.  

Snake bird -- named because its neck can resemble a snake

"Eating 150 pounds of grass each night makes me sleepy."

We also encounter many crocs during the trip and always get a little too close for my comfort. Sure, I'll almost get the group of us trampled by elephants by leaning out of the jeep to try to pet one as a herd walks dangerously close to the jeep, but I still cringe at being five feet from a croc.

 

Random croc fact: crocodiles open their mouths (like in the above picture) to release air. Crocodiles don't have sweat glands, so this is the way they cool themselves down, by panting and releasing heat through their open mouths. They sometimes even sleep with their mouths open.

After the river safari, we head back to the café where lunch -- and more Led Zepplin -- awaits us. I've reapplied sunscreen about five times already, but when I look in the mirror in the bathroom at the café, I can already see myself starting to get sunburned. The sun is hot and powerful in this area of the world.

The afternoon is a driving safari in Chobe National Park, which is touted as having one of the largest concentration of game animals in all of Africa.  Halfway through our safari, and I don't agree with the statement about game animals. What I think is meant is: highest concentration of impala in all of Africa. Because that's what we see a lot of. And not much else. At this point, the highlight has been the huge dung beetles seen rolling dung. The males do this to attract the females. From our tour guide, random dung beetle fact: the larger the ball, the more attractive the male is to the female (yes, we all started laughing when he told us this); if the male rolls a tiny ball, then the female thinks the male is lazy.

Our guide tells us that we are halfway done and will be heading back, taking a different route than the way we came in. The guy from the Netherlands is really disappointed, as he wanted to see at least one animal from the 'Big Five' today.  I tell him that I feel our luck is about to change; why I say this, I'll never know. But I'm right. Our luck is about to change. In a big way.

First, we round a bend and find a herd of elephants that begin to walk straight toward the safari jeep. And there are babies which sends us all into oohing and ahhing because those things are just super cute.

 

  

We're all happy after that, but like I already wrote, our luck changed a lot, and as we're heading down one of the dirt roads to exit, we meet another safari jeep with a bunch of women who only say to us in as an excited tone as I've ever heard: "TEN! TEN! TEN!" Not even knowing what we're about to see ten of, we insist that the driver turns down the road they just came from. And we quickly discover that they mean lions. Lounging about.

They are all lounging until one hears something, perks its ears up, and starts stalking off, after an impala that we have spotted. We're enthralled already but when a hyena begins to creep up behind the lion, waiting for his turn after the kill, we're nearly ready to camp the night there. Our tour guide reminds us that the immigration office at the border has a closing time and that we now really have to go, so we reluctantly leave the scene, assuming that the lion got fed in the end.

Our guide is speeding down the dirt trails, racing his way back to the park exit, but we yell for him to stop when we see two young giraffes on the side of the trail, almost posing for us. 

 

We really have to get to the border at this point, so we race back out of the park, down the road, through the Botswana side of immigration, into a boat, across the Zambezi River, through the Zambian side of immigration, and into a jeep that takes us back to Livingstone. 

All in one day. All from a whim decision the night before. And from this whim and this day, I'm just not sure how I could factor in the 'settling down' part of life that works so well for so many of my friends.  Because I really like having these kinds of days.