Finding your way around without a map!

I had sucessfully managed to get into the City and back again - but it had been via a lot of roads that I am sure the average tourist would never see. What an interesting bit of exploring it was though. Just driving around a city, and not knowing exactly where I was staying in relation to that city was a challenge. I had not seen a map - indeed at that stage, I could not even buy a map that had a street map of the suburbs on. Sure I had a map of the centre of the city, but that is like trying to find you way around say Enfield, when the only map you have is of the City of London! I was also having a very fundamental problem of direction. Never, ever, have I heard anyone talk about the movement of the sun in the Southern Hemisphere. Sure, I have heard about the Corriolus Effect (which way down the plug the water drains), but I have grown up where the track of the sun is Rises in the East, goes to the South at mid-day and sets in the West. I had never given it a thought that I would find myself somewhere that the Sun is in the North at midday! I happily drive anywhere in Europe, and have done, and not need a map (geography was and is my favourite subject!), so with my orientation completely out of kilter, I found life driving around difficult. Add to that the lack of landmarks, and sign posts only to places 50Kms away, I did far more exploring than I expected to do. Each time I arrived where I had hoped to get, I was delighted and surprised. I would try to mentally note how many left and right turns I had taken, but until I had negotiated all those and avoided the craziest drivers in the world, it was something of a trial. The driving standards are abyssmal to say the least. If you see a vehicle (and they are almost all 4 x 4 pick ups, called bakkies) pull over to the righthand side of the road, don't go assuming it is so the driver is going to turn right, because they are not! They are going to turn across you to the left. They do drive on the left, the same as in the UK, which is a slight help, but roundabouts are just a survival of the fittest or fastest test. It seems common practice to have your eyes closed at road junctions so as to avoid eye contact with other drivers. Add to this mix people with huge loads balanced on their heads, babies strapped to their backs, and chatting on their mobiles oblivious to the world around them, then, just for good measure, marauding gangs of goats and dozens of donkeys wondering amongst the whole lot, and you start to get the idea. Vehicle maintenance is a luxury not many indulge in, so you will often see people just drive off the road in a cloud of dust, to get their car or bakkie fixed by some 'mechanic' who has a pair of axle stands and the odd ramp at the side of the road.

This photo of a bakkie I took on a trip down to Johannesburg, but it illustrates the number of bodies that will happily cram into one at any given time!

It was not until my friends were ready to leave, with me, for the long drive north that I got to see a lot of the wonderful things the country has to offer. We left at 5.30am, just as it was getting daylight. In a very short time we were out of town, and watching the barren landscape unfolding. Botswana is very flat, with just the few rocky outcrops to relieve the boredom. I realised immediately why it is referred to as The Bush. That is exactly what the country is covered in. Bushes. Miles upon endless miles of bushes. Few large trees, no fields as we know them within 300 miles, not a lot of anything much, but then a brightly coloured bird will fly across the sky, and all you can do is marvel at the colours and the beauty of them. We started to see the odd warthog beside the road, and the time was passed by Vic and Terry and their one liners. We had a short break for breakfast at Mahalpye, some 200 miles into the journey, then it was on to Francistown, the 2nd City of Botswana. Again, a short stop whilst Vic delivered some equipment to a new building he was supplying electronics to, then it was back to the road again. North out of Francistown, we started to see more wildlife. My first sight of an elephant was wonderful and of course, they stopped the car for me to take a photo. I was told, though, that if we stopped at every elephant we would take a week to do the journey, so I had to restrain myself.

We turned off the tarred road in the middle of nowhere. It turned out to be the drive to Nata Lodge and I was totally unprepared for what greeted me. Vic seemed to be known to everyone, wherever we went, and Nata Lodge was no exception. He was chatting away to the staff, and Terry and I went to the bar and ordered a meal and a nice cold drink. I was fascinated by the birds here, Masked weaver birds everywhere, their bright yellow feathers like bits of sun flying around. Vic joined us to say that he had booked us in for the last night of our holiday, so, meal eaten we were soon on our way again.

Just before 4pm we arrived at Chobe Safari Lodge, and I was shown to my own Rondavel. This is a round, very luxurious version of a thatched hut. Inside it was simply lovely. There were two beds, and a little lounge area, a beautiful bathroom, and outside a little terrace. My Rondavel was slap bank on the bank of the Chobe River, which is a loop off the Zambezi. The grounds had all manner of animals and birds running around and they were free to come and go as they pleased. Families of Mongoose (the Meerkat family), baboons, vervet monkeys, warthogs, monitor lizards, and of course, multi-coloured birds. Paradise.

Off to the bar, after the necessary shower to freshen up, and Vic made a quick phone call. Ten minutes later a launch arrived at the landing stage, and Phil, their friend, had come to pick us up to take us for a wonderful evening cruise on the River. Then it was off to Garden Lodge to catch up with Gabi, Phil's lovely wife, and we all sat down to a very convivial dinner. I made firm friends with Gabi very quickly, as we are to this day. I shall tell you more about Garden Lodge in later chapters, but for now I was to spend my first night ever under a Mosquito net.